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A Survey of an Adult Learner
William H. Jackson
November 3, 1996
The Adult Learner (TLT-561), Organizational
Learning & Instructional Technologies, College of Education, University
of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Compare and Contrast Learning Theories
The purpose of any model is to describe, or simulate to some degree, some
aspect of a reality so that we can understand and discuss that reality. A water
pump can be used to model certain aspects of the heart, a living organism can
be used to model a complex social system, or a computer may be used to model
cognitive processes. Depending on the symbols used to describe the analog, and
on the complexity of the model, a varying degree of accuracy and completeness
may be achieved by the model. By definition however, any model will be incomplete
and approximate because it can not represent the subject exactly in all its
subtleties and because all of the aspects of the subject can not be represented.
As William Ickes put it: "If a model exactly and completely describes a
reality in every respect, it would then become that reality." (W.
Ickes, personal communication, March 4, 1988).
A number of models may be employed to describe and predict human learning
behavior with varying levels of success depending on the learning situation.
They seem to fall into two groups depending on your perspective of perception.
If the perspective is with the learner the most appropriate model would likely
be one of the cognitive based theories. If on the other hand, the perspective
is with the instructor, the model would tend to be behaviorally based.
Consider the following scenario:
Jose Soplar is a returning adult basic education student. When he began,
he was told that he would have to perform on numerous standardized tests. Successful
performance on these tests indicate if facts and information have been remembered
and when Jose can move on to the next level. When Jose started taking the tests,
he would make pretty patterns on the answer sheet, look around the room at other
people and in general did poorly on the tests. Jose began trying other things.
He would talk to other students to see why they were doing so much better, write
notes to himself and create charts and graphs. He read the test subject several
times and made outlines of the major ideas. With practice, Jose got much better
at taking standardized tests and consistently made high scores.
This scenario represents a collection of events. To describe the events
in such a way that the scenario "makes sense," and so that we might
predict the outcomes of future similar events, we need to apply a theoretical
model. The choice of model will create a perspective by which we can frame our
description of reality and organize our understanding.
Behaviorism
The behaviorist perspective regards learning in terms of what can be objectively
observed and measured. Skinner said that behavior is the basic subject matter
of psychology, and Watson believed that psychology should concern itself only
with objectively observable data (Driscoll, 1994, p.28). Comparing behaviorism
to the cognitive theories, Watson viewed the study of consciousness and the
mental states as lacking reliable indicators to measure the phenomena.
Applying the behaviorist theories to the above scenario, Skinner would say
that Jose’s learning was an example of "functional relationships between
environmental cues and behavior" (Driscoll, 1994, p.29). Learning happens
only in terms of what is observed, outside the learner, in the form of stimulus
and response. There is the discriminative stimulus of tests being presented,
Jose’s operant behavior towards those tests, and the contingent stimulus
that is the result of Jose’s performance. Jose’s behavior is thus
shaped into what the instructor considers to be a more "correct" test
taking behavior through successive trials of S-R-S conditioning. Things like
interacting with other people or making pictures and graphs would be treated
as confounds or ignored as random behaviors and extraneous environmental stimuli,
but in any case, not relevant to the learning.
Cognitivism
The cognitivist assumes that learning occurs within the learner, at a cognitive
level, and may or may not involve behavior. According to Bruner, information
equals learning so outward appearances to that effect are merely communications
illuminating the result of learning rather than learning itself. Like the behaviorist,
the cognitivist seeks to explain how the environment modifies human behavior.
Unlike the behaviorist however, the cognitivist assumes that something else
is going on in what is called the information processing system (Driscoll, 1994,
p.68). The mind is the locale of the learning process and that is the major
area of interest.
Even though the scenario above describes Jose’s situation from an outside
observer’s perspective, the cognitive model would focus on the processing
that goes on inside Jose’s head and the inferences that can be made from
observations. To the cognitivist, the pictures and graphs that Jose made would
be clues to the kind of schemes he used to process information. Re-reading material
becomes rehearsal, and outlines give indications to the encoding necessary for
cognitive learning to take place.
Social Learning
As in the behaviorism perspective, reinforcement and shaping of responses
are important factors in social learning, and like cognitivism, the learner
actively adds something to the process. To the social learning theorist, this
"something" is hypothesized to be the existence of a "mediating
response" (Glover & Bruning, 1990, p.303). Gagne’s nine events
of instruction illustrate the mix of behavior and cognition found in social
learning. Gaining attention, providing stimulus and feedback, and assessing
performance provide examples of the behavioral side of social learning theory,
but over-viewing, prior learning, retention and transfer show indications to
social learning’s cognitive ties. In addition, social learning includes
observation and imitation (guidance in Gagne’s list) in the learning process.
Bandura suggested that observing reinforcement or punishment establishes the
relative value of consequences making direct reinforcement or punishment unnecessary
for learning to occur.
The social learning theorist would recognize the presence of behavioral
shaping in Jose’s situation and also the cognitive perspective of a mediating
response in Jose’s information processing. In addition, social learning
would recognize the modeling value of Jose’s interaction with other successful
students. Bandura might even interview Jose to find out at what point he realized
that he could do well on tests.
Humanism
Even though humanism is more an approach than a theory, the positions and
implications of this perspective are pervasive and have definite impact on learning.
As far as respecting the individual and empowering the learner, it is a long
way from the behaviorist’s "learner as laboratory-subject" approach.
The work of Knowles, Rogers and Maslow recognize and respect the learner as
a self-directed, self-actualized and active participant who learns through a
series of interpersonal relationships and will not learn if she does not want
to.
The humanist would look at Jose—the person—and discuss his interpersonal
relations with the other students, his self-directed approach of study techniques
and his motivation toward actualizing his goals.
Constructivism
Constructivism takes the idea of interconnectedness between learner and
environment to its logical limits. Here the idea is that the environment influences
internal processes but at the same time, those same internal processes influence
the environment. (I think of it as the Schrödinger’s Cat approach to learning.)
As a result, we create knowledge in our own heads and that created knowledge
may be interpreted differently by each of us. Although Piaget called his view
genetic epistemology, he also called his view Constructivism, because he firmly
believed that knowledge acquisition is a process of continuous self-construction
(Driscoll 1994, p.171).
The constructivist view of Jose’s situation would focus on the creation
of new realities as he interacted with the people and things in his environment.
References
Driscoll, M. P., (1994). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Needham
Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Glover, J. A., & Bruning, R. H., (1990). Educational Psychology: Principles
and Applications (3rd ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman & Co.
Zemke, R., & Zemke, S., (1995). Adult Learning: What Do We Know For Sure?.
Training, June, 31-40.