Albert Bandura is considered to be the mind behind social learning theory. His thought patterns behind social learning theory were very basic. Learning, as he understood it, occurs while in the social setting. He believed people learned through observing the behavior of others, and more importantly, the behavior outcomes.
Imitation and modeling were key ideas on how people learn while engaged in social activities. This can be seen with the when groups of people wear certain clothing to be with the “in-crowd”.
I have to say that in researching social learning theory I did not find many different instructional strategies that fit into this category. The research centered on collaborative learning. Collaborative learning focuses more on the students working together to construct meaning and produce a product.
I do believe students learn academically and socially from each other. But, to engage the students at higher levels of cognition, they must be afforded the opportunity to interact with strategic supports to extend their understanding. I agree with Kim (2001) following statement:
The nature of the learner’s social interaction with knowledgeable members of the society is important. Without the social interaction with more knowledgeable others, it is impossible to acquire social meaning of important symbol systems and learn how to use them. Young children develop their thinking abilities by interacting with others.” (p. 3)
We, as teachers, cannot assume a student is learning the skill designated while engaged in a social setting with his/her peers. Likewise, we cannot assume a student is learning the skill to the level of depth we hope to achieve. Instead, we must be crafters of the learning occurring within the social activity and provide targeted feedback and pinpointed questions.
Kim, B. (2001) Social constructivism. In M. Orey (Ed.) Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/
Hi Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteWow! I was concerned about how to truly establish whether a student is learning the targeted skill with the use of social learning as well. I just read in one of the articles that cooperative learning should not be used too often. By reading you blog, I am definitely making a mental note not to use this strategy too often. Thanks!
Dreanna
Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteI think you make a strong point that every experienced teacher is ready for when asking students to complete group work - individual assessment with a group component is vitally important. I do not think you should ever assume that a group is completely cooperating, it is only natural for some students to take the lead and others to be followers. Good teachers have structured the learning activity to ensure that all students are assessed accurately. The benefit to using technology for such activities today is that it is much easier to identify who did the work for the project.
Take VoiceThread for example. I do not see using the program for a complete project where everyone contributes to the same topic. But it looks like a great product to have students interact with each other and ask questions about what each individually has learned. This social learning activity is a big step towards incorporating the learning into their long term memory.
Michael
Hi Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is always rich with interesting postings.
This particular comment really resonated with me:
"We, as teachers, cannot assume a student is learning the skill designated while engaged in a social setting with his/her peers. Likewise, we cannot assume a student is learning the skill to the level of depth we hope to achieve. Instead, we must be crafters of the learning occurring within the social activity and provide targeted feedback and pinpointed questions."
I think that is so true--we as teachers cannot assume a particular strategy will result in learning gains--or that the learning gains will be quite what we expected. I've seen time and time again when I've set up an activity or project and students did learn something from it but not always what I intended for them to take away from the experience.
In any social learning context, I find it important to closely monitor the activities--even if we don't actively participate and take the role of facilitator. I've also found it can be interesting for students if we do join in--not in the "teacher" role but as a participant, sharing ideas and modeling how we respectfully acknowledge all the ideas generated by members of the group.
Thanks so much for posting.
Susan
Hi Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. You brought up many great points and some that I have never really thought of before. For example, your comment, "We, as teachers, cannot assume a student is learning the skill designated while engaged in a social setting with his/her peers”, really made me think. I completely agree with this point and believe that teachers cannot solely believe that the social learning theory will get their students prepared for the future. I also believe that targeted feedback and pinpointed questions are a must in cooperative learning.
Great post Jeremie!