Theories of Learning

This paper describes Threshold Concepts, a theory of learning that distinguishes core concepts whose characteristics can make them troublesome in learning. With an eye to applying this theory in computer science, we consider this notion in the context of related topics in computer science education.

We analyze the "query by committee" algorithm, a method for filtering informative queries from a random stream of inputs. We show that if the two-member committee algorithm achieves information gain with positive lower bound, then the prediction error decreases exponentially with the number of queries. We show that, in particular, this exponential decrease holds for query learning of perceptrons.

ÐA modern enthusiasm for pupils to learn collaboratively within early education is identi®ed. It is shown that educational practice is in harmony with theories of learning promoted by developmental psychologists and also with studies of classroom interventions evaluating cooperative learning regimes. However, observations of children's spontaneous interactions during routine small group work imply that the quality of collaboration is typically rather poor. This paper considers whether the cultivation of true collaborative learning is a realistic ambition with very young children. An analysis of the social dynamic at the heart of this form of learning suggests that it is well within the reach of children as a form of social exchange. However, it may be hard for them to exercise that dynamic under the particular formats demanded of schooled problem solving. It is argued that new technology oers a special potential for supporting the development of collaborative learning in early education. However, the scope of the resourcing required extends beyond meeting the traditional formats of circumscribed group work: designers for this style of learning need to address collaboration managed as a broader communal concern within the very fabric of educational settings.

Beginning with the recognition that every learning theory rests on particular assumptions about the nature and capacities of the learners, this study provides an examination of the implicit premises upon which several of the more prominent learning theories–behaviourism, cognitivism, ...

Discriminative learning methods for classification perform well when training and test data are drawn from the same distribution. Often, however, we have plentiful labeled training data from a source domain but wish to learn a classifier which performs well on a target domain with a different distribution and little or no labeled training data. In this work we investigate two

Siemens and Downes initially received increasing attention in the blogosphere in 2005 when they discussed their ideas concerning distributed knowledge. An extended discourse has ensued in and around the status of 'connectivism' as a learning theory for the digital age. This has led to a number of questions in relation to existing learning theories. Do they still meet the needs of today's learners, and anticipate the needs of learners of the future? Would a new theory that encompasses new developments in digital technology be more appropriate, and would it be suitable for other aspects of learning, including in the traditional class room, in distance education and e-learning? This paper will highlight current theories of learning and critically analyse connectivism within the context of its predecessors, to establish if it has anything new to offer as a learning theory or as an approach to teaching for the 21st Century.

If the purpose of secondary schooling is to educate the upcoming generation to become active participants in society, evaluation of teaching and learning in the information‐rich digital age should be underpinned by relevant theories and models. This article describes an evaluation tool developed using emerging ideas about knowledge creation and learning in a connected society. The digital age learning matrix was successfully trialled and applied in a study of six digitally able beginning teachers during their first year of teaching to identify aspects of learning occurring as digital technologies were integrated into their teaching practice. An implication of this study is that teachers, even the digitally able, will be limited in their ability to teach the upcoming generation to be active participants in a digitally enhanced society without understanding how to apply theories of learning that are relevant to a digital age into their practice.

As Forest School has become more widespread throughout Britain an understanding is needed of its impact. This paper outlines a two-phase evaluation project undertaken in Wales and England from 2002 to 2005. The evaluation was undertaken through a partnership between Forest Research and the New Economics Foundation. A methodology was developed to explore the impacts of Forest School on children and this was then used to track changes in 24 children at three case study areas over an 8-month period. The research highlights that children can benefit in a range of ways. Six themes emerged from the data of the positive impacts on children in terms of confidence, social skills, language and communication, motivation and concentration, physical skills and knowledge and understanding. Two further themes highlight the wider impacts of Forest School on teachers, parents, and the extended family. Contact with the natural environment can be limited for children and young people in contemporary society due to concerns about safety outdoors and issues of risk and liability. Forest School provides an important opportunity for children to gain access to and become familiar with woodlands on a regular basis, while learning academic and practical skills. The constructivist theory of learning seems to be particularly suited to the Forest School approach as children make meaning from their direct experiences. The participatory action research approach taken in this study promoted reflective practice amongst the stakeholders involved and provided them with a sense of ownership of the study, as well as an opportunity to learn from each other.

David Ausubel’s theory of meaningful verbal learning emphasizes the importance of structure and connecting new information to known.  Whereas Jerome Bruner recommended discovery learning, Ausubel identified reception learning using expository teaching as the most effective method to use in helping students construct new knowledge.  Highlights and implications of his theory are described here.

