Learning Theories 1

Question 1

Analogical Learning

Answer 1

• Analogical learning idea that learning is facilitated when learners directly compare examples.
• Involves developing a set of mappings between features of two instances
• Through comparison, key characteristics of the examples are more easily noticed and stored in memory.

Question 2

Cognition and Emotion

Answer 2

• Concerns how emotional states are connected to cognitive abilities like learning, recalling and processing.
• Although this is still a debated subject, there is evidence that emotions can act as cues for recall.

Question 3

Cognitive Flexibility

Answer 3

The ability to adjust thinking or attention in response to changing goals and/or environmental stimuli.

Note: there are multiple definitions for cognitive flexibility, the above is just a broad and simple.

Question 4

Constructionism

Answer 4

• Constructionism is the idea that learning can happen most effectively when the student is actively creating something real.
• It draws from the constructivist theory that people construct mental models to comprehend the world around them.

Question 5

Cased-based Reasoning

Answer 5

• Case-based reasoning is a model of reasoning and learning from interpreting new scenarios from comparing them to old scenarios.
• The three basic processes include retrieval, adaptation and storage.

Question 6

Episodic Memory

Answer 6

Episodic memory is the recollection of specific events, situations and experiences in one’s own life. “It is the only memory system that allows people to consciously re-experience past experiences.”

Question 7

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)

Answer 7

Higher Order Thinking is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, it is the idea that some types of learning require more cognitive processing than others, but also have more generalized benefits. Includes:

• Critical thinking
• Problem solving
• Question asking
• Reasoning
• Reflective Thinking
• Systems Thinking

Question 8

Information Processing

Answer 8

Information processing selectively passes sensory information from sensory memory to working memory to be processed in visual or auditory channels.

That information can then be related to information retrieved from long-term memory, which can either help create meaning of the incoming information and/or encode it to the existing ideas and concepts in the long-term memory.

Question 9

Inquiry Learning

Answer 9

Inquiry teaching and learning are methods of guiding learning through asking questions. Through posing questions, students can be led to further discovery on their own; the instructor is therefore tasked with helping students frame their own inquiry within accepted parameters and help students structure their inquiry and derrive applicable theoretical rules from it in the best way they can.

Question 10

Narrative Intelligence

Answer 10

Narrative intelligence emcompasses the ability of humans to understand, learn from and remember stories. When used to describe technology, it means the technology has the ability to capture human story-telling.

Question 11

Schema Theory

Answer 11

According to schema theory, a person perceives the world and processes information, in a manner that is dictated by the existing structures of knowledge known as schemata.

Each schema is a fragment of knowledge that links to other schema and together form a representation of the person’s understanding of the world.

Question 12

Social Cognitive Learning

Answer 12

Social cognitive theory states that we learn behaviors through observation, modeling, and motivation such as positive reinforcement. Social cognitive learning theory highlights the idea that much of human learning occurs in a social environment. By observing others, people acquire knowledge of rules, skills, strategies, beliefs, and attitudes.

Question 13

Constructivism

Answer 13

• Constructivism is the idea that new knowledge in the human mind is built upon previous knowledge and developed through experience.
• Constructs are the concepts we place over reality in order to make sense of the world.

Question 14

Discovery Learning

Answer 14

• Discovery learning is a method of inquiry-based instruction that emphasizes the discovery of facts and relationships by the learner themselves through exploration, the manipulation of objects, and experimentation.

Question 15

Experiential Learning

Answer 15

• Experiential learning is learning through experiences outside of the context of a traditional academic setting.
• Also involves further reflection on these experiences after the fact.

Question 16

Generative Learning Theory

Answer 16

Generative Learning Theory is the idea that learners process, incorporate and transfer new knowledge based on connections made to their prior personal experiences, which together construct new schemas for the learner.

Question 17

Situated Cognition

Answer 17

• Situated Cognition consists of tasks situated within authentic contexts.
• Authenticity implies the learning activities are intended for members of a real and large community.
• By participating in the act of doing what we learn, we are learning more than if we only received the knowledge.

Question 18

Social Learning Theory

Answer 18

• Social learning theory is the idea that knowledge can be constructed in a social context through observation and modeling of the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional responses of other people before an individual incorporates it into their own understanding.
• The fact that we share each other’s viewpoints allows us to understand things that we would be unable to process separately.

Question 19

Adult Learning Theory

Answer 19

• Adult learning theory is concerned with how adults learn differently than other populations.
• These theories focus on andragogy, the art and science of helping adults learn, rather than pedagogy, helping children learn.
• Another important model in adult learning theory is that of self-directed learning

Question 20

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 20

• Cognitive psychology is concerned with the higher mental processes such as memory, thinking, reasoning and learning.
• It investigates how one acquires, stores, and accesses knowledge.

