Final Blog

Well, this has been a great semester! At the beginning, I was a little intimidated by the fact that we would have to answer the same two questions each week, but it turned out that there was always something different to say after reading about each learning theory. At this point, I guess it's appropriate to sum up what I've come to believe personally about learning and facilitating learning, now that I've read all the material.

Basically, I think what it comes down to is that learning (the best kind, anyway) doesn't result from didactic instruction. Rather, students must be active participants in the process. Especially where they come in with preexisting misconceptions, it is necessary to allow them to discover the incorrectness of these misconceptions for themselves. Only then will they ready to accept new ideas. Additionally, students learn better when they are able to manipulate and experiment and develop ideas for themselves, rather than simply being given discrete facts to memorize and then give back on a test.

The job of the teacher in all this is, I believe, best represented in the difference between possible titles. Rather than considering him or herself as the instructor, it would be better to instead use the term guide or facilitator. Until they fit children with USB ports on their foreheads where information can simply be downloaded, the job of a teacher is to guide them on this journey of discovery, pushing them or directing them, but not attempting to simply fill them up.

Social Constructivism

I believe this week's learning theory was my favorite of all of them. Vygotsky's ideas on the Zone of Proximal Development have always rung true for me. In complete honesty, I suppose another reason why I enjoyed this week's readings more than some is that they seemed more respectful of the profession into which I've been working and putting my heart for several years now. I like the synergy between the development of the individual and also the influence of instruction on that development.

So, what is learning? According to Vygotsky, part of learning, at least, results from being pushed just a bit farther than one is strictly comfortable and completely knowledgeable. Then, with the aid of a more experienced other, one develops new knowledge and more cognitive abilities. The teacher's job in all this is to provide these tasks and opportunities to step out of the comfort zone and into the zone of proximal development, and then to also provide the scaffolding needed once the student is in the ZPD so that the experience results in development rather than in frustration.

Bruner

I really liked the Big Quote from the reading this week: any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development. I think this is absolutely true. Learners can grasp elements of any subject matter, so long as it is presented in such a manner that it is appropriate for them at the level where they are. That puts the burden on teachers to facilitate that learning through creatively presenting the material so that it is appropriately simplified and concrete for younger learners. I've always believed this is one of the things that makes teaching an interesting challenge. After all, striking the right balance of simplicity is an art--it's much more common to either go too easy or too esoteric.

Situated Cognition

I could see what the chapter this week was talking about. Most of the time, when I've gotten new jobs, I've felt like what I learned in school had done very little to directly prepare me for it. Of course, the many skills I did learn in school have always served me well in whatever I did, but as far as being specifically prepared, even for my current job of teaching, the school courses I took didn't do that for me. Of course, I chose to take all college-prep classes in school. I was definitely well-prepared for college, which was my goal. Perhaps if students choose to study a trade in high school they get more of that culture.

The reading made the point that school doesn't even manage to teach intellectual skills effectively because they are taught theoretically and without context. To be completely frank, I feel that some of the readings we've had have been a bit condescending, and that the authors were generalizing a bit too much. This article was in that category for me. Again, I could definitely see their point, and I do know teachers at my school that are stuck in the past, but I also know a lot that are doing wonderful things.

So: according to this week's philosophy, learning happens when students are enculturated. Information drilled in without reference to how it is meant to be applied is meaningless and quickly forgotten.

Most students learn more about how to be students and play the game of school than how to actually be scientists, mathematicians, or readers. So teachers need to be examples and real practitioners, not just perpetuators of the customs of traditional school.

Case-based learning

The school of the future (as described at the end of the Schank chapter) sounds great. However, it also sounds like quite a clash with the priorities of NCLB. I won't get on my soapbox (again) but why isn't NCLB on the way out?

So: what is learning? I think I'm seeing a real theme throughout the learning theories so far, actually. First of all, learning doesn't take place independently as a simple input in, input out equation. Instead, it is dependent on prior experience, and the learner must make meaning of new input based on what his/her previous learning and experience has been. Secondly, learning is not meaningful and permanent if the learner is simply told a fact and asked to remember it. Instead, the learner must be allowed to work the facts out for him or herself. In fact, Schank kind of disparages people who do remember a lot of random facts!

I was fascinated by the storytelling idea. It is so true. I take the example of the example. Hearing a fact in isolation leaves me confused, usually. But, give me an example of what that fact looks like in real life, and suddenly I understand what it means to me. Also, isn't it always more interesting to listen to someone talk when they incorporate stories?

So, what should a teacher do? Don't try to spoonfeed it to them--make them put it together and eat it themselves. Also, make sure and incorporate stories that will make students think and also help them remember their own stories.

Beware: Star Trek reference follows! I don't know how many of you are trekkies (probably not many) but this theory made me remember an episode of Next Gen where Picard was stuck on this planet with this alien captain and Picard couldn't understand anything he said, even with the Universal Translator. Turns out their whole language was based on stories, and since Picard hadn't heard any of the stories, he didn't understand any of the references.

