Hi Mia,

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post about learning theories, and the examples you provided for each learning method. Your descriptions of the theories were clear and well-defined, and your real-world examples helped improve my understanding of the concepts.

One example of yours I particularly enjoyed is the application of behaviourism to learning American Sign Language (ASL). Although our readings described cognitivism as a well-suited learning theory to more complex cognitive processes, such as language development, I agree behaviourism can apply to learning ASL. Behaviourism provides learners with target stimuli and repeated cues to reinforce knowledge; therefore, with ASL, a target stimulus could be the verbal command to “sign ‘DOG’”, and the cue would be repeated exposure to the signing expression for “DOG.” Additionally, I really liked your example for the constructivism learning theory. In fact, I thought of the same example while reading about the theory: my interactions with the people in my life allow me to perceive the world through a unique lens, and construct knowledge through these experiences. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog post, Mia, and I look forward to reading your future responses in the upcoming weeks!

Xinh

Hi Ariana,

Like you mentioned in your blog post, I also consider my instruction style as behaviourist. In school, I always find myself performing well in math and statistics-based classes. This is because given the appropriate information, variables can be inputted into a formula, and a definite correct answer can be generated for every question. Additionally, as you said in your post, once I learn the process for solving an equation, I can perform repeated practice to reinforce my knowledge, and improve my performance. Given my apt for behaviourist instruction styles, I often find interpretive classes such as English difficult, for questions in these areas of study typically have no exact answers. As a result, formulating answers for such questions require more information processing and critical thinking – a learning style more suited to the cognitivism theory. Considering this, I would like to ask if you also struggle with interpretive classes? While I primarily possess a behaviourist learning style, I am sure there are students who consider themselves equally dominant in different learning theories.

I really enjoyed reading your post, Ariana, and I am looking forward to your future responses!

Xinh