It is interesting to reflect upon my own learning experiences and the ones that were the most memorable. Based on prior knowledge as well as completing the weekly tasks, I am drawn to the constructivist approach. I believe this approach best allows learners to be actively involved in their learning, inspiring intrinsic motivation. I have always been someone who learns best from doing, which is likely why most of my classroom memories revolve around hands-on experience. I distinctly remember doing a debate in my social studies course where each student was able to take on a role and prepare their side based on the information of their character. I thought this was a really unique opportunity that allowed students to choose a character they found most interesting and imagine the situation from their perspective. This allowed students to create their own meaning out of the material, providing a very rich learning experience. Another example I can remember was learning about blood in elementary school. First, we were able to do a hands-on experiment where we created blood in a bag, using objects like corn syrup and candy hearts. After this, we played a tag game where the people who were “it” were the white blood cells and they were trying to tag the red blood cells. Science has never been a subject that comes easily to me, but I remember loving this unit and understanding it extremely well. I was able to actively create my own meaning, resulting in effective learning. 

I believe growing up, most of my classrooms focused on a behaviorist approach. Standardized testing always caused me a lot of anxiety due to the want to succeed. The consequence of a grade affected me so much that I often still equate my success with the grade I receive rather than how much I retained. Although I would not deem this intrinsic motivation, I definitely was motivated to study and complete work efficiently in order to not feel like I failed and to receive praise from teachers and family. I feel like there is a strong link between behaviorist learning theory and discipline. I remember in elementary school, one of my teachers had a system of coloured cards. Every student’s name was displayed in front of the class with four card options: green, yellow, orange, and red. Every student had a green card until they were disruptive, when they would then have to get up in front of the class and change the colour of the card. If I remember correctly, yellow was a warning, orange was staying in for short recess, and red was staying in for lunch recess. I remember the feeling of shame when having to get up and pull your card, which often led to remaining silent at your desk for the rest of the period. Again, I believe this method achieved discipline, but at the cost of a student feeling shamed and unwilling to contribute for the rest of class. I think it is hard to break away from a behaviorist learning theory completely, but I believe it should only be used at appropriate times.

Cognitivist learning theory is the only one out of the three of these that I was previously unfamiliar with. From my understanding, cognitivist theory focuses on a student’s internal learning, referring to reflection and the best way to learn for each individual. Reflection allows students to realize what they have learned, what they may be confused about, and what further learning they want to achieve. I recall doing reflections after big projects that allowed me to be proud of what I had accomplished and recognize how my learning had progressed. Also related to cognitivism, I remember learning about mnemonics and how much I enjoyed using them. Memorable ones from elementary school include “Bears Eat Candy And Usually Share Everything” to spell “because”, and “ROY G. BIV” to remember the order of the rainbow. I soon began remembering information by writing songs, an example being a chemistry rap I taught to my peers in high school. To this day I can remember part of the rap even though the information is not currently relevant. Giving the students the opportunity to learn in a way that is best suited to their lives will allow for them to be the most successful. 

I believe all three of these learning theories are relevant and have a place in the classroom. As Ertmer and Newby point out in the article, there is not one superior theory, but rather, one must have an understanding of each theory as well as the learner’s needs in order to provide the most effective learning opportunity. Personally, I am a fan of the constructivist approach and plan to allow for my students to have opportunities to create their own learning experiences. I believe I will use elements of all three learning theories in my practice, but hope to focus more on the constructivist and cognitivist learning theories.