Blog #1 Learning, Theory, Motivation

I am going to share one of my learning experiences. I still remember the first time that I step into the ESL class in my high school. Because English is my second language therefore l need to pass the ESL class before l can graduate from high school. At first l was a little nervous since l don’t know how this class work. What should we do in this class, is it interesting or boring? Those such of things pop in my mind. But as time goes on, the way that teacher teaching the class is way different than our class in China. Teacher will show movie and a lot of interesting things to motivate us to learn. Moreover, we will have group discussion and presentation in some classes. I think it is a great way to motivate in the class and a chance to make some friends. We will also be very satisfied. When we can get a high score in a group assignment or a speech, being praised by the teacher makes us feel very accomplished and motivated to do the next group discussion, although sometimes we communicate with our classmates. There are some difficulties, but when we know the result, I think the difficulties are something I can overcome. I learned about constructivism, behaviorism, and cognitivism through this learning experience and in conjunction with what we’ve been talking about this week. Learners perceive learning as a link between stimuli and responses. Their underlying assumption is that behavior is the learner’s response to environmental stimuli. Teachers need to master ways to shape and correct student behavior and create an environment for students that eliminates inappropriate behavior as much as possible. Then, Cognitivists believe that human cognition is the result of the interaction between external stimuli and internal mental processes of the cognitive subject. The task of teachers is not only to teach knowledge to students, but to stimulate students’ learning interest and motivation. Students are the subjects who actively and selectively process the information provided by external stimuli. Furthermore, the constructivist view consists of two parts. One is the concept of knowledge. Objectivism believes that things exist objectively, and knowledge is the representation of things. The second is the perception of students. Each student is an individual with a different understanding of each issue. Therefore, the differences of each learner constitute new and valuable learning resources. For me, I think constructivism is more widely used in modern education. Today, teachers often put students into small groups. In group study, students can listen to the opinions and ideas of other classmates, which also cultivates their divergent thinking. It is also very helpful for students’ creativity.