Product Description

Human Learning, fifth edition, is the leading text on learning theories applied to education.  It covers a broad range of learning theories, including behaviorist, social cognitive, cognitive, and developmental.  Complex learning and cognition, including metacognition, transfer, and social processes in knowledge construction are also covered, as is motivation.  Coverage demonstrates, through the author's extremely lucid and engaging prose, how different concepts relate to one another.  The book provides dozens of proven examples, and emphasizes meaningful learning that makes the fundamentals of these theories comprehensible to students with little or no prior coursework in psychology.  Key revisions to this book include a thoroughly updated section on behaviorism, a new, separate chapter on the developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, and a reorganized motivation section.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63270 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 608 pages

From the Publisher
A thorough, straightforward introduction to human learning. Presentation, topic choice, and language are intended for education majors, and included are a wealth of educational examples and applications. The well-balanced treatment of different perspectives on learning teaches students that each perspective has validity, and that different situations call for different approaches. While the background and roots of learning theory are thoroughly discussed, the emphasis is clearly on contemporary perspectives and developments.

From the Back Cover
This leading book in learning theories explains principles and theories of human learning in a lucid and engaging fashion and lays out the application of those theories and principles to educational practice. Covers many topics throughout the book: chaining, cognitive aspects of applied behavior analysis, constructivist and contextual views of learning, effects of verbalization and enactment, dichotomies in long-term memory, mental theories, development of expertise, effects of alternative forms of assessment, self-regulated learning and epistemological beliefs, self-worth theory, and internalized motivation.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Human learning is a fascinating process, and psychologists discover more about it every year. Yet I am saddened and frustrated by how little nonpsychologists seem to know about how they themselves learn and about how they can best help others learn in instructional settings. Research is clear on this point: How something is taught, studied, and thought about definitely does make a difference in what people learn, how well they understand it, how long they remember it, and how readily they apply it to new situations and problems.

I have written this textbook with particular students in mind: students who would like to learn about learning but often do not have much background in psychology. Such students may benefit from studying the historical roots of learning theories but prefer to focus their energies on studying contemporary perspectives and ideas. These students might find learning theories fascinating but lose patience when they cannot see the relevance of those theories to everyday practice. These students are capable of reading a dry, terse textbook but probably learn more effectively from a book that shows how different concepts relate to one another, provides numerous examples, and, especially, emphasizes meaningful learning—true understanding—of the material it presents.

In This Edition

This fourth edition of Human Learning indifferent in many ways from the third edition of 1998. A new Chapter 2 introduces readers to the anatomy and physiology of the brain, speculates about the physiological bases of learning and memory, and dispels common myths about brain functioning and development. Behaviorist views of learning have been condensed from four chapters into three, with closer attention to how early behaviorists built on one another's ideas. The contents of the "old" Chapter 13 (expository instruction, teaching concepts, mnemonics, etc.) have been integrated into other chapters, where various instructional strategies can be more closely tied to the principles and theories on which they are based. And the virtual explosion of research on human motivation in recent years has made it necessary to expand my discussion of motivation to three chapters.

In addition to the discussion of the brain in chapter 2, many new topics appear throughout the book. Examples include measures of learning (Chapter 1); noncontingent reinforcement as a means of reducing undesirable behaviors (Chapter 4); effects of high-stakes testing (Chapter 5); functional analysis (Chapter 5); collective self-efficacy (Chapter 7); phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad (Chapter 9); the generation effect (Chapter 10); acquisition of procedural knowledge (Chapter 10); confirmation bias (Chapter 11); false memories (Chapter 12); theory of mind, intentional learning, and epistemic doubt (Chapter 13); near versus far transfer (Chapter 14); visual imagery in problem solving (Chapter 14); the social nature of learning (Chapter 15); technology-based discussions (Chapter 15); arousal and relatedness as basic human needs (Chapter 16); performance-approach, performance-avoidance, work-avoidance, social, and career goals (Chapter 17); dispositions (Chapter 17); interrelationships among motivation, affect, and self-regulation (Chapter 17) process versus product goals (Chapter 17); entity versus incremental views of intelligence (Chapter 18); intrapersonal versus interpersonal attributions, and cultural differences in attributions (Chapter 18). And, more generally, I have rewritten every chapter to reflect the latest developments in learning theory and research.

Customer Reviews

Human Learning, Fourth Edition by Jeanne Ellis Ormrod
This is a extrmely good book for student to understand the theories and principles of human learning.
Especially, the author explain well various theories by the memories which she have had.
In case of difficult theories, the samples is very useful.

The most amazing textbook ever written!
This is the best textbook I have ever used. It is engaging, VERY well written- basically- a page turner that will leave you with a true understanding of the concepts of cognitive science and learning. It is a joy to read, I have taken it with me for grad. school and will always have it close. Though it is an amazing reference tool to have around, this is really a joy to read--read it even if it is not for a class. I cannot say enough good things about this book.

Human Learning
This is an amazingly well written text. Ms Ormrod actually practices what she preaches, so the book is organised as an exemplar of how to help students learn. I bought the book as an optional text for a Masters in Education, then I sat up one night to check it out. It became compulsive reading, very hard to put down. It gives a broad overview of Educational Psychology thinking over a wide period of time, and encapsulates it. It is full of useful references. Many of my colleagues have borrowed this book for various courses and for course development for educational projects.