Phycologist Approach In Research
An effective lesson is described in a number of ways by a number of different people. There are also numerous theories about how students learn and about how best to teach them, these theories are constantly changing and being modified over time as people's opinions change. These theories and opinions are also different depending on which country you are in as well as what subject you teach with different techniques being used to try to achieve effective lessons. To go along with these theories the government and Ofsted have also set guidelines and standards that teachers are supposed to follow to achieve an outstanding lesson. All of these theories and standards all state that there are numerous factors that make up and help create an effective
…show more content…
lesson. The key information that all teachers need to try to find out to make an effective lesson is what makes students want to learn, how to help them learn(Postlethwaite and Haggarty 2002) what techniques and strategies suit the teacher and the students and what techniques work to promote understanding in there subject. Kyriacou (2009) describes effective teaching as teaching that successfully achieves the learning that the teacher has intended the pupil to do in that lesson. Kyriacou (2009) states that there are two simple elements to effective teaching:
• "The teacher must have a clear idea of what learning is to be fostered."
• "A learning experience is set up and delivered that achieves this."
Kyriacoua also states that research into effective teaching carried out up to the 1960s focused on input characteristics such as attributes of the teacher and the pupils rather than what happened inside a classroom, whereas research since the 1960s focuses more on the activities inside the classroom and the interaction between the teacher and the students.
What makes students want to learn?
Postlethwaite and Haggarty (2002, p86-87) carried out research into what students at school in years 7 to 13 thought about effective teaching and about their own learning. They asked the students a number of questions such as "What makes you learn? What kinds of thing do teachers do that help you to want to learn? What kinds of activities help you to learn the best?" In a lot of the students' answers it was suggested that "motivation was high when teachers made the lesson fun and are themselves enthusiastic about the work." Students also stated that their interest in lessons was maintained when the work asked of them matched their ability. It was stated that praise and encouragement improved there self-confidence. A good relationship was seen as essential for good motivation and a number of students were critical of other students disrupting lessons and stated that teachers should be firm with disruptive students.
Learning Theories
Phycologists have developed a number of theories about how children and adults learn.
"A learning theory is a systematic integrated outlook in regard to the nature of the process whereby people relate to their environments in such a way as to enhance their ability to use both themselves and their environments in a most effective way." (Bigge and Shermis, 1999) Bigge and Shermis (1999) explains that since the 17th century phycologists have been working on developing systematic learning theories supported by experimentation. During this period new theories of learning have emerged periodically to challenge or support the existing theories. In recent years educational phycologists have been looking in to problems relevant to cognitive, perceptual, coding, memory, psycholinguistic and motivational processes that are within prevailing theories of …show more content…
learning.
Behaviourism
Learning-theories.com (2015) states that the behaviourism theory follows the idea of stimulus-response, that all behaviour is the result of external factors/ stimuli. The key phycologists that contributed and helped create this theory are John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov. This theory assumes that a learner is passive and responds to external stimuli. It follows the assumption that learners and children start as a clean slate/ blank canvas and behaviour is shaped through positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. This theory therefore defines learning as a change in behaviour. With positive reinforcement increasing the likelihood of the individual to repeat the good behaviour and negative reinforcement or punishment will reduce the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated. Pavlov's early experiments were carried out with animals and the results of these experiments were generalised to apply to humans.
Cognitive
Long, Wood, Littleton, Passenger and Sheehy (2011) state that the main theory behind cognitive development and learning was proposed by Piaget (1966, 1972) and is largely based on the development of the mental structures called schemes.
McLeod (2015) defines a schema as "a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning". McLeod simplifies this definition to a schema is the basic building block of intelligent behaviour and a way of organising data. Mcleod then states that Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation to the world, through assimilation (using an existing schema to deal with a new situation), accommodation (changing an existing schema to deal with a new situation) and equilibration (the force which moves the learning process along). Mcleod (2015) also explains that Piaget believed that children go through 4 universal stages of cognitive development and that each child goes through the stages in the same order and no stage can be missed out. The stages are sensorimotor (0-2yrs), preoperational (2-7yrs), concrete(7-11yrs) and formal operational (11yrs+). Learning-theories.com (2015) explains that the cognitive theory views the learner as an information processor like a
computer.
