Learning and Learning Difficulties

Approaches to teaching and assessment

Peter Westwood

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138157804
• eBook ISBN: 9781136774416
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book supports inclusive practice by examining learning difficulties within the context of how humans learn and how teaching can create or prevent problems. It includes:

• a detailed look at different perspectives on human learning
• practical teaching approaches grounded in sound theory
• information on moderate to sever difficulties in literacy and numeracy.

This is an essential reference for SENCOs, staff working as part of a support unit or in special schools, LEA advisers, teachers and TAs.

1 Perspectives on learning

When people are asked what schools are for, a common reply is: ‘To help children learn’. (Santrock, 2001, p. 238)

Many experts suggest that children are born with intrinsic motivation—a natural desire to make sense of the world and become competent (for example, Seligman, 1995; Smilkstein, 2003; West, 2002). The mastery orientation displayed by young children in the preschool years suggests that they enjoy informal learning for its own sake, and they gain satisfaction from completing tasks they have set themselves. Even when faced with difficulties, they will still persist rather than give up, and will constantly tackle new challenges (Hauser-Cram, 1998). Children exhibit such mastery orientation in almost every facet of their exploratory play in the preschool years.

Slavin (1994) indicates that almost all children, regardless of social class or other factors, enter school for the first time full of enthusiasm, motivation and self-confidence, expecting to succeed. But before the end of Year 1 some of them lose that confidence because they are not experiencing success. Lack of success reduces mastery orientation, weakens a child’s feelings of self-efficacy, lowers self-esteem and diminishes motivation (Neal and Kelly, 2002; Rosner, 1993). Linden (2002, p. 76) states, ‘Already in their first year in school some pupils will have had traumatic experiences of not being able to cope [and] the loss of a feeling of competence can create unhappiness, fear and disappointment.’

Why does this situation arise? Do the children suddenly become incapable of effective learning once they enter the school environment? Does the fault lie with the children, or is it related to the nature of the educational programme and the manner in which it is implemented?

To answer these questions, teachers need to know much more about human learning and the factors that can enhance or impede it. It is hoped that this book will help increase teachers’ understanding of learners, learning processes, and learning difficulties.

Teaching should be based on a knowledge of learning

Understanding how children learn is of fundamental importance for teaching and for effective curriculum planning. An understanding of theories and principles of learning can help teachers select the most appropriate methods of instruction to suit different types of subject matter, different types of learning, different educational outcomes, and different characteristics of learners (Gagne and Wager, 2002). A thorough knowledge of curriculum content, together with an appreciation of the steps and processes involved in learning that type of content, can help teachers implement sound educational programmes.

Knowledge of learning processes can also help teachers anticipate the difficulties some students may encounter in certain school subjects. Teachers can then consider how best to prevent or minimise learning problems and how to motivate their students to learn (Brophy, 2001; Penso, 2002; Sasson, 2001).

Teachers’ deep understanding of these issues is often referred to as pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987; Tan et al., 2003) and the most effective teachers in our schools are usually those equipped with a great deal of this professional know-how. The other essential element of pedagogical knowledge is an awareness of the learning characteristics of the students they teach, including those with special educational needs. Learners have many common characteristics at various ages and stages, but individual learners also differ in many educationally significant ways. Teachers need to understand both the commonalities and the differences in order to meet students’ needs.

Learning defined and described

It appears to be a simple task to define what we mean by the term ‘learning’ – after all, we have spent our entire lives learning new things. When asked to provide a definition of ‘learning’ teachers usually offer such responses as:

• Knowing something you didn’t know before.

• Gaining knowledge and skills.

• Acquiring information that you can use in new situations.

• Benefiting from instruction.

• Developing your intelligence.

• Acquiring a different perspective on the world.

There is, of course, a great deal of truth and value in all these suggested definitions. But how do psychologists define the phenomenon of learning? Some of the common (and a few less common) definitions of learning from the field of psychology include the following.

Key concepts embodied in some of these definitions will be discussed and applied in this and later chapters.

• Learning is the process whereby an organism changes its behaviour as a result of experience (Driscoll, 2000).

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in capacity for performance, acquired through experience (Good and Brophy, 1990).

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in mental associations due to experience (Ormrod, 2003).

• Learning is a potential change in behaviour resulting from experience in processing information (Walker, 1996).

• Learning is the way that human beings acquire new skills, knowledge, attitudes and values. The outcomes of learning are the new capabilities possessed by the learner (Gredler, 2001).

• Learning consists of the acquisition of increasingly automated schemata held in long-term memory (Sweller, 1999).

• Neuroscientists define learning as two neurons communicating with each other (Sprenger, 1999).

Types of learning

Many years ago the psychologist David Ausubel (1968) argued that it must not be assumed that all types of learning involve the learner in precisely the same set of mental, emotional or physical processes – in other words, different types of learning may well involve quite different psychological processes and require different methods of teaching. Any false assumption that all learning is in some way ‘the same’ can lead to the erroneous notion that one general method of teaching will serve all educational purposes and will suit all learners (Gregory and Chapman, 2002). It has become popular to say of teaching methods, ‘one size does not fit all’.

Ausubel (1968) suggested that if instructional programming for different curriculum areas is to be truly effective, teachers need to identify the different types of learning involved in each area, and then select teaching methods that are most likely to facilitate that type of learning. As Galton et al. (1999) have indicated, a theory of pedagogy requires that teachers identify the nature of what it is the child is expected to learn, and then decide on the most effective instructional principles for bringing about the required learning processes.

Categories of learning

There have been many and varied attempts to categorise examples of learning. The most obvious categories that appeal to common sense comprise:

• Knowledge

• Skills

• Attitudes and values.