Theories of learning and theories of teaching often originate and operate independently from one another. This article attempts to contribute to the integration of the two types of theories. First, the cognitive, affective and regulative activities students use to learn are analyzed. Next, different ways in which teachers can regulate the learning and thinking activities of students are discussed, as well as the teaching strategies they can use for that aim. The third part focuses on different ways in which student-regulation and teacher-regulation of learning act upon one another. Congruence and friction between these modes of control are discussed. From this interplay implications are derived for process-oriented teaching, aimed at promoting congruence and constructive friction, avoiding destructive friction and reducing the gap between learning and teaching.

In the evolving landscape of mobile learning, European researchers have conducted significant mobile learning projects, representing a distinct perspective on mobile learning research and development. Our paper aims to explore how these projects have arisen, showing the driving forces of European innovation in mobile learning. We propose context as a central construct in mobile learning and examine theories of learning for the mobile world, based on physical, technological, conceptual, social and temporal mobility. We also examine the impacts of mobile learning research on educational practices and the implications for policy. Throughout, we identify lessons learnt from European experiences to date.

In this article we argue that student learning is enhanced by "theoretical eclecticism," which we define as intentionally drawing on different theories of learning when making instructional decisions to provide students with the instructional support they need to be successful. We briefly review the literature on four views of learning and on learner-centered approaches to instruction and then integrate this literature with distinction between the instruction paradigm and the learning paradigm. Finally, we present examples from a teacher education course to illustrate how theoretical eclecticism can be used to support student learning.

There can hardly be a topic of greater interest to readers of this journal than the one announced in the title of Halliday's recent article: "Towards a languagebased theory of learning" (hereafter, LTL).i It is also a topic that is of particular educational importance at this time when, fired by the symbolic significance of the approaching start of a new century, reformers plan major changes in the content of the school curriculum and in the manner in which it is to be enacted. For curricular reform is very much a matter of social semiotics and, whether explicitly recognized or not, any particular policy proposal is necessarily based on assumptions about the relationship between language and learning. In discussing plans for change, therefore, it behooves those of us who believe language to have a central and unique role in learning-both in school and out-to make our beliefs clear and explicit and to provide warrant for them that is based not just on the evidence of good practice but also in a coherent body of theory and research.

ESP genre research has generated numerous descriptions and explanations of discipline-specific genre exemplars and has produced various pedagogical proposals. However, what learners learn from these genre descriptions and the resulting pedagogical proposals and how they develop as learners and writers of genres in ESP genre-based writing pedagogy is still a less-developed area of research. In this paper, I first examine previous studies and theoretical debates to argue for the importance of closely examining learners and learning in the ESP genre-based writing classroom. I then uncover two deeper issues that may be holding back this area of research: the need for more attention to the full intricacies of being a learner in ESP genre-oriented classroom and the lack of theories of learning that are sensitive to the unique conceptual framework and pedagogical realities of ESP genre-based writing classroom. I explore, with examples, how these two deeper issues can potentially transmit changes to the current ESP genre-based research agenda.

Although psychological theories assign to mistakes a fundamental role in the learning process and suggest ways to deal with them, only few studies have analyzed ways teacher-student interactions surrounding mistakes occur in actual classroom settings. This study focuses on such analysis. Also examined here are cultural factors that inform teacher mistake-handling. The data include a sample of 30 Italian and 30 US videotaped eighth-grade mathematics lessons. The methodology combines a discourse analytic approach with quantification of some aspects of the interactions observed. The differences observed in Italian and US lessons are interpreted as a complex interplay of two elements: beliefs about learning and culturally specific instructional practices. r

