Information Processing Theory combines Cognitivism and Developmentalist Discourses. As it aims to offer an account of mental development in which information-processing notions are applied literally (i.e., the mind is asserted to be a computer) to interpret growth, maturation, and evolving abilities to make sense of the world. (Compare Information Pickup Theory.)
Learn More...Personality Types Theories comprise dozens of perspectives and tests focused on defining, componentizing, and quantifying personalities, typically by focusing on distinguishing traits.
Learn More...Personal Agency Discourses address matters related to involving individuals in decisions that define their educational experience. These discourses tend to be grounded in the assumption that the individual learner can and should be trusted to participate in selecting topics, competency levels, learning environments, pacing, and other elements.
Learn More...Within Developmental Discourses, learning is understood as a recursively elaborative process rather than a linear accumulative one. Most Developmental Discourses focus on how learners’ key habits of perception and interpretation change amid predictable sequences of biological, psychological, and emotional transformation.
Learn More...Well-Being Discourses are concerned with the physical, mental, emotional, and/or social health of individuals. For the most part, these discourses are more concerned with the conditions of learning than the dynamics of cognition or approaches to teaching. Some consensus has arisen around the assertion that attending to learners’ well-being is integral to all aspects of formal education.
Learn More...Identity Discourses do not separate one’s knowing, one’s doing, and one’s being. Consequently, “learning” is tied to all aspects on one’s ever-evolving identity. How and what is learned, then, is not shaped by pre-given and measurable personal traits (compare: Learner Trait Discourses); rather, how and what is learned has everything to do with how and what has been learned.
Learn More...Motivation Theories are attempts to explain the “why” of human action, and most of them are developed around lists of factors. It is difficult to offer overarching categories of these theories, but we find a trio of distinctions to be helpful: Extrinsic Motivation vs. Intrinsic Motivation; Conscious Motivations vs. Unconscious Motivations; Drives/Needs/Desires Theories vs. Cognitive Motivation Theories. Over the past half-century, trends in formal education have shifted from extrinsic, unconscious, drives/needs/desires to intrinsic, conscious, cognitive.
Learn More...Cognitivism is explicitly developed around the metaphor “brain as computer.” It thus focuses on how information is acquired, processed, and organized. Learning is seen in terms of integration of new information into existing structures through processes of internal codification.
Learn More...Positivism asserts that the highest standard of truth is scientific fact – which, it is further asserted, can only be derived through observation, experimentation, and other direct experiences of phenomena.
Learn More...Focus
Interpreting learning and teaching in terms of the characteristics of the individual learner
Principal Metaphors
- Knowledge is … established, external truths
- Knowing is … measurable performance
- Learner is … an individual
- Learning is … acquiring; attaining
- Teaching is … instructing
Originated
1900s
Synopsis
In popular terms, the word “learner” is overwhelmingly interpreted in terms of an individual person. Consequently, “learning” is understood in terms of changes to individual possibility, and that notion serves as a grounding assumption of Learner Trait Discourses. Concisely, if “learning” is narrowly defined in terms of what a “learner” does, it follows that the characteristics of the learner will define the learning that happens. (Compare: Identity Discourses.) Discourses that are prominently associated with Learner Trait Discourses (but that often read into other interpretive frames) include:
- Applied Psychology (Hugo Münsterberg, 1910s) – an umbrella notion, applied to pragmatically oriented branches of psychology, including:
- Counseling Psychology – Typically drawing on Well-Being Discourses and Personal Agency Discourses, Counseling Psychology aims to support schooling success and career development by focusing on individuals’ senses of self, social relationships, and overall functioning.
- Educational Psychology – Dominated by Positivism and related sensibilities, Educational Psychology is mainly focused on studying and assessing learning in formal educational settings, with a secondary interest in the psychology of teaching.
- School Neuropsychology – A more recent specialty of School Psychology that focuses on aligns strongly with Cognitivism and Information Processing Theory in its emphasis on evaluating cognitive processing through standardized instruments
- School Psychology – Most prominently drawing on Personality Types Theories, Identity Discourses, Developmental Discourses, Motivation Theories, and Learner Trait Discourses, School Psychology is a field that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of individuals’ behavioral and learning problems.
Commentary
Learner Trait Discourses tend to cast the individual learner as an isolated and insulated entity whose learning is determined by largely immutable qualities. These discourses have been used to differentiate among and segregate learners, to rationalize regimes of measurement and comparison, to explain away differences in achievement and aptitude, and to further entrench structures and emphases of traditional (standardized) education. Critical attentiveness to underlying assumptions on learning and learners is rarely part of the discourses.
Subdiscourses:
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Applied Psychology
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Counseling Psychology
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Educational Psychology
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School Neuropsychology
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School Psychology
Map Location
Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2021). “Learner Trait Discourses” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.
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