Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Educational Theories - Discussion #2

Behaviorism, Constructivism, and Social Learning Theory

Before answering the questions below, be sure to review the presentation regarding Educational Theories posted in Blackboard ... read the article entitled ABCs of Educational Theory in Practice ... and do some of your own online research regarding "educational psychology."

To REPLY to the question or to another participant's post, just hit the REPLY Button under the question or post.

39 comments:

  1. Did you discover other theories that explain how people learn? If so, describe the distinguishing features. In other words, how is it (or they) different from behaviorism, constructivism, and social learning theory? (hit REPLY to answer this question)

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  2. Think about one of the teaching methods were are employing in this course: 1) Asynchronous discussions (like this); 2) Topic presentations; 3) Blog essays; and 4) Instructional design project. Comment about the relationship between one or more of the educational theories (behaviorism, constructivism, and/or social learning theory) and one of the instructional methods used in this course. In what ways does the instructional methods "actualize" one or more of the theories. How would a behaviorist, constructivist, or social learning theorist view the teaching strategy. (hit REPLY to answer this question)

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  3. What are the essential differences between behaviorism, constructivism/cognitive learning theory, and social learning theory? In what ways are they similar? Does one theory resonate more with you than another? (hit REPLY to answer this question)

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  4. I think behaviorism, constructivism, and social learning theory are similar in their intended outcomes, a change in learned behavior or knowledge. The ultimate end result with each theory is a new learned skill or action based on the individuals interpretation of the environment around and affecting the individual.

    However, each theory achieves the change in educational output in the actual methods of instruction. For example, assume one needs to teach an individual to avoid a ball during a game of dodgeball. With behaviorism, one could encourage good habits (dodging the ball) and discourage poor form (mid discomfort associated with being hit by the ball) via appropriate rewards (of good habits) and punishments (of poor form) during the game. In social learning, allowing the player opportunity to observe other players under going encouragement of good habits and punishing poor form would constitute similar learning via different methods. Via constructivism, one could place the player directly into the game, without adequate instruction as to how the game is played.

    Truthfully, upon reflection I can recall an event where each one of the learning theories played a role in my learning and greater understanding of the world around me. Constructivism played a role in much of my didactic learning. Social learning was applied in how I learned to interact with other individuals around me. Lastly, behaviorism was utilized extensively while I was young to lead me away from disruptive behaviors.

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  5. In thinking about the instructional design project, the method can truly implement the constructivist viewpoint for both the teacher and the learner. As the teacher, the ability to create innovative work and integrate new or recent knowledge with previous information about a subject is a classic example. The problem for the teacher to solve is how to successfully instruct students on where previous thought processes began, and how new knowledge fits into the 'big picture.' For students though, constructivism plays a role in the students past educational experiences and reconciling previous thoughts and ideas with the new knowledge presented in the learning activities.

    I feel that behaviorists and social learning theorists may not necessarily agree with the use of instructional design from the outset. Namely in that both of these theories generally involve learning of a behavior or action through personally learned action-oriented experiences. While an individual is definitely experience a designed activity for learning, the educational objectives may not include physical actions. For example, it could be more difficult using a instructional design project as an assignment to effectively reward a good behavior and/or discourage a poor behavior.

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  6. One theory I discovered was experiential learning theory. Experiential learning theory views learning as a dynamic, holistic, cyclic process driven by reflecting on action and experiences. Or simply learning from experience; it is a bidirectional or even mulitdirectional interaction with the enviroment. The theory relies on drawing out student's beliefs so they can be explored, tested, and integrated with more refined ideas. This is most similar to constructivism (in fact it finds its origins among constructionists) but differs in that builds upon constructivist theory by stressing the importance of critical reflection in the learning process.
    Social learning theory suggests that learning is a social process and occurs through observation of actions and the resulting consequences. Social learning theory holds that actions are then imitated such as in the Bobo Doll experiment. Experiential learning theory goes beyond imitation and believes that observations are incorporated into the learners current views and understanding.

    It is different from behaviorism in that reflection and abstraction are core tenets necessary for learning. Personal thoughts and beliefs play a role in the learning process versus pure repetition and reward/punishment. It allows for a more abstract nature instead of pure right and wrong.

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  7. Asynchronous discussions/discussion boards, I believe, utilize the social learning theory. By reading other's comments and responses to the questions posted, learners begin to either formulate a response against what they are reading or begin to formulate a response in accordance with what they are reading. You observe other's attitudes and thoughts by reading what your peers are writing on the discussion boards.

