Table 1 Principles of Learning |
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Elements of Learning Theory
Knowledge is built when a learner, with the necessary “learning skills,” (2.3.3 Classification of Learning Skills) gains competency in manipulating and applying relevant concepts, processes, and tools for a learning goal and can do so in varying contexts and in ways consistent with his or her “way of being.” These five forms of knowledge are described and analyzed in 2.3.9 Forms of Knowledge and Knowledge Tables.
Learning outcomes can vary according to factors such as learner competency levels and buy-in, the quality of the learning environment, and the level of challenge provided by the educator. These issues are examined in 3.1.5 Getting Student Buy-In, 2.2.1 Bloom’s Taxonomy—Expanding its Meaning, and 4.3.4 The Accelerator Model. As discussed in 3.1.3 Methodology for Creating a Quality Learning Environment, strengthening learning processes requires well-designed learning opportunities that are embedded in continuous assessment activities.
Progress in the brain sciences during the past 20 years has yielded clear evidence that educational methods should be consistent with the way the brain is organized and how it processes knowledge. This history is recounted in 2.1.3 A Brief History of Neuroscience and 2.1.4 From Synapses to Learning—Understanding Brain Processes. The physiological make-up of the brain requires that educators present learning opportunities related to a knowledge goal at appropriate developmental times. Furthermore educators need to be prepared to deliver a full range of interventions to establish long-term memory as well as metacognition about content and about personal growth. 3.2.5 Creating a Facilitation Plan provides prompts for improving facilitation skills in these areas.
As emphasized in 2.3.1 Introduction to Process Education, knowledge cannot be fully mastered without the learner “knowing how to learn.” Designing learning challenges in steps that appropriately increase the challenge and complexity helps learners elevate their knowledge. As learners improve, they can add additional elements such as transfer of their knowledge and problem-solving skills to new contexts. This transition is evident by comparing 2.2.2 Elevating Knowledge from Level 1 to Level 3 and 2.2.3 Developing Working Expertise (Level 4 Knowledge). A framework for guiding this process is the Learning Process Methodology (2.3.8).
Principles of Learning
Table 1 summarizes ten principles of learning that are well-founded in the educational psychology literature and are essential to a vibrant Process Education classroom. The modules identified in the previous paragraphs provide detailed information about educational psychology, teaching techniques, and facilitation tools that align with these principles. Discussion of each principle is followed by an introduction to two methodologies that are central to good learning.
1. Learners need solid schemas or frameworks to which they can connect new knowledge.
Quality learning cannot occur without adequate motivation and effort, which are related to affective domain skills. Learners need to establish a life vision that includes their values and goals related to learning, and they need to learn to use skills from the Social Domain (2.3.5). Once they do that, they are better able to acquire the specific Cognitive Domain (2.3.4) skills that will enable them to consciously and systematically build knowledge. The constructivist view of learning emphasizes that knowledge must be constructed by the learner; it is not possible to “deconstruct” knowledge and give it to someone else. See 2.3.9 Forms of Knowledge and Knowledge Tables for a useful framework that distinguishes between different types of schemas.
2. The learning process is more powerful if it is systematic and disciplined.
It is essential that understanding precede application. Various methodologies offered in the Faculty Guidebook provide guidance for logical, but very flexible, sequencing of steps in learning a process. The better a learner understands the knowledge table for a given area of knowledge, the stronger the schema structure for adding new knowledge will be. A common thread for all of learning is that only the learner can “own” the learning process—no one else can do it. In addition to committing to a growth path, learners must also develop strong and systematic ways to proceed along their chosen paths.
3. Learner empowerment increases proportionally with improvements in effective use of a set of learn-ing tools and strategies.
Among the Process Education tools for learners are knowledge tables, methodologies, assessment techniques and measures, a comprehensive skills classification, and self-growth strategies. Ownership of the learning process is incomplete until the individual becomes skilled at selecting and using the full range of tools and strategies that are needed to challenge self-growth in learning. Constraints to self-growth are examined in Becoming a Self-Grower (4.2.2) and a proven process for enhancing self-growth is given in 4.2.3 Personal Development Methodology.
4. Learning is a frustrating process that requires strong affective skills.
Learning challenges affect in many ways: thinking is a very hard process that often makes one feel inferior; incompleteness of knowledge, while something always to recognize, makes learners feel inadequate; and the constant need to “deconstruct” false knowledge requires humility and openness if one’s false assumptions are ever to be identified. Learners must acquire, and own, affective self-management skills that will enable them to rise to the challenges created by internal evaluations, such as self-handicapping thoughts, or external evaluations, such as low grades. They must also manage unpredictable internal influences on their learning, such as emotional over-reactions or cognitive distortions, as well as external influences, such as competing priorities. Frustration often increases at junctures in the learning process for complex knowledge when the learner’s process skills require significant improvement. Performance Levels for Learners and Self-Growers (1.4.5) provides a rubric for monitoring learner empowerment.
5. Language, learning, and memory are highly dependent upon brain functions.
Learners must understand that their approach to learning must take into account how the brain, as well as other physiological processes of the body, define learning potential. Language, the foundation for all the learning domains, develops in concert with the physical maturing of the brain in early childhood. No other species has language with the symbolic range of human speech and language. Basic principles of learning derived from extensive behavioral research with animals demonstrate that the genetic and other biological characteristics of each species directly control what specific types of learning are possible. Although there are highly general behavioral models, e.g., Pavlovian and operant conditioning, that show the evolutionary inheritance that is common between humans and other species, the greatest differences between humans and other animals are in language and in the flexibility of human learning capabilities. Memory is an area of brain research in which it is abundantly clear that there are definite patterns of input and output controlled by brain structure. Part of every learning strategy must include an accounting for how the brain works for that process and whether influences on the brain, such as fatigue, illness, drugs, or damage, will change brain capacity (Bloom, Nelson, & Lazerson, 2001).
