Week1-notes

ID and Learning Theory
If instructional design is about helping people learn efficiently and easily, then clearly it’s important for the instructional designer to know as much as possible about exactly how people learn. Easier said than done! The science of learning is still using training wheels; more theories than certainties exist. However, the 20th century saw a good deal of progress made in our understanding of … understanding.

The three main theories of learning are behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism as summarized below:
 * **Behaviorism** holds that through the careful application of reinforcement, desired behaviors can be fostered.
 * **Cognitivism** relies heavily on the idea that information can be transferred through the use of short-term (or “working”) and long-term memory. A learner’s job is to assimilate new information into short-term memory and then, through practice and connection to existing information, retain it in long-term memory.
 * **Constructivism**, the theory currently favored by most learning experts, holds that each person constructs a unique set of understandings, or schema, and that learning is the process of finding ways, individual by individual, of incorporating new information into the existing schema; therefore, each person learns in a unique way, so alternatives should be offered to accommodate as many learning styles as possible.

A good website for learning styles inventory is: Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire