Blog Post #1 Learning, Motivation, and Theory
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Behaviourists：
The behaviorist approach to learning is based on the idea that learners respond to stimuli in the environment. Therefore, the role of a learning facilitator is to provide relevant and useful stimuli so that the learner can respond and gain the desired knowledge or experience.
A behaviorist approach to learning revolves around the belief that appropriate behavior can be taught through repeated repetition of tasks combined with feedback from the facilitator. Positive feedback encourages and reinforces success, while negative feedback and immediate correction deters repetition of mistakes or bad behavior.
Cognitivists：
Judging from the learning results, learning is not the formation of a stimulus-response connection, but a new gestalt. From the perspective of the learning process, learning is a process of actively organizing situations in the mind; the learning process is not gradual The process of trial and error is not a blind attempt, but a process of sudden insight into the situation. The so-called epiphany is to understand one’s own actions and situations, especially the relationship with the target object. Consciousness is the intermediary between stimulus and response. Gestalt epiphany also has certain limitations. It completely attributes learning to the organizational activities of the organism itself, denies the reaction process of objective reality, and completely opposes trial-and-error learning and epiphany learning, which does not conform to the characteristics of human learning.
Constructivists：
Constructivism is a further development of cognitivism. Constructivists pay more attention to how learners construct knowledge based on their original experience, psychological structure and beliefs, and put more emphasis on the subjectivity, sociality and situational nature of learning. When individuals are learning, their minds are not empty, but due to their previous life experience, they retain their own unique cognitive schemas in their minds. During the learning process, they construct new ones through the interaction with the external environment Cognitive schema, this new cognitive schema is creative, not a continuation of the original schema in nature. Therefore, compared with the behavioral theory, the learning process is considered to be a qualitative change, a process of active construction, rather than the establishment of a passive stimulus-response model.
Which theory is the most effective in fostering mastery of specific tasks by specific learners?
In general, there is no best of the three major learning theories. Only by finding the one that suits you best can you learn effectively. For me personally, behaviorist theory works best. I can strengthen my memory of professional concepts and formulas by doing the questions repeatedly. This helped me a lot in my economic courses.
Peers post link:
February 18, 2023 at 1:10 pm
Hi Ian! Thank you for sharing your understanding of the three learning theories. I appreciate that you did not prioritize one theory over the other. We should use the one that best suits the needs of our students to reach the learning goals.
To strengthen your post, for each theory, you may want to add some specific activities/strategies instructors can use and real classroom examples.
What sources did you use when crafting your blog? Please also do not forget to provide an appropriate reference for the image.