Question 21

Conceptual Change

Answer 21

• Conceptual change in developmental psychology is the endeavor to understand the psychological process that brings change to comprehension of a particular concept.
• According to this theory, cognitive development happens due to conceptual change.

Question 22

Discursive Psychology

Answer 22

• Discursive psychology emphasizes interaction as the central locality of psychological issues.
• Also emphasizes how words are used in the interaction between people.

Question 23

Educational Psychology

Answer 23

• Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that studies how people learn.
• Includes the social, emotional, and cognitive processes that are involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan.

Question 24

Moral Psychology

Answer 24

• Moral psychology determines the understanding of human moral behavior. It is the common topic in the field of philosophy and psychology and its definition varies according to the field.

Question 25

Narrative Psychology

Answer 25

• Narrative psychology uses a narrative approach, rather than traditional scientific techniques, to construct meaning of human conduct.
• The premise is that both telling and listening to stories helps one to interpret experience and make sense of reality.

Question 26

Personalistic Psychology

Answer 26

• Personalistic psychology describes a focus on a person’s individual traits and differences.
• It seeks to understand how differences come about, what makes people unique between instances and how we as unique individuals therefore fit into grander contexts.

Question 27

Social Psychology

Answer 27

• Social pyschology is the study of social interactions: how one’s feelings, thoughts, beliefs are influenced by others.

Question 28

Metaphilosophy

Answer 28

• Metaphilosophy is the philosophy of philosophy, the question of what philosophy is.

Question 29

Social Theories and Sociology

Answer 29

• Social theories try to find the common factors hidden in different social experiences, abstract typical models from these common factors and conclude them into theories.
• Sociology especially focus on human behaviors in social context. It analyzes the patterns and meanings of these social behaviors. In other words, it tries to figure out why/how people do this or that in social life.

Question 30

Anchored Instruction

Answer 30

Anchored instruction enables students to investigate problems in real situations, develop goals for learning, and actively construct knowledge to solve problems.

Question 31

Cognitive Apprenticeship

Answer 31

• Cognitive apprenticeship is the use of the master-apprentice relationship as a learning theory.
• A master provides a model of the skills and actions to be performed by a student/apprentice.
• Cognitive apprenticeships are designed to make implicit processes explicit, so that apprentices can observe and practice them with guidance or scaffolding from the master.

Question 32

Conflict Models

Answer 32

• A conflict model identifies the origins and development of a conflict so that problem spots can more easily be identified and addressed.
• In criminal justice, this is the theory that competition (conflict) between the proseecution and defense to produces more just results.

Question 33

Digital Storytelling

Answer 33

• Digital storytelling is a way of expressing stories through electronic media, often including but not limited to digital video production shared on the internet.
• It can include any non-physcial media, and is often used in creating identity narratives and building communities within and beyond the classroom.

Question 34

Entertainment Education

Answer 34

• Entertainment education is a learning process designed to both entertain and educate in order to increase audience’s knowledge of a given cause.

Question 35

Gamification

Answer 35

• The use of game-thinking and game mechanics to create create greater engagement.

Question 36

Games for Learning

Answer 36

• This is the idea that students learn better through play rather than from ideas in abstraction.
• By placing the students in a context in which they need to use certain skills or information to succeed, students are intrinsically motivated to learn.

Question 37

Goal-based Scenarios

Answer 37

• Goal-based scenarios (GBS) are learn-by-doing learning environments that take advantage of the fact that people are naturally driven by goals.
• GBSs present clear goals and encourage learning in order to accomplish those goals.

Question 38

Inquiry Teaching

Answer 38

• Inquiry teaching is a model of instruction that encourages students to ask the questions, design their experiements, and discover results themselves.
• It is much more a theory of faciliatation and scaffolding than direct teaching.

Question 39

Microworlds

Answer 39

• Microworlds are real or virtual environments that allow the student the experience of discovery and exploration.
• They are called micro because they are small, they are simpler than the actual world and they accomodate the learner’s cognitive level.

Question 40

Problem-based Learning

Answer 40

• Problem-based learning is a student-centered instructional model in which students learn about a subject through the experience of problem solving.

Question 41

Simulation

Answer 41

• A simulation is a replication and depiction of a real or imaginary world.
• Simulations can either be discrete or continuous.

Question 42

Socratic Method

Answer 42

• The Socratic method is a form of teaching where the teacher asks students questions and vice versa, possibly creating tension in doing so, to strengthen viewpoints on a subject matter or topic.
• It is used more to induce critical thinking of the students’ perspective on a topic, than encourage regurgitation of facts, to help examine and validate the student’s values, beliefs, and reasoning.

Question 43

Cognitive Science & Learning Science

Answer 43

• Cognitive Science is the interdisciplinary study of the human mind and how humans form meaning.
• Learning Science is the study of human cognition and its implications on designing learning environments.