Learning Theories

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This learning theory was created in 1943, and he talks about a five-stage model that is about deficiency needs vs. growth needs. When explaining these levels, he talks about how people will always have needs and want them to be met, but a lot of the time they will deny them or hold them off until it is a good time for them to fill that need. Maslow says that when we push these needs to the side, we are only making the desire to fulfill this need even stronger. Like for example, when we have an itch and we try and forget about it and just move on, the desire to itch that spot grows more and more the longer we try and not scratch it. This is what Maslow is saying about life, that we all have desires even if we try and overlook them or forget about them but the longer we do this the desire to fulfill this need will only get stringer as time goes by.

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains

Bloom’s Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education. They identified three domains of educational activities which are cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. With these three groups each one is seen almost as levels that you have to understand and master before moving on to the next level. All three are very important for the human body, cognitive is for the comprehension and intellectual skills which helps you remember and understand things that you read and the things that are said to you while in a conversation. Within affective, this domain is important too because this is the part of the brain that deals with emotion and how we handle different situations that go on throughout or everyday lives. Without this we would either be emotionless, or we wouldn’t be able to control what emotion we give off with certain situations. The last and final level of the learning domains is the psychomotor domain which deals with our motor skills. This is important because without this we wouldn’t be able to interact with one another, we could not walk, or go from place to place with ease like we do now.

What is Backward Design?

This learning theory talks about how school curriculums are set up and how they could be changed to better educate children on the things they actually need to know rather than what the school board thinks the kids need to know. In this article it says that in school the teachers and the school board teach it backwards from the goal and what they need to teach and how they are going to end the school year. After the teachers figure this out they then go on to test the students and see if they are fully comprehending the information they are being taught in class and to see if they have enough validation that the student has a good enough grasp on the information they are going over in class that day or week. After that step is complete, then the teachers and the school will go over what activities the students will need to do in order for them to pass their tests or quizzes and achieve the desired results the school and the society is looking for. With this backward teaching theory, the teachers have a plan for the entire year, rather than having to come up with activities or lesson up on the fly on their own. They can have specific lessons and activities that the school board and the teachers have reviewed and are confident that the students will fully comprehend the information taught in class each week.