A lot of what I read was fairly new information for me. I had heard of behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism before, but I didn’t know much about them. My key takeaways (and some personal examples!) were that:

  • Behaviourism focuses on reinforcement and feedback as a way to develop habits (which seems to be rather than actually understanding the process and reasoning behind knowing the answer)
    • The traditional cookie-cutter method where right answers are expected from certain situations and are either reinforced when correct, or come with consequences when incorrect (which I picture as getting a gold star or a slap on the wrist, but that’s going very old school) 
    • An example would be the dreaded ‘Math Minute’ worksheets from elementary school that didn’t teach me anything, but instead left me feeling intimidated, incompetent, and just plain sad
  • Cognitivism works with the brain in order to find and utilize appropriate strategies to understand the connection between new learning and prior knowledge (this is more on track with modern learning where the information is presented in a way that students build on what they already know)
    • Focuses on thinking, problem-solving, and processing, among other strategies (this makes me think of how learners become invested and how they can utilize different strategies with practice so that they become engrained)
    • Mnemonics are fun ways to get students thinking about thinking! I still think of Mr. Roy G. Biv when I see a rainbow, or ‘My Very Eager Mother Just Showed Us Neat Penguins’ to remember the order of the planets (since Pluto was still a planet when I was in elementary school). I’m excited to have my own example for my students that includes food and animals, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with to match their personalities!
  • Constructivism feels like the most modern perspective to me, in that focuses on how learners interpret and make meaning from the material (more flexible and learner-centered – each student learns in a unique way depending on their experiences and interactions with the world)
    • Allows learners to access the material in the way that makes the most sense to them and create meaning based off their reality (learners each take their own path to get to the end journey with guidance from the teacher)
    • This made me think of inquiry projects from middle/high school – we were given a topic with questions we needed to answer, but the subject was our choice and how we found the answers was up to us (books, internet research, interviews). I felt so immersed in the learning, and this style made it important and meaningful to each person in their own way. I want to figure out how to do this for elementary students so that they can begin to shape their learning and understanding around what means something to them

I’m excited to start my own career in education and getting to put all of my learning into practice. The more I understand about different perspectives and what they mean for each learner, the better I can shape the classroom environment to suit their needs (or, since I want to be a Learning Support Teacher (LST), the better I can tailor my support to work with each individual).

Reference

Ertmer, P.A. & Newby, T. (2013). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/learning_and_instruction