Week 5: What is learning? How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?
Learning is a logical building process that results in students changing their perspectives, values, attitudes and/or behaviors as a result of new information becoming entwined with prior knowledge. When a child can recite and recognize the alphabet, for example, the next step in the learning process would be to write the alphabet, learn sounds, and read words.
Learning can be effectuated by a teacher through motivation. Sometimes motivation is simple, especially with younger children. They may learn the alphabet and how to read and write simply because they go to school and that is what they are ‘supposed’ to do. They may want their teacher’s praise and their parents’ approval. My oldest son learned how to read very quickly because he was a video game junky. I told him I would not read the script to Zelda for him as he played the Nintendo, and that if he wanted to know what it said (and therefore how to play), he would have to learn to read. Very quickly, he was a fluent reader at the age of four. However, motivation can become more complicated as students progress through the grades. Certainly some are still motivated by simple praise and good grades, but others want to know why they have to learn a skill, or why they have to take a class, or why they need to be in school at all.
Our job is to not only answer those ‘why’ questions, but to find out what motivates our students. My Keyboarding students are often motivated by rewards, such as a class chatroom for the last five minutes of the period if a particular skill is mastered during the class period. If certain behavior standards are met for the week, I will often let them have a ‘compose at the keyboard’ activity on Fridays that involves the use of their student email. After all, composing at the keyboard is a course standard I am required to teach, and they are highly motivated by such a reward.
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Submitted by Jill Mason on Wed, 06/10/2009 - 2:03am
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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.
Prior Knowledge
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Hi Jill,
I like your point on motivation. In learning precess, learner plays an important role. When learner is positive, learning could be more effectively and easily. About kids, they don not understand what they learn for, praise or reward should be the most resultful motivation so the method you used must work well. I think you are an intelligent teacher, you know what is your students' motivations and you instruct them in learning in the way they like.
We teachers should not force our students memorizing concepts and knowlege but help them in gaining new knowledge more easily. It is important to make learning fun for kids, as if they consider learning as a boring thing, they might keep this point in the rest of their learning experiences, which would make them passive in learning.