While preparing for our team presentation which talked about “Learning Theories”, since then I start to think what kind of learning theory we should apply to the current education system. Among the 3 most popular learning theories in the field which are behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism, however, I am still thinking whether is there other NEW theory has started to develop base on the NEW learning environment nowadays. According to Dr. Mohamed Ally from Athabasca University, he stated that “The world has changed and become more networked….what is needed now is not a new theory for the digital age, but a model that integrates the different theories to guide the design of online learning materials”. I kind of agree with him so I think, learning theory nowadays should be a learning theory framework that suits the enlightened parents, enthusiastic teachers and autonomous learners of 21st century.
Transformation of education
To date, our education has transformed from formal education which is teacher centric to learner centric and since the existing of Web 2.0, scholars try to focus on constructivism and in 2005, Siemens started a new learning theory which is connectivism. The extension of that meaning now our learning has move from learner centric to connection centric which learners, mentors, content and conversation all connect together to form a learning network.
Learning Theories
Learning theories attempt to explain how learners learn. The field of education has seen many learning theories come and go over the years, but a few have survived and still influence the design of instruction today, namely: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. Recently, a new set of networked theories of learning have emerged to attempt to address social and technological realities that may influence and even change the ways that we learn. Current popular theories will be briefly described and compared and contrasted with the developing theory of Connectivism (Siemens, 2005). So in this section, I will briefly describe the four theories.
The most prominent learning theory will be the behaviorism theory by B. F. Skinner (1953) and to date its influence is still strong in the field of education especially in kindergarten education, elementary education or language teaching. This theory holds that learning is the result of an event which is stimulus, the reaction to that event, and the consequences for that response. Learners therefore build knowledge through everyday experiences in a trial and error approach to knowledge building and each successful cycle leads to the next.
Cognitivism is most often associated with Piaget (1952) was popularized as a response to Behaviorism. Cognitivists faulted Behaviorism for a difficultly in accounting for higher order thinking skills and a lack of focus on the mind in learning. Cognitivists are concerned with "how information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind on the learners”. For me, cognitivism are closely related to constructivism.
Constructivism is often associated with Vygotsky (1978). For me, both cognitivism and constructivism are overlapping to each other. First, we need to become cognitivist in order to become constructivist.
According to Duffy & Jonassen (1992), knowledge is a process of developing understanding of something in a very personal way through situated activity so we cannot assume that two people understand in the same way. Learners create meaning from their own experiences that are separate and different from the meanings developed by others, even those participating in the same experience. Understanding is based not just on current experiences but the aggregate of all experiences, thus each person brings with him/her a cache of experiences that are brought to bear in a particular situation and this how connectivism start to develop.
Siemens (2005) establishes Connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age, since previous theories were developed in a time when learning was not impacted by/through technology. Siemens stressed that knowing how to find information is becoming more important than knowing the information. He defines Connectivism as:
Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.
Connectivism places learning as social process and knowledge as an external entity just like constructivism. However, in a Connectivist framework, learning occurs not just through social interactions, but through interactions with and between networked nodes (people, places, devices, etc.). Hence, while a Constructivist would likely see the network solely as a social medium for interaction, a Connectivist additionally sees the network itself as an extension of the mind (Daniel A.Craig, 2008). Learning is a process of connecting networked nodes and information sources (Siemens, 2005, 2006) to inform individuals’ understanding and application of concepts and processes.
Connectivism is still a new theory for learning and there has been little substantial crictism of the theory. Some argued that connectivism is not a learning theory but rather a view of 21st century skill sets (Verhagen, 2006) and some argue there is no learning process, some argue that a wild transfer of connectivism to school would lead to think that by putting students on net is enough to produce knowledge which is not true (Antonio, 2008) and etc.
Conclusion
From the explanation of learning theories above, in my opinion, there is no one definite learning theory that we can 100% sure that it should be applied in 21st century learning environment but instead I will say that we need a new learning framework which includes all the above learning theories. ET scholars should not just focus on which theory is the best to use but instead we should try to apply the learning theory based on different context, learners and environment such as in elementary education, behaviorism and cognitivism should be applied whereas in high school and university all the learning theories can be applied based on different situation and context. Finally, with the exiting of Web-based learning 2.0, social learning is possible and it seems really easy to fill the “gap” of what you need to know by using knowledge of your network/connections and which also lead to lifelong learning. In this case, connectivism which starts to get attention these days might be a good starting point for ET scholars to investigate, discuss and to find out more on whether we should develop a new Theory that can be applied to 21st century or instead a new Framework that can be mix around using the current learning theories!
References
Antonio Calvani.(2008). Connectivism: new paradigm or fascinating pot-piurri? Journal of E-learning and Knowledge Society. 4(1), 247-252.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning theory fo the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.2 (1).
Siemens, G.(2006). Connectivism: Learning theory or pastime for the self-amused. Elearnspace. Retrieved May 20, 2011, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm
DanieA. Craig. (2008). Changing Theories of learning. Retrieved May 20, 2011, from http://www.slideshare.net/danielcraig/learning-theories-presentation-826427
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