Week 2 Reflections: Updated personal learning theory

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Prompt: "How has your personal theory of learning changed? How has it evolved? What caused that change?"

Explanation: My learning Philosophy is pasted below.  It's a simple concept that attempts to answer what is the best way that learning happens, and hopefully the most successful way for me as a teacher to active that learning.  My theory about learning has not changed much over the past year, but there has been a lot of information that I have learned that has explained why my theory is what is, with backing of studies and peer reviewed articles.  This version below was updated with parts about learning design, which even though I am just in the first few weeks of the class, I can already see why its a thing, and it's importance to the overall idea of how learning happens.  In fact this pre planing, overall look of how the learning will happen has inspired me to look at my current teaching with a designers view and not just a teacher view.  Look at where problems occur, why they are problems, and ways to fix it.  



Learning Philosophy
Nicholas Bade
University of North Texas

What is real learning?  Beyond the classroom tests, essays, and presentation, how can learning truly be described?  How does an individual know they have learned something?  Interesting questions to ponder for sure, and ultimately the answers to them are the goals of all educators who have ever existed.
As a evolution of the work of Skinner, Houwer, Barnes-Holmes, and Moors’ definition of learning is an “ontogenetic adaptation - that is, as changes in the behavior of an organism that result from regularities in the environment of the organism.” (Houwer, Barnes-Holmes, Moors, 2013).  These measurable changes in behavior as a result of new regularities of the environment are what educators and teachers strive to achieve from learners.
Learning takes place when knowledge is stored in a long term memory, and is easily accessed when needed to respond to a prompt or situation.  There are many ways to get to this result, but they are always dependent on the situations and experiences the learner has had in the past.  These influences are how the learner creates understanding of the new information.  By learning new concepts through experiments and real-world problem solving, the learner can move from a novice learner to an expert learner, opening up a more possibilities to tie the already gained knowledge to new knowledge.
It is also important to note that the clearest path to converting that knowledge into long term memory starts with a clear well thought out design.  The most efficient instructional design of the desired learning must have a clear path to learning, with specified goals that are achievable and measurable by both the instructor and learner themselves (Piskurich 2015).  This clear and well thought out instructional design also allows for more opportunity to “fix” problems that may arise in the process of learning, giving as much personalization as possible for specific learners and topics of instructions.  With all these designs in place, there will be less wasted effort along to the path to creating long term, accessible learning.
This constructivist view of teaching is best utilized when the teacher has a relationship with student, and understands the student’s past experiences and knowledge.  The ultimate goal of teaching is to move the learner from having little to no knowledge of a subject, to being comfortable with the concepts and details of that subject so they can use that recently gained knowledge and connect it to future knowledge.  The goal is take the learner from novice to expert.
The best way to achieve this transformation from novice to expert is to use all the tools available in order to best help the learner connect their previous knowledge to the current material.  This includes the use of technology.
Technology can be used in many different ways, but while Clark’s idea of “media doesn’t help learning” is certainly not true, his concept of media will never work just because it’s media has merit (Clark 1983).  Technology and media are just more tools in the tool shed for teachers, and they all have their learning curve with them as well.  A teacher being a novice learner with a tool will have a much harder time using that tool in a learning environment, than one who is an expert learner.
Using technology with learners can help control the pace and depth of instruction (Kozma 1991) (Dillon 1998), and It can create motivational pathways that encourages learning to continue (Varonis, Varonis 2015). It can do all this, because it is a tool that can help transform a learner from a novice learner to an expert one.
This philosophy is constructivist philosophy, and it is still as relevant today as it was in the day of Jean Piaget or John Dewey.  In fact, they might be even more prevalent in today’s world than they were back in their day.
With the increasing amount of information at our fingertips in the digital world we live in today, showing and creating real learning has become more difficult.  Through the use of experiments, and real world problem solving, educators can create meaningful connections between new knowledge and previous experiences, thus creating an expert learner.  Once a learner has become an expert, adapting to future situations become easier, as they have more knowledge to relate the new situation to.  Houwer, J. , Barnes-Holmes, D. Moors, A (2013) What is learning?  ON the nature and merits of a functional definition of learning - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Volume 20, Issue 4, pp 631-642 https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0386-3

References

Clark, R. (1983). Reconsidering Research on Learning from Media. Review of Educational Research, 53(4), 445-459. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2204/stable/1170217

Kozma, R. B. (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2), 179. Retrieved from https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2165/docview/214117253?accountid=7113

Dillon, A., & Gabbard, R. (1998). Hypermedia as an educational technology: A review of the quantitative research literature on learner comprehension, control, and style. Review of Educational Research, 68(3), 322-349. Retrieved from https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2165/docview/214116710?accountid=7113

Varonis, E. M., & Varonis, M. E. (2015). Deconstructing candy crush: What instructional design can learn from game design. The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 32(3), 150-164. Retrieved from https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2165/docview/1873598626?accountid=7113

Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. ISBN-13: 9781118973974

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