Las teorías clásicas propuestas para explicar las preferencias sexuales han hecho énfasis en los determinantes genéticos; con si deran que las preferencias de las hembras y los rasgos sexuales de los machos coevolucionan, porque los rasgos son un indicador confi able de "buenos genes" que favorecen la supervivencia de los hijos. Una hipótesis alternativa explica las preferencias sexuales mediante un mecanismo de aprendizaje; un ejemplo de este enfoque es el aprendizaje por impronta propuesto por Konrad Lorenz. El presente experimento se propuso evaluar los efectos de diferentes prácticas de crianza temprana sobre las preferencias de pareja. Para este propósito, se seleccionaron 35 pollitos de codorniz, de 15 días de nacidos, y se dividieron en cuatro grupos: (1) un grupo de 9 pollitos machos criados cada uno en compañía de una hembra adulta de tres meses;(2) un grupo de 9 pollitos hembras criadas cada una en compañía de un macho adulto de tres meses; (3) un grupo de 9 pollitos machos criados en jaulas individuales y sin contacto visual con otros de su especie, y (4) un grupo de 8 pollitos hembras criadas en jaulas individuales y sin contacto visual con otros de su especie. Estas condiciones se mantuvieron por tres meses, al cabo de los cuales cada uno de los animales fue sometido a una prueba de preferencia de pareja y se midió el tiempo que el animal dedi caba a observar a una pareja potencial (la pareja con la que se había criado y una pareja distinta) en ensayos de 10 minutos, duran te 10 días. Los resultados muestran que el 50 por ciento de los 18 pollitos que conformaron los grupos de machos y hembras criados en pareja, presentaron diferencias signifi cativas (23 por ciento a favor de la pareja de crianza y 27 por ciento a favor de una pareja distinta); y de los 17 pollitos que conformaron los grupos de crianza individualizada, sólo el 12 por ciento del grupo de machos mostró diferencias signifi cativas en sus preferencias de pareja. Al comparar las diferentes condiciones de crianza mediante un ANOVA de una vía se obtuvieron diferencias estadísticamente signifi cativas entre ellas: F (7, 663) = 2,072, P < 0,05. Los resultados de este experimento permiten afi rmar que las condiciones de crianza actúan diferencialmente en las preferencias de pareja y parecen tener un mayor efecto en las hembras.

The purpose of this study was to compare in-service and preservice earth and space science teachers on their general mental abilities, their content knowledge or declarative knowledge of earth and space sciences, the Gagnean levels of their content knowledge or declarative knowledge, and the procedural knowledge used in solving earth and space science problems. This study used a contrast-group design to compare in-service (n = 30) and preservice (n = 30) earth and space science teachers. The in-service earth science teachers (a) bring more declarative knowledge to the problem-solving situation, (b) use fewer steps while problem solving, (c) generate more subroutines and alternate hypotheses, and (d) possess different structural knowledge than do preservice earth science teachers. Findings from this study support Norman's theory of learning that experts (in-service teachers) function at the tuning mode of learning, whereas novices (preservice teachers) function in an accreting or structuring mode. In-service earth science teachers exhibited smoothness, automaticity, and decreased mental effort not exhibited by preservice earth and space science teachers.

In the continuous expedition towards improving effectiveness in the workplace  to levels of pareto-optimality, Peter Senge in his famous book - The Fifth Discipline, outlines some of the basic practices and guides towards attaining such height. This paper marries Senge's research with the concepts of Employee Effectiveness to outline factors that can be become ingrained in any organization to help make it become a Learning Organization . As the whole is known to be greater than the sum of its parts, it all  begins with the stride towards individual effectiveness of the employees and then a successful attempt towards team building and synergy.

This paper describes a narrative-oriented approach to the design and analysis of a computational system and a set of activities for mathematical learning. Our central contention is that programming can offer a key to resolving the tension between the different representational structures of narrative and mathematical formalism. In the course of describing our approach, we make a distinction between the epistemiccognitive elements of narrative and the social, cultural and affective elements. We then elaborate the theoretical grounds of the individual epistemic facets of narrative. We propose a link between narrative theories of learning and constructionist traditions, specifically the notion of situated abstraction. This link suggests the possibility of further dialogue between the two academic communities.

This article describes a model for an interactive, introductory secondary-or tertiary-level statistics course that is designed to develop students' statistical reasoning. This model is called a 'Statistical Reasoning Learning Environment' and is built on the constructivist theory of learning.t est_363 72..77

This volume consists of the papers presented at the second international conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2005). After a very successful first conference in 2003 in Amsterdam, the second one attracted about the same number of submissions and workshop proposals. This suggests that the scholarly interest in the relationships between communities and technologies is lasting, and that the C&T conference has become a major international forum for presenting and discussing this work.

This paper provides a rich discussion on the history, definition, application, and evolution of learning object systems. A learning object is "any digital resource that can be reused to support learning" . Learning object systems are based on the notion that multiple educational institutions could share the use and cost of the creation and management of the learning objects. The theoretical result of sharing learning objects leads to a much lower cost per educational institution. Learning objects are based on the generative and constructive learning theories that assert that learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge, and instruction is a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge. Learning objects are also based on sound design principles of the object-oriented paradigm. These combined theories provide a framework for learning object systems as: accessible, reusable, interoperable, adaptable, granular, versionable, cohesive, and loosely coupled. This paper will expand on these topics and provide two cases of learning object systems implemented as eLearning strategies. Closing remarks and implications are provided.

