I didn’t go to school to be an educator so I was never taught the three primary learning theories, behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, until this week after reading Dr. Harapniuk’s blog on Four Keys to understanding learning theories. A learning theory, according to James Kelly of The Peak Performance Center, is an organized set of principles explaining how individuals acquire, retain, and recall knowledge. Now that I have learned and researched the various learning theories I feel that all of them are important and play a major role in our learning. Learning is something we do from the moment we are born until the moment we die and I believe that one theory trumps another dependent on what stage of life we are in or what it is we are trying to accomplish. I’d like to explain each one and share why I feel each one is important. Behaviorism TheoryIt is a mechanistic process that links a stimulus with a response changing the behavior (Bates, 2014). This theory is great for babies as they grow and learn. They mostly learn by behavior as when they are learning how to walk they get cheered and praised for their performance and when they venture into something that may hurt them they learn quickly not to do that again. Sometimes the baby may need to do it again and again before the behavior is learned that they should or shouldn’t do that again. Also, as our young men and women join the armed forces and go to basic training they learn very quickly as what it is they need to do and not do. The drill sergeants’ goal is to change the behaviors of the recruits so they can gain the skills necessary for warfighting. The recruits are immersed in an environment that controls their behavior. I feel that each learner starts off with a clean slate and that shapes their behavior with either positive or negative reinforcements. As a math teacher, I’d like my students to memorize the multiplications table so that when I present other strategies or formulas they are not spending all their time trying to figure out how to multiply or divide versus learning the new skill sets. These are a few examples of why learning with a behaviorist theory is important. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish, learn, or change. I feel that I’ve been a behaviorist at times throughout my life, probably most of my life, and that was the approach needed at that particular time so I could accomplish what it was I was setting out to do. Cognitivism TheoryIt is learning internally when drawing on the individual’s mental process. As Jean Piaget, a theorist, states his theory is concerned with children. I agree! It is a way of organizing knowledge such as index cards filed away in the brain. This theory is important for infants and children as they grow and mature so they can use their mental image to understand and respond to situations that surface in their lives. James Hartley puts it “Learning results from inferences, expectations and making connections.” This is what kids do every day. They take on what they previously learned in order to advance their knowledge. This is when the children mature, grow up, they have an increased capacity to understand. Just like the behaviorist theory there are points in our lives that one theory outweighs another. Constructivism TheoryIs when individuals strive to make sense of their environment based on their past experiences and present state (Bates, 2014). Learning is based on experiences that the learner has making it unique and different for each person. As we are learning in this course we all have the same assignment but the results from each individual student will be diverse as we all have different backgrounds and experiences. I think this theory works best in a flipped classroom, using my innovation plan, as each student can share their experiences with one another so they can build a deeper understanding of the content. Students work in collaborative groups each day to discuss the content or practice the concept taught providing that deeper knowledge base so they can continue to grow and mature within the subject area. I personally learn best when I’m involved within the discussion or doing what needs to be done. So I inundate myself within the content and work with others so I can hear and learn from their past experiences as well as my own. This way I can dive deeper into the learning process. I think this is where I’m at today in my learning styles as I’ve grown and matured over the years. I think the younger population can learn with this theory, however, you need to take into account their past experiences are limited so when I teach to this kind of learning theory I need to keep in mind that their experiences are not as vast as mine. I believe that as a teacher I need to provide opportunities for my students to learn on both a behaviorist theory and constructivist theory. Students that I teach are only in 6th grade which means they are only 11 and 12 years old and their past experiences to draw from are limited so by using both theories of learning as I create my lesson plans I’d more than likely reach more students. I also believe that my innovation plan, flipped classroom, encourages students to learn on their own as they are not forced to watch the video lesson that I’ve created for them to watch prior to attending class, but I can encourage or create experiences within the classroom that they will want to go back and watch the video later in order to build that deeper understanding or so they can actually partake in the activity the next day. To get my school colleagues to adopt the flipped learning environment in their classrooms I need to provide them with an experience they can “see” to help influence them to try a flipped learning model. Maybe I could assist our principal with flipping a faculty meeting as a way to show my fellow employee’s first-hand what it looks like building that experience which is the most valuable form of learning. I’d also open my classroom up for observations as another way to develop their understanding. Annotated Bibliography
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jill HobbsMatthew 6:34 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Archives
February 2020
Categories
All
|