TEACHER'S GUIDE ON THE APPLICATION OF THE VARIOUS LEARNING THEORIES INTO REAL-LIFE TEACHING-LEARNING SITUATIONS

Human development theories focuses on the different theory that discusses how an individual developed their own understanding and personality based on the environment and nature of life.

In studying the different theories of human development, it enables educators and teachers on understanding their students. In addition, it helps them in managing some situations or problems withing or outside the room.

There are human development theories that explains stages or factors that affect the development of a person. These theories are:

• Piaget's Cognitive Development 
• Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory 
• Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory 
• Kolhberg's Moral Development Theory 
• Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory of Development

Piaget's Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget
Psychologist

Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development and cognitive psychology compared to an adult's point of view. In other words, cognitive development is the emergence of the ability to think and understand. In his theory, he introduced the Four Stages in Cognitive Development

Here are some guidelines on how to apply the Piaget's Cognitive Development

• In checking students answer or work avoid correcting them, instead allow students to individually realize and understand how they come up with that solution.
• Provide learning materials for students which are suited or age appropriate for them.
• Allow students to explore and discover new ideas and knowledge on their own, by means of allowing them to play.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky

Psychologist

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet Belarusian psychologist, the founder of a theory of human cultural and biosocial development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle.

Here are some guidelines on how to apply the Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

• Allow students to socially interact with each other by providing enjoyable and fun group activities for them.
• The teacher should know their limitations on guiding their students.
• The teacher should know and learn their students’ capabilities and weaknesses.

Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory

Erik Erikson

Psychologist

Erik Homburger Erikson was a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis.

Erikson’s Psychological Theory

• The developmental changes 
• Throughout the human life span. 
• Eight stages of human development. 
• Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis, which is a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential that must be resolved.

Classroom tips and guidelines:

• As much as possible avoid using negative reinforcement in classroom to avoid humiliation in children.
• Avoid dictating students on the things that they should do, instead allow them to choose any activities they which to do or work on with.
• Teacher should help and encourage their students to try different role within the community.

Kolhberg's Moral Development Theory

Lawrence Kohlberg

Psychologist

Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist best known for his theory of stages of moral development.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory of Development

Urie Bronfenbrenner

Psychologist

Urie Bronfenbrenner was an American developmental psychologist—but born in the Soviet Union—who is most known for his Ecological systems theory of child development.

Ecological systems theory, also called development in context or human ecology theory, identifies five environmental systems with which an individual interacts. This theory provides the framework from which community psychologists study the relationships with individuals' contexts within communities and the wider society. Ecological systems theory was developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner.

• Microsystem: Refers to the institutions and groups that most immediately and directly impact the child's development including: family, school, religious institutions, neighborhood, and peers. 
• Mesosystem: Interconnections between the microsystemsInteractions between the family and teachersRelationship between the child’s peers and the family 
• Exosystem: Involves links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context. For example, a parent's or child's experience at home may be influenced by the other parent's experiences at work. The parent might receive a promotion that requires more travel, which might increase conflict with the other parent and change patterns of interaction with the child. 
• Macrosystem: Describes the culture in which individuals live. Cultural contexts include developing and industrialized countries, socioeconomic status, poverty, and ethnicity. A child, his or her parent, his or her school, and his or her parent's workplace are all part of a large cultural context. Members of a cultural group share a common identity, heritage, and values. The macrosystem evolves over time, because each successive generation may change the macrosystem, leading to their development in a unique macrosystem.
• Chronosystem: The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances. For example, divorces are one transition. Researchers have found that the negative effects of divorce on children often peak in the first year after the divorce. By two years after the divorce, family interaction is less chaotic and more stable. An example of sociohistorical circumstances is the increase in opportunities for women to pursue a career during the last thirty years.

Here are some guidelines on how to apply the Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory of Development

• The teacher should provide feedback and assessment on the child’s development with the students’ parents.
• Teacher should ensure that the physical environment of the classroom is well prepared and ventilated for the students’ optimum learning experience.
• The teacher should ensure that they enhance the moral and cultural development of the child.

COGNITIVE THEORIES

Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person's thought processes. It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world.

John William Atkinson
Psychologist

Atkinson was a leader in establishing motivation as a distinct field of study in psychology research. His belief that scientific progress came from conceptual breakthroughs fueled his formulation and reformulation of a theory of motivation.

The Atkinson–Shiffrin model (also known as the multi-store model or modal model) is a model of memory proposed in 1968 by Richard Atkinsonand Richard Shiffrin. The model asserts that human memory has three separate components:

• a sensory register, where sensory information enters memory,
• a short-term store, also called working memory or short-term memory, which receives and holds input from both the sensory register and the long-term store, and
• a long-term store, where information which has been rehearsed (explained below) in the short-term store is held indefinitely.

Guidelines on how to apply Atkinson–Shiffrin model  

• Seeking for information, truth and by questioning. Present a situation in which the students can give their idea about their lessons.
• Let the students give their own idea . Students can ask questions based on their experiences in life they can also share their experiences wherein they can use to define the concepts related to the lesson.
• From the student’s ideas, discuss the correct definition and relate it to the lesson.

