My Learning Theory

Blog Questions: 

Read the article about the development of teacher's practical theory. How do you think it's related to your own work and professional identity as a teacher? In your blog, write about how your own practical theory has developed, what has affected it, where does it show now? Also reflect on how you are using different learning theories in your work.

Readings:

1)  Learning Theories

http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm

2) Teacher's Practical Theory http://www.directions.usp.ac.fj/collect/direct/index/assoc/D1175794.dir/doc.pdf

Reading about Learning Theories took me back years ago when I was in college when I had to take in all of these theories which didn't make much sense to me. Still, it is useful to be aware of these theories and as an experienced teacher I can now make more sense of the abstractness of these theories. The main focus in the first reading is basically whether learning is seen as a process or a product. In our modern education, the emphasis is still on the end product where assessments are set to measure whether learning has taken place or not. While, ideally, educators should be looking at learning as a process. This is important to differentiate because it would change how we assess learning. 

I would most agree with the Humanist theory of learning where the view of the learning process is to fulfill the learner's potential. My role as an educator is a facilitator of learning to develop the learner's potential. This places a lot of pressure on the learner because it is self-directed learning. My role is to offer the tools to learning but learning will not happen unless the learner takes an active role and decides to do something with what I offer them. So basically my role is to support the lifelong learning which refers to the term: Andragogy. This term may refer in literature to adult learning, however, I apply when I teach my kids as well. 

However, I think that most of learning where I am is influenced by the Cognitivist theory because curriculum is based on developing skills to learn and perform. Teacher's role is to structure the learning activity. The end product is easier to measure in such a format. 

In my ideal world of teaching, I would like to apply more of the humanist theories and develop curriculum along the line with what my students need. Assessments would be based highly on self-reflection. Students would need to make themselves accountable for learning to happen and not expect it to take place just by showing up to class. Learning thus would be self-directed. Value is placed on effort during the process and not the end product. 

As for my own learning theory, I liked the second reading which described the components of developing your own learning theory in regards to values, beliefs and metaphors. In our community, this is extremely important because we have the educators coming from totally different value-laden backgrounds than that of their students. The end result is having students confused about the purpose of learning. 

Dorovolomo suggests that values include sources such as family background, ethnicity, class and cultural images.

I Value:

Good and thorough preparation for every class I give

Having a big vision of the whole course/ curriculum

Innovative techniques in teaching

Keeping up to date with the latest trends

Learning about my students learning styles and adapting my teaching style to fit theirs

Using technology that students use in their daily life and adapt learning to that

Making learning as real as possible by brining realia to the classroom, guest speakers and field trips

Learning should be an enjoyable activity and not a painful process

This I Believe:

Education is your only guarantee in life. When everything else fails, you can always depend on your education and skills to reinvent yourself.  Money comes and goes, properties lose and gain value, and so on…but education is the only thing that stays with you. It is the best thing you can give your children.  

In order for learning to take place, learners need to have an intrinsic motivation for learning. They need to know why they are learning and how it will benefit them in the future.  If this motivation is not there, then the educator’s role is to work on the learner’s motivation.

Teachers should be constantly developing themselves and researching the newest trends in teaching. They should serve as role models for their students.  You never stop learning.

Learning is not an isolated activity. We should be cooperating with institutions form around the world on projects especially with all the technology available to us.

Assessments should be based on effort and improvement and not final product/ result. Students should be in charge of determining if they believe they have learned what they needed from a course.

Teaching Metaphor:

Teaching is like making dinner for your family. You could make dinner all by yourself and serve the whole thing and let your family enjoy it, or not. Alternatively and this is how I would do it: as the cook, you ask your family what they’d like to have for dinner. You put a plan together. You could even customize it by giving each member of the family to have their day. Then, you assign tasks: Some have to research for the best recipe, buy the ingredients, set the table. The next phase is getting the whole family cooking. Each member has a role to complete. The main chef is the facilitator; you keep an eye on things so no fire burns in the kitchen. Everybody is involved no matter what their skill and abilities are. You assign tasks according to their abilities. Chef allows mistakes to take place in the kitchen under his/her supervision so that the rest of the cooks learn. Everybody is joining in and as such they all feel they are chefs for a short period of time. There usually is a greater sense of appreciation for the final dish because of the joint effort.  After the meal is served and enjoyed, the family reflects on what worked and what didn’t in this task. They decide if they need to tweak the recipe a bit to fit their taste and give a try again. They can try as many times and they need till they feel they got it right and they are ready to move on to trying new recipes.