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  8. Behaviorism involves an external stimulus to direct learners towards an outcome, whereas constructivism is a more internal process in which a learner guides themself towards the outcome by drawing upon their own experiences. Social learning is the bridge between the two and presents what I think to be the most interesting learning theory. The impact of social interactions and experience cannot be underestimated when evaluating education. From early on, we learn by observing our parents and the other constants in our lives. We learn to speak, walk, etc. by watching those around us. As we progress through formal education, we guide our actions by the responses we get and observe from others. Finally, role models have played a significant in my professional development and impact how I conduct myself as a professional.

    I do not think it is possible to define one learning theory as being more important than another. As Sam pointed out, each theory impacts a different aspect of our education and development.

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  9. Aside from the common goal of learning, as Sam mentioned, I find little in common among these theories. Behaviorism relies on extrinsic motivation; constructivism views motivation as being intrinsic. Social learning is a blend of the two. In social learning, you learn from others around you but whether you incorporate that learning into action and grow from it depends on your intrinsic motivation.
    I think behaviorism can be used to learn the basics, but it is not enriching and won't result in higher level learning. Constructivism/cognitive learning theory can result in deeper understanding and allows more creativity in the learning process. I think social learning can be utilized to both learn basics and gain deeper understanding. I agree with Sam and Allison that all of them have an essential role in learning and development. However, once you get to a basic level of background knowledge and experience, I really think continuing heavy use of techniques based behavioral theory is a hindrance. Unfortunately I recently moved from a school district that used constructivism and social learning as the fabric of the elementary school curriculum to a school district that clearly was using far more behaviorism. My daughter was incredibly bored, lost interest, and even began to hate school. (She still did well thanks to external motivators, but she didn't learn much.) Luckily, this year her new school converted to a curriculum that is more like her old school's. The difference in her learning and growth is astounding! Of course, I didn't fully understand what was behind this difference before learning about these educational theories this week.

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  10. I think the Instructional design project could be applied to both the constructivism and behaviorism learning theories. This project requires us to formulate objectives and develop a tool to evaluate the learners. I believe both of these aspects of the project relate to the behaviorism theory of learning. Behaviorism is a conditioning of learning reinforced through repetition and reward. The learning objectives we create as part of our instructional design project give the learners a specific goal to work towards by the end of the lecture. The reinforcement will come with the evaluation when we assess the learners’ knowledge. Doing well on the evaluation will provide a positive reinforcement to help self-motivate the learner. While this project is not the strongest example of the behaviorism model, it does somewhat exemplify that theory.

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  11. Behaviorism focuses on external factors and produces profound change in the way a learner does a certain action or behavior. Behaviorist theory would see success with a student that learned how to fix a car by being told what to do with precise instruction. When the learner assembles a car engine correctly, they are rewarded by passing, when they don’t they have to deal with the consequences of failing. In this situation a cognitive learner might be more inclined to learn the best way to assemble the engine and the why. Constructivism/cognitive approach will have a learner formulate their own notions with outside information and meld it together with pre-existing knowledge. In this way a constructivist learner learns how to learn and perceive information and new knowledge. Social learning is based around ‘see, learn, do’. By watching others they make their own associations and learn new concepts by watching others utilize them in real world scenarios, such as watching someone assemble a car engine.


    Cognitive and social learning seem to share a critical component. They both rely on some sort of structure in order to achieve change in the way a learner does something. Cognitive learners will have to develop ways for which information will be meaningful in their own context, mental structures like metaphor can accomplish this. Social learners also require structure, but they look outside for their learning structures, which in this case are people. Behaviorism and social learning are also similar in their avoidance of consequences for actions.

    I prefer social learning. Seeing others do something first provides a foundation for which I can learn the basics. I can then start advancing into more complicated areas of learning materials since I have an idea of what I’m doing from seeing it in action.

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  12. Abbie's comments remind me of an educational theory that is used in ambulatory care- the idea of the "One Minute Preceptor" which is a model for experiential education in the medical field. This model does involve learning and reflecting on actions and experiences as Abbie mentions. Specifically, the preceptor allows the learner to do most of the talking during the initial patient presentation. The preceptor then provides focused questions to better be able to gauge the learner's understanding of the situation, thus allowing the learner to come to the correct conclusions on their own. In this model, if there were 10 minutes available to discuss patients before seeing the next one, this would take 9 minutes. The last portion, and the one that specifically has to do with the "One Minute Preceptor" theory, is that after the focused discussion of the patient, the preceptor provides their teaching moment or clinical pearl which will allow the learner to remember a key concept. This would reflect only one minute of true didactic teaching and would all be in place of the teacher lecturing at the students the entire time.


