B. F. Skinner was the guy that can up with behaviorist theories. The operant conditioning concept was built off of the classical conditioning concept founded by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. The difference was that Skinner viewed learning as having a voluntary mental control over their responses and the consequence that has helped shaped future behavior. Skinner says that learning occurs inside the mind and because of that we cannot see someone physically learning, but we can tell by their actions. Skinner believed that learned behavior could be shaped by contingencies of reinforcement. He then used reinforced concepts to develop his programmed learning.
Constructivist learning theory has a few different contributors: John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, and Howard Gardner. Dewey theory was of social activism and that learning is an individual growth that comes through social experience. Vygotsky (scaffolding theory), Piaget (child development theory) and Bruner (Discovery Learning) all believe that learning is cognitive growth through interaction with the environment and culture. Gardner’s theory was multiple intelligences theories and he believes that learning is shaped by innate intelligence. Under that theory he has sub theories: linguistics, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist.
I think that I will apply this to my class room by rewarding students whose actions are good and not paying all that much attention to students who are acting out (unless they get out of control). That way I think the student will learn that they are only get a lot more attention if the behave and not act out and hopefully will learn from that. I hope to use Constructive learning by having a classroom that will make the children want to learn and will be fun to learn in. I also want to make projects that will get them interacting with other students so they can learn Dewey’s theory. Also I want to use Gardner’s theory by incorporating music, dance, and others that will hopefully cover all of his theories.