Month: June 2023

Hello everyone, my name is Zhongbao Ji, of course, you can also call me Tim, I am very glad that you can come to my blog. I’m a 3rd economics student at UVic, and I’m Chinese from Shanghai. My usual hobbies are reading, debating and playing some video games, it was a pleasure meeting you all!

Learning Theories

In the article about learning theory, the author mainly introduces three major theories, they are Behaviourists work, Cognitivists work, and Constructivists. In detial, Behaviourists work focuses on strengthening learners’ habits. Constructivists believe that they should make their own meaning and interpretation based on their own experiences and interactions, while Cognitivists work focuses on cooperating with others to discover the best learning strategies. By the way, Immanuel Kant who is a German philosopher, also introduced concepts similar to the three theories in Kant’s The Three Critiques. For example, Kant’s “The Critique of Practical Reason” tells people a concept similar to Behaviorists work which is that people need continuous reinforcement and feedback to cultivate learners’ habits when they are learning. One of the core points of Kant’s “The Critique of Judgment”, is that people need to make their own thinking and interpretation based on personal experience and interaction in life, so as to find the meaning of their own life. To be honest, these three concepts are very simple to me now, maybe because I have learned similar concepts in other philosophy and psychology courses. However, when I first came into contact with these concepts, I felt constructivism is very abstract and difficult to understand. For the three major theories, I think each has its own rationale, but as a critical thinker, I think Behaviorism has more limitations than the remaining two. Simply put, I believe that behaviourism cannot Explain individual differences in human learning, variations in learning styles, and the influence of personality on learning. (But in many cases, if learners just want to get a high score in the exam, Behaviorism is the most effective) For example, I am a student who is poor in mathematics, but my major is economics which means I often face all kinds of mathematical formulas, economics has a compulsory course in mathematics. Although I did not understand those mathematical concepts very well, I still got a good grade by doing a lot of questions and repeating the familiar exam content. My best learning experience is reading under the shade of a big tree in the warm sunlight, with a gentle breeze blowing by my side, while my dog is lying at my feet and snoring regularly. At this time, I am extremely eager to stop at this moment forever. I think constructivism is the best teaching method for me because I care more about what my students can learn from my class and how it will affect their future life than the marks he gets in the exam. The influence of human beings, so people can find their own free will and the meaning of life.