Describe an example from your life of when you were taught using each method described in this article: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.

I would like to share my experience of learning to swim when I was a child, that I was taught by using these three methods.

Behaviorism:

When I just started learning to swim, the swimming coach taught me to hold my breath first. When I was able to hold my breath underwater for more than 30 seconds, I began to practice treading water and swimming postures of hands and feet. My coach gave me the right direction every step of the way. If I do something wrong, the coach will correct me in time and tell me what is the right way. This kind of step by step education, and in each step of the teaching feedback is behavioral education.

Cognitivism:

When I’m practicing swimming, I often forget the correct swimming posture, which sometimes causes me to choke or not be able to swim forward. When this happens, my coach no longer repeatedly reminds me of the correct posture but uses cognitivism education to teach me. For example, he first showed me how to swim in the right way, so that I could see more about the correct swimming posture. Then he let me think for myself about how my way is different from his, and why it is different. In the end, I found that the reason why I could not master the swimming form was that I was too afraid of drowning. So the instructor took me to shallower water to practice. When I’m not scared anymore, my posture becomes more standard and I can do it better. Then when I go to deeper water, I can swim very well.

Constructivism:

The method of structural education is not that the educator directly tells the learner what is the right thing to do. The learner will not passively accept the predetermined knowledge. But through some methods, educators let learners independently through their own experience to acquire this knowledge. When I was learning to swim, my teacher didn’t tell me how to swim at the beginning. He first asked me some questions, such as why I should learn to swim and what skills I need to master to learn swimming. After I answered one by one, the coach corrected what I said wrong, and I remembered the necessary skills to learn swimming more firmly. I will never forget how to hold my breath and the swimming posture while swimming. If the teacher had just told me all the theories about swimming, I might not have remembered them so firmly. Instead, through my own way of thinking and exploring, I will have a better grasp of this swimming knowledge.