Learning and Theory

1. How might learning styles differ or evolve, from the time individuals are freshmen in college to when they graduate and take on a new job?

As a freshman in college, you use more of the converger learning style, such as going to class to learn new information. As you go through college you develop your own way to gain information and use it. You attend demonstrations on your major, or get an internship to gain a better understanding on what you are doing (more diverger and assimilator styles). As you approach graduation, hopefully you are more of an accommodator and are able to take your new skills and do well on your new job.

2. What surprised you as you read about behaviorism, cognitive science, social constructivism, social learning, and humanism? Of what value are they to instructional design?

One thing that I did notice about these different orientations is that they all go back to one thing: human interaction. We survive by learning from parents, experts, and other people.

-Behaviorism can be used as a way to result in rapid and effective learning effect.
-Cognitive Science helps people change their experiences into knowledge (taking apart and rebuilding the mental process).
-Constructivism is used to make people think on a higher level and develop new ways of thinking.
-Social learning explains how we learn from observation without ever having applied that learning in another setting.
-Humanism usually overlaps all other orientations of learning and learning is centered in experience.

3. A Theory "W" manager has been described as a Theory X manager masquerading as a Theory Y manager. Can you offer examples of Theory "W" behavior in the workplace or at your school?

An example of a Theory W manager would be a student. Some students don’t want to go to class, but are very good at learning new things and want to become a better person. Therefore, they go to class.