September 20th, 2022

Prompts: Based on your reading, would you consider your current instruction style more behavioralist, cognitivist, or constructivist? Elaborate with your specific mindset and examples.

Readings: https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/why-is-learning-hard/ and https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/learning-theories/

It is amazing to think about how we learn new things, sometimes things just click after repeated attempts, as Destin Sandlin suggests in his bicycle video. Other times we think we have learned something, so we do not attempt to question it we just accept the answer as Derek Muller suggests. For me and for other people I learn in many different ways, I tend to learn the best from constructivist instruction styles, however, I find depending on what I am learning different styles help me understand better.

Currently, I would consider my current instruction style to be constructivist. I understand a concept much better when I can relate to the topic and have experienced the learning outcome we are trying to understand. Once I can connect to the topic and have experienced it, I am fully able to understand the concept and have the background information to answer questions related to the topic. By experiencing what I am learning I can answer why things are wrong and the reasoning behind why something is right without just knowing due to reinforcement. Right now, I am currently in EOS 110, which talks about the ocean and atmosphere. Our professor has given us visual cues as well as real-life examples like using a fish tank to demonstrate water density to help us with the course topics. Due to the experience, I can understand not only the answer, but I can tell people the reasoning behind the answer and know why answers are wrong.

When taking physics, I struggled to understand the course topics I would think my answer was correct, but it would end up wrong and I would be confused on why. Like Derek Muller suggests in his video, I was getting these answers wrong because I would have ideas about the question so I would not pay attention to understand why it was wrong. To overcome this, I would draw a picture so I could visualize the question, or I would try a real-life example if possible. By using constructivist learning mechanisms I would be able to have an approximate guess of what the written answer was before even calculating the answer allowing me to check my work.

Muller, D. [Veritasium]. ( 2011, March 17). Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVtCO84MDj8

Sandlin, D. [ SmarterEveryDay]. ( 2015, April 24).The Backwards Brain Bicycle- Smarter Every Day 133 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0