Learning Philosophy

Learning Philosophy

My learning philosophy includes a wide variety of methods and strategies but could be best represented in four categories: self-discovery, variety, doing and visualizing. The process of learning has become central to everything I do and everything I am. These philosophies stem from my life long learning habits and goals, however, over the next few years I expect that they will continue to evolve and grow into a more complete set of ideas.

Self-Discovery

Former President of BYUI, David A. Bednar said, “The best lessons in life are caught not taught.” This simple statement of truth has grown to be the foundation of my teaching. We have all heard the common saying about how giving a man a fish feeds him for a day, but teaching a man to fish feeds him for a lifetime. Well, I believe that helping students to discover and “catch” learning can feed them for a lifetime. To help students fulfill their role in this process, I focus on variety, doing, and visualizing.

Variety

However, teaching students to learn for themselves is not an easy task. Because of this challenge my teaching philosophy has continued to evolve to adapt to those needs. I always have to tell myself, “I’m teaching students, not just a lesson today.” For me to be effective in my efforts to enable self-learning and self-discovery I have found that I must use a variety of methods and techniques.

In the Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology, Spector (2014) states,

“People learn by doing, by exploring, by listening, by reading books, by studying examples, by being rewarded, by discovering, by making and testing predictions, by trial-and-error, by teaching, by abstracting away from concrete experiences, by observing others, by solving problems, by analyzing information, by repetition, by questioning, by paraphrasing information, by discussing, by seeing analogies, by making notes, and so forth and so forth” (p. 21).

No longer is one medium of learning necessarily superior to all others. The need for variety is important, I can’t decide if the students need it more or I do, but effectively crafting my teaching in a variety of ways that play to my strengths can lead to greater learning.

Practice

In addition to self-discovery and variety, my teaching philosophy follows that of Aristotle’s idea when he wrote in the Nichomachean Ethics, "for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them" (Ross, 2009). The best way I have learned to do is by DOING. I believe in providing more opportunities for students to actively engage and do things in the learning process. I feel that my philosophy closely relates to Kolb and his idea of the experiential learning cycle from concrete experience to reflective observation but I'd skip abstract conceptualisation and move straight to active experimentation and back to concrete experience as shown in the chart below.

Kolb, D. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2015, from http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/gradschool/training/resources/teaching/theories/kolb

This cycle can create ongoing learning by interacting, doing, experiencing, watching etc… While my philosophy focuses more on doing and experiential learning, I also am intrigued by the study of the process. It is similar to the idea of teaching being an art and a science, the art being the doing and the science representing the study of the process (Marzano, 2007). I was first introduced to this idea in a faculty in-service training and we discussed whether we thought we were an ‘artist teacher’ or a ‘science teacher’. I proved to show more artist teaching strategies and have since wanted to know more of the ‘science’ behind the ‘art’ of teaching.

Visualizing

Lastly I my philosophy is closely connected with the idea of mental imagery or visual learning and the Dual Code Theory. Visualization is a fundamental process in all learning to help achieve desired outcomes an in my teaching I find these techniques to work hand-in-hand with self-discovery and experiential learning. Golombisky and Hagen (2010) opened my perspective to see that visual communication happens all around us and if we can capture that attention and turn it into learning opportunities we will have a great advantage. Discussions about Clark's (1978) research have helped me understand the importance of mental imagery and a repository of information that forms from learning with media.

Overall, these philosophies have shaped my professional perspective, knowledge and performance but everyday I realize that they are only effective if the learners decides to ‘buy’ what the teacher is ‘selling’. So, let the selling begin!

References

Clark, R. (1978). Media, mental imagery, and memory. Educational Technology Research and Development, 26(4), 355–363. doi:10.1007/bf02766371.

Golombisky, K., & Hagen, R. (2010). White space is not your enemy: A beginner's guide to communicating visually through graphic, web and multimedia design. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Ascd.

Ross, W. (2009). The Nicomachean ethics. II, 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu//Aristotle/nicomachaen.html

Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Elen, J., & Bishop, M. J. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of research for educational communications and technology (4th). New York: Springer Science+Business Media.