THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

Presented by SOEUNG Sopha (Mr.)

Preview

• Concept of education theories • Behaviorism and its implication• Cognitivism and its implication• Humanism and its implication• Progressivism and its implication• Constructivism and its implication• Essentialism and its implication• Perennialism and its implication

Learning Objectives

• To help students clarify their definition of educational theories and explain how it relates to teaching and learning.

• To help students compare the educational theories.

• To help students apply the educational theories in teaching and everyday lives.

Warming Questions

• What is educational theory? • What kinds of educational theories do you

know?• What educational theories is often used for

teaching in Cambodian schools?

Concept of Education Theories• Education theory is the theory of the purpose,

application and interpretation of education and learning. There are three main ways for using ‘theory’ in education:– to mean the obverse of practice – theory is thinking

and reflecting (as opposed to doing);– to mean a generalizing of some kind; this can be

loose, informal and tentative; – to mean a developing body of explanation –theory

means broadening bodies of knowledge developing in particular fields.

Behaviorism and Its Application

• Behaviorism is theory that focus on the conditioning between stimulus (environment) and response (behavior).

• Learning is manifested by a change in beha-vior; the environment shapes behavior and reinforcements are central to explaining the learning process. The result of learning is the acquisition of new behavior through condition.

• Methods: environment or material-based methods

Behaviorism and Its Application

• Curriculum is determined by school staff rather than students and students learn organized bits of information& engage in programmed learning

• Teachers are experts in conditioning students and ones who understanding how to apply the techniques of behavioral engineering. Teachers organize the environments for students’ learning.

• Students act and think in a manner congruent with school’s objectives, organized materials.

Behaviorism in the Classroom

• Rewards and punishments• Context based learning• Lecture based, highly structured • Learning is the relatively permanent

change in behavior brought about as a result of practice.

• Student acquires knowledge by forming various associations among different aspects of the environment.

Cognitivism and Its Application • Cognitivism : is theories that believe that

acquiring knowledge were based on the use of reasoning, mental process, perception, memory

• Learning : is defined as change in a learner’s schemata and thinking. Learning is an active process of filtering, selecting, organizing, and integrating information in brain. Memory system is an active processor of information; prior knowledge plays an important role in learning.

• Methods: discovery learning, learn by doing.

Cognitivism and Its Application• Curriculum : focuses on spiral curriculum,

contents of subject and topics. • Teachers should develop the educational

environment to broaden and deepen students’ own model to build intelligence, cognitive and meta-cognitive development.

• Students were trained to develop deeper understanding; and to learn how to learn, social role acquisition, learn how to think in order to develop capacity, knowledge and skills deeply.

Cognitivism in the Classroom

• Be sensitive to individual differences• Motivate by stimulating curiosity : guessing and

feedback, suspense and controversy• Promote discovery-based learning• Inquiry-oriented projects• Learn by thinking, problem solving• Be active learner to construct new knowledge

by actively interacting with environment.

Humanism and Its Application • Humanism is theory that concentrate upon the

development of the student's self-concept. It focuses on human values, motivation and concerns, attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters.

• Learning is thinking and reasoning to meet the affective, cognitive needs, self-actualization in a cooperative and supportive environment.

• Methods : student-centered teaching, inquiry based questions, cooperative learning...

Humanism and Its Application

• Curriculum : focuses on what the students are concerned about, subjects that are directly relevant to the students' lives.

• Teachers : play role as facilitators of know- ledge, and help students to meet their needs, as well as being supportive than critical.

• Students : were trained to see their own personal potentials, goals, responsibility, willingness and improve intrinsic motivation

Humanism in the Classroom

• Teachers should not force students to learn. • Teachers play as planner, facilitator, leader

and monitor. • Teachers create climate of trust and respect

that allows students to decide what and how they learn.

• Teachers use the student-centered model, inquiry based questions and cooperative learning.

Progressivism & Its Application • Progressivism is education theories that stress

students’ self expression, an informal atmos- pheres, & individual attention, interest & need.

• Learning should be directly to the interest of students, through problem solving. Learning is from meaningful life experiences, social interaction, and scientific experimentation.

• Methods : Learn by doing, experiential learning, cooperative learning project based learning, solving problem based instruction.

Progressivism & Its Application

• Curriculum focuses on flexible, integrated study of academic subjects around activities that reflect personal integrity, needs and experience of students.

• Teachers are facilitators to student’s needs and interests and more concerned with these factors than with academic subject matter.

• Students are given freedom to make choices and to explore on their own and to become intelligent problem solvers.

Constructivism & Its Application

• Constructivism is a theory that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their own experiences in practical world.

• Learning involves constructing one’s own knowledge from one’s own experiences. It is a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts based upon the current and past knowledge or experience.

• Methods : active learning, discovery learning, experimental learning, self-direct learning…

Constructivism & Its application

• Curriculum : focuses on the foundation of individual thought, values and perception of students to meet new challenges.

• Teachers : act as facilitators who encourage students to discover principles for themselves and to construct knowledge by working to solve realistic problems.

• Students : were trained to create new concepts, knowledge, meaning and based upon their past and present knowledge, experience.

Social Learning Theory (SLT) • Social Learning Theory is the view of

psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment and cognition as the key factors in learning and development.

• SLT focuses on how we learn by observing the behavior of others through attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.

• SLT focuses on two factors of relatively permanent change : context and belief, and two modes : modeling and imitation.

SLT and Its Application

• Student : learn based on observing and modeling the behavior of others and through observation and collaboration.

• Teacher : facilitate an understanding of how students learn and environmental factors.

• Methods : Activity-based, modeling by the teacher or peers, problem-solving approach.

Essentialism and Its Application

• Essentialism is theories, in which believe that learners should learn the traditional basic subjects thoroughly and rigorously.

• Learning : is acquiring the "essentials" of academic knowledge, wisdom of civilization and knowledge of society through a back-to-basics approach, and core curriculum.

• Methods : teacher-centered method, text-book/ curriculum-centered methods.

Essentialism and Its Application

• Curriculum : focuses on prescribe core academic and subject maters such as history, math, science, literature, languages, arts… in order to acquire usable knowledge, cultural understanding, and intellectual powers.

• Teachers play role as leader & model of acade- mic and moral virtue, and center of classroom.

• Students are trained the prepared traditional subjects and through the initiatives of teachers.

Perennialism and Its Applicattion

• Perennialism : is theory that view the humanities as works that provide insights into the good, true, and beautiful. Insight in art, history, mathematics, literature, and science can be passed from one generation to the next

• Learning : is the acquisition of organized knowledge, the development of intellectual skills, and an enlarged understanding of values.

• Methods : great book reading, traditional teaching.

Perrenialism and Its Application

• Curriculum : focus on rationality, classic and great work of literature, philosophy, history & science for greatest aspiration & achievement.

• Teachers : play as authority, role model of educated people, & must be a reader & a writer and encourage students to involve both skills.

• Students : should be taught certain basic subjects that will acquaint him with the world permanencies and conserve society.

Class Discussion

• What is your own educational theory?• Can you compare behaviorism and

cognitivism?• Can you compare humanism and

essentialism?• How are those educational theories

applied to the education settings in Cambodia?

Thank you

“Knowledge cannot be used is a garbage”