After having clicked through the virtual session “Learning Theories & Principles” on VCT, I tried to think of those topics which I could remember best. What I immediately came up with was the three learning theories at the beginning of the session.
Though I already heard the terms behaviorism and cognitivism before studying them at the virtual session, I did not know anything about the concepts behind these theories. Another term which I absolutely failed with was actually constructivism. What could it mean? Firstly, I thought of a kind of learning construction being connected to linguistic chunks. However, after having read the definition, I realized that it was something completely different – a theory based on each learner’s individual perception of the world. I really was fascinated about the idea that everybody relies on his/ her personal experience and knowledge.
After having thought about constructivism again thoroughly, I was convinced by its concept mostly for two reasons. The first one is the fact that every person grows up under different circumstances and therefore experiences unlikely situations which sensitize the way of thinking. Furthermore I was persuaded by the argumentation about the understanding of the parts and the wholes. The theory says that the thinking process is restricted to overall concepts only, without being fixed on incoherent or unrelated parts. One also could argue that understanding of certain elements is not less important, for reasons of understanding the overall concept. However, as said in the definition, “parts must be understood in the context of wholes”. All in all, what I personally like about constructivism is on the one hand the idea of individual perception and on the other hand its interference with other learning theories, like for instance cognitivism, with its explorative learning.
However one should always keep in mind that the role of the teacher requires the knowledge or awareness of all three theories of learning, as there are still many pupils who, for instance, stick to the “drill and practice approach” which results from behaviorism.
Our task is to strengthen pupils’ self-confidence and make them learn more autonomously in order to pave the way for creativity and innovation.
Though this is a hard and tedious procedure, we nethertheless should engage in supporting our students’ learning and teach them responsibility and patience.
In addition, some learning principles like the distance education and different skills were presented. What I really liked about the unit was the detailed description of skills which pupils can acquire by using new media, like for instance the internet. I have nether thought of this advantage, so it was good news for me. The only problem about the unit on learning principles was the lacking structure. On the one hand I had problems with relating “lifelong learning” with the “skills trained at school”, on the other hand I could not draw any connection between the learning principles and the theories discussed before. It looks plausible to me that besides media competence, the methodological, scientific and social skills could result from distance learning. However this is only an assumption, so I do not engage in this being right.
All in all, the unit provided me with new knowledge on different learning systems which are of great importance for planning lessons, as I have to take into account students’ individual learning strategies. Besides this fact I actually sensitized my awareness of the importance of media competence which offers students the possibility to improve various skills.
johannaschicker said,
November 4, 2008 at 9:36 am
I really like your entry, not only the image of the human brain as an “machine” but also the way you talked about the content of teh session. I agree with you that we definately have to strenghten pupil’s self – confidence and support them by learn how to work autonomous and innovative. In my oppinion it’s one of the most important skills you need nowadays!