Cognitivism

Cognitivism dates back to the 1960s and describes the inner mental activities. It focuses on the human mind, which plays an important role in the human learning and understanding process. Cognitive science involves studies of psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and biology.

Cognitive refers to perceiving and knowing and is the collaboration of thinking, knowing, perceiving, remembering, understanding and problem solving. Whereas knowledge is defined as mental construction by the environment and learning as changing structures and schemata’s.

Another statement is, that people are not “programmed” for merely responding to external stimuli, they are rational beings that require active participation when acting and the thinking process as consequence. Cognitivism uses the mind functions like a computer processor: input - information comes in, being processed, output - certain outcomes.

Level of Cognitive Learning (Labrador, 2017)

Social Cognitivism

Albert Bandura started Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) in the 1960s. He agrees with the behaviorist learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Developed in the 1980s, SCT states that learning is in social context with an interaction of the person, environment, behavior and social influence of external and internal reinforcement. SCT considers and involves from a person’s past experience influences, expectations and specific behavior. The goal of SCT is how people regulate their behavior impacted by control and reinforcement.

Terms of Social Cognitivism.

Reciprocal Determinism: the dynamic and reciprocal interaction of person, environment and behavior.

Behavioral Capability: a person's ability to perform a behavior through essential knowledge and skills. People learn from of their behavior.

Observational Learning: people can witness and observe a behavior conducted by others, and then reproduce those actions.

Reinforcements: internal or external reactions to a person's behavior, which affects the continuing or discontinuing of the behavior.

Expectations: predictable consequences of a person's behavior, derived from earlier experience.

Self-efficacy: level of a person's confidence in his or her ability for a successful perform of a behavior.

Connectivism

Connectivism is a learning theory that explains how Internet technologies have created new opportunities to learn and share information across the World Wide Web and among the people themselves. There is an existing outside knowledge, where the learner has the possibility to make connections, which help them to create their own learning network. A massive open online course (MOOC) is a development of the connectivist theory.

“The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era” (Siemens, 2005) (ELT, 2011).

Some significant trends in learning (Siemens, 2004):

• Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime.
• Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning. Learning now occurs in a variety of ways – through communities of practice, personal networks, and through completion of work-related tasks.
• Learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime. Learning and work related activities are no longer separate. In many situations, they are the same.
• Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.
• The organization and the individual are both learning organisms. Increased attention to knowledge management highlights the need for a theory that attempts to explain the link between individual and organizational learning.
• Many of the processes previously handled by learning theories (especially in cognitive information processing) can now be off-loaded to or supported by, technology.
• Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed)

In 2005, Siemens identified 8 principles of Connectivism (ELT, 2011):

1. Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
2. Learning is a process of connecting.
3. Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
4. Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
5. Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed for continual learning
6. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
7. Accurate, up-to-date knowledge is the aim of all connectivist learning.
8. Decision-making is a learning process. What we know today may change tomorrow. The right decision today may be the wrong decision tomorrow.

Pro and Con Cognitivism

Pro

• It offers a lot of practical applications
• It is effective in treating anxiety.
• It bases its principles on actual experiments.

Con

• It does not allow for direct observation.
• It is not that effective for all types of individuals
• It overlooks other behavioral factors.

Pro and Con Connectivism

Pro

• Connectivism is the responsibility of the learners to create their own learning experience.
• Embraces individual perspectives and diversity of opinions, theoretically no hierarchy in the value of shared knowledge.
• Connectivism seems to integrate advances in neuroscience and learning.
• It takes into account the behaviors of learners in the "digital age" in an explicit way that is absent in other theories.
• A Connectivist learning network is decentralized, learners choose their own learning path,

Con

• Connectivism is a pedagogical approach rather than a learning theory
• How do you create a centralized learning outcome
• How do you assess learning or plan instruction?
• Connectivism is still in a developing process of defining, it can appear vague.
• Unclear content-specific requirements of the current standardized testing system.

Bibliography

Brandi. (2011). Retrieved from Cognitivism, Teaching and Learning Resources: http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/31012664/Cognitivism

Dean, B., Doyle, J., & Dockery, S. (n.d.). Retrieved from Learning Theories, Pros and Cons: http://activelearningtheories.weebly.com/pros--cons.html

ELT, O. U. (2011, March 30). Retrieved from Connectivism: A Theory of Learning for a Digital Age: https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/03/30/connectivism-a-theory-of-learning-for-a-digital-age/

Labrador, G. o. (2017, May 9). Retrieved from Education and Early Childhood Development: http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/evaluation/crts/cognitive_levels_learning.pdf

McLeod, S. (published 2011, updated 2016). Retrieved from Bandura - Social Learning Theory: https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Psychology, F. (2016). Retrieved from 6 Cognitive psychology strengths and weaknesses: https://flowpsychology.com/6-cognitive-psychology-strengths-and-weaknesses/

Siemens, G. (2004, December 12). Retrieved from Connectivism - A Learning Theory for the Digital Age: http://202.116.45.236/mediawiki/resources/2/2005_siemens_Connectivism_A_LearningTheoryForTheDigitalAge.pdf

Theories, L. (2015, June 1). Retrieved from Connectivism (Siemens, Downes): https://www.learning-theories.com/connectivism-siemens-downes.html

Wayne W. LaMorte, M. P. (2016, April 28). Retrieved from The Social Cognitive Theory, Boston University School of Public Health: http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories5.html

© 2017, Andreas Holzer - Learning Theories