VOC 1 Evaluation of the first virtual teaching session 17.09.2013

Evaluation for the first virtual teaching session on the 17th of September 2013

The topic for this session was on views of learning and guiding students.

I was part of the Vygotsky team, the experience of planning, as a group was very beneficial as we could use our varied  skills in assessing the material. We had Skype meetings to discuss the presentation and we are using Dropbox to share materials. At first, we did not notice that the other group had the Kolb's Experiential Learning as a task so we decided to focus more on Progressive Inquiry. This theory is very interesting and I have not been aware of it before. Although I can see how it has influenced the academic world, from some of my personal experiences in teaching and study. As a Helsinki University professor Kai Hakkarainen developed this theory, we found interesting materials, PhD research in the Helsinki University online library by Lakkala, M. (2010). How to design educational settings to promote collaborative inquiry: Pedagogical infrastructures for technology enhanced progressive inquiry.

This pedagogical model is ideal for work in collaborative groups with the target of knowledge building and problem solving. I have used this in my teaching and would like to continue developing this model more in my methods. For example, the first step setting up the context is very important as the teacher organises orienting activities in order to foster students’ commitment and to anchor the problem in the real world. The second step presenting research problems is where students formulate their own research questions. The third step creating working theories is where students write down their prior knowledge and explanations share this with others and see it from different perspective. Therefore, the teacher can foster the culture of questioning and elaborating knowledge. This is also part of the fourth step, distributed expertise. In the fifth step, critical evaluation the student is looking at how well prior theories explain the problem and what more information and knowledge is needed. In the sixth step, searching deepening knowledge the students explore diverse information sources and compare their intuitive explanations to expert knowledge and scientific theories. The seventh’s step developing deepening problems is where the more information about the topic leads deeper in the problem to more questions that are specific. In the eight’s step new theory, the answer to more specific questions leads to the answer of the original big question and probably iteratively triggers new questions. Therefore, we can see the cyclical nature of learning.

What was interesting in Kolb’s Experiential learning model is that an individual may show  a preference for one of the four styles : “Accommodating, Converging, Diverging and Assimilating, depending on their approach to learning via the experiential learning theory mode (Concrete Experience,  Abstract Conceptualization, Reflective Observation and Active Experimentation)” (1)

There are obviously similarities with Kolb’s and Progressive enquiry learning styles as they are both cyclical in nature and they start from learners own experience and cycle through active application of concepts in experimentation. Except that in Kolb’s theory, there is more emphasis on individual learning styles and I would say more empiricist approach, which emphasizes experience over theory initially. Therefore, Accommodators are more hands –on and use their gut feeling rather than logic. Converges are hands – on and theory, problem solvers and tend to work alone. Diverges are imaginative and see more than one solution, they like to observe rather then do. Assimilators are theories and facts, talk about rationale rather than do and use logic.

Philosophy of education or the ‘philosophy of human learning’, can be traced back to Plato (Idealism- belief in the objective truth of ideas) One of the reasons for “Plato’s commitment to the world of ideas is the unreliability of the senses.” (Jordan, A. C., Orison S. A., 2008, p. 8) According to Plato in his work Republic, humans are chained to the world of senses and true knowledge can be achieved only by rigorous mental and ideological training.

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher (17th Century) who was influenced by Plato’s idealism and emphasised the duality between mind and body, giving preference to mental over physical activity. Descartes “proposed a method of ‘systematic doubt’ in which everything in the universe had to be questioned until he came to something he could not doubt. By this means, he arrived at his famous principle, -‘Cogito ergo sum’ – ‘I think, therefore I am.’ (Jordan, A. C., Orison S. A., 2008, p. 8)

Idealism has influenced education as it gives emphasis to theory before practice. We have discussed some of the aspects of learning theories such as Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Humanism. These theories  have developed through ideas of Plato and Aristotle’s promotion of liberal education and the second mayor category of western thought that claims that experience is more important than theory (empiricism and romanticism). 

In the 17^th century English philosopher John Lock in his work, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding postulates ‘that there is nothing in the mind which was not first in the senses.’ (Jordan, A. C., Orison S. A., 2008, p. 12). According to empiricist for a statement to be valid, must be either true by definition or it must be open to verification by experience.

The current education practice is most influenced by ideas of constructivism, some aspect of education still have behaviourist features. These are mostly in curriculum planning, assessment and behaviour management for example.Therefore, by performing certain actions teacher can expect certain learner response: giving clear session objectives gives the learner the knowledge of what to expect. Structured learning gives learners the ability to create links and associations. Providing feedback promotes learning awareness and satisfaction.

We have also discussed motivation for learning via theory of needs by Muslow’s hierarchy. This theory was developed through Cartesian, Darwinian and Freudian thought or physiological, social and psychological factors.

The value of this theory in teaching could be in recognition that higher-level motivational factors can depend of lower once. Although some criticism of the theory is based on the fact that self – actualization is not a clear concept and that the height of the human achievement should be related more to altruism and community. (Jordan, A. C., Orison S. A., 2008, p. 156)

References:

(1)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

Jordan, A. C., Orison S. A., 2008, Approaches to Learning : A Guide for Teachers, Berkshire, GBR , Open University Press 

Lakkala, M. (2010). How to design educational settings to promote collaborative inquiry: Pedagogical infrastructures for technology enhanced progressive inquiry, 24. Retrieved from https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/19887/howtodes.pdf?sequence=2,