LEARNING THEORY & IMPLICATIONS
Objectives of this activity: to help you to understand some of the research and
theory about how learning takes place, so that you can apply this to your own teaching
Time required: 60-90 mins.
Significance of the tasks: a) this contributes to your RPD, particularly S5, and b) it
could provide helpful information for your professional studies written assessments.
Resources: these can be found on BlackBoard/ PGCE/ Lectures/
1. There are many theories about how children & adults learn, but we still don’t fully
understand the nature of the processes which enable learning to take place. Watch
Video Clip 1 on Child Development. What does it tell us about how children learn?
(Jot down notes as you watch)
2. Behaviourists argue that learning takes place as a result of conditioning, but this
does not explain how we learn to think. 2 key theorists on how children’s thinking
develops are Piaget & Vygotsky. Watch this summary of these ideas (Video clip 2-
based on slides 5-9 of the attached sheet) and then jot down your response to the
following question:
Do you think Piaget has the right emphasis or Vygotsky?
PIAGET: learning takes place independently and according to a biological sequence.
VYGOTSKY: learning is based on social interactions and children experience periods of growth,
not ‘stages’.
3. Montessori and Bruner are 2 more significant theorists. Watch the next video
about them (Video clip 3), and then another about various more recent research
on child and adult learning (Video clip 4).
4. For you to think about: Spend 5-10 mins jotting down your response to these 2
questions:
•What are the most important lessons from learning theory for
secondary teachers?
•What is the most significant message for you from the above?
5. Read more about the implications of the above for your classroom teaching:
