My learning philosophy is definitely a mashup of 3 different theories. Before spending more time in the research and theories, I would have told you that I am all Constructivist because that is the theory that we studied as we made big changes to instructional practice in our district over the past 15 years. I have 3 books just on constructivism in my library in my office and have spent many meetings, trainings and session developments talking about this topic and making my own meaning of the content. As I continued reading this week, I found that as my understanding of other theories has developed, my thinking about learning and what I believe has changed. Well, I wouldn’t say changed, but now I have words and theories to backup my thinking and what I believe about learning.
My learning philosophy is based on 3 key learning theories: constructivism, cognitivism, and connectivism. As I read about these theories there were some very obvious connections that all 3 of them possess to each other:
Social connection with others
- Knowledge is constructed through processing
- New knowledge is made from previous understandings or knowledge
But there are also some learning concepts that are different from each other that cause the mashup in my thinking. The different concepts still connect in different ways, and it was very intriguing to make the connections as I was reading the content. I took notes and highlighted key concepts and using the research to solidify my thinking was a great experience.
The 4 key concepts to my learning philosophy are:
Learning how to learn
- Learning from others
- Making meaningful connections
- Learning is a process
My goal for learning is to help others learn how to learn by learning from others and making connections to the content through prior personal experiences and understanding.
If we all had the skills to learn how to search for up to date knowledge to fill gaps, monitor our own understanding through reflection, and had the capacity to form connections between sources of information to construct our own meaning we would be able to connect with each other and learn together without boundaries. As we know, learning is not a linear concept. Each of the 4 main concepts seem to intertwine with each other.
Learning How to Learn
As George Siemens says, the “half life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. This half life of knowledge seems to be getting shorter and shorter as technology changes the way we work and create. An example of this would be technology tools used for learning. When I started as a digital learning coach in 2004, we spent most of our time teaching educators how to use programs like PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. We could spend our time really getting to know the products and understand all of the different details of how the platform worked. I fast forward to 15 years later, and now it has become hard to be the expert in one set of tools that all educators would be use in their classroom because now there are so many tools out there that have been created for different grade levels, processing techniques and content areas. We need to find a way to help learners begin to develop skills to learn on their own. Educators and facilitators can help create "self directedness" by offering scaffolds through learning activities to develop the capacity and skills it takes to learn. As these skills develop and become stronger they can be used in future learning.
Formal education is no longer the majority of our learning because informal learning has been made easier by using networks of people, social media, and user generated content. With the world wide web, being able to learn anything is now at our fingertips. When knowledge is needed, the capacity to learn and access to the content and the ability to process the resources is critical. We need to make sure that we know how to evaluate the worthiness of the content, recognize and adjust to pattern shifts and organize the information into conceptual frameworks in order to deepen understanding (Wiley & Edwards, 2002).
Learning from Others
The internet has provided a path for connection and channels of conversation beyond our physical boundaries. These learning communities are important because we can use other people’s experiences in order to shape our understanding of new topics and information. Learning construction can be facilitated by a facilitator or more knowledgeable peers, but the responsibility and ownership still must be on the learner. Educators can guide learning by providing scaffolds and helping establish a community of learners among themselves. As people build more communities of practice, they are able to rely on each other to stay abreast of new content and find a source for feedback on their thinking and ideas. As George Siemens says, the pipe is more important than the content within the pipe.
Making Meaningful Connections
I believe that knowledge is gained through experiences. Learners should build new learning on a foundation of their existing knowledge. They should use facts from their prior understanding and build upon that information and turn it into usable knowledge. Being able to synthesize and recognize connections between sources, and to see and create patterns is a valuable skill. Reflection is a way to link a current experience to previous learnings through thoughtful consideration and application of what is learned to a new situation. This type of thinking allows the learner to find personal meaning.
Learning is a Process
Learning comes from the participation of life and as John Dewey says, is a continual process (Tan & Hung, 2003). Learning and daily activities are no longer separate. Because of the access that we have on the internet, learning is becoming more fluid and implicit based on activities and day to day life instead of formally and systematically. Kurt Lewin states that learning can be separated into two types; task conscious and learning conscious. Task conscious learning takes place during daily activities unconsciously. The learner isn’t thinking about what they are learning, it is just happening due to participation in different activities. Learning conscious learning takes place more systematically and the learner is usually aware of the task of learning.
Learning requires continuous reflection. This reflection is active, persistent and has careful consideration of experienced content. You must be able to think and evaluate the information on your own and apply what you have learned to new situations and experiences. The brain changes as it learns and when the brain makes connections (Gopnik, 2016) that we use a lot, it becomes swifter and more efficient. If we continue to reflect and make connections on our learning we can develop this skill and use it in many different situations.
Technology as a Support Tool
We are no longer asking if we should be using technology, but more about how well we are using technology in the learning process. Technology should be used to support and enhance learning and help facilitate the social interactions. Technology can be used to connect each other and provide a space for conversations and feedback. Technology now performs many of the cognitive processes like information storage and retrieval so adjustments need to be made on the ways we use it to learn. Learning management systems are mostly used to manage content and information, but we need to begin to use it in the process of learning for discussions and connections.
Link to Innovation Plan
As I consider my next steps in my innovation plan, my learning philosophy will affect the design of my learning environment. I want to consider all aspects of the concepts that I believe are important in learning. I want to find ways to help parents learn how to learn, make connections to the learning and each other, and continue the learning process after participating in my learning environment. One consideration I must make while designing the learning experiences are that older brains change only with effort and attention (Gopnik, 2016). I want to be sure that I am creating a space for personal reflection and help them make connections with other parents in the same situation and that have the same learning goals. I will consider the work I have done a success when I hear about other parents sharing information they learned and continuing their learning on their own.
References
Bates, T. (2014). Learning theories and online learning. Retrieved from
http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories-and-online-learning/
Donovan, S., Bransford, J., & Pellegrino, J. (1999). How people learn: bridging research and
practice. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9457.html
Gopnik, A. (2016). The carpenter and the gardener. What the new science of child development
tells us about the relationship between parents and children. London: Boadley Head.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from
http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01/htm
Smith, M. (2018). Learning theory, the encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from
http://infed.org/mobi/learning-theory-models-product-and-process/
Tan S. & Hung D. (2003). Beyond information pumping: creating a constructivist e-learning
environment. Educational Technology, Vol 42 No. 5, pp 48-54.
Wiley, D. & Edwards, E. (2002). Online self-organizing social systems: the decentralized future
on online learning. Retrieved from http://wiley.ed.usu.edu/docs/ososs.pdf
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**Link to Google Document of content.