Motivation

It seems to me that the connection between motivation and learning is the most obvious yet. Obviously, if someone is simply going through the motions to get a grade, they aren't going to remember very much in the long run, nor will the experience be very pleasant. That has certainly happened to me in my life, especially after graduating from high school, as I've taken college classes that I was required to take in order to fulfill a requirement, but wasn't really interested in and knew I would never use. Whether it was true IN REALITY that I would never use the information I can't say at this point. What mattered was that I perceived it as useless, and therefore did just what was necessary to make it through the class, breathed a sigh when I was finally finished, and promptly buried whatever I had put in short-term memory in order to pass the test. Nobody could really call that learning.

So what can an instructor do to facilitate learning? Obviously, the readings this week gave some good techniques. What makes it difficult is when you have some principle that you really must cover and it just isn't easy to think of a way to motivate students to care about it. For example, consider the prepositional phrase. It is actually very important for people to understand what a prepositional phrase is and how to identify one. It is, perhaps, one of the most vital aspects of learning parts of speech, because without understanding what a prepositional phrase is, you will most definitely make mistakes in subject/verb agreement. For example, in the sentence "The group of diplomats makes a lot of noise," a lot of people would instead say, "The group of diplomats make a lot of noise." However, remove the phrase "of diplomats" and it becomes clear that the verb has to be "makes" rather than "make." Even though it is actually very important to know about prepositional phrases, it's pretty difficult to make them gripping and motivational :) Even the name "prepositional phrase" makes people's eyes glaze over. Any ideas?

Week 5-Human Development

What is learning from a Piagetian perspective? Learning results from operations. In other words, a child discovers information by operating on something and transforming it. What can a teacher do to facilitate this development of learning? I guess the teacher can design curriculum that provides students with the opportunity to experiment and discover new principles.

I wonder if I'm fully understanding this theory. In my opinion, this perspective seems to promote the idea of some pretty stubborn children. It seemed to me as I was reading that he is arguing that if a child doesn't interpret these operations for him or herself, but is instead told what the operations mean, that the child won't internalize the information. I do not believe that was 100% true of me when I was a child. I know that I can remember working things out for myself many times, and it was meaningful when I did that, but I also remember having trusted adults teach me things and accepting that information and definitely remembering it.

Schema Theory

Well, I loved the reading this week. Schema theory is a basic tenet of reading instruction. In fact, reading instruction was even mentioned in the article! That is the first time in a year that any acknowledgement of my subject area has been given, so it was quite a thrill for me.

Learning in terms of schema theory takes place when the appropriate background knowledge is activated and the learner is able to situate new information in the midst of what was known before. If this does not happen, then the learner is unlikely to remember or even truly comprehend the new information. They may be able to spit back discrete facts for a test, but they won't have truly internalized and "gotten" the material enough to use it in any other situation. In terms of reading, especially reading expository text, it is extremely important for learners to have the strategies in place to activate their schemata related to what they are reading. This is a huge part of reading strategy instruction. So, the best way for a teacher to facilitate learning is to help their students learn how to activate these schemata. A science or math or history teacher who will take the time to instruct students in how to read their textbooks will end up miles ahead in the long run. Yes, this is TOTALLY my soapbox!

Week 3-Meaningful Learning

The reading this week reminded me of the videos that we watched for Doug's class last fall about the graduates of the high-powered university who didn't know why the seasons changed. The article actually mentioned this video. I was also reminded of the one about the schoolgirl who couldn't believe that the eye needs light in order to see. So, I guess you could say that I had previous knowledge of this topic, and was thus able to fit the new information in.

One thing that frustrated me was the fact that the chapter completely focused on science and math. I believe that the principles being discussed were applicable to all subject matters, but mine was completely ignored. I'm getting kind of tired of that, especially since reading instruction does such a great job already of activating previous knowledge. I would never consider introducing my students to a piece of text without first making sure they were thinking about the topic, had discussed and done graphic organizers with what they already knew about the topic, and had also developed some "new" background knowledge about the topic of the text before beginning to actually read it. We already realize that students will comprehend almost nothing about a text if they do not do this. Because of the total focus on only math and science, I'm frankly not really sure of what sorts of misconceptions I might need to watch out for in my field. It would have been very helpful for me if the article had talked about this. So, I guess that's the answer to the question of how a teacher can best effectuate learning.

As to what learning is with relation to Meaningful Learning, I see some tie-ins to Cognitive Information Processing. It is vital to dig out that previous knowledge. However, in Meaningful Learning the stress is on identifying and then working to correct previous misconceptions. The article stresses the importance of the learner being motivated to do this. It seems vital that the learner be open to the possibility that they might be wrong, and willing to reject previous conceptions in order to make room for new, corrected ones. Some people certainly have a harder time doing this than others. I'm always quick to admit that I'm wrong about something, so I think that's helped me in my education to progress beyond misconceptions. It is not at all uncommon for me, even now, to realize that I've been wrong about something I've thought all along. I think it's an enlightening experience, and it doesn't bother me at all, but I believe there are those who feel that it reflects badly on them. So, ego gets in the way of learning! Students stubbornly clinging to misconceptions is a problem that teachers have a difficult time conquering.

