Study Bay Coursework Assignment Writing Help<\/p>\n
Statement of the Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n The problem that requires significant theoretical attention refers to how community college students successfully achieve learning objectives based on the curricula developed by instructors.\u00a0 Success, however, refers to how administrators of community colleges retain students until graduation.\u00a0 Based on the identified problem, this plan to improve success and increase retention rates among community college students draws from 20 theories with implications for pedagogical practice.\u00a0 While the theories explained in this plan are diverse and wide-ranging, their implications for success and increasing rates are quite specific. Accordingly, each theory has broader implications for how administrators of community colleges develop and implement programs that improve success and retention until graduation.<\/p>\n Application of Educational Theories Towards Improving Success and Increasing Retention<\/strong><\/p>\n The educational theories that have implications for improving success and increasing retention among community college students are diverse and wide-ranging.\u00a0 Theories such as behaviorism suggest that all learners must achieve an objective learning standard from operant conditioning (Harasim, 2017; Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017).\u00a0 Conversely, theories of constructivism and socio-constructivism suggest that learners achieve success based on how much guidance instructors provide in an environment conducive to an open exchange of ideas (Bejjar & Boujelbene, 2014; Bright et al., 2016; Edwards-Schachter, Garcia-Granero, S\u00e1nchez-Barrioluengo, Pineda, & Amara, 2015; Roksa, Trolian, Blaich, & Wise, 2016).\u00a0 Social learning theory and social cognitive theory bear similarity as the success of community college students depends on the types of knowledge produced within different environmental contexts (Cooper & Lu, 2015; Culver & Bertram, 2017; McLeod et al., 2015; Pennington, Bates, Kaye, & Bolam, 2017).\u00a0 However, theories of multiple intelligences suggest that success and retention among community college students reflect multi-dimensional constructs not exclusive to behavioral observations (Ba\u015f, 2016; Wang, 2017).\u00a0 Self-determination theory, likewise, suggests that concepts of self-efficacy, autonomy, and motivation have significant implications for how instructors of community college students develop instructional curricula to improve learning outcomes as well as increase retention and graduation rates (Barak, Watted, & Haick, 2016; Ross, Perkins, & Bodey, 2016).\u00a0 Along more sociological lines, functionalist theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism each have implications for how instructors develop effective curricula as well as for how administrators develop programs that produce more successful outcomes among community college students (Aborisade, 2017; Housley & Smith, 2016; Leffel & Hallam, 2012; McKenzie & Twose, 2015; Sadovnik & Coughlan, 2016).\u00a0 Despite the theoretical variations, those developed by major figures who include Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, and Jerome Bruner have fundamental implications for understanding how community college students succeed and maintain retention rates until graduation.<\/p>\n Major Theorists of Education<\/strong><\/p>\n The educational theories of French psychologist Jean Piaget suggest that learning itself is a continual process of constructing new knowledge from past knowledge (Cartner & Hallas, 2017; McFarland, 2017).\u00a0 For Piaget, learning and knowledge converge to shape the cognitive processes of learners (Bright et al., 2017).\u00a0 Piaget\u2019s theories imply that learning results from personal experience as reflected by behaviors that manifest within the internal institutional environment.\u00a0 Similarly, the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky theorized that learning was a social process in which the open exchange of ideas contributes greatly to individual success (Bejjar & Boujelbene, 2014; Gentry et al., 2015).\u00a0 Important for Vygotsky was his \u201czone of proximal development\u201d (ZPD) indicating the difference between what learners achieve with or without the Helpance of instructors (Ryder, Russell, Burton, Quinn, & Daly, 2017).\u00a0 The ZPD further indicates how instructors and community college students establish working relationships between skills considered transferable across multiple contexts.\u00a0 As community college students progress throughout their academic career, Vygotsky\u2019s core concept suggest that instructors should consider developing curricula that provide more space to develop experiential knowledge.<\/p>\n Following from Vygotsky, the works of American philosopher John Dewey contain theories suggesting that education itself is not synonymous with learning (Pring 2012).\u00a0 In particular, Dewey believed that education systems currently in place do not foster behavioral improvements.\u00a0 Rather, educational systems evaluate students based on results of standardized tests and do not promote active engagement with the immediate environment (Boyte & Finders, 2016; Pring, 2012).\u00a0 Accordingly, Dewey\u2019s theories of education imply that the success of community college students depends on how well institutions provide service opportunities (Maddux & Donnett, 2015).