    The "One Minute Preceptor" theory does incorporate aspects of behaviorism, constructivism, and social learning theory. The ability of the student to present and assess a clinical situation does rely on prior knowledge. In addition, the ability to broadly apply a clinical pearl to a complex situation, would require prior knowledge and skills to be able to do this and recognize that the clinical pearl can be an oversimplified teaching moment in comparison to the situation just presented. Much of experiential learning is social learning as these discussions may be taking place in a group. The learner may have observed how other learners did in this type of educational situation and therefore their patient presentation or way of assessing the patient may be influenced by this. Lastly, this type of learning is less-so an example of behaviorism. The questioning of the learner, I believe helps to get away from conditioned responses as each situation will be different. However, it may condition the learner to avoid certain phrases or thought processes especially if they had negative feedback when using these in the past.

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  13. After watching the presentation about educational learning theories I have to say that I definitely agree with what Kashelle suggests in her post - the learning theories all vary in complexity and therefore the knowledge that can be obtained by using them. To me, it seems like the different learning theories probably also play a larger and more significant role at different times throughout a person's life as a result of this difference in complexity. For example, a toddler is most likely relying on behavioral learning - if I throw my toys I get put in time out. As the child gets older and enters elementary school, they start to gain enough awareness of themselves and others to observe various behaviors in their classmates, employing more of a social learning construct. Finally, as the person reaches high school or college, they have enough personal experience to reflect on in order to use constructivism to formulate their own opinions through critical thinking. I also think that it may be difficult to regress to a learning theory that is more prominent in the earlier stages of life, as Kashelle suggests with the comment about her daughter. Once someone has reached the point where they can use constructivism to obtain new knowledge and formulate opinions through their own critical thinking, a teaching style that relies heavily on behavioral learning theory almost seems over simplified and insulting.

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  14. I think the blog essay is an example in which both constructivism and social learning theory could be applied. This assignment is clearly not an example of behaviorism as there are not specific instructions regarding the content, style, etc. Instead, this essay is a way for the learner to express creativity and specifically focus on a topic of personal interest. This aligns with the constructivist theory in that we are able to see the way that the learner thinks and expresses these thoughts. We are also able to learn by example in reviewing previous blog essays to determine what is acceptable in terms of content and style.

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  15. One learning theory I found was called kinesthetic learning which is learning through carrying out a physical activity. While this type of learning would be difficult to accommodate to in a classroom, it can be applied to learning to play an instrument, learning a new job, or learning a new sport. For me, when learning a new job I learn best by physically completing the tasks and walking through the work process. A person telling me what to do and how to do it will be less effective than someone giving me the opportunity to actually attempt to perform the job. This learning theory differs from the rest because it relies on actions to help one learn information more so than it relies on conditioning like the behaviorists, lectures like the constructivists, or through watching others like the socialists. It relies on the learner having the ability to do more hands on activities to learn new things.

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  16. I think the topic presentations are the most challenging to assign to one of the three educational theories and I think that might explain why "straight" lectures are not the most effective for learning. Presentations need to employ some sort of active learning strategies such as having discussion questions to utilize constructivist theory and have students discuss and refine ideas.

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  17. I found that Action Learning Theory was similar the one that you had found [kinesthetic learning]. It incorporated movement and physical activity into learning. However, it differed in that the Action Learning Theory encourages the learner to "act out" scenarios in order to learn. We see this frequently in pharmacy school at the University of Maryland. Our OSCEs are simulated patient experiences where we interact with a patient as if we are pharmacists. I definitely believe that this type of learning is beneficial because it helps you to practice exactly how you will act once becoming a pharmacist. This is more similar to social learning in that you interact with other students or paid actors; our Fish Bowl is even more similar because it incorporates a group counseling session with a patient. Students take turns in the "hot seat" counseling and discuss together exactly how and what should be said. This greatly differs, however, from behavioral theory in that there are no guidelines given. You are expected to use your knowledge obtained throughout pharmacy school as well as social and inter-personal skills to properly counsel a patient.

