Each chapter includes practical examples showing how theories can be used to inform classroom teaching, and critiques of each theorist exploring opposing viewpoints and the strengths and weaknesses of different ideas. Assisting students in becoming self-directed learners and enhancing their motivation by offering a sense of control and choice in their learning Karl Aubrey is a Senior Lecturer on the Applied Studies in Education programmes, as well as a tutor with post graduate students, at Bishop Grosseteste University. Prior to this Karl was the Programme Leader for a range of initial teacher education and professional development programmes at a large city Further Education college. Between 2003 and 2005 he was seconded to the DfES Standards Unit as a learning and teaching practitioner in the East Midlands. Karl has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of Education and has collaborated with colleagues to publish a number of journal articles. His doctoral thesis explored the reforms in Further Education teacher education from 2000 to 2010, from the viewpoint of teacher educators. Karl's research interests include inclusion, education policy, pedagogy and work-based learning. Think of some of your own learning experiences, whether they were in a traditional classroom, through professional development training, or related to personal interests, such as dance or photography lessons. Try to identify a few examples of behaviorism from those experiences and reflect on the following questions:

In the experiences in which you felt motivated, what steps did the instructor take that helped you feel motivated?Their self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward a self-directed human being. Learning is the change in knowledge, behavior, or understanding that occurs when people make connections between new information and their existing knowledge. Various theories attempt to describe the factors that enable the learning process.

Sometimes people are skeptical of having to learn theory, believing those theories will not be relevant in the real world, but learning theories are widely applicable. The models and processes that they describe tend to apply across different populations and settings, and provide us with guidelines to develop exercises, assignments, and lesson plans that align with how our students learn best. Learning theories can also be engaging. People who enjoy teaching often find the theories interesting and will be excited when they start to see connections between the theory and the learning they see happening in their own classrooms. General Learning Theories Adults, on the other hand, are already immersed in the social roles for which younger students are only preparing, and they want to see how their learning applies to those roles. Thus, Knowles suggests that adults will be interested in a competency-based, rather than a subject-based, approach to learning. Further, as autonomous individuals, adults are likely to be more self-directed in their learning. That is, they will want to, and should be encouraged to, take an active part in the design and planning of lessons, providing input on content and goals. Finally, Knowles also argues that adults’ wider experience and larger store of knowledge should be a resource for learning. Knowles, M. S. (1988). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. Revised and updated. Cambridge, The Adult Education Company. Behaviorism is based largely on the work of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Behaviorists were concerned with establishing psychology as a science and focused their studies on behaviors that could be empirically observed, such as actions that could be measured and tested, rather than on internal states such as emotions (McLeod, 2015). According to behaviorists, learning is dependent on a person’s interactions with their external environment. As people experience consequences from their interactions with the environment, they modify their behaviors in reaction to those consequences. For instance, if a person hurts their hand when touching a hot stove, they will learn not to touch the stove again, and if they are praised for studying for a test, they will be likely to study in the futureThis is an essential primer for any university course that includes learning theory, with particular relevance for initial teacher education, education studies and early childhood degrees. While testing has fallen out of favor with many educators and education theorists, cognitivists find tests can be beneficial as both a retrieval practice and a diagnostic tool. They view tests not only as a way to measure what has been learned but as a way to practice retrieval of important concepts, and as a way to identify gaps or weaknesses in knowledge so that learners know where to concentrate their efforts (Brown et al., 2014). Cognitivists encourage “spaced practice,” or recalling previously learned information at regular intervals, and “interleaving,” or learning related concepts together to establish connections among them. Their research has found that retrieval is more effective when the brain is forced to recall information after some time has passed, and when the recall involves two or more related subjects or concepts. Finally, cognitivists also promote problem-based learning, maintaining that “trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt” (Brown et al., 2014, p.4). Make the material appropriately challenging. Reminiscent of the Zone of Proximal Development, material that is too easy will be boring for learners, while material that is too challenging will be overwhelming and frustrating. Karl Aubrey is a Senior Lecturer on the Applied Studies in Education programmes, as well as a tutor with post graduate students, at Bishop Grosseteste University. Prior to this Karl was the Programme Leader for a range of initial teacher education and professional development programmes at a large city Further Education college. Between 2003 and 2005 he was seconded to the DfES Standards Unit as a learning and teaching practitioner in the East Midlands. Karl has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of Education and has collaborated with colleagues to publish a number of journal articles. His doctoral thesis explored the reforms in Further Education teacher education from 2000 to 2010, from the viewpoint of teacher educators. Karl’s research interests include inclusion, education policy, pedagogy and work-based learning. With a basic understanding of learning theories, we can create lessons that enhance the learning process. This understanding helps us explain our instructional choices, or the “why” behind what and how we teach. As certain learning theories resonate with us and we consciously construct lessons based on those theories, we begin to develop a personal philosophy of teaching that will guide our instructional design going forward. This chapter provides a bridge from theory to practice by providing specific examples of how the theories can be applied in the library classroom. These theories provide a foundation to guide the instructional design and reflective practices presented in the rest of this textbook.