Teaching Across Rather Than Within Theories of Learning

• In Event: 46.083 - Book Panel Discussion: Contributing Authors Discuss Challenges and Innovations in Teaching and Learning Educational Psychology

Abstract

A well-known educational psychology textbook author, Ormrod describes a number of “Big Ideas” that, she suggests, might be useful for organizing some of what educational psychologists have learned about learning. She organizes these “Big Ideas” into four categories that reflect more general ideas, beginning with (a) intra-individual variables (e.g., cognitive processes, temperamental characteristics) and then moving to (b) immediate environmental factors influencing learning, (c) broader-scale environmental factors influencing learning, and finally, (d) reciprocal influences among intra-individual and environment variables. Each Big Idea is accompanied by concepts or principles from particular theories and, occasionally, with more specific ideas that don’t necessarily belong to a particular theoretical perspective. Implications for teaching educational psychology are described.

Author

• Jeanne Ellis Ormrod, University of Northern Colorado