Brain-Based Learning (Cooperative Learning Approach)

Brain-based learning has hatched a new discipline now entitled by some as educational neuroscience, or by others as mind, brain, and education science. Whatever we call this "not really new discipline," it is a comprehensive approach to instruction using current research from neuroscience. Brain-based education emphasizes how the brain learns naturally and is based on what we currently know about the actual structure and function of the human brain at varying developmental stages.

Guidelines on how to apply Brain-Based Learning

• Allows students to enhance their ability to manage ideas and information in collaboration with others and allows students to observe, imitate, and learn from each other as well. Do an activity; group the class for the activity.
•  Students will brainstorm ideas based on their knowledge about the given activity. Let the students present their work in the class.
• Students will relate their work according to the topic.

META COGNITION

CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORIES

Constructivism, as perspective in education, is based on experiential learning through real life experience to construct and conditionalize knowledge. It is problem based, adaptive learning, that challenges faulty schema, integrates new knowledge with existing knowledge, and allows for creation of original work or innovative procedures. The types of learners are self-directed, creative, innovative, drawing upon visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, bodily kinesthetic, verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligences.

Constructivism approach in the classroom tips and guidelines: 

• The teacher should know the types of intelligence of his students.
• The facilitator should motivate the learners to enhance their skills.
• The facilitator should be flexible in handling the different types of learners.

Behavioral Theories

According to behaviorists, learning can be defined as “the relatively permanent change in behavior that results from practice. There are four kinds of learning can be distinguished

(a) habituation in which an organism learns to ignore a familiar and consequential stimulus;
(b) classical conditioning in which an organism learns that one stimulus follows another; 
(c) operant conditioning in which organism learns that a response leads to a particular consequence; and 

(d) complex learning in which learning involves more than the formation of its associations.

Classical Conditioning Theory 

In classical conditioning, an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another. The organism learns that the first stimulus is a cue for the second stimulus. 

KEY CONCEPTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)-A stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning 
• Unconditioned Response (UCR)-Automatic response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus 
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)-A neutral stimulus that when paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) elicits a similar response
• Conditioned Response (CR)-A response that is learned by pairing the originally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) 
• Acquisition-the acquisition phase is the consistent parings of the CS (bell) and the UCS (food) that produces a CR (salivation). In the example above, this phase occurs when the dog begins to salivate at the sound of the bell. Conditioning occurs more rapidly when the food follows the bell by a half a second. 
• Extinction-The extinction phase is when the conditioned response no longer occurs after repeated pairings without the unconditioned stimulus. The dog’s response to the bell can be extinguished by repeatedly presenting the bell (CS) without the food (UCS). The dog has not completely forgotten the association between the bell and the food. If the experimenter waits a day, the dog may have a spontaneous recovery of the conditioned response and salivate again to the bell. 
• Generalization-Occurs when there is a small difference in the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell of a similar tone, the dog would still salivate. 
• Discrimination-The opposite of generalization, discrimination happens when a conditioned response does not occur when there is a difference between the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell with a different tone and was not awarded the unconditioned stimulus (food), the dog would learn not to salivate to the second tone.

Operant Conditioning theory – B.F. Skinner 

Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment. Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment shapes behavior and taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings and emotions into consideration is useless in explaining behavior.

Key Principles of Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement – the process in which the behavior is strengthened, and thus, more likely to happen again.

• Positive reinforcement- Making a behavior stronger by following the behavior with a pleasant stimulus. 
• Negative Reinforcement- Making a behavior stronger by taking away a negative stimulus. 

Punishment – the process in which a behavior is wakened, and thus, less likely to happen again. 

• Negative punishment – Reducing behavior by removing a pleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs.
• Positive Punishment- reducing behavior by presenting an unpleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs.

Shaping –A procedure in Operant Conditioning in which reinforcers guide behavior closer and closer towards a goal.

Behavioral approach in the classroom tips and guidelines:
1. Prepare and condition the learning environment. Thus, ensuring the classroom as a conducive place to learn.
e.g. upon entering the classroom, initially students are noisy and chattering especially if it the first period subject, make a conditioned stimulus or an icebreaker before going on to the proper discussion as it stimulates the brain and jumpstarts student’s interest.

2. Recognize positive changes or any achievements made by a student.
e.g. a student learns to participate gradually with her peers. As a teacher be sure to regard her good work in contributing in the class so most likely behavior will be repeated continually.

3. Provide a random, intermittent reinforcement in the classroom.
e.g. create a system of rewards of those behavior that you want to be consistently done. Like paying attention closely to the discussion, talking in turns, being prim and proper, cleaning their own mess, initiative on things that are expected, etc. (an occasional reward for the desired behavior is slower to produce an increase behavior, but behavior continues after the reward ceases.)

Thorndike's Law of Learning

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

We hope that using these information, it will help you to understand your learners and give them the right approach. Thank you for reading this blog, happy teaching! God bless.☺☺