Learning theories attempt to give explanation into ways that people acquire knowledge, attitudes and skills. These theories are used by the educators to improve learning processes and they have also been promoted by psychologists. Many theories have been identified to explain the learning process, however psychologists have only agreed to three theories, the behaviorism, cognitive and constructive approaches to learning (Ileris, 2010).
The behaviorism theory believes that a particular behavior that is desired in an individual is reinforced in that individual. This implies that someone reinforces the behavior that is learned, so that when it is reinforced the individual is controlled to what is learned. Regular positive reinforcements like rewards can be used to accelerate the learning process. Therefore this theory believes that the student can be manipulated with stimuli to induce the desired behavior. Thus, the behaviorism theory identifies reward as a necessity to learning rather than punishment or no reward at all. In addition, controlling learning enables students to acquire the desired learning outcome, making this theory very relevant in any learning process.
Cognitive theory identifies learning as something complex that takes place in an individual’s mind, and not just the way people behave as implied in the behavior theory. Thus it identifies learning as a change in the way people think as well as the way people understand and express their feelings. Thus it include cognitive processes like internal and external responses, planning and monitoring performance, recognizing expectancies as well as ways of encoding information. This theory also establishes that an environment, behavior and personal factor shapes an individual cognitive learning.
Constructive learning employees a different aspect, that learning is an active and a constructive process. This implies that the student must be information constructor so that he/she develops objective realities based on his/her subjective representations. The main advantage of this theory is that learners have got the opportunity to construct knowledge for themselves.
Behaviorism theory is the most interesting to me. This theory explains how stimuli can induce and reinforce a desired behavior. To me it’s more practical than the other two theories.
References
Ileris, K. (2010). Transformative Learning in the Perspective of a Comprehensive Learning Theory. Journal of Transformative Education. Vol, 6.(2): 79–89