These three broad categories or domains have provided the basic framework for planning a wide variety of learning objectives within school curricula, as reflected in the vast literature on educational programming and curriculum design (for example, Gunter et al., 2003). Most schools would readily acknowledge their responsibility to facilitate learning in the three domains.

There are other more detailed ways of analysing learning that subdivide the three broad domains into specific categories of learning. For example, Robert Gagne (1984 et al., 1992; Gagne and Wager, 2002) developed a taxonomy for categorising different forms of learning. His early model was complex and contained a variety of sub-types such as signal learning, stimulus-response learning, discrimination learning, chaining, verbal association, rule learning and concept learning. These categories served a useful purpose in contexts where psychologists were carrying out controlled experiments in human learning, but the categories were more difficult to apply in school contexts where most episodes of learning involve simultaneous and integrated use of several subtypes of learning within one task or lesson. However, Mastropieri and Scruggs (2002) still advocate a very similar taxonomy of learning for use when designing effective instruction for students with special needs. Their taxonomy comprises: discrimination learning, factual learning, rule learning, procedural learning, conceptual learning, and problem solving and thinking. Some of these categories will be discussed in more detail in this and other chapters.

In a later analysis, Gagne, Briggs and Wager (1992) moved toward a much broader system of classification using five main categories of learning – physical skills, information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, and attitudes. The writers also gave a brief indication of the type of instruction required for facilitating each type of learning and the conditions that must be established if optimal learning is to occur. Gagne used the term ‘capabilities’ to describe each of these categories; and it will be noted in the definitions of learning quoted above that other writers also favour the word ‘capabilities’. Gredler (2001, p. 405) defines a human capability as ‘the outcome of learning’. Robert Gagne’s (1992) categories of human capability are summarised below.

Learning physical (psychomotor) skills

Psychomotor skills are learned capabilities that involve the coordination of brain, muscles, hand and eye. Psychomotor skills include such diverse activities as cutting with a pair of scissors, getting dressed, swimming, walking, eating with a spoon, using a computer keyboard, writing, riding a bicycle, and driving a car. Children, without direct teaching, acquire very many physical skills through imitation and trial and error, but most of the physical skills associated with performance in school need to be directly taught and frequently practised. It is generally accepted that very large amounts of practice are needed in order that motor skills can eventually be performed with a high degree of automaticity (Howe, 1999).

In the early stages of teaching a new motor skill, modelling, imitation, and precise verbal instruction are extremely important. Sometimes direct physical guidance of the learner’s movements is required, when helping a young child or a child with a physical disability to form the numeral 7, for example; or an older child to experience the movement for a backhand stroke in tennis. It is also clear that corrective feedback is necessary to help learners improve their motor skill performance. Some of this feedback comes from the instructor, but an even more essential component of feedback must come from the learner’s own internal self-monitoring of performance, resulting in self-correction.

Acquiring information

This type of learning involves the acquisition of factual information (knowledge) that the learner is able to state and use. Examples include factual knowledge such as, ‘Bus number 91 will take me to Aberdeen’; ‘The shops in my street open at 8.00am’; ‘Paris is the capital of France’; ‘7 + 2 = 9’. This type of knowledge is known as ‘declarative knowledge’ to differentiate it from ‘procedural knowledge’ which involves knowing the steps in carrying out a procedure (see below).

A sound knowledge-base of information provides much of the raw material utilised in the performance of intellectual skills – for example, thinking and reasoning usually require the retrieval and application of some factual information (Hirsch, 2000). When used in combination with cognitive strategies and intellectual skills, information enables an individual to reason, reflect, solve problems, explain, and generate new ideas.

Information is of most value (and is most easily accessed) when it links with related information also stored in the learner’s memory. This issue will be discussed more fully later in the section describing the formation of schemata and the role of working memory. Isolated fragments of information are often easily forgotten or are difficult to access. Information is more readily remembered when it is linked directly to prior learning and when students are encouraged to process it actively.

Students acquire huge amounts of factual information incidentally in daily life, particularly in this era of communication technology. In school, teachers still need to set high priority on making sure students are building a deep and relevant knowledge base. A teacher’s task is to make key information available to students and to help them make appropriate connections with prior knowledge and experience. Sometimes, important curriculum information needs to be conveyed to students by direct teaching and through use of appropriate texts and computer programs. At other times, information is readily acquired through students’ independent study, group work, and discussion. The currently popular constructivist theory of learning suggests that the acquisition of information occurs best when learners actively engage in exploratory modes of learning. Constructivist theory will be discussed fully in Chapter 2.

Some instances of learning difficulty can be traced to lack of automaticity in the retrieval of essential declarative knowledge, or in the application of procedural knowledge. A learner who lacks automaticity has to expend inappropriately large amounts of concentrated effort in recalling information or remembering the simple lower-order steps in a cognitive process. He or she is therefore hampered in engaging in higher-order thinking. An example might be difficulty in comprehension when reading due to lack of automaticity in word recognition and phonics. The reader’s efforts have to be focused on basic decoding of the print on the page rather than reading for meaning. Similarly in mathematics, poor automaticity with recall of simple number facts, or a weakness in recalling steps in a multiplication algorithm, will distract the student from reflecting logically upon the features of a contextual problem. Gage and Berliner (1998, p. 262) suggest that, ‘A student’s failure to perform well, or a teacher’s failure to teach well, may be due to inadequate declarative knowledge, inadequate procedural knowledge, or both.’

Developing intellectual skills

Intellectual skills represent the cognitiv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• 1 Perspectives on learning
• 2 Theories of learning and motivation
• 3 Brain, memory and intelligence
• 4 Learning difficulties: prevalence and causes
• 5 Specific learning disabilities
• 6 Difficulties in reading
• 7 Difficulties in writing and spelling
• 8 Learning difficulties in mathematics
• 9 Intellectual disability
• References
• Index