Do teachers still use rote learning today, or is it an obsolete and no longer an effective learning method? Rote learning is a learning process based-on repetition. Examples of rote learning are memorizing basic concepts like numbers, the alphabet, or multiplication tables. High school students need to have learned the periodic table, and copywriting students learn successful copywriting techniques through repetition. Understanding or facts is not a requirement for rote learning. The students can learn and repeat verbatim material memorized […]
Category: Learning Theories
The way the brain processes information helps instructors understand how to use multimedia learning more effectively. Dual channels, limited capacity, and active processing are three assumptions Richard E. Mayer, professor of psychology at the University of California, based his cognitive theory of multimedia learning on. Mayer has authored over 500 publications, including 30 books. In the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, a chapter is dedicated to the fundamental hypothesis underlying the research on Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning. His […]
Can an effect be accurately linked to a cause or a list of causes? How predictable or unpredictable is the weather and weather forecasts? In the 1960s, MIT meteorology professor Edward Lorenz was convinced computers could accurately forecast the weather conditions. If they can predict the trajectory of planets in the solar system, why not the weather? He reasoned that computers could process a lot of data, and measurable factors determine the weather. What happened next was dubbed the Butterfly […]
You have heard the saying that your brain is like a computer. Many may agree, but some would disagree, stating that you cannot compare the two because a human brain can do things computers cannot, like experiencing emotions. Computers that break can be fixed by replacing the parts; a human’s brain is not that easy to fix. Despite the differences, when American psychologists developed the information processing theory in the 1950s, the analogy between the human brain and a computer […]
One of the most influential thinkers of the Middle Ages was English Franciscan friar and philosopher William of Ockham. Ockham was the village in the English county of Surrey, where he was born. By misspelling Ockham, his theory became known as Occam’s Razor. It is also called Ockham’s Razor, Law of Economy, and the Law of Parsimony. William of Ockham didn’t discover the theory, but no one used the principle so persistently. He used it so often that it was […]
Operant conditioning is something to be observed in most areas of a growing child’s life, as well as in the adult world. It has been widely applied in human behavior modification processes using reinforcement techniques. A student that receives a positive response from the teacher may become encouraged to repeat the behavior. The opposite is also true. Reprimanded before classmates may discourage a student from repeating their conduct. Both examples are operant conditioning, where positive reinforcement stimulates behavior repetition, and […]
What makes an action right or wrong? Do the consequences of your actions matter? Is it allowable to act morally wrong, yet achieving good consequences? Are there situations where it is okay to against what human nature deems right or wrong? Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, addressed these questions in his deontological ethics theory. Deontology is a style of ethics. Ethics is hard to describe because it differs from one person to another. It is the established standards of right […]
It’s common knowledge that kids often mimic adults and peers. Parents have been delighted but also embarrassed when their kiddo modeled their behavior in public. Social learning theorists have proposed various theories about the complexity of learning. Psychologist Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory expanded on the available learning theories. He believed the behaviorists didn’t have a complete theory, social learning required, and neither did the cognitive models. According to him, they didn’t take into consideration how social variables influenced behavior. […]
The name Abraham Maslow is one of the first names that come to mind when discussing what motivates human behavior. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was introduced over 70 years ago. He published the article “A Theory of Human Motivation” in the Psychological Review in 1943. Quick Explanation of the Theory Maslow was a humanist psychologist and believed that human beings have an intense desire to achieve happiness by achieving ultimate self-actualization. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory consists of five categories […]