Exploring the Teaching and the Principles of Learning

Exploring the Teaching and the Principles of Learning
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Exploring the Teaching and the Principles of Learning
One could say that we are both teachers and students at all times. Learning theories describe the conditions and activities that help people learn. It helps teachers plan lessons that allow students to embed the knowledge they are exposed to. Theories of learning look at how academia and classroom practice fit together (Milheim, 2012). Teachers are responsible for their learning, as well as the learning of their students. Based on these theories, people learn new things and add to what they already know (Earl and Austin. 2022). Therefore, learning theories, which suggest the best ways to teach, are highly valuable. This essay will explain learning theories and approaches and explore how using a variety of them can help teachers improve their teaching practice.
The philosophy of learning looks at both the pros and cons of teaching style variations. There is no need to adopt the principles of only one teaching theory. Still, teachers can benefit from exploring various theories and choosing the most relevant aspects to incorporate into their lessons. For example, a teacher trying to develop communication among a group of learners might use different tactics than a teacher trying to motivate young children to participate in an independent study.
Maslow, an American psychologist, explained human motivation through a hierarchy of needs. He suggests that first, psychological needs must be met (shelter, food, home sleep), then the need for safety, followed by love and belonging. After this, a human can develop self-esteem and then self-actualization (Ripoll et al., 2021). Within a classroom setting, when relying on Maslow's theory, a teacher knows that a child must be fed, feel safe, and believe that they are loved and valued by the teacher to enable them to learn to their full potential.
Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, believes that children learn in stages. The two most relevant stages within a primary school setting are preoperational thinking (2-7years) and concrete operational thinking (7-11 years). It means that younger children learn by imitation and figurative drawing, while older children can classify and use logical reasoning in their development. Therefore, a teacher can model behavior for younger children, allowing them to develop logical thinking in more complex problem-solving scenarios.
Inclusionary practice is a teaching method that takes advantage of student variety to ensure that all students have access to educational materials and actively participate in their learning. It ensures that lessons and activities recognize the fact that no two pupils are alike (Bolourian et al., 2021). The strategy also recognizes the benefits of student diversity on the entire educational process. In actuality, inclusive approaches benefit children, their teachers, and their families on a variety of levels.
Maslow's Theory
It is best to assess lesson plans, courses, and educational programs using Abraham Maslow's pyramid-shaped hierarchy theory, which encompasses physiological needs, personal safety, social affiliation, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Like the rungs of a ladder, each requirement must be met before progressing to the next level. Teachers can assess how well they have incorporated Maslow's hierarchy into their teaching practice by questioning if the five needs are being met in their institution or classroom (Suleiman Abdulrahman, 2018). The sequence of the kids' requests may change over time; thus, it is vital to assess how well those requirements are being met constantly.
People are motivated by the success of their aims. Humans can satisfy their wants and needs by completing their objectives. Mentally, needs are prioritized in order of importance (Noltemeyer et al., 2020). Less urgent requirements must be addressed first, followed by more pressing requirements. A person's efforts will be focused on satisfying lower-priority requests before shifting to higher-priority needs.
To be satisfied, physical criteria should always come first. Food, rest, clothing, and a place to live are among the needs. People's basic needs must be met before they can focus on anything else; otherwise, their efforts would be entirely focused on meeting those desires. They are the most important incentive for people since they are the top priority. When someone is hungry, their hunger precedes all other desires or requirements. Food takes precedence over learning when a student is hungry, and they may act disruptively or violate the rules. If students had difficulty sleeping the night before, they may nod off in class rather than complete their homework. Understandably, the student would choose sleep above studying in this circumstance.
Discuss your safety. Students, whether young or old, must feel physically and emotionally safe before letting down their guard and studying. For example, focusing on a theoretical mathematical issue is difficult if you are worried about a bomb going off or being bullied on the playground during a break (Navy, 2020). To execute this step of the hierarchy, it is critical to create a safe learning environment.
Encourage social interactions. Students must feel that they are a part of a class and that their contributions are recognized to proceed to the next level. Because contact makes students feel more involved in primary or graduate-level courses, this hierarchy step can be achieved through games, group projects, and cooperative activities (Budiharso & Tarman, 2020). Promote self-esteem: Simply saying "Well done!" can help youngsters go up Maslow's hierarchy and give them the sensation that they are contributing and valued as individuals.
