Instructions
Based on the chapter (Chapter 11) publish a post on your blog that is a response to one of the ‘Application Exercises’ in the chapter.

Application Exercise
How would the instruction be designed differently by a behaviorist, a cognitivist, and a constructivist? Scenario: A high school social study teacher is planning a class on the Vietnam War.

Behaviorist

According to West (2018), behaviorism was the leading psychological viewpoint in the first half of the 20th century. The instructional theory was developed in 1950 and it was highly influenced by behaviorism as it came up with the instructional design. In behaviorism, the main focus is the stimulus and response.

In the scenario, a high school study teacher is planning a class on the Vietnam War.  The teacher will begin by pairing particular responses to certain stimulus. For example, the teacher could come up with questions and answers for the geographic region or dates of the Vietnam War. Leaning is said to have been achieved when a proper response is given to a particular environmental stimulus. The environmental factors are emphasized more than the factors affecting the learner. Therefore, the teacher will produce observable and measurable outcomes/responses expected from students.

More so, the high school teacher could come up with cues that enhance the stimulus-response association. The teacher could form questions where the students are required to gain 100% knowledge. There are also visual cues where the teacher could use geographic maps for the student to understand and respond to geographic location of the war. Finally, the teacher would use reinforcement to ensure that a response is properly associated with the required stimulus.

Cognitivist

The cognitive theories came after the behaviorism. It created a shift from behavioral models by emphasizing on more complex cognitive processes, such as thinking, language, problem-solving, and information processing. In this part, educationists emphasize mental processing.

In the scenario, a high school study teacher is planning a class on the Vietnam War. The teacher will be concerned with how the information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind. Just like behaviorism, the cognitivist teacher will prepare instructional explanations, illustrative examples, and demonstrations on Vietnam War. Nevertheless, unlike behaviorism, the teacher should take note of the mental processes and include additional elements, such as learner’s thoughts, beliefs, and values. Memory plays a vital role in cognitivist theory. The teacher should also observe the way learners rehearse, store, and retrieve the information on Vietnam War.

The teacher could organize the information in a simplified and standard manner. This allows for better mental processing of the information. The Vietnam War could be organized in a chronological order allowing the learner to understand important dates. While behaviorism will use cues to reinforce behavior to the desired direction, a cognitivist teacher will use cues to ensure that there is mental connection of the important chronological events.

Constructivist

Constructivism is a branch of cognitivism in that they both acknowledge the importance of mental activity in learning. The major difference is that constructivism goes a step further by realizing that the mind filters the input given to it by the environment and comes up with its own unique reality. So, the mind is able to interpret the information given to it rather than just acquire information from the real world.

In the scenario, a high school study teacher is planning a class on the Vietnam War. The teacher realizes that both the learner and environment are vital. Learning should take place in an environment that is conducive and enhances the memorization of the lesson on the Vietnam War. Unlike the behaviorist and constructivist teachers who require the learner retrieve intact knowledge structures, the constructivist teacher will use different specific scenarios for students to adapt to them. Therefore, the teacher will engage learners in different tasks that allow the learners to recall information on the Vietnam War.

A constructivist teacher will use various methods. The teacher will create situations that the learner can identify in the Vietnam War. More so, the tasks will engage the learner toward expert performance while mixing different situations with increasing levels of complexity.

References

West, R. E. (2018). Foundations of learning and instructional design technology (1st ed.). EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations