Folder: Personal
Personal Effects on Learning
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How Learners Learn
How Learners Learn
Arguably, the most important role of a teacher is to communicate effectively with learners, especially in guiding them to construct meaning from new and unfamiliar subject matter. But learners only construct meaning if they are able to recognize, classify, and characterize new information based on their personal understanding and experiences (Sainsbury, 1992). Ability, though, remains inert in the absence of the learners' motivations and perceptions of self-efficacy; that is, how learners judge their capabilities with regard to performing tasks (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1993; Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). There is substantial evidence that learners better understand subject matter that relates to their existing knowledge and experiential backgrounds (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Bruner, 1990; Reed, 1938). There is also evidence to suggest that learners are more motivated to activate existing schema if the context of the task is personally relevant (Cordova, 1993; Davis-Dorsey et al., 1991). Unfortunately, ability, knowledge, and motivation sometimes remain inert. If learners are to employ strategies and regulate their learning, they need to be motivated (Pintrich, Cross, Kozma, & McKeachie, 1986). Additionally, learners need to perceive themselves as potentially successful in the learning task or their use of knowledge and motivation may both remain inert (Bandura, 1986). Equally unfortunate is the fact that inert use of knowledge and motivation is often inaccurately perceived in school and society as lack of ability.
Learners' motivational tendencies may preclude performances appropriate for completion of a task, but their self-percepts of efficacy mediate both their motivations and performances and may also preclude both (Bandura, 1986; Brown & Inouye, 1978; Weisz & Cameron, 1985). Therefore, getting learners to relate to new information and to believe in themselves are important tasks for teachers. It usually requires a great deal of interpersonal communication between the teacher and the learner and is a human element that is often lost in computer-based instruction.
In contemporary times, many cognitive psychologists are urging instructional technologists to consider the learner as an active participant in the construction of meaning, particularly when designing computer-based instruction. Yet quite often the learner is viewed only as a passive receptor of communication. Active learners need to see themselves within the context of new ideas. That in itself is motivating and promotes understanding. From this perspective, the processes of constructing meaning are embedded in the combined social, personal, and emotional context of learning (Lebow, 1991; Zimmerman, 1990; Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989) and it is therefore unwise to disassociate new learning from an experiential context. It makes sense to situate new learning in a context that is relevant and familiar to the learner and, when possible, to demonstrate the learner being successful in the task itself.
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