Week 6 Blog Posting
What is learning?
This week’s theory would indicate that learning is building knowledge upon previous knowledge and experience. Knowledge is a structure, not a basket of facts. I like this idea because things make much more sense to me when I can see their structure and how they connect. I’m sure you have all seen or been party to the riddles or scenarios where you are given pertinent facts, then asked to solve the riddle where one part stands alone allowing for an out-of-the-box answer. I always fail these. I tend to see the facts in a line and can only find the obvious. The Schema theory, as well as the Ausubel theory, tends to follow my ideas and abilities to learn. I do, however, think that some people actually do better with a basket of facts; this is where the teacher comes in. They need to present the facts and ideas in a way that will allow the more structured learner to connect the new concepts with previous knowledge and experience, as well as in a way that the fact learner will be able to draw out the pertinent facts and create their knowledge base.
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Submitted by Diana Maughan on Wed, 09/30/2009 - 10:11am
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Any opinions expressed here, except as specifically noted, are those of the individual authors or commenters and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, or Utah State University.
Depository Education.
Diana - there was an ed theroist named Paulo Friere, who discussed "banking" or "depository" models of education in which the educator is the depositor of information and the learner is simply a repository of that information. Success, in this model, is based on the amount of information that can be presented and deposited. He was opposed to this type of educational paradigm, mind you. . .
Your comment regarding a "basket of facts" reminded me of Friere. Your follow up thoughts, as well, are spot on. Teachers bear the burden of knowing their students' sterngths and weaknesses in terms of teaching methodology.
Good job.
Structured Learning
I like the concept of a structured system of learning versus a basket of facts. My mind feels like such a basket of facts when it comes to the sciences. I learn pieces of information but I don't have the appropriate schema to place the new information with and it just gets pushed into my figurative basket of facts.
You also made a point that sometimes a basket of facts is just where it needs to go for a bit. It seems like my mind can hold things in a "holding place" for a little while but if it doesn't find application soon enough, I just filter it out.