Cognition, Learning and Technology (February 17, 2020)

The lesson on February 17th, 2020 started with a video of an experiment on a baby, Donald, and a baby chimpanzee, Gua. Donald is a professor’s baby, and the professor and his wife want to find out if a baby chimpanzee can learn to behave like a human being. The studies continue for about 9 months. Donald and Gua were brought up as brothers, but the experiment, which was not a success, showed the human beings are human beings and a chimpanzee is a chimpanzee. Gua was not able to learn like a human being. On the other hand, Donald began to behave like a chimpanzee. After watching and discussing about the video, we discussed the two crucial terms in education: learning and learning theory. Learning can be defined as a lifelong activity which occurs intentionally in formal instructional settings and incidentally through experience (Driscoll, 2005: 2). The results of learning are seen in performance or performance potential, which is difficult to observe directly. A learning theory is a set of laws or principles about learning which comes out of curiosity and questions to-be-answered (Driscoll, 2005: 2). People have the desire to understand the world around them and this often leads them to ask questions, find answers and solve problems. A learning theory tries to answer questions how people learn, what is needed to realize learning and what the learning process in mind is. In other words, a learning theory explains the results associated with learning and predict the conditions under which learning will occur again (Driscoll, 2005: 4). After discussing learning and learning theory terms, we had a look at the history of learning and the epistemology of learning. The concepts in epistemology of learning are as follows: Sources of Knowledge Empiricism: Sensory experience is the source of knowledge. Nativism: Knowledge is innate. Rationalism: The mind actively constructs the knowledge. Content of Knowledge Skepticism: Our knowledge may never correspond to reality. Realism: All things is the world can be known. Idealism: Knowledge consists of only ideas or representations about reality. Pragmatism: Reality exists but can’t be known directly. Knowledge isn’t absolute. Knowledge Traditions Pragmatism: Reality exists but can’t be known directly. Knowledge isn’t absolute. Reality can be known through observation and reasoning. Pragmatism is associated with Educational Semiotics, Bruner’s and Vygotsky’s views of learning. Experience and reasoning are the sources of knowledge. Objectivism: Reality is external to and separate from the knower. Reality can be generalized in the form of laws and formulas. It is objective. It gave way to Behaviourism, cognitive information processing and Gagne’s instructional theory. Experience is the source of knowledge. Interpretivism: Reality is constructed by the knower. Reality is multiple and holistic. Reasoning is the key point. Interpretivism is associated with developmental theory and constructivism. Reasoning is the source of knowledge. (Adapted and extended from Driscoll, 2005: 12-15) Apart from the epistemological concepts of learning, some experimental approaches to learning were shortly discussed: (1) Ebbinghaus: the Principle of Association, (2) Thorndike: the Law of Effect, (3) Pavlov: Classical Conditioning and (4) Gestalt Theory: Insightful Learning. Firstly, according to Ebbinghaus, if ideas are connected by the frequency of their associations, then learning should be predictable based on the number of times a given association is repeatedly experienced. In other words, the more frequently a given association is experienced, the more predictable the learning is. Secondly, Thorndike examined learning in terms of the associations related to action. His experiments on animals such as cats and chicken, showed that animal could learn to associate a sensation and an impulse if there is a satisfying consequence. Thirdly, Pavlov conducted his experiments on dogs, and these experiments resulted in his classical conditioning paradigm. According to classical conditioning, if the unconditioned stimulus (food) and neutral stimulus (bell-ring) are presented together repeatedly for a while, the neutral stimulus (bell-ring) turns into a conditoned stimulus. Finally, Gestalt psychologists believed that knowledge comes from more than just experience; it also involves the knower actively imposing organization on sensory data (Driscoll, 2005: 21). For insightful learning to occur, Gestalt theorists argued that all the parts to a problem need to be exposed to the learner (Driscoll, 2005: 22).