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  18. I think the Topic Presentations are similar to the Active Learning Theory that I had discussed in another question. The theory states that role-play and simulation of activities aids in the learning process. We are practicing how to make effective presentations; ultimately, this class is supposed to teach us how to effectively teach others. What better way than diving right into it? This is also similar to social learning because we will all be "watching" each other present. In this way, we can learn from each others successes and mistakes. I am certain that I will be able to take something from each presentation and incorporate it into my own presentation tool box.

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  19. Teresa, that is a very interesting way of approaching discussion boards! Prior to reading your comment, I was somewhat convinced that the discussions are an example of constructivism because they are getting at what is in our minds as learners, our underlying thought processes. However, after reading your comment I agree completely that social learning may be at play too. This is particularly true when discussions are had (as is appropriate on a "discussion" board), and there is an expression of varying opinions. Furthermore, observing what most students think shapes us in some way. We humans tend to want to be accepted. It is possible that if we see that the majority of the class thinks a certain way about a topic it may "teach" us on some level that it is safer to share that opinion as well.

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  20. That is really interesting Brittany. In pharmacy school, I also had something similar to OSCEs (even though they didn't have that title), where a preceptor would act as a patient and the student pharmacist would have to act as the pharmacist to provide counseling, bp monitoring, glucose measurement, etc. I also had a course in pharmacy school where we did group counseling/patient work-up to understand the scope of the problem and come up with recommendations. Each student got to be in the "hot seat," as well, to ask the patient certain questions in order to understand the problem.

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  21. In continuing the theme that humans want to be accepted and that the blog itself may develop naturally toward certain conclusions rather than others, is it possible that the social learning aspect of the blog may actually inhibit the constructivist aspect? If a blog is truly leaning in one direction, would someone with a completely different view be discouraged from proposing this view with the fear of going against the grain? This would therefore prevent someone from sharing their prior knowledge which may indeed be valuable. This brings up the question, if a blog theme leans in a certain direction, are we truly being exposed to the full scope of a topic? Is it necessary to have a content expert redirect a blog or should we allow the social aspects of the blog take its shape?

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  22. One learning theory which I have seen used before in several classes (and which we will employ in this course) is “Learning by Teaching” also known as “LdL.” This is a method that involves the student becoming the teacher and leading the lectures in the course. This method requires the students to get involved and drive their own learning. I had several courses like this in my undergraduate and pharmarcy school courses. All of the students were assigned a topic at the beginning of the semester to teach to the class. This practice forces the student to take ownership of the teaching material and truly understand what is being taught. For this method to be most effective, the students should have some leeway in the way that they teach to help them learn effective ways to communicate and to practice creativity in their teaching methods. This relates to Social Learning Theory in that the student’s learn from their peers what is an acceptable way to teach and can get ideas of what to incorporate into their own presentations based on what works and what doesn’t.

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  23. I agree with Teresa. The discussion boards are definitely social
    learning theory. Everything occurs in a social context and we learn about
    different perspectives and apply them to ourselves. There are external and
    internal factors at play with this learning style and they are based upon
    social norms. Writing posts in a forum like this allows a learner to see what
    others have learned from readings and to compare it to what they have taken
    from the readings and then meld the two together. It’s similar to how a
    cognitive approach is, however, more focus is on the modeling behavior than
    internal constructs.

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  24. As mentioned in the other comments, while the three theories are distinct from each other, they do have a similar goal. Behaviorism emphasizes environmental stimuli that changes our future actions – when a child touches a burner on the stove and burns his/her hand, he/she learns not to touch the hot burner again. Constructivism emphasizes our internal practices of processing information – the learner has the ability to critically appraise a problem and figure out his/her own solution based on prior experiences or baseline knowledge. Finally, social learning encompasses the two – we learn from others successes and pitfalls or viewpoints and incorporate that knowledge into our own action. Despite the differences, in the end the learner is still learning something.

    I agree with both Ellie and Kashelle responses that each learner will progress through the various learning theories at different stages of life. However, I do think that we continue to cycle through the theories throughout our lives. The cycle is more finessed over time and the rotation through the three can be different. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are essentially lifelong learners with many new advances every day. Each time a new therapy is introduced on the market, HCPs go through a mini cycle of the three educational learning theories. For example, when a new medication is released into the market, many HCPs cycle through the social learning theory as they practice similar to their peers. This could be by starting patients that fit the inclusion/exclusion criteria in a clinical trial or by discussing similar prescribing patterns and outcomes with colleagues. Their behavioral response will form as they directly observe positive and negative outcomes with the new therapy in their patients. Finally, once HCPs have expanded on their foundational knowledge of the new medication (from personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and from published research), they develop their practice with the new therapy. HCPs might begin prescribing and monitoring patients who might not fit the study population, or they might push the dosing limits to obtain the desired response. While learners might not completely regress to other learning theories, I do believe we regularly cycle through them.

