Learning Theories

My learning style is different to yours, by virtue of me being a unique individual.  I am designed to think and internalized things differently and so my style of learning is uniquely mine and teachers in class rooms should not only stick to conventional teaching methods but advocate for variety to reach all styles of learning.

Humans are wired differently and learn differently, in class set ups you get visual, auditory, tactile,

and read/write type of learners.  I am one of those learners who learn by reading and writing and also fall within the visual type of learner.  Today I will be reflecting on learning theories and how as teaching librarians should be cognisance of the varied learning styles of our learners, and hence should consider all learning theories before choosing ones that will best fit our learners and when designing Information Literacy curriculum.

The traditional learning theories we have been using prior the internet age have been behaviorism, cognitivism, social learning and constructivism.  I personally find cognitivism, social learning and constuctivsm to be best and still have a place in the classroom as they all encourage participation of learners, learners are seen as capable problem solvers, with abilities to peer learn from one another, they also acknowledge  that learners have previous experiences, knowledge's prior coming to class and can use previous and current new information to support and build arguments. It is therefore imperative for IL practitioners to use engaging teaching styles with more of open ended questions to entice dialogue, to use challenging scenario plannings that will allow learners to critically think outside of the obvious for answers, whilst encouraging new knowledge's to be created.  The above mentioned theories have been the traditional way of teaching and learning, the 21st century have brought forth another interesting theory by George Simmons & Steven Downs called connectivism.  Connectivism is a learning theory  that explains how internet technologies have created new opportunities for people to learn and share information on the world wide web and among themselves. (learning-theories.com)

We currently exploring and using the connectivism learning theory in classrooms we are now seeing more works being created by students, researchers all using different platforms to create and share with the rest of the world.  Platforms like social media, Mendeley, You tubes, are many of such and in the process new learning patterns are being created.

See the video below on connectivism to see where the world is and is going.