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| Approaches to Learning |
Behaviorism:
This is one of the first scientific approaches to
understanding learning that looks at actual behavior. This approach, known as
behaviorism, begins by trying to explain simple behaviors—observable and
predictable responses.
It is mainly concerned with conditions (called
stimuli) that affect organisms and that may lead to behavior and with simple
behaviors themselves (responses).
Behaviorists (behavior-oriented researchers) try to discover the
rules that govern the formation of relationships between stimuli and responses
(the rules of conditioning). For this reason, these theories are often referred
to as stimulus-response (S-R) theories or behavioristic theories.
Cognitivism:
In contrast to behaviorism, a second approach, termed
cognitivism, looks at the more intellectual or mental aspects of learning.
Cognitive approaches deal mainly with questions relating to
cognition, or knowing. Cognitive theorists are concerned with how we develop
our fund of knowledge and how we eventually arrive at notions of ourselves as
learners and rememberers, and problem solvers.
Children’s gradual development of an awareness of themselves as
knowers, their growing awareness of the strategies they can use to acquire and
process information, and their ability to direct their efforts and to evaluate
their cognitive activities are aspects of metacognition.
Phrased another way, cognition refers to knowing; metacognition
refers to knowing about knowing.
Congition-oriented researchers attempt to understand the nature of
information: how it is acquired and organized by learners; how it can be
recalled, modified, applied, and analyzed; and how the learner understands,
evaluates, and controls the activities involved in cognition. Piaget is good
example of cognitive theorist.
Humanism:
It is a philosophical and psychological orientation
which is primarily concerned with our humanity, that is, with our worth as
individuals and those process that are considered to make us more human.
Humanism is the third approach to understanding human behavior. Humanistic psychologists are more concerned with human individuality and uniqueness than
with discovering general rules to explain human responses.
Humanistic psychologists focus more on emotional development than
on information processing or stimuli and responses.
