My Learning Philosophy

My beliefs about learning

I believe that most learning has to come from self motivation in order to be successful. While some things may be learned just by observation, one must put in effort to learn many things and in order to put in effort, you need to be motivated to learn. Learning happens for different people at different paces. Let’s take a child for instance. Not all children are potty trained at the same time nor do they learn to walk at the same time. Granted, I believe that their environment and the teaching they have plays a part, but in the end it comes to their motivation to do the activity. Teaching and learning are connected because sometimes you need someone to guide you and direct you (the teacher) to assist in your learning. The teacher can bring information to light that the student may not have thought about on their own. However, it is important to realize that the teacher is not the only source of information and oftentimes won’t even be the primary source of information. While it is important to have teachers in many areas of your life, without self motivation, the teacher can only do so much.

How I see myself as a learner

I have always loved to learn. When I was going to college in my 20s my family would joke that I was a career student and in a way I am! Not only am I on degree five in college but I am constantly wanting to learn about something. I enjoy reading blogs, attending conferences, and networking with others in my field. I feel like there’s always something new to learn. When I was 30, I realized that I was not happy in the career that I was presently in so I started thinking about what would come next. I knew that I wanted a career that was challenging, came with options, and would push me to continually keep learning. This was a big reason why I changed careers and went into education. I am in my eleventh year as an educator