As a teacher so many of these concepts are either big passions of mine or the mortal enemy. As a student myself, many of my teachers subscribed to the learning styles and would quiz us at the beginning of the year. Every single year without fail I scored precisely equal in every single category. Essentially making me what was referenced as a “flexible learner” but my recent ADHD diagnosis makes the use of these learning styles slightly comical. I have never bought into the “science” behind a learning style as the right presentation of material has so many ever-changing factors. Emotional stress, interest in subject matter, mood, etc. Each of these factors affects a student’s mind and body and these different states may produce a better or worse outcome for success. For example, someone who had no sleep the previous night is not going to learn well sitting and listening as this might make them fall asleep, however, getting up and moving might make them feel frustrated. I think it is important to base presentation methods on your students and have the ability to switch or improvise an activity based on what they need.
As an education major, I had the pleasure of reading many of these great writers and educators’ work such as Vygotsky, Piaget, Skinner etc. I also had a wonderful professor named Lyndze Harvey who conditioned me to question everything even if it seems it has the best intentions. Thus, I was able to get 7/7 on the quiz and really be aware of these myths. I am skeptical of these new learning approaches as they have the best intentions but they can put both learners and teachers in boxes which creates cookie-cutter learners. In this class, we also learned about teaching pedagogy and not always connecting our intentions with our execution. While I learned a lot from this lesson I did notice in a video that it says that watching videos is a form of passive learning. I wondered if there was a way to create more active learning even from a distance. While I know some activities produce this result I wondered if acquiring knowledge and researching could be altered to create a more active approach.
Lastly, I wanted to mention I have used a few of the apps and websites such as prodigy, Duo Lingo, Minecraft.edu, Quizlet, and Kahoot. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to strengthen my ideas of learning styles, strategies, and Theories.
This was a video I watched to help me understand different learning theories and what it means to have a teaching pedagogy.
References
Román, R. (2019, November 25). Gamification: Myths and Realities — Observatory | _____Institute for the Future of Education. Observatory | Institute for the Future of _____Education; Observatory | Institute for the Future of Education. _____https://observatory.tec.mx/edu-news/gamification-myths-and-realities
Team Satchel. (2020, February 13). What is Pedagogy? | 4 Essential Learning Theories | _____Satchel. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpwEoW1uY8
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