Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning is a process that includes many variables. These variables interact as learners
work toward their goals and incorporate new knowledge, behaviours, and skills that add to their range of
learning experiences.
Over the past century, various perspectives on learning have emerged, among them —cognitive (learning
as a mental operation); and constructivist (knowledge as a constructed element resulting from the
learning process). Rather than considering these theories separately, it is best to think of them together
as a range of possibilities that can be integrated into the learning experience. During the integration
process, it is also important to consider a number of other factors — cognitive style, learning style, the
multiple natures of our intelligences, and learning as it relates to those who have special needs and are
from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Constructivist Theory

(J. Bruner)
Constructivism is a learning strategy that draws on students' existing knowledge, beliefs, and skills. With
a constructivist approach, students synthesise new understanding from prior learning and new
information.
The constructivist teacher sets up problems and monitors student exploration, guides student inquiry, and
promotes new patterns of thinking. Working mostly with raw data, primary sources, and interactive
material, constructivist teaching asks students to work with their own data and learn to direct their own
explorations. Ultimately, students begin to think of learning as accumulated, evolving knowledge.
Constructivist approaches work well with learners of all ages, including adults.
Overview:
A major theme in the theoretical framework of Bruner is that learning is an active process in which
learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects
and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure
to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models, etc.) provides meaning and organisation to
experiences and allows the individual to "go beyond the information given".
As far as instruction is concerned, the instructor should try and encourage students to discover principles
by themselves. The instructor and student should engage in an active dialogue (i.e., Socratic learning).
The task of the instructor is to translate information to be learned into a format appropriate to the learner's
current state of understanding. Curriculum should be organised in a spiral manner so that the student
continually builds upon what they have already learned.
Bruner (1966) states that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects:
 1. Predisposition towards learning;

2. The ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily

3. grasped by the learner;

4. The most effective sequences in which to present material; and

5. The nature and pacing of rewards and punishments.

Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and
increasing the manipulation of information.
In his more recent work, Bruner (1986, 1990 and 1996) has expanded his theoretical framework to
encompass the social and cultural aspects of learning as well as the practice of law.
Scope / Application
Bruner's constructivist theory is a general framework for instruction based upon the study of cognition.
Much of the theory is linked to child development research (especially Piaget). The ideas outlined in
Bruner (1960) originated from a conference focused on science and math learning. Bruner illustrated his
theory in the context of mathematics and social science programmes for young children. The original
development of the framework for reasoning processes is described in Bruner, Goodnow & Austin (1951).
Bruner (1983) focuses on language learning in young children.
Note that constructivism is a very broad conceptual framework in philosophy and science and Bruner's
theory represents one particular perspective.
Example: This example is taken from Bruner (1973):
‘The concept of prime numbers appears to be more readily grasped when the child, through construction,
discovers that certain handfuls of beans cannot be laid out in completed rows and columns. Such
quantities have either to be laid out in a single file or in an incomplete row-column design in which there is
always one extra or one too few to fill the pattern. These patterns, the child learns, happen to be called
prime. It is easy for the child to go from this step to the recognition that a multiple table, so called, is a
record sheet of quantities in completed multiple rows and columns. Here is factoring, multiplication and
primes in a construction that can be visualised.’
Principles:

1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to

learn (readiness).

2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organisation).

3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information

given).
Source: tip.psychology.org/bruner.html
Experiential Learning

C Rogers
Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) provides a holistic model of the learning process and a multilinear
model of development, both of which are consistent with what we know about how people learn, grow,
and develop. The theory is called ‘Experiential Learning’ to emphasise the central role that experience
plays in the learning process, an emphasis that distinguishes ELT from other learning theories. The term
‘experiential’ is used, therefore, to differentiate ELT both from cognitive learning theories, which tend to
emphasise cognition over affect, and behavioural learning theories that deny any role for subjective
experience in the learning process.
Experiential learning theory defines learning as ‘the process whereby knowledge is created through the
transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming
experience’.
Overview:
Rogers distinguished two types of learning—cognitive and experiential (significant). The former
corresponds to academic knowledge such as learning vocabulary or multiplication tables and the latter
refers to applied knowledge such as learning about engines in order to repair a car. The key to the
distinction is that experiential learning addresses the needs and wants of the learner. Rogers lists these
qualities of experiential learning: personal involvement, self-initiated, evaluated by learner, and pervasive
effects on learner.
To Rogers, experiential learning is equivalent to personal change and growth. Rogers feels that all human
beings have a natural propensity to learn; the role of the teacher is to facilitate such learning. This
includes:

