Looking back on the first discussion

Looking back on the last seven weeks of this course, I can see that some things have absolutely changed in how I think about learning. Others, not so much. In my first discussion, I wrote about my experiences as an online ESL teacher, my belief of what theory fits me best, and what my learning styles/preferences are.

In the beginning, I equated my teaching with mostly behaviorist theory, providing a stimulus and receiving a response, then rewarding with positive reinforcement. And while this is very true for younger students, it is not so simple for the older students or with more complicated information. In the ways I engage with students, I am also trying to make information meaningful to them, asking them questions about their lives and experiences. I also want to see those students relate the information they’re learning to other material. I often use charts and graphs to correlate information and show relationships, which is cognitive/constructivist.

Also in my post, I talked about the theory that fits my learning style best, which is cognitive/constructive. New knowledge must be meaningful to me in order to understand it, meaning I need to be able to relate it to something I already understand. As I’ve mentioned, I have tried to learn project management before. Since I don’t have experience in project management (or business) this was a stretch, and didn’t go well, as I wasn’t motivated to keep moving forward. As Lev Vygotsky discussed, this was not in my zone of proximal development. I can take smaller steps towards that information in order to get there, but the leap I took was too much without a “knowing other” (Laureate Education, n.d.)

The part of my post that was completely off was the discussion of learning preferences and styles. I realize now, looking back, that my understanding of these fell into some common misunderstandings. I am not a visual learner, but I do prefer to see things in order to help myself create a mental picture. This makes more sense than fully classifying myself into category that I cannot escape from.

Connectivism, a brand new term for me during this course, makes a lot of sense in terms of how information and knowledge is organized now. We are no longer confined to a library in order to do research on a topic or find a useful book. Websites, blogs, social media, and easy connection to other humans means that knowledge is much more dispersed. This benefits many more people as knowledge can be accessed easily, though it also does mean knowledge can be easily distorted when taken out of context.  

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Behaviorism and instructional design [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.