I found class very interesting this week. My degree in psychology may have helped with my comfort level on the topic of learning theories. So far, I think I most closely relate or agree with behavioral. This may be due to the fact that I am an apprentice style teacher. Like professor Carter stated in class, we may tend to go to the style we are used to being taught from. As a nurse, much of my learning has been hands on. As the saying goes, see one, do one, teach one. A lot of our schooling is clinical experience where we are expected to go in with the patients and act as a nurse. Learning for this field can not be completed in the classroom alone.
I think from an early age we learn through behaviorism. I know in my family poor behavior was never rewarded. We received money for A's in school, and were punished when we disobeyed. I don't think we are as simple as teaching a dog to salivate, but on some level it is similar. A perfect example comes from my own family. My brother is trying to potty train my nephew. They are rewarding him by giving him M&Ms. He learned quickly that peeing in the toilet would give him chocolate. Soon he was peeing very small amounts every 5 or 10 minutes to get more M&Ms. Pretty smart if you ask me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Oh my goodness, that's hilarious! Your nephew definitely sounds like one smart little cookie. :-) I agree that much of learning (especially early on in life) is very behavioral in nature. I guess it depends on the learning being done. I think it's easier to learn the more physically-oriented stuff from a behaviorist teaching perspective than higher-order reasoning/analytical skills might be. That's why the behaviorist style works so well for potty-training, and also for many hands-on work skills. This gets back to my belief that educators should switch up their teaching styles in accordance with a) the subject matter they are teaching, and b) the makeup of their student body.
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteI thought similar thing to you. I have also the highest score in Apprenticeship perspective. At first, I was surprised with my scores but I realized that it made sense. As you said, we tend to go to the style we are used to being taught from. Also, I think that teaching style is affected by learning style. I am a visual learner so I think that my teaching style shows my learning style.
The behaviorist teaching perspective is the most effective and efficient though it does not work in every field. Your nephew is amazingly smart. How he controls his peeing to get more chocolate. I don’t think that he doesn’t need the training any more.