LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Learning Activities

Learning Activities

Introduction

In the modern academic world, teaching and learning is not always what it seems (Woolfolk, 2001). Today teaching has moved from mother's hand to more formalized environments designed to promote learning where the teacher or the educator speculate the academic results and critically analyze psychological thought explicitly or implicitly (Bigge 1982, p.5). In all aspects, there are acceptable theories of learning which implies a set of teaching practice inside and outside the classroom. The theories include cognitive, behavioural and social aspects. These theories are needed in order to motivate the students. Motivating the students is one of the critical tasks of teaching (Woolfolk 2001).

Behavioural learning theory: learning involves the formation of association between specific actions and specifies events (stimuli) which can be directly observable. These events may either precede (antecedents) or follow the action (consequences). Behavioural theories mainly focus on methods of modifying children's behaviours to facilitate learning smoothly. The key concept of behavioural learning theory includes conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, shaping, premack principles, etc.

In contrary, cognitive learning theory argue that learning takes place in mind, not in behaviour. Behaviour is used to make implications about mental states, but is not interested in itself. This theory mainly focuses on the three components of Information Processing Model which are sensory register, working memory and long term memory. Besides it includes how to perceive, store, encode and retrieve information within these three components. Moreover, students forgetting and their metacognition skills are also emphasized and discussed in this theory.

In case of social learning theory, it mainly focuses on various learning, by imitating positive models. They always want to be a past of a group or a valued member of the society.

Discussion

Both cognitive and behavioural views differ in the assumption about what is learned (Woolfolk, 2001, p241). The two theories are useful but in different situations. Behavioural theories are useful for explaining much of human behaviour and is appropriate for modifying childrens' behaviour so that transfer of learning can be easy and effective (Slavin 2000, p169). However, knowledge is the outcome of learning. Thus, how the children construct, acquire and use knowledge is vital in learning. This is much more explained in cognitive views of learning.

To evaluate this scenario, I have used these theories with motivation. For example: before starting any lesson, it is very important to know whether the students are ready for the lesson or not. How the children remember, organise, and recall information is also vital in learning. The reconstruction of children's future learning is very much supported by what they already know (Prior knowledge) (Alexander 1996 in Woolfolk 2001, p241). From the scenario, Ali, a very bright student is asked to solve an algebraic expression having many terms and brackets. Ali was able to do some steps correct even if he didn't get the correct answer. The teacher was surprised because Ali was able to do some steps correct without any formal instruction. Here Ali clearly has formed a mental representation that connects knowledge from previous grade ...