Aim for self-actualization, the illusory idea of "becoming all that you can be," since it marks the culmination of the educational process and the top of the hierarchical scale (Kovach, 2018). This stage focuses on students' capacity to put what they have learned into practice and their capacity to "give back" and get active in efforts to improve the greater community.
We can ensure that all children have access to water in their rooms in order to meet their physiological needs. This is also done to achieve the goal of inclusive diversity practice. We can ensure that nutritious snacks are available to meet our students' physiological needs. Granola bars and other foods rich in complex, slow-burning carbohydrates can help children maintain their energy levels throughout the morning or afternoon. We provide positive, explicative, and honest feedback to our students in order for them to be aware of their own talents and explain how they have used them to achieve in our classrooms.
Challenges and Limitations of Maslow's Theory
The main disadvantage of this hypothesis is that not all pupils think the same way. Therefore, for some students, social acceptance and respect trump the necessity for safety. As a result, many individuals lavishly celebrate their children's birthdays or nuptials or purchase costly automobiles to flaunt society before purchasing family insurance or a home for the family because they derive greater joy from flaunting (Navy, 2020). Furthermore, because the satisfaction one experiences after achieving each level of need are subjective and include the human mind, which no machine or technology can foresee, quantifying it is extremely difficult (Crandall et al., 2019). Consequently, although some people will be satisfied after their physiological and safety needs are addressed, others may not be satisfied if all levels of needs are met.
Piaget's Theory in Education
A teacher's role, according to Piaget, is to assist students in improving their thinking skills by providing them with appropriate learning opportunities and tools. Individual and student-centered learning, active learning, formative assessment, discovery learning, and peer interaction have all benefited from his approach (Babakr et al., 2019). The sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the formal operational stage and the concrete operational stage are Piaget's four phases of cognitive development. Children must overcome specific cognitive flaws and accomplish specific developmental goals at each stage to go to the next.
The first sensory-motor stage is spent by the kid focusing on his physical senses and acquiring body coordination. The stage lasts around two years. The newborn is in the present tense (E. Kaplan, 2018). Because it lacks a mental image of the world in its memory, it lacks a sense of item permanence. The preoperational stage is one of Piaget's intellectual development phases. It often occurs between the ages of 2 and 7. Because the youngster has not yet learned to apply operations, his or her thinking is impacted more by how things appear than by logical reasoning. A child is unable to preserve, indicating that the child is unaware that the quantity always remains constant regardless of appearance.
By the time the concrete operational stage (7-11 years) begins, the child may use operations to preserve amounts. He's also gotten better at inclusion activities and sees that other people see the world differently. Children continue to struggle with abstract thinking (Sanghvi, 2020). The formal operational period begins around the age of 11. Adolescents who go through this stage acquire higher-order thinking abilities, the capacity to integrate and categorize items in increasingly complicated ways, and the ability to think abstractly.
My classroom encourages peer discussions to improve the cognitive thinking ability of my students. Students in a class are diverse and have different cognitive abilities. The difference must be considered due to inclusive practice. Interaction with other academic objects and environments is also encouraged.
Vygotsky's Theory
Despite the fact that Vygotsky's cultural-historical approach demands that human thinking be understood as both an individual and a social phenomenon, he and Piaget both emphasized learning as a process of meaning-making (Smolucha & Smolucha, 2021). Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development emphasized the individual while also emphasizing the effects of social, cultural, and historical influences on thinking.
The theory of Vygotsky holds that tools and signals serve as mediators between human behavior and its sociocultural and historical contexts. All human acts, including thinking, are mediated by tangible things (tools and signals) that have been socially and culturally formed. A vocal explanation of a word's definition or a science experiment's steps, for instance, might help to mediate (intervene with, influence, or affect) a student's thinking. Pupils' social and cultural backgrounds affect how they reason, approach issues, and apply concepts.
Vygotsky emphasized the collaborative component of learning by stressing social knowledge generation. He disputed Piaget's assumption that learni...