::Understand the theories ::
For this week, we learnt 3 different concepts.
Behaviorism
In a nutshell, behaviorism involves shaping the learner's behavior to get the outcome the educator wants and providing reinforcements/punishments. By providing reinforcement, the educator hopes that the learner will repeat the same behavior again, whereas for punishment, it deters the learner from making the same "mistake".
In my perspective, this concept is almost authoritative. We as the learners are treated as passive beings and are expected to learn what we are taught, blindly. When I say blindly, it means no qualms/questions about what we are taught, whether they are right or wrong. But this is terribly wrong. Afterall curiosity fuels improvement! How can we improve if we don't question? I think this doesn't apply to the real world (or if it does, to a small extend). Behaviorism takes the assumption of human beings being conceived as not to have any freewill, and that we are of no difference to animals. YES. Learners are regarded as passive beings but they are not totally passive. Human beings constantly question about what we are taught and sometimes, we go to the extent of rebelling again what we are told to do.
This brings me to using reinforcements and punishments. Because the learners do not abide to what they are taught/told, reinforcements and punishments come into play. We are rewarded to reinforce the "right" attitude and are punished when we make mistakes. It is good that we are rewarded for what was rightly done/conformed to. Too much emphasis is given to rewards and punishments. For instance, when a child is rewarded whenever he colors a page of drawing, in a long run, he will understand that coloring comes with rewards. This attitude adopted undermines the true meaning to learning such that the child will not be able to understand the passion to coloring/drawing.
Yet, isn't this what is happening right now? As a child grows up, when he/she does the right thing, his/her parents will reward her by giving her treats, praises, smiles etc. When he/she make mistakes or fall below the expectation of adults, he/she will be frowned upon. This is the way every child grows up by learning. Take for example, our mindset towards learning is somewhat wraped. One real life scenario from the behaviorist point of view would be us as students studying just so that we would graduate with a degree and possibly get a good job after that. We take modules because we are rewarded with credits and should we fail to meet the necessary requirements to pass, the modular credits would be forfeited (our punishment to deter us from not studying hard). Through this simple example, we can see the characteristics of behaviorism being exhibited. This brings us to the point of human beings being selfish! Which is another interesting point that Wortham brought up. Our selfishness lead us to the pursuit of our dissatisfaction of our unlimited wants.
Cognitivism
Next, to the concept of cognitivism..
In simple words, cognitivism has got to do with people's own internal representations of the world. It assumes that people have their views of the world, and those views of the world are built as concepts, beliefs or theories internally. When they make sense of the world, they build new representations and these are crucial to help someone learn.
Interestingly, one point that distinguishes behaviorism from cognitivism is the amount of control the educator is "entitled" to (i.e. the influences of active Vs passive learners). In cognitivism, the educator has lesser control on the learner. Because teaching is less direct and the learners themselves have already formed their individual representations of the world, the educator has little control in shaping learner's behavior or exercising their authority. At the same time, being active learners', they have an intrinsic behavior to learn. Whereas from the behaviorist point of view, learners are no different from animals and are thought to learn as they are taught without going against their educators. Hence giving the eduators more control over the learners.
In my opinion, there is no absolute in this world. Not everything is black or white, yes or no. Indeed, there are the boundaries that are indefinite and these are the grey areas where it depends on individuals. Human minds are not as simple as we think it is, the mechanisms and workings of it defines how differently every individual thinks and create representations of different issues.
Also, Wortham also mentioned one point which I mentioned previously, that extrinsic reinforcement can undermine the motivation to learn by ruining learners' innate desire to learn, to be curious and to want to think of new ways of making sense of the world. Instead, the educator can "encourage" learners with the right behavior through usage of reinforcement as an aid, not a necessity. Here, innovation and creativity come to play. By not forcing their way through on the learners, and instead, allow their creative juices to flow freely, cognitivism encourages and paves way for innovation. That's when thinking out of the box comes in. In hue with this, educators need to provide a conducive environment for the learners to improve learners' thinking ability.
Socioculturalism
The final concept, socioculturalism. As the name defines, this concept talks about learning as a collective behavior. It assumes not only the responsibility of the individuals as units affected in the learning process, but sees learning as a part of whole larger system. It rest upon many different assumptions from the previous 2 concepts, behaviorism and cognitivism.
For instance, it adopts the belief of learning as something that takes place across systems that include individuals, use of tools and objects. They are all interdependent on each other.
