Extra credit post

Dr. Belland asked that we take a look back over the course and see how our view of teaching and learning has changed with all the different methods of teaching we've learned. For me, I've seen a great change, though not necessarily because I learned about behaviorist theory or meaningful learning theory. The change I've noticed is understanding.
In my previous post I talked about how I define ignorance and understanding (feel free to look at it to get an idea of how I define both). What I see is that I was ignorant about the different methods I employed in my teaching, though I still used most of them in some way. This class has helped me understand many different teaching methods, to distinguish them from other methods, and know when is the best time to use them. As a result, I don't use any particular learning theory exclusively, I orchestrate them in a way that provides variety to my students and caters to each individual students needs. I knew well before this course that every student learns in their own unique way. This class has helped me know how to reach more of my students in ways that result in real learning.
I love my job as a seminary teacher, because it let's me create each lesson in a very different way. I am not a math teacher, luckily for my students (they would learn nothing from my class even at the elementary level), and so I am not teaching them formulas everyday. For me to be successful, I must use variety (though I'm sure that's also true for good math teachers as well).
This class helps me understand when a lesson should be more schema theory oriented, and when it should cater to human development. I've found that a great lesson to create participation and love for learning is case-based learning. Even aspects of behaviorism and functional behavior theory make it into my lessons, though I admit I use it more to demonstrate how the adversary tries to entice us to do wrong more often than not.
This new found understanding for methods I've used in teaching for years helps me see why I choose to teach a lesson focusing on frameworks of previous knowledge when I discuss journal keeping, and why I should have a ready story to tell about faith when a student asks a sincere question. With understanding comes an ability to be a better teacher.

week 11 blog: what is learning and how can it be best effectuated by a teacher?

I still see learning as the process through which understanding replaces ignorance. Looking back on past postings, I see that I haven't really defined understanding or ignorance. Though both might seem fairly obvious, I'm going to use this week's blog to define them anyways. First up is ignorance: ignorance has nothing to do with lack of intelligence. Instead, ignorance deals with a person being unaware. Intelligence personnel in the military are often unaware of the enemies whereabouts and intentions. It doesn't mean they aren't smart, it just means they haven't received the necessary information to abolish their ignorance. However, understanding is not necessarily the opposite of ignorance.
Understanding is what someone has who is not only educated about a topic or concept, but also knows how to accurately apply the it. for example, knowing that fire burns is not understanding as I define it. Understanding takes the knowledge that fire burns and applies it. For example, "because I know fire burns, I won't put my hand in fire".
I believe teachers do a disservice to their student by simply replacing ignorance with inert knowledge. Teachers have the best results with their students when understanding replacing ignorance. understanding is at the heart of real learning.

Week 11: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

This weeks learning theory connected with something near and dear to me, and in a broader sense, to my field of teaching. In seminary, we always want the students to get more out of the scriptures than just content. Its nice for them to understand the stories, but its critical that they understand the context, or how to move their content based learning away from just inert knowledge. We, as seminary teachers, try to show them the principles and doctrines contained in the scriptures and then help them see that those same truths can and should be applied to their own personal situations. Ahh, the joys of teaching!

Week 10: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

The concept that has been the most pronounced to me in this and other recent weeks of study is that REAL Learning is demonstrated by retention. The key to most of the recent learning theories is how to make what is learned stick. The more I've thought about it, the more I have come to agree. I still hold to my root definition of learning: the process through which understanding replaces ignorance, but it should be retained.
Now, how can teachers aid retention. well this week talks about expectation failure. Though I sincerely cannot see using this method regularly, I do see value in letting the students fail initially. It adds immediate readiness to most students when you then take them through the process successfully after they've failed on their own.

Week 9: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

This week's reading reemphasized to me the reality that students must crawl out of their unmotivated shells to seek help, which enables learning. It demonstrated to me that students are the ones who decide what, if anything, they learn. The best teachers in the world will have students that don't learn from them.
With that said, it's time for a little story. Throughout my entire junior high and high school career, I can think of two teachers that I actually respected. One was a History teacher, the other an English teacher (as a side note, in college I majored in English and minored in History). These teachers were good at what they taught, but I respected them for more than that. These were teachers I never even considered making fun of, or intentionally trying to make their job tougher. I sought learning from them, and it was mastery based, not performance. I still can't pinpoint a simple answer as to why they earned my trust, that I could learn from them and could seek their help when needed. I just share this to admit that while it is dependent on the student to find the motivation to learn, teachers can make a difference in helping them acquire that motivation.

