Hi there!
Welcome to my first blog post for EDCI 335. Today I will be describing three learning theories: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. I will illustrate these theories with an example of a time when I was taught using each method.
Behaviourism
According to Ertmer & Newby (2013), behaviorism is a learning theory that focuses on the conditions of the environment to reinforce knowledge and behavior transfer. Utilizing behaviorism, the instructor would concentrate on specific cues and practice strategies to reinforce stimulus-response associations (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). Based on this definition, I can relate my current American Sign Language (ASL) course to this learning method. Although Ertmer and Newby (2013) point out that behaviorism cannot explain higher skills and deep processing like language development, I think it can apply to ASL. In the ASL class, the environmental condition took an active role in my learning as I was emersed in a strictly gestured communication style. The ASL classroom environment has allowed me to concentrate on the specific signing cues and with practice, it has improved my receptive and expressive skills.
Cognitivism
Cognitivism is a learning theory that focuses on the mental activity of the learner and situates the best the learning strategies such as mental planning and goal setting (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). Cognitivism centers the learner as an active participant while connecting their prior understandings to new information (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). The perfect example of this learning theory in practice is this EDCI 335 course. When completing this blog post, I first looked at the prompts and then read the required readings. This allowed me to mentally plan what I was going to write about. Moreover, as I was writing my notes I highlighted important aspects of the text and added my personal examples of how this learning theory relates to me, which were then used as cues to complete this blog post. Consequently, this allowed me to understand how cognitivism works in the context of this class, differentiating it from behaviorism, and allowing for knowledge transfer.
Constructivism
The constructivism learning theory focuses on how the mind is constantly creating meaning through interactions and experiences (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). It is the specific interactions between the learner and the environment that allows knowledge formation (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). As a sociology major, the first thing that came to mind after reading this definition was the concept of socialization. Socialization refers to the ways in which we come to know the things that we are supposed to know about our society (Kidd & Teagle, 2012, p. 22). In my prior sociology classes, I have been asked to reflect on my socialization process to examine how my pasts interactions have formed my thought process and who I am today. This concept is central to constructivism as the learning theory holds that “the mind filters input from the world to produce its own unique reality” (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). For example, my parents have taught me how to view and interact with the world which has shaped my actions in society. I was taught that in order to be successful I had to build my career by going to university. Can you think of a way your socialization process has defined who you are today?
References
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.
Kidd, W., & Teagle, A. (2012). Culture and Identity. doi:10.1007/978-1-137-27251-5
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