Nathan Learning Theories Approaches
Teresa Zappey
American Intercontinental University

Abstract
Three learning theories are examined, Behaviorist, Cognitivist and Constructionist and put into theoretical application in regards to a hypothetical gymnast named Nathan in the story titled “Nathan the Gymnast”. There is a brief overview of the story included then first the behaviorist theory is applied on how it can help Nathan using positive and negative reinforcement. Next the cognitivist theory is applied on how Nathan can be helped with its emphasis on the mental process and problem solving. Finally the constructionist theory is applied with how it can help Nathan using the active process of learning including using outside sources. It also taps into Nathans desire to do well and love of gymnastics or personal motivation. Personal examples are given on each theory by the author.

Nathan Learning Theories Approaches There are three well know learning theories, behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism all of which provide valuable methods of teaching students. Each of these theories will be hypothetically applied to a story called, “Nathan the Gymnast”. A brief summary of the story is Nathan has natural gymnastic talent from a very young age. He was inspired to be a gymnast when he watched the Olympics so his parents enrolled him in gymnastic classes and soon the coach saw his talent and wanted to take him to competitions, which Nathan wanted to do, and his parents agreed. He is good at everything but doesn’t like the pommel horse so he doesn’t practice it unless his parents make him. At the competitions he does well on everything but the pommel horse. By the second year of competitions he is winning medals on everything but still not the pommel horse even though his parents bought him a practice home version called a mushroom. Nathan’s father used a video game motivator to get him to improve and he does but still does not achieve the award. The third year is beginning and his parents and coaches are trying to new ways to motivate Nathan to advance to higher levels in the competitions.
We will first examine the way the behaviorist theory could be applied to motivate Nathan to success. Behaviorist’s research found that the bonds between the stimulus and response are strengthened through positive or negative reinforcers. Thorndike called this the Law of Effect. He felt that a behavior would less likely “occur again if its consequence has been aversive” (Driscoll, 2005, p. 35). Behaviorists are not interested in the emotions or thinking processes of the student but just observable behaviors. The parents already tried a long-term positive reinforcer when they offered Nathan the game video as a reward. While it did increase his level of performance it just wasn’t enough. The problem with the way the parents presented the reinforcer was that it was to long-term and it has been discovered that the stimulus needs to be “presented immediately after a behavior and that stimulus increases the probability that the behavior will occur again, the stimulus is called a positive reinforcer” (Science Clarified, 2012, Pp. 2). The coach could use daily praise for every improvement he observes Nathan doing and visually chart this daily improvement. Praise is referred to as social reinforcers and B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) found that it increases students desired behaviors effectively. Skinner discovered that if he didn’t giver the reward every time the desired behavior increased so the coach could cut back on praise after a short while and only praise Nathan if he did extraordinary well on the pommel horse. Skinner called this method the fixed ratio schedule (Boeree, Pp. 10).
The parents could further encourage Nathans behaviors by receiving word from the coach on his improvement and giving Nathan an additional token reinforcer. Tokens could be anything from poker chips, money, games, and candy for example, but the most effective tokens would be found by asking Nathan what he would really want. Short-term tokens can be small and immediate for the most effect but there could also be long term reinforcers based on polling Nathan on what he desires. Maybe it would be a trip or a video game. Negative reinforcers could also be used for instance if Nathan doesn’t do well he loses something he desires or loses a privilege. The combination of positive and negative reinforcers both immediate and long term should be effective on modifying Nathan’s behavior and motivate him to try harder. When he begins to have success at the pommel horse he will be inspired to continue on his own having been trained, disciplined and motivated towards achievement. A personal example of how this method was used when I was raising my three children was when I was trying to teach my children to keep their rooms clean and help keep the house and yard clean. I made a chart with all the chores that I wanted to have done on the top of the chart along with the monetary value of each chore. The names of each of my children were on the side of the chart. When they completed each chore they instantly received several positive reinforcers the first one being instant praise when I checked how the job was done and then I gave them a gold star (token), which they placed in the correct place on the chart. This helped them see the progression of their goal, the amount of money they would earn at the end of the week, which they planned to use on their ultimate goal, buying a toy or whatever else they wanted. My children also tended to be very competitive and would compete against each other for the most stars and money. The big money chores like mowing the lawn were in high demand and competed for. I felt that this method was very successful in working for my children and I would highly encourage its use in this and other situations. I know the grade school teachers find this method very useful in their classrooms.
