Behaviourist and the Constructivist Theories
The behaviourist and the constructivist theories do have their place in the ICT classroom, but before I continue with that taught allow me to give some insight on the two theories.
To begin, the behaviourist theory ascribed to John Watson, Edward Thorndike, B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura, emphasised that learning and motivation comes as a result of external factors (stimuli) from the learners' environment, (Gordon and Browne, 1997). This theory holds that learners learn behaviours according to the results received by engaging in the environment. Thus, learners act on how stimulating the environment is and what rewards are there. If there are negative rewards then learners will know how to change the behaviour to receive positive rewards. Moreover this theory is about controlling behaviours or conditioning: Classical and operant. Hence, there is not real thought going into what should be done rather action is based the rewards or results obtained. Therefore, the teacher transmit the information to the students what they should become knowledgeable of. On the other hand the constructivist theory attributed to Dewey and Piaget purported that learners learn from reflecting on their experiences, as well as active engagement in the learning environment, and as a result of these students are able to construct new knowledge, (Gordon and Browne, 2007). Here teaching is more transactional because learners are involved in the teaching-learning process. Thus, learning is an active one, were students learn by 'doing', here they use their mental process to think and apply what they learned or is learning, as Heuwinkle, (1996 as cited in Gordon and Browne, 2007, p. 147) states that, " knowledge is subjective; that is, everyone creates his own learning of particular experiences, including what he hears and or reads". The constructivist theory can be linked to self-regulation because this shows that the learners takes responsibility for their own learning by setting their own learning goals and reflecting on their performances, weakness and strengths and think of ways to improves, (The University of the West Indies Open Campus, 2015-2016, EDTK 2030, Unit 2). Consequently, in the ICT classroom both of these theories can be applied in the following ways:
1) The teacher is to set the environment with stimulating ICT tools that will motivate students to participate. (Behaviourist)
2) Students should be rewarded for their participation in the classroom with the tools. Thus, giving appropriate feedback will encourage children. Correction must also be made for students to do what the learning goals require. (Behaviourist)
3) Provide students with opportunities to use the ICT tools to think and solve problems so that they can reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and improve performance. (Constructivist)
4) Create activities that can be integrated using different ICT tools, for this will develop students decision-making skills as to the best tool the should use to complete the task.(Constructivist)
5) The curriculum allows for students to collaborate with peers in completing learning task. The interaction in this social setting allows for knowledge construction as well. (Constructivist)
References
Gordon, A.M., & Brown, K. W. (2007). Who is the child: Developmental and learning theory. Beginnings and Beyonds. Foundations in early childhood education, pp. 147 & 174.Thomas Delmar learning, (7th ed.).
The University of the West Indies Open Campus.(2015-2016). EDTK 2030 Information and communication technologies in education. Learning theories that guide ICT-Mediated learning. Self-Regulated Learning. Unit 2, pp. 45-47. Retrieved from: http://2015.tle.courses.open.uwi.edu/pluginfile.php/8229/mod_resource/content/2/EDTK2030_Unit%202_Learning%20Theories%20that%20guide%20ICT.pdf