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  25. I think the Topic Presentations are a combination of constructivism and social learning theory. When we initially develop our presentations, we are taking more of a constructivism approach. The slides are developed from our interpretation of research and (most likely) past experiences. We are forming our own conclusions of the assigned topic and presenting them to the other students. However, how we present the material can fall under social learning. Once we hear others present, see their slides, and witness the response from other students, we may adjust our presentation style to conform to what worked the best. This could be from adjusting slides, including more audience participation, or whatever worked well in past presentations.

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  26. Did you find this to be helpful? Many students do not like it because it can be stressful to be graded on the things you say. I think that these opportunities help to feel more comfortable about going on rotations as well as becoming a pharmacist and counseling / talking with patients. In my opinion, it helps to practice before I will be "thrown to the wolves."

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  27. I agree, Brittany. I found this teaching tactics very helpful and applicable. I appreciated these opportunities very much.

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  28. I agree with Allison that discussion boards incorporate all three education theories.

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  29. There are many differences when you begin to read more about the three, which weren't clear to me immediately. For instance, behavior learning theories is stimulus-response system that leads to memorization of facts to "pass" the test and get the reward of passing. I put "pass" in quotations because I do not believe this is knowing the facts. There might be a difference in learning what the right answers are and knowing the meaning and impact of those right answers. Constructivist involves active participation by the learner and the teacher plays a facilitation role. Social theory is observational learning and internal reward is more important than external rewards. In pharmacy school I believe we have experienced all of these learning theories. The first 2years we really focused on behavior. We did OSCE simulations to know what three questions to ask our patients but didn't know big picture or actual practice. Then we began to engage in discussions in 3rd year to learn by constructivism. Lastly, on rotations we were able to learn by social therapy through modeling. This allows to transition from theories of medicine to actual practice.

    I just found a website that stated the retention rate of these different activities:
    Lecture 5%
    Discussion 50%
    Practice by doing 75%
    Teaching others 90%
    Source:http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivist%20_Learning.htm

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  30. Imran, I like how you mentioned behaviorism and social learning alone did not consider consequences for their actions. When thinking about each of the theories functioning independently, yes, that is true. However, when thinking about social learning, also my preference especially in pharmacy, it naturally melds constructivism and behaviorism. I believe an example could be at first you are taken with your preceptor and shown the "ropes" as to what the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacist are on a rotation. You are modeled what is expected of you by your preceptor and you follow. This "following the leader" is obviously not done without constructivism and incorporating what you've learned in pharmacy school and other rotations. You are also certainly aware of the dire consequences of your actions now that you're a pharmacist, learned through behaviorism. I also think when social learning and constructivism are used together, one can realize a task can be accomplished because one sees another succeeding in the task.

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  31. I think learning by teaching is an interesting learning theory. When reading more about the process, I began relating it to experiences I have had in school and on rotations. I agree with Katie that by providing the student opportunities to teach others a given topic, they are driving their own learning process and really delve into the material. This concept incorporates both constructivism and social learning. Because we are developing whatever teaching material will be used, we utilize a constructivism approach – connecting the dots in the literature, forming our own conclusions, and presenting our perspectives. However, how we present the material is similar to social learning. As Katie pointed out, students learn from others acceptable ways to present the information. They might be learning from peers who are also teaching other lectures or from professors in past courses. For me, I have discovered I learn better when I have to teach (or even explain) the material to someone else.

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  32. The action learning theory is definitely an interesting concept and a practice that appears to be growing within the pharmacy school curriculum. We had OSCEs at my pharmacy school as well. I agree with Brittany that the final OSCE process itself incorporates many components of social learning. I would say that the process of learning and developing patient counseling skills thoughout pharmacy school actually incorporates all of the traditional learning theories discussed above. When starting out in the pharmacy curriculum, the expectations for patient counseling are set forth through assessment checklists and students are penilized for excluding key points - a behaviorism approach. Over time students develop their own methodology for patient education - most appropriately catagorized as constructivism. As Brittany states, students also learn and develop based on interactions and feedback from peers which incorporates the final social learning theory.

