My Learning Philosophy: Learning to Learn About How to Learn

Joseph Perrone

EDLD 5313: Creating Significant Learning Environments

Dr. Kelly Grogan

Lamar University

September 15, 2024

 

Learning is a way of life. Whether students or others believe this or not, we are all lifelong learners. Our parents teach us to tie our shoes, brush our teeth, and respect others. Our grandparents teach us how to swim, garden, cook, crochet, and so many other things that are life-long skills. Sometimes older siblings teach us how to drive in parking lots, in farm fields, or on back roads. Our communities teach us to treat others as equals. Schools teach us to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read and write, play instruments, play sports, and be good team members. Schools also teach us how to be good citizens through study and example. 

Learning is trial and error. I live in a condo without much yard space, and my wife loves using fresh herbs to cook. I decided to place planter boxes on my deck. The first year was more than I could have expected. I was taking cups of herbs off my plants every other week. Someone then suggested I use coffee grounds. The results were not so good. Then I tried another method. The results were even worse than the first attempt to stimulate better harvests. My wife insisted this year I go back to my original plan. I did, and now my herbs are flourishing better than in year one. During this time, I learned two things: 1) if it works, don't change it, and 2) listen to my wife. 

It is impossible to get through life today without learning. I am sure that anyone who has used a YouTube video to solve a problem does not believe they have learned. They have learned how to do something new and learned how and where to look for the information again should they need to. Siemens (2005) suggests that learning the what of information is not as important as learning the where of information in society today. Because of technology, we are not required to have this vast knowledge of everything stored in our brains. We can just “Google it” and find the answers to the questions we have. Learning for information retention has given way to learning for information location.

My entire life has been a series of teaching and learning.  My father taught me how to mow, rake, and bale a field. I, in turn, taught my younger brothers. They then taught their children, and so the cycle of farm life in my family continues.  It was the farm that taught me a work ethic and the joy of a job completed and well done.  Working the fields was not always a joy, nor was mucking out stalls, or caring for sick livestock, but all that learning produced an appreciation for what I can accomplish today.  I can not stand on a trailer and stack hay bales like I used to, or unload them into the barn, but I can still find joy in watching my nephews do the job that I learned four decades ago.

As a classroom teacher, in the twenty-first century, I have had to become as much a learner as I have a teacher. Understanding what my students are going through in their daily lives, and adapting the classroom to meet those constant changes, has forced me to learn that what I did a decade ago in the classroom is no longer relevant or effective in the classroom today, and even less so tomorrow. Many of my students live in single-parent households or households where a grandparent or other adult relative is the primary caregiver because the parent may be incarcerated or have had parental rights terminated because of drug or weapons convictions. Too many of these students, ‘Street cred” is what they focus on to survive, and all too often it seeps into the classroom as well. Learning American Literature is low on the priority list of most of my students.  So, I have learned to make it as relevant as possible to their current situations. The ideas of equality and oppression are motifs that run through the coursework I teach. It is those connections to those universal themes that keep my students focused on the task.  

I know the works of William Bradford, Ann Bradstreet, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs may not resonate through my students as it does me, but the experiences of these influential writers have to be felt, and it has to be felt by students in the context of a twenty-first-century world.

I know that I learn best when I am allowed to explore, research, and experiment on my own or with others. I believe that I learn best through authentic learning opportunities, and I am more engaged in the learning process when I know that the outcome will be tangible and that I will continue to use this newly acquired knowledge and skill in the future. There have been many times that I have learned more from my students during a lesson than what I had originally planned on teaching them, and to me, that should be eye-opening to educators. Teachers are not the important people in the room; the students are. Teachers must apply different aspects of learning theories and philosophies if they are going to facilitate real learning in their classrooms. Educational philosophies and mission statements are a great way to help focus our beliefs about what we want to accomplish, but I believe that sharing and living my learning philosophy with my students and colleagues is the only way for real learning to manifest itself in our classrooms today. (My Learning Manifesto)

My teaching philosophy is a bullet-point list of statements on the first page of the teaching portfolio that sits in a binder on a shelf. It is a document I review regularly, and there are ideas I try to espouse to my students, but it is a static document. A learning philosophy is changing constantly.  I am not saying that the basic tenets and ideas are being modified, but a learning philosophy is just as organic and dynamic as the person living it. And that’s what it is, a living condition that needs to be ingrained into our daily lives like breathing. I never considered that anything other than my teaching philosophy was what I needed to get by in my career. Participation in the ADL program showed me that my teaching philosophy is a fossil, and to succeed as a teacher, mentor, coach, and facilitator of learning, I need to continue to learn and learn to learn as well.

