Personal Learning Theory

My emerging theory results were B: 40 C: 36 H: 36, they were all very close but I definitely see myself as a behavioral learner and teacher.
Piaget's Cognitive Development: Like - I really liked Piaget's idea about assimilation and accommodation. I liked the idea that kids either make their new learning fit into an old category, or makes a new category for the information. Dislike - I didn't really like Piaget's idea that learning occurs individually. He thought that people learn from their own experiences and such, rather than learning from other people.
Vygotsky's Cognitive Development: Like - I really liked his theory about social learning. They people learn from others experiences and from more capable others. His idea of apprenticeship goes along with this. Dislike - There were parts of the Zone of Proximal Development that I didn't necessarily like, such as, the fact that in the ZPD it is with the teachers help that the student can accomplish the task. I felt like maybe the student should be in their ZPD when they are able to figure it out on their own but still feel challenged.
Erikson's Psychosocial Development: Like - I agree with all of Erikson's stages and I really like the order that he placed them in. Dislike - I don't really like that the stages seem to occur individually and not necessarily mixed together. I feel like a lot of the stages could be occurring at the same time.
Kohlberg's Moral Development: Like - I like the three general categories that Kohlberg divided his stages into (Preconventional, Conventional and Postconventional Reasoning) because it seems to be fitting for moral development. Dislike: I do not like the individual categories that Kohlberg divides the elements into though because I find it hard to distinguish what a persons true motives are in doing right or wrong.
Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: Like - I like the idea that we can handle our emotions and find ways to control them. Dislike - I don't like that emotions seem to be somewhat a of a determination of your intelligence though, that doesn't seem to relate.
Information Processing: Like - I really like this whole theory pretty much. I like the idea that through teaching information in many different ways, increases the likelihood that the student will remember the information because they are relating to it on several different levels. Dislike - I don't like the idea that once several memories make it to your long-term memory they are lost after not using them for a while. I think that they are just harder to recall, but not necessarily lost.
Knowledge Construction and Higher-order thinking: Like - I really like the idea of challenging the students and getting them to reach their full potential which encourages higher-order thinking skills. I think that all teachers should encourage this type of behavior. Dislike - I know that meta cognition is important, but I just don't like the way it works. It seems like students are learning how to learn versus actually learning something.
Behaviorism: Like - The idea that we pair stimuli with responses is an idea that I really like. I see this conditioning all of the time and I know that it truly happens. Dislike - I don't really like the idea that this should be encouraged as a method of teaching. I think that at times it causes motivation to be for the wrong reasons. When used properly and in moderation, I think it can be good, but not as a main source of motivation and encouragement.
Social Cognitivism: Like - Like I mentioned earlier about Vygotsky's theory, I love the idea of social learning. I think that all people learn from the experiences of others and things that happen in their atmosphere. If my sister were to run into a wall and get hurt, I would learn from that experience to not run into walls. Dislike - I don't necessarily like the idea of disinhibitory effects. First of all, because it is a very confusing idea, second of all, because I think that this isn't always true in the positive aspect. Even if a student sees a positive outcome occur when they expected a negative outcome, they won't necessarily believe that it will happen to them.
Group and Individual Differences: Like - We didn't learn about this topic. Dislike - We didn't learn about this topic.
Motivation: Like - Maslow's hierarchy of needs is one of my favorite theories! I agree with all aspects of the pyramid. I think that motivation begins with the lowest level of meeting basic survival needs and then gradually moves up to doing service for others. Dislike - I don't like the idea that even if some students don't have the motivation to do assignments, they aren't intelligent students.

I personally think that people learn mostly from their own personal experiences, and the experiences of others. If an individual is to go through a situation first hand, they will learn a great deal because they will be involved socially, emotionally and intellectually. They are involving several different learning aspects so they are more likely to relate it to themselves and retain more knowledge. I also think that people can learn through the experiences of others so that they don't have to suffer the consequences on their own, or they can benefit from the consequences because they have seen someone else do the same.
My emerging theory appears to be behaviorism. I think that this will influence my teaching style because I will have a lot of group activities so that the students can learn from each others experiences as well as their own. I will also probably use several different reinforcement methods in order the encourage the students to work hard in my class. I can also see myself using some classical conditioning in my teaching in order to achieve and maintain classroom management. I will encourage the students to do certain things when they come in the classroom and make it a routine.
When it comes to educational psychology I know that I need to improve in learning more about cognitive learners. That area seems to get me a little bit confused. If I can work hard on learning what exactly this theory is, then I could possibly teach that way better to my students that will prefer that style of teaching and learning. I will better understand where they are coming from and why it applies to them.