Learning Theories

Learning theories examine how people and animals learn. It is composed of three styles including Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. Behaviorists focus on cause and effect relationships through behaviors as descriptive of ones internal processes. Conditioning, teaching of a particular behavior, is one popular method of behaviorists. Classical conditioning creates relationships through association, like when we associate the coca cola font with the product itself. Classical conditioning uses consequences to reform behaviors, incorporating positive and negative reinforcement to increase a particular type of behavior, positive and negative punishment to decrease that behavior, and extinction (the lack of any consequence). Cognitivism looks at the brain as a computer in the way of processing information by focusing on internal rather than external events. It recognizes three different memory stores to register, process, store, and retrieve information. Five strategies for retaining information include rehearsal (repetition), organization (chinking of information into groups), elaboration (clarifying and understanding information), imagery (recreation of facts in our mind), and schema (using mental structures to relate information to). Constructivism says experiences provide humans with knowledge, thus information is unique to each experience. Meaningful activity creates valuable knowledge, so genuine participation is necessary. Encouraged activities include problem-oriented lessons, visual formats and models, cooperative learning, exploration, authentic assessment, and project-based learning. Its criticisms are that this theory can't appeal to each individual's skill set, students may choose not to participate, skills may not transfer well into real life circumstances, and not all topics can be covered with this method. A key end point this lesson provided was highlighting the importance of audience, topic, and environment when choosing a teaching format.

I expect that, throughout my career as an artist, I will be consistently expected to learn new things in order to innovate them into my work. In the name of efficiency, there is definitely a teaching style I prefer to use and to be used on me. It is based mainly on the learning theory of constructivism. Since the verb "construction" is often required when creating art, (whether constructing an atmosphere, performance, or literal object), it is only obvious that a teacher should present a demo for their students and allow them to experience the act they are being taught so that they can do it on their own one day when that skill becomes necessary. Also, when watching and participating in demos, I like to draw out, step by step, the actions on takes in carrying out this demo to further commit the practice to memory; it's like living the experience for the second time and allowing it to be replicated, image by image at a later date. Because of its personal nature that allows a more participatory and organized setting, this will most likely be the approach I take when trying to learn new practices or when teaching them to others so that I may continue my lifetime of learning most efficiently.

In 1994, Chinese artist Xu Bing set up a series of installations resembling classrooms that were designed to teach gallery-goers the art of 'ancient Chinese calligraphy'. Given all the tools an outsider would traditionally associate with the act of calligraphy, they were encouraged to construct these elaborate characters under the belief that they were writing Chinese; but the language was of pure invention by the artist, and was a fusion between traditional English and Chinese letters. English letters were merely made more square to take on the image of the Chinese character, and the audience was still expected to begin to understand what the words meant when continually meditating on their writings. In this work, Bing wanted to transcend language barriers and offer the experience of the art of calligraphy as another way of enabling understanding between cultures. Once an audience member experiences the spirituality of their meditative state, they then realize the similarities between two seemingly different peoples.