Learning Theories Used in the Classroom

The Case Study of “The Solar System”

Introduction

The case study that I chose was the case of “The Solar System”. Out of all the three lesson plans, I found Mr. Johnson’s lesson plan to be the most interesting and elaborate. It also included innovative ways to touch on multiple learning styles using both text and visuals.

Learning Theories Used In The Classroom

Behaviorism

According to Moreno (2010) , the term “learning”, can be defined as a “relatively permanent change in our thoughts, feelings, or behavior that results from experience “ (p.150)

However, there are many theories psychologists have created that describe how people learn from infancy to adulthood. For example, Piaget believed that people learned in stages in which they ultimately would reach a certain milestones and then advance to the next stage based on their age. However, many people would argue that learning is different for everyone.

In the following case, I matched up Mr. Johnson’s lesson plans to different theories in which I found that were suitable to describing his teaching style. First and foremost, Mr. Johnson runs his classroom in what could be called a “token economy”. This is a concept that falls under the behaviorist theory of learning called “behaviorism” The term behaviorism was coined by John. B Watson who believed that psychology should be concerned with the study of the human behavior rather than mind. However, the behaviorist theory is said to be biased because it says that if two students observe something at the same time both students should be able to learn, know what is happening, and how to do it. The behaviorist theory only takes account of a student’s past conditioning, reinforce...

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...t Mr. Johnson has created a very positive and supportive classroom environment. I enjoy his methods of teaching and his incorporation of the learning theories such as using the central processing information theory and his methods of motivating his students in various ways including positive reinforcements. However, I believe that by incorporating the idea of pacing in terms of teaching and giving the students to have one on one and individual time will also improve his already positive and supportive classroom environment.

References

Moreno, R. (2010). Educational Psychology (1st ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons

Wigfield.A. & Eccles.J (2000). Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation.

Contemporary Education Psychology, 25, 68-81). Retrieved from: http://aguda.org.il/files/academic_bank/2/322/55859/2_2007_55859_1170980723.97.pdf