My "Take" on How People Learn

It has been a long-standing belief of mine that there is no single answer to the question, how do people learn?. In fact, I am convinced that not only do individuals vary from one another in how they learn or acquire knowledge, but also that within a single individual there are often different learning paradigms that come into play based on the subject matter or the skills set that is being studied. In my own teaching I have incorporated a variety of techniques including traditional lecture, individualized instruction, gaming for drill and practice, guided discovery, etc. I am open to considering the methods being espoused by various learning theorists and borrowing, combining, adapting which ever techniques will best accommodate my students as well as serve my instructional objectives or goals.

When I consider the learning theories that have been presented, I am reminded of a story that has been told of three blind wise men who were charged with determining the true nature of an elephant. The first wise man, positioned at the head of the elephant, reached out and grabbed hold of its trunk. After a moment of tactile exploration, he declared that the elephant was like the trunk of a great tree. The second wise man, located behind the elephant, grabbed hold of its tail and declared that the elephant was more like a rope.
The third wise man, standing beside of the elephant explored its side and declared that it was like a great wall.

To me, the various learning theories are like the conclusions of the three blind, wise men.
Each theory focuses on some particular aspect(s) of learning, yet no one of them has the total picture. If I had to choose, I would be more comfortable with objectivism and cognitive learning theory. I believe that knowledge about the world in which we live exists independently of the learner. Mankind is uniquely equipped to pass this knowledge along to others in ways that make it unnecessary for each individual to learn everything by experiencing it. This is how we raise our young. This is how we transmit and sustain out culture. Mankind certainly would not have advanced as far as it has if each individual born into this world had to learn about that world by interpreting and constructing meaning based on individual experience.

But regardless of which theory one espouses, there is no reason that the instructional design techniques and methods based on one theory or another cannot be adopted and used by someone holding a different point of view about how learning really takes place.