Ways of Knowing Amelia Hamilton
Virginia Commonwealth University

Abstract
This paper discusses the ways adults learn using behaviorist, cognitive and constructivist lenses to reflect their ways of knowing. I tell how these theories are integrated into my instructional program.

There are many lenses for learning that educators use to instruct students. Key elements are the implementation of learning lenses and selection of the processes effective for students. Listening to one’s inner voice is described in Women’s Ways of Knowing. There are five stages as described by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, Tarule, 1986 p.15. The five stages are silence, received knowledge, subjective knowledge, procedural knowledge and constructed knowledge. Crow and Crow 1963, p. 123, further explain: Learning involves change. It is concerned with the acquisition of habits, knowledge, and attitudes. It enables the individual to make both personal and social adjustments. Since the concept of change is inherent in the concept of learning, any change in behavior implies that learning is taking place or has taken place. Learning that occurs during the process of change can be referred to as the learning process .

In education, teachers may contemplate the types of learning theory to use with their students. Can teachers distinguish which process is best for their students? What determines the type of learning theory to use? Can the environment determine this or does a teacher’s philosophy determine the theory? These are questions we, as educators, often ponder. Some are answered because everyone learns differently. Can the epistemological lenses through which adult learning be effective for instruction? These are questions I examine in this paper.
Learning is a process of making changes in one’s knowledge, skills, values and worldview. Learning takes