During my time at the University of Victoria, I had some outstanding learning experiences in economics courses. One common feature among these courses that I enjoy is the offerings of practice problems, allowing me to test my knowledge and skills at my convenience. In my understanding, engaging in practice problems aligns with the principles of cognitivism. Through this process, students retrieve and apply existing knowledge to solve the practice problems, thereby consolidating their existing knowledge for a long time. As an economics major, I believe that cognitivism is the most effective approach for learning economics courses. The majority of skill sets taught in economics courses are surprisingly disconnected from real-life applications, making it difficult for professors themselves to employ behaviorism and constructivism in their teaching of economics. The followings are detailed explanations. 

Recall from the assigned reading that behaviorism “equates learning with changes in either the form or frequency of observable performance” (Ertmer & Newby, Chapter 11), with some examples being listening to professors’ lectures and conducting lab experiments. Also recall from the assigned reading that “constructivism is a theory that equates learning with creating meaning from experience” (Bednar et al., 1991). As far as economics major is concerned, certain components of behaviorism, such as listening to professors’ lectures, are undeniably important. Nevertheless, behaviorism does not play the most important role in consolidating students’ knowledge. Post-lecture activities based on cognitivism are immensely helpful in this regard. Likewise, constructivism is not the most important factor, either, as economics students typically passively accept the concepts from the professors and thus there is no pressing need to create meaning with these concepts. Meanwhile, these practice problems as a form of cognitivism facilitate the process that is often described as “practice makes perfect”. For instance, when I was taking ECON 351 in the previous semester, those challenging concepts seemed insurmountable at first. Yet, through the use the practice problems, I reduce gradually my weakness and more importantly, my skill sets got strengthened during repeated practices.

Reference

Bednar, A. K., Cunningham, D., Duffy, T. M., & Perry, J. D. (1991). Theory into practice: How do we link? In G. J. Anglin (Ed.), Instructional technology: Past, present, and future. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Ertmer, P. A. & Newby, T. (2018). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. In R. E. West (Ed.), Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. EdTech Books. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/behaviorism_cognitivism_constructivism