6 Education Theorists

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Famous Theorists In Education
6 Education Theorists In The Bible
Learning Theorists Education
Major Theorists In Education
Important Theorists In Education

Hi There! It's Hannah, from The Classroom Key.

If you're not asleep during staff meetings, you've probably heard the phrase 'research-based practices' thrown around a lot. Do you silently ask yourself, 'Sooo, which practices are research-based anyway?' I don't know about you but it's been a little while since I originally learned about the people that did some of the major research in education. Lucky for all of us, I have put together a cheat sheet.

The second group is known as the 'Infant Community' and is from around one year to age 2-3. The third group is the 'casa dei bambini' and is from 2.5-6 or 3-6, depending on the training of the teacher. The forth group is from 6-12, a larger age span because the children for this 6 years exhibit the same tendencies and learning habits. The 6 Education Theorists All Teachers Should Know present 6 people that did some of the major research in education. Conflict theorists examine the same functions of education as functionalists. Functionalists see education as a beneficial contribution to an ordered society; however, conflict theorists see the educational system as perpetuating the status quo by dulling the lower classes into being obedient workers.

Education Theorists

All of these guys did a lot more work than what is mentioned in this graphic. I just tried to pull out what was most relevant to teachers. The cool thing is, you probably recognize a lot of these practices as thing you're already doing.

Lev Vygotsky - How do you decide the level at which to instruct your students? Vygotsky says to determine their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This means the skills that are just a little bit beyond their reach. When you are working with a small reading group, don't pick books that kids can read perfectly. Pick ones that are just a little bit challenging, that students will need some support to read. Eventually a student's ZPD bumps up higher because they have mastered the skills you were supporting them with.

Scaffolding is not a term that Vygotsky actually used but it's a concept that developed based on his work. When you scaffold a student, you give them support to complete a task that they can't quite do on their own. For example, at first, students need to be walked through every step of long division. Gradually the scaffolding can be reduced. Maybe they just need a couple of reminders at tricky spots. Eventually the scaffolding can be removed because the student can complete the task on their own.

Jean Piaget - Piaget was a constructivist which means he believed that kids learn by manipulating, modifying, and otherwise working with concepts. They construct their own learning rather than just being told something. Piaget worked with the idea that the things people know are organized into schemas. When a child learns something new, they either assimilate it into an existing schema, change their schema, or develop a new schema. Do you activate background knowledge before a lesson? You're helping students tap into their existing schema!

B.F. Skinner - When I taught second grade and my class was on the wrong track, I would look for the one kid doing the right thing and say, 'Wow, I love how Jesse is standing with his hands to his side and his voice turned off.' As I positively reinforced this behavior with praise, other students would jump on board, too. This is the heart of behaviorism. It's the idea that praise and rewards positively reinforce a behavior and encourage kids to continue with it. Punishments discourage students from a behavior. Beyond following rules, there are learning actions we can reinforce. If you display quality student work, praise students for using strategies, let students publish on cool paper when they have their writing perfect, etc. you are using behaviorism to guide students toward the behaviors and actions of successful adults.

Jerome Bruner - If you have decent curriculum to use, you've probably seen Bruner's idea of spiral curriculum at work. Elementary students can't design roads and bridges but they can begin to learn about the physics of how the slope of a ramp effects the speed of a ball rolling down that ramp. Each year they can revsit and build on their previous learning.

Benjamin Bloom - You may have heard of Bloom's Taxonomy. It's a hierarchy of intellectual behaviors. The lowest level is remembering facts. The highest level is using your knowledge to create something new. With the new Common Core standards we've heard a lot about increasing rigor for our students. One way to do this is to make sure we're involving our students in higher order thinking activities at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy, not just in memorizing facts.

Famous Theorists In Education

Howard Gardner - Gardner found that people have more than one way of processing information and that a typical IQ score doesn't completely measure intelligence. He created the theory of Multiple Intelligences. In the classroom we can engage multiple intelligences by singing educational songs, allowing students to work through concepts verbally, through art, through writing, with partners, and through movement.

I bet a lot of these theories already guide your teaching and now you know the researchers to connect them to. Pin the image above for handy reference!

Albert Bandura’s “Social Learning Theory” and Its Impact on Teachers and Learning

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Think back to your childhood. Do you remember learning to ride a bike, how to play checkers, and do simple addition problems? I bet you learned these skills by watching someone else ride their bike, play a game of checkers, and solve addition problems. That is what Albert Bandura, a social cognitive psychologist, believed.

Bandura is known for his social learning theory. He is quite different from other learning theorists who look at learning as a direct result of conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment. Bandura asserts that most human behavior is learned through observation, imitation, and modeling.

6 Education Theorists In The Bible

Let’s look more closely at Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and the implications of this theory on teaching and student learning.

