Week 5 CIP/ Meaningful Learning Blog Post- "What is Learning and how can we be effective in our teaching?"

     I have an appreciation for the learning theory this week that focuses on the importance of prior knowledge.  The need for this prior knowledge in order to acquire new knowledge is actually one of the few things I really recall from college!  When I learned that concept a long time ago, it just made sense to me.  I can recall many pieces of knowledge during college (and throughout life) that I have struggled to learn and understand at different period.  Often these pieces of knowledge that were challenges to me dealt with new information where I had little background knowledge.  The information was delivered but I didn't have any place to properly process that information.  When the idea was first presented to me, it was explained this way.  Our minds hold lots of information on index cards.  When we learn new information, we mentally pull out the appropriate index card, do a quick review of what's on that mental card, and then add the new information to it.  When we don't already have the mental index card, but we're introduced to new information for that card, it's lost because it doesn't have a place to go.  Instead, it will often be quickly forgotten, memorized in rote merely for a test later, OR learned wrong because we didn't have a basic understanding to begin with.  This becomes especially trickly when we are teaching because we don't know which "mental index cards" a student has access to in his or her mind.  If they do happen to have the needed index card, but the previous information is wrong, the students will also have a difficult time comprehending the new information.  Without being able to examine each child's "mental filing cabinet" where these "mental index cards" are stored, teachers are at a disadvantage.  This disadvantage can become minimized if teachers try to make use of connections that students may have to the new information.  It's also important to use a variety of methods to instruct in hopes that one of the methods will strike a connection with a student and they will be able to process the information correctly. 

     Each week, it seems that we've been introduce to a compelling learning process that will make me rethink my way of teaching.  While that continues to happen, I am amazed at the fact that this is just the tip of the iceberg!  So far, I've been reminded that I need to use postive reinforcements, analyze antecedents and prevent them, follow routines, and now, use previous knowledge during lessons to make the connections stronger for students between the prior information and the new information.  It seems a lot to keep track of as we still try to remember the concepts of the lesson, too.  Nevertheless, I think that we as teachers are already naturally doing so many of these things.  It's good to be reminded, but I hope that we won't feel discouraged by all we should be doing.  Instead, I hope that we'll recognize that we're probably already doing some of these effective practices with ease and we may need to hit some of the other practices a little harder!