Thursday, December 31, 2009
EDUC 8845 - Module 2 Blog
I found the blog "conversation" between Bill Kerr (http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html) and Karl Kapp (http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational.html), to be fascinating reading. Kerr's comments felt almost like he was preaching to the choir. I also believe that there is no "one view" of how learning occurs. We've accepted that there are many different learning styles, how then can we say that one theory fits all learning styles? In research, there is always bias. It is inevitable. We put safeguards into research to minimize bias, but there is no way to completely eliminate it. As humans, we will see what we want to see. Statistics are not concrete, so they can be manipulated to "be right." I'm not saying that this is always the case, but it happens. If the numbers don't quite meet our expectations, we can change the variance or confidence level to appear to have different results. This is the same with all the "ism". There has to be a balance between them. Kerr said it best when he said " isms are important, but use them as a filter not a blinker." As the future educators we need to embrace this idea and develop educational opportunities that best fit the students' needs not our own.
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As we have been looking at behaviorism and cognitivism I have been trying to peg myself, my beliefs, my practices, and decide where I personally fall on the learning theory spectrum. My original thoughts rejected behaviorism as I felt it was a more antiquated theory that would be indicative of the times when you could paddle naughty kids in school, merely give them a gold star for being good/doing well, and give mindless worksheets to be worked on as the children sit quietly in perfect rows in the classroom. Can you feel my bias in my words? I am definitely more comfortable with promoting intrinsic motivation, bulding schema, and developing thinking strategies. So, I am definitely connecting more with cognitivists at this point. But I do realize that I grew up and was schooled in an era when behaviorism ruled and I realize that as a teacher I still have some behaviorist tendencies. You bring up the idea that we need to "develop educational opportunities that fit the students' needs not our own" which I embrace completely. As I was researching on the internet, I found an interesting video which I have posted on my blog. It confirmed my suspicions that I am more of a cognitivist, however, it also confirmed that I am not a purist. Just as you talked about "balance" in your post, I feel much more comfortable with a balanced approach, but it can move based upon the needs of the learners. Have you thought about where you fall on the spectrum?
ReplyDeleteGrace,
ReplyDeleteI also have the same bias against behaviorism. I'm trying to reconstruct why I have that bias,and I think it goes back to my undergraduate days in a psychology class where the professor said that Skinner tried to raise his own children in a Skinner box! Undoubtedly untrue, but it has stuck with me.