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There have been so many different learning models and techniques presented this semester that to keep them all straight in my head is a little difficult.  I suppose the ones that more closely fit my own learning style (case-based learning, motivation, problem-based learning,situated cognition) are the ones that I can more aptly and remember.   However, that being said, I still think that learning is the acquiring of new knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to new situations and problems. 

Case-Based Learning is, perhaps, the learning theory that resonates the most with how I feel I learn myself.  The idea that learners can learn well through stories, or cases, told just in time makes sense to me.  I don't  usually spend time reading reference material or watching a video tutorial if it doesn't immediately affect my situation or something I'm trying to do.  I suspect that students are the same way.  They don't want to sit through something if they don't see the point, and they won't likely see the point unless they are facing a problem they can't otherwise solve.

I'm going to come right out and say it.  I had a hard time understanding the
article for this week.  I don't know if it was the wording or what, but I had to
read the article at least 3 times before I grasped it.  Piaget's theories are
not that different from others we've seen, they just add a different way of
looking at the development and learning process.  I think, perhaps, that it
gives an easy to follow structure (I say "easy" somewhat sarcastically) by which
we can identify the developmental progress of a learner. 

If what he says is true, then we as instructors should be able to help a learner progressClick here to read more »

The learning theory of the week, schema theory made for some interesting reading.  At first glance the theory seems quite close to last week's theory, meaning.  It took me a while to understand how the two compare because they both deal with previous knowledge as being an important factor in new learning.  While the way I see learning hasn't really change from last week, the schema theory shows that the previous knowledge that a student brings to the learning can be more difficult to remedy than I thought before. 

Previous knowledge, or schemata, can take the form of prejudices and those are hard to see past.  It is easy to see how a person's past can show new concepts in a certain "light" that can change how they are perceived.

I'm not sure my view on learning has really changed that much. Meaningful learning seemed to me to be an extension of cognitive information processing (CIP). As CIP states, we learn by building on previous knowledge and constructing pychological "building blocks" of knowledge. However, some of our premises or previous knowledge can be flawed which leads to continued error. Some examples given in the Novak reading (Novak 2002) refer to studies done with MIT graduates in which very intelligent student expressed inaccurate views on subjects such as the origin of weather change, the explanation of the carbon in trees, and other concepts that should normally have been easy for them to understand.
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