\u00a0 Following from Dewey, the works of Jerome Bruner indicate that modes of representation\u2014e.g., enactive, iconic, and symbolic\u2014reflect how learner acquire knowledge as information stored and encoded as memory at different stages of life.\u00a0 By introducing the concept of scaffolding into his theories of education Bruner argued that the facilitation of learning requires strong collaborative efforts between instructors and learners who act as equal partners (Gros & L\u00f3pez, 2016; Koskey & Benson, 2017).\u00a0 Particularly in online environments, scaffolding has implications for how community college students succeed and remain enrolled until graduation.\u00a0 In broadening Vygotsky\u2019s concept of the ZPD, Bruner suggested that scaffolding produces new forms of learning as innovation in thought provides a context for making positive changes to learning behaviors.<\/p>\n Behaviorism<\/strong><\/p>\n Developed by Ivan Pavlov at the turn of the 19th century and popularized in recent years by B. F. Skinner in the mid-20th century, behaviorism entails that educators must strive to achieve an objective analysis of internal processes once regarded as wholly unscientific (Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017).\u00a0 As a reaction to Freudian psychoanalysis, behaviorism reduces learning to simple conditions of stimulus and response (Harasim, 2017).\u00a0 Adherents to behaviorism attempt to integrate methods of psychology that draw from Charles Darwin\u2019s evolutionary theory by connecting research on human learning with the biological processes of most organisms (Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017).\u00a0 For Skinner, his vision of mass education and programmed instruction rests on the concept of operant condition that emphasizes how a direct stimulus results in positive and negative reinforcement in manipulating subjects into adopting new behaviors (Harasim, 2017; Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017).\u00a0 Both positive and negative reinforcement condition behaviors such that learners achieve success by changing perceptions about how the immediate environment produces stimuli that influence outcomes.<\/p>\n Concerning the problem of how students enrolled in community colleges succeed and remain enrolled in their higher institution of choice, behaviorism has implications for how instructors develop curricular content to achieve specific learning outcomes.\u00a0 Instructors may simultaneously draw from behaviorism and Bloom\u2019s taxonomy to achieve six hierarchical outcomes, each of which assumes that learning depends on the knowledge acquired at a lower level (Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017).\u00a0 In Bloom\u2019s taxonomy, \u201cknowledge\u201d refers to how learners remember information while \u201ccomprehension\u201d involves a process of interpreting information to fit an environmental context.\u00a0 Next, \u201capplication\u201d reflects how instructors encourage learners to draw from key principles to solve real or hypothetical problems while \u201canalysis\u201d entails a breaking down of main ideas into multiple components (Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017, p. 116).\u00a0 Moving upward, \u201csynthesis\u201d refers to how instructors encourage learners to create new ideas from an amalgamation of concepts while \u201cAssessment,\u201d the highest level, entails that learners make objective statements against a formalized standard.\u00a0 As such, behaviorist theory implies that success among community college students depends on the ability to memorize concepts an apply them towards a wide range of instructional contexts.<\/p>\n Theory of Cognition<\/strong><\/p>\n Originated by American philosopher John Dewey, the theory of cognition posits that learners must perform a service that leads instructors to develop a pragmatic Assessment of learning outcomes.\u00a0 Accordingly, the theory of cognition suggests that reflective thought has a strong relationship with service learning in education (Maddux & Donnett, 2015).\u00a0 Dewey also believed that the links between psychological and biological frameworks of learning are remarkably parallel to cultural and historical processes that evolve in a logical fashion.\u00a0 The theory of cognition suggests, therefore, that students attending a community college make sense of personal experiences to acquire acknowledge in multiple disciplines (Maddux & Donnett, 2015).\u00a0 Like behaviorism, however, the theory of cognition resides in how learners use memory to construct a framework of knowledge in developing higher-order thinking (McInerney, 2014).\u00a0 The theory of cognition indicates how instructors believe that learning is a cumulative matter and that prior knowledge of a subject inspires the collection of new information.\u00a0 Thus, instructors of community college students may develop curricular content that engages multiple psychological processes to achieve objective learning outcomes.\u00a0 Dewey\u2019s theory of cognition has significant implications for how community college students succeed under appropriate instructional guidance.\u00a0 First, instructors should assume that all acts of cognition are instrumental and contingent (Maddux & Donnett, 2015).\u00a0 Each act of cognition is subject to change by instructors responsible for ensuring that students achieve objective learning outcomes.