Effective Learning Through Moodle Management, Social Media, and Peer-Guided Learning

Literature Review

Various learning theories have provided different perspectives and strategies to promote effective learning. The five most well-known learning theories are behaviorism, cognitivism, social cognitivism, humanism and constructivism. Behaviorism was considered as the work of Edward Thorndike (1913) and Ivan Pavlov (1927) and was among the earliest theory that tries to explain the learning process. Behaviorism sees learning as a process of acquiring new behavior and that learning is a result of environmental conditions also known as stimuli and reinforcement. There are three main assumptions for this theory which are learning is shown and can be measured by the change of behavior; behavior are main shaped by environment; and reinforcement are core to explain the learning process (Shlechter 1991; Watson 1997). Skinner (1958, p.972) argued that “behavior is shown to be shaped and maintained by its ‘reinforcing’ consequences rather than elicited as conditioned or unconditioned responses to stimuli”. His arguments and findings were later widely adopted and implemented into many educational practices. Behaviorism lays the foundation to what is currently known as the teacher-centric approach.