Learning Through Observation: Live, Verbal, and Symbolic

Bandura is famous for his studies of children observing adults who acted aggressively toward a doll. After the children viewed this behavior, they were given dolls to play with. Can you guess how they interacted with the dolls? You’re right. They imitated the aggressive actions that they observed earlier.

But Bandura took the meaning of “observation” even further. In addition to a “live” model, he explored a “verbal” instructional model, whereby if certain explanations and descriptions were presented, then learning was enhanced. I am sure you can think of an example of when someone patiently explained something to you in a way that helped you to learn it. That’s the perfect example of a verbal instructional model.

He also studied “symbolic” models, where characters (fiction/non-fiction) in movies, television programs, online media, and books could lead to learning. This means that students could learn from watching a movie or television program, listening to any number of online media sources (e.g., podcasts), or from reading a book. They envisioned how the characters reacted and how they felt, etc. This, in turn, taught them how to react and feel in similar life situations.

The Importance of Motivation and Mental State

Bandura claims that observation alone may not be sufficient enough to incur maximal learning; a person’s motivation and their mental state also influence learning. Bandura agreed with the behavioral theorists who noted that external reinforcement shapes learning, but he also acknowledged that learning is not always a result of external reinforcement. He claimed that learning is a result of intrinsic reinforcement as well. For example, a student might learn something because of their pride, for a sense of satisfaction, or to fulfill a feeling of accomplishment. This factor of learning intrinsically connects Bandura’s learning theory to those of other cognitive-developmental theories.

Learning Doesn’t Always Lead to a Behavioral Change

Behaviorists argue that learning leads to a permanent change in behavior. However, Bandura showed that observational learning can occur without the learner demonstrating any new behavior. In other words, you can observe, imitate, or model something but you might not learn it. He explored the question of what needs to happen for an observable behavior to be learned (in addition to observation) and cited four necessary steps: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

Observation + 4 Necessary Steps = Learning

Attention: First off, the learner needs to pay attention. If they are distracted, this will influence the amount or quality of learning that occurs. I don’t think anyone disagrees with this statement. We have all gotten distracted and know that it affects our learning and quality of work. Additionally, the more interesting or unique the model or situation is, the more fully the learner will attend to the learning. This explains why you might not be able to put down a good book or give up on any one of your passions no matter the obstacles you encounter.

Retention: How you can to store the information learned (i.e., retention) is important. Let’s face it. We have all learned so much content throughout our years of schooling, but how much do we retain? Maybe you can remember the more significant learning in a certain way through any number of memory techniques (e.g., mnemonic devices, writing it down, repetition, etc.). Or maybe you applied the learning to a real-life situation which aids in retention.

Reproduction: Reproduction relies on the first two steps: attention and retention. After completing these steps, you move toward performing the observable behavior. Then with further practice, you will undoubtedly improve and sharpen your skills. The adage “Practice Makes Perfect” applies here.

Motivation: The last step is motivation. To have the most success for any observational learning, you need to be motivated enough to imitate the behavior that was modeled. In this step, both reinforcement and punishment impact motivation. If a student sees someone being rewarded, they are more likely to continue the behavior. Likewise, if they see someone punished or ignored, they may extinguish the behavior.

What are the implications for Social Learning Theory on teachers and student learning?

See also: TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework

Certainly, this theory can be used to teach positive behaviors to students. Teachers can use positive role models to increase desired behaviors and thus change the culture of a school. Not only will individual students benefit from positive role models in and out of the classroom, but the entire class and student body will do so.

Other classroom strategies such as encouraging children and building self-efficacy are rooted in social learning theory. For example, if a teacher is positive with their students and they encourage them, this positive energy and verbal encouragement, in turn, helps build self-efficacy, the belief in one’s abilities to succeed in various situations. Bandura found that a person’s self-efficacy impacts how their tasks, goals, and challenges are approached. Those individuals with strong self-efficacy view challenges as tasks to master, develop deep interests in the activities they participate in, form a strong sense of commitment to activities and interests, and bounce back from disappointments and setbacks easily. However, those with a weaker sense of self-efficacy tend to avoid challenges, think difficult tasks and situations are beyond their abilities, think negatively about their failures and outcomes, and lose confidence easily in their abilities.

Furthermore, Bandura states that learning every single thing from personal experience is hard and could be potentially dangerous. He claims that much of a person’s life is rooted in social experiences, thus observing others is naturally advantageous to gaining knowledge and skills.

In conclusion, observation plays a very powerful role in learning. It not only helps teach students but helps them to successfully understand, retain, and apply their learning to their lives so they can learn and achieve even more. For this, we thank Albert Bandura for his Social Learning Theory contribution.

Learning Theorists Education

Major Theorists In Education

Important Theorists In Education

Cite this article as: Kurt, S. 'Social Learning Theory: Albert Bandura,' in Educational Technology, December 26, 2019. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/social-learning-theory-albert-bandura/