NEWER LEARNING THEORIES BENEFIT STUDENTS AND TEACHER
I have been excited at reviewing a novel theory (at least novel when I last examined} it. It was a nice holiday season with friends and family. Got to eat a lot, rest more tha I like to and at least pretend that I had no work coming up. Organizing my files, I came upon this list of learning theories that I had taught. One got my attention, "Information Processing".  Brought to mind those wild days when the government sent us to free schooling, those who were in science and math and related areas. I was a grade 5 and 6 teacher and wanted to go into counseling, or educational psychology. The Russians had just launched the Isputnik space sattelite nd it had Congress very worried during these cold war years. We had to take a hefty amount of learning theories-we were being trained to be elmentary school counselors.  Yet that wasn't as overwhelming as it seems. This was in 1966 and 1967 and there wereonly a  few theories. Now when I recently taught it, there seemed to be a learning theory for every bone in the body. The comparison was very interesting.  We had staunch advocates of cleint centered counseling and development, many liked his client centered approach and tried to mimick it. (I was loussy at it but I tried.). I was interested because he was from my home town and birthplace, Madison, Wisconsin. Later  he advocated group counseling which was a large part of our training.

Freud and his boys were still around, though not taken serioiusly. One of his early sidekicks, Adler, did show up in our  training since a local (Chicago, Illinois) follower came who built his  own unquie approach. He greatly contrasted with Rogers;client centered approach with the acual asking of questions and supplying of answers. He placed credibility on the birth order of children noting that he coul;d make judgements about their character by their  birth order. He came to  Champaign, Illinois   University of Illinois several times a year and gave quite a show.

Then there was a younger faculty member who advocated a very different theory which was taking quite a storm all over. It  emhasized that behavior needed to be seen to be considered and counted. Change came with reinforcing behaviors. We had experiemtns where we had to reinforce behaviors of children with cereal. At the end of the year, we got  very sick of cereal. It did teach us how to observe behaviors, however, and showed how we could change simple behaviors. I remember a reading approach where students in elementary school remembered words by prronouncing words A ZILLION TIMES.

Other theories came later such as Maslow and stage theory as I taught education classes.However, the most impressive theory I recently met was Information Processing with a few additiions. It uses a computer analogy for learning which has a big appeal for today's students and instructors.  (more coming)


New and exciting learning theories have

Someone You Should Know-Richard E. Mayer

At a time when many are joining the bandwagen of online learning, much of it of questionable quality, Richard Mayer applies science and learning theory to the evergrowing endeavor. The coauthor of the text, E-learning and the Science of Instruction, with Ruth Colvin Clark, offers a solid basis for "consumers and designers of multimedia learning." A professor  of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1975, he has applied his years of experience and research in educational and cognitive psychology, much in learning theory to his current focus upon multimedia learning and computer-supported learning. Author of more than 250 articles, he has authored Multimedia Learning (2001), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning(editor,2005), and Learning and Instruction (2nd ed.) (2008). With the fortuitous collaboration with practicing consultant, Ruth Colvin Clark, his experience is obvious in the delightfully practical, well-organized classroom text.

Garrison's Conclusion About Qualitative Nature Of Online Interaction

This is the summary of a revealing discovery about online teaching. read at least some of Garrison's articles found  by Google
Facilitating Cognitive Presence in Online Learning:Interaction Is Not Enough

D. Randy GarrisonThe Learning CommonsThe University of CalgaryMartha Cleveland-Innes Centre for Distance Education Athabasca University

Conclusion

The findings here suggest that simple interaction, absent of structure and
leadership, is not enough.We need to have a qualitatively richer view of interaction.
There is a strong need to study the qualitative nature of online interaction
in terms of teaching and learning approaches. The position here is
that the reflective and collaborative properties of asynchronous, text-based
online learning is well adapted to deep approaches to learning (i.e., cognitive
presence). Further study is very much needed to understand the nature
of online interaction that will support high levels of learning.

