Complete thesis - Murdoch University

inhibited by environments that engender fear of failure, while the potentialis enhanced by holistic thinking.3.2 Theories of learningThe process of knowing can be seen from the preceding section to be multi-faceted: modelmakingand problem diagnosis/solution are enhanced through mastery of appropriate strategies,both at a cognitive and metacognitive level. This toolkit is enriched through exploitationof creativity – and metacognition – enhancing elements within a social environment.In the wake of the cognitive revolution, learning theorists and researchers treated learningand knowing as if they were self-contained processes taking place in the confines of individualminds (eg Newell and Simon (1972)). Intelligence, giftedness, talent, ability, and cognitionwere also considered features (or possessions) of individual minds. This line of thinking,rooted in Cartesian dualism, is founded on the separation of the learner from the learningcontext, effectively isolating the body from its mind, the self from its world, the content fromits context, and ability from those situations in which one is competent.However, many contemporary thinkers from a variety of domains describe knowing not simplyas a psychological construct existing in the head but as an interaction of individuals andphysical and social situations (Brown et al, 1989; Greeno, 1998; Sternberg and Horvath,1998). These studies, in which people perform differently in different settings even whenperforming comparable or the same problems, challenge the validity of Cartesian dualism.The spectrum of learning theories consists of many approaches or ways of explaining howhumans learn. They act as a framework for both organising knowledge and conductingresearch in an attempt to explain how knowledge is acquired. If viewed as a continuum,the extremes are represented by the theories of behaviorism and constructivism, trying toaddress the same concepts, but bipolar, based on their views of knowledge acquisition andof intervention by tools of learning. The stance taken on the learning process influences thestrategies adopted in the learning environment.From an empiricist epistemology, behaviourists based their theories on experimental observationof behaviour, applying laws and principles to real-world situations. The focus of thistheory is on conditioned response to stimuli, which Skinner (1953) expanded to include theimportance of reinforcement. A powerful influence on learning, many models of learningare founded on behaviourist principles. Examples include direct instruction models and theprimacy of exams as a mechanism for measuring learning behaviour. As an effect of behaviorism,learning objectives theoretically involve some observable evidence that learning has126