From soon haw’s book.
Learning Beliefs.
Everyone comes to a course, especially ISD, with different learning experience,
backgrounds, and interests. Learning is a human enterprise wherein the learning
beliefs are “personalized understandings that describe how you think and feel
about learning, schooling, and education” (Shambaugh & Magliaro, 1997, p. 4).
These beliefs can be embedded in larger context (school, business, community,
etc.)
I believe that learning should be facilitated through authentic tasks, such as
working on instructional design problems for real clients or subject matter experts
(SMEs). The learning tasks should be meaningful to the learner and be relevant
to current practice in the “real world”.
My classroom is a diverse group of learners, from different backgrounds and
experiences. Each student learns best in his/her individual way. I believe
teaching through a variety of methods will help to reach all students. The learning
experiences in the classroom must be meaningful and applicable to the real
world. If students are actively engaged in solving real world problems, they will
have a higher level of motivation and purpose in their learning. My role as a
teacher in such learning situations is to facilitate the learning process, as
students discover their own knowledge of the area. By using this method of
teaching, students will gain a deeper knowledge and enhance their problemsolving skills. This will help them to become active, problem-solving members of
society.
Learning is a foundation that is built upon through time and experience. An
individual is constantly taking the role of a learner, with or without
awareness. Learning is a timely process that is achieved differently for
each individual.
Knowledge is constructed by each individual as a result of dynamic
interactions between the individual and their physical and social
environments. Learning is due more to the reorganization of the individual’s
ways of thinking, than to development alone or to the accumulation of facts
alone.
Our theoretical belief about learning is that it must be made meaningful for all
students. We support the use of the five attributes of meaningful learning: Active,
constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative. We feel the best way to
incorporate these attributes is through the use of the constructivist learning
environment and problem- based learning.(Jonassen, Peck, Wilson, 2001)
When a constructivist learning environment is used properly meaningful learning can be
achieved. When paired with technological tools the learning can be enhanced. As
Jonassen, Peck and Wilson point out, 뱓he technologies afford students the tools to
explore, experiment, construct, converse, and reflect on what they are doing, so that
they learn from their experiences?Jonassen et. al, pg. 194, 2001). Another key to
meaningful learning is ownership of a problem or learning goal. Through problem-based
learning, students are presented with a 뱑eal world?problem to work with and solve.
We believe that the constructivist learning environment combined with problem-based
learning provides students with the most opportunities for meaningful learning.
Cole and Engestrom (1993) have extended the activity Theory structure to include Rules,
Community and Division of Labor. According to Engestrom a community shares the
same object and subject. Tools mediate the subject/object relationship and the
community/subject relationship is mediated by rules. Activity Theory argues that tools
and social interactions are the central factors in the shaping of human cognition.
Although not suggested by Egestrom, Rules may be better understood as a mediating
factor is they were placed between Community and Division of Labor. Vygotsky (1978)
further delineated Activity Theory by proposing the concept of a Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD). Vygotsky has defined the ZPD as the distance between an
individual’s current development and her/his potential if provided with a mentor (Peal &
Wilson, 1998).
This unit expands on Activity Theory to incorporate the concept of Cognitive Dissonance
as formulated by Festinger (1957). The theory postulates that when individuals are
confronted with information that is contrary to their view or schema they experience
dissonance or a disruptive state of tension that requires a reformulation of their schemas.
The unit attempts to combining Activity Theory’s dimension of community and ZPD
requiring a mentor, with Cognitive Dissonance’s notion of reformulating schemas. Students
will be “confronted” by experts in an active community environment, with the goal of
disrupting their cognitive schemas so that new higher-level schemas can be constructed.
By creating an environment that is simultaneously nurturing, non-threatening, but schema
challenging learning will occur. Students in this unit will be confronted with the fact that
their clothes don’t come from the Gap and their food doesn’t come from Winn-Dixie
I believe that all students can learn. We as teachers need to find the way that each child
learns best. It is our responsibility to make sure that we are providing every student an
opportunity for a productive education. For some students, this may mean a more handson experience, however, for others it may mean more visual or auditory learning.
Personally, I feel that students will get the best education when all three (auditory, visual,
and kinestetic) are combined together. I believe that it is impossible to provide a complete
Constructive Learning Environment due to the distractions, interruptions, and complications
in the school day. Standardized testing and curriculum expectations require a lot of
planning and facilitating, and they hinder a teacher's ability to provide a complete CLE.
In an ideal world it would be very possible, but in reality teachers face the pressure of
preparing students to earn good MAP scores. We sometimes feel that the best way to get
the information into a student's head and keep it there is to directly present the information
needed rather than subtly providing it in an overall unit.
Learning is a foundation that is built upon through time and experience. An
individual is constantly taking the role of a learner, with or without
awareness. Learning is a timely process that is achieved differently for
each individual.
Knowledge is constructed by each individual as a result of dynamic
interactions between the individual and their physical and social
environments. Learning is due more to the reorganization of the individual’s
ways of thinking, than to development alone or to the accumulation of facts
alone.