Week 8: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Learning is the process through which Understanding replaces ignorance. Something Piaget said in his article from this week concerning the term operation struck a chord with my definition of learning. He mentioned that "to know an object is to act on it." (Piaget, Cognitive Development in Children, S8). I agree that a physical action or operation demonstrates the acquisition of some form of development, which explains learning, according to Piaget. I might understand a concept concerning making cookies, but until I actually make cookies, I don't have confidence in knowing that concept. Confidence seems to result from some form of action regarding a concept. It doesn't mean that I have to experience a broken arm to know it hurts. I know it hurts because I have experienced other bodily pain and I can make the connection. Some form of action has occurred.
Therefore, teachers will do well to remember the value of action in their lessons, or student participation. Participation allows student to act, which allows students demonstrate knowledge, and gain confidence in their ability to perform that learning again and again.

Week 6: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Surprisingly I find little--by little I mean nothing--has changed about my core definition of learning: the process through which understanding replaces ignorance. However, the way to make learning more meaningful, which focuses on the role of the teacher in learning, is ever growing.
Therefore, the following example paints a picture of what schema theory has added to my opinion of the role of the teacher in learning: This week, my lesson plan talks about a technique used to understand the words of Isaiah. I found it very beneficial when another teacher demonstrated it, though not until now did I realize that it was a form of schema theory. The lesson takes a couple chapters from Isaiah quoted in the Book of Mormon, and compares it to a modern courtroom experience with a plaintiff and a defendant, and a broken contract. As students of all ages often find Isaiah difficult to understand, the teacher plays a pivotal role in helping students understand his writings by seeing how it can be applied to today or something else familiar to them.

Week 5: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Learning is the process through which ignorance is replaced with understanding. Before skiing, I had no idea what it entailed. I substitute teacher in 5th grade however, had instructed me on some basic techniques, that help me paint a mental picture of skiing. When I hit the slopes for the first time 5-6 years later, I still remembered my "lesson" from the sub. That, plus some reasonable balance I had acquired through years of experience on roller blades, helped me demonstrate that which I was ignorant of before: that I could in fact ski.
The substitute taught me something I remembered years later, because he taught some movements I was already familiar with, simply swaying from side to side, and incorporated it with something new: the art of skiing.

Week 3: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

This week's entry will focus on how teacher's can effectuate learning. As a reminder I still define learning as the process through which understanding replaces ignorance. What's more, I'm convinced that for learning to take place, the learner must use or employ what he understands. For example, a student that learns the Pythagorean Theorem must use it in the appropriate context successfully to demonstrate to himself and others that learning occured. Now to the point of today's entry.

Often in class, there exist students who do not wish to learn (refer to President Obama's speech yesterday for support of this fact). In these instances a teacher plays an extremely important role in helping students do something beneficial for themselves, even if they came into class wanting to do nothing of the sort. If a teacher can appropriately identify the antecedents of inappropriate behavior and design and implement behavior support plans, she can help motivate a student to learn. With that said, the unique personality of all our students makes successful teaching, reaching and engaging students to learn, "the finest of the fine arts." (Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently)

Week 2: "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

From week 1, my core definition of learning has changed not at all: Learning is the process through which understanding replaces ignorance. I still feel that for learning to take place, something unknown, misunderstood, or even disregarded (such as a skill, formula, or law) is recognized and to some degree comprehended. If someone learns about the simple mechanics and steps to changing a tire, while in some driver training, they will demonstrate they understood that learning by reciting the steps, written or verbally. Furthermore, they demonstrate even greater, more important real world understanding by actually using the techniques necessary to successfully change a tire. However, I do see how important it is for a teacher/trainer to conciously understand and recognize the ways people learn. For example, a teacher familiar with the behaviorism theory, will have a greater understanding of the need to incoroporate positive and/or negative reinforcement in their teaching to help a student learn.

"What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

As this is post # 1, I felt that speaking in basics is best. Without further ado, my comments on the two questions follow:

1.What is learning? I define learning as the process whereby understanding replaces ignorance. When ten years old, I found it exileratingly fun to go down a hill on my bike while jerking my handle bars repeatedly to the left and right, which caused my bike to wobble as I sped downward. Much to my surprise, my joy lasted but moments before I found my shirtless, shoeless body flying through the air only to come to a grinding hault on the asphalt. In this incident, I was truly ignorant concerning the consequences of turning my handle bars too sharply and too quickly while riding my bike. And I especially didn't realize, unfortunately, that long, steep declines exacerbates that outcome. The school of hard knocks taught me quickly concerning that subject, and I readily learned to not make that same mistake twice.

2.How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer? In the example given above, I acknowledged my ignorance of certain aspects of gravity when they related to bike riding. That painful yet poignant lesson was something I didn't need to learn from personal experience. If a friend, parent, or older sibling explained the potential hazard (I include as an aside that I actually learned to ride my bike at the age of five, by my older brother, who taught me by pushing me down another steep grassy slope during winter (my bike was a christmas present) without training wheels), my lesson would have come sooner and a lot less painfully. In this instance, anyone with the necessary understanding would have qualified as a teacher, though probably their ability to relate that understanding in a way that I understand would also be a necessary attribute.

Slow and Steady

Though not the fastest to do so, I have finally created my blog for class (on Blogger, whereas previously I just used ITLS website). Huzzah!