Learning theories

Connectivism, Cognitivism, Constructivism, and Behaviourism. These are the four learning styles that we have looked at this week and I intend to explore their use – to some degree – in regards to designing an eLearning course. Firstly, let's have a brief overview of each theory.

Connectivism is the idea that knowledge is accessed through the participation of the learners. Learning is the process of creating connections and developing networks. The main underlying idea is that new information is always discovered and that information affects actions based on yesterday’s information. Creating and maintaining connections/ networks is crucial or continual learning. Knowing what and how has been replaced by knowing where to find the latest, reliable information.
Cognitivism relies on knowing how the learner learns. Learning requires the active participation of the learner.
Constructivism is based on learning as an active, constructive process where new information is linked to old information. Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment. Each learner brings past experiences and cultural factors to a situation.
Behaviourism is based on the reinforcement of desired habits. Behaviour shaped by positive and negative reinforcement through stimulus response. Good behaviour is encouraged and rewarded while bad behaviour is punished. This effects likelihood of these behaviours happening again. Learning is defined in the behaviour of learner.

Research - as well as common sense - tells us that each learner is different and the possibility of having learners of differing learning styles in any one class is high. Therefore it is necessary to cater for all types of learning styles while developing and implementing learning experiences.
It is not always possible to cater for every learning style in each lesson so it is important to provide opportunities for learners to seek clarification and/or further explanation. It may be necessary to group learners according to their learning style and moving from group to group to offer assistance that is tailored to that groups learning style. This may not always be effective as research has also indicated that a portion of learners can have more than one learning style and can swap between styles as the situation warrants, therefore it is necessary to allow for deviation in groupings. It is also necessary to keep in mind the individual strengths and weaknesses of the learners as these too can have an effect on their learning.
How does all of this affect the designing of a learning experience? The easy answer is ‘hugely’. However, that is not quite a satisfactory answer. The design needs to include explanations, tasks, behaviour management techniques, and problems to solve that will cause students to identify a need for new knowledge, an opportunity to find this knowledge, as well as an opportunity to apply the knowledge and evaluate the results of their efforts. No easy feat, but one worth the effort all the same.