3 Learning Theories - Behaviourism, Cognitivism & Constructivism

Seeing as though I am a logical learner on the Birmingham Grid for Learners I am going to structure this blog logically in dot point form.

Behaviourism - learners learn through practice and positive reinforcement.


Cognitivism - theoretical approach to understanding mental processing, if we understand the mind we can better understand learning.


Constructivism - based on experiences, the learner constructs their own reality.


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Connectivism - learning in the digital age.  George Siemens (2005) stated that you can't know everything, but you need to identify where to find the knowledge.


Do I agree with Siemens' ideas?
I personally agree with his statements.  The approach to learning he presents in modern and the way of the future classroom.  Connectivism identifies that no one has all the knowledge and that we should utilise the technology we have to further enhance the learning experience in the classroom.

21st Century Learners - Engage or Enrage Arguement

As future teachers we are kidding ourselves if we think students are just going to sit there and listen to the wisdom we impart!!! Haha!!!  We need to embrace technology and this concept of eLearning.  One definition I liked was Learning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers.  Students today are constantly online, chatting, on their mobiles and looking up new information.


With this in mind we need to find new ways to present learning so the students stay motivated and want to engage.  If we don't then they will become enraged and this will present a multitude of behaviour management issues!  

Week 1 - Activites

Every individual is unique and absorbs information through different learning styles and at different paces.  To fully understand your own character of teaching and the learning style of your students you must first understand what makes the brain tick.  


I always thought my learning style was kinaesthetic, hands on however when I did a a few multiple intelligence tests I discovered I was wrong.  On one test it was conclusive that I was visual smart.  This means that individual work, diagrams and posters help aid my learning.  The other intelligence test showed I was interpersonal/people smart closely followed by intrapersonal/myself smart.  The range of learning styles is very vast, it is going to be very difficult to cater for all learning needs within a classroom.


To profile students you could provide them with personality and learning style questionnaires.  You may see a strong pattern of a specific type of learner in your classroom therefore making lesson planning easier.  However you are more than likely to come across a range of different styles.  Felder and Solomon (2005) developed a learning style inventory online that can assess your personal learning style and inclination.  This quiz asks specific questions that gain information about learning preferences, problem solving skills and group or individual work.  


To help cater for different learning styles your lesson plans could incorporate different types of work such as group and individual time, writing and practical elements and various types on indoor and outdoor tasks and through the use of technology.


I feel that ICT is the new buzz words in education.  People are realising that we need to embrace it.  It has been proven that students learn better if the lesson relates to the real world.  The real world is technology!  In a lesson you could watch a video, download a worksheet or get students involved in researching a topic on a computer to help support the learners better.  By using ICT's such as social networking sites, individual research time on computers, visual aids/videos and interactive online games can help support different learning styles.


Knowing students learning styles isn't the only thing that will help you create dynamic lessons.  You also have to ask them what activities they like.  Get them involved in the learning process.  This will pass some of the responsibility onto the student.


This weeks' activities have really opened my eyes up to the different learning styles.  I am now excited about planning dynamic lessons for the students to interact and engage in :)

Click here to take the test yourself...

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm

The beginning of becoming a teacher...

My Profile Wiki

Having used the template to complete the profile it made me take a quick look at myself, my involvement with ICT, my hobbies, skills, learning style and favourite ICT tools.  This was a clever way of summarising myself.  This tool would be handy in an educational setting with different questions to gauge the types of people/students in your classroom.  I believe this is called profiling students. 

The purpose of this activity was so we could view everyone else’s profile and see who was similar and complete a reading and share our findings in a PMI.  This activity was supposed to be fairly easy and allow us to get to know our fellow peers...


However, I personally found this activity to be useless as I completed it very early on in Week 0 of the course and therefore finding a partner was impossible as no one else had published their profile wiki.  However I did verbally share my thoughts with another student but didn’t actually write it down. 

One thing I have already realised early in this course is that not all technology goes to plan.  This profile wiki activity kept stuffing up.  My page didn’t work or it would only load my profile and no one else’s due to technical problems beyond my control.  This issue made completing the tasks difficult. 

I am looking forward to the rest of the course, as challenging as it seems…