Pedro Beltran
My personal belief about learning starts with the fact that not everyone learns the same way. In my years in education, I have discovered that to understand a topic; I had to look at it from a different perspective. I had to talk to other people about my findings, which has always given me a better understanding. For most of my life, I received instruction with the model “sit and get” and “you are to receive the knowledge from the expert.” This approach made me afraid of learning institutions until I was in charge of delivering instructions. Initially, results were poor as my students could not retain any information even though we practice every day. Changing the approach was the solution; presenting the information in various ways, having discussions enhanced the learning, and making meaningful connections was the key to my student’s success and a better understanding of the content for me as the teacher. This approach evolved into cross-curricular content during the past years that allowed students to create and build to represent those meaningful connections made with the content. Lately, learning by doing was accelerated by the increase of technology and resources available due to Covid-19, as we needed to be more creative.
Cognitive constructivist (Piaget, Dewey): The learner’s primary role is to construct information to link new information to prior knowledge to make meaning. The process is active as the learner hypothesizes about their world or experience and constructs knowledge rather than acquire it. Other characteristics include the social construction of knowledge, and learning must be the responsibility of the learner.
Connectivism (Siemens): Connectivism is a theoretical framework for understanding learning in a digital age. It emphasizes how internet technologies such as web browsers, search engines, wikis, online discussion forums, and social networks contributed to new avenues of learning.
Jean Piaget’s Constructivism suggests that human beings learn by constructing new knowledge on the foundation of information they already know. Dewey emphasizes inquiry and the integration of real-world and classroom activities. The constructivist framework relies on the learners to control their knowledge acquisition and encourages the instructor to serve as a facilitator. In addition, these principles acknowledge that real-life learning is messy and complex. Classrooms which emulate the ‘fuzziness’ of this learning will be more effective in preparing learners for lifelong learning” (Siemens 2005).
As a learner, I have discovered that my findings about education and my learning philosophy align with Piaget’s & Dewy’s Constructivism and Siemens’ Connectivism. Combining these theories to facilitate learning in the classroom will produce long-lasting learning and well-rounded students who will take their future differently. These theories have set the path I will take when implementing my innovation plan to incorporate an Engineering Class into Central Middle School.
This year I started incorporating the COVA approach with teachers and students; with this approach, learners are given choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities to gain a valuable learning experience. As a result, the choice and ownership in their learning become intrinsic and long-lasting (Harapnuik et al., 2018). Conversely, if students are learning something only to give it back on the test, this is not authentic learning and will not be permanent.
During this journey, my goal is to provide an environment that encourages passion for learning, where technology can be the gear that aids the construction of knowledge and foster people to create and collaborate to improve the lives of others.