By: GINA L.

YONGCO
 Learning is both an emotional
and an intellectual process. A
process resulting in some
modification, relatively permanent, of
the way of thinking, feeling, doing of
the learner
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Social constructivist scholars view learning as an active
process where learners should learn to discover principles,
concepts and facts for themselves, hence the importance
of encouraging guesswork and intuitive thinking in learners.
In fact, for the social constructivist, reality is not something
that we can discover because it does not pre-exist prior to
our social invention of it. Kukla (2000) argues that reality is
constructed by our own activities and that people, together
as members of a society, invent the properties of the world. 3
Other constructivist scholars agree with this and emphasize that
individuals make meanings through the interactions with each other
and with the environment they live in. Knowledge is thus a product
of humans and is socially and culturally constructed. McMahon
(1997) agrees that learning is a social process. He further states that
learning is not a process that only takes place inside our minds, nor
is it a passive development of our behaviors that is shaped by
external forces and that meaningful learning occurs when individuals
are engaged in social activities.

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Vygotsky (1978) also highlighted the convergence of the
social and practical elements in learning by saying that the
most significant moment in the course of intellectual
development occurs when speech and practical activity,
two previously completely independent lines of
development, converge. Through practical activity a child
constructs meaning on an intrapersonal level, while speech
connects this meaning with the interpersonal world shared
by the child and her/his culture. 5
Vygotsky (1978) also highlighted the convergence of the
social and practical elements in learning by saying that the
most significant moment in the course of intellectual
development occurs when speech and practical activity,
two previously completely independent lines of
development, converge. Through practical activity a child
constructs meaning on an intrapersonal level, while speech
connects this meaning with the interpersonal world shared
by the child and her/his culture. 6
The world is a rapidly changing place
so, now more than ever, it is
important to stay up to date with the
new advancements happening in the
world.
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The only limit to capacity to learn is your own belief of how
much you know. If you believe you know a lot or even
everything on a subject you will not put in the time to learn
more about it. On the other hand if you do enough research to
realize how little you know on a topic and you want to learn
more on the topic you will invest time into learning more. A
popular belief, that empowers people to continually learn, is
that there is unlimited knowledge available to you through other
people and you can learn something new from every person
you encounter on this planet. It is especially true when people
have opposing views than yours, these people have have a 8

point of view or knowledge that could enable you to grow.

When people have opposing views to your own it is too easy for
you to criticize the other person and their point of view which is
a form of judging. This is destructive. The harder route and
often better route is to observe the other person and their
experience in a way that will be educational to you. This is
constructive. You do not have to see things the same way as
the other person but it is better to try to understand where they
are coming from and understand why they see the situation this
way.

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Learning has been defined functionally as changes in
behavior that result from experience or mechanistically
as changes in the organism that result from experience.
Both types of definitions are problematic. We define
learning as ontogenetic adaptation, that is, as changes
in the behavior of an organism that result from
regularities in the environment of the organism. This
functional definition not only solves the problems of
other definitions but also has important advantages for
cognitive learning research. 10
The learning type theory maintains that the (individual) learning
performance of pupils is enhanced by taking into consideration
the different “channels of perception”. This theory has become
largely independent of its author Frederic Vester. It is being
widely disseminated through publications and events of various
kinds and has become extremely popular. Concepts of learning
regarding this subsist therefore in the minds of pupils, students
and last but not least teachers and academics who consider
this problematic pedagogic construct plausible and keep on
transmitting it uncritically.
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Auditory learning
-is a learning style in which a person
learns through listening. An auditory learner
depends on listening and speaking as a
main way of learning.

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Visual learning
- is a style in which a learner utilizes
graphs, charts, maps and diagrams. It is one
of the three basic types of learning styles in
the Fleming VAK/VARK model that also
includes kinesthetic learning and auditory
learning. 13
Haptic Learners
- learn best through their sense of touch.
They need to feel objects or to touch as many
things as possible to learn something about
them. By touching an object, these people often
are able to form a visual image of it. “Hands on”
experience is essential for them to learn. 14
1. Behaviorism is a view in which behavior can be
explained by external factors and behavioral
conditioning can be used as a universal learning
process. In behaviorism, the ideas of positive and
negative reinforcement are effective tools of learning
and behavior modification, as well as a punishment and
reward system.

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2. Cognitivism is a learning theory developed by
Jean Piaget in which a child develops cognitive
pathways in understanding and physical response to
experiences. In this theory, students learn most
effectively through reading text and lecture instruction.

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3. Constructivism is the idea that people are
responsible in creating their own understanding of the
world and using what they know based on previous
experiences in the process of linking new information to
these experiences. People use these experiences and
new information to construct their own meaning.

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4. Humanism focuses on the individual as the subject
and asserts that learning is a natural process that helps
a person reach self-actualization. Scenarios and role
modeling are important factors in humanistic learning,
as are experiences, exploring and observing others.