Cognitive Information Processing

This week's readings were definitely interesting. I had a real time wading through the article from Miller--in fact, when I first started reading I thought perhaps it had been posted by mistake! However, I believe that I do naturally incorporate more cognitive strategies into my teaching than I do behaviorist ones. Ultimately, with behaviorism, the main reinforcement that's out there is the grade itself. Beyond that, I don't think I'm much of a behaviorist.

However, I regularly make use of things like mnemonic devices, advance organizers, examples and non-examples, and practice with corrective feedback. Most reading instruction makes heavy use of building on background knowledge because activating background knowledge is one of the primary strategies that effective readers utilize. Therefore, I really can't imagine doing anything without first making sure that students are thinking about where they've already been, and how what they're looking at now fits in with what they already know. Other reading strategies do the same thing. Think about making connections: you're basically thinking about how what you're learning at present is connected to things you already know, either from your own experience, or from things you've read, or things you've heard about in the world. A basic premise of active reading is that you can't comprehend what you're decoding unless you can fit it into your prior experience in some way.

The idea that different people can listen to the same lesson but receive different amounts of information is kind of funny. My dad and I were talking about how much easier it would be if students could just raise their hand and say, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much variance they're experiencing. Then I thought about it, and I really think in many ways students DO tell us. I do have students who will say to me, "I don't get it." That always makes me feel as if I had just been squashed by a ton of bricks, since it sounds as if the student had received exactly no information from the lovely explanation I just spent ten minutes crafting for their benefit. However, usually when I talk more to the student, I realize that they got some of it, but then the rest of it they need help situating properly in their brain. Others will tell us they're experiencing virtually no variance and are simply waiting for us to move on! This is usually communicated through rolled eyes, pulling out a book, or exaggerated sighs. That's the joy of a classroom of 30 students of vastly differing ability levels. But that's a different blog...

So what is learning in the context of cognitivism? I think that students need the information broken down into logical steps and logical sequences in order to learn and retain it. They need periodic reviews of what they may have "learned" previously in order to be able to call that information back into use when they need it. Otherwise, I've found that it goes away never to be seen again. The human mind, at least the 7th grade mind, is full of black holes...

What is learning-part two

Reading about behaviorism this week was fascinating to me. I really believe that aspects of it are true on the most basic of levels. We tend to disparage those who are only interested in "what's in it for me" but the truth is that all of us are motivated by positive and negative consequences. I'll be honest: I wouldn't be taking this class if I weren't interested in things like my grade, my degree, etc. Even if I were doing this purely for the sake of becoming a better teacher (which is in there, of course) that would still be a reward. I was struck by the fact that even when you do something good so you can go to heaven or in order to avoid going to hell, you are still responding to reinforcers. Some of our most noble motivations, such as being a good person or knowing that we have done the right thing, are ultimately still rewards. I suppose even the most unselfish actions displayed by our species, such as a soldier giving his life for his country, are probably motivated by some internal value or sense of honor that is important to that individual.

I didn't feel there was enough information on what Skinner meant when he talked about the concept of dignity or the mind. What did he mean when he said those things were false? I would like to learn more about that. Also, what did he have to say about extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation?

As a middle school teacher, I have definitely found that behaviorism accurately describes my students. Most need me to provide different forms of positive (and, let's be honest here, negative too) reinforcement in order for them to stay on task and focus on learning. Perhaps because they have had to do nothing in order to obtain it, school in itself does not feel like a reward for most of them, and they are still too young to recognize the benefit that will come to them from getting an education. So, a fairly big part of my job is helping my students find motivation. Until that happens, learning doesn't!

What is learning?

Whenever I'm asked to define a word as commonly used as "learning" I know I'm really in for a difficult task. Most of my students would probably say you've learned something if you didn't used to know it, but now you do. That's really as far as they take it, and they don't stop to wonder about retention or application or anything much beyond regurgitating it on a test. Frankly, I sometimes think that's all some policymakers think learning is, too. However, as a teacher I feel real learning goes far beyond simply memorizing a discrete fact long enough to choose the correct item on a test. I believe that for something to be truly learned, the individual must be able to retain the information, AND ALSO apply that information in various real-life situations. Only in this way is true comprehension of a concept demonstrated. I believe the reason why so many students don't apply skills learned in a class in any other place than that class is because they don't really understand what they are being taught on a deep enough level to genuinely use and apply it.

So, how can learning be best effectuated by a teacher? I'm not sure I can provide a complete answer to this question, but I know some of the pieces include teaching in such a way that reaches different learning styles and types of intelligences. Also, going beyond simply drilling information into those empty vessels to where students are discovering things for themselves, or creating their own understandings, is key. In my area, where I teach writing, it is important to require lots of practice of the skills they are learning in as close to real-life situations as it is possible to get. For example, students can write letters to real people, companies, or agencies. They can create real newspapers. They can create presentations to teach each other about parts of speech.