LEARNING THEORIES

LEARNING THEORIES

After reading Section II, I had to return multiple times to the text and guide my brain through the idea that epistemologies and learning theories were not the same thing. At first glance, it seems that they are quite similar and clearly connected, though in the end, after my brain cleared, I realized they are actually quite different. I will define each in my own words and then highlight the overall differences:

Learning theories are methods of learning that researchers have come up with that breakdown how information can be learned by various, individual students. These are the many approaches that educators focus on and utilize within their classrooms based on what they view as the “best way to learn” the content that is being presented. Lessons would generally use a specific type of learning theory as it’s basis and can be varied throughout each classroom or remain the same throughout the school year. Constructivism, behaviorism, and other learning methods are usually chosen by a teacher because they feel that it is the “right” way for students to learn or it is a method that has worked well for themselves or for their students in the past.

On the other hand, epistemologies are the analysis and understanding of the nature of knowledge itself and the ways that our brains come to acquire knowledge overall.  The word that automatically comes to mind for me is metacognition, which is an individual person realizing how they themselves actually learn and process information. Most of the time, at least in the younger grades, this is the view of educators who try to analyze students’ ways of individual learning in order to help them learn the information effectively. As students get older, they can be introduced to metacognition and begin to guide their education in a much more personal way. 


POSITIVIST 
I feel that I can easily claim a Positivist stance, in fact, I would go as far to say that I employ a pragmatic view of the world, which is generally an “old school” type of mentality. I feel that everything in our world is what it is and is not relative to context. For example, I feel that the huge problems within the education system can be solved if everyone would just start thinking and acting truthfully and objectively, rather than placing emotions and personal views into the mix.

EPISTEMIC STANCES
I honestly have never experienced a conflict with an instructor in college, however, I did have a conflict with a “higher-up” within my district when I was teaching 8^th grade one year. In a meeting with my principal and the head of the middle school English department for the district, as well as all of the other English teachers on our campus, I was told that I should not be teaching any novels in my classes because the kids needed to learn how to practice short reading passages. Of course, this was because short reading passages were what was on the TAKS/STAAR test.
My positivist ways kicked in and I thought, “Did she just tell me that my kids are not supposed to read books in their READING class?” This was a clear difference in epistemic stances because the woman who said this was worried about the contextual relationship of reading short passages and how the kids will perform on the test, which shows she is a contextualist who believed that that was exactly what would help the kids. Needless to say, my principal supported my Positivist mentality and allowed me to have the freedom to teach novels to my kids because the only way to truly read better is to actually read books!


CONSTRUCTIVIST VS BEHAVIORIST
Within the constructivist method, students go into the lesson with a problem and end the lesson with a solution which they derived from their own processing of information and data. The direct nature of the constructivist concept is to “construct” meaning from student interactions, thoughts, assessments, and reflections of a situation that has been presented to them. This concept is meant to have students do most of the work because they have a problem to solve.  However, within the behaviorist theory, problem solving takes on somewhat of a passive role. Behaviorists believe that students will solve their problems individually through the use of specific learned behaviors, and with the guidance of various reinforcements, whether they be negative or positive, from the teacher. This concept is focused on the student learning certain behaviors which then, theoretically, lead to the student eventually solving the presented problem.

LEARNER MOTIVATION
I feel that learner motivation can certainly be affected depending on which model is being employed. If a student is given a problem to solve, generally speaking, they will work hard to solve it, simply because it needs to be solved. Students who are in classrooms where constructivist theories are used are likely to be more hands on and involved in their own success. Whereas, within a behaviorist classroom, students are likely to only focus on the desired behavior rather than the true meaning of problem solving. Going through the motions is easy for many students, they know what teachers want to hear and what teachers want to see so they become good at faking the learning. I have seen this firsthand and many students struggle to see the difference between acting like they can perform a task and actually knowing how to perform the task.