Behaviorism, Cognitivism, constructivism
Behaviorism ”focuses on one particular view of learning: a change in external behavior achieved through a large amount of repetition of desired actions, the reward of good habits and the discouragement of bad habits. In the classroom, this view of learning allow educators to assist their students in excelling both academically and personally. They praise for correct outcomes and immediate correction of mistakes. In the field of language learning this type of teaching was called the audio-lingual method, characterized by the whole class using choral chanting of key phrases, dialogues and immediate correction.
Within the behaviourist view of learning, the "teacher" is the dominant person in the classroom and takes complete control, evaluation of learning comes from the teacher who decides what is right or wrong. The learner does not have any opportunity for evaluation or reflection within the learning process, they are simply told what is right or wrong. The conceptualization of learning using this approach could be considered "superficial" as the focus is on external changes in behaviour i.e. not interested in the internal processes of learning leading to behaviour change and has no place for the emotions involved the process.”
To me behaviorism in education is a foundational way of introduction to learning. It is needed in primary education to prepare small kids for the journey of their learning. It allows small kids to feel good for the positive enforcement and rewards.
Today, this is adea is widely practicing in many countries for all levels of education, which is unfortunate. Gaining good marks is the main motive of learners and thus memorization is the best way to get high marks. Sometimes learners get pressure from their parents, because they are ones, who decide what subjects their children learn and what professions will have the future.
Learners have career models, which is based on having luxury hoses, latest cars and to be wealthy, and simply they follow what employers, teachers and parents say to get huge money at their earlier ages. Therefore behaviorism will remain in our education system and this will eliminate or reduce the creativity our societies.
Cognitivism: The cognitivist revolution replaced behaviorism in 1960s as the dominant paradigm. Cognitivism focuses on the inner mental activities – opening the “black box” of the human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn. Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored. Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions. Learning is defined as change in a learner’s schemata.”
Constructivism - "At their core, constructivist perspectives focus on how learners construct their own understanding. ... learners construct knowledge based on what they already understand as they make connections between new information and old information. Students' prior ideas, experiences, and knowledge interact with new experiences and their interpretations of the environment around them. Research by Savery & Duffy (1995) suggests that learning how to use constructivist theories involves many interactions between the content, the context, the activity of the learner, and the goals of the learner. Cognitive conflict drives this knowledge-building process. Cognitive conflict occurs for learners when they encounter and recognize discrepancies between what they already know and new persuasive information that brings their current understanding into question
It seems difficult to see the difference between teacher's and student's role in Constructivism and Cognitivism. Constructivism seems to be even more personalized and individually orientated than Cognitivism, but how does the role of the teacher and learner differs?
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