How would the learning be designed differently by a behaviorist, a cognitivist, and a constructivist? Scenario: A high school social study teacher is planning a class on climate change.

In the teaching process, behaviorism focuses on the results of behavior. Behaviorists focus on observing behavior in specific environments, and reinforce it through stimulation (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). The characteristic of the learner is that the learner responds under the stimulation of the conditions in the environment. Therefore, when designing the climate change curriculum, the teacher provides students with pictures of different climates, and these pictures are stimuli, and students can answer questions related to climate effects based on these pictures. In other words, the teacher makes a connection between stimuli and responses.

A cognitivist highlights the relationship between knowledge and psychology. The brain receives, organizes, stores and retrieve information, and cognitists focus on the cognitive level of learners and how they acquire knowledge, which is a kind of psychological activity (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). For learners, cognitists believe that the environment can promote learning and emphasize the role of practice and corrective feedback. Therefore, when designing the curriculum, teachers observe the understanding of learners about the environment, their learning tendency, and the psychological transformation of learners when viewing photos of different environments. Teachers can link environmental changes to social hazards, and deepen students’ awareness of climate change through different classroom activities.

Constructivism is the integration of experience in classroom teaching and transforming experience into theory. Through external experience, learners can understand the world, and constantly create meaning. Constructivists believe that behavior is situational. In other words, the content should be embedded in the environment. Therefore, for climate change classroom design, teachers can create an environmentally changing environment for learners, including climate change, causing problems and triggering learners’ understanding of climate change.

Overall, these three methods are different from each other and teachers should design classes within diverse methods.

Reference

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. https://open.byu.edu/lidtfoundations/behaviorism_cognitivism_constructivism