The next approach the coach and his parents could try is the Cognitivist theory approach. Driscoll (2005), stated that this approach is focused on self-regulation strategies of the learner who are encouraged to study their most effective learning style. Multiple methods of study are presented for the learner (P. 23). Evans and Waring (2009) stated, that the learner is to “take charge of their own learning. (p. 169) There are a number of approaches that can be chosen from the cognitive researchers but for Nathan we will chose and apply the perspective and interactional approach in which the instructor or the coach will involve Nathan in the process of inquiry and problem solving so to accomplish this the coach would ask Nathan question to get him thinking about why he does not succeed on the pommel horse and what can be done to address this problem. The coach should encourage Nathan to come up with a series of goals and times to accomplish those goals that Nathan feels that he can achieve. If those goals are not met then the instructor should question him to have Nathan think of the problems and come up with the solutions.
Driscoll (2005), stated that an instructor “engages the learner in socially organized labor activities that pertain to their culture with learning partners” (p. 262). To accomplish this the coach could team up Nathan with his teammates that are accomplished on the pommel horse to work with him and encourage him to improve himself on the pommel horse.
Bruner and Vygostsky (1997), stated that the learner needs to have a “well prepared mind”, culturally relevant tools, and prior knowledge and that the learner will progress through successively more sophisticated modes of thinking. They also stated that learning serves to pull development along and that the learner has an awareness of their own thinking. (p. 40) Nathan needs to develop a well-prepared mind by visualization of what a good pommel horse routine looks like which him having great success doing it. The coach can have him watch videos of great pommel horse gymnast doing exercises on the pommel horse to inspire Nathan along with taking him to watch them in person. This will also give him the “culturally relevant tools” and add to his prior knowledge because he will see how important learning the pommel horse is to the cultural of the gymnastic world. It will give him additional knowledge that he can use for his developing his own skills on the pommel horse.
Bruner and Vygostsky (1997), also stated that “learning serves to pull development along” (p. 40) when the learner has an awareness of their own thinking, so as Nathan learns more about how to do the pommel horse he will get better on the pommel horse. He should be encouraged by the instructor and his parents to examine how his positive thinking about the pommel horse has helped him improve and to continue to encourage him to think positive and set his goals higher and visualize his performance and success.
It is hard to chose from the many good examples in my life where the cognitivist method was applied with success but I will use when I was about three years old and my sister who was a year older then me and had just been taking swimming lessons was feeling very sure of her abilities talked me into with much resistance on my part into climbing up a platform diving board into the deep end of a public swimming pool holding her hand. She assured me that she would swim me to the side of the pool with no problem. Unfortunately she did not have the ability to do this and we both nearly drowned and had to be rescued and water pumped from our bodies. The worst effect of this was the deeply engrained fear of water. I wanted to learn to conquer my fear and knew that I would need to take swimming lessons. I did learn to swim but still had the fear and always made sure that I swam where I could touch the bottom and would get panic attacks when I couldn’t. I would have nightmares of drowning and would wake up then I would visualize myself swimming successfully. I did this over and over again. When I reached high school I was still tormented by fear even though I could swim. I had pushed myself to swim in deep water but still only swam close to an edge that I knew I could grab onto if I needed to. I even made myself learn to jump off the diving boards including the high platform board that I had nearly drown from jumping off with my sister because I visualized success and reasoned with myself that they were very close to the edge. I often made sure that I went down and touched bottom and pushed myself back up to the top many times successfully but deep down I was still afraid and had the reoccurring nightmares. To make matters worse I nearly drowned again while I was in high school when I was with a group of kids at a lake. We had a picnic on shore and then everyone wanted to swim out to a houseboat. I was now fairly confident of my swimming abilities and we swam out to the boat. On the way back my legs cramped up so severely that I could not move them. Fortunately the boys that were with me were very good swimmers and I was a good floater so the swam me to shore. This increased my fear of swimming any long distance. My high school coach began to notice that I only swam by the edge of the deep end of the pool so she guessed my fear. She had taught us many different method of swimming by then so she told me to stay in the pool and dismissed the other girls to get dressed. She made me swim non-stop laps back and forth across the pool down the middle and away from the edge having me change methods each time. I was amazed at how many times I could do it when I switched methods. She then made me float for a long time in the middle of the pool. When she let me get out she said, “I know your afraid of drowning but I wanted to show you that you have nothing to fear because all you have to do is keep switching methods when you are tired from one and that you can float indefinitely”. After that I made myself swim numerous laps switching methods and I would float for long periods of time feeling peace and joy and I floated. I would visualize this feeling of floating and peace as I lay in bed before I went to sleep and at last the nightmares ended. Now I long to be in the water and swim and float in peace. From this example you can see that learning to swim pulled my development along which in my case was to end my fear and better my swimming abilities so I would be safe in water.