Through these lesson plans, I will be helping the students develop
skills in problem-solving and decision making. In this unit the
students will share, plan, decide, and think together. I will be using
and exploring children’s literature to show examples, where the
students will develop a view, of responsibility to self, individuals,
and to the school community.
The objectives for these projects include: (1) identify feelings
related to anger (2) better understand how interacting with others
is a part of life, (3) retell a story about various values in life, (4) use
events in a story to determine how problems are solved.
I think this project fits in the constructivist learning environment
model because it allows students to plan, share, think, and decide
together. This project will help the students create an environment
in their school community where they care about one another and
solve problems together.
Broadly stated, they favor the Constructivist view, and are essentially a mixture of what I
hope to accomplish and what I have seen work. The analogy I use (ad nauseum, I fear)
with my students is that of building a house. Learning, like a building, rests on a solid,
well-constructed foundation. You can’t write a competent story by starting with the final
draft any more than you can build a house by starting at the pitch of the roof and working
downward. Likewise, they will spend their lives constructing their knowledge base, but it
must be built on a solid foundation of data and skills. Once sufficient skills are mastered,
you will be able to build on what has been learned and soar on to become the next I.M.
Pei or Frank Lloyd Wright.
Given all this, it is time for my Seventh Graders to begin to explore slavery in Science
Fiction and to prepare their own stories. A small caveat: there are several variations of
slavery presented in the literature, such as being a slave to one’s fears; to one’s passions;
and other forms not well understood or suitable for students this age. Our project will be
focused on the more basic approach of physical servitude.
The project will let the students draw upon their prior knowledge and combine that with
the new experiences to build a new knowledge base about slavery. By sharing and
articulating their thoughts and findings, they should also broaden their communication
skills, both in an interpersonal level, and in their writings.
I believe that people learn from actively thinking about what they are doing. In order to accomplish
this, we must participate and experience what we are attempting to learn. That experience may
come in many different forms. The experience we are having must create something for us to reflect
and analyze on, in other words, to think about. Passively listening to an instructor (at any
educational level) is not a productive form of learning because the learner is not participating in the
experience, nor are they reflecting and analyzing the experience.
For example, when I wanted to learn to fly fish, there were people who tried to " tell me how". I did
not learn to fly fish until I picked up the rod and experienced it myself. I could learn about flyfishing from passively listening, but I could not meet my learning goal of actually learning to fish
until I participated in the experience. I then had to think and reflect on my experiences. I had to
analyze and interpret. In the classroom, learning occurs when students "repeat the fly-fishing
experience", which is that they actively participate, experience, reflect, think, and analyze. In this
respect my theory of learning closely parallels Jonassen/Peck/Wilson in their constructivist approach
in Learning With Technology, A Constructivist Perspective. In chapter one they write that we learn
from experiencing phenomena, interpreting those experiences, and reflecting on them. In my
educational experience I have found that to be the foundation of learning.

Learning is a complex process. It involves students being active participants in
their environment. Carol Cummings explains the process of learning in her book,
Teaching Makes a Difference. She explains the principles of learning as including
motivation, level of concern, interest, extrinsic reward, retention, meaning,
immediate and specific knowledge of results, and active participation (9). Some
of her principles align with Jonassen et al. They include motivation, interest,
meaning, and active participation. I have more of a constructivist view of
learning. Knowledge is constructed by the learner and students must be actively
participating within a context to learn. Students must also have a need or desire to
learn, then express what they learn to others.
Cummings also describes classroom management in her book, which also is a
factor in students learning in the classroom. The teacher must provide that
support, also explained as social/contextual support by Jonassen. The teacher is
only the facilitator in the learning process. There is no learning by "osmosis," as
many joke about putting the book to the head and letting the information "seep
in." This is much like being in a classroom where the only form of instruction is
in lecture format. Just being in the classroom does not mean that the students are
learning. The information just does not get into the students' minds by the
students hearing words. If students are inactive, it is difficult for learning to take
place. Only when the students takes ownership of their learning and make it
meaningful, do students truly learn. The student must take that information, or
rather discover that information, and put it in a context in order for the brain to
retrieve the information at a later time. Brain research suggests that the brain
organizes information based on relationships between the information. It is no
wonder that the learning must take place in a context for the students to learn
effectively.
Our theoretical belief about learning is that it must be made meaningful for all students. We support
the use of the five attributes of meaningful learning: Active, constructive, intentional, authentic and
cooperative. We feel the best way to incorporate these attributes is through the use of the
constructivist learning environment and problem- based learning.(Jonassen, Peck, Wilson, 2001)
When a constructivist learning environment is used properly meaningful learning can be achieved.
When paired with technological tools the learning can be enhanced. As Jonassen, Peck and Wilson
point out, 뱓he technologies afford students the tools to explore, experiment, construct, converse, and
reflect on what they are doing, so that they learn from their experiences?Jonassen et. al, pg. 194,
2001). Another key to meaningful learning is ownership of a problem or learning goal. Through
problem-based learning, students are presented with a 뱑eal world?problem to work with and solve.
We believe that the constructivist learning environment combined with problem-based learning
provides students with the most opportunities for meaningful learning.