ETEC 561: Theories
and Models of Learning and Instruction
1. Epistemology (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p 46)
is a philosophy that looks at what we know and how we know it. Additionally, it challenges our assumptions
of how knowledge is acquired and how to judge the way we judge the truthfulness
of our knowledge. Instructional methods
and theories concern themselves mostly with how the instructions are presented
to the learner, not so much as how the teacher knows the truth of the
presentations.
2. My personal
teaching philosophy is contextualist constructionist. My content areas are business and technology
in education. In the case of business I
feel that there has to be theory and real world examples combined at the same
time. Teaching the future value of money
has no meaning without specific instances of how it affects the students
throughout their whole lives. The other
content area, Technology in education, is developing methods for combining technology
in other content areas to further enhance learning.
3. The
approaches differ in both the nature of the problem to be solved and in
facilitating the problem solving process between behaviorist and constructivist
perspectives. Constructivism is a theory
that explains how we know what we know (A U, 2014); People learn by doing and learn by
discovering the consequences for what they are doing. Behaviorism , according to Cherry (2014) teaching
by using specific stimulus to get learners to absorb knowledge. I think that in a constructivism class the
students would be encouraged to learn and participate. In a behaviorist class the student’s wants
and needs would be second to the institutions wants and needs.
References:
Reiser, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. (2012). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design
and Technology, 3td ed. Allyn & Bacon, 501 Boylston Street, Boston, Ma,
02116. (pp. 1-34).
Author Unknown, (2014), Learning
Theory: Constructivist Approach, American College of Education, viewed at http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2174/Learning-Theory-CONSTRUCTIVIST-APPROACH.html
Cherry, Kendra (2014), What is Behaviorism?, about education,
Viewed at http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/f/behaviorism.htm
I can absolutely see how the subjects of business and technology in education would be related to the contextualist/constructivist philosophy. They require both real world and theory to ensure understanding and knowledge that can be applied outside of the classroom. I have learned that the need to learn AND participate will increase retention and synthesis.
ReplyDeleteI also tend to identify more with the contextualist philosophy. There is a lot of truth to the statement that you made about how "teaching the future value of money has no meaning without specific instances of how it affects the students throughout their whole lives". If the students can not see the connection, it has very little meaning to them.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your post.
Carl - your comments were nice and concise to the point of easy understanding. The comment about the behavorist's class being more about the institution's want and needs is very interesting. It is definitely easier to conduct a behavorist lesson than an contextualist lesson.
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