The third approach the coach and his parent’s can chose to take in the constructivism method. There are many benefits to this method and the teacher or in the case of Nathan is very much in charge as an active guide of the student’s learning engaging the student at all levels. Cagne (1972), stated there were five different categories of learning outcomes with the first one being verbal information. This is done at the beginning of a lesson with the coach encouraging Nathan to remember previously learned material. The coach should go over the principles and procedures of working on the pommel horse that Nathan has learned so far and have him practice them refreshing his memory and skills. The next part of this approach is teaching the new lesson to be learned. This is done in a series of steps and involves student-learning strategies that will increase Nathans procedural knowledge. The coach could show him videos of gymnast performing the method so Nathan could see the correct way to do it and be inspired by their performance. Driscoll (2005), stated, to increase student procedural knowledge the first thing a teacher should do is have the student examine what is to be learned (p. 359). The coach could show Nathan a visual diagram of the method to be learned by breaking down the new pommel horse lesson into smaller steps.
The next step is providing the student with concrete concepts so the coach could have Nathan practice each new step. Driscoll (2005), stated that a teacher needs to employ “personal ways to guide learning, thinking, acting and feeling” (p. 359). The coach can accomplish this by making sure that Nathan understands the lesson with questions to him. He should encourage Nathan to come up with strategies to accomplish the lesson and teach him problem solving strategies. One strategy would be to get another student gymnast train with Nathan on the pommel horse and help each other with the method. They should be encouraged to ask questions and get help from the coach as needed.
There is a behavioral component to the constructionist learning methods. Driscoll (2005), stated that attitude becomes the motivating force (p. 364). The coach needs to look forward to learning the pommel horse method with enthusiasm. One way he can accomplish this is to use Nathan’s natural desire to do well and his great love of gymnastics. His parents could take Nathan to high-level gymnastic performances where he could watch wonderful performances including the pommel horse to inspire Nathan. They could have discussions with him on his own desires to be at that high level and what it takes including improving on the pommel horse to a great degree. They could also encourage Nathan to get ideas that he could use on his own pommel horse routines making this a creative thing for him to do. This would give Nathan personal ownership of his routine.
The last part of the method is the motor skills aspect. Driscoll (2005), stated that is “Executing performances involving the use of muscles” (p. 359). Nathan has a very physical skill to learn but he has to practice it repeatedly once he learns it until it become automatic and perfect. The coach needs to keep a close watch on his performance so that he will not pick up a wrong move in his practice, which will make it very difficult to unlearn that wrong move if he does it to often. To keep Nathan from getting bored the coach and the parents can challenge Nathan to research and find new moves that he can incorporate into his routine and make it better. A personal example of this method was when I was in high school I joined a dance group. We had to learn many different dances from around the world. Our teacher first showed us how to do the dance, and then showed us the basic steps of the dance, which we practiced repeatedly until they were automatic. We then learned the order of a large number of different steps in sections that section until it was automatic then moving on to another section. Working as a group was very important because we helped each other all the time and even practiced with each other without the instructor around. We also had a lot of social fun from working with our peers. We did this until the whole dance was learned. We would learn a total of five dances for each performance. These dance moves were so engrained into my body that I could transfer them to other dances like rock and roll and the school dances. When done to a different beat they looked new and awesome. I used to win school dance contests all the time. My peers did not know that I was applying very old dance moves to modern music. My motivation for learning and doing well at dance was to impress my peers and the audience but also I just plane loved to move my body to music at a very young age and always wanted to be a ballerina. My mother gave us ballet lessons starting when I was three and that was the start of my love of dance so I was already motivated to learn to dance when I joined that dance group. I also loved dressing up and wearing costumes as a child and we got to do a lot of that in the high school dance group. We have a high school Mexican Folkloric dance group at our school, which does the same thing. The wonderful benefits of this are many that I have seen in students that are in it that also attend my art classes. It gives them a physical creative outlet, great peer social interaction, discipline and improves their behavior on many levels. I would encourage dance, gymnastics, drama, band, or sports for all students for the same reasons. I look back and think of how fortunate I was that my parents and the school gave us all those opportunities. I was in dance, band, had piano lessons, swimming lessons, art lessons at school, sports at school, gymnastics at school, cooking and sewing and so much more. A side note is that my parents never allowed a TV into our home and then I thought we were deprived but now I understand that it was a blessing to us. All of these things I learned have transferred into broader and greater learning transferring into other subjects that you wouldn’t think they would apply to and increasing my confidence and creativity in everything. This is important for all children to have available to them to make them better well-rounded creative beings that are successful in this life.

References
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