Principles of Learning

Also from Freeman (1813), "...the learning of the letters in their detached situation, is a dry, tedious, discouraging process. But learning them, in learning words, is, it is presumed, much more tolerable. Indeed, the difference resembles that which is experienced by two travellers engaged in a toilsome journey, one of whom is amused with a variety of objects that attract his notice, and thus beguile the tediousness of the way; while the other sees no beauty in the surrounding scenery, but is perpetually poring over his present toil, and the disheartening distance that separates him from the end of his journey. We always like to observe too, that we are making a progress; and this animates us, in encountering difficulties. On the other hand, if we seem to make no advances, we are in great danger of abandoning our pursuit." (pg. 17)

Way back in 1813, John Freeman described a method of teaching adult persons to read in which printed cards were used. The first card contained 7 lessons. The first six lessons, together, contained 100 words (like an, can, man, than, as, has, on, up-on, ...). The seventh lesson was made up of words selected from the previous 6. (Freeman, 1813, p. 12) Additional repetition was built in as follows (from pg. 14): The first line of the first lesson, should be repeatedly gone over, till it be perfectly known; and then be dismissed, and the second learned in the same manner. Afterwards, the remaining lines in this lesson, should be learned, one at a time. When this is accomplished, the whole of the first lesson is to be repeated, the words being spelled before they are pronounced. The second lesson should then be learned in the same manner as the first. When that is done, proceed to the third, and then to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; taking one at a time, in the order in which they ...

"And so the learner takes what is objective to his teachers, fuses it with his own peculiar thought in this subjective state, and then puts it in the form of words and gives it back as his own objectification of his own experience." (Boggs, 1907)

If we return to our observation of the child, I think we will find that imagination is the prevailing organization, and in the man of genius also, whether poet or scientist, there is just this ability to make new, free associations. The wise teacher, then, will be a person who, instead of doling out objective truths with one hand and with the other receiving back from the pupil the same idea stamped with the pupil's brain trade mark, shall rather be an interesting personality, a psychical and moral object in the pupil's environment from which the pupil can enlarge his own subjective experience. He is not to dictate the conditions of learning, but be on hand to supply the ideas which will be food for the already interesting ideas of the child, or even to help the child find his own interesting ideas. He must serve as the model for the 'trying on,' as Dickens's dolls' dressmaker, Jenny Wren, would say, of halfsubjective, half-objective ideas; and he must be on han...

Aronson, D. T., & Briggs, L. J. (1983). Contributions of Gagneì and Briggs to a prescriptive model of instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models: An overview of the current status (Vol. 1, pp. 75-100). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Boggs, L. P. (1907). "The Psychology of the Learning Process." The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 4(18): 477-481. Bunderson, C. V. (2003). How to build a domain theory: On the validity centered design of construct-linked scales of learning and growth (pdf). In M. Wilson (Ed.), Objective Measurement: Theory into Practice: Ablex Publishing Co. (PDF available online at: http://www.edumetrics.org/papers/How_to_build_a_Domain_Theor.pdf ) Calkins, M. W. (1907). Psychology: What is it About? The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 4(25), 673-683. Clark, D. R. (2008), A Time Capsule of Training and Learning. Retrieved February 5, 2008 from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd...

Too often pedagogy has taken it for granted that consciousness is dealing with exactly the same material in the same form while learning that it does later when the subject is learned, and hence it has given rules for the arrangement of definite ideas instead of for forming the clear, definite ideas out of the vague, confused state popularly called feeling, through a transition stage which we call interest, until the ideas stand out clear and well defined and expressible in words. (Boggs, 1907)

This is a descriptive model of learning on which domain-specific prescriptive theories of learning can be built. These domain-specific prescriptive theories of learning are my interpretation of what C. Victor Bunderson has called "domain theories".

Practice includes: tasks, activities, exercise, experience, and experimentation. The principles that will make a given learning experience effective are captured in (or at least, they should be capture in) the practice activity. Practice can be defined by the learner, the instructor, a peer, an activity in a textbook, an instructional video, an exercise routine. Practice also happens informally in the everyday experiences of our lives. Practice, in my use of the term, also includes one-time learning experiences like burning yourself on a hot stove and saying, I'll never do that again. And then never doing it again.

Suppose we say that all learning is "progression." This implies that there is a goal, or a destination (i.e. we progress toward some end). Is building muscle learning? Is developing coordination learning? Is adding neural synapsis learning? How about this: Learning is a relatively permanent change in the learner that makes the learner capable of doing something beyond, or outside of the bounds of, what they were previously capable of.

The learning environment can be one or both of the following: 1) Content providing: e.g. other skiers provide good and bad examples, mountain provides visual input to understand skiing (compared to talking about skiiing in a classroom, chalkboard drawings, pictures, video, etc...) 2) Performance enabling: e.g. the mountain, snow, a ski lift, provide a place to ski; skis, boots and poles provide equipment to ski. e.g. a harness can help a diver safely learn a new dive, e.g. a foam pit can help a gymnast safely learn a new move

- All learning experiences have at least one agent: the learner. - If learning is guided by another individual, a second agent is present: a teacher or mentor. - Learning might also include a third type of agent: peers. Interaction with peers can provide practice, feedback, motivation, examples, etc...

The process of learning is the process of crossing the gap between Current State and Desired State. The successful process of learning is contigent upon the fundamental Principles of Learning . The Principles of Learning are manifest through practice/exercise/experience/experimentation (hereafter referred to as simply Practice). Practice does not happen unless there is sufficient motivation and confidence. Practice is most meaningful in the proper context or environment. The context is created through physical surroundings, other people, multi-media resources, projects, on-the-job integration, etc... Learners or Instructors, or both, can drive practice. Practice can also be driven from instruction that is captured and presented in media resources (videos, audio, textbooks, etc...).