I believe that my learning philosophy is made up of aspects from both cognitive (Dewey, Bruner, and Piaget) and social constructivism (Vygotsky) with humanism (Maslow) blended in. Relationship building in my classroom is one of the key components of how I help my students feel safe enough to start to engage in learning. Students in my classroom are engaged in learning through most if not all facets of both cognitive and social constructivism. Through this type of learning approach, my students can actively engage in a learning community where they feel they can ask relevant questions, receive valuable feedback, learn from and with their peers, reflect upon their learning processes, participate in authentic learning experiences, and take ownership of their learning.

I have become intrigued by the Connectivism theories of learning as well. We are no longer socially isolated people just because enter our homes at the end of the day. Yes, twenty-four news programs keep us informed about the events going on in our world, but social media keeps us tuned into the lives of family, friends, and just about anyone who has a Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Telegram, or YouTube account. I am “old-school” and still appreciate the search for definitions in the dictionary that sits on my desk. My students are far faster with their online searches, but there is something that I feel they are missing. My students want to read the literature on their Chromebook screens rather than open the textbook and read from the page. I do post work and resources on Google Classroom at school, but it is just a repository of information and assignments. I wish for the classroom experiences of my students to become so much more dynamic than answering open-ended questions in a Google form. I need to delve more into the Connectivism theories and literature as well as those of the Blended Learning classroom to find a comfortable place on the learning theory continuum.

My learning philosophy will impact the development and implementation of My Innovation Plan by forcing me to go back and adjust the method by which I wish to have learning occur in the final iteration. My innovation plan was created with very little knowledge of the philosophies that existed and are being emphasized in the ADL program and education today.  I was taught Piaget, Bruner, and others in my undergraduate studies, but I feel that what I learned then is surprisingly inadequate for today's learners and for me as a coach, mentor, and facilitator. There needs to be a greater in-depth study of the learning philosophies emphasized in the ADL program. The adjustments to my learning plan will require a disciplined and multifaceted review and revision of each stage through consultation with administrators and MTSS coaches in my building and possibly at the district level to be successful in my role as a change agent in my school and district.

 

Annotated Bibliography

Donovan, S., Bransford, J.D., & Pellegrino, J.W. (1999). How people learn: Bridging research and practice. National Academy of Sciences.  https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5c082f78d4ba4/2780995?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1615798800000&X-Blackboard-Signature=nU3n1ricPIJewe3Bv38w7Hw3aeB5eBeG44%2FAwP0RPmk%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=304450&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27How%2520People%2520Learn.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210315T030000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PL5SJBSTP6%2F20210315%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=cdda1af04558cbbd26550e10dcb119867620aa6fa5ec5abcc9a761cd22b18b55

This study evaluates how we, as humans learn best. This research-based report concludes that our education system requires a serious overhaul if we want to engage our students in real learning.

Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Dweck presents an amazing view of how we are really in charge of every aspect of our lives and our learning journey. Her presentation of failing forward shows how important every part of our learning process truly is.

Haave, N. (2015, October 23). Developing students’ learning philosophies. The Teaching Professor, 28.4 (2014).

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/developing-students-learning-philosophies/

Haave focuses on the concept of reflective learning as a way to develop students’ learning philosophies. By having students reflect on a series of questions about not only their learning experiences but about the coursework students are completing in general. Haave did this as a response to graduates of Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta not being able to articulate their learned skills to potential employers 

Harapnuik, D. (November 2021). Educational development philosophy. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=4639

Dr. Harapnuik proposes that are are several steps in developing significant learning environments.  He starts with the idea of “why” and links it to the work of Simon Sinek.  It follows that with working toward significant learning environments that are student-centered where the teacher now acts as a coach, mentor, facilitator, and guide. He then moves into the Outcome-Based/Backward Design process looking at the three-column table, aligning outcomes, activities, and assessment by making the course integrated.

Harapnuik, D. (November 2021). Learning philosophy. http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95

Dr. Harapnuik makes it easy to understand how our own learning philosophies forge the paths for the way that we teach and facilitate learning in our own classrooms. His notion of teachers not teaching anyone anything, but just being a learning facilitator is inspiring.

Learning Theory Project Team of HKU. (2018) What teachers should know about learning theories. https://kb.edu.hku.hk/learning_theory_history/

Based on D.H. Shunk’s (2012) Learning theories: An educational perspective. New York, NY, England: Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc., this site provides a helpful graphical overview of different learning theories and approaches.

Siemens, G. (2005, January). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. https://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm

Siemens expands upon the theory of learning needed in the twenty-first century. Reviewing the limitations of Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism he leads into the alternate theory of Connectivism and how institutions need to take into consideration the trend moving from knowledge retention to knowledge location.

Thomas, D., & Brown, J.S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a  world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace. 

This book is full of research-based examples of how we can create significant learning environments that promote engaging and authentic learning opportunities. Thomas and Brown discuss the importance of project-based learning, peer-to-peer learning, and learning through play.