NAME: VILAKAZI ME ASSIGNMENT 1 STUDENT NO: 920317301

LEARNING THEORIES

1. BEHAVIORISM IS THE METHOD OF TEACHING THAT HAPPEN IN OUR SCHOOLS TODAY. This is so because in this method teachers use some directed instruction as the most efficient means of teaching students required skills. With this method teachers are able to attend more learners at a time. Compared to the method of constructivism it calls for more emphasis of learning and requires learners to acquire skills and knowledge which compiles them to find knowledge on their own. Teachers still face the problem of too many learners in a class, too many skills to teach with no enough time to deal with individual learning. Constructivism need teachers to give learners tasks that will require learners to apply high level of thinking were learners will need individual attention from teachers. Thus the method of teaching that addresses this situation is behaviourism. The constructivism methods need learners to use technological resources which most of our schools do not have. However, regardless of the above explanation i personally believe that constructivism method is the best. Constructivist instructions ask leaners to use their knowledge to solve problems that are meaningful and realistic. When they work to apply their knowledge to a specific problem, they will naturally explore their knowledge and this will in turn, lead to the through instruction with others thus they benefit from group effort. I do not think it is feasible in my context because of large number of learners we have.

2. Learning Theories
People have different views on conditions of learning or the sets of circumstances when learning takes place. Respected learning theorists and psychology have studied both the behavior of human beings as learning organisms and the behavior of students in school and classroom. When they define learning and describe the conditions required to make learning happen and the kinds of problems that interfere most with learning, from their studies they have different perspectives. Thus they all at the end came up with different theories of learning based on their historical perspectives.

Behaviorism Behavioral theories

Behavioral theories concentrated on immediately observable changes in performance as indicators of learning. They recognized that internal processes operated in the brain during learning, but they did not attempt to describe those processes. Here learning is viewed as a sequence of stimulus and response action in the learner. It is reasoned that focus should be on teaching sequence of skills that begin with lower level skills and build to higher level skills. For example in order for me to teach word problems in mathematics, I would first have to teach series of lower-order simple mathematics operations in step by step manner, I would determine and use all the skills needed to lead up to the higher level skills. Teaching methods based upon behaviorist are usually associated with more traditional, teacher forms of

instructions. Behaviorism only entertains the fact of whether or not the learner has learned and not what goes on in their heads. The behaviorist approaches to learning support the use of prescribed syllabi, learning content and tests that are similar for most learners. In this regard student sees little relevance between skills they learn in school and those they use in their daily lives. In mathematics when I teach geometry, I should also show learners that geometry is used everywhere in our daily lives e.g. construction (buildings). Many students seem to learn effectively in the context of real life activities. I also believe students who learn skill will respond well in problems that they have to solve in real life. The emphasis on individualized learning also drew criticism because students do not develop the ability to work well together in groups. I personally believe that this method (behaviorism) will only isolate learners from each other neglecting much needed social skills. Behaviorist learning learners become passive as teachers use some most directed instructions as the most efficient means of teaching. It views learning as something that happens to a person with the person being passive. As the teacher, I am the one who have to arrange appropriate material to support and help students to understand and remember what I teach.. The question will always be What behaviors will I look for in my students to show me that they have learned what I expected them to learn? That is when the following principles are being reinforced repetition, series of tests, feedback and reinforcement. Practice strengthens learning and improves retention. Learning multiplication table is a good example of a case of repetition. Knowledge concerning the correctness of the response contributes to learning (feedback). Although many teachers shun behaviorism as outdated method of teaching certain required skills can best be learned through directed instruction.

Constructivism
Learners learn best when they contextualize, that is making use of ideas, and concepts that they learn. In constructivism learning learners should be active in the learning process and not passive. They construct their knowledge rather than receiving knowledge from the teacher. They are the ones who are in control in the learning process. Learners interpret information according to their personal observation, knowledge, background, experience and aptitude. Thus learning becomes meaningful to them. It calls for more emphasis on the abilities to show problems, find information, learning specific content .In contrast to behaviorism my role as a teacher would be to arrange instructions around problems that learners find compelling and those that require them to use skills and knowledge to formulate solutions. In contrast to behaviorism method, where the teacher set goals and delivers most of the instructions, the job of the teacher in constructivist model is to arrange for required recourses and act as a guide to students while they set their own goals and teach themselves. Constructivist focus on learning through posing problems, exploring possible answers, developing products and presentations. It encourages me as a teacher to pursue goals that specify general abilities such as problem solving; research skills and exploration of openended questions. It stresses more group work than individual work. All these areas are focused specifically on students motivation to learn and their ability to use what they learn outside the school culture. Thus it is my duty as a teacher to inspire students to see the

relevance of what they learn and to transfer what they already know to their learning of other skills that require prior knowledge. Constructivist focus on problem orientated activities that require students to devote more time and more diverse skills to solve them. Learners are the ones in control not the teacher. This method encourage collaborate and cooperative learning. The success of this method requires complex problem orientated activities, technology resources, learning through exploration and authentic assessment methods.

