Week 1: Learning

 As a teacher one of the most important things to understand is how people come to know something. This is where different learning theories come in, whether it is influenced by Skinner, Piaget or Vygotsky, we each develop our own theory of learning and this will affect how we approach teaching. My current belief is that learning occurs in an individual's brain. As you learn you are negotiating with your prior knowledge or schema related to what you are learning. This negotiation is the process of learning. Even-though I believe that learning occurs in each individual's brain what one is exposed to can effect that internal negotiation. This could be through negotiation with peers, reading something or hearing something from a teacher. In my experience in school and maybe even yours there was a perception that the teacher is in control of what you are learning, but this does not fit with my idea of how we learn. This brings up the question what is the teacher in control of, if anything?

The big thing that a teacher controls is the learning environment. Teachers strive to create opportunities for student's to negotiate with their previous held beliefs and expose them to new ideas and perspectives. A learning environment is not limited to the material or curriculum a student is exposed to, but it also needs to be an environment where the student feels safe. If we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, teachers need to create an environment that meets student's physiological needs, safety needs, a place where they feel valued and belong, and a place where they feel respected and confident in themselves in that classroom. These basic needs need to be met before a student can strive for self-actualization and learning. A learning environment needs to be a balance of freedom for the student to question the world around them, but also some structure where they achieve these base levels of Maslow's hierarchy. 

As we move into the semester I am looking forward to finding ways to move towards my own self-actualization in teaching, recognizing that this is an ever evolving process. Looking into the next few months I am excited to dive deeper into the NGSS standards along with experience in the classroom. As a student I did not like testing. I always felt that the way tests were written did not truly test what I knew, because lab application is where I excelled, but memorized information was where I struggled. As a result I really want to know how to test student's understanding in a way that truly tells if they understand the concept.