After reading the article “Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism” by Ertmer and Newby (2013), I started thinking about what sort of instruction style I currently employ in my classes (Question 3 from ‘Application Exercises’). Now, I’m not a teacher, but I have quite some experience educating people! I have been a swimming instructor for the past five years, where I teach swimming, lifesaving skills, and first-aid to children from as old as three months to adults of any age. Also, while taking EDCI 335 and EDCI 338 at the University of Victoria and EDUC 201 through Athabasca University, I’m substitute teaching in northern Manitoba, where I went to elementary, middle, and high school. I have also been a volunteer soccer and curling coach since I was in grade 7 (for the past eight years). All in all, I have accumulated quite a bit of teaching experience during my mere 19 years on earth.
As a psychology major, behaviourism is a theory that I am very familiar with because it is mentioned in every class. Studying this theory so often has made it very easy for me to see how I use behaviourist strategies when instructing. In behaviourism, learning is accomplished when a proper response is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus (Watson, 2017). This sounds complicated, but we have probably all experienced this in the vast amount of time we have spent in school! Behaviourism is when a child misbehaves in class, the teacher takes something away from said child, and then that undesired behaviour becomes desirable when the child stops misbehaving. Just as teachers reinforce the behaviour with punishments, they also use rewards, such as class parties at the end of the week, if the class demonstrates desirable behaviour (Staddon, 2021).
A time that immediately came to mind when I employed the work of the behaviourists was about three years ago when I was teaching swimming lessons to a little girl named Scarlet, who was about four years old at the time. Despite only being four years old, Scarlet had the personality of a 16-year-old teenage boy—she was very goofy. Despite being incredibly socially outgoing, she hated swimming lessons, and I could not get her in the water. You can not learn to swim if you do not get in the water during swimming lessons, so this was a problem. Scarlett’s parents had signed up for seven private lessons with me, so I had seven lessons where Scarlet would not get in the water. I soon figured out that the only way to get her in the water was to promise her a lollipop after every single lesson. If I wanted her to get her hair wet, I had to give her two lollipops at the end of every class. I am sure I could have found a better way to negotiate with her, but rewarding her desirable behaviour (getting in the pool) with lollipops (reward) at the end of every lesson worked well and got the job done.
As Ertmer and Newby (2013) stated in the article and other authors, such as Beauchamp and Parsons (2000), no learning theory is better than the rest. An instructor using many learning theories within their instruction will provide the best learning experience for their students. As much as I use the strategies of behaviourism, I do believe I use some methods of cognitivism and constructivism.
I also utilize cognitivist strategies in instructing swimming lessons, soccer, curling, and substitute teaching. Cognitivism emphasizes the role that environmental conditions play in facilitating learning (Watson et al., 2008). Instructional explanations, demonstrations, and illustrative examples are instrumental in guiding student learning (Ertmer and Newby, 2013). When learning to instruct swimming lessons, we are taught to: “Demo, Discuss, and Do.” First, we demonstrate the skill being taught, such as a back float, then discuss how to do a back float, and then practice. The same technique can be applied to coaching curling and soccer; show the players how to kick a ball, discuss how to kick the ball properly, and then practice kicking the ball. It can further be applied to school settings; show the students how to write a particular letter, discuss how to write a letter, and then practice writing a letter. These are relatively simple tasks, and cognitivism works well for them; however, it is most helpful when teaching more complex and abstract ideas, such as when knowledge can be simplified to be applied to different topics and contexts (Levy, 2018).
My teachers would demonstrate how to trace the letters, discuss that we should start writing a letter from the top, and then we would practice.
Next, constructivism states that learning happens by creating meaning from experience (Ertmer and Newby, 2013). A situation in which I have used constructivism recently occurred, and I believe it was the first time I used such a strategy. While I was substitute teaching, I was working with a grade six class while they were studying Indigenous people. They were learning about residential schools and the ongoing discrimination indigenous people face. The students did not understand why indigenous peoples were so upset about these events. They were having difficulty feeling empathy for the hardships indigenous people face at the hands of our ancestors. I told them to think about how they would feel in the shoes of indigenous people. I had them imagine what it would be like if they woke up one morning to someone knocking at their door saying they would take their children away to go to a residential school and return when they were 18. They concluded that that situation would be awful (to say the least) and that no one should ever have to face a problem like this.
Further, I told them to imagine waiting years for their children to return home from school. I explained that some children returned to their families unable to communicate because they had forgotten to speak their language, and some never returned. Picturing this made the students quite sad, and I believe I helped them understand the gravity of the grim situation indigenous peoples have faced for over a century. The experience of this imaginative activity helped students create and feel the meaning behind what they were learning about indigenous peoples. I hope the students I (hopefully) helped that day remain the same kind and empathetic individuals; they are our future.
Upon analyzing my instruction style, I mostly rely on behaviouristic strategies when instructing, but with good reason. Swimming is a physical activity where techniques require practice to effectively and efficiently perform the techniques; no one does front crawl perfectly the first time. While instructing swimming lessons, I find myself providing a stimulus (such as helping someone kick their legs, or holding up someone’s back, so they maintain a streamlined body position) to help to reinforce a proper response (such as a solid continuous kick or a streamlined body position). Further, I always encourage those I instruct to go swimming on days when they do not have swimming lessons and practice what I have been teaching them. The ones who get to the pool to practice are always those with the most progress. I find that it is easiest to apply the theory of behaviourism to physical activity as it emphasizes our responses to external stimuli.
I am unsure of what I would like to do when I graduate, but I want a career path where I have the opportunity to educate. These three learning theories discussed above—behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism—are only three of the many that exist, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. I will work towards the opportunity to apply these theories, among others, to the work I will do day to day to truly maximize the potential for one’s education.
References
Beauchamp, L, & Parsons, J. (2000). Teaching From The Outside In. Edmonton AB: Duval House.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.
Levy, Y. (2018). Why cognitivism? Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 48(2), 223-244.
Staddon, J. E. R. (2021). The new behaviorism: Foundations of behavioral science (Third ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Watson, J. B. 1. (2017). Behaviorism. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Watson, R., Coulter, J., Sharrock, W., Dennis, A., Read, R., Button, G., & Hamilton, R. (2008). Cognitivism. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(2)