2.1.6 Annotated Bibliography—Learning Theory

Books

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2000). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.

This book is an improvement over Bloom’s seminal work; it includes a more extensive list of learning assumptions and a new matrix for analyzing each level of knowledge, but these changes make Bloom’s work more difficult to integrate with Process Education. Though it was written in 1957, Bloom’s work on levels of educational objectives has retained its power for guiding curriculum decisions.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Albert Bandura summarizes basic social learning research, a perspective that has transformed our understanding of learning. It integrates animal and human learning research on important issues, such as aggression, phobias, imitation and modeling, self-efficacy, and cognitive-behavioral techniques. The basic tenets of the theory support contemporary emphasis on social, affective, and contextual aspects of all learning. Although Bandura emphasizes theory, he always relates it to practice by selecting experimental models that validate results. His formulation of basic learning theory provides a foundation for generalized processes and outcomes rather than mainly description or procedures. Bandura and his associates have continued to publish extensively on self-regulation of learning and other educationally relevant processes.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning); Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D., & Pellegrino, J. W. (Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice). (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded edition). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Available online at
 <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9853.html>

Bransford and associates summarize research about learning from a cognitive perspective, emphasizing applications to improve schooling at all levels so that individuals can optimize their potential. They consider how experts differ from novices, provide insights related to brain physiology, identify how learning environments should be designed, and examine how learning occurs differently across disciplines. The clarity of the presentation and attention to practical and research issues make this an especially powerful resource.

Gambrill, E. (2005). Critical thinking in clinical practice: Improving the quality of judgments and decisions (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Gambrill provides a systematic review of reasoning fallacies and of the range of critical thinking strategies that are necessary to avoid bias and ineffectiveness. A very helpful feature of this resource is the author’s use of comprehensive lists, in every chapter, of the main assumptions, questions, criteria, issues, strategies, and errors that practitioners should be aware of when dealing with people and their problems. She provides information and resources about evidence-based practice in clinical settings as well as guidance for how to enhance the value of team meetings, conferences, and organizational culture.

Leonard, D. C. (2002). Learning theories: A to z. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Leonard provides a handy reference glossary for over 600 terms related to learning theories, models, and processes. The book is organized alphabetically but the author provides several ways to access related theories and concepts. An alphabetic list at the beginning and an extensive index at the end enable a reader to quickly find any term or name used. In an appendix, he organizes the terms under the dominant learning paradigms which include behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism. He adds organizational learning and educational technology as related paradigms. Another valuable resource is an annotated bibliography of the major books and articles, both contemporary and classic, which provide the knowledge base for the volume. Readers of the Faculty Guidebook will find Leonard highly valuable as an introduction to almost any term found in Table 1 of the Knowledge Table for Process Education (2.3.10) module.

Pinker, S. (1999). How the mind works. New York: W. W. Norton.

This popular and witty, but sophisticated, volume presents the mind as understood from a cognitive psychology/psycholinguistic perspective. Pinker is a well-known associate of Noam Chomsky, whose theory of language led to current thinking about the genetic and brain foundations of the human ability to handle symbolic meaning through language. Although Pinker’s concern is broader than education, his insights provide a strong sense of assumptions that appear to be built into the human brain and biology in general from evolution. Being sensitive to how the brain is designed, including some substantive limitations of logical capabilities, will improve curriculum design and facilitation.

Smith, M. C., & Pourchot, T. (Eds.). (1998). Adult learning and development: Perspectives from educational psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

The editors’ goal for this volume is to provide an integration of educational psychology with adult development and learning. Among the relevant issues addressed are how learning and development in adulthood are interrelated; how social and cultural contexts influence adult learning; patterns of adult moral development; how adults achieve metacognitive skills; and the role of adult beliefs about knowledge in school, work, and life. Granott reinterprets theories such as Piaget’s to show that learning across domains requires ongoing cognitive development, not just learning. Schommer explains how variations in beliefs about the nature of knowledge create variations in its application that help explain learner attitudes.

Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. H. (Eds.). (2001). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretical perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

This edited volume summarizes current knowledge from social cognitive research about the relationships between successful self-regulation of learning processes and levels of academic achievement. The participating authors examine this problem from a variety of viewpoints, such as reinforcement, information processing, developmental readiness, social learning, and phenomenology. A final chapter analyzes construction of integrated theories of self-regulation of learning.

Journals