Archive for January, 2007
Constructivism
Summary: Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process. The learner is an information constructor. People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality. New information is linked to to prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective.
Originators and important contributors: Vygotsky, Piaget, Dewey, Vico, Rorty, Bruner
Keywords: Learning as experience, activity and dialogical process; Problem Based Learning (PBL); Anchored instruction; Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD); cognitive apprenticeship (scaffolding); inquiry and discovery learning.
View details of this theory >>
Behaviorism
Summary: Behaviorism is a worldview that operates on a principle of “stimulus-response.” All behavior caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning). All behavior can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.
Originators and important contributors: John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, E. L. Thorndike (connectionism), Bandura, Tolman (moving toward cognitivism)
Keywords: Classical conditioning (Pavlov), Operant conditioning (Skinner), Stimulus-response (S-R)
View details of this theory >>
Affordance Theory (Gibson)
Summary: Affordance theory states that the world is perceived not only in terms of object shapes and spatial relationships but also in terms of object possibilities for action (affordances) — perception drives action.
Originators: J. J. Gibson (1904-1979)
Keywords: Affordances, direct perception, ecological
View details of this theory >>
Design-Based Research Methods (DBR)
Summary: Design-Based Research is a lens or set of analytical techniques that balances the positivist and interpretivist paradigms and attempts to bridge theory and practice in education. A blend of empirical educational research with the theory-driven design of learning environments, DBR is an important methodology for understanding how, when, and why educational innovations work in practice; DBR methods aim to uncover the relationships between educational theory, designed artefact, and practice.
Originators: A. Brown (1992), A. Collins (1992), DBR Collective, and others
Keywords: design experiments, iterative, interventionist, theory-building, theory-driven
View details of this theory >>
GOMS Model (Card, Moran, and Newell)
Summary: The GOMS Model is a human information processing model that predicts what skilled users will do in seemingly unpredictable situations.
Originators and proponents: Card, Moran and Newell in 1983; Bonnie John et al.
Keywords: Goals, operators, methods, selection rules
View details of this theory >>
Discovery Learning (Bruner)
Summary: Discovery Learning is a method of inquiry-based instruction, discovery learning believes that it is best for learners to discover facts and relationships for themselves.
Originator: Jerome Bruner (1915-)
Keywords: Inquiry-based learning, constructivism
View details of this theory >>
Activity Theory
Summary: Activity Theory is a framework or descriptive tool for a system. People are socio-culturally embedded actors (not processors or system components). There exists a hierarchical analysis of motivated human action (levels of activity analysis).
Originator: Vygotsky, Leont’ev, Luria, and others starting in the 1920s.
Key terms: Activity, action, operation, object-orientedness, internalization/externalization, mediation, development.
View details of this theory >>
Situated Learning Theory (Lave)
Summary: Situated Learning Theory posits that learning is unintentional and situated within authentic activity, context, and culture.
Originator: Jean Lave
Key Terms: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP), Cognitive Apprenticeship
View details of this theory >>
ADDIE Model
Summary: The ADDIE model is a systematic instructional design model consisting of five phases: (1) Analysis, (2) Design, (3) Development, (4) Implementation, and (5) Evaluation. Various flavors and versions of the ADDIE model exist.
Originator: Unknown. Refined by Dick and Carey and others.
Key terms: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation
View details of this theory >>
Attribution Theory (Weiner)
Summary: Attribution Theory attempts to explain the world and to determine the cause of an event or behavior (e.g. why people do what they do).
Originator: Bernard Weiner (1935- )
Key terms: Attribution, locus of control, stability, controllability
View details of this theory >>
