Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Reflection #2

                It’s reflection time. Easier said than done when you have the same professor teaching you three classes in the same classroom, and two of them are on the same day.

                We learned about 27 educational philosophers throughout history. We also learned about the three main educational philosophies – behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructionism. We read some case studies and discussed the “Spelling B” situation as well as the menu example. We also challenged and tested our concise teaching abilities as we all tried – with differing degrees of success – to clearly teach a skill or idea in 5 minutes.

                I will keep the “observation” section of this short and move on to the analysis and action. I feel that both of those will be more fulfilling for each of us.

                Here are a few passionate thoughts about module learning and teacher-given options that I didn’t share while in class today. I find that the ability to make choices, when compared to a single option, either makes a situation significantly better of significantly worse. There isn’t really a middle ground. The situation becomes better when a person is open-minded, curious, disciplined, and an independent thinker. This type of individual will take advantage of such on opportunity to try new methods of learning, much as he would likely be open to try new menu options at a restaurant. On the other hand, many individuals in this situation will often stick with what they are good at, what they know, and what they feel comfortable doing. This is not to say that the person is apathetic; rather, the very situation coupled with human nature invites this lack of exploration. Human nature is defined by Newton’s law of motion: an object in motion or a person with previous experience will not change unless acted upon by an outside force. I seldom pick up my phone and discover new music – I stick with my own library unless another person makes a recommendation. The same way, most people will stick with what they know in a situation where multiple learning opportunities are presented. This minimizes the possibility of a breakthrough of knowledge. Unless a classroom is filled with independent, motivated learners, the majority of students will learn more if they are given a set assignment by their teacher, or given a limited number of more rigidly defined choices that are each designed to stretch the students’ knowledge and ability.

                One more thing I’d like to talk about for just a moment. I’m not sure about these three educational philosophies – behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Yes, I agree they all seem legitimate and make sense to me. But I would argue that there are additional educational philosophies as well. (Perhaps there are. I plan to research this more on my own. That’s part of the “action” portion of this reflection.) For example, what if my idea were to teach extremely difficult concepts first, making all the easier concepts seem exceptionally easy and quick by comparison? Perhaps impractical in some areas – actually, I’m almost positive we could easily rattle off many places where that would be an impractical technique – bit still a valid opinion and a viable course of action. This idea directly opposes the concepts of constructivism, but doesn’t really fit into behaviorism or cognitivism either. I am sure there are many more educational ideas that fall into their own categories, and I would be interested to see what other philosophies have been created to categorize them, and what other ideas have been presented that fall into philosophies other than the three we learned about in class.

                And of course, there’s my action. How will this change me? Well, as I prepare to become a better teacher, I will pay more attention to what my professors do well and what could be improved. Every time I go to class, it’s an opportunity to perform my own real-life case studies. And of course, I will research/invent-if-necessary my own educational philosophies. I’m sure there are a lot of unique, uncategorized teaching methods that are just waiting to be discovered and analyzed.

                

No comments:

Post a Comment