What is the quality of students attracted to the marketing major relative to other business majors? Although some anecdotal evidence suggests that undergraduate marketing students are less quantitatively oriented, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the overall quality of marketing students relative to other business students. Using a variety of secondary data analyses from nationwide samples, the authors assess the quality of students choosing marketing as a major. The results paint a grim picture for the marketing discipline. Marketing majors are among the poorest performing students relative to other business majors both coming in to and leaving college. Results from a broad-based sample suggest that marketing educators need to start a dialogue on exactly what set of knowledge and skills core to the discipline are being offered students and their employers. The authors offer some solutions and point to areas for additional research.

TOATES, F. The interaction of cognitive and stimulus-response processes in the control of behaviour. NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV REV 22(1) 1998.-It is argued that both stimulus-response (S-R) and cognitive theories of learning and behaviour capture part of the truth, in that these terms involve two different types of process that are jointly responsible for the control of behaviour. The proposal that both processes coexist is investigated in the context of the production of behaviour. Evidence is presented to show that the weighting attached to S-R and cognitive processes can change as a function of (a) development; (b) experience; and (c) pathology. A model is proposed which is designed to sketch some ideas on how S-R and cognitive processes jointly determine behaviour, and it is related to the notion of behavioural hierarchy. It is argued that the model can help to develop a synthesis between psychology, ethology and neuroscience. ᭧

For more than 10 years, we have seen the emergence of new " probabilistic " models of learning. They clearly echo Jean Piaget's works and theories but they also claim to go further. However, references to Piaget are often quick and rarely take the time to explore the rich heritage of the Genevan's works. This article takes a closer look at their links through a systematic review of the literature. To do so, I selected, read, and compared articles and books about the probabilistic models of learning and the works of Jean Piaget dealing with similar questions. I will first present the theoretical evolutions offered by the probabilistic models of learning. Then, I will reexamine the words and works of Jean Piaget to show how he had in fact formulated and addressed similar questions at his time, from his point of view. I will finally discuss how we could question, today, Jean Piaget's works in regard to these new models, but also how these new models could be discussed with regard to Piagetian works.

Over the past eighty years or so, some education theorists have repudiated the notion that it is the teacher's role to act as an authority in the classroom, transmitting knowledge to students "who do not know." In English as a second or foreign language education, a notion of the teacher as "facilitator" is considered to be more compatible with students' felt needs and autonomy. This paper argues that there are epistemological flaws in prominent rejections of transmission theories of learning. Drawing on British philosopher Michael Oakeshott's distinction between technical and practical knowledge, it argues for a modified understanding of the English teacher both as an authority capable of transmitting these types of knowledge in language, and as a facilitator of cooperative language learning.

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Introduction Part 1. Theory and policy Stringher, C., Hautamaki, J./Kupiainen, S. Deakin Crick, R., Alberici, A., Di Rienzo, P., Demetriou, A., Ren, K. Part 2. Research and curriculum Hautamaki, J., Evans, C., Hautamaki, J./Kupiainen, S., Moreno, A., Stringher, C. Part 3. L2L in practice Rao, N., Kupiainen, S., Kloosterman, P., Stringher, C., Tornar, C., Sorensen, E. Conclusions

(2007) have spotted an important conceptual problem in scalar expectancy theory's account of the 2-standard-interval time-left experiment. C. R. Gallistel and J. Gibbon (2000) were aware of it but did not discuss it for historical and sociological reasons, owned up to in this article. A problem of broader significance for psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and the philosophy of mind concerns the closely related concepts of a trial and of temporal pairing, which are foundational in associative theories of learning and memory. Association formation is assumed to depend on the temporal pairing of the to-be-associated events. In modeling it, theorists have assumed continuous time to be decomposable into trials. But life is not composed of trials, and attempts to specify the conditions under which two events may be regarded as temporally paired have never succeeded. Thus, associative theories of learning and memory are built on conceptual sand. Undeterred, neuroscientists have defined the neurobiology-of-memory problem as the problem of determining the cellular and molecular mechanism of association formation, and connectionist modelers have made it a cornerstone of their efforts. More conceptual analysis is indeed needed.

In the evolving landscape of mobile learning, European researchers have conducted significant mobile learning projects, representing a distinct perspective on mobile learning research and development. Our paper aims to explore how these projects have arisen, showing the driving forces of European innovation in mobile learning. We propose context as a central construct in mobile learning and examine theories of learning for the mobile world, based on physical, technological, conceptual, social and temporal mobility. We also examine the impacts of mobile learning research on educational practices and the implications for policy. Throughout, we identify lessons learnt from European experiences to date.