As I think back to when I was a young student, a lot of what I “learned” in the traditional classroom was memorized. Studying for tests meant memorizing facts and key terms. My teacher would teach at the front of the class and I would “learn”. I did what my teacher asked, so in my eyes, that made me a great student. Fast-forward thirty-plus years to the present and I can say that I don’t know if I ever really learned anything in school. I can, however, say that I finally know how to learn and am learning every day. My learning facilitators (professors from Lamar University) have been modeling how to be facilitators from the beginning of my first semester. They created a significant learning environment for me by guiding my learning. They did this by:
assigning meaningful assignments
providing opportunities for collaboration
giving me the choice on how I created my assignments
requiring me to create an ePortfolio, which gives me voice and ownership
guiding me to amazing resources (books, articles, videos, and discussions) to learn from
This is how I learn. I have learned that acquiring knowledge is in my hands. Being immersed in a significant learning environment has allowed me to learn more in the last four months than I ever have before. This leads me to think about how I can do the same for my Dyslexia students. I need to provide the tools and resources to help construct their knowledge in a meaningful way. I cannot just instill knowledge in them through me. They need to be able to construct knowledge on their own and learn with their peers collaboratively and now in the 21st century, digitally.
The required state standardized tests are degrading for all students, but especially my Dyslexia students. Standardized isn’t personalized and it’s “impoverishing our spirit and energy, just like fast food depletes our physical bodies” (Robinson, 2010). It also doesn’t allow students or teachers to have choice, ownership, and voice in their learning and instruction. Given the ever-growing technology available, we have the world in our hands, if used correctly. If teachers are properly taught how to implement technology in their classrooms, students would be able to obtain instruction digitally and teachers would be able to act as facilitators for their students, which is much more beneficial. Teachers should guide students down the path, but allow students to steer. One way I can provide this is by implementing my collaborative group’s Blended Learning Innovation Plan: Personalizing the Future of Education. This will allow my students to learn digitally with me as their learning facilitator and by working collaboratively with their peers.
I believe that a digital blended learning environment, implemented at its fullest potential, will enhance learning by closing achievement gaps, motivating and engaging students, creating thinkers, problem solvers, and self-directed, lifelong learners. Creating a significant learning environment for my students is what they need to be successful. Sir Ken Robinson states that “like a farmer, you have to create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish” (Robinson, 2010). We must personalize education for the students that are in our actual learning environment, not the students of yesterday.
From what I have gathered, a teaching philosophy focuses on how the teacher is going to conduct learning. A learning philosophy focuses on how a learner is going to acquire knowledge. My belief about the relationship between teaching and learning is that anyone can be a teacher and anyone can be a learner. They coexist. A learning facilitator creates a significant learning environment in which:
facilitators guide students down the learning path,
learning can take place amongst peers,
students can learn digitally by themselves
Therefore, my learning philosophy dictates how in a significant learning environment, teachers and students coexist and impart knowledge to one another.
My beliefs about learning align with the Constructivist approach as well as the Social Development Theory. Jerome Bruner, the main theorist of Constructivism theorizes, “learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so” (Culatta, n.d.). I believe children need to make sense of newly acquired knowledge on their own terms and are highly capable of doing so.
Of course, collaborative learning is another aspect I highly believe in, as supported by the Social Development Theory, with Lev Vygotsky being the main theorist. Culatta (n.d.) remarks “the range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone”. I found this to be true as I have been working with my collaborative group in the ADL program. We each bring a different strength to the table and it shows within our coursework.
Learning is an ongoing process. It’s something people should be motivated to do every single day, especially since we can learn right in the palms of our hands. By creating significant learning environments, our learners will experience that learning comes from challenges, making mistakes, frustration, making connections, asking questions, communication, failing forward, creation, collaboration, choice, taking ownership, passion, and engagement, just to name a few. In facilitating the learning and modeling how to learn, we can create self-directed, motivated, lifelong learners that will be the leaders of our future.
References
Culatta, R. (n.d.). Instructional design. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/constructivist/
Culatta, R. (n.d.). Instructional design. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-development/
Harapnuik, D. (2021, April 16). YouTube. Learning Philosophy. https://youtu.be/8maEgRctnc0
Robinson, S. K. [TED]. (2010, May 24). Bring on the learning revolution! [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I
Annotated Bibliography
The following is a list of resources that I have learned from which have led to my beliefs on learning, although not cited in my learning philosophy.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
Dweck discovered the power of having a growth mindset toward learning and almost every human endeavor. Modeling a growth mindset will motivate our learners to keep learning amongst obstacles.
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). COVA: Choice, ownership, and voice
through authentic learning. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7291
COVA encourages and empowers educators to provide choice, ownership, and voice for our learners through authentic learning opportunities by creating significant learning environments to enhance learning.
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Horn and Staker discuss how the educational structure should move forward with regard to the digital world and discuss the benefits of blending online learning into schools.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a
world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.
Thomas and Brown discuss how digital environments offer possibilities for imaginative play, which helps with today’s challenges of tech and social changes.
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