These principles of learning are fundamental (they are the foundation for learning) and universal (they are applicable in all learning situations). - Repetition - Time - Sequence - Step-size - Similarity/Constrast -> Differentiability - Feedback - Focus - Target - Intensity/Effort -> Significance

Current state (of being, knowing, doing, feeling, thinking, ability, ...) Desired state The difference between the Desired State and the Current State is Learning Potential. Learning is the change (the delta) from current to desired state. Fundamental Principles of Learning describe what is needed to close the gap.

- "a 'jumping together' of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation " Wilson 1998, p. 8 as cited in Driscoll (2000, p. 9) - "we are approaching a new age of synthesis when the testing of consilience is the greatest of all intellectual challenges" Wilson 1998, p. 11-12 as cited in Driscoll 2000, p. 10)

The study of learning is not itself a discipline and is therefore approached in many different ways: Behaviorists -> observable events Cognitivists -> memory processes Socialists -> interactions "two apparently competing theories may not be directed at even the same phenomena" (Driscoll 2000, p. 8)

- the "process of theory building is recursive" (Driscoll 2000, p. 7) - is not necessarily orderly or objective - in development of a particulary theory, research tends to be cumulative (Driscoll 2000, p. 8) - Normal Science (Kuhn 1970 in Driscoll 2000, p. 8) - logical next steps to account for unexpected or contradictory findings - Extraordinary Science - propose an alternative, truly competing theory; a real breakthrough in scientific progress and knowledge development (Driscoll 2000, p.9)

- a dissenting view to the associative view of memory - insight: not just simple connections between stimuli and response; but perceiving stimuli in new ways (e.g. apes solving puzzles to get food) - knowledge comes from more than just experience -> the knower imposes organization on sensory data - Gestalt: configuration, organization - Four characteristics of insightful learning (Driscoll 2000, p. 24) 1) After a period of inactivity or trial and error, the learner suddenly and completely grasps the solution. 2) The learner performs the solution in a smooth and errorless fashion. 3) The learner retains the solution for a very long time. 4) The learner can easily apply a principle gained through insight to other, similar problems.

- Pavlonian or classical conditioning - learned reflex Unconditioned Stimulus (US) -- e.g. bell ringing Natural Stimulus (NS) -- e.g. food Response (R) -- e.g. salivating NS -> R NS + US -> R US -> R - Human conditioning -- Baby Albert (Watson and Rayner 1920) NS - hammer hitting steel bars US - white rat R - crying - Stimulus generalization -- also cried with white rabbit or fur coat - Higher order conditioning (Driscoll 2000, p. 22) - Systematic desensitization (Driscoll 2000, p. 22) - Wolpe 1958, 1969; Brewer 1974 (cited in Driscoll 2000, pp. 22-23) only subjects told about UCS - CS pairings tended to acquire the conditioned response Leahey and Harris 1997 p. 23

- Association btw Sensation and Impulse - Animals (cats and chickens) in puzzle box experiments - Association made when actions result in satisfying consequences

- Provided a foundation for later investigations in cognition. - Ushered in new era of interest in the study of learning (Hernstein & Boring (1965) as cited in Driscoll, 2000, p. 18) - Associationism - ideas become connected through experience; higher frequency -> stronger bond; therefore, learning should be predictable based on the number of times a given association is repeatedly experienced (Ebbinghaus [1885] 1913, as cited in Driscoll 2000, p. 18) - Provided experimental verification of some obvious facts about memory - The Forgetting Curve (Driscoll 2000, p. 19) - Note: forgetting of other learned experiences may follow different curve (e.g. personally traumatic events) (Bourne et al 1986 as cited in Driscoll 2000, p. 19)

(in Driscoll 2000) Ebbinghaus: Principle of association (1850-1909) Thorndike: Law of effect (1874-1949) Pavlov: Classical conditioning (1849-1946) Gestalt theory: Insightful learning (Early 1900s)

I will not include a discussion on epistomology or philosopy. Nor will I discuss how knowledge is represented in the mind.

"a set of constructs linking results (changes in performance), means (hypothesized structures and processes responsible for learning) and inputs (resources or experiences that trigger learning)" (Driscoll, 2000, p. 3)

"a persisting change in performance or performance potential that results from experience and interaction with the world" (Driscoll, 2000, p. 3)

Rough outline: Intent, Values, Range of Convenience The Descriptive Model Method of Application Other Applications

Questions to answer: What is a theory? How do new theories come into existence? How do they come into popular use? What makes a theory valid ? By what criteria should a theory be evaluated?

Questions to answer: What is it? What are the major theories? How are the theories similar and different? Can they be unified in one model? What themes emerge in the literature? What's missing from the theories?

Questions to answer: What is it? What are the major theories? How are the theories similar and different? Can they be unified in one model? What themes emerge in the literature? What's missing from the theories?

Language teaching history and tradition Methods Post-methods (informed ecclectacism, principle-based teaching) But WHAT principles? Fundamental PRINCIPLES of LEARNING

This work reviews and synthesizes what we know (as recorded in the literature) about learning and instructional design with my own experiences and original ideas. It presents a combined instructional design and learning theory in the form of a descriptive model of learning and teaching, along with a prescriptive method for applying the model to develop new instruction or otherwise enable successful learning experiences.