6. Quality learning is based on a hierarchical set of cognitive learning skills that include language, information processing, critical thinking, and knowledge application.
Learning is based on a set of cognitive processes with a hierarchical pattern or structure. Language is a prerequisite for all domains of learning, but it is especially crucial for the symbolic representations common in the cognitive domain. Information processing refers to broad patterns of attention to the location, general structure, and content of knowledge resources, such as the layout of professional articles. 2.2.5 Overview of Critical Thinking involves an array of analytical and argumentative skills that must be selected and applied, depending upon requirements of purposes and contexts. Therefore, there is no one “methodology” for critical thinking, although the basic considerations and criteria involved across all approaches to critical thinking have been clearly defined (Paul & Elder, 2001). Typically, the first really new challenge for college learners is to actually apply knowledge systematically and usefully for some real purpose or product. After this large application step is mastered, the potential for growth as a quality learner expands exponentially.
7. Learning to learn, a metacognitive competency, increases in proportion to improvements in reflection, self-assessment, and mentoring.
Generalized learning capability, known as “learning to learn,” involves a conscious awareness of the processes implicated in each learning experience. With experience, this metacognitive competency can become highly flexible in the ways exemplified by experts. Regular reflection on processes leads to improved insights about the types of skills involved in complex learning across varied contexts. It also leads to personal insights about learning styles and attitudes that must be assessed and managed. Several tools for cultivating metacognition are found in the Overview of Assessment (4.1.1), Assessment Methodology (4.1.4), and SII Method for Assessment Reporting (4.1.9). When learners have learned to accurately and reliably use basic techniques for their own learning they can expand to helping or mentoring others in the same processes (4.2.1 Overview of Mentoring).
8. Long-term growth in learning requires that learners assess and improve upon current learning styles and preferences rather than seek accommodation for them.
Each individual has a way of being or personal approach to learning that puts a unique twist or perspective on all knowledge learned by the individual. There is substantial educational research (2.1.6 Annotated Bibliography—Learning Theory) on learning styles. Some of these are learned preferences based on extensive experiences while others are unchangeable sensory, perceptual, or cognitive differences or deficits related to brain function. Current federal law requires all educational institutions to provide appropriate adaptations to support learning if someone has a diagnosed learning disability. The Mindset for Assessment (4.1.3) advocated by Process Education encourages every learner to engage in active learning and self-awareness to escape as much as possible from an attitude of enabling that permeates many high schools. Regardless of learner style or preference, all learners benefit from identifying their strengths, analyzing their ability to improve despite some limitations, and generating deeper insights about themselves.
9. Learners who have ownership of their learning processes will be highly motivated and will set high, but realistic, standards.
Researchers in social learning have concluded that those whose learning is intrinsically motivated also tend to know how to set goals and standards that are challenging but realistic (Bandura, 1986). They take the initiative in establishing goals and standards that are important for their own purposes. The key problem is how to facilitate learning improvement so that learners who are initially motivated only externally, for example, those who work for grades, will become intrinsically motivated. Process Education philosophy and teaching materials are resources for helping learners make this transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation.
10. Strong learners strive to learn in ways that will enable them to reuse and generalize their knowledge in multiple contexts.
Ultimately knowledge exists to help people address problems in many of life’s contexts. A strong learner does not learn just for the present context; he or she will take the time to generalize the form and meaning of the knowledge so that it can fit multiple contexts, including those that are presently unforeseeable. 1.4.5 Performance Levels for Learners and Self-Growers provides a convenient rubric for measuring this progress.
Methodologies Related to Learning
Learning Process Methodology
Good learners prepare for learning by assessing their current knowledge and setting specific goals for the new learning they have in mind. Effective strategies must be used to accomplish the learning, and the results must be assessed afterwards. An important standard of success is the ability to transfer knowledge to other contexts. Effective facilitation of the use of this and other methodologies requires careful attention to setting objectives that are focused on a substantial outcome that can be accomplished within a practical time limit. Initially learners find methodologies confusing so they typically start using them in a step-by-step manner until the purpose and nature of the isolated steps become internalized. A rubric for internalization of methodologies is given in 2.3.7 Learning Processes through the Use of Methodologies.
Problem-Solving Methodology
The ultimate purpose of knowledge is to provide one with a basis for solving new problems. This methodology helps learners to specify a problem in a form that can be worked on in logical and systematic ways. The steps in the methodology provide a clear guide for moving toward solutions and, at the same time, provide criteria for assessing whether the problem has been properly defined. Like the Learning Process Methodology, the Problem Solving Methodology is as valuable for teachers as it is for learners.
Effective use of learning principles and supporting methodologies will be facilitated by:
Becoming familiar with Process Education through Teaching Institutes
Learning to use methodologies as learning facilitation guides
Setting challenging standards for performance processes and outcomes
Keeping a focus on learner empowerment
Developing activities that actively engage learners
Using assessment and facilitation to promote growth
Providing role modeling and mentoring for others to help them learn how to learn
Concluding Thoughts
Adopting the ten principles of learning given here should stimulate many ideas for designing more effective learning environments as well as for actions you might consider taking in order to become a more effective facilitator of learning. Increasing the percentage of our students who have “learned-to-learn” will generate self-growth and increased motivation that is likely to be passed on to other students through peer mentoring. But these benefits do not extend only to your students. Incorporating the principles of learning into your own professional development is likely to have a major impact on research and service aspects of your job.
References
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bloom, F. E., Nelson, C. A., & Lazerson, A. (2001). Brain, mind, and behavior (3rd ed.). New York: Worth.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2001). A miniature guide for students on how to study and learn a discipline using critical thinking concepts and tools. Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.