Jason Davenport Foundations of Learning Final

My Own Personal Learning/Instruction Theory

An old Chinese Proverb states: Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime. Learning for me takes place when the learner can take instruction and apply it in their lives. Thus, becoming like Bruners goal of education is to make learner as autonomous and self -propelled a thinker as possible. Though I dont completely agree with all of Bruners theories, I would concur with that goal. In my personal theory of learning, learning is teacher guided, but student centered. Learning would be centered on the needs of the students, but also measured to the instruction that is provided. Learning cant be so owned by the students, as constructivists like, that all they learn is what they want or what they are motivated to learn. Teachers will and do have responsibility to work hard to help the instruction be effective. This can occur by using different methods of learning that will help the learning become meaningful. Learner receptivity and learner readiness will need to play a role in learning. Learner receptivity is helpful but not always dependable with each or every subject, but that is where a variety of learning methods will take place. It can help create a readiness in the learner and allow the learner to value the subject and become more receptive. In my therory, similar the ARCS, the attention, or readiness of the learner, confidence, and satisfaction will be something that as a learner will need to be a continuous process for both the learner and the teacher. A teacher can do a lot to create this motivation, but the learner needs to take an active part in this process also. I have identified myself with a cognitive approach. That learning occurs through the mental process. I believe that through a guided effort a learner can come to a meaningful understanding of a topic to where they can apply the learning in there own lives. Through metacognition learners are alert to their personal process of knowing about, controlling, and thinking about mental processes. Learners will be aware of there own learning and how they learned. Also, with that guided effort a learner will be aware of there own cognitive process so that process can be brought back to them in a future time of need. Similar to learning becoming autonomus, as Bruner stated. I also agree with Ausebels thoughts to study cognition in context of meaningful, instructional materials. During meaningful learning the cognitive viewpoint is to apply meaningful material to a task, material to be learned must be meaningful itself, and the quicker learning consists of relating new information to existing information. The fun and challenging part of applying meaningful learning to the classroom will be just that, to help make the learning meaningful, which I will talk about later. In process of learning about the different theories, I have also adpoted some of the constructivist ways of using a combination of theories primarily as methods or approaches to reach more meaningful learning. For example, I think a behaviorist approach can help the learner quickly learn what is on the surface then move on to make that surface level of learning more meaningful through questions, making comparisons, and reflecting on previous schemas. In a history class a learner can read a paragragh and be asked questions about the reading. For each correct answer the student can be given points or pieces of candy. For each wrong answer they can have 1020 seconds to go back and find it. At this surface level the teacher can take the correct answers and help the learner identify ways they persanally relate to the event or person in the reading, or they can compare that event or person to another, and try other ways to help it become more meaningful. Another part of the constructivist that I feel real important would be active versus passive learning. I feel very strongly about active learning. However, unlike the contructivist, I feel that active learning does not necessarily mean that learning needs to be done in a group or social content to learn. It can take place individually

Jason Davenport Foundations of Learning Final

and cognitively. Sometimes a teacher can confuse active hands with active minds. Just because a group is doing something we should not assume learning is taking place. So how would person recognize this theory or what does it look like in the classroom? In this classroom learning looks like: teachers helping a student to identify a fact, understand it, and are able to apply it in their life. A teacher setting up a group of students to learn from eachother, and then cognitively shape their own thoughts. A teacher asking questions not for the student to come up with what the teacher thinks is the right answer, but helping the student learn for them self, and then helping them understand how they came up with the right answer. It looks engaging, students taking notes, and brainstorming those notes and using others to come up with more things they did not think of. It looks like a student making a connection from the material to their own life, comparing things so they can learn how to apply it to real life. It looks like students being able to explain what they learned, and how they learned it. It looks like student being able to know and explain the purpose of what they did, why they did it, and how they got there. The will be application learners, so they will be able to explain different ways they could use that learning outside of the classroom. a teacher that really listens, and cares about the learning of the student, but also the correct destination. I feel great learning takes place when the teacher can watch the student place the bait on the line, cast, and catch their first fish by themselves!