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  33. One theory I discovered was humanism, which focuses on an individual’s intrinsic motivation to learn. This theory also encompasses self-actualization, personal control and self-directed learning, and meaningful self-evaluation. This theory, which is largely based upon personal growth and development, makes me think that it can be classified as a more complex learning theory than any of the three discussed previously (behaviorism, constructivism, or social learning). I feel as if this is a more advanced learning strategy, which most likely does not develop in individuals until later in life. While reading about the humanistic learning theory, I was reminded of the Continuing Professional Development model that was introduced to me in pharmacy school. ACPE recognizes the CPD model as a lifelong learning approach through participation in learning activities that help one to maintain competence and achieve career goals. This model is highly focused on self-directed learning with an outcome-based approach. The CPD model also has a strong focus on self-reflection and evaluation, much like the humanistic theory of learning. Overall, I feel that humanism is very unique compared to the other theories discussed this week. Unlike the other learning theories, this theory is largely intrinsic in nature and requires a mature, self-motivated learner to even be a consideration, let alone an effective learning strategy. As we mature and become accustomed to experiencing the other three learning theories, perhaps it is an appropriate time to begin thinking about continuing our lifelong learning through a more self-fulfilling approach.

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  34. One theory I discovered was humanism, which focuses
    on an individual’s intrinsic motivation to learn. This theory also encompasses
    self-actualization, personal control and self-directed learning, and meaningful
    self-evaluation. This theory, which is
    largely based upon personal growth and development, makes me think that it can
    be classified as a more complex learning theory than any of the three discussed
    previously (behaviorism, constructivism, or social learning). I feel as if this is a more advanced learning
    strategy, which most likely does not develop in individuals until later in
    life. While reading about the humanistic
    learning theory, I was reminded of the Continuing Professional Development
    model that was introduced to me in pharmacy school. ACPE recognizes the CPD model as a lifelong
    learning approach through participation in learning activities that help one to
    maintain competence and achieve career goals.
    This model is highly focused on self-directed learning with an
    outcome-based approach. The CPD model
    also has a strong focus on self-reflection and evaluation, much like the
    humanistic theory of learning. Overall,
    I feel that humanism is very unique compared to the other theories discussed
    this week. Unlike the other learning
    theories, this theory is largely intrinsic in nature and requires a mature,
    self-motivated learner to even be a consideration, let alone an effective
    learning strategy. As we mature and
    become accustomed to experiencing the other three learning theories, perhaps it
    is an appropriate time to begin thinking about continuing our lifelong learning
    through a more self-fulfilling approach.

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  35. I find it interesting that blog essays are now a way of learning. At first thought, it seems more like a venue for entertainment or news. But more and more these days people are posting teaching topics on social media sites or blogs such as twitter. For instance, Twitter has a hugh following of the hashtag #FOAMed which is basically free medical education via clinical pearls and great discussions. I actually find this learning wonderful. I think you still need basic knowledge, but the quick pearls and intrepretations to newly published studies allows discussions across the world. This utilizes social learning theory! This is one of the major ways I stay up to date on new articles. For instance this great webiste for healthcare workers in the ED: http://academiclifeinem.com/

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  36. Back when I was at UMBC, my physics courses urged the students to use the discussion board for our homework assignments or if we had any general questions. To me it felt like a combination of all three theories. We were offered extra credit for using the discussion board so when the professor started commenting how people were doing a good job, other students saw this as a sign that those people posting on the boards were being rewarded for their discussion board use so they started using them as well. Like Teresa mentioned above, students reading the discussion boards were able to piece things together based on the posts and ultimately get to the solution

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  37. I liked your story about your daughter, especially how you didn't realize what was happening until you learned about these three learning theories. In high school I used to co-teach Sunday school and all I knew to do was present facts and have the students memorize them. I remember once a student actually said out loud in class "this is boring." Looking back on it now, I can see how certain students would consider behaviorism boring.

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  38. I will be honest in this post-- when I watched the video on Behaviorism, Constructivism and Social Learning I really felt like I understood the major concepts of each theory. But then when I took the quiz (I'm not sure if it was required or if it is actually graded) I completely bombed it. I think I am having a hard time relating the abstract theory descriptions to actual real life classroom practices and examples. So in short, I am not sure exactly which theories fit which components of this class. However, I feel that the discussion boards definitely actively include the entire class so they have a social learning theory component to them.

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  39. This is exactly what this Educational Theory class is doing. Giving each student ownership of a topic to teach, yet allowing students some leeway in presentation styles (and maybe some leeway in selecting topics or avoiding certain topics).

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