Behaviorism: As the name indicated, is a systemic approach to understanding human behaviors. Behaviorists believes that human behaviors can be changed through positive and negative reinforcement. One common example is that we can get good feedback on a school project we worked very hard on. This positive feedback creates a positive reinforcement which is very likely to lead us work hard in the next project. On the other hand, an example of negative reinforcement is that we may get marks taken off if we skip the class meeting.
Cognitivism: Cognitivism focuses on mental constructs. Cognitivists believes that human learning depends heavily on internal representations. People learn by constantly linking new information to previously gained knowledge. An example of cognitivism in the school context would be the discussion session. Professors usually ask us to reflect and discuss what we have learned, what are the self-related examples of what we have learned, therefore helping us builds an ideal mental construct from it. This reflects on Bates’ reading as he mentioned how cognitivists focuses on comprehension, mental process and how learners make sense of the new information.
Constructivism: Constructivism states that learning is a “social process”. Individuals are “consciously strive for meanings” that they constantly interpret/make sense of the world based on their past experiences gained through communications between learner and educator. An example comes to mind is that when I’m taking economics, whenever our professor introduces a new concept, he always explains it with previously learned concepts so that each concept builds on the previous one. For example, when he was teaching the concept of tariff, he re-introduces the concept of quota and explain how they are connected to each other. I believe it is very helpful for me to build a holistic picture of what am I learning.
Connectivism: Connectivism emphasizes on learner’s autonomy, and the diversity, openness and interactivity in learning. An example I can think of is that when our professors add class recordings and not requiring for participations, meanwhile encouraging students post their questions about course material in Discussion section at Brightspace. This reflects on Bates’ reading from the perspective of “Openness”, “Learner’s Autonomy” and “Interactivity”. It made learning a lot easier for students as they can access the lectures online whenever they need to. Also encourages the interaction between learner and instructor as well as between learner and learner.
Reflection: I chose this topic because I’m curious about different ways of learning and what’s the best way to maximize our productivity. This topic introduced four ways of learning from different standpoint. Bates’ reading provided a great detailed insight of each different learning theories and how it can be applied in learning environment. I believe this topic will be very helpful for my future learning as I can adjust my learning style to help me maximize my learning productivity.