One real life scenario that can be applied to this concept can be decision making problems. For instance, problems concerning major decisions such as abortion, marriage etc. It involves not only the individual but also the culture, language as communication tool, environment etc etc. Take for example, the decision of planning a wedding, responsibility does not rest upon the couple but also their families, the wedding planner, the preparations etc etc. Only when all these elements "join forces", then will learning take place.
That being said, it is true that all things happened collectively/are learned on a collective basis? I think that this is only true to a certain extent. It is human nature to be selfish and only when we share common beliefs, common passions, common behavior, are we willingly to be a part of this collective community.
Finally, a conclusion for this week's learning. The 3 different concepts is akin to the growing stage of a person. From childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Behaviorism - Cognitivism - Socioculturalism. Of course, learning doesn not end when one reaches adulthood. Learning is a lifelong process. What i mean is... as a child, we are seen as helpless and unable to thrive on our own. Our parents acting as our aids, introduced us to the learning process. We were taught to adopt behavior and rightful expectations that conform to the values of our families, societies and culture. Till adolescence, when the child grows up to a young adult, he starts to have the ability to make sense of the real world. He starts to develop his own thinking. Usually different from his authorities/educators. That is when cognitivism comes into play. This is also often the reason before parents-children fights during teen years. The young adult want to be able to make decisions, to experience life/learning himself and having an authority forcing his way on him results in conflicts. And when this young adult matures into an adult, that is when problems concerning major decisions also happen. At this stage of socioculturalism, the adult has to realized that "no man is an island".
By learning these theories, I think at the end of the day, it is very much a mixture of different theories to fit into different context. As mentioned in the lecture, they serve more of a guide when we are in different situations. Afterall, there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to applying them to the real world.
Yupp. Those are my thoughts for this week's learning. Abit of information overload actually. But I hope they are useful to you ((:
I commented on:
http://xy-elearning.blogspot.com/
and read:
http://nm3204.blogspot.com/
http://32043204.blogspot.com/ and
http://www.jk-nm3204.blogspot.com/.
For this week, we learnt 3 different concepts.
Behaviorism
In a nutshell, behaviorism involves shaping the learner's behavior to get the outcome the educator wants and providing reinforcements/punishments. By providing reinforcement, the educator hopes that the learner will repeat the same behavior again, whereas for punishment, it deters the learner from making the same "mistake".
In my perspective, this concept is almost authoritative. We as the learners are treated as passive beings and are expected to learn what we are taught, blindly. When I say blindly, it means no qualms/questions about what we are taught, whether they are right or wrong. But this is terribly wrong. Afterall curiosity fuels improvement! How can we improve if we don't question? I think this doesn't apply to the real world (or if it does, to a small extend). Behaviorism takes the assumption of human beings being conceived as not to have any freewill, and that we are of no difference to animals. YES. Learners are regarded as passive beings but they are not totally passive. Human beings constantly question about what we are taught and sometimes, we go to the extent of rebelling again what we are told to do.
This brings me to using reinforcements and punishments. Because the learners do not abide to what they are taught/told, reinforcements and punishments come into play. We are rewarded to reinforce the "right" attitude and are punished when we make mistakes. It is good that we are rewarded for what was rightly done/conformed to. Too much emphasis is given to rewards and punishments. For instance, when a child is rewarded whenever he colors a page of drawing, in a long run, he will understand that coloring comes with rewards. This attitude adopted undermines the true meaning to learning such that the child will not be able to understand the passion to coloring/drawing.
Yet, isn't this what is happening right now? As a child grows up, when he/she does the right thing, his/her parents will reward her by giving her treats, praises, smiles etc. When he/she make mistakes or fall below the expectation of adults, he/she will be frowned upon. This is the way every child grows up by learning. Take for example, our mindset towards learning is somewhat wraped. One real life scenario from the behaviorist point of view would be us as students studying just so that we would graduate with a degree and possibly get a good job after that. We take modules because we are rewarded with credits and should we fail to meet the necessary requirements to pass, the modular credits would be forfeited (our punishment to deter us from not studying hard). Through this simple example, we can see the characteristics of behaviorism being exhibited. This brings us to the point of human beings being selfish! Which is another interesting point that Wortham brought up. Our selfishness lead us to the pursuit of our dissatisfaction of our unlimited wants.
