Introduction to learning and teaching theories

Societies have always ‘taught’ their children the knowledge and skills needed to survive in their world. Sometimes it happened formally through direct instruction and observation. At other times it occurred informally or incidentally as children and adults learned from experience. As enlightenment thought turned to the ‘why’ of human behaviour in the 19th century, and psychology came to the fore, more codified approaches to learning behaviours, and therefore teaching behaviours, began to be developed.

There is no single ‘theory’ of teaching. You may be aware of the debate amongst educators in Australian schools about whether ‘direct instruction’, that is, explicit teaching of ‘rules’ and memorisation of vocabulary and formula, or a more socially constructed, experiential method of teaching, is better for student learning. Although this debate also occurs in the higher education sector, many institutions are including imperatives in their strategic plans for teaching staff to deliver ‘active’, ‘authentic’ and ‘student-centred’ learning.

The learning activities in this module will help you make sense of, and begin to apply, relevant learning theory and conceptions of teaching in contemporary higher education contexts.