Learning Theories and Models Comparison

Learning Theories and Models Comparison
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Introduction
Learning involves a process that incorporates both the environmental and personal experiences and influences that are aimed at helping an individual acquire, enrich and modify their skills, values, behaviors, attitudes, worldviews and above all knowledge. The major theories of learning that this paper will focus on includes; the cognitive psychology and the behaviorist theory.
Summary of Prominent Learning Theories and Models
Cognitive Theory;
The cognitive psychology bases its view on the human intellect and mental processes. The schools of thought behind this theory believe that an individual’s actions such as watching, working, reading, doing and more are stored and possessed of a person’s mental capacity with this knowledge used for future advancement (Bergsteiner, & Avery, 2014). This theory holds that a human beings mind operates just like a computer with the storage stored in the brain that keeps information.
When information is passed from an individual’s mind, it is then processed and synthesized with the outcomes considered as a learning process. Through this ideology, individuals are considered far off from the manner in which rats think since research has discovered that rats respond well to stimuli, unlike human beings who require actively participating and engaging the mind in what is referred to as a process of learning.
The cognitive theory holds that there are some particular elements including an individual’s social upbringing, environment, desires and needs of the individual, education, culture, and motivation towards learning that play a significant role in influencing the process of learning (Bergsteiner, & Avery, 2014). With this, it is essential to note that there are key factors that fuel the process of learning such as the mental processes as opposed to actions that is considered in the behavioral theory.
Through this approach, human beings are therefore capacitated to learn through absorption, digestion, change, and adaptation to the environmental factors in order to gain knowledge and improve on skills. It is, therefore, imperative to mention that one of the theories that have originated from the cognitive psychology is the Gestalt theory.
Gestalt Theory
This theory is considered a holistic learning method that believes in learning as a process where an individual grasps a structural whole and its parts that are ensnared since the whole is perceived greater than the sum of its components (Howie, & Bagnall, 2013). This approach to learning rejects the mechanistic methods that believe in instilling learning through a stimulus response. In a nutshell, the Gestalt theory of learning has the capacity to develop an individual’s perceptions to the whole of its totality.
Behaviorist Learning Theories
This behavioral theory was first introduced in the psychological field in the early 19th century with Edward Lee, Petrovich Pavlov, Burrhus Frederic, and John Broadus who have been acknowledged as the founders of this theory (Howie, & Bagnall, 2013). The psychologists who existed during this period alleged that there was a need for self-analysis of an individual’s mental process (introspection). This factor led Ivan Pavlov to undertake investigations geared towards discovering the processes that result in an individual’s response of behavior.
The people who believed in theory purported that learning is a process that has been limited to a more observable and measurable behavior. As a result of this, several schools of thought originated from these theories that include the operant and classical conditioning.
Pavlov's Dog Experiment
In trying to justify the essence of this theory, Ivan Pavlov undertook an experiment in which he used dogs that would hear the sound of a bell and salivate with the aim of having food. Ivan discovered that there was a deep connection behind stimulus and response, a factor that indicates the originality of the behaviorist learning theory (Howie, & Bagnall, 2013). This theory therefore believes that learning is an approach that incorporates the acquisition of new behaviors that are influenced by stimulus impacted by environmental conditions.
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