# Describe an example from your life of when you were taught using each method described in this article: behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism.
Behaviourism: The teaching goal is to allow students to respond correctly to the stimulus. In the teaching, the learning materials are decomposed into several small steps that can be mastered in sequence, and feedback is given at each step to help students complete the final learning goal.
Example: I think behaviourism often appears in preschool education. In kindergarten, I can often hear teachers praise children, for example, Max performs well, rewards him with candy, or Lucy has been talking in class, waiting to line up to play stand on the last one. Because behaviourism emphasizes the evaluation methods of reward and punishment.
Cognition: It is the process of learning as a process of information processing. It is believed that learning consists of receiving, short-term storage, coding, long-term storage, and extracting information. The teaching goal of cognitive is to help learners learn things and their characteristics, and internalize external objective things (knowledge and its structure) into its internal cognitive structure. Cognitive learning theory is particularly concerned about what happens inside the learner’s mind during learning.
Example: I hope my cat can take the initiative to shake hands with me, so I will give her food when I put her paws on my hands, so after a long time of trying, she understands that as long as I shake hands to get food, then she will take the initiative to shake hands with me or please me to get food.
Constructivism: Constructivism believes that knowledge is not acquired by teachers, but that learners use the necessary learning materials and construct the meaning through the help of other people (such as teachers and friends) under certain circumstances, that is, social and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, I think it emphasizes the learner’s initiative and believes that the learner generates meaning based on the original knowledge experience and constructs the process of understanding.
Example: Chinese students usually take the IELTS test when they go abroad. There are many English education institutions in China, and they generally need to study systematically from the four aspects of “listening, speaking, reading, and writing.” Exam scores can help students reflect on their own weaknesses, and the teacher gives them knowledge. Students Only by using the knowledge they have learned to expand and improve their knowledge, and thus continuously improve their English.
