A bit about myself, and some opinion on learning theories.

I just finished my junior year at SBU, Salem.  If all goes as planned, I will graduate with my teaching degree in approximately a year.  This summer, I am not only taking a technology for educators course, I am also working nearly full time at a Christian camp – Camp David of the Ozarks.  My job at camp is to work as a wrangler and three days a week we take the campers out on trail rides.   When I am at home I have many hobbies, including horseback riding, sewing, plunking around a bit on the piano, writing, and other things.

Our assignment for this week consisted of this: "explain whether you most closely identify with the Behaviorist, Cognitive, Constructivist, or Social-Psychological learning perspective."  I believe that following any one of those theories to the exclusion of all others would result in an overly simplified method of teaching that leaves multiple holes in a curriculum.  It is my opinion that mixing the behaviorist theory with the cognitive theory would create an ideal learning theory.

This page describes behaviorism in brief detail, discussing how the founders of this theory believed that learning took place when children responded to a question (or a stimuli) with the correct response, and they reached that place through repetition of reward and punishment.  Although much of the forms of education and teaching has shifted away from the standpoint of behaviorism, I believe it is still necessary while teaching basic facts, such as the multiplication facts, some addition and other math processes, as well as in other school subjects.  Additionally, I think that behaviorism is very important in not only the academic part of education, but also in managing the classrooms.

This web-page contrasts behaviorism and cognitivism.  The descriptions of both of these theories on this page are very brief and to the point.  Cognitivism stresses the learning that takes places in stages.  One thing is learned after another thing is taught, like blocks being set up one on another.  In education, I believe this is vital for true learning to occur.  You cannot teach a child to do algebra before you teach him basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Likewise, you cannot teach a child to write a persuasive paper until you have first taught him how to read and write, and then how to set his thoughts down on paper in a coherent and structured format.

In conclusion, behaviorism can be used in managing a classroom and teaching basic facts, and cognitivism should be applied while developing a student's education to higher order thinking.