Constructivism
Hein (1991) describes constructivism as the idea that the learner constructs knowledge for themselves and constructs meaning individually as they learn. The theory describes learning as constructing meaning. Learning-theories.com (2015) explains that constructivism describes “that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it”. It also states that unlike the behaviourism theory learners are not a blank slate but bring past knowledge and experiences to a new situation. The key contributors to this theory are Bruner, Vygotsky, Piaget and Dewey.
lesson. The key information that all teachers need to try to find out to make an effective lesson is what makes students want to learn, how to help them learn(Postlethwaite and Haggarty 2002) what techniques and strategies suit the teacher and the students and what techniques work to promote understanding in there subject. Kyriacou (2009) describes effective teaching as teaching that successfully achieves the learning that the teacher has intended the pupil to do in that lesson. Kyriacou (2009) states that there are two simple elements to effective teaching:
• "The teacher must have a clear idea of what learning is to be fostered."
• "A learning experience is set up and delivered that achieves this."
Kyriacoua also states that research into effective teaching carried out up to the 1960s focused on input characteristics such as attributes of the teacher and the pupils rather than what happened inside a classroom, whereas research since the 1960s focuses more on the activities inside the classroom and the interaction between the teacher and the students.
What makes students want to learn?
Postlethwaite and Haggarty (2002, p86-87) carried out research into what students at school in years 7 to 13 thought about effective teaching and about their own learning. They asked the students a number of questions such as "What makes you learn? What kinds of thing do teachers do that help you to want to learn? What kinds of activities help you to learn the best?" In a lot of the students' answers it was suggested that "motivation was high when teachers made the lesson fun and are themselves enthusiastic about the work." Students also stated that their interest in lessons was maintained when the work asked of them matched their ability. It was stated that praise and encouragement improved there self-confidence. A good relationship was seen as essential for good motivation and a number of students were critical of other students disrupting lessons and stated that teachers should be firm with disruptive students.
Learning Theories
Phycologists have developed a number of theories about how children and adults learn.
"A learning theory is a systematic integrated outlook in regard to the nature of the process whereby people relate to their environments in such a way as to enhance their ability to use both themselves and their environments in a most effective way." (Bigge and Shermis, 1999) Bigge and Shermis (1999) explains that since the 17th century phycologists have been working on developing systematic learning theories supported by experimentation. During this period new theories of learning have emerged periodically to challenge or support the existing theories. In recent years educational phycologists have been looking in to problems relevant to cognitive, perceptual, coding, memory, psycholinguistic and motivational processes that are within prevailing theories of …show more content…
learning.
Behaviourism
Learning-theories.com (2015) states that the behaviourism theory follows the idea of stimulus-response, that all behaviour is the result of external factors/ stimuli. The key phycologists that contributed and helped create this theory are John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov. This theory assumes that a learner is passive and responds to external stimuli. It follows the assumption that learners and children start as a clean slate/ blank canvas and behaviour is shaped through positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. This theory therefore defines learning as a change in behaviour. With positive reinforcement increasing the likelihood of the individual to repeat the good behaviour and negative reinforcement or punishment will reduce the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated. Pavlov's early experiments were carried out with animals and the results of these experiments were generalised to apply to humans.
Cognitive
Long, Wood, Littleton, Passenger and Sheehy (2011) state that the main theory behind cognitive development and learning was proposed by Piaget (1966, 1972) and is largely based on the development of the mental structures called schemes.
McLeod (2015) defines a schema as "a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning". McLeod simplifies this definition to a schema is the basic building block of intelligent behaviour and a way of organising data. Mcleod then states that Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation to the world, through assimilation (using an existing schema to deal with a new situation), accommodation (changing an existing schema to deal with a new situation) and equilibration (the force which moves the learning process along). Mcleod (2015) also explains that Piaget believed that children go through 4 universal stages of cognitive development and that each child goes through the stages in the same order and no stage can be missed out. The stages are sensorimotor (0-2yrs), preoperational (2-7yrs), concrete(7-11yrs) and formal operational (11yrs+). Learning-theories.com (2015) explains that the cognitive theory views the learner as an information processor like a
computer.
Constructivism
Hein (1991) describes constructivism as the idea that the learner constructs knowledge for themselves and constructs meaning individually as they learn. The theory describes learning as constructing meaning. Learning-theories.com (2015) explains that constructivism describes “that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it”. It also states that unlike the behaviourism theory learners are not a blank slate but bring past knowledge and experiences to a new situation. The key contributors to this theory are Bruner, Vygotsky, Piaget and Dewey.