Chapter 4 : I.T. Enters A New Learning Environment

Effective teacher’s best interact with students in innovative learning activities, while integrating technology to the teaching-learning process.

CONCEPTUAL MODELS OF LEARNING

Meaningful Learning

§  If the traditional learning environment gives stress to rote learning and simple memorization, meaningful learning gives focus to new experience that is related to what the learner already knows.

§  New experience departs from the learning of a sequence of words but gives attention to meaning.

§  Assumes that:

§  Students already have some knowledge that is relevant to new learning.

§  Students are willing to perform class work to find connections between what they already know and what they can learn.

§  In the learning process, the learner is encouraged to recognize relevant personal experiences.

§  Meaningful learningalso refers to the concept that the learned knowledge (let’s say a fact) is fully understood by the individual and that the individual knows how that specific fact relates to other stored facts (stored in your brain that is).

§  For understanding this concept, it is good to contrast meaningful learning with the much less desirable, rote learning.

§  Rote learning is where you memorize something without full understanding and you don’t know how the new information relates to your other stored knowledge.

For our example, let’s say we learn 5 facts in a math course during a full semester by rote learning. This can be illustrated by the figure below. The 5 facts (labeled 1-5) are stored in memory as separate items although in real life they are related to each other. When the student rote learned these facts, the brain stored them as distinct, unrelated knowledge that can only be recalled individually (one fact at a time). When this student recalls one fact the other 4 facts are not recalled (or activated) at that moment. In other words, thinking about fact #5 does not lead the student to think about facts #1-4. Contrast that to the below discussion on recall after meaningful learning.

When meaningful learning occurs (using our example of 5 math facts) the facts are stored in a relational manner (see figure below). That is, the brain stores them together because they are related to each other. Now, when one fact is recalled, the other facts are also recalled at that moment (or shortly thereafter). In other words, recalling fact #5 activates the memory for facts #2 and #4, and this in turn leads to recalling facts #1 and #3. This phenomenon is called the spread of activation. This is the gist of meaningful learning. Problem-solving for this student would be easier than for the student who rote learned the same 5 facts.  Which one of these students would you like to hire for your company? Some suggestions on how to ensure meaningful learning appear below the figure.

Suggestions:

§  Make sure what you learn is in your proximal zone.

§  If in doubt, ask the instructor how some new knowledge is related to other course material.

§  Have a study partner ask you questions that require recall of related material.

§  Make a figure that illustrates what you should know about a specific topic and its related material.

Discovery Learning

§  Discovery learning is differentiated from reception learning in which ideas are presented directly to students in a well-organized way such as through a detailed set of instructions to complete an experiment or task.

§  In discovery learning, students perform tasks to uncover what is to be learned.

§  New ideas and new decisions are generated in the learning process regardless of the need to move on and depart from organized set of activities.

§  It is important that the student become personally engaged and not subjected by the teacher to procedures he/she is not allowed to depart from.

§  Discovery learning is a powerful instructional approach that guides and motivates learners to explore information and concepts, embrace new knowledge, and apply new behaviors back on the job.

§  Well-designed discovery learning educational sessions are highly experiential and interactive — using stories, games, simulations, visual maps and other techniques to grab attention, build interest and lead a journey of discovery toward new thinking, actions and behaviors.

§  Sometimes described as "learning by doing," discovery learning takes place in situations where learners draw on their own experiences and knowledge to solve problems.

§  It is an inquiry-based educational method, encouraging participants to deal with realistic scenarios by exploring, experimenting and pondering a series of increasingly difficult challenges.

§  They incorporate three key ideas:

§  Problem Solving: They guide and motivate learners to find solutions by pulling together information and generalizing knowledge.

§  Learner Management: They allow participants, working alone or in small teams, to learn in their own ways and at their own pace.

§  Integrating and Connecting: They encourage integration of new knowledge into the learner’s existing knowledge base and clearly connect to the real world.

§  Discovery learning ensures learners’ brains are engaged at all times.

§  Participants may be manipulating pieces on a game board, working with others to make a decision, or gathering seemingly disconnected pieces of information to solve a problem — but they’re actually learning!

§  Discovery learning simply accelerates the educational process and results in higher levels of retention than more traditional learning approaches do.

§  Its benefits are well documented:

§  Training time is condensed.

§  Programs are fun, fast-paced and energizing.

§  Participants absorb course content via active participation in a mix of digital and physical environments.

§  Sessions are highly customizable.

§  Retention is high.

Generative Learning

§  In generative learning we have learners who attend to learning events and generate to learning events and generate to learning events and generate meaning from this experience and draw inference s thereby creating a personal model or explanations to the new experience in the context of the existing knowledge.

§  Generative learning is viewed as different from the simple process of storing information.

§  Motivation and responsibility are seen to be crucial to this domain of learning.

§  The area of language comprehension offers examples of this type of generative learning activities, such as in writing paragraph summaries, developing answers and questions, drawing pictures, creating paragraph titles, organizing ideas/concepts, and others.

§  In sum, generative learning gives emphasis to what can be done with a piece of information, not only on access to them.

Constructivism

§  In constructivism, the learner builds a personal understanding through appropriate learning activities and a good learning environment. The most accepted principles of constructivism are:

§  Learning consists in what a person can actively assemble for himself and not what he can receive passively.

§  The role of learning is to help the individual live/adapt to his personal world.

§  These two principles in turn lead to three practical implications:

§  The learner is directly responsible for learning. He creates his personal understanding and transforms information into knowledge.The teacher plays an indirect role by modeling effective learning, assisting, facilitating, and encouraging learners.

§  The context of meaningful learning consists in the learner connecting school activity with real life.

§  The purpose of education is the acquisition of practical knowledge, not abstract or universal truth.

To review, there are common themes to these four learning domains. They are given below:

§  Learners are active, purposeful learners.

§  Learners set personal goals and strategies to achieve these goals.

§  Learners make their learning experience meaningful and relevant to their lives.

§  Learners seek to build an understanding of their personal worlds so they can work/live productively.

§  Learners build on what they already know in order to interpret and respond to new experiences.