My Learning Philosophy: Contact

My Learning Philosophy

What are my learning strategies? The best way to define my learning is drawn through inspiration. As a child, I’ve always drew inspiration from characters, role models, and creativity. As I grew older and self-evaluated my thoughts and actions, natural methods became far clearer. At the time, it didn’t dawn on me that I was naturally self-teaching myself through those inspirations. Development and mastery of skills is a trait I’ve been partaking within for most of my life. This hunger for learning and mastery has been the perfect recipe for grad school, educating students, implementing teaching methods and strategies, which is in perfect alignment for everything I’m currently involved in thus far. Everyday must consist of learning something new and adopting it through mastery.

I’ve learned to accumulate a lot of knowledge through reading as well. When my mind is fixated on acquiring new information, I tend to lose myself in reading/research. This allows my mind to escape into another world. Decoding the information, reflection, owning, then applying what has been learnt is the typical process of how I learn. Once the information has been accumulated, I test out the research in society. Through social interaction, I discover what works and what does not work. In retrospect, I regroup and, this apply until the process becomes natural.

As mentioned, reading is a major contributor to learning, but socialization is the other. Learners remember 10% of what they read and 20% of what they hear. Human interaction provides a personal touch for me. I find myself constantly conducting social experiments with the general public. This can be in the form of formal conversations, informal conversations, or questioning. From a formal approach, I like to exhibit an intellectual persona in which I take the facilitator approach. This consists of teaching what has been accumulated towards a certain topic or subject and a leadership role is established.

Through this interaction, ways of learning and working towards a shared goal are accumulated. Informal conversations tend to be more relaxed and general topics that pertain to life is my choice of discussion. This is my favorite form of social interaction because I allow myself to teach as well as learn. General questions and methods of understanding aid in being a better life-long learner. Learning from others fails and success creates self-awareness in which I utilize towards my journey in life. This can stem from stories, debates, and common connections that broadens one’s own thinking and intellect. I learn a lot by listening, it’s ok to utilize vocalization, but listening while encoding what’s being stated is far better. In fact, that was one of my most pivotal learning discoveries, where I made the most progress the fastest.

In the context of school, I learned best by reading on my own as well as in a group setting where we could discuss what was read. Overall, I learn by talking things out with others, bouncing my understanding of theirs, incorporating some of their ideas, seeing points I had missed and incorporating their new ideas into my own or adding on to my ideas with some of theirs.

In summary, I prefer to learn by:

*Reading a large variety on the subject

*Conducting social experiments

*Reflecting, owning, and applying through mastery

*Moving while listening

*Talking it out with others – collaboration

To master something, you must be able to get deep into it through analyzation which takes time. What’s very critical to remember, don’t limit yourself by saying you “cannot” when situations become difficult. Below is a clip that specifies towards learning styles.

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As predicted, the style does not affect the learning. We are far more capable than we give credit. I made a connection towards her idea of allowing for the natural growth process to occur. The belief is that the child already possesses all that is required to learn and develop – the teacher’s job is simply to provide the environment in which they can do this. The teacher helps the student to learn how to self-govern, and once they know how to do that, they are free to choose the activity that speaks to them. They can do what they need to do, when they choose to, and for as long as they need to. Once they have mastered the lesson, they feel satisfaction and are ready to move on. The teacher observes and directs the student to the next activity. They help to track the child’s progress, and always demonstrate the new activity so that the student knows what they are working towards. The teacher presents activities to the child until they recognize an inner yearning for that task, and they engage with it. When the child is abandoned in complete concentration to the activity and then engage in repetition with it, that is a sure sign that they are being fed and they are actively involved in building themselves. The activity is meeting a need, and thus the child is developing in a healthy manner.

This belief in respecting the process, in respecting the student and allowing them to have a say in their education, in respecting the inner-man who is trying to emerge – this is what is reflected in the environment, the activities, the behavior of the teacher and the treatment of the students. Developing trust within our students should be fully embraced. Furthermore, students will gain more respect for themselves because they are held at a higher value than they would normally expect. Belief in our students will in return cause students to reevaluate their approach towards productivity. Building kids up opposed to tearing them down (for various reasons) is a way to influence a healthy learning environment.

Maria Montessori states that when the students are working as if the teacher was not there – that is success. The teacher wants to connect the student to the world and then get out of the way so that they can truly build their own knowledge and establish their own relationship with the world, going about their quest of becoming a man or woman. The learner does the building and thus the learning. The teacher is the guide, the observer and the protector of the process.

If I had to choose one of the more classic formal philosophies with which to align my beliefs, I would side within the constructivist movement. Montessori also draws from the theories of Naticism – made popular by Noam Chomsky and his belief that language was something all humans were born with, as well as Empiricism – David Hume, John Locke and George Berkeley argues that everything is learned through our senses and performing experiments on our surroundings. Even though her approach held elements from both theories, her philosophy ultimately held more from what we know now as constructivism. This philosophy tends to promote more of an active learning approach, or learning by doing, placing the learner as the star of the process and the only one who ultimately can construct their own knowledge. Observations are to be made and reflections are an important part to add the new knowledge to the framework we have already built. Using more of an inquiry based, problem solving and project-based approach, constructivism was first made popular by Jean Piaget. It is also more collaborative in nature than traditional teaching approaches.

References

(2015, April 02). Retrieved March 14, 2019, from https://youtu.be/855Now8h5Rs

Montessori, M., George, A. E., & Holmes, H. W. (1965). The Montessori method: scientific pedagogy as applied to child education in “The Childrens Houses” with additions and revisions by the author. New York: Schocken Books.

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