Learning theories

There are three main categories that falls under learning theories, Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and constructivism. Learning theories are basically an explanation of how people and animals, learn. The reason I'm talking about this here, is that I've been asked in one of my modules to read and understand the objective of learning theories, and then write a small blog, or a comment about it as part of my tasks for this module for my Uni. Degree. This is what I've already posted on the Community @Brighton blog, which is part of the student central for my Uni. I've tried to simplify it as much as I can, although I haven't wrote about everything when it comes about it.

At the beginning when I read about the learning theories, it wasn't easy to get a grasp idea. It took me a while to understand it and connect it to current and past experiences. But what struck me more from those learning theories was "Behaviorism", as it's the essential part in every learning method in every human, and animal’s life. From my point of understanding, and from my past experience, for example there would be different ways to a math equations, but students will only learn the ways that was taught by their teachers, which means every teacher will have his own method for the equation. As for the two types of conditioning, classical, where the behavior is a reflex response to stimulus, a simple example would be my allergy to sesame seed, couple of years ago I've had type of food that had sesame seeds in it, and my system reacted to it since I’m allergic to it but I didn't know that at the first time. But now, every time I get offered food that contains sesame seed or smells like the first one I had, I would develop a dislike and feel sick even if I didn't eat it again. Operant conditioning, is when there is a reinforcement of the behavior by a reward or a punishment, for example, as a student, I’m obligated to do well on my modules for the reward of graduating with degree this year. On the other hand, constructivism depends interaction between the teacher and the student, arguments and problem-solving approaches help the students or the learner to understand and get grasp of the idea quickly. It's kind of like the Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime". By involving the man in the activity, he learned a new craft that would change his life."