In this course we looked into var­i­ous learn­ing the­o­ries (behav­iourism, cog­ni­tivism, con­struc­tivism, social learn­ing, con­nec­tivism) with­in the con­text of teach­ing. When asked to describe my own teach­ing prac­tices and sub­se­quent stu­dent learn­ing with­in these the­o­ries, and my belief around how learn­ing takes place, I should first describe or define what each of these learn­ing the­o­ries are.

1. Behav­iourism in teach­ing focus­es on observ­able behav­iours as the pri­ma­ry study, sug­gest­ing that learn­ing occurs through con­di­tion­ing, where stu­dents respond to stim­uli in their envi­ron­ment, form­ing asso­ci­a­tions between stim­uli and respons­es, with rein­force­ment and pun­ish­ment influ­enc­ing behav­iour rep­e­ti­tion.
2. Cog­ni­tivism high­lights the role of men­tal process­es in teach­ing, empha­siz­ing mem­o­ry, think­ing, and prob­lem-solv­ing. This the­o­ry believes that learn­ers active­ly process infor­ma­tion, orga­nize knowl­edge, and cre­ate men­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tions to under­stand and solve prob­lems, stress­ing the impor­tance of inter­nal cog­ni­tive struc­tures.
3. Con­struc­tivism sug­gests that learn­ers active­ly con­struct their under­stand­ing of the world by engag­ing with expe­ri­ences and inte­grat­ing new knowl­edge with exist­ing men­tal struc­tures, empha­siz­ing the role of social and cul­tur­al con­text in shap­ing learn­ing expe­ri­ences.
4. Social Learn­ing The­o­ry in the edu­ca­tion­al con­text under­scores the impor­tance of obser­va­tion and mod­el­ling, propos­ing that stu­dents learn by observ­ing oth­ers’ behav­iours and their con­se­quences, involv­ing the acqui­si­tion of new behav­iours through imi­ta­tion, rein­force­ment, and social inter­ac­tions.
5. Con­nec­tivism, rel­e­vant to teach­ing, acknowl­edges the impact of tech­nol­o­gy and the inter­con­nect­ed nature of infor­ma­tion in the dig­i­tal age. It pro­pos­es that learn­ing occurs through net­worked con­nec­tions, where stu­dents access and share infor­ma­tion in dis­trib­uted envi­ron­ments, empha­siz­ing the need to stay con­nect­ed to diverse sources and adapt to the chang­ing edu­ca­tion­al land­scape.

Reflect­ing on my prac­tices pri­mar­i­ly as a wood­work teacher, I believe there are exam­ples of stu­dent learn­ing and best prac­tices with­in all of these learn­ing the­o­ries. Here are some exam­ples of best prac­tices I use for each of these main learn­ing the­o­ries.

1. I use a behav­iourist approach through using pos­i­tive rein­force­ment, such as prais­ing a stu­dent for using prop­er safe­ty pro­ce­dures while oper­at­ing machin­ery. The rein­force­ment strength­ens the asso­ci­a­tion between safe behav­iour and pos­i­tive out­comes, encour­ag­ing the stu­dent to con­sis­tent­ly fol­low safe­ty guide­lines when work­ing on their projects.
2. I use a cog­ni­tivist approach by focus­ing on the men­tal process­es involved in prob­lem-solv­ing. For instance, I have stu­dents men­tal­ly plan and visu­al­ize the steps required to cre­ate their project, con­sid­er­ing mea­sure­ments, tools, machin­ery, and assem­bly sequences before actu­al­ly begin­ning their projects.
3. I use a con­struc­tivist approach through hands-on expe­ri­ences and inter­ac­tions with mate­ri­als. Stu­dents active­ly con­struct their under­stand­ing of wood­work­ing con­cepts, draw­ing on pri­or knowl­edge from pre­vi­ous projects or demon­stra­tions, and adapt­ing their approach­es to new projects.
4. I use a social learn­ing approach as stu­dents observe and learn from their peers. Stu­dents observe oth­er class­mates safe­ly using a spe­cif­ic wood­work­ing tech­nique or tool, and are sub­se­quent­ly encour­aged to use that tech­nique or tool they just observed into their own projects. A shared knowl­edge with­in the group, and an obser­va­tion of oth­er stu­dents com­plet­ing their projects, often also results in encour­age­ment to con­tin­ue work­ing on their own projects.
5. I use (or rather plan to use more of) a con­nec­tivism approach as I have recent­ly start­ed con­vert­ing my old hand­outs into dig­i­tal for­mats so stu­dents can access these and oth­er tuto­ri­als, dig­i­tal text­books, YouTube videos and more online. I plan on cre­at­ing a new local­ized dig­i­tal plat­form to share and dis­cuss plans, tech­niques, resources, and projects with a broad­er com­mu­ni­ty of Tech Ed / ADST teach­ers and our stu­dents. The empha­sis will be on net­worked learn­ing, where stu­dents con­nect with diverse sources of infor­ma­tion beyond the tra­di­tion­al set­ting of my wood­shop.

