A question was asked in my Educational Technology class: Why not use a variety of theories as a basis for teaching?
My response to that is to say that it seems the theories are not compatible with each other. Theories of learning are based on the hypothesis that humans learn best in one way or another. A hundred years ago it was Behaviorism. Then in the early part of the 20th century it was cognitivism. Today it is constructivism.
My experience teaching all grade levels is interesting in that teachers generally agree constructive learning is ideal but many feel pressed to find the necessary time to build such interactive lesson plans and typically resort to traditional approaches such as lecturing (and if things get really out of hand, step back even farther to some behaviorist approach of using consequence or reward to manage the classroom).
What this country really needs is a paradigm shift in our educational philosophy. At this rate will China, India, and Russia engineer the future and Americans merely stock the shelves? (posted 2/7/09)
