Behaviorism and Constructivism - Essay Example

1 How Can the Theories of Behaviorism and Constructivism Be Used to Explain Educational Software? Learning by doing is aprocess that has been employed in all manners of educational systems for ages. This entails teaching by examples: students or learners are expected to repeat the same actions or activities undertaken by the teachers or instructors in the course of learning. This form of learning has also been termed “engaged learning”, because when instructions are handed out, learners are expected to follow each stage in the educational development; and at the end of the lesson, they will have mastered the subject-matter they were learning about (Kettermann & Marko, 2002). The major criticism against the process is that it leaves no room for learners to professionally contribute to the process; however, it has been regarded as the fastest way to learn, as learners can instantly practice what they had been taught (Kettermann & Marko, 2002). Learning by doing has many practical applications: for examples, an engineer could follow the instructions on educational software to design a car’s engine; a student can utilize the information provided on software to reproduce similar laboratory experiment. This method totally agrees with the behavioralism theory of learning, which emphasizes on the importance of the learning environment on the overall learning outcomes (Phillips & Soltis, 2004). If the educational software used in this learning is designed in a way that helps learners to quickly absorb the instructions about a subject-matter, the software could be adjudged as learning-enhancer (Phillips & Soltis, 2004). 2 The use of ICTs at all academic levels has become widespread in recent years because of their advantages: (i) ICTs have the capabilities of enhancing the extent of students’ understanding of a curriculum’s contents—that is, the learners could have better grasp of the subject-matter through the use of ICTs; (ii) with ICTs, the instructors or teachers could improve or change the contents of a curriculum—in other words, they could broaden the curriculum covering new areas of studies made possible by the advent of educational technologies; (iii) ICTs could be used as supporting materials or equipment in the process of delivering education (Leask & Meadows, 2000). The most interesting aspect of the application of ICTs at schools is that it makes learning more enjoyable to the learners. For example, the fascinating graphics used in some educational software have the power to catch the attention of the students or learners for a long time and help to boost the overall memory level (Leask & Meadows). Students at the elementary are the biggest section of the academia that are carried away with interesting and funny graphics. People learn in different ways: considering the principles of constructivism, it is clear that some people believe (i) that learning is an active process that requires active participation on the part of the learners; (ii) that learners cannot take much out of their studies if they not are practically motivated by their instructors; (iii) that learning is a social activity, which is sometimes time-consuming and requiring experience; (iv) that learning should help learners to understand the subject-matter of the teaching. As a result of the 3 purposes of learning highlighted above, it is quite helpful to utilise ICTs to accomplish all the aspirations of the learners which include but not restricted to learning very fast, using software that could simplify their curriculum and facilitate better understanding, and encourage the learners to be proactive in their studies (Phillips & Soltis, 2004). ICTs have demonstrated the unique ability to reduce the length of time learners spend on learning. For instance, university students going for lectures in traditional classrooms will have to spend a lot of time to commute from their residence to the school. Today, ICTs have solved that problem, and students can take lessons through their mobile appliances like personal computers or Iphones. As explained above, elementary school students could develop strong interest and motivation towards their studies through the use of ICTs (Leask & Meadows, 2000). ICTs also have the power to modify curriculums so that learners could adapt to the easier way of learning. Depending on the purposes of implementation, different ICTs have been discovered to enhance the quality of learning in all facets of education. ICTs have been applied in Reading and Writing, Sciences, Talking and Reasoning, Social sciences and Creativity Visual Literacy, and so on (Leask & Meadows, 2000). For reading and writing, some of the ICTs learners use include but not limited to Multimedia Spelling Package, Computers with Spelling Checkers, CD-ROMs containing stories, ClipArts Computer Graphics, Pocketbook Computers, and so on; for sciences, 4 especially Mathematics, learners may use Computers, digitalised calculators, spreadsheets, databases, and so on. For social sciences, learners may use Computers, CD-ROMs with the appropriate information about the issues under discussion; for Creativity Visual Literacy, learners may use Computer graphic and other applicable digital technologies that are useful in visual arts (Leask & Meadows, 2000). Over the years, the ICTs outlined above have helped both the teachers and the learners to overcome drudgery and breathe new excitement into the learning process. Now, instructors can transform the contents of their lessons using these ICTs to better catch the attention of their students. Similarly, learners can gain more from the curriculum as they discover that the time of learning has been cut short, the curriculum has been modified and the process of learning has been more entertaining than it was before. Using ICTs at the elementary school, for instance, has created a more relaxing atmosphere for the students as well as their instructors, who did not need to bother anymore about how to increase their students’ participations in the classrooms, something that ICTs have often helped them to accomplish (Leask & Meadows, 2000). Learning, as a dynamic activity, is guided by some theories which have helped instructors or educators to understand the right approach they should take in delivering their educational goals. Looking at the two commonest theories about learning—namely, behavioralism and constructivism—it is possible to discover that these two theories approach learning from different perspectives: Behavioralism emphasises the importance of 5 the environment of learning. Take for instance: when a learner is placed in a well-developed learning environment equipped with the appropriate ICTs, it is possible for that learner to acquire more knowledge than when placed in a poorly developed environment (Kettermann & Marko, 2002). Incidentally, the quality of learning also depends on the attitude of the instructor to teaching, the availability of learning materials (including ICTs) and learner’s readiness to study. Having acquired the right instruction, it is then left for the learners to reconstruct more knowledge from what they had learnt; that is, they can expand the concepts they had learnt about using personal extrapolation of the subject-matter. In this way, the learners can apply their studies into other areas of their lives in a more dynamic way (Kettermann & Marko, 2002). On the other hand, constructivism theory of learning emphasises that learners mostly care about the meaning of their learning, not necessarily engaged in reconstructing the concept or involving in any abstraction of the subject-matter. Learners believe that they are doing a social activity when they learn, and they also think it is time-consuming. Constructivism theory encourages selective learning and transformation of what had been learnt. It is also believed that experience is a vital tool of understanding the subject-matter in any studies. Hence, these learning theories are applied in different settings because of their power to transform the educational goals. These theories serve as templates upon which the instructors build their teaching objectives (Kettermann & Marko, 2002). The main rationale for implementing these learning theories is improve the curriculum based on the educational needs of the learners in that academic setting. 6 References Kettermann, B., & Marko, G. 2002. Teaching and learning by doing corpus analysis: proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora. Netherlands: Rodopi. Leask, M., & Meadows, J. 2000. Teaching and learning with ICT in the primary school. New York: Routledge. Phillips, Denis, C., & Soltis, Jonas, F. (2004). Perspectives on learning. New York: Teachers College Press. Read More