How would the learning be designed differently by a behaviorist, a cognitivist, and a constructivist? Scenario: A high school social study teacher is planning a class on climate change.

For behaviorism, teacher could use some pictures to represent each different climate. In class, teachers can point to the picture and ask students what kind of climate is this. For those students who can answer the problem, they are suitable for this kind of stimulus. However, teacher can also use date to be the stimulus. For example, for the special position, it is temperate maritime climate in June. Teacher can ask student what kind of climate in June for this position. Students who can answer it are suitable for this numerical stimulus. After class, teachers can ask students to do some related practice.

For cognitivism, teacher can do the behavior teaching at first, and then they can make some word problems to strengthen memory. For example, making a choice problem: choose the most suitable climate for the people to live. In addition, student can also know their purpose to remember different climate, which also meets the speciality about cognitivism. Students can strength their past memory.

For constructivism, I think that teacher can input the climate into the following study. Teacher can mix several different climates into one big problem. Students can use their previous memory to solve the problem, and create a new memory for their old memory. In general, teachers can let students use different ways to remember the same thing to strengthen the memory.

Overall, I think it is very good to integrate these three learning theories.

What is one idea from the readings or videos that you disagree with, and why?

I disagree with that “the critical link is not between the design of instruction and an autonomous body of knowledge about instructional phenomena, but between instructional design issues and the theories of human learning.” I do not understand the difference between “the design of instruction” and “instructional design issues”. If I assume that they have the similar meaning, I also suppose that “the autonomous body of knowledge about instructional phenomena” and “the theories of human learning” are both necessary. The theories of human learning is important, but I think the theory is produced by the autonomous body of knowledge about instructional phenomena.

Reference:

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.