Experientialism

Experiential learning is a way of learning where students develop skills and knowledge directly from their experiences than the traditional academic setting.

Experiential learning examples are internship, study abroad programs, apprenticeship etc.
Since it is non traditional learning, and students learn from their own experience and also by reflecting on it.

Kolb's experiential learning cycle explains how learning happens by acquisition of abstract concepts and then by applying it in wide range of situation. there are four stages of  Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Concrete experience, reflective observation of  new experience, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.

Communities of Practice

This week I am learning about a new idea- Community of practice. As an educator, I really like this idea as I always try to get my class work together and learn from each other. All communities may not qualify as a CoP. The members in the community must share a common interest or passion to be a community of practice. When my son was young, we used to attend a chess club, where members are committed to come there, play and watch others play, engage in problem solving in chess, discuss other tournament play etc interacting with each other and learning from each other. They met regularly once a week. I can see that as a community of practice.

Most organizations and work place would like to turn their community in to CoP where knowledge created and shared for the benefit of all. when members engages in shared activities and interest they learn from each other and grow.

At work, We have build strong CoP. Teachers have variety of opportunities to engage in activities with peers and share their knowledge. Grade level meetings, department level meetings and professional development times are all avenues for shared activities. Teachers do peer observation and that helps them grow as well.

Constructivims

Constructivism I think so far is the most applicable of all or most useful of all theories so far. When an instructor design a learning event, it is important to look at what kind of theories can be used to get the best result. Constructivism is a theory based on the idea that the learning occurs when people learn by connecting to their experiences and by making sense of their learning by constructing ideas about what they are learning to what they know from the past. The role of a teacher then is to facilitate the learning. Teacher acts as a guide, providing opportunities for the learners to thrive. I think this approach is way up in the blooms taxonomy as compared to behaviorism where the learning objectives are to recognize, remember etc. as opposed to in constructivsm, the objectives are to construct, to create, to apply etc. So the type of learning is different, it is more in depth, and more useful.

I am still at a place where I am still confused, but I think, The best way to explain learning is, the first stage is remembering facts, recollecting the concepts etc. which is behaviorists theory. Then, learners need to understand what they are learning, they use some cognitive skills to understand. Once they understand, they try to construct their own meaning and start creating new things, applying it in new situations etc. This is where the constructive theory comes in. I think all theories work together in learning.

This week, my biggest learning point is Zone of proximal development- which is what a student is capable of doing with help and what he or she can not do. We can use scaffolding and few other techniques to help students understand materials. For example, ELL students learn content but they are language challenged, so we pre teach vocabulary etc to help them access the content. 

Cognitivism

Cognitive approach to learning is to have the information presented to the learner by scaffolding, in chunks, so that learner can make sense of and process the information in the mind. Learning takes place in the mind of a learner and us driven by the learner.  The learner takes in the information and uses it to process with the previous knowledge and make sense of it. An example of a cognitive approach to learning is to have a series of activities leading to learn a concept. For example, teaching a group of adult learners in a beginning algebra class in a community college. To teach the rules of exponents, we can use the method of inductive reasoning by giving them a series of examples and activities and the teacher can help the learner deduce the rules by themselves and have them do more examples to reinforce it.

It is quite different from behaviorists approach as the behaviorist method focuses on the external environment. Less importance or focus is given to the learner. If the lesson on exponents were taught by a behaviorist approach, the rule will be explained first and showed an example, and the students will follow the same routines and process to practice similar type of problems, I this the end result may be both same in many of the learners. but the way it is being taught is what is different. I think some people will get a better understanding of the rules of exponents even under the behaviorist approach , but the chances of retaining the information and applying it will be much better in the cognitive approach than the behaviorists. 

Behaviourism

Behaviorist approach to learning is useful when lots of repetition is needed to master a skill. Once it is mastered, it becomes second nature to the individual.
Few scenarios we can apply behaviorist approach is to teach discipline in kids. We give rewards and consequences as a form of eliminating or eliciting the behavior. The rational is that positive reinforcement leads to required positive behaviors.
Another scenario is learning a skill like swimming and cycling. Once needs to go through a series of repetition to learn it.
This theory has a bad reputation, one of it is that it keeps the learner in knowledge level and doesn't require them to go to higher order thinking skills. I think that some of the learning does require accumulating knowledge. Without the basic knowledge, there is no analysis possible. We can build the knowledge that is acquired by learning facts and memorization by using other theories.
Skinner;'s operant conditioning is one way to understand learning. Small kids learn many behaviors by this way.
Thondrike's connectionism states that learning happens through repeated trial and error learning, There is a stimulus and response which are strengthened or weakened by the consequences of the behavior. If you think about this, in adult, we do use these methods on a daily basis. The harsh driving is punished by the consequence of tickets, if in an accident by increasing the premium etc. So adults become careful drivers. They learn that behavior.

