Psychology of learning
The psychology of learning refers to theories and research on how individuals learn. There are many theories of learning. Some take on a more constructive approach which focuses on inputs and reinforcements. Other approaches, such as neuroscience and social cognition, focus more on how the brain's organization and structure influence learning. Some psychological approaches, such as social behaviorism, focus more on one's interaction with the environment and with others. Other theories, such as those related to motivation, like the growth mindset, focus more on individuals' perceptions of ability.
Extensive research has looked at how individuals learn, both inside and outside the classroom.History
Early approaches
Prior to the 1950s, psychological learning theory varied across countries. In Germany, gestalt psychology viewed psychological concepts holistically, such as the human mind and behavior. An emphasis was placed on trying to understand the overarching phenomenon of a psychological concept and how it connects with other ideas. This also led to a focus on problem-solving as a construct to be explored in the 1920s and 1930s.
In America, there was a strong emphasis on behaviorism, which focused on exploring observable behavior. Learning mechanisms were often tested on animals. Russia, or the Soviet Union at the time, provided a cultural-historical approach towards psychology that described learning in the context of one's environment. Learning was viewed as a phenomenon that can be directed and supported in institutions like schools. Another significant theory was Jean Piaget's constructivism, which described how learners construct knowledge by expanding and changing their ideas based on the information they receive. Sigmund Freud's work on psychoanalysis and John Dewey's theories on schooling and learning were also major influences during this time.1950s–1960s
After World War II, two major learning theories became prominent. One was behaviorism, which stemmed from the work of B. F. Skinner and others. Skinner viewed human behavior as determined by an individual's interactions with one's environment. He argued that humans are controlled by external factors such that human learning is predicated on the environmental information one receives from one's surroundings. Starting in the 1960s, behaviorism expanded to consider more complicated forms of learning, such as Albert Bandura's concept of social learning and Dane Thomas Nissen's learning theory of culmination. These could not be explained adequately through behaviorism.
In addition, a humanistic view of psychology, led by psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, grew. In 1951, Rogers introduced the concepts of client-based therapy and introduced related terms such as "student-centered teacher" and "significant learning". Maslow's hierarchy of needs model influenced the psychology of learning because it described how people needed to meet their basic physical, social, and mental needs before they could address other less basic needs.1970s and beyond
During the 1970s, learning began to be viewed as an integral part of life and the world as it started to be seen as a part of personal and social enrichment. Concepts such as lifelong learning and adult education started to appear as people began to view learning as a daily process throughout life.
The Russian cultural-historical approach started to be adopted. This approach viewed learning as interacting with incentives in the environment. For instance, Ute Holzkamp-Osterkamp viewed motivation as interconnected with learning. Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development influenced educators to view learning activities in relation to the students' comfort zones.
Kenneth Gergen introduced the social constructionism approach, which posits that individuals construct mental structures from their social connections and environment. Hence, although learning can happen individually, it can only be evaluated in a social context. Jean Lave and Étienne Wenger, in their book Situated Learning, also stated that the environmental context influenced the learning outcomes.
Experiential learning, described by David Kolb, defines learning as an iterative process of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation. Robert Kegan established a constructive-developmental approach that expands upon Piaget's stages of child development into a lifelong process that includes adulthood. In 1991, the American psychologist Howard Gardner wrote The Unschooled Mind, which focused on three types of learning: intuitive learning, school learning, and expert learning. Intuitive learning, the most natural, occurs mostly in the preschool years; school learning is the learning children engage in during the school years, and intuitive-expert learning is the type of learning Gardner argues everyone should strive towards.Psychologists and learning theorists
Socrates
introduced a method of learning known as piloting, through which one arrives at one's own answers through power of reasoning. Socrates, in dialogue with Meno, taught this method by teaching a slave boy who knew nothing about Euclidean geometry the Pythagorean theorem. He did so by asking questions or rephrasing them until the correct answer was found. Socrates strongly supported the idea that knowledge is innate and can be found from within, a concept known as anamnesis.Hermann Ebbinghaus
examined learning by studying rote memory and forgetting. With himself as his own experimental subject, he used meaningless syllables to form lists that he read several times until he could restate them with high accuracy. He also attempted to recall the same lists with delays of a few days or months and then recorded his discoveries as learning curves and forgetting curves.presented his theory of the "Law of Effect" in 1898. According to this theory, humans and other animals learn behaviors through trial-and-error methods. Once a functioning solution is found, these behaviors are likely to be repeated during the same or similar task. It was his work on learning theory that resulted in operant conditioning within behaviorism. His theory of operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of our actions and behavior.Ivan Pavlov
, a Russian physiologist, contributed to research on learning. Knowing that a hungry dog salivates when food is present, he trained dogs to salivate to an arbitrary external stimuli. This was done by pairing a natural stimulus with a novel stimulus to provoke the desired response in dogs. That proved his thesis that he could make a dog salivate by just the presentation of the sound of a bell. Pavlov's behavioristic approach to learning became known as classical conditioning.also used this method of learning and argued that it was sufficient for the science of psychology, specifically behaviorism. Watson is often referred to as being the founder of the school of behaviorism. From 1920 to 1960, this school influenced a great deal of North American psychology. John Watson may also be known as one of the biggest contributors to marketing and advertising, using his knowledge about behaviorism to predict and control responses from the consumers.Burrhus F. Skinner
developed operant conditioning, in which specific behaviors resulted from stimuli, which caused them to appear more or less frequently. By the 1920s, John B. Watson's ideas had become popular and influential in the world of psychology and classical conditioning was being explored by other behaviorists. Skinner was one of these behaviorists. He thought that in order to understand behavior we needed to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this operant conditioning. Skinner is referred to as the father of operant conditioning but his theory stems from the works presented by Edward Thorndike.is known for his theory of cognitive development that describes how children create a mental model of the world around them. His theory is important because it is one of the first theories that disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a steadfast trait. His theory sees cognitive development as something that happens because of biological maturation and one's interaction with their surrounding environment. Piaget did not want to measure a child's knowledge, like an I.Q. score, instead he focused on how children did with fundamental concepts. Piaget's theory has four stages. The sensorimotor stage which is birth to 18–24 months. The preoperational stage is toddler ages to early childhood, age 7. The concrete operational stage, ages 7 to 12. Then the formal operation stage which is adolescence to adulthood. Before Piaget's theory it was believed that children were just less competent thinkers but this theory and his stages helped to show that children think in significantly differently ways than adults do''.''Lev Vygotsky
is best known for his theory in cognitive development known as social development theory. Vygotsky was developing his theories of cognitive development around the same time that Jean Piaget was developing his theories. Vygotsky believed that social interaction plays a critical role in cognitive development. He places a large emphasis on culture and how it affects cognitive development. He also sees the importance of adults in cognitive development in children. Vygotsky says that development cannot be understood without referring back to the social and also the cultural context in which it is embedded. Vygotsky claimed that learning occurs via skillful interaction in which the child is with someone who models behaviors or gives instructions for the child to follow, most likely a parent or a teacher. The child tries to understand the instructions or actions provided and then stores the information so they can use it to guide their future performances. Piaget's theory says that a child's development must follow their learning, Vygotsky disagreed with this. He believed that social learning tends to come before development.