I really like you idea that Behaviorism focuses on the environment of the learning rather than the learners condition, while the cognitivism and constructivism encourage the learners critical thinking but sometimes can put too much pressure on them. My question is whether you think there are any difference between cognitivism and constructivism.
I think the focus of the three theories together could better support a learner’s learning process from different perspectives and enable them to both get stimulus from the environment, and encourage them to have enough critical thinking, as well as connecting the new information with their prior understanding of the old information.
Do you think there is any way to combine two or even three of the theories to help with learning?
I found the three concepts behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism difficult to understand. I think it is because these three concepts are abstract and they don’t come out often in our daily learning or reading. Therefore without proper examples to demonstrate the concepts, they can be very difficult to understand by simply reading the definitions or explanations of them. Since it is difficult to understand the concepts by their definitions, I looked up for the examples of each concept. I looked for the classroom activities that uses the three concepts respectively and understood them better with the definitions and the examples provided.
The process of my learning to speak English as a second language can be a good example of cognitivism. When I was in middle school, I only learned to read and write in English. I had little chance to practice speaking. When I went abroad, I finally had the chance to use English in speaking. I found it really difficult as first because being used to reading and writing, listening to other people’s thought, giving responses and then putting my thoughts into words is a long process for me and choosing the right expression took me a lot of time. This made me nervous and it would usually take me very long time to come up with a sentence. I took classes on speaking in particular and the teachers had very helpful strategies such as giving me an imaginary conversation so that I could practice speaking with vocabulary and expressions that I was familiar with. In the process, the teachers also help me to make connections to the vocabulary and expressions that I could use in writing. With lots of practice, I found it increasingly easy to connect speaking with writing and words came out more easily than it used to be when I first used English in speaking.
My practice in speaking English based on my prior knowledge in English vocabulary and grammar showed how cognitivism works in my learning. I think I was able to speak English because I already had the necessary knowledge stored in my brain. The way I used the knowledge in reading and writing was different from the way I use it in speaking, and the practice is making new connections to existing understandings which is supported by the theory of cognitivism.
My name is Qiaoyang Pang. I’m from China and this is my second year in University of Victoria. I have been taking more online classes than I did with offline class since I enter college, and I would say that I am quite familiar with the online learning form. I find that I have a lot of time once I’m used to learning online but I would love to be able to go back to the traditional class settings soon.
For this course, I am hoping to learn about multimedia learning as what we are currently doing. I am curious how online learning, as well as multimedia learning works compared to the traditional ways that I received mostly when growing up. I also can’t wait to learn with the learning pod because I find that group work helps me a lot in learning. It makes me feel that I am not alone in this learning process and I could always find things that I could learn from my team members when I work with them.
Recent Comments