Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Hey Gentlemen, it's our third date!!

As a student majoring in Education, it is quite often to come across these old great guys: Socrates, Platos, Dewey, etc. They always sat in the first few chapters of a dusty old book, such as Driscoll's Psychology of Learning for Instruction, the one I used in my Master's learning theories class. What attitude do people hold when they examine their thoughts? Personally speaking, I didn't like these philosophers and their tricky perspectives when I first studied them in my undergraduate study. In order to pass a close-book exam related to them, I had to adopt rote learning to repeatedly memorize all their stories. My only acquisition from my first learning experience is to know how efficient Behaviorism is since I got a great grade as the reinforcement in the end. The learning theories class was my second time to systematically and formally date these gentlemen. When I first opened Driscoll's book, I thought it could be a piece of cake to learn them again since I got such a beautiful grade last time. However, things did not go as what I thought. I almost forgot everything. Everything seemed familiar to me, but I could not clearly remember which is which. Therefore, I began to suspect Behaviorism and would want to find the "best" theory which is trustworthy and reliable. I was looking for it all that semester. We had a heavy course load on that course. One of the assignments is to design a case study with ill-structured learning problems every week, and allow other students to solve the problems with the consideration of a specific learning theory. I began to give up the idea of looking for the "best" theory when I worked on this assignment. I realized there are no absolute reliable theories without the considerations of the context, learners, and other conditions. I began to carefully think about why we learn theories and how to apply them. If I want to create a great case, I have to go in-depth into the theories, and talk with these gentlemen sincerely.

OK, now it is my third date! I am more like prudent to learn, to think and to reflect this time. I want to construct my own world view and theories of learning under the careful examination and reflection. Noddings is a great storyteller. She mixed her own emotions and ideas in the plot, and made the story vivid. I decide to keep an open mind when considering each theory. Certainly, theories grow popular or fall out favor, but all of the theories have at the least concepts which can positively impact my approach to learn. I don't know if my attitude towards learning philosophies could change in the future, but this time, I just wanted to get something, something that is from me, and only belongs to me.

1 comments:

alicepawley said...

Sensen -- AWESOME. :-) I hope we can help you meet your expectations.