Theories of Learning and Development and Its Impact on My Perception

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Theories of Learning and Development and its impact on my perception Learning can be defined as a change that takes place due to past experiences. While the Cognitive Theorists believe that learning is a change in mental associations due to past experiences, Behavioral Theorists contend that learning is a change in behavior due to past experiences. These schools of thought have impacted greatly on my perception of myself as a learner, the way I see other learners and how I view my role as a teacher. In my experience as a learner, observation is extremely important because I am a visual learner. I process information very quickly if a chalkboard is used in the classroom or if a concept is dramatized or some form of demonstration is used. At this point, I can identify myself with the views of social cognitive theorists like Albert Bandura where he believed that students learn by observation. My experience as a learner can also be linked to the cognitive theory. The main assumption of cognitivists is that there are cognitive processes that take place and influence the way things are learned. Explanations for how cognitive processes work are known as information processing theories or models. This model suggests that information is added from the environment into the mind of students. If the students are paying attention that information will register and then goes to the short term memory and later encoded to the long term memory where it can be retrieved at a later time. Based on this model, I now realize that demonstrations allow me to encode information to my long term memory as a result learning takes place. According to B.F Skinner learning and motivation to learn are caused by external forces. Through his studies he concluded that when a behavior is followed by a consequence it is more likely (or less if negative) to occur again. This theory has made me
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