People learn by....

From your own perspective and experiences, how do people learn? What are the best ways to accommodate your students’ learning and understanding? What learning theory or theories do you feel most comfortable with? Consider the “other” theories and concepts, as well. Explain your preference.

In my experience, people learn best by "doing". Of course, in order to "do" something, one must know the underlying concepts, and sometimes those need to be presented in a more traditional manner. However, I don't feel that simply lecture or reading is enough to make the learning permanent. In order to have a complete understanding, one must show that they can apply the knowledge in authentic ways. I will admit that there have been times when I received a wonderful grade on an assignment or test, but had I been asked to perform a task based on the information, I would have failed. I never had an adequate understanding to be able to apply what I learned.

I feel that Constructivism is probably the theory that best fits my ideas about how people learn. I believe that when students are given "real world" problems to solve or tasks to complete that are meaningful to them, they will have a much better understanding and will retain the information. I love that the teacher is supposed to be a facilitator in a Constructivist classroom, using guiding questions and discussions to help students arrive at the answers. In looking for additional information about Constructivism, I found this list of traits of a Constructivist teacher:

1. Constructivist teachers encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative.
2. Constructivist teachers use raw data and primary sources along with manipulative, interactive, and physical materials.
3. Constructivist teachers use cognitive terminology such as "classify," "analyze," "predict," and "create" when framing tasks.
4. Constructivist teachers allow student responses to drive lessons, shift instructional strategies, and alter content.
5. Constructivist teachers inquire about students' understandings of concepts before sharing their own understandings of those concepts.
6. Constructivist teachers encourage students to engage in dialogue both with the teacher and with one another.
7. Constructivist teachers encourage student inquiry by asking thoughtful, open-ended questions and encouraging students to ask questions of each other.
8. Constructivist teachers seek elaboration of students' initial responses.
9. Constructivist teachers engage students in experiences that might engender contradictions to their initial hypotheses and then encourage discussion.
10. Constructivist teachers allow a waiting time after posing questions.
11. Constructivist teachers provide time for students to construct relationships and create metaphors.
12. Constructivist teachers nurture students' natural curiosity through frequent use of the learning cycle model (Brooks & Brooks, 1993).

This would be my ideal classroom model. Unfortunately, in today's educational system with extreme amounts of testing and "one size fits all" ideas, this kind of classroom is not easy to have. I just strongly believe that students will learn so much more if they are guided through the learning, rather than lectured to.

I also feel it is necessary to remember Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory. We all know people that "get it" just by hearing a lecture. Sometimes people are great at remembering things they see, while others need to get "hands-on" experience in order to master a concept. Some people learn through debate and discussion. I believe, that in the field of Instructional Design and Technology, it is so important to allow for ALL modes of learning.

Finally, while creating our "top ten" list, I did some research on Behaviorism as it is used in IDT. I found information that explained that one can use the theories of Behaviorism to be sure that we do instill bias or bad feelings. I think this is an important concept to keep in mind, as students can unconsciously end up learning things that we do not plan for them to learn.