Approaches to Learning

Understanding the philosophy behind teaching theories and learning is essential to my practice. There are many underlying theories and believes. From my experience, not one is perfect. Like selecting a technological software in the classroom, you may need more than one to assist your students or use for teaching. My approach to teaching is grounded in first thinking of how learning is.

Content

There are an abundant amount of information and a lesson or class will not be enough to cover the ‘world’. Therefore, the quality and quantity of information in the lesson is worth considering. Ornstein & Hunkins (2017) noted Schubert’s (2009) idea of ‘worth’ when considering curriculum expectations which is essentially what we, as educators, wish our learners to know.

Technology

Technology can be considered essential in an ESL classroom for its ability to ease the learning process. It lessons the burden on the instructor to ‘translate’ when this is also a skill that learners should ‘learn’. By looking up dictionaries on their own, learners are taking responsibility of their own learning. Instructors will have more time to provide activities to support skills development.

Environment (forms of social collaboration)

Dron’s concept of social forms in learning is worth considering. There are three forms for learning: sets, nets, and groups. This model is derived from the idea that learners “benefit from one another’s knowledge and actions” (p.73). From my understanding, this concept reminds us the importance of social interactions. By creating meaningful interactions, the instructor is developing a supportive learning environment.

Groups are considered to be ‘cohesive: they are identifiable as distinct entities with existences of their own that are, in principle, independent of their members” (p. 76). Groups are typically structured around tasks or activities so they operate at a schedule with interactions from one-to-many or many-to-many. Examples of groups: classes, schools, committees, tutorial groups, teams.

Nets or networks is based on the idea of social connections either directly or indirectly via various channels such as emails and threaded discussions. Hence, the interaction can be one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. Examples of social networking sites are Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

Sets are described as “people who are bound together by commonalities or shared interest” typically impersonal or anonymous. Example, a blog post or a tweet aimed at a individual, group or network of friends.

With understanding the different social forms of learning, I have created a method to share information with students using Google and WeChat. Google has an assortment of tools to utilize and the most I’ve used is Google Drive. Google Classroom is another great tool but that seems too academic for my students as their goal is not to learn academic English. They wanted to learn more in class so I respected that and used Google Drive to share the documents or audio files I’ve used in class. Even something as simple as recording my voice repeating the vocabulary learned. However, I do wish to incorporate Google Classroom as it can help students stay organized. Perhaps this can be for future development.

In terms of WeChat, it is fairly similar to Whatsapp. The only reason I’ve used WeChat is due to the high volume of learners using WeChat already so rather than having students learn something completely new (not essentially a necessary lesson/skill), I jumped into the wagon – so to speak. I could have started another communication tool with learners; however, is that really useful at the end? That is asking myself the ‘worth’ questions discussed above.

What is WeChat?

According to Kharpal from CNBC, WeChat is similar to Whatsapp and Messenger but it offers additional features for payments and ‘mini-programs’ within the app. I use the app’s QR code/by shaking the phone to add in student’s contact information. This way, I bypassed the Whatsapp’s process of first adding the student into my phone’s contact list and then send out a request. Students also use QR Code of services to receive further information or discount.

On a side note, the mini-programs may be delivery apps, booking flights app or other services for WeChat users to use in China. For more information: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.mm&hl=en_US

As an instructor, I use the app mostly for sending notices in English, English studying apps, and videos for students to review.

Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) in social learning

Another theorist worthy of remembering is Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). To summarize, an individual already possesses certain skills or knowledge and when presented with new information or tasks, the instructor provides guidance and scaffolding in order for learners to reach that goal. Here is a picture that explains ZPD. This is particularly useful for visual learners (like me!). (Fletcher, 2018, IEA)

The importance of Vygotsky’s theory in language learning is the idea of collective scaffolding through collaborative learning. According to Hsieh’s (2017) research, evidence of understanding is found in: “collective co-construction (the incorporation of an utterance produced by another peer and one’s own utterance), explicit requests for assistance, questioning competing forms, jointly managing components of the problem, other or self-correction, and private speech triggered by interactional conversation” (p. 116-117). Hence, scaffolding activities and collaboration promotes better learning.

In my Master’s course, we had a thorough discussion regarding curriculum design. Fellow colleague, Stephanie Ustianov, summarized a list of guidelines regarding curriculum design and information management. Universal Design Learning is another approach to learning that offers additional insight as ‘what are we learning’, ‘why are we learning this’ and ‘how do we learn’. Here is a PDF of UDL’s guidelines.

Constructivist Approach

My approach to learning is also affected by Constructivism. Seel et al. (2017) summarizes the epistemology of this approach: “learning is an active, context-dependent process of constructing knowledge and mental models” which is “both enabled and constrained by prior experiences and interpretations” (p.121). With this in mind, I formulated some guidelines as a reminder.

Learner

What should students be able to accomplish by the end of this lesson/activity?
What are the skills (e.g. language) students have?
What skills do students need to develop? (What do they need to learn?

Delivery

What activities are best for (the groups of) students?
- What are the ways to encourage student interaction with other students and participation in in-class activities?
How much time do students need for the activity?
How can I encourage students to continue learning outside the classroom?

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