Cognitivism
Cognitive study is described as studying how learners gain information from the world, how such information is represented and transformed as knowledge, how is sorted and how that knowledge is used to direct our attention and behavior. They viewed the process of learning in human beings as similar to the way the computer processes information. Theorists in this area explore how a learner receives information and store it in memory, the structure of memory that allows the learning of something new to relate to and build on something previously learned, and how a learner retrieves information from short term and long term memory and applies it to new situations. This implies that in my teaching as a teacher I should use a variety of methods to increase the likelihood that my learners will pay attention to new information. While presenting my lessons I should give tasks that point out important points and characteristics in the new material and suggest methods of encoding or remembering them by linking them to information that my students already know. I will give my learners practice exercises to help assure the transfer of information from short term to long term memory. Lower level skills provide a necessary foundation for higher level skills. For example in order to learn to work long division problems, students fist would have to learn all the prerequisite math skills, beginning with number recognition, simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and simple division. Therefore to teach a given skills I have to first identify its prerequisite skill and make sure learners posses them. Among these ideas is the need to centre instructions on activities that are relevant and meaningful to a learners s own experience. As a teacher I will accomplish successful learning by encouraging active participation in the learning process. Intellectual skills are also needed where learning is facilitated by the use of existing process or strategies. Also by increasing the time a learner spends actively engaged in profitable instructional activities will result in more learning . Learning is also more efficient when the instruction is adapted to the needs and the profiles of an individual learner. Learning is closely tied to knowledge and skill of an individual learner. This means that lessons are more efficient when the teaching is modified to match the learners skill and knowledge profile. I believe education is intended to develop children s personalities. My role is to direct and guide individuals and develop their potential to the fullest.

3. Electronic Mind map of 3 learning theories

IMPROVED ASSIGNMENT
TYPE OF TEACHING THAT HAPPENS IN OUR SCHOOLS TODAY a, behaviourism: b, this is so because with this method teachers use some directed instruction as the most efficient means of teaching students required skill .With this method teachers are able to attend more learners at a time. They are faced with a challenge of teaching too many learners at a time, too many skills to teach with no enough time to deal with individual learning. C, The one that I think is best is Constructivist method reasons: constructivism method allow teachers to give learners tasks that requires them to apply high level of thinking were learners may need individual attention from the skill that they have acquired, they are able to challenge actual real life problems developed around constructed, semi-real or factious scenarios as is in behaviourism method. Positive student outcomes are observed such as increased knowledge of school subject, improved attitude in learning, acquisition of new skill needed for a development of teachers technology skill and improved mastery of content. D, Its feasibility in my context[constructivism method ] factors that challenges its feasibility at my school are learners do not have computers at home to practice economic factor: kinds of programmes and projects are expensive, our school is in the township were most learners are exempted from paying school fund. resources: lack of availability of resources e.g. ohp; computers-ratio of students to computer. technological factors: we do have a computer lab with not developed infrastructure resulting in bad power telecommunication and internet service. educational factor: not trained teacher who are not able to use computers to enhance their teaching methods.

Learning Theories
People have different views on conditions of learning or the sets of circumstances when learning takes place. Respected learning theorists and psychology have studied both the behavior of human beings as learning organisms and the behavior of students in school and classroom. When they define learning and describe the conditions required to make learning happen and the kinds of problems that interfere most with learning, from their studies they have different perspectives. Thus they all at the end came up with different theories of learning based on their historical perspectives.

Behaviorism Behavioral theories

Behavioral theories concentrated on immediately observable changes in performance as indicators of learning. They recognized that internal processes operated in the brain during learning, but they did not attempt to describe those processes. Here learning is viewed as a sequence of stimulus and response action in the learner. It is reasoned that focus should be on teaching sequence of skills that begin with lower level skills and build to higher level skills. For example in order for me to teach word problems in mathematics, I would first have to teach series of lower-order simple mathematics operations in step by step manner, I would determine and use all the skills needed to lead up to the higher level skills. Teaching methods based upon behaviorist are usually associated traditional, teacher forms of instructions. Behaviorism only entertains the fact of whether or not the learner has learned and not what goes on in their heads. The behaviorist approaches to learning support the use of prescribed syllabi, learning content and tests that are similar for most learners. In this regard student sees little relevance between skills they learn in school and those they use in their daily lives. In mathematics when I teach geometry, I should also show learners that geometry is used everywhere in our daily lives e.g. construction (buildings). Many students seem to learn effectively in the context of real life activities. I also believe students who learn skill will respond well in problems that they have to solve in real life. The emphasis on individualized learning also drew criticism because students do not develop the ability to work well together in groups. I personally believe that this method (behaviorism) will only isolate learners from each other neglecting much needed social skills. Behaviorist learning learners become passive as teachers use some most directed instructions as the most efficient means of teaching. It views learning as something that happens to a person with the person being passive. As the teacher, I am the one who have to arrange appropriate material to support and help students to understand and remember what I teach.. The question will always be What behaviors will I look for in my students to show me that they have learned what I expected them to learn? That is when the following principles are being reinforced repetition, series of tests, feedback and reinforcement. Practice strengthens learning and improves retention. Learning multiplication table is a good example of a case of repetition. Knowledge concerning the correctness of the response contributes to learning (feedback). Although many teachers shun behaviorism as outdated method of teaching certain required skills can best be learned through directed instruction.

