Instructor: Dr. John Mueller

Teleconference -- vCLASS
Five sessions (Thursdays, 7:15-9:15 p.m.):

• January 16
• January 23
• February 27
• April 10
• April 17

WebCT: http://webct-a.ucalgary.ca/

Contact John Mueller:

Office: 330 Education Tower
Phone: (403) 220-5664
Fax: (403) 282-9244
Email: mueller@ucalgary.ca (preferred method)
Office hours: By appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The first part will be a historical survey of learning theories, then the second part will examine contemporary issues that follow from these or that may have emerged independently, converging on how these are applicable in instruction or why application may be problematic.

TEXTBOOK:

GREDLER, Margaret E. (2001, 4th edition)
Learning and instruction: Theory into practice.
Merrill/Prentice-Hall, ISBN: 0-13-012227-0

COURSE OUTLINE

This is prospective, and subject to tweaking as I learn more about your backgrounds and goals, but it is a plausible sequence.
I: Orientation ("What's up, doc?")
II: Foundations: Philosophy and Biology
III: Classical: Early Behaviorism, Thorndike and others
IV: Classical: James, Gestalt, Tolman
V: Cognitive Psychology
VI: Cognitive Development: Piaget and Vygotsky
VII: TBA, catch-up, review
VIII: Neuropsychology
IX: Social Learning Theory: Vygotsky and Bandura
X: Constructivism
XI: Multiple Intelligences, Cognitive Styles
XII: What next? Where from here?
XIII: What's left?

ORIENTATION

My experience with this topic covers a number of years, in the laboratory and at university rather than the K-12 classroom. Your mileage may vary, but I find single tool/theory solutions at best inadequate, and in my experience the single-solution bandwagon approach invariably misleads us, usually sooner than later. Therefore I favor a solid historical foundation (breadth) rather than a modernistic faddish approach. We want to determine which, if any, approaches work, and for what, and if an approach doesn't seem to work whether it is a short-coming of the theory or the applied setting. I expect ample room for vigorous discussions and varied opinions.

In this area it is useful to distinguish "learning theories" from "theories of instruction," where Learning Theories describe how we learn and Instructional Theories prescribe instructional implementations. Additionally one can distinguish from these a third emphasis, "theories of knowledge," which involve epistemological perspectives, and a fourth emphasis, "theories of education," which involve social policy issues about the role of education in society. Although these four are somewhat related, they are not interchangeable.

ASSIGNMENTS

1. There will be one major writing assignment, constituting 40% of the grade for the course. This assignment should be a paper in which you identify and explain your main assumptions, beliefs and theories regarding learning. It is expected that you will explicate your "philosophy" of education, demonstrating that you have understood and engaged with the course topics and ideas. Included in this philosophical exploration should be a thorough critique of at least one of the theories we have studied, a clear statement of your current positioning with respect to a philosophy of knowing, and a discussion of the implications of this understanding for teaching practice.

2. You will locate and review a WWW web site having to do with learning, and share this with everyone in the class (20%).

3. You will locate some popular-press treatment of learning, then do a comparison to what the research literature actually shows on the topic, again to be shared with the class (20%).

4. You will identify some notion from a learning theory that clearly has been implemented successfully in classroom instruction at some level, and document it in a short paper (4-5 pages) that can be posted and shared with the class (20%).

More details on these assignments will be developed for the first class.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

This course is a seminar course and as such participants are expected to engage in close readings of the assigned texts, broader reading of their own choosing to help enrich the conversation, and thoughtful and critical written and oral analyses of our discussions, students' own experiences, and the texts (written and otherwise) that we study. This is to be reflected in various ways, including attendance, participation in discussions, and participating in postings.

Other books: (There will be additional readings posted or circulated by e-mail)

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. San Francisco: Freeman. (Outline on-line, http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/effpage.html )

Bigge, M. L. & Shermis, S.S. (1999). (6th ed.). Learning Theories for Teachers. NY: Longman

Bransford, J. D. et al. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. ISBN 0-309-07036-8.

Driscoll, M. P. (2000) (2nd ed.). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Boston: Allyn & Bacon

Gagne, R. M. (1985). The conditions of learning and the theory of instruction. . New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Glover, J. A., Ronning, R. R., and Bruning, R. H. (1990). Cognitive psychology for teachers. New York: Macmillan

James, W. (circa 1899). Talks to teachers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Dover (2001), ISBN: 0486419649 ( on-line: http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/james.html )

Lefrancois, G. R. (2000). Theories of human learning. Brooks/Cole.

Lefrancois, G. R. (2000). Psychology for teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Pressley, M., & McCormick, C. B. (1995). Cognition, teaching, and assessment. New York: Harper-Collins.

Pressley, M. and McCormick, C. B. (1995). Advanced Educational Psychology for
Educators, Researchers, and Policymakers. New York: Harper Collins.

Web sites of interest:

1. Teaching into practice (TIP): http://tip.psychology.org/
2. Funderstanding: http://www.funderstanding.com/about_learning.cfm
3. Scientific Research in Education: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309082919/html/
4. APSY411: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~mueller/APSY411
5. PSYC305: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~mueller/P305