Oct 19 : On the different uses of the term “instrumental learning”

On the different uses of the term “instrumental learning”

What Thorndike and Skinner refer to as instrumental learning is probably related to the way that Mezirow uses it in his article, but only loosely related.   Thorndike developed the idea by observingcats trying to escape from puzzle boxes, while Mezirow states:

“When we engage in task-orientated problem solving – how to do something or how to perform – we are engaged in instrumental learning; reflection is significantly involved when we look back on content or procedural assumptions guiding the problem-solving process to reassess the efficacy of the strategies and tactics used.”

While both uses of the term involve learning to do tasks and developing procedural knowledge, somehow I doubt that Thorndike spent much time theorizing how much the cats reflected on their procedural assumptions.   Mezirow applies this term to human learning, which involves things like “checking that our actions are consistent with our values“, and “whether our attitude has been objective“.

Mezirow’s use of the term is much more about meta-cognition, or knowing about how we think.   Because the current context is about human thinking, it involves much more higher-order thinking skills than the way Thorndike and Skinner used the term.

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