Learning to me is the act of deeply understanding a concept and being able to use that knowledge subsequently in practice. I agree with Jonassen that the stages of learning determine the theory of learning to adopt. According to Jonassen, there are three stages of learning; which are introductory, advanced and expert. However, I believe that the subject matter of learning also determines what theory of learning is to be adopted. For instance, learning to cook a meal or learning new words.

 

Personally, I related better with the constructivism theory the most. Why? Because learning in its context seems to stick the most. I remember sometime back  I set a goal for myself to learn at least 50 words every month consistently for a year. The first week I started with 10 words from the dictionary, this cycle continued till the 3rd week. However, I realized that I could not remember more than half of the words I learnt in the previous weeks. This destabilized me because I had put in long hours to read the dictionary and learn those words yet less than a month I had forgotten them. 

 

Although at that point I wanted to give up because i had put in the work but did not get my desired result.  Eventually, I pushed past the negative thoughts and went back to the drawing board. A thought came to mind that perhaps my mode of learning was not the right one. So, I focused more on learning words by watching movies, listening to the radio and watching the news. I did this because I felt seeing or rather listening to them being used in their context would aid my learning and memory. Guess what? It worked!. Within four weeks I was able to reach my target of learning, understanding and remembering the 50 words. In essence, I came to the conclusion that merely having the theoretical knowledge (learning using the dictionary) did not help me fully understand the meaning of the words rather seeing its use (watching movies) facilitated my learning of the words.