Post 2: Three Primary Domains

Behaviorism

The concern of behaviorism is that the students are performing for a reward and are neither retaining the material nor learning to learn without extrinsic motivation. Some behaviorism techniques were not effective for me when I was a student because I was not particularly competitive and candy was not motivating to me. The aspect of behaviorism that was very motivating for me was when the instructor would explain the outcome and it was interesting to me. Then I would be motivated to succeed and reach that outcome. Grades were motivating to me because I had a positive impression of college and believed that I needed good grades to attend the university of my choice.

Thorndike's experiments concluded that once you take away the rewards that mark the path to a larger reward, the subject will continue on the same path because of the knowledge of the larger reward. The importance to this is that students must be aware of the larger reward. Those rewards along the way need to be reminders of the big picture and why the students are on the path you are leading them.

Constructivism

Jean Piaget

Paulo Freire

Constructivism lends itself to technology education because of the emphases on hands-on learning and problem solving methods of teaching. There are many aspects to constructivism and hope to utilize many of them in my teaching. One of the philosophies of Paulo Freire is that students are not empty vessels. This is particularly interesting to me as a teacher in this field because I teach such practical skills and knowledge that many of the students will have already had many interactions and ideas that may be right or wrong. In the educational documentary Minds of Our Own the filmmakers show examples of students coming into a situation with a preconceived notion and after learning the correct way, still hold to their original beliefs or after a short time revert back to incorrect beliefs.

It is important that the educator realize that students are walking into the class with thoughts about the material and those thoughts need to be addressed early and often. 

Cognitivism

Noam Chomsky

You mentioned a "Chomsky" as a philosopher we need to know and the only "Chomsky" I know is Noam Chomsky, but I know him as a linguist turned political activist. I Googled him with cognitivism and discovered that he wrote a paper in response to B. F. Skinner's study on behaviorism, but I'm not sure what I should know as far educational cognitivism goes. What do you think?

Cognitivism is the ultimate goal. I will do everything else in my class as a way to lead them to higher levels of Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy. What I teach in my class will be for naught if the students are unable to reflect upon what they are learning. My goal is not to teach specific skills, but to teach the ability to learn and understand what is being learned and how it is being learned, so that it may be replicated.