School of Nursing: Analysis of Connectionism Learning Theory

This assignment provides an in-depth analysis of the Connectionism learning theory, a principle rooted in cognitive psychology and behavioral science. The assignment explores the theory's core concept of stimulus-response associations and its application in education, especially for adult learners. It discusses the three major laws of Connectionism—the law of effect, readiness, and exercise—and how they facilitate learning through practice and rewards. The document also outlines the learning process according to this theory, highlighting the roles of need, goal, block, and random movements in achieving learning outcomes. Additionally, the assignment includes references to support the analysis and concludes with a concept map to visually represent the key concepts and relationships within the theory.

EDUCATION SKILLS AND FACILITATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE
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Education Skills and Facilitation for the Development of Practice

EDUCATION SKILLS AND FACILITATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE
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Education Skills and Facilitation for the Development of Practice
Introduction and Description
The effectiveness of teaching learning depends a great deal on the instructional design as
much as on the training of the instructor and the competency levels of the learners. The way people
acquire, retain, as well as recall knowledge is premised on learning theories and the way th learning
content is structured and delivered. For the group activity, the chosen learning theory is
connectionism; a principle put forth by Edward Thorndike (Watson & Szathmáry, 2016).
Connectionism is a comprehensive learning theory whose approach is in the fields of cognitive
psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science that models behavioral
or mental phenomena wot simple units networks. The Connectionism theory of learning represents
the native Stimulus-Response (S-R) behavioral psychology construct and is based on the precept
that learning is a consequence of the creation of associations between stimuli and the responses to
the so created stimuli (Mitchell, Myles & Marsden, 2014). These associations (habits) become
weakened or strengthened by the S-R pairings frequency and nature. The S-R paradigm was
premised on trial and error.
Analysis of Connectionism
Connectionism is premised on the concept that all mental processes can be described as
being the operation of acquired or inherited bonds between stimuli and responses. All learning,
according to the theory, primarily consists of strengthening the relationship between the stimuli and
the responses and it works on the trial and error principle. Learning follows a process that starts
with a need; each need has a quantum of energy- the force in an organism that acts towards self
fulfillment and which leads an organism to a state of restlessness (drive), for instance hunger in
humans (Seedhouse, Walsh & Jenks, 2010). The second step is a goal which is the object that
satisfies the need ; when one is hungry, food is the goal. The third stage is a block which creates a
hindrance between the goal and the organism and drives intensive effort by organisms to achieve its
goal. Next are random movements in blind mechanical ways that are repeated until an effective
action that can result in the goal being reached is achieved. From the blind random mechanical
responses, there is a chance for success which is more often achieved by chance. If there was a
wrong response, there is gradual rejection and then the right response is selected and the successful
fulfillment of the need is fixated in the nervous system (Jenkins, 2015).
Discussion
The connectionism theory of learning is premised upon three major laws;

EDUCATION SKILLS AND FACILITATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE
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 The Law of effect: The reactions to given condition that are followed by a reward or a state
of affairs that are rewarding are reinforced and become habits applied to respond to the
situations.
 The Law of readiness: It is possible to chain together a sequence of responses to fulfill a
specific goal that if blocked, leads to annoyance.
 The Law of exercise: Connections are strengthened through practice while failure to practice
results in the connections being weakened.
For adult learning, this theory is a good fit because it enhances a sense of belonging and this
makes connections to be readily established (Hélie & Sun, 2010). Through practice and rewards,
adult learners can readily learn in an effective way based on the connectionism precept as the same
sequence of action results in a progression of S-R connections being combined. Previously
encountered situations leads to transfer of learning and the number of learned connections constitute
intelligence.

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References
Hélie, S., & Sun, R. (2010). Incubation, insight, and creative problem solving: A unified theory and
a connectionist model. Psychological Review, 117(3), 994-1024. doi: 10.1037/a0019532
Jenkins, M. (2015). Associationist Philosophy, Cognitive Literary Studies, and Objective-Subjective
Habits of Mind. Literature Compass, 12(10), 538-547. doi: 10.1111/lic3.12255
Mitchell, R., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2014). Second language learning theories (1st ed.).
London: Routledge.
Seedhouse, P., Walsh, S., & Jenks, C. (2010). Conceptualising 'Learning' in Applied Linguistics.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Watson, R., & Szathmáry, E. (2016). How Can Evolution Learn?. Trends In Ecology & Evolution,
31(2), 147-157. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.11.009
Concept Map References
Kay, A. (2019). My COncept Map and Personal Learning Theory. [online] Technology@Ann-
Kay.com. Available at: https://unlocktechnology.weebly.com/c-map-and-learning-
theory.html [Accessed 21 May 2019].
Simon, J. (2007). Concept Mapping in a Financial Accounting Theory Course. Accounting
Education, 16(3), pp.273-308.