It’s important to understand how people
learn. There are loads of theories about
learning and human development. Many of
them encompass beliefs from many cultures.
Psychoanalytical
Theories.
Perhaps
the Granddaddy of psychoanalytical theory was Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939). Freud believed the individual passes through
three stages: (1) the id (self-gratification), (2) the superego – (seeks to do
what is morally proper) and, (3) the ego – (the rational operator between the
id and the superego). Freud also talks
about the role of the subconscious.
Erikson
(1902 – 1994) decided that the personality is developed over time. Erikson has 9 stages of development. He believed that a person must pass through
each of these stages.
(1)
trust vs mistrust 0
– 1 years
(2)
autonomy vs shame and doubt 2 – 3
years
(3)
initiative vs guilt 4
– 5 years
(4)
industry vs inferiority 6
- puberty
(5)
identity vs identity confusion adolescence
(6)
intimacy vs isolation early
adulthood
(7)
generativity vs stagnation middle
adulthood
(8)
integrity vs despair late
adulthood
(9)
despair vs hope and faith old
age (80+ years)
One
criticism of Erikson’s theories is that he used only male patients in his
studies.
Behavioural
Theories.
The
observable behaviour of people. Pavlov
(1849 – 1936) is probably the one you’ve heard of – he with the dog. His ideas concerned classical conditioning
(ringing a bell when a dog gets fed, therefore the dog associates the sound of
the bell with salivating and will salivate whenever a bell is rung, even if
there is no food) and operant conditioning (where consequences/rewards
change behaviour).
Watson
(1878 – 1958) and Skinner (1904 – 1990) focus on the idea that people don’t go
through specific stages, rather, a continuous process of behaviour. They also talk about reinforcement and
how life is structured by reinforcing consequences of pay offs.
Humanistic
Theories.
The
belief that humans are different to other species because they actively
influence the course of their lives.
Maslow (1908 – 1970) and Rogers (1902 – 1987) came up with this hierarchy
of needs.[1]
Cognitive
Theories.
Piaget
(1896 – 1980) believed people change their behaviour to meet the demands of the
environment they’re in.
Other
types of learning theories:
Ecological
– Bronfenbrenner (1917 - 2005)
·
Microsystem
(the individual, family, school, peers)
·
Mesosystem
(the interaction of individual within the environment)
·
Exosystem
(extended family, friends of family, media)
·
Macrosystem
(cultural beliefs and ideologies)
Phew! That’s a lot. You don’t need to know all of
these theories off by heart. And
certainly, when you’re in the middle of a lesson, they’re not going to be
foremost in your mind. But, they are
useful to peruse from time to time, see where your thoughts lie, and they may
help explain student behaviour and also may help you to structure your lessons
and programmes.
Yes,
they are all theories from dead white men.
I’m fully aware of that. Every
culture has ways of explaining human development and learning. Loads of other educators have come up with
their own theories as well. If you’re
interested in learning more about this http://www.learning-theories.com/ is a good place to start.
Where
does your own opinion fall? Personally,
my own views are more in line with the Humanists, particularly Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs. I also like the
Tuakana/Teina (older/more experienced learners helping the younger/less
experienced) concept in Māori human development which stresses the importance
of family and people, and the concept of ako (reciprocal ideas of teaching and
learning).
How (and
why) should this apply to music education?
Answering the “why” is easy.
Because it tells us that students aren’t always ready for all the
information we can throw at them. That
they need experience at playing scales before we asked them to analyse the
harmonic structure of a piece. It tells
us that everyone learns at different speeds and that we need to approach
teaching differently for different learner.
“How” we
are to apply this is a bit trickier. It
means we have to be reflective teachers. We need to observe and think about our
students as individuals, with their own needs, rather than just applying a
“cookie cutter” approach to teaching. We
have to think about our own learning habits and how to adjust things for
learners. For example, I always found
sight-reading to be really easy. It
always made perfect sense to me. But,
when I started teaching, I discovered that not everyone does. I had to think about what specifically it was
about sight-reading that I found so easy, and break down those steps so that
others who found it trickier could learn.
By knowing about the different stages of human development and learning,
we can adapt our teaching accordingly.
Think
back to the great teachers you described before. Which educational theory do you think they
ascribed to?
No comments:
Post a Comment