Cluster 9 Social Cognitive and Constructivist Views of Learning Anita Woolfolk

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Cluster 9Social Cognitive and Constructivist
Views of LearningAnita Woolfolks Educational
Psychology

• Social Learning
• Social Cognitive Theories
• Constructivist and Situated Learning

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Parents, Peers and Teachers

• Key Terms
• Constructivism- emphasis that individuals learn
  best
• when they are constructing knowledge and
  understanding
• Social Learning- learning from observing the
  behavior of
• others and the outcomes of those behaviors
• Observational Learning- learning by observation
  and imitation
• of others
• Vicarious Reinforcement- reinforcement that
  occurs through
• the observation of another being reinforced for
  that behavior

• Steinbergs Study of 20,000 adolescents
• 40 are just going through the motions of
  learning
• Parenting styles have an influence on students
  values
• Teacher support is also important

3
Social Learning Theory/Social Cognitive
Theory Albert Bandura-----------?

• Bandura
• aggression is learned through behavior modeling
• originated social learning theory (SLT) that has
  now developed as Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)
• Originally SLT was based on behavioral principles
  of reinforcement and punishment, social
  behaviors. More recently, he added cognitive
  factors such as beliefs an self-perceptions,
  self-efficacy and expectations to his theory,
  referred to as SCT.
• individuals do not actually inherit violent
  tendencies, but rather model them
• argued that individuals, especially children,
  learn aggressive responses from observing others
  either personally or through the media and
  environment
• Bobo doll experiments

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Social Cognitive Theory and Learning

• Enactive Learning and Vicarious Learning
• Observation/Modeling
• Attention -Retention -Reproduction
• Motivation and reinforcement -Vicarious
  reinforcement
• See table 24.1, p. 308Factors that Affect
  Observational Learning
• Developmental level of learner -Status and
  prestige of the model
• Similarity of models -Vicarious
  consequences
• Outcome expectations -Value of the goal
• Self-efficacy
• Observational Learning and Teaching
• Directing attention -Fine-tune already-learned
  behaviors
• Strengthening/weakening inhibitions -Modeling
• Arousing emotions
• See Guidelines, p. 310-Using Observational
  Learning
• Reciprocal Determinism
• Internal and External forces are important
  components of social cognitive theory
• Reciprocal Influences
• Social Influences
• Achievement Outcomes

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Constructivism and Situated Learning

• How is knowledge constructed?
• realities and truths of the external world direct
  knowledge construction-Information processing
• Internal processes direct knowledge
  construction-Piaget
• both internal and external processes direct
  constructivism-Vygotsky
• See Table 25.1, p. 317 and Table 25.2-, p. 321-4
  Views of Learning
• Situated Knowledge
• notion that much of what is learned is specific
  to the situation
• adopting norms, behaviors, skills, beliefs,
  language and attitudes of a particular community
  (such as a work environment community)
• Common Elements of Constructivist
  Perspectives-Implications for Teachers
• complex learning environments and authentic tasks
• social negotiation to encourage development of
  higher mental processes through social
  interaction.
• multiple representations of contentmultiple
  analogies, examples, metaphors
• understanding the knowledge construction
  process-make students aware of the influences
  that shape their thinking
• student ownership of learning

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Applications of Constructivist and Situated
Learning Perspective

• Inquiry Learning-many forms
• teacher presents puzzling event, question or
  problem
• formulate hypothesis to explain the event or
  solve problem
• generate and collect data to test hypotheses
• draw conclusions
• reflect on original problem and thinking
  processes needed to solve it
• Problem-Based Learning
• real meaningful problem
• may not necessarily be a right answer
• use current events, social issues
• Anchored instruction
• Orient students to the problem
• Organize students for study/researchtasks
• assist independent and group investigationresearc
  h techniques and resources, experiments
• develop and present in form of artifacts,
  reports, videos, models
• analyze and evaluate problem-solving process

7

• Dialogue and Instructional Conversations
• provide necessary opportunities for student to
  operate within their zones of proximal
  development (mastery of a task can take place
  with appropriate guidance/help/support)
• reduction of dominance of teacher talk in the
  classroom
• See Table 26.2-Elements of the Instructional
  Conversation, p. 329
• Cognitive Apprenticeships
• students observe and expert model (teacher) of
  the performance
• students get external support through coaching or
  tutoring
• conceptual scaffolding is provided and gradually
  removed as the students become more competent
• students continually articulate their knowledge
• students reflect on their progress through
  comparison with the expert and with their own
  earlier efforts
• students are required to explore new ways to
  apply what they have learned, for example,
  reciprocal teaching (a modeling based method used
  to teach reading comprehension strategies)
• math example-What are you doing? Why are you
  doing it? How will success in your strategy help
  you find a solution to the problem?
• Examples of Critical Thinking Skills- see Table
  26.3, p. 333