Observation, Social learning and Constructivism I

 1 May 2019

“Education and intelligence occur in the context of learners’ beliefs about cognition, which differ as a function of personal, social, and cultural factors.

”The quote would like us to believe that a student’s belief about their abilities influences their learning. Each student’s beliefs are shaped by social, cultural and personal factors.

Research shows there seems to be a correlation between Social learning and information construction as cited in Schunk, ‘social learning affects knowledge construction’. Further, it proposes that learning and development can only be explained in context to the student’s cultures. According to Schunk, Bandura theory regarding self-regulation fits the social learning approach. This proposes that people seek control over important events through the regulation of their thoughts and actions whereby setting of goals and evaluation of the progress etc. play an important role.

Schunk would like us to believe that social learning develops with time, as mentioned, children acquire mastery goals through observation (social learning), and internalization  becomes more complete with development. Further, reinforcement from primary caregivers are internalised.

Kirschner, Paas, & Kirschner, (2009) in Schunk establish that the constructivist approach suggests the use of collaborative learning becomes less effective and or efficient when the students cognitive ability experience unnecessary/additional stressors. This is where the constructivist approach on peer collaboration fits in. Once the stressor is relieved (by the peer or mentor) the thinking that resides within the students mind can continue. Students need to develop skills in these type of educational settings to be more competent or show competence. Constructivists don’t credit these competencies to social interactions; rather that it is innate whereby teachers should structure learning in a way that students are more actively involved in their own learning.

Schunk, with reference to the information processing approach, would like us to consider that learning is predisposed by social interactions and communications. This would like us to believe that communication is an important element of sociocultural development.

Reference:

Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.