Educational Psychology

There are four different views of learning, and two common ones are Behavioral and Cognitive.  Behavioral learning is seen as more “teacher centered” learning, while Cognitive views learning as more “student centered” (Woolfolk 2014).  Other key differences include Behavioral learning being more study and memory based instead of application and experience based.  There are many criticisms of behavioral theory because it doesn’t always encourage students to be active learned in the classroom and puts too much attention on the instructor, however I think that these two theories can be combined in a way that helps the students even more.  Students need a balance between instruction (Behaviorist) and freedom (Cognitive) in order to perform tasks in the classroom. For example, a lesson at the beginning of a unit or chapter may be more teacher centered in order to the students to learn the concept foundations and vocabulary necessary to understand, and then later use that knowledge to apply it on their own in a more student centered lesson.  I think having a classroom that is entirely Behavioral based would bore the students and teach them that it’s okay to simply memorize the material in order to pass the test, whereas completely Cognitive based classrooms can give the students too much freedom and they can become confused, frustrated, and stray away from their assigned task.

Personally, I think I see myself fitting somewhere between the two theories, but closer towards Behavioral.  As a Social Studies teacher, it can be hard not to lecture on about History and encourage your students to memorize dates and important events and people, but I also think it’s important for students to understand why things happened they way that they did, which is where a Cognitive approach could come into play. As I mentioned earlier, the beginning of a new chapter might consist of me providing the basics- the people and the places and the dates, but then I could allow my students to engage in their own research or activity to learn more about the specifics they might be more interested in.