Cognitivism
Next, to the concept of cognitivism..
In simple words, cognitivism has got to do with people's own internal representations of the world. It assumes that people have their views of the world, and those views of the world are built as concepts, beliefs or theories internally. When they make sense of the world, they build new representations and these are crucial to help someone learn.
Interestingly, one point that distinguishes behaviorism from cognitivism is the amount of control the educator is "entitled" to (i.e. the influences of active Vs passive learners). In cognitivism, the educator has lesser control on the learner. Because teaching is less direct and the learners themselves have already formed their individual representations of the world, the educator has little control in shaping learner's behavior or exercising their authority. At the same time, being active learners', they have an intrinsic behavior to learn. Whereas from the behaviorist point of view, learners are no different from animals and are thought to learn as they are taught without going against their educators. Hence giving the eduators more control over the learners.
In my opinion, there is no absolute in this world. Not everything is black or white, yes or no. Indeed, there are the boundaries that are indefinite and these are the grey areas where it depends on individuals. Human minds are not as simple as we think it is, the mechanisms and workings of it defines how differently every individual thinks and create representations of different issues.
Also, Wortham also mentioned one point which I mentioned previously, that extrinsic reinforcement can undermine the motivation to learn by ruining learners' innate desire to learn, to be curious and to want to think of new ways of making sense of the world. Instead, the educator can "encourage" learners with the right behavior through usage of reinforcement as an aid, not a necessity. Here, innovation and creativity come to play. By not forcing their way through on the learners, and instead, allow their creative juices to flow freely, cognitivism encourages and paves way for innovation. That's when thinking out of the box comes in. In hue with this, educators need to provide a conducive environment for the learners to improve learners' thinking ability.
Socioculturalism
The final concept, socioculturalism. As the name defines, this concept talks about learning as a collective behavior. It assumes not only the responsibility of the individuals as units affected in the learning process, but sees learning as a part of whole larger system. It rest upon many different assumptions from the previous 2 concepts, behaviorism and cognitivism.
For instance, it adopts the belief of learning as something that takes place across systems that include individuals, use of tools and objects. They are all interdependent on each other.
One real life scenario that can be applied to this concept can be decision making problems. For instance, problems concerning major decisions such as abortion, marriage etc. It involves not only the individual but also the culture, language as communication tool, environment etc etc. Take for example, the decision of planning a wedding, responsibility does not rest upon the couple but also their families, the wedding planner, the preparations etc etc. Only when all these elements "join forces", then will learning take place.
That being said, it is true that all things happened collectively/are learned on a collective basis? I think that this is only true to a certain extent. It is human nature to be selfish and only when we share common beliefs, common passions, common behavior, are we willingly to be a part of this collective community.
Finally, a conclusion for this week's learning. The 3 different concepts is akin to the growing stage of a person. From childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Behaviorism - Cognitivism - Socioculturalism. Of course, learning doesn not end when one reaches adulthood. Learning is a lifelong process. What i mean is... as a child, we are seen as helpless and unable to thrive on our own. Our parents acting as our aids, introduced us to the learning process. We were taught to adopt behavior and rightful expectations that conform to the values of our families, societies and culture. Till adolescence, when the child grows up to a young adult, he starts to have the ability to make sense of the real world. He starts to develop his own thinking. Usually different from his authorities/educators. That is when cognitivism comes into play. This is also often the reason before parents-children fights during teen years. The young adult want to be able to make decisions, to experience life/learning himself and having an authority forcing his way on him results in conflicts. And when this young adult matures into an adult, that is when problems concerning major decisions also happen. At this stage of socioculturalism, the adult has to realized that "no man is an island".
By learning these theories, I think at the end of the day, it is very much a mixture of different theories to fit into different context. As mentioned in the lecture, they serve more of a guide when we are in different situations. Afterall, there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to applying them to the real world.
Yupp. Those are my thoughts for this week's learning. Abit of information overload actually. But I hope they are useful to you ((:
I commented on:
http://xy-elearning.blogspot.com/
and read:
http://nm3204.blogspot.com/
http://32043204.blogspot.com/ and
http://www.jk-nm3204.blogspot.com/.
Your blog reveals originality in your reflections and many references made to the movie screened. Thanks for trying to connect theory to problems.
ReplyDeleteVery well-reflected post! The flow is smooth and the connection is logical. Well done!
ReplyDelete