\u00a0 If community college students are to serve their respective institution through learning, instructors who apply Dewey\u2019s theory of cognition should consider how personal experience influences memory and knowledge.\u00a0 Secondly, instructors should make observations of how some students may become overly confident about how much past knowledge will influence future performance (McInerney, 2014).\u00a0 Here, instructors should encourage students to practice service learning and monitor behaviors that have consequences for academic performance.<\/p>\n Constructivism<\/strong><\/p>\n Initially conceptualized by Jean Piaget, a constructivist approach to learning is a \u201cmeta-practice\u201d in which students may influence the overall design of instructional curricula, students lead peers, and students assess peers (Bright et al., 2016, pp. 76-77).\u00a0 More important is how both knowledge and learning emerge simultaneously from cognition.\u00a0 Instructors who draw from a constructivist approach encourage learners to engage in a sense-making process that involves considerable degrees of self-discovery.\u00a0 By applying the concept of \u201cguided participation,\u201d instructors who follow a constructivist approach practice student-centered learning and encourage learners to perceive instructional content as an end in itself (Bright et al., 2016, p. 77).\u00a0 In pedagogical terms, a constructivist approach encourages instructors to adopt framework such as problem-based learning, team-based learning, and classroom-as-organization to achieve learning objectives.\u00a0 A constructivist approach also allows instructors to consider the relationship between organized student-centered instruction and academic performance (Roksa, Trolian, Blaich, & Wise, 2016).\u00a0 By considering such a relationship, instructors develop a stronger ability to identify which mechanisms of learning produce significant benefits for pedagogical practice.<\/p>\n Particularly, the constructivist approach has implications for how instructors identify the cultural aspects that community college students bring with them upon entering a classroom environment (Roksa, Trolian, Blaich, & Wise, 2016).\u00a0 Referring to how instructors identify mechanisms of learning, the constructivist approach entails an acknowledgment of how academic engagement is central to achieving optimal learning objectives.\u00a0 Actively engaged students demonstrate more positive behaviors by investing more time in studying activities, participating in class discussions, and arriving at each class session fully prepared (Roksa, Trolian, Blaich, & Wise, 2016).\u00a0 More importantly, a constructivist approach has implications for student success in community colleges as problem-based learning reflects an application of concepts to real-world problems as students influence the direction of instructional curricula\u00a0 (Bright et al., 2016).\u00a0 The constructivist approach has further implications for how meta-practices of team-based learning and classroom-as-organization provide space for community college students to organize self-managed teams in which each member challenges another.\u00a0 Team-based learning and the classroom-as-organization imply even further that students have opportunities to evaluate individual performance within a specific organizational context (Bright et al., 2016).\u00a0 By drawing from all three meta-practices and by considering which mechanisms of learning produce success among community college students, the constructivist approach emphasizes how content knowledge and active engagement promote a sense of community through service.<\/p>\n Social Learning Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n Conceptualized by Albert Bandura, social learning theory (SLT) refers to a framework by which the component of \u201cexpectancies\u201d implies that instructors develop curricula based on perceptions of what community college students expect (McLeod et al., 2015, p. 31).\u00a0 Somewhat similar to behaviorism, SLT proposes that the expectancies held by learners may or may not necessarily reinforce rewards and punishment systems reflective of operant conditioning (Harasim, 2017; McLeod et al., 2015; Murtonen, Gruber, & Lehtinen, 2017).\u00a0 Administrators employed at institutions of higher education understand the need to sustain educational programs that contain objectives reflecting individual differences in learning needs.\u00a0 Like constructivism, however, SLT has the power to transform how students demonstrate high levels of active engagement with designing instructional curricula that have implications for achieving success (Bright et al., 2017; Culver & Bertram, 2017; Roksa, Trolian, Blaich, & Wise, 2016).\u00a0 Community college students who struggle to succeed may have instructors who draw from SLT in moving beyond knowledge acquisition from rote memory and developing more reflexive learning behaviors.\u00a0 Yet, SLT remains in continued development as instructors acquire experiential knowledge that informs pedagogical practice (Culver & Bertram, 2017).\u00a0 For SLT to have a positive influence on how community college students succeed, instructors must design curricula that apply knowledge gained from personal experience.<\/p>\n More importantly, instructors should consider applying the concept of \u201clocus of control\u201d to identify how community college students establish connections between learning activities and the achievement of high-level learning outcomes (McLeod et al., 2015, p. 31).