Running Head: LEARNING THEORIES
ESSAY
1
Learning Theories
Essay Samuel
Ronicker
Trying to sum up all my beliefs constructivism as it relates to different aspects of
education in a single paper seems an insurmountable task; nevertheless let me attempt it here.
The foundation of all my views concerning education has been tempered with both a biblical
worldview and a moderate philosophical stance. Meaning I try to incorporate my love and faith
in God into a middle-of-the-road (Aristotle/Aquinas-like) philosophy. I don’t hold very many
things with a closed fist. If research comes out with a novel approach to different cognitive
developmental processes, I’ll gladly, slowly find a way to incorporate that approach with what
I’ve already learned. If research comes out which flies in the face of everything I’ve learned
about in education, I’ll take the same approach. New things don’t perturb me.
If the concept of the visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic learning styles are thrown out
and debunked tomorrow (though unlikely) I’d have no problem working with that idea.
Constructivism can encompass all the different learning styles, and no teacher should ever get
swallowed up in his or her own view or philosophy. Teachers need flexibility to deal with
different learning styles regardless of the situation. The goal is to setup the learning
environment(s) so that students develop through the different stages toward their own personal
love for learning and eventually take over their own construction of ideas.
Even the developmental stages developed by Piaget have flexibility built into them. Just
because a child should be at the “concrete operational stage,” doesn’t mean he/she will always
perform at that level. The idea of constructivism works best at the higher levels of development.
The goal at lower stages is to instill a desire to learn and a framework wherein a student can
develop his or her own learning goals and style. Again flexibility is needed; teachers need to
reach out to students in the best way possible at every level. Especially with the institution of
“No Child Left Behind” legislation, the developmental range found in every classroom is
changing and for the most part, expanding. This places more responsibility on every teacher to
deal with developmentally challenged students. Though, one of the best parts of being a teacher
today is the growing availability of tools to deal with the challenges of teaching.
Teachers today have a vast array of technologically advanced classroom tools to help
reach out to students to construct their own learning methods. Everything from better visual aid
displays, gone are the overhead projectors and chalkboards. In come the computer projectors
and Smartboards. Video recording technology is readily available as a tool to broadcast their
lessons to students that aren’t able to make it to class for whatever reason, or as reviews. There
are myriad tools available to help teachers build more and more interactive lesson plans, and
tablet computers are more and more available for interactive textbooks. Additional educational
sources are available through free online education websites where teachers can gather ideas, or
even supplement their lessons with online sources. These and so much more are readily
available tools to reach out at various developmental levels and fulfill the different needs of
students.
Even so, these tools will only take a teacher so far in their own professional development.
Every teacher needs other both higher-level and peer-level teachers with which they can interact
and work through challenges that might not have been addressed in their own education.
Everyone needs some support now and again, and as educators, teachers need the best support
they can get. This is not to say that the slightly older view of behaviorism and the brain is a
“black box” view of cognitivism are wrong, just that it’s important to use the widest applicable
learning theory, and constructivism seems to fit that need.
Running Head: LEARNING THEORIES
ESSAY
2
