Theories

I found this week's reading on different kinds of learning theories to be very interesting. Although it appears that there are various "camps" for each learning theory, it seems to me that each has its own value. While Behaviorism seems very rudimentary and reactive, it has its place in learning objectives that require recalling facts or learning automatic procedures. In helping kids learn their multiplication facts it is known that kids just need to memorize them in order to recall them quickly. The behaviorist learning theory would best apply to learning this skill. The flashcard would act as a cue or stimulus and the correct answer would be the response. Until memorization occurs, students must rely on another method to come up with the answers to math facts. I suppose that is where the cognitive theory would come into play. Learners would take previous knowledge (ie: addition) and organize it to relate to new information. For example, in order to get the answer to 4x3, students would take what they already know (4+4+4=12) and apply it to get that 4x3=12. While constructivism is very new to me, I suppose the constructivist view would give students real life opportunities that require to use multiplication without being implicitly taught the concepts behind it.