Post 1 – Community Contributions

Molly, I enjoyed reading your response for this post. I strongly agree with utilizing cognitivism and constructivism over behaviourism when teaching. I also like how you connected the information from these readings to the material we learned last term, such as about behaviourism and intrinsic motivation. I like what you brought up about students creating meaningful connections to the material and topics they are learning. I believe that this is one of the best ways for students to learn. If they are able to engage in the material because it is something they are interested in, they are much more likely to stay focused and learn. This has a lot to do with keeping your students motivated, because they are more likely to want to continue learning if it is connected to something they are passionate about.

Personally, I have had the same experience as you, where I learn material better when I build a connection to it. I would really like to incorporate this into my classroom to help my future students stay interested and motivated to learn by making meaningful connections. I want to give them the best possible learning experience, and I think this will help with that.

Breanne, I also learn better when I am able to do something and be active in my learning. The social studies project you had to do sounds very interesting, and I believe it would have been a great way to learn the material. Not just because you were able to choose someone that interested you, which would increase motivation to learn, but also because the students would have been able to find personal connections with the information to build meaning, helping them learn it better. The other hands-on example you discussed, the blood in a bag, was such a good way to teach young children about blood and to help them understand the different components. I had not thought about this experiment in years, but after reading what you wrote about it, I remember it clearly, so thank you for the reminder!

I strongly agree with what you wrote about the behaviourist approach. Throughout school, a large part of my motivation came from wanting to get good grades. I would sometimes complete assignments in a way that I believe would get me the highest grade, rather than in a way that would help me retain the information. Behaviourism involves reinforcements and punishments. I agree that this is not the best way to teach and motivate students, and it would be difficult to move away from this learning theory completely, so it should be used occasionally and in the right way. In elementary school, I was always worried about having my card pulled! I never wanted to get in trouble. If I remember correctly, I only pulled my card twice, both times to yellow, but it was upsetting. This system worked fairly well for getting students to listen because many of us feared getting in trouble for misbehaving, so we would sit, focus, and listen nicely.