Theories and Models of Learning & Instruction

Introduction

This weeks reading selections were really interesting especially when it talked about the different theories and models that go into learning.  I always knew that different theories made up instructional design but I did not think that there were so many.  I think these chapters really helped me as a professional, especially going for my doctorate in curriculum and instruction.  It will allow me to better perform my duties in the future, especially future course work dealing with curriculum and instruction.

 

Epistemology vs. Theories & Models of Learning

I believe that Epistemology is very different from instructional methods and theories.  Theories are something that one comes up with that they think might work in the classroom based on research that they might have done for a paper or book.  Theories are what people put into practice that sometimes might not work for them because in the previous research they did this with a class that were maybe AP/GT students, or had very few SPED or LEP students in the populations.  I know in my personal teaching career I have utilized a lot of theories that I have found did not work well in an actual classroom setting.   So unlike epistemology which is what you know will work every time, theories are what you think might work.  Methods are not what you know these are in my opinion the tools that you utilize on a regular basis, you may know the tools work but its not knowledge.  Models are just that, it models a lesson for you as it works out.  This is again not knowledge.  For me epistemology is utilizing all of three things of theories, methods, and models and studying it to find out how a theory came to be or method came to be used.  It can be a study on how educational models where created to help teachers in the classroom.  I equate epistemology to be like the study of history.  When we study history we are looking at the past to come up with our future.  Epistemology can be the same, we look at the past of education to figure out how we come to teach the way we do today.

Positivists, Relativists, and Contextualist

As I was reading these chapters these really got me thinking about my own personal stance on education.  When I first started to read the chapters especially when it talked about theories and methods I thought that I fell into multiple theories of knowledge.  However, as I really thought about it I thought that I based my thought more constructively because of how I want to make sense of the word around us, but that wasn’t the case.  I base my thought process on a more positivist’s view, where the only knowledge is objective truth.  I base my knowledge on this because of my study in history where personal feelings and bias just need to stay out of the study of history.  Then I thought about it more closely and realized that I also apply this to education, that feelings about a certain method of teaching or even bias just needs to stay out of education.  This really hasn’t come into conflict with an instructor because I like learning about new thought process but still hold tight to my belief system.  However, this has had me come into conflict with people who run my school and of course plan the curriculum for the district.  One particular moment comes to mind when I was first starting out in my district.  The curriculum coordinator for my district at the time asked me to sit on the curriculum planning committee because he wanted to get someone who was new to take a look at it.  During the whole meeting they were talking about how we needed to get the students to learn in different ways, and that they needed all these hands on activities and games.  I looked at these ideas and did not say anything at the time, because I was new and did not want to rock the boat.  When the next school year came around I did not follow their curriculum and neither did the people on my team they liked my method better. However, when I got observed one day by the curriculum coordinator he saw what we were doing at my school and he did not like what he saw.  We were doing more lecture and discussion based lessons than games and station activities.  Now don’t get me wrong I do believe they have a place but I put knowledge and objective truth above those ideas.  He called me in for meeting and told me I had to change the way I taught in to fit the district and he was going to inform my Principal.  I did not change, then comes time for the district assessment and my school scored higher than those who followed the district curriculum.  I proved that my method was working and did not hear another word from the curriculum coordinator.  I do believe that this fight resulted from an epistemic difference, while he believed that truth was subjective to someone perception of the content,  mine was more this is how you learn history the truth is one way and only one way.  To this day I haven’t had any other problems because of the results that my team and I show.

 
Behaviorist vs. Constructivist

Problem solving seems to be the big push in education recently that is all I hear about when I am in staff developments.  This I have to believe is due to the fact that many states are pushing their state assessment like STAAR.  Now given what we have learned in these chapters this week, I think that there can be a big conflict between behaviorists and constructivist perspectives, especially when it comes to learning and instruction.  The difference between the two are pretty straight forward, however based on how I read these chapters a behaviorist wants the objective truth, so they will approach a problem with there is only one answer and that is the correct answer.  While a constructivist could say there is multiple ways to come at an answer or problem, it all depends on the person’s perspective.  I think this has played a big part in learning motivation because students are learning multiple methods and are having problems deciding for themselves.  It can get very confusing to students and I think just about everyone.  I had to really take each chapter this week slowly because it was information overload.  In schools today students are met with both methods of problem solving and I think this plays a big part into some students not being motivated to learn, again my opinion.