Experience-Based Learning Theories
Bob Russell
Much current pedagogy associated with education reform, especially in science and mathematics education, is based on "constructivism." Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that we construct our own understanding of the world we live in by reflecting on our experiences. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is adapting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.
There are several principles common to the many varieties of constructivism: learning is seen as a search for meaning. Thus, isolated facts are of little interest to a learner unless they are connected to or understood within the learner's larger framework of knowledge. This suggests that interactive exhibits, curriculum, and other learning tools should be constructed, taking into account the prior knowledge and existing interests of the learner in relation to the information and experiences introduced.
This article provides an overview of several theories of learning that have contributed to the development of constuctivism, most notably Dewey's theory on the role of experience in learning; Piaget's theory of intellectual development; Vygotsky's developmental theory emphasizing the importance of history, culture, and the social context in learning; Bruner's theories concerning categorization and the search for meaning; information processing theories; and, most recently, Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. These theories all provide practical insights into learning, with direct applications in exhibit and program design.
John Dewey's Theory on Experience, Reflection, and Learning
John Dewey's (1959-1952) theory emphasizes the experiential aspects of learning. In his theory, learning results from our reflections on our experiences, as we strive to make sense of them, We can directly sense smells, tastes, and the like, and have visceral reactions (e.g., danger), but we also confront situations which leave us challenged, puzzled, or confused. Through our encounters with the world and our reflections upon these experiences, our current understandings of the world are transformed so that things make more sense. Our understandings become broader and more coordinated, helping us to gain greater meaning from our experiences.
Dewey believed that humans have a fluid intellect, which grows when challenged by problems or dilemmas. The role of education is neither to cater completely to a learner's inclinations nor to attempt to force upon a child a preordained curriculum which takes no account of the learner. He saw children's minds as flexible, expansive, and unformed. Educators should structure learning environments that engage children in inquiries which guide them toward broader knowledge and participation in the larger culture.
The rich learning environments suggested by Dewey should provide ample "time, talk, and tools." Said another way, Dewey believed that learning and inquiry can't be scheduled--ample and unstructured time is needed for learners to follow their own questions and investigations. Learners are challenged through questions, discussions, suggestions, and encouragement from parents, teachers, and peers. Tools, such as the microscopes and research techniques used by scientists, or the musical instruments and notation used by composers and musicians, can make the learner's inquiries and investigations in the world even more engaging and powerful.
Jean Piaget's Development Theory
Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is renowned for constructing a highly influential model of child development and learning. Piaget's theory is based on the idea that the developing child actively and adaptively builds cognitive structures--in other words, mental "maps," schemes, or networked concepts for understanding and responding to physical experiences within his or her environment. Through successive stages of intellectual development, children develop intellectual structures that enable them to have a greater understanding not only of the world, but also themselves.
Piaget considered intellectual activity to be a biological function. In his theory, Piaget describes the development and adaptation of mental operations or thought structures (e.g., counting, classification, etc.), which progress through rich interactions with the world. He outlined four factors underlying intellectual development: maturation (physical and neurological development); physical (direct apprehension of the physical world) and logico-mathematical (intellectual reflection and reconstruction) experiences; social transmission (schooling, learning from others), and equilibration (the process of the integration of these influences to achieve an adaptive balance with the environment).
Piaget's theory of conceptual change involves four stages of intellectual development:
Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years old) Through direct physical experiences with the world and rudimentary mental symbols, children learn how to navigate through the world and develop sensorimotor skills which lay the groundwork for the development of mental operations.
Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) Children develop language skills and rudimentary mental operations. They reason, based upon their concrete experiences with the world (e.g., judge quantity by length rather than by numerical quantity).
Concrete operations (ages 7-11) As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Some abstract reasoning and problem solving is also possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with objects.
Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15) Reasoning is freed from the concrete. Adolescents begin to construct whole systems of belief and can engage in more reflective reasoning, such as thinking about others' thoughts or engaging in self-reflection. In scientific problem solving, formal thinking enables adolescents to systematically manipulate variables and reason about unknowns such as algebraic variables.
While learners at different stages of development may reason incorrectly
about the physical world (e.g., judge that a row has more candies just
because it is longer), through the challenges presented by these dilemmas,
children revise their intellectual skills and strategies so their reasoning
is more accurate, comprehensive, and in a better "equilibrium"
with the world.
Vygotsky's Socio-Cultural Theory of Learning
Vygotsky (1896-1934) developed a sociocultural theory of cognitive development that is recognized as a practical theory of learning and teaching in educational and information technologies literature. He argued that knowledge acquisition is essentially and inescapably a socio-historical-cultural process. Children are socialized into learning and using the appropriate cognitive and communicative tools that have been passed down from generation to generation. This means that children learn cognitive (thinking) and linguistic skills from more capable caretakers, peers, and teachers who assist and regulate the child's cognitive and linguistic performance. Through such socialization, children learn the accumulated ways of thinking and doing that are relevant in their culture/s.
In a culturally diverse society, a person's language and ways of thinking and doing in one culture are mediated by those of another. For instance, for Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, social activity within their cultures ensures cognitive development in culturally appropriate ways. Asking questions, particularly "why' questions, is not condoned in their cultures as a teaching or learning strategy and is met with negative sanctions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners are also allowed to demonstrate their understanding and abilities when, how, and in what setting they chose; adults do not have the right to demand any of these. But questioning strategies and performance of knowledge and skill acquisition on demand from the teacher are endemic to Western teaching and learning. Thus, when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children attend school in Australia, their cultural ways of thinking and doing are simultaneously mediated by the different accumulated achievements of (middle class) Anglo-Australian schooling culture. This means that there is context-specificity of cognitive development.
