experience

     What is learning?    Acquiring knowledge and skills.    I understand and agree with people exchanging stories as a basis for learning from each other, and using actual situations as a base for learning,  but how on earth does this take place in public education?  I would love it but cannot find the jumping-off point for accomplishing it.      Learning does take place and is meaningful when it is part of a real situation, when current knowledge does not fill a need and so  needs to be updated.  Learning is communicating with other learners and teachers.  For example, in English, students will be required to write a letter to an editor about something they've read in the paper (why and what we are reading still needs to be established, mind you).   Of course, such a letter needs to communicate an idea, have correct grammar, etc.  thus creating a real-life scenario.Click here to read more »

 In this week, I realized that learning has more broad definition, as the definition by Shuell, “Learning is an enduring change in behavior, or in the capacity to behave in a given fashion, which results from practice or other forms of experience.” That is to say, learning is not only a series of processes which aim to format some behavior, but also some intellective activities which influence people’s thoughts.

As a teacher, we should help students from the angle of behavior, by offering proper stimuli and environment, providing appropriate reinforcement.