The first commercial computer to come into use was in 1951 when the Univac computer was introduced into the American market by a company called Remington Rand. The buyer was the United States Census Bureau. These machines were big, expensive and required much technical help to operate. Since then as we have read in both sub-unit 1.1 and 1.2, much has happened and computers have become essential appliances for everyday life. Their value to education has been enormous. Education with the assistance of technology or educational technology has become a huge industry. Some would claim that computers may be the most convenient support to education our world has ever seen. Do you agree?

As computers become an integral part of the teaching and learning environment, it is useful for those who use these digital appliances to know the theoretical basis to support the belief that computers support and assist learning. In this section of the module we will consider the theories that underpin the promotion of computers as teaching and learning tools. Remember one of the questions that Dr. Poole raised in Chapter 13 of his book was whether the application of computers in the classroom was based on sound pedagogical theories. He went on to say that by and large it was based on learning theories that fall under three categories. These are behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism.

In Unit 2 you will be considering how learning theories have influenced the ways in which instruction is developed using technologies.

The theory on behaviourism owes its origins to behaviourists like Ivan Pavlov, John Watson and Skinner. It describes a developmental theory that measures observable behaviours produced by a learner's response to stimuli. Such responses to stimuli can be reinforced with positive or negative feedback to condition desired behaviours. Some of you may be familiar with the studies by ‘Pavlov and the salivating dog'. Punishment is sometimes used in eliminating or reducing incorrect actions, followed by clarifying desired actions. Educational effects of behaviourism are key in developing basic skills and foundations of understanding in all subject areas and in classroom management. According to behaviourism, knowing is giving the correct response when exposed to a particular stimulus. The behaviourist is not concerned with how or why knowledge is obtained, but rather if the correct response is given. There are some who would claim that "Learning is defined as nothing more than the acquisition of new behaviour", learning therefore is a passive process and learners need not take an active part in their education. In other words, learners use low level processing skills to understand material and the material is often isolated from real-world contexts or situations. Typical classroom instruction consistent with the behaviourist theory includes; classroom management, rote memorisation, and drill and practice.

In practical ways applying the behaviourist approach manifests itself in a number of ways. A good example of highlighting the behaviourist approach to teaching is rote memorisation (do you remember your maths classes in primary school memorising the ‘multiplication tables'?). Another example is in teaching the computer software Math Blaster using drill and practice. This approach is used in teaching basic skills using both positive and negative reinforcements.

Cognitivism

Theories around cognitivism owe their origins to a number of scholars. Leaders among them include Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky, Wikipedia describes the terms as, "thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving abilities of humans. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. Usage of the term varies in different disciplines; for example in psychology and cognitive science, it usually refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions. It is also used in a branch of social psychology called social cognition to explain attitudes, attribution and groups dynamics". (Extracted from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition)

Cognition, or cognitive processes, can be natural or artificial, conscious or unconscious. These processes are analysed from different perspectives within different contexts, notably in the fields of linguistics, anaesthesia, neurology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, systemics, computer science and creed. Within psychology or philosophy, the concept of cognition is closely related to abstract concepts such as mind and intelligence. Cognition is used to refer to the mental functions, mental processes (thoughts) and states of intelligent entities (humans, human organisations, highly autonomous machines and artificial intelligences). (Extracted from Answers.com at http://www.answers.com/topic/cognition#ixzz1QLXfr2ra) Both sociologists and psychologists study cognitive development in human beings and among them Jean Piaget the Swiss development psychologist's theory on cognitive development has influenced educationists especially in their study of how children (or for that matter adults) learn.

The cognitive learning theory places emphasis on understanding thought processes, and how the mind processes and stores information. According to this theory, humans learn by organising information, and finding the connection between existing and new information. Simply put, the cognitive learning theory focuses on how children and adults process information and how the way they think affects their behaviour. The cognitive theory began to gain traction when psychologists started thinking differently about behaviourism. Psychologists believed that behaviourism focused too much on single events and stimuli. Instead, they began to focus on the process of learning. Psychologists started to believe that human actions were in direct relation to their thoughts. This shift marked the change from looking at a person's environment to their cognition.

Vygotsky while being a cognitivist believed that learning is shaped by social influence and that our culture helps shape our cognition. In other words, social and cultural influences are key components to development. Vygotsky believed one's development is the result of one's culture. He also thought that learning happens before development can occur. According to Vygotsky, children learn specifically because of the history and symbolism represented in their cultures. He considered cognitive development a direct result from the input a child receives from others.

Piaget's cognitive development

Piaget's theory intends to explain the following phenomena:

1. What are the psychological states that children pass through at different points in their development?
2. What are the mechanisms by which they pass from one state to another? How do changes in children's thinking occur?

Piaget (1970) proposed that children progress through an invariant sequence of four stages: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. Those stages are not arbitrary, but are assumed to reflect qualitative differences in children's cognitive abilities. Being controlled by the logical structures in the different developmental stages, learners cannot be taught key cognitive tasks if they have not reached a particular stage of development.

Also, Piaget (1985) suggested that learning process is iterative, in which new information is shaped to fit with the learner's existing knowledge , and existing knowledge is itself modified to accommodate the new information. The major concepts in this cognitive process include:

1. Assimilation: it occurs when a child perceives new objects or events in terms of existing schemes or operations. Children and adults tend to apply any mental structure that is available to assimilate a new event, and they will actively seek to use a newly acquired structure. This is a process of fitting new information into existing cognitive structures.
2. Accommodation: it has occurred when existing schemes or operations must be modified to account for a new experience. This is a process of modifying existing cognitive structures based upon new information.
3. Equilibration: it is the master developmental process, encompassing both assimilation and accommodation. Anomalies of experience create a state of disequilibrium which can be only resolved when a more adaptive, more sophisticated mode of thought is adopted.

Piaget's conception of equilibration (1985) implied a dynamic construction process of human cognitive structure. There is no structure apart from construction because the being of structure "consists in their coming to be, that is, their being 'under construction'.

(Extracted from http://www.personal.psu.edu/wxh139/cognitive_1.htm)

Constructivism

Constructivism refers to, "the philosophical belief that people construct their own understanding of reality" (Oxford 1997). Piaget is often known as the original constructivist though the roots of the theory go way back to the early 1700s. The theory is based on observations on how people learn. The thesis is that people learn from observing how things are and happen, relate it to earlier experience and or knowledge and draw inferences about those new observations. This way, new knowledge is gained. In other words people construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world - sometimes arising out of this new knowledge, people can either add on to their previous knowledge or even discard it as irrelevant. This process requires us to ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.

Many teachers who work in a distance teaching environment construct their learning materials based on constructivist theories especially when they are working adult learners. The belief is that it enriches the learning experience in many different ways. In the classroom, the constructivist's view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' pre-existing conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners". This gives them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO LEARN.