Constructionist Learning Theories:

I agree that instructional strategies can and should be tied in with a constructionist learning theory. Students today are more technology fluent than many teachers in the classroom. We need to allow our students to be creative and explore the technology to create artifacts of their own after being taught how to do something. Allowing them to either work independently or in small groups will allow students to feel more comfortable with technology and gives them an opportunity to build on their prior knowledge to create their own examples. Teachers need to take a step back sometimes from their lecturing and allow their students to collaborate with each other and use technology in a method that embraces the topic of the lecture and then produce something that can be presented that demonstrates their understanding of the topic.

Using PowerPoint, Excel with graphs, Adobe Suite applications, etc. can all be used as resources that the students can use to create items that they can call their own that demonstrates prior knowledge and understanding. Working in small groups to accomplish this reinforces effort, critical thinking and understanding of the topic. Students feed off of each other’s thoughts, ideas and interpretations to create information that they can present back to the class and teacher.

I am fortunate to teach out of a lab all day and have the resources needed to accomplish this type of learning strategy. Teachers that do not have this privilege should try and get into a lab frequently, or use the technology in the classroom such as smart boards, projectors, etc. that the students can take turns using in groups and then report back when finished. Allowing time to use technology is also important. Too much time and students will drift away from the task at hand. Too short of time, and the concept of using technology to teach a lesson might not be achieved. Rehearsal of the use of technology is important and our students are already ahead of us.

Cognitivism in Practice

This week, I got to review several different instructional strategies that correlate with the principles of cognitive learning theory. In the classes that I teach, and can see a better way to use concept maps that will help my students with their understanding. The concept maps that are on-line and interactive with students will not only reinforce the material that they have already researched, but it will help them build on their prior knowledge to expand on the central concept or node and create a detailed concept map that they can then review from before be assessed over the information. Many of us are visual learners and seeing how the information flows helps retain that information for later retrieval.

In an effort to move all classrooms into the today's technologically savvy environment, this type of interactive concept is great for teachers and students to use. It does not necessarily have to be used for reviewing before an assessment, it can be used to start brain-storming ideas, building on prior knowledge, etc. Having the students interact with a concept map is a good method to keep students engaged, on task, and creative. There are many web sites that offer these tools and many are free. I believe that interactive concepts maps can be used in any discipline and helps reinforce the use of technology in the classroom.

Reinforcing Effort

An analysis of how instructional strategies correlate with the principles of behaviorist learning theories. I do believe that through reinforcing effort in the classroom, teachers are delivering positive reinforcement instead of negative reinforcement that steers student behavior in the right path. Through a stimulus-response method, teachers are encouraging behavior that investigates the mental and psychological processes of the students we teach.

Behaviors are learned habits and understanding how these habits are formed will better prepare teachers in the classroom when delivering curriculum to students. Through positive reinforcement efforts such as smiling back at students, contacting parents about good work, talking with other teachers about student success, etc. student behavior is stimulated and punishment is not typically necessary at this point. However, if teachers do not respond to student success or use negative reinforcement, student behavior might be unacceptable which could force teachers to use punishment to decrease the frequency of student behavior.

Using reinforcing efforts to promote positive student behavior can be successful for any teacher as long as the teacher understands how to use this method correctly. Teachers might want to consider contracts for students in the classroom. Violation of the student contract would lead to consequences and if students are made aware of the contract and consequences in advance, most students will behave in a positive, friendly manner.

Some instructional strategies that teachers can use that support behaviorist learning theory are reinforcing efforts and homework and practice. Reinforcing effort can be achieved by giving students rubrics in advance of a group project or student task to identify what effort and achievement look like. The rubric can be generated specifically for each task and can be quickly created in excel or publisher. Rubrics are a good tool to use that allows students to see the correlation between their grade and the effort they put into their work. Homework and practice is good for reinforcing what was learned in the classroom. Using the Microsoft Office Suite is a good technology tool to use for homework and practice. Not only can students generate typed notes from their hand written notes, which helps retain information as they type it, they can also research and generate graphs and other features through the office suite. Using multimedia software and online educational games in correlation with homework and practice will most likely engage students more positively with reinforcing what they have learned. They are using applications that they are comfortable with and typically gives immediate feedback to the student.

Of course, not all students learn the same way and teachers all teach differently. Using the technology made available in an appropriate, positive manner to educate our students will help shape positive behavior from our students. Hopefully, today's students will take advantage of what they have made available to them and put it to good use and continue to explore and develop their learning throughout their lives.