Post 4: Constructivist and Social Learning Theory

The learning theory I can relate to the most is Piaget’s theory of learning by doing. Piaget's proposed that, "learners construct, rather than absorb, knowledge from their experiences" (Ormrod, 2011,  p. 28).  I, as a learner, typically learn best by engaging in the material that I am learning. I am better able to construct knowledge when I am able to get hands on experience through various activities. Through hands on experience, I am better able to internalize and apply the information being learned. It is hard for me to learn information when it is just tossed at me and it is expected to just rest in my brain. I like to learn through trial and error. As I experiment with my learning and make mistakes, I am more likely to learn from them. For instance, I was a competitive gymnast for several years and the way I was taught was by doing a skill repeatedly over and over again until it met satisfactory. As I completed each skill my coach was there to guide my performance by giving me tips to improve each skill that I was learning. When I made mistakes I was aware of them because they either did not look or feel right, especially when I landed on my side on the balance beam. But as I was given the opportunity to experiment with the skill I was better able to internalize what I was learning and adjust it to my own ability level.

It is also helpful for me to learn by watching others perform certain tasks. This type of learning corresponds closely to Vygotsky’s Social Learning Theory. Vygotsky emphasized how “culture and social interaction guide cognitive development” (Santrock, 2008, p. 26). Through modeling and interactions with others, I can observe how to properly execute a skill more than I would just trying it on my own. By watching others I can also closely observe certain ways people perform the skill and reflect on why they performed a skill the way they did. When I student taught in a special education preschool classroom the teacher always modeled for the children how to complete a skill before trying it independently. The teacher would sit down in front of the class with all of her materials and think aloud to herself, “hmmm, I wonder what I am going to do with all of this stuff? I have a cotton ball and paper. What could I do with those two things?” Then the teacher would allow the children to contribute their own ideas and the teacher and the class would work through the activity until it was completed. I thought that this was a great way to appropriately model activities in the classroom while engaging each student in the process. In elementary school, I found it helpful when my teachers would model how to complete a skill in a variety of ways. For example when we were adding, my teacher would always use objects that could be found in the classroom to represent our math problems. The teacher would show us how we could add by putting two things together to equal a whole. This type of teaching guided my learning and gave me confidence that I, too, could achieve the task after observing how to do it.