1. Setting a positive climate for learning,

2. Clarifying the purposes of the learner(s),

3. Organising and making available learning resources,

4. Balancing intellectual and emotional components of learning, and

5. Sharing feelings and thoughts with learners but not dominating.

According to Rogers, learning is facilitated when—

1. The student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction,

2. It is primarily based upon direct confrontation with practical, social, personal or research problems, and
 3. Self-evaluation is the principal method of assessing progress or success. Rogers also emphasises the importance

of learning to learn and an openness to change.

Implementation
Experiential learning can be a highly effective educational method. It engages the learner at a more
personal level by addressing the needs and wants of the individual. It requires qualities such as self-
initiative and self-evaluation. For experiential learning to be truly effective, it should employ the whole
learning wheel, from goal setting, to experimenting and observing, to reviewing, and finally action
planning. This complete process allows one to learn new skills, new attitudes or even entirely new ways
of thinking.
Remember the games we use to play when we were kids? Simple games, such as hopscotch, can teach
many valuable academic and social skills, like team management, communication, and leadership. The
reason why games are popular as experiential learning techniques is because of the ‘fun factor’ - learning
through fun helps the learner to retain the lessons for a longer period.
Most educators understand the important role experience plays in the learning process. A fun-learning
environment, with plenty of laughter and respect for the learner's abilities, also fosters an effective
experiential learning environment. It is vital that the individual is encouraged to directly involve themselves
in the experience, in order that they gain a better understanding of the new knowledge and retain the
information for a longer time.
Principles:

1. Significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the student.

2. Learning which is threatening to the self (e.g., new attitudes or perspectives) are more easily assimilated when

external threats are at a minimum.

3. Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the self is low.

4. Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive.

Cognitive learning

Human beings can learn efficiently by observation, taking instruction, and imitating the behaviour of
others. ‘Cognitive learning is the result of listening, watching, touching or experiencing.’
Cognitive learning is a powerful mechanism that provides the means of knowledge, and goes well beyond
simple imitation of others. Conditioning can never explain what you are learning from reading our website.
This learning illustrates the importance of cognitive learning.
Cognitive learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge and skill by mental or cognitive processes,
the procedures we have for manipulating information 'in our heads'. Cognitive processes include creating
mental representations of physical objects and events, and other forms of information processing.
How do we learn cognitive?
In cognitive learning, the individual learns by listening, watching, touching, reading, or experiencing and
then processing and remembering the information. Cognitive learning might seem to be passive learning,
because there is no motor movement. However, the learner is quite active, in a cognitive way, in
processing and remembering newly incoming information.
Cognitive learning enables us to create and transmit a complex culture that includes symbols, values,
beliefs and norms. Because cognitive activity is involved in many aspects of human behaviour, it might
seem that cognitive learning only takes place in human beings. However, many different species of
animals are capable of observational learning. For example, a monkey in the zoo, sometimes imitates
human visitors or other monkeys.
Teaching and Learning Strategies

6E+S Model of Instruction

The 6 E's and S (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate, Extend, and Standards) lesson plan
format was developed by teachers in consultation with faculty from schools of education and is based on
a constructivist model of teaching.  The lesson plans are based on constructivist instructional models with
activities and sections of the plan designed to have the students continually add (or construct) new
knowledge on top of existing knowledge.
Each of the 6 E's describes a phase of learning, and each phase begins with the letter ‘E’: Engage,
Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate and Extend. The 6 E's allows students and teachers to experience
common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to
continually assess their understanding of a concept.
Engage: An ‘engage’ activity should make connections between past and present learning experiences,
Anticipate activities and focus students' thinking on the learning outcomes of current activities. Students
should become mentally engaged in the concept, process, or skill to be learned. Each lesson plan has an
'essential question' that is the basis for their inquiry. Normally the section will include a few key questions
to help direct some of the research in the Explore section.