Constructivism
Learners learn best when they contextualize, that is making use of ideas, and concepts that they learn. In constructivism learning learners should be active in the learning process and not passive. They construct their knowledge rather than receiving knowledge from the teacher. They are the ones who are in control in the learning process. Learners interpret information according to their personal observation, knowledge, background, experience and aptitude. Thus learning becomes meaningful to them. It calls for more emphasis on the abilities to show problems, find information, learning specific content .In contrast to

behaviorism my role as a teacher would be to arrange instructions around problems that learners find compelling and those that require them to use skills and knowledge to formulate solutions. In contrast to behaviorism method, where the teacher set goals and delivers most of the instructions, the job of the teacher in constructivist model is to arrange for required recourses and act as a guide to students while they set their own goals and teach themselves. Constructivist focus on learning through posing problems, exploring possible answers, developing products and presentations. It encourages me as a teacher to pursue goals that specify general abilities such as problem solving; research skills and exploration of openended questions. It stresses more group work than individual work. All these areas are focused specifically on students motivation to learn and their ability to use what they learn outside the school culture. Thus it is my duty as a teacher to inspire students to see the relevance of what they learn and to transfer what they already know to their learning of other skills that require prior knowledge. Constructivist focus on problem orientated activities that require students to devote more time and more diverse skills to solve them. Learners are the ones in control not the teacher. This method encourage collaborate and cooperative learning. The success of this method requires complex problem orientated activities, technology resources, learning through exploration and authentic assessment methods.

Cognitivism
Cognitive study is described as studying how learners gain information from the world, how such information is represented and transformed as knowledge, how is sorted and how that knowledge is used to direct our attention and behavior. They viewed the process of learning in human beings as similar to the way the computer processes information. Theorists in this area explore how a learner receives information and store it in memory, the structure of memory that allows the learning of something new to relate to and build on something previously learned, and how a learner retrieves information from short term and long term memory and applies it to new situations. This implies that in my teaching as a teacher I should use a variety of methods to increase the likelihood that my learners will pay attention to new information. While presenting my lessons I should give tasks that point out important points and characteristics in the new material and suggest methods of encoding or remembering them by linking them to information that my students already know. I will give my learners practice exercises to help assure the transfer of information from short term to long term memory. Lower level skills provide a necessary foundation for higher level skills. For example in order to learn to work long division problems, students fist would have to learn all the prerequisite math skills, beginning with number recognition, simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and simple division. Therefore to teach a given skills I have to first identify its prerequisite skill and make sure learners posses them. Among these ideas is the need to centre instructions on activities that are relevant and meaningful to a learners s own experience. As a teacher I will accomplish successful learning by encouraging active participation in the learning process. Intellectual skills are also needed where learning is facilitated by the use of existing process or strategies. Also by increasing the time a learner spends actively engaged in profitable instructional activities will result in more learning.

Learning is also more efficient when the instruction is adapted to the needs and the profiles of an individual learner. Learning is closely tied to knowledge and skill of an individual learner. This means that lessons are more efficient when the teaching is modified to match the learners skill and knowledge profile. I believe education is intended to develop children s personalities. My role is to direct and guide individuals and develop their potential to the fullest.

Electronic Mindmap of 3 learning theories

observable behavior (what) observation stimulus, response, reward passive traditional methods knowledge transfer programmed learning teacher centered direct instruction reinforcement influenced by systematic instructions

process and principles (how) reflection

sensory register short term memory long term memory

interpretation (why) contextualization self directed learning active high order thinking knowledge building discovery learning learner centered authentic tasks knowledge has personal meaning influenced by personal experience

active learning different styles absolute knowledge active learning learner centered complex tasks knowledge give and absorbed influenced by environment

ASSIGNMENT 1A THEORIES NAME: VILAKAZI M, E STUDENT NO: 920317301

Changes made in the assignment on: 1, participating in the online discussion In the first assignment I only gave brief answers consisting of one paragraph for all different questions. In the second assignment : Improvement based on the feedback , I divided answers in paragraph form to separate them ,that gave me chance to elaborate answers for each question ,the beginning of every answer is indicated by writing alphabets and underline sub topics for answers. The document is clearly arrange and addition of content has been made, bold colours, different front has been added to improve the image of the text 2, Changes made on electronic mind map of three learning theories. Most word are re-used with addition of other concepts, they are rearranged theories. One colour for each theory matches with all concepts under the theory. Changes in explaining the implications of each theory according to the feedback. The explanation was clear, long enough (1000 words). Concepts that appear from mind map has been colour with same colour for a particular theory; the text is divided into paragraphs to separate ideas. I do consider these changes to be improvements .I have given concrete reasons why I say that constructivism is the best method of teaching. I analyzed very well contextual factors in our school and elaborate with facts how they negatively impact in our teaching.