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Prompt – Describe an example from your life of when you were taught using each method described in this article: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.
Behaviorism
A behaviorist style of instruction was apparent when I took THEA 150 – Public Speaking, where the entirety of the course grade was split between three speeches the student would make throughout the semester. The professor provided thorough feedback for each speech, and expected the next one to be better. In order to achieve a high grade (the reward) the students would have to better apply the principles of good public speaking taught in the course (the response) for each speech (the stimulus). Repeating this exercise three times ensured that the response would get stronger and stronger each time.
Cognitivism
Most scientific and mathematical education is a good example of cognitivism as starting from the very first year of schooling, students are taught increasingly advanced concepts that build upon previous years of education. When being taught 3D geometry, my professors prefaced each new concept with its 2D counterpart which I was already familiar with. For instance, students would first be given a refresher on the concepts and formulae relating to a 2D line before being introduced to a 3D line to help them a) make a connection between the two and realize that a 3D line is nothing but a generalization of a 2D line, and b) be able to apply this generalization to other geometrical concepts.
Constructivisim
Final/Course projects are often assigned with constructivist principles in mind. In CSC 375 – Systems Analysis, the course project assigned to each student group was to design a system/solution for a real life volunteer client. This ongoing project gave students the opportunity to apply the workflow practices and systems design/requirement analysis principles they were learning as they learned them. The student groups (aka analyst teams) also conducted client meetings to get feedback and provide continuous updates which ensured the context of the project (and therefore knowledge application) was close to what students would find in a professional setting.