I believe that learn­ing takes place with­in all of these the­o­ries to vary­ing degrees based on the top­ic at hand, and the spe­cif­ic learn­ers. I tend to use a mixed meth­ods approach of learn­ing the­o­ries to my lessons as I see mer­it in all approach­es. If I had to pick one over anoth­er how­ev­er, I would say that the hands-on nature of being in the wood­shop lends itself more towards a con­struc­tivist approach to learn­ing.  

Fur­ther­more, when look­ing at learn­ing the­o­ries for any sub­ject area, or spe­cif­ic les­son with­in, teach­ers need to also under­stand the var­i­ous learn­ing styles of all of their stu­dents. I tend to use a more Uni­ver­sal Designs for Learn­ing (UDL) approach to my lessons aim­ing to pro­vide a vari­ety of instruc­tion­al approach­es to accom­mo­date the diverse learn­ing pref­er­ences of my stu­dents and cre­ate a more inclu­sive learn­ing envi­ron­ment in my shop/classroom. An exam­ple of a typ­i­cal Learn­ing Design Activ­i­ty of mine in the Wood­shop would be as illus­trat­ed below.

Key points:

1. INTRODUCE PROJECT Whole group demon­stra­tion to intro­duce the project. I show an exam­ple of a fin­ished project as a means to inform stu­dents of the objec­tives. I pro­vide writ­ten plans (for reading/writing learn­ers) so stu­dents can read on their own if pre­ferred or need­ed as a ref­er­ence, I read out loud (for audi­to­ry learn­ers) the instruc­tions togeth­er for each step, and then I demon­strate (for visu­al learn­ers) the first step with the applic­a­ble tools and safe­ty con­cerns addressed.
2. STUDENTS WORK Stu­dents begin hands-on work­ing (for kines­thet­ic learn­ers) on their projects after receiv­ing the writ­ten instruc­tions, oral instruc­tions, and phys­i­cal demon­stra­tion. This is done to elic­it per­for­mance as stu­dents apply what they have learned to rein­force new skills and knowl­edge.
3. TEACHER MONITORS I then cir­cu­late to ensure safe han­dling of tools, prop­er tool or machin­ery tech­niques are being used, and to lim­it the off-task behav­iours of stu­dents. Dur­ing this time I also pro­vide imme­di­ate Descriptive/Analytic Feed­back while stu­dents are work­ing to facil­i­tate their learn­ing towards safe exe­cu­tion and suc­cess.
4. REVIEW AND NEXT STEP DEMONSTRATIONS I then pull the class togeth­er again to review the pre­vi­ous step through talk­ing about and demon­strat­ing the step again as a means to stim­u­late recall of pri­or learn­ing. I also fur­ther dis­cuss com­mon strug­gles that stu­dents encoun­tered and pro­vide more tips. I then read out loud the next step and phys­i­cal­ly demon­strate the next step in the same man­ner as before.
5. LOOPING BEGINS: REPEAT LEARNING ACTIVITY We then con­tin­ue the loop­ing cycle of Stu­dents Work — Teacher Mon­i­tors — Review Pre­vi­ous Steps and Demon­strate Next Step until the final step is com­plet­ed. This con­tin­u­ous review of steps 1–2, then 1–3, then 1–4, etc ensures all stu­dents are receiv­ing rel­e­vant and time­ly instruc­tion no mat­ter their pace of learn­ing.