For this blog post, I will discuss how I was improving my Arabic by relating to the topics of behavioural, cognitive, and constructivist learning approaches.

The article does a fantastic job explaining the full-range educational instruction and different facets into how individuals retain information. Ertmer & Newby state that as one moves along the behaviorist-cognitivist-constructivist continuum, the focus of instruction shifts from teaching to learning, from the passive transfer of facts and routines to the active application of ideas to problems.

In attempting to improve my Arabic language, behaviourism plays an important role. The majority of information I retain is discussion with my family members at specific places. Based on this environment, I am exposed to the application of words/phrases which allows me to draw a connection between my environment, thus memorizing becomes much easier. I can confidently say that my environment played a huge role in how much information I am able to remember. Similarly, the learner is characterized as being reactive to conditions in the environment as opposed to taking an active role in discovering the environment (Ertner & Newby, 2013).

Next, in my experience of learning Arabic through reading articles, books, and listening to videos is a form of knowledge gathering. Ertmer & Newby explain that cognitive theories focus on the conceptualization of students’ learning processes and address the issues of how information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind. The knowledge transfer can be shown when I write/speak to my family in back Lebanon. This clearly displays the knowledge gathering, then subsequently the transforming into discussion and speech. I would directly take the information I gathered then generate the information into a meaningful way.

Finally, constructivism is my internal knowledge of Arabic in conjunction with my environment. As I continue to learn and expand on my skills, I believe that this a form of constructivism. I now have the ability to bring together all the information I’ve learned and positively say that I can speak Arabic. I also believe that this is an ongoing process, the constant gathering of knowledge becoming familiar with new environments. With that being said, being able to fluently speak a language by taking information through different channels and constant practice is quite astonishing.

References

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2017). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. Edtechbooks. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/behaviorism_cognitivism_constructivism