Adult Learning Theories

This week, I read about a number of learning theories and how that can be roughly divided into five different orientations. I realize that while choosing how a program should assist adult learn, it is important to realize the context and choose an appropriate theory. Not one theory is superior. I feel that each of this learning orientations interact with one another, often over lap in a manner we can use a combination of these in to our lessons.

I think that most adults are self directed learners who choose to learn because of various reasons ranging from positioning them better in the job market, advancing their knowledge in a particular field of interests, or learning a new skill to do the job better. Sometimes they do get dragged to a training forcefully as part of their job where they have no say in what they have to learn but have no choice but to complete the training to keep a job. For example, a new education theory a school district is trying to implement and the teachers who didn't buy into this theory get trained in it. So not all adult learning situations presents self motivated adult learners. So it makes sense to think about different learning theories and chose an appropriate one for the context. I also think that, there is enough provision to include more than one aspect of the approaches in each situation. For example, we can set a course with measurable learning objective as proposed by behaviorist approach, yet can incorporate activities that promote a sense of accomplishment, a sense of self realization(as in humanistic approach) and provide an environment where these adult learners can work independently and actively engaged( as in Constructivits apporach) where they try to make sense of what they learn by reflecting on what they know and adding new knowledge to their existing knowledge.

I am also realizing that, at work I do all these without actually knowing the terminologies, but now that I know this, It is easy for me to make sure that I have included as much approaches as possible to get to the different types of learners.

Self Directed Learning

Goal of our secondary education is to create life long self directed learners. Most adults are usually self directed learners, but most of the research on this topic is as recent as 1970's and 80's. We can see that there are three aspects of self directed learning- its Goals, process and self direction as personal attributes of the learner. 

Goals of self directed learning are enhancing the ability of adults to be self directed in learning, fostering the transformational learning as central to self directed learning and promoting emancipatory learning and social action as stated in Merriam and Cafferella(p. 128- 129)

In the process of self directed learning, there are many models proposed. Linear model suggests learning is a process of completing certain steps and moving on to the other in linear fashion. Where as the interactive model suggests that learning often takes place in non linear fashion as in a learner interact with the surroundings, learn some thing, identify some 'holes" in his past knowledge, and then try to fill in those by learning something new etc..By interacting with the learning material, in a non linear fashion learning takes place. Instructional model suggests that there are four stages of learners from dependent learner, interested learner, involved  learner to self directed learner. It is the role of the instructor to identify which stage each of their learners are and then use different methods depending on the learners need. For example, self directed learner is ready to do independent projects and discovery learning. So instructors act as delegator with learners in this stage. On the other hand dependent learners require more lectures and drill and introductory lessons and the instructor's role is act as a subject matter expert and authority figure who motivates the learners in this scenario as the learns often lack the knowledge of what is to learn. With interested learners, Instructors are fecilitator where as with involved learners instructors can act as delegators as in independent learners. So the role of the instructor changes depending on what the learner require. 

Assessing self directedness as a personality trait is done by using two instruments. One is  the Oddi Continuing Learning Inventory (OCLI). More than twenty five variables are correlated with self directedness as measured by OCLI such as self efficacy, self concept, personal responsibility etc.       ( Merriam Cafferella p. 120).  SDLRS is the most frequently used quantitative measures of self directed learning. This relate readiness to job satisfaction, job performance, occupation, self concept etc. 

More recently, studies have been done to correlate self directed learning with that of technology and what is the part of technology in self directed learning. I think internet is changing how people learn in drastic ways. Most online learning require the adult to be self directed learners. 

One more thing I noticed is how our course is structured based on "Motivational framework of culturally responsive teaching". The four aspects of it is well established in our course materials. 

1. Collaborative learning. We use the weekly discussion board to learn from each other, to get the feeling of community and to interact with each other. This establishes inclusion. This is a great way to build a learning community that feel connected and feel respected. Secondly, using motivational strategy of keeping relevant learning goals, we are encouraged to reflect on our learning through reading materials and reflect on our learning using the blog post. The third strategy is " Critical questioning and predicting" that we are going to work in groups to come up with a series of learning goals and interact with group to complete this project. Our final assessment piece is a reflection of our learning through a research paper. I can see how these motivational strategies are incorporated into our course.