Karl Kapp made a great point that an instructor should take pieces from each school of learning, that being cognitivism, behaviorism and constructivism. In the field of education an instructor has to use creativity to deliver information that students can retain and enhance their knowledge base.
For example students are rewarded with good grades if learning is successful(behaviorism) and if learning is not successful the student's learning skill or way of thinking are accessed an adjustments are made to facilitate learning(cognitive).
The behaviorist theory focuses on a stimulus to aid in learning and the cognitive theory focuses on the mental process of how someone learns. An example of a behaviorist focus is for a teacher to ask students questions and the stimuli could be a prize. If the students start to get the answers wrong then the cognitive theory would change the way the questions are delivered to promote learning.
The process of learning pulls together emotional, cognitive, environmental factors and experiences. Learning theory is an attempt to describe how people learn. Behaviorism and cognitivism are two of the frameworks of learning theories.
Behaviorism does not fully consider the thought processes that go on in the learner’s mind. Stimulus and responses as derived from the work of Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, and Skinner, a Gagne promoted and experimented in the behaviorism.
Cognitivism deviates from behaviorism in that it deals with the internal mental processes of the mind and how these processes could be used to endorse effective learning. Behaviorism breaks tasks into small steps and/or chunks, which are then used to shape the learner’s behavior. In cognitivism the tasks are first analyzed and then broken down into steps. Cognitivism uses the metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to certain outcomes.
References
Kapp, K. (2007, January 2). Out and about: Discussion on educational schools of thought. Message posted to http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational.html
Kerr, B. (2007, January 1). Isms as filters and blinkers. Message posted to http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html
Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2010, March). Cognitivism at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved March 30th, 2010 from http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html
http://www.about-elearning.com/learning-theories.html
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Good post. You are so right that we as instructors in education have to be able to be creative. Our students are important and we must be able to help them not just learn, but be ables as you said to "retain and enhance their knowledge". This generation of students have the I am bored symdrome and we must be able to not just keep their attention, but to be sure they are learning.
ReplyDeleteMost instructors use more than one theory to develop curriculum, instructoral design, on teaching stratgeries. The behavorist approach is fundmentally used with teaching and developing students soft skills. Cognitivism is use when relating to the processes that take place whebn a student learn. The metaphor of the mind as a computer, is not far fletched. When the computer was first thought of and then build, the human mind was the calayst for what the computer should be able to do. Take in Input, Process, and give output. So when the cognitivists say that the learning process is similar to the how the comptuer work, I am wondering if it is not the reverse.
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