Free Custom «Theories of Learning» Essay Paper

Learning theories are the abstract frameworks that describe the way in which information is usually absorbed, developed, and stored when a person is learning. Normally, different people have different learning habits and these theories revolve around these habits. There are several learning theories including the sensory stimulation theory, the reinforcement theory, the holistic learning theory, the cognitive theory, and the facilitation theory. Among all these, the sensory stimulation theory is the most common one. Sensory stimulation theory states that better learning by an individual is achievable when the senses are stimulated. Additionally, the reinforcement theory describes that a person’s reading behavior effects from an outcome of the previous learning. Notably, when a person gets a certificate or praise, they would want to learn more. However, the positive feedback from the previous action can also lead to low morale in learning.

This essay describes different learning theories.

Sensory Stimulation Theory

The sensory stimulation theory states that a person’s learning habit is highly influenced by the sensory parts. According to this theory, a person opts to learn more when his sensory are stimulated. Illeris (2009) affirms that the common sensory in human beings are touch, smell, feel and visual. Despite that all these senses play a role in learning, the visual sense is the most ideal. Notably, 75% of what adults know is learned via the visual sense. The human senses can be stimulated by color, volume, and the sentiments presented. When one sense is stimulated, person is stimulated to learn. Arguably, the stimulation of more than one sense stimulates learning more. The best example applicable here is in relation to primary school kids. When a pupil gets a book with lesser pages and colored pictures, his sense of sight is stimulated and would be eager to read the book.

Reinforcement Theory

The reinforcement theory is relatively different from the sensory stimulation theory. While sensory stimulation theory revolves around the body senses, the reinforcement theory mostly relies on consequences from the previous learning behavior of an individual. The reinforcement theory states that a person’s motivation to learn depends on the previous results from his learning. According to Lefrancois (2011), the learning habit of a person may either improve or depreciate depending on the person’s personality but not the consequences. The consequences can be either positive or negative and both of these can make one decide to learn more or less. For example, a student may have learnt a lot for a long period. Subsequently, he sits the examinations, passes, and earns some prizes. These prizes might lead to more urge to learn or may make the student to relax.

Cognitive Theory

Lastly, there is the cognitive theory. Cognitive theory is also different from both the sensory stimulation theory and reinforcement theory. Pritchard (2009) confirms that this theory states that a person’s learning habit can be affected by the need to learn and importance on them. The different needs by the people are the one that would make them want to learn more or not.

In conclusion, learning theories are abstract frameworks that describe the way information is usually absorbed, developed, and stored when a person is learning. There are different theories of learning. Firstly, there is the sensory stimulation theory, which states that a person’s learning habit is highly influenced by the sensory parts. According to this theory, a person opts to learn more when his sensory are stimulated. The common sensory in human beings are touch, smell, feel and visual. Secondly, there is the reinforcement theory. The reinforcement theory is relatively different from the sensory stimulation theory. While sensory stimulation theory revolves around the body senses, the reinforcement theory mostly relies on consequences from the previous learning behavior of an individual. The consequences of reinforcement theory can either motivate a person to read more or less.