Week 9 “What is Learning” and “How Can I as a Teacher Effectuate Learning?”

Week 9 “What is Learning”
Learning I have found is about perceptions. How do I as a teacher perceive someone’s involvement or lack of involvement, and how do they as a student perceive what is to be learned and how to do it. How does the student perceive my concern for them, perceive the importance of the topic, and perceive its importance to them and life. Perception is based on our goals, whether concrete or implied, and our motivation is based on these goals. So motivation is also derived from perception. As a line from the movies “Sneakers” (yes, Robert Redford) says, “Things operate, not on reality, but the perception of reality”.
Week 9 “How Can I as a Teacher Effectuate Learning?”
By being someone that the students perceive as being interested in their motivations – understanding their social intimacy-goal vs. social status-goal orientations and their achievement mastery-goal vs. achievement performance-goal orientations – and striving to shape the class environments to create the best outcomes for each student. Never assume what appears to be obvious, students’ goals may be well hidden under well-painted on smiles. Find out what really moves them to action and connect them with the item that needs acting upon. By reviewing a previous lesson plan (fun how Brian sneaks in reflective teaching practices) and adding new information to it, I found myself trying to better what I do, for achievement mastery- and social intimacy-goal reasons, not achievement performance- and social status-goal recognition. It begs the question, “ How many college and university professors do you know that are motivated by achievement performance- and social status-goal recognition and not by achievement mastery- and social intimacy-goal reasons?” If words like many, most, more than I can count hit home, “Houston, we have a problem!”