\u00a0 While a locus of control is either internal or external, researchers in education suggest that many students identify as belonging on a continuum from which events occurring in the immediate environment have varying degrees of influence on individual academic performance.\u00a0 As instructors develop curricula designed to achieve high learning objectives, the observation that students with an internal locus of control have better outcomes than individuals with an external locus of control has implications for how community colleges can improve retention and graduation rates (McLeod et al., 2015).\u00a0 Administrators of community colleges responsible for ensuring that students remain enrolled until graduation should also take part in identifying how having an internal locus of control improves problem-solving skills.<\/p>\n Socio-Constructivism<\/strong><\/p>\n The works of Lev Vygotsky inform socio-constructivism as an educational theory.\u00a0 Accordingly, socio-constructivism places a considerable emphasis on the inherently social nature of learning (<\/a>Bejjar & Boujelbene, 2014).\u00a0 Socio-constructivism also assumes that all individuals learn in environments conducive to an open exchange of ideas.\u00a0 For community college students, participating in an active learning environment produces mutual benefits that instructors may also enjoy.\u00a0 What learners believe about their own ability to achieve learning objectives depends on how strongly family and peers encourage creativity and innovation in thought (Edwards-Schachter et al., 2015).\u00a0 Conversely, instructors may draw from socio-constructivism to encourage learners into thinking how much their behaviors are a product of personal experiences developed within specific environmental contexts.\u00a0 Unlike behaviorism, socio-constructivism does not define learners as individual and mutually exclusive objects of study.\u00a0 Socio-constructivism, rather, provides the space for instructors of community college students to develop \u201cscripts\u201d from cognitive processes to improve decision-making processes (Edwards-Schachter et al., 2015, p. 32).\u00a0 By extension, providing the space for community college students to construct scripts reflects the desire to achieve higher learning objectives in disciplines such as the humanities, social sciences, and education (Bejjar & Boujelbene, 2014).\u00a0 Community college students who succeed after instructors implement a socio-constructivist approach perform a service for themselves and for their institution by identifying which areas of thought influence learning behaviors (Edwards-Schachter et al., 2015; Maddux & Donnett, 2015).\u00a0 The service performed by community college students then shapes retention and graduation rates.<\/p>\n Experiential Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n Developed by David A. Kolb in the 1970s, the theory of experiential learning draws heavily from the works of Dewey and Piaget to define a practice of learning through experience (McFarland, 2017).\u00a0 More specifically, the theory of experiential learning details six key propositions that have significant implications for how community college students succeed and subsequently remain enrolled until graduation.\u00a0 First, Kolb believed that learning is a process and not necessarily an outcome.\u00a0 In drawing from the works of John Dewey, the theory of experiential learning includes a principle of continuity to describe how learning depends on the quality of each experience (McFarland, 2017).\u00a0 In drawing from the works of Jean Piaget and Carl Jung, McFarland (2017) noted recently how the second proposition of experiential learning suggests that knowledge is a construct that reflects personal beliefs.\u00a0 If success among community college students leads to higher rates of retention, the third proposition of experiential learning entails that instructors should encourage dialectical interaction with the instructional materials (McFarland, 2017).\u00a0 Contrasted with a banking theory of education, the theory of experiential learning draws from the constructivist approach of problem-based learning to situate learners as capable of providing teachable moments.<\/p>\n As new forms of curricular instruction, including those delivered in virtual formats, gain popularity among most university students, the theory of experiential learning is necessary to inform pedagogical practice (Gentry et al., 2015).\u00a0 Accordingly, the fourth proposition of experiential learning states that instructors should adopt a holistic approach of adaptation to how others acquire knowledge (McFarland, 2017).\u00a0 In drawing from the works of Lev Vygotsky, the fifth proposition of experiential learning proffers that individual interactions with the environment facilitate knowledge construction as new problems emerge on a continuing basis.\u00a0 As events in the external environment influence behaviors occurring within the internal environment, how community college students improve success and remain enrolled until graduation largely depends on which programs administrators may readily provide (Gentry et al., 2015).\u00a0 Especially since online education maintains its popular status among community college students who prefer to learn outside of a traditional banking model, the sixth proposition of experiential learning implies that reductions in the limits of knowledge construction require instructors to encourage more active engagement on students\u2019 behalf.