The TECHnical Teacher

This quote resonates with me. Our world changes whether we want it to or not, and we have to change along with it. If we remain stagnant in education, then we are essentially wasting our time. Education and learning should be more about critical thinking and problem solving rather than just about facts and test scores. 

When I talk about learning, I do not just mean what happens sitting at a desk inside of a school building. Learning happens everywhere and at any time and with anyone. Some learning is sparked by curiosity and sought out, while some can be taught by experience. Learning is lifelong but I do believe that if an individual wants to grow then intentional learning needs to take place. For example, my husband loves BBQ. He will spend countless hours watching videos, reading articles and books, and talking with other enthusiasts about cooking BBQ. While he would retain some of this information just by taking it in, his true learning did not happen until he tried to smoke his first brisket. After this first brisket, he went back and researched some more and tried again. He did this over and over. Now a few years down the road he has a BBQ competition team and the beginnings of a small business in his hands. Would all of this be possible if he would not have sought out the knowledge and experience? No, his passion drove him to go down this path. He chose to learn more. He was taught by various “teachers” whether it be through his phone screen or by talking to others who have experience. The “teachers” in this scenario were important because they passed on their knowledge, but it would not have mattered much if he had not applied that knowledge and then gained his own experience to go back and change his strategies. 

I feel like this example relates to me as a teacher and a learner. As a learner, it reinforces the fact that I believe tying learning to experience makes for more substantial learning. It also supports my belief that passion helps drive learning as well, especially when that learning takes place outside of the classroom. As a teacher, I can deliver content to students but without tying it to a past experience or creating experiences then the learning does not go much deeper than the surface level. Teaching and learning can be independent of each other. One can learn without being taught by a teacher and a lesson can be taught without real learning taking place. The best is when these two concepts work together. 

As a learner, I am passionate about learning. I am always seeking out new information about my passions. I believe that the day that we stop seeking knowledge is when we stop growing. I also learn best when I can connect what I am learning with something I am passionate about or something that I have experience with. I could not tell you any important dates in history because the memorization of those dates were not something that I was passionate about or related to when I was learning them in high school. But I can now recite dates that are included in the musical Hamilton because I love musicals and have memorized all of the songs that include dates from our nation’s history. I believe that you cannot truly force a person to learn if they don’t want to, but it is a choice that has to be made. I believe this is not only true for me but for many students. 

When thinking about all of the learning philosophies that try to explain the processes of learning, I believe that I closely relate to the Cognitive Constructivist Theory. One of the main theorists behind this theory is Jean Piaget. Like Pigaet, I do not believe that intelligence is a fixed trait. I believe that a person’s intelligence can increase if they are willing to learn and look at their experiences through a growth mindset. As Piaget said in the quote above, we should be educating students to create new things and not just regurgitate information that has been done over and over again. Another theorist is John Dewey. He believed that school should be focused on the students and not on the subject. He also believed that “material should be provided in a way that is stimulating and interesting to the students since it encourages original thought and problem solving.” (“Paradigms,” n.d.) This is important because by making the content engaging, the chance of meaningful learning increases because students will process it at a deeper level. I believe students must have a level of self-awareness when it comes to their learning and need to reflect on what they know and evaluate their own learning and cognition. I also believe that the teacher role should be shifted more towards a guide or facilitator, rather than just an instructor. “In the cognitive constructivist perspective, the role of the teacher is to create experiences in which the students will participate that will lead to appropriate processing and knowledge acquisition” (Doolittle, n.d.). Thus, the teacher takes on the role of a guide or facilitator. 

When in my classroom, I view myself as a facilitator of learning. I am not the sole resource for information for my students. In the digital world that we live in, I am just another context of the content. I find it more important to help my students problem-solve so they can come to the solution or answer on their own. I firmly believe that if I guide them to the answer, they will be much better off than if I just told them how to do it. I want to just build a learning environment where students have choice, ownership, and voice to create authentic learning. My learning philosophy can also relate to the Cognitivism Theory in the way that I believe that learning is more meaningful when it is related to prior knowledge or their schema (McLeod, p. 39). When learning can be related to prior knowledge it can be like a game of connecting the dots, the more connections you make, the clearer the picture becomes. The more dots that are connected, the more reinforced the concept becomes. When working with my learners, I try to find a balance between these concepts to help build creative thinkers for the world ahead. 

These theories fit in well with my innovation proposal. When using blended learning in the classroom, the teacher becomes more of a facilitator and works alongside the student as they continue their learning. By providing students with interesting and engaging content, students will be more motivated to learn and create more meaningful connections to old and new information. I believe a mixture of these two theories are what influenced my innovation proposal. I will use these theories as they are put into place in my classroom.