Cognitivism as a Learning Theory

http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html
http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational.html

Post derived from the above websites:

Most of us do feel that Learning is "One size fits all". But after you feel that way and get into the classroom and experience the different students or people you find very quickly that "One size does not fit all". Now the problem exists in how do you produce a way or ways to affect "All" students to adequately learn? This is where not only the _ism comes into play but the different learning styles are visible.
So now the schools are harping on the teachers to learn Differentiation among the students.

In learning this you have different styles of teaching that people feel are the best to teach the students such as Understanding by Design (UbD) and The Best Practices to name a couple. In this the teacher also has to study and prepare in order to deliver the best way to teach all students. We know that students learn from behavorism and cognitivism but which is best? We tend to think the best is the way we learn because that is our comfort zone but at this point we need to keep our students in mind.

The books that we are teachers read provide theories and suggestions, however we need to be diverse in being able to understand and teach it. My question is how can we do that? Then you have technology playing a vital role in the schools and this is a new thing that we need to learn and provide our students with because of the change of time. As time passes, things change or progress, so we have to progress in order to move our students into the changing world.

Simply put, Bill Kerr stated, "It seems to me that each _ism is offering something useful without any of them being complete or stand alone in their own right."

So between Behaviorism and Cognitivism, you have the good and bad aspects but you have to find your median to help provide the best learning for the students.

1st Post

1.What are your beliefs about how people learn best? What is the purpose of learning theory in educational technology?

My belief is that people learn best by saying, showing, then doing a particular step. If you tell someone what to do, then show them how to do it, then follow up by allowing them to do the task for theirself, then that person would get a better understanding of the task. Once this concept is put into action, then after about 3 times of doing this task, that person has learn the basic and can add on later to thier knowlede base. This could also be similiar to rote memory but once a person touches the task utilizing their hands-on abilities, they are more interested and they can understand the why and how of doing things.

An example provided by the book (Psychology of Learning for Instruction) states that the learning theory defines 3 components: The results, the means, and the inputs. Once these are defined then you have the reason for the theory.
When you look at this in Educational Technology, you see that you are constantly repeating the process to gain more knowledge and to build more technology that is constantly changing. Once you have established a situation, then another occurs that can make the first better. You have questions and dig for answers to get a simplied answer.

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.