[MUSIC] Based on the philosophical roots of knowledge acquisition, there are three major camps of learning theories that are relevant to instructional design. First is the behaviorism which emphasize the relationship between stimulus and response. Second is the cognitivism, also known as the cognitive information processing. In this camp, focus is on what happens in learner's mental structure. Third is the constructivism. Similar to the philosophical perspective, constructivism is very interested in providing interactive and rich environments for learners to develop their own meaning towards the reality. In terms of behaviorism, there are several principles we like to mention relevant to instructional design. First, learning is about strengthening the relationship between stimulus and response. Learning should be observable behaviors, therefore we can measure the performance improvement. Learning are guided by behavioral objectives. Operant conditioning, programmed instruction, mastery learning, they are all viable strategies based on behavioral principles of learning theories. However, learning is considered passive, and learning process needs to be directed all the time. Here is the first in-video question for you in this section. What area of the behavioral theory are most important to instructional design and why? In terms of cognitive principles, first, learning is knowledge acquisition. Although you cannot see them, the process happened within your mental structure. Second, the learning needs to be build on your prior or existing mental structure such as memories, such as schema. The kind of learning process are not observable, which is very different from the behavioral principles we touched on earlier. The focus is on individual learning or individual learner's learning processes. Interacting with others might not be the most important part according to this particular cognitive principle. Learning should be mentally active and creative process, and the design of the learning environments need to provide opportunities to allow learners to do so. Here is the second in-video question. What areas of cognitive theory are most important to instructional design and why? This is a visual representation of cognitive information processing. In particular, we can see how information flows through our mental structure. Beginning with multimedia presentation of the information, words, sounds, pictures. And our sensory memory will collect those information through our ears and eyes. Those information then enters our working memory, which can only hold those information for a short period of time. Then eventually, the information, if needed, will go into our long term memory structure, which is considered our prior knowledge for the future learning task. In this illustration, we compare behaviorism with cognitive information processing. We think the behaviorism we consider our mental structure as a black box. We don't really need to know how learners think based on behavioral principles. We are only interested in how learners respond upon receiving the stimuli we design. However, for the cognitive information processing, we are very interested in considering our mental structure as an active processor of information. So how memory is structured, how memory is integrated from working memory, short term memory to long term memory. So the comparison between the two, for one, will tell us how learning theories have evolved over time. The third camp of learning theory is the constructivist theory. In particular, we are going to touch on two perspectives relevant to instructional design. One is based on Jean Piaget's work, the other one is based on Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory. According to Piaget, development precedes learning, which means that social interactions of learners is important in order to support effective learning outcome. Individuals' readiness for learning is important. This goes into our emphasis on learners' prior experiences and the prerequisites of certain learning tasks. In particular, Piaget proposed developmental processes within cognitive stage of development, sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. What's important for instructional design is the implications of those stages and how we prepare the learning environments in order to accommodate those developmental stages. There are also three processes Piaget mentioned that's constantly happening in a constructivist learning environment. First is the assimilation. When learners encounter new information, new ideas, new events, they're trying to incorporate those new occurrence to their existing cognitive structure. Second is the accommodation process. When the new information, new events are different or deviate from their current mental structure, their current ideas, and their current thinking, their current understanding. Then the accommodation process will happen, trying to negotiate between new information and existing knowledge or prior knowledge. That's the second process. The third process is the equilibration, which is the combination of the assimilation and accommodation. It's the constant ongoing negotiation between the two in order to stabilize, in order to finalize learner's mental structure given the new information. Vygotsky took a different approach to understand the importance of developmental stages when it comes to learning. He proposed the interactional theory of development, which suggests that learning is optimal when preceding learner's developmental level. The zones of proximal development, ZPD, is the result of the thinking. A very important part of Vygotsky's work is the zones proximal development, ZPD. So what does that mean in terms of ZPD when we design instructions? Basically, what Vygotsky is telling us is that when we design new learning tasks, the difficulty level or the developmental level of that new learning task should be a little bit higher than the learner's current developmental level. So to provide some momentum for learners to be motivated to develop the new skill sets or the new knowledge base. So that's the basic idea of ZPD. Instead of designing learning tasks that are 100% matched with learner's current developmental stage, ZPD suggests that we should push the envelope a little bit. So the learners can be more motivated, more driven to acquire or to complete