Rhonda Adams's blog

Well, this is it.  My final entry in the Learning Theories class for Summer of 2009.  I thought it was best to wrap up this class with a short but sweet blog, so here goes.

Learning is when you, your child, your friend, any living thing, incorporates new knowledge which changes their life, no matter how minimal.  The best type of learning is the type that influences the learner's life for the better, but unfortunately, a lot of learning hinders the learner's life.  That's where teachers come in.  Teachers are not just people in a classroom during the school day, helping people learn.  Teachers are anybody, any living thing that helps facilitate learning. 

Learning is........ well, that's hard to say.  We are nearing the end of our Learning Theories course and it is interesting to see how my entries have changed, or not in some cases, since the beginning of the summer.  But, learning is, in my opinion, difficult to summarize.  Is it simply new knowledge that is taken into a learner's mind, or is it that with tweaking existing knowlege, or is it something else entirely.  Well, not to step on anyone's toes, but I feel that the better question to answer this week is "how can a teacher best affectuate learning". 

In doing this weeks lesson plan, I noticed something.  My definition of learning has changed considerably.  I still think that in order for learning to take place, the learner needs to be engaged.  I also believe that teachers can affect learning either in a positive or a negative way, but one thing about my definition has changed and that is when learning takes place. 

Usually I post how my learning definition has changed, and rarely talk about the learning theory of the week.  Well, this week I am discussing the theory of the week because it impacted my learning so much. 

Each week we are asked to share what our definition of learning is.  Most weeks mine has been tweeked a little bit.  But this week, I don't think it has changed much.  My defintion of learning is: Anything that betters a person's life, and my opinions on who affects learning is: the teachers, parents, but mainly the students.