Manipulating Teacher Presence In Online Learning

Manipulating Teacher Presence in Online Learning: The Impact on Learning Effectiveness
Abstract
This study investigated online students’ perceptions of what constitutes teacher presence in online courses. Students were asked to identify teacher behaviors that indicate teacher involvement and engagement in an online course. Additional data will be presented further investigating the impact of differing levels of teacher presence on student outcome variables.
ObjectivesSession participants will be informed of current research on the communities of inquiry model, teacher presence and student variables related to learning effectiveness in online courses. Participants will engage in discussion regarding research findings in terms of their own experiences designing and teaching online courses.
DescriptionThe Community of Inquiry model (CoI, Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) outlines three elements essential to an educational experience: Cognitive, Social and Teaching Presence. Previous pilot data indicated a need to further investigate student’s perceptions on what constitutes teacher presence (Sheridan, & Curda, 2008). The CoI framework was the basis for an investigation of students’ perceptions of teacher presence and the impact that varying levels of teacher presence have on measures of social and cognitive presence, student satisfaction, perceived learning, and achievement in online courses. Teacher presence was manipulated in terms of instructor engagement in online discussions and individual feedback to students. The following research questions were the focus of this study:

• How do online students define and articulate teacher presence in online courses?

• How do measures of community differ when teacher presence is manipulated?

• How are measures of community related to initial course expectations, student satisfaction, perceived learning and achievement?

Participants were students in online undergraduate and graduate courses in early childhood education at a national college of education. Participants were asked to rank in order of importance, teacher behaviors that indicate instructor engagement and presence in an online course. All courses were 10 weeks in length and consisted of 5 weeks of high teacher presence and 5 weeks of moderate teacher presence. Half of the courses received 5 weeks of high teacher presence and then 5 weeks moderate; in the other half, the treatments were reversed. Measures of CoI were administered at the 5- and 10-week mark. Measures of student satisfaction, perceived learning, and achievement were collected at the end of the term. The results of this study can inform online instructors of practices that impact students’ perceptions of instructor presence and engagement, as well as student success.

Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective Adult Learning Programs

A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR LEARNING

1.An environment where students feel safe and supported, where individual needs and uniqueness are honored, where abilities and life achievements are acknowledged and respected.
2.An environment that fosters intellectual freedom and encourages experimentation and creativity.

3.An environment where faculty treats adult students as peers--accepted and respected as intelligent experienced adults whose opinions are listened to, honored, appreciated. Such faculty members often comment that they learn as much from their students as the students learn from them.

4.Self-directed learning, where students take responsibility for their own learning. They work with faculty to design individual learning programs which address what each person needs and wants to learn in order to function optimally in their profession.

5.Pacing, or intellectual challenge. Optimal pacing is challenging people just beyond their present level of ability. If challenged too far beyond, people give up. If challenged too little, they become bored and learn little. Pacing can be compared to playing tennis with a slightly better player; your game tends to improve. But if the other player is far better and it's impossible to return a ball, you give up, overwhelmed. If the other player is less experienced and can return none of your balls, you learn little. Those adults who reported experiencing high levels of intellectual stimulation--to the point of feeling discomfort--grew more.

6.Active involvement in learning, as opposed to passively listening to lectures. Where students and instructors interact and dialogue, where students try out new ideas in the workplace, where exercises and experiences are used to bolster facts and theory, adults grow more.
Regular feedback mechanisms for students to tell faculty what works best for them and what they want and need to learn--and faculty who hear and make changes based on student input

Tutorial, Evaluation of Online Learning Materials

MERLOT 2008 Business Peer Review Tutorial
We have developed a tutorial to help you learn to do the Peer Review for the Business Editorial Board. The tutorial is comprised of five parts. This makes it easier for you to download as well as easier to pace yourself. The Tutorial is in the form of a Flash file, so if you do not have Flash, you need to download it first. You can do so by clicking on the link below:

Below are the five parts of the Tutorial and the approximate times to complete each. The entire Tutorial should take you approximately one hour. And remember, because these are large flash files, it may take a while to download each. You can save these files to your computer and then open them.
Introduction to the Peer Review (5 minutes)
Exploring the Module (10 minutes)
Writing the Review (15 minutes)
Peer Review Standards (15 minutes)
Submitting Your Review to MERLOT Workspace (5 minutes)
Welcome to the MERLOT team!
If you have any questions, please contact the Editor, Cathy Swift Part 1