Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective

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A text of this nature would clearly be of value to someone trained in chemistry who is interested in the principles of learning. Read on to learn all about learning theories, why they matter, and how you can make them work for your students.

Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Developed in the 1950s, this theory moves away from behaviorism to focus on the mind’s role in learning.

These principles provide different frameworks that teachers can use to adapt to students’ diverse learning styles and academic needs. An understanding of learning theories can help educators to “reflect on their practice, improve upon, reshape and refine their work, and contribute to advancing the discipline” (Harasim, 2017). Although espousing a particular learning theory isn’t necessarily required in most teaching roles, online learning author and consultant Tony Bates points out that most teachers tend to follow one or another theory, even if it’s done unconsciously. The structure proposed here emerged from a theoretical study with the concurrent development of software.

In the section ‘A note on Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)’ I addressed this point writing “I have included Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) as a distinct theory even though it is a cognitivist theory. However, in the UK, Professor Dylan Wiliam has stated that he thinks CLT “is the single most important thing for teachers to know” (Wiliam, 2017).I have used a slightly different set of learning theories to Bower, and I have used additional properties. For Learning Theory/Cognition and Instruction, Advanced Educational Psychology, and Introductory Educational Psychology courses. This book was used for my PhD program and I expected more descriptions and explanations of the theories and experiments.