Bllog #11 - Learning Definition

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". 

This question really stuck with me when I planned my lesson this week on Social Constructivism.  This theory is probably the one that I use the most in my instruction because it involves Scaffolding.  This seems to be the best way to incorporate all the theories we have learned in a controlled environment, and still have the students feel successful.  However, the biggest mistake a teacher can make when using scaffolding is to think that each student needs the same type of scaffold.  That is completely incorrect.  Each student has different prior knowledge for each activity that you do, and their "scaffold" to help them complete the task may need to be placed somewhere different than the other members of their group.

So, I feel that this week's theory has more to do with the teachers than the learners, because a teacher can make or break a student's conceptual learning.  No pressure huh?