Understanding myself as a learner.
            
            
             On my journey to a better understanding of how learning theories have shown
             themselves in my life, I realized that I have had more experience with them than I had first
             thought. I don't see myself as being changed dramatically by any one learning experience,
             but I do realize that my desire to learn has increased as I have been introduced to a variety
             of teaching methods. In short, I could not pick one theory that I could relate most of my
             learning experiences to. Therefore, as I looked through our textbook, I tried to remember
             if and how any of these theories played a role in my educational development so far.
             As we have studied, most learning theories can be placed into one of two groups:
             cognitive learning and association learning. "The cognitive learning view states that
             learning is based on a restructuring of perceptions and thoughts occurring within the
             organism. This restructuring allows us to perceive new relationships, solve new problems,
             and gain understanding of a subject area. Cognitive learning theorists stress the
             reorganization of one's perceptions in order to achieve understanding." (Sprinthall,
             Sprinthall, and Oja; Educational Psychology- A developmental Approach 1998)
             One of these cognitive-learning theorists is Wolfgang Kohler. Kohler performed
             many experiments with chimps during World War I. Kohler constructed a variety of
             problems for the chimps, each of which involved obtaining food that was not directly
             accessible. In the simplest task, food was put on the other side of a barrier. Dogs and cats
             in previous experiments had faced the barrier in order to reach the food, rather than
             moving away from the goal to go around the barrier. The chimps, however, presented
             with an apparently similar situation, set off immediately on the roundabout route to the
             food.
             Over the last few years my husband ...