Scaffolding--supports for learning, such as working cooperatively with peers, coaching or other learning tools--facilitates the transfer of what visitors already know to the task at hand. Scaffolding is derived from Vygotsky's idea of the "zone of proximal development," where a learner can extend his competency beyond his individual reach with the help of others. This means maintaining optimal levels of challenge. Too little challenge will prove boring while too much will foster frustration. Scaffolding closes the gap between task requirements and skill levels. Scaffolding needs to be reduced, reorganized, adjusted, or eliminated as learners develop a sound understanding of the particular task or concept being learned.
In summary, the cognitive and social development of the learner proceeds as an unfolding of potential through the reciprocal influences of the learner and the social environment. Through guided 'intervention, higher mental functions that are part of the social and cultural heritage of the learner will shift from the socially regulated to the self-regulated.
Bruner's Theory of Cognitive Learning
Jerome Bruner (1915 - ) had a great effect upon cognitive learning theory. Based upon the idea of categorization, Bruner's theory states "To perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decisions is to categorize." He maintained that people interpret the world in terms of its similarities and differences and suggested a coding system in which people have a hierarchical arrangement of related categories. Each successively higher level of categories becomes more specific.
Bruner maintains that people interpret the world in terms of similarities and differences which are detected among objects and events. Objects that are viewed as similar are placed in the same category. The major variable in his theory of learning is the coding system into which the learner organizes these categories. The act of categorizing is assumed to be involved in information processing and decision making.
Bruner's theory of cognitive learning theory emphasizes the formation of these coding systems. He believed that the systems facilitate transfer, enhance retention and increase problem solving and motivation. He advocated the discovery oriented learning methods in schools which he believed helped students discover the relationships between categories.
In recent years, Bruner has become increasingly interested in how culture affects children's learning in school. In particular, he has emphasized the role of narrative in helping students understand what unfamiliar concepts mean and how they fit into the larger whole of a culture.
Gardner's Theory of Multiple lntelligences
The theory of multiple intelligences, developed by psychologist Howard Gardner, suggests there are at least seven ways that people have of perceiving and understanding the world. Gardner labels each of these ways a distinct "intelligence"- in other words, a set of skills allowing individuals to find and resolve genuine problems they face.
Gardner defines an "intelligence" as a group of abilities that: is somewhat autonomous from other human capacities, has a core set of information-processing operations, has a distinct history in the stages of development we each pass through, and has plausible roots in evolutionary history.
While Gardner suggests his list of intelligences may not be exhaustive, he identifies the following seven:
Verbal-Linguistic: The ability to use words and language.
Logical-Mathematical: The capacity for inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning, as well as the use of numbers and the recognition of abstract patterns.
Visual-Spatial: The ability to visualize objects and spatial dimensions, and create internal images and pictures.
Body-Kinesthetic: The wisdom of the body and the ability to control physical motion.
Musical-Rhythmic: The ability to recognize tonal patterns and sounds, as well as a sensitivity to rhythms and beats.
Interpersonal: The capacity for person-to-person communications and relationships.
Intrapersonal: The spiritual, inner states of being, self-reflection, and awareness.
Traditional schooling heavily favors the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical
intelligences. Gardner suggests a more balanced curriculum that incorporates
the arts, self-awareness, communication, and physical education. He advocates
educational approaches that appeal to all the intelligences, including
role playing, musical performance, cooperative learning, reflection, visualization,
story telling, and so on.
References for Further Reading
John Dewey
Dewey, John. Experience and Education. Kappa Delta Pi, 1938. Currently available as a Simon & Schuster Touchstone Book, 1997. A short, readable book written late in Dewey's career. Probably the best place to start.
Dewey, John. Democracy and Education. Macmillan, 1916. Currently available as a Simon & Schuster Free Press book, 1966. Dewey's most comprehensive writing on education. Longer and a more difficult than E&E.
Archamboult, Reginald D., ed. John Dewey on Education: Selected Writings. Random House, 1964. Currently available from Univ. of Chicago Press, 1974. Just as the title says, a useful compilation of writings with an introduction summarizing his educational philosophy.
Two additional books recommended for further reading are:
Noddings, Nel. Philosophy of Education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995. An introduction to philosophies of education with a full chapter devoted to Dewey.
Duckworth, Eleanor, Jack Easley, David Hawkins, and Androula Henriques. Science Education: A Minds-On Approach for the Elementary Years. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1990. Describes and discusses experience-based learning in action.
Jean Piaget
Ginsburg, H. and S. Opper. Piaget's Theory of Intellectual Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1979. A very readable and concise introduction to Piaget's theory.
Gruber, H.E. & Voneche, J. J. The Essential Piaget. Harper Colophon Books, 1977. A great compilation of Piaget's work.
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky, L. Thought and Language. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1986. A very readable introduction to some of Vygotsky's key ideas.
Jerome Bruner
Bruner, J. The Relevance of Education. New York: WW Norton & Co., 1971.
Bruner, J. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Bruner, J. "On Learning Mathematics." The Mathematics Teacher 88 (1995) pp. 330-335.
Bruner, J. The Culture of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1996. A difficult, but interesting book on Bruner's views of the role of narrative and culture in education.
Bruner, J. "Research Currents: Life As Narrative." Language Arts 65 (1998) pp. 574-583.
Howard Gardner
Gardner, Howard. The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. Basic Books, 1991. Read about multiple intelligences in an interesting book about applications of this theory in education.
Robert L. Russell is Co-Editor of The Informal Learning Review.