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5. Connectivism is a relatively new learning theory,
developed and based upon the idea that people
process information by forming connections. This
theory has developed with the digital and technology
age, adapting to advances in these arenas. This new
theory suggests that people no longer stop learning
after formal education and continue to gain knowledge
from other avenues such as job skills, networking,
experience and access to information with new tools in
technology. 19
An important concept in modern psychology, stimulus-
response theory is any form of conditioning in which a
specific stimulus comes to be paired with a particular
response in the mind of the subject. The most common
applications of stimulus-response theory are in classical
and operant conditioning. The pioneers of stimulus-
response theory are Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and
B.F. Skinner.
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An important concept in modern psychology, stimulus-
response theory is any form of conditioning in which a
specific stimulus comes to be paired with a particular
response in the mind of the subject. The most common
applications of stimulus-response theory are in classical
and operant conditioning. The pioneers of stimulus-
response theory are Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and
B.F. Skinner.
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Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) pioneered classical conditioning, the first form of
stimulus-response theory. Pavlov was a Soviet researcher studying the
digestive process through prolonged experiments with dogs. While doing
this, Pavlov noticed that his dogs began salivating before they were
brought food. Pavlov then conducted additional experiments to measure
the amount of saliva produced by the dogs when they were prompted with
various stimuli. He discovered that over time he could get the dogs to
associate certain stimuli with certain responses. In his most famous
experiment, Pavlov rang a bell before giving his dogs food. The dogs
eventually salivated at the sound of the bell, regardless of whether or not
Pavlov gave them food. The dogs had been conditioned to pair the
stimulus of the bell with the response of salivation.
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Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American
psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia
University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to
the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for
educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as
employee exams and testing. He was a member of the board of the
Psychological Corporation and served as president of the American
Psychological Association in 1912. A Review of General Psychology survey,
published in 2002, ranked Thorndike as the ninth-most cited psychologist of the
20th century. Edward Thorndike had a powerful impact on reinforcement theory
and behavior analysis, providing the basic framework for empirical laws in
behavior psychology with his law of effect. Through his contributions to the
behavioral psychology field came his major impacts on education, where the law
of effect has great influence in the classroom. 23
Thorndike was a pioneer not only in behaviorism and in studying learning, but
also in using animals in clinical experiments.[9] Thorndike was able to create a
theory of learning based on his research with animals. His doctoral dissertation,
"Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in
Animals", was the first in psychology where the subjects were nonhumans.
Thorndike was interested in whether animals could learn tasks through imitation
or observation. To test this, Thorndike created puzzle boxes. The puzzle boxes
were approximately 20 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 12 inches tall. Each box
had a door that was pulled open by a weight attached to a string that ran over a
pulley and was attached to the door. The string attached to the door led to a lever
or button inside the box. When the animal pressed the bar or pulled the lever, the
string attached to the door would cause the weight to lift and the door to open.

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Thorndike's puzzle boxes were arranged so that the animal would be
required to perform a certain response (pulling a lever or pushing a
button), while he measured the amount of time it took them to escape.
Once the animal had performed the desired response they were allowed
to escape and were also given a reward, usually food. Thorndike primarily
used cats in his puzzle boxes. When the cats were put into the cages they
would wander restlessly and meow, but they did not know how to escape.
Eventually, the cats would step on the switch on the floor by chance, and
the door would open. To see if the cats could learn through observation,
he had them observe other animals escaping from the box. He would then
compare the times of those who got to observe others escaping with those
who did not, and he found that there was no difference in their rate of
learning. 25
Thorndike saw the same results with other animals, and he observed
that there was no improvement even when he placed the animals’ paws
on the correct levers, buttons, or bar. These failures led him to fall back
on a trial and error explanation of learning. He found that after
accidentally stepping on the switch once, they would press the switch
faster in each succeeding trial inside the puzzle box. By observing and
recording the animals’ escapes and escape times, Thorndike was able
to graph the times it took for the animals in each trial to escape,
resulting in a learning curve. The animals had difficulty escaping at first,
but eventually "caught on" and escaped faster and faster with each
successive puzzle box trial, until they eventually leveled off.
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Edward Thorndike (1898) is famous in psychology for his work
on learning theory that lead to the development of operant
conditioning within behaviorism. Whereas classical conditioning
depends on developing associations between events, operant
conditioning involves learning from the consequences of our
behavior. Skinner wasn’t the first psychologist to study learning
by consequences. Indeed, Skinner's theory of operant
conditioning is built on the ideas of Edward Thorndike.
Thorndike studied learning in animals (usually cats). He
devised a classic experiment in which he used a puzzle box
(see fig. 1) to empirically test the laws of learning. 27
Edward Thorndike (1898) is famous in psychology for his work
on learning theory that lead to the development of operant
conditioning within behaviorism. Whereas classical conditioning
depends on developing associations between events, operant
conditioning involves learning from the consequences of our
behavior. Skinner wasn’t the first psychologist to study learning
by consequences. Indeed, Skinner's theory of operant
conditioning is built on the ideas of Edward Thorndike.
Thorndike studied learning in animals (usually cats). He
devised a classic experiment in which he used a puzzle box
(see fig. 1) to empirically test the laws of learning. 28