<\/p>\n Multiple Intelligences<\/strong><\/p>\n Developed by Howard Gardner in 1983, the theory of multiple intelligences contests that traditional assessments of intelligence are too limited in measuring mental acuity (Wang, 2017).\u00a0 For Gardner, intelligence is the biological and psychological capacity for individuals to solve problems or acquire knowledge within specific learning environment (Ba\u015f, 2016).\u00a0 The theory of multiple intelligences contains a minimum of seven components that reflect how learners acquire knowledge across diverse environmental contexts.\u00a0 Where visual-spatial intelligence assumes that learners develop an awareness of personal environments, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence involves using the body towards reaching an observable goal (Ba\u015f, 2016).\u00a0 Next, musical knowledge implies that learners have a keen sensitivity to rhythm and sound that encourages learning through multi-media tools whereas interpersonal intelligence indicates how social interaction fosters learning (Ba\u015f, 2016).\u00a0 Intrapersonal intelligence, the opposition of interpersonal intelligence, suggests that learners draw from cognitive resources to reflect on how personal experiences influence knowledge construction.\u00a0 Lastly, linguistic intelligence refers to how learners use language towards achieving objectives through while logical-mathematical intelligence is a matter of using concepts to explore patterns or relationships in behaviors (Ba\u015f, 2016).\u00a0 Since gaining popularity more than 30 years ago, Gardner\u2019s theory of multiple intelligences has significance for understanding how success and retention rates among community college students may inevitably increase.<\/p>\n Accordingly, instructors may draw from the theory of multiple intelligences to resolve gaps in learning among community college students whose performance outcomes may not necessarily reflect the potential to graduate (Wang, 2017).\u00a0 Instructors should ideally encourage students into believing that each individual has a different process of acquiring knowledge.\u00a0 Considering how many students enter the community college environment with an overarching belief that successful performance on standardized tests predicts a similar success in future years, the theory of multiple intelligences suggests otherwise.\u00a0 Despite the suggestion, instructors of community college students may draw from Gardner\u2019s theory to inform pedagogical practice deliver instructional materials in a more loosely structured manner (Wang, 2017).\u00a0 The dynamism of Gardner\u2019s theory ultimately reflects how instructors of community college students also view intelligence as having multiple components (Ba\u015f, 2017).\u00a0 As success and retention among community college students remain important, the theory of multiple intelligence applies towards reducing perceived difficulties associated with engaging in hands-on activities that provide opportunities to acquire knowledge from unique experiences.\u00a0 In online environments, the theory of multiple intelligences applies towards encouraging students to interact with others whose background and personal experiences provide unique learning opportunities.<\/p>\n Situated Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n Conceptualized by Jean Lave and \u00c9tienne Wenger, situated learning is an extension of research on educational apprenticeship that considers how concepts such as \u201clegitimate peripheral participation\u201d (LPP) applies towards the assumption that community college students of any age may achieve success and increase retention rates until graduation (Priest, Saucier, & Eiselein, 2016, p. 362).\u00a0 Accordingly, LPP provides instructors with opportunities to inform pedagogical practice from an application of key tenets concerning access to membership, experiences of membership, and trajectories of learning (Rubin, 2016).\u00a0 Access to membership has implications for how instructors of first-year community college students develop effective instructional curricula that promotes success through active engagement (Priest, Saucier, & Eiselein, 2016).\u00a0 Experiences of membership entail that LPP allows first-year community college students to access critical information, resources, and opportunities to participate as actively as possible in different learning environments.\u00a0 Lastly, trajectories of learning inform the theory of situated learning in suggesting that community college students may improve success and increase retention rates by \u201cunfolding\u201d personal qualities and applying them towards developing a uniquely positive learning experience (Priest, Saucer, & Eiselein, 2016, pp. 362-363).\u00a0 Each of the three key tenets contained within the theory of situated learning indicates that success and retention require instructors to establish a classroom environment with intentional participation in mind (Rubin, 2016).\u00a0 As with Gardner\u2019s theory of multiple intelligences, the theory of situated learning has implications for success and retention such that personal experiences overlap as part of a dynamic process that cannot exist in isolation (Ba\u015f, 2016; Rubin, 2016; Wang, 2017).\u00a0 More generally, the theory of situated learning suggests that community college students may improve success and increase retention rates in communities of practice.<\/p>\n