How I believe people learn best

I believe people learn best by doing. The importance of practice is to learning when studying the tenets of behaviorism, cognitive information processing (CIP) and situated cognition. From a behaviorist viewpoint, behavior can be modified by using reinforcement and punishment. As the learner practices a new procedure, reinforcement is used to maintain the desire behavior. Punishment is used to discourage unintended behavior.

One of the instructional implications of CIP is “to arrange extensive and variable practice (Driscoll, 2005, p. 104). In fact, the author begins the paragraph on Arranging Extensive and Variable Practice with the well-known saying of “Practice makes perfect”. Automaticity is one of the concepts of attention, which has its place in sensory memory, or short-term memory.

Practice, in the context of situated cognition, comes in the form of communities of practice, or learning communities. Learning communities are where the teacher and learners work collaboratively to achieve learning goals (Driscoll, 2005). Learning communities accept the fact that all learners have different experiences and interests that they bring to the classroom.

References:

Driscoll, M. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction. (3^rd ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.