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The Process of Learning as Stargazing
The Process of Learning as Stargazing
The teaching and learning landscape continues to change technologically, geographically, and demographically. Teaching and learning contexts are therefore complex, meaning teaching and learning professionals, new and seasoned, continue to seek, refine, and enhance their knowledge and skills to identify and implement high-tech and no-tech innovative practices. But experts have different teaching and learning settings, disciplines, class sizes, experience, and personality. Even with a shared vision for student-centered learning success, exactly what and how that vision is realized differs in one’s individual teaching and learning context.
When we gaze at the stars we can look at different levels. Perhaps you take in the full expanse, seek patterns, or focus on a single star. Comparing the learning process to a constellation emphasizes the reality that deep learning is the result of a non-linear process. Constellations have a form but where they begin and end is irrelevant so long as the stars align. To support non-linear learning TLi has curated a variety of content to support engagement in a learning process considerate of the following five elements:
Expertise: Each learner brings experience, knowledge, and skills to the learning process. Expertise can bring rich context to the learning process and provide a point for self-reflection, identifying strengths and areas for growth.
Inquiry: The learner asks questions to frame their learning focus. This may be one overarching or guiding question. It is also questions that emerge during the learning process.
Exploration: Whether self-reflection, driven by inquiry, engagement in content, reviewing data, or conversing with peers, exploration occurs throughout the process.
Community: Learning is social. Whether asynchronous or synchronous, peripheral or participatory, experts seek opportunities to engage in discourse to both share and receive knowledge, skills, and perspectives.
Impact: This is about changed behavior. The learner may look at impact (i.e. student data) to identify an inquiry question. Or Impact may be the expert’s application of new learning. Most importantly, experts construct ways to measure if their application has achieved the desired result (i.e. impact on students).
These elements represent ways of thinking, and like stargazing, can be applied in any order and frequency depending on the expert-learner’s goal.
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