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Guthrie on Education
Edwin Ray Guthrie was interested in the application of psychology and his learning theories in education. In the preface of his book Educational Psychology (1950), he states, “ … the ultimate test of a theory of learning is its influence on the all-round growth of young people when applied in the classroom." He hypothesized that pairing a stimulus and response could result in learning after only one trial. Guthrie believed that learning takes place through association and  conditioning, and one pairing is often enough to establish a connection, rather than repeated stimulus-response pairings. These association and  connectionist theories are the bases of Guthrie’s contiguity theory of learning. The  law of contiguity refers to associating, or learning, two stimuli or events that occur simultaneously. When the stimulus and response occur together, they are learned due to the connection of their contiguity.

Guthrie acknowledged the use of reinforcement and rewards, but he did not deem them necessary for learning. He believed that organisms played a large part in their learning when developing habits and skills due to “movement-produced stimuli." Therefore, he asserts that the students do not learn from what the teacher does, but from what they do themselves. In other words, students do not learn something merely by hearing or reading it; rather, the information must elicit an “active response” in the learner. He believed that the ideal school environment is one that permits “freedom of responsible action.” He advocated for an environment that does not repress individual differences but rather appreciates them and allows the students as much self-direction as possible. Guthrie described that an effective teacher would be one that would modify and revise the content of their lessons because students are dynamic in their learning and are “constantly organizing and reorganizing experiences.” According to Visible Learning for Teachers (2012), which evaluates effective teaching strategies, Hattie makes a significant point to advocate for flexible, adaptable instruction that is modified by the students’ prior knowledge, experiences, and individual differences as well as their rates of learning.

The applications of Guthrie’s theories have carried on to present education practices. In Educational Psychology (1950), he asserted that effective study skills included a clear goal, mastery of fundamentals, knowledge of learning phenomena, concentration, and practice. There is evidence that goal setting is indeed effective in learning and retaining material. Similarly, Guthrie advocated for making clear objectives for student learning by connecting the target response to the educational stimulus. Although he believed in one-trial learning, Guthrie valued practice in the classroom. The purpose of practice is to ensure that students continue to “relearn” the material because of the uniqueness of each learning experience. He asserted that distributed, or spaced, practice is the most effective and efficient method for learning and retaining content. Distributed practice has indeed been shown to be highly effective in improving student learning and is recommended for use in classrooms today.

Hc horton (talk) 06:32, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Lead Section
Edwin Ray Guthrie ((1886–1959) was a philosopher, mathematician, and later became a behavioral psychologist. Guthrie is best known for his one trial theory, nonreinforcement, and theories on contiguity learning. One word that his coworkers and students used to describe Guthrie and his theories was “simple.”  Guthrie was often referred to as “simple” because his approach to understanding new theories was to avoid using complex language due to his belief that the learning shown in a laboratory did not reflect real world learning and that relying only on that type of learning kept his colleagues from gaining new knowledge.  His simple nature carried into his teachings where he took great pride in working with and teaching students. Guthrie had a strong interest in educational psychology as well, and much of his work in this field still applies to today's classrooms.

Hc horton (talk) 23:37, 21 July 2015 (UTC)