the new learning task. So the gap between the higher developmental stage and the learner's currently on the stage, Vygotsky suggests that we can use peers, we can use collaborations, we can use coaching to help learners fill that gap. And that has strong implication when it comes to instructional design. By allowing peers, by allowing other resources within the environment to help learners bridge the gap according to ZPD, we are therefore creating a constructivist learning environment. So here are some constructivism principles. First, constructivism assumes knowledge is constructed solely by the learner interacting with elements in the learning environment. As I mentioned earlier, those elements could be peer learners, those elements could be instructors, could be resources within the learning environment, even beyond the learning environment. Constructivism also assumes learning goals could include reasoning, critical thinking, understanding of the knowledge, self-regulation, and self-reflection. Those learning goals from the perspective of constructivism are relatively complex. The implication of that would be, for instance, you might need a lot more time for learners to attain those goals within a constructivist learning environment. For constructivist learning to be effective, it is essential to design learning environments that are complex, that are relevant to learner's experience. They are meaningful to learner's experience, and that cover multiple perspectives to enrich the learning experience, to facilitate the construction of reality by learners themselves. Now we have touched on major camps of learning theories, the next step will be translating learning theories into feasible instructional interventions. Here is the list of question we should ask as instructional designers in order to associate learning theories with our instructional design practices. First, how does learning occur? What conditions need to be met for learning to happen? Which factors might influence learning? Which factors might inhibit learning? What is the role of memory? This touched on the cognitive principles of learning theories. How does transfer occur? Transfer from near term to long term performance, transfer from this context to the different context, and what types of learning can be best explained by the theory? The next is what are the basic assumptions of theories that are relevant to instructional design? In other words, what are the limitations of those learning theories in terms of the practical aspect of instructional design? Finally, how should instruction be structured to facilitate learning? So this is a short list of the guiding questions we can ask ourselves in order to situate learning theories into instructional design context. In this illustration, we can see the relationships between learning theory and instructional theory, and among instructional methods, required conditions, and outcome. Let me begin from the left side of the bar. So let's say the outcome is learners being able to calculate averages. And the required conditions in order to attain that particular outcome is that learners will have to be motivated to do so. And learners will be able to recall certain components skills in order to calculate the averages mathematically. In order to reach the required conditions, we would devise certain instructional methods. The methods will be first, one, to stimulate learner's motivation using different strategies. We can also demonstrate basic rules to help learners start up the calculation process to have them recall certain skills. We can also provide examples or practices for learners to warm up to the intended learning outcome. If we look at the lines above the bar, it's very clear that instructional theories are different from learning theories. Learning theories will tell us the conditions to be met in order to attain certain learning outcome. But learning theories cannot tell us what methods, what strategies we can use in order to develop certain conditions, therefore attaining learning outcomes. On the other hand, instructional theories are able to help us identify methods so we can, again, the ultimate goal is to attain certain learning outcomes. So this is what the difference between instructional theories and learning theories. Both are very important to instructional design, but they do serve different purposes in order to develop effective instructional solutions. So here's the reality check on learning theories. In other words, what's the practical value of learning theories when it comes to infrastructure design? First, learning theories are changing all the time because we learn. The way we learn, the way we perceive learning, the way we measure learning, the way we understand learning also have been changing all the time. All theories have their limitations, so do learning theories. So we cannot expect learning theories to explain everything we see in realistic instructional settings. We have to acknowledge the limitations, therefore we can make better design choices. Learning theories will help instructional designers justify their design decisions. It's important especially when you are explaining why you choose certain design approaches over others to your clients, and learning theories will help you make the case. The best instructional design practice is based on a well-balanced blend of learning theories in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes. Learning itself is complex, which makes sense that we use a collection of learning theories to understand its input, its means, and its results. Learning theories are the most valuable when they reflect on how people learn today and in the future. In other words, we need to constantly revisit the validity of certain learning theories in order to meet the instructional needs we have today. In this section, we have covered the basic of learning theories relevant to instructional design. It is important for instructional designers to have a solid grasp of learning theories. And that will go a long way for instructional design practice in the future. So I want to encourage you to dive into learning theories if you have the opportunity. It is a constantly evolving field, and I believe understanding learning theories of today will be one of the most important asset for you to become successful instructional designers. [MUSIC]
