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)