Deidra McDowell

May 29
th
2012
EDUF 7130
Dr. Kent Rittschof

Journal Entry #1 (Chapter One)
Ebbinghaus, Thorndike and Pavlov each had their own perception on learning theories. Scholars
may agree, disagree or have an overall common ground between their theories, but one commonality
between theories is that they all had a correlation, which was learning and its affects. There were a few
clauses in the texted which I deemed significant.
According to Driscoll, theories do not give us truth of the matter. They simply provide a
conceptual framework for making sense of the data that we have been collected so far. (Driscoll, 2005)
I found this text substantial because there is no right or wrong answers when it comes to theories.
Theories assist us with organizing data or information with what we are researching. In a classroom
setting, in college, for example, a student is assigned to write a paper on an assigned theory. After
compiling data and proper research, the student would still have no right or wrong answer, simply
more information on the theory. In most theories, even the theorists hypothesis will not have a right or
wrong answer, just information supporting it.
What I related to most in the text is Pavlovs experiment on classical conditioning. I personally
agree and feel it is human nature. I wanted to include a bit of humor in this journal entry, so I included
this video of a college student performing Pavlovs experiment on his roommate. In the video, the
student had a buzzer and a sound gun, and every time the buzzer went off, he darted his roommate with
the dart gun, this happened continuously. One time, the roommate heard the buzzer and reacted by
flinching, even though the student did not shoot him with the dart gun. I would have reacted the same
way, and that is why I feel to an extent it is human nature.
I read an article called, How Can Classical Conditioning Be Used in the Classroom? The article
shows how classical conditioning works and it gave educators tips on how to help out their students. I
did not necessarily agree with all of them, for example one tip was removing a negative stimulus to
promote positive behavior. Johnson writes, Tell the students that if they finish a set amount of work in
the lesson, they will not have any homework. (Johnson) Apart of learning is practice, and if the students
had homework even though they finished a set amount of work in the lesson, they would still have
practice in to improve their learning. The article relates to Driscolls text because it discussed
experimental approaches that included examples of association and reflexology.
One of the topics I proposed on the discussion board was which epistemological tradition my
classmates relate to the most. It was a large part of the first chapter and although it is evident that
everyone is different and some may relate to all three, it is interesting to know the diversity of learning
styles. Since I am studying higher education administration, I found it appropriate to search for a
professional article reference that is related. My professional article discussed the epistemological
beliefs and learning processes of community college students. A significant factor from the article as it
relates to the text and my discussion post is when the text states, Schommer (1994) argues that
personal epistemological beliefs can be conceptualized as frequency distributions rather than a single
point on a continuum. For example, she argues that more sophisticated learners may believe that the
majority of knowledge is dynamic and evolving, some knowledge has not been discovered, and some
amount of knowledge is fixed. Therefore, the four beliefs can be viewed as a system of more or less
independent distributions and can be thought of independently as well as together. (Schreiber and
Shinn 2003) The authors are arguing that the epistemological beliefs do not develop together all at once
or in a timely manner. This article and Driscolls text has similarities and differences. For example, a
similarity is the discussion of different learning processes and use of the term epistemology. A difference
is that Driscolls text described epistemological traditions, which include objectivism, pragmatism and
interpretivism and the article used Schommers theory of epistemological beliefs, which were examples
of epistemological traditions in Driscolls text. Overall, the authors of this article conducted research and
found that there is an association between community college students epistemological beliefs and
learning processes, however further research and data is needed to fully explore the theory.

References
Driscoll, M.P., (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3
rd
Edition). Boston, MA: Allyn and
Bacon.
Johnson, L. (n.d.). How can classical conditioning be used in the classroom?. Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/how_8012206_can-classical-conditioning-used-classroom.html
Schreiber, J., & Shinn, D. (2003). Epistemological beliefs of community college students and their
learning processes. Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 27(8), 699-709. Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c3ea29ac-2271-42d7-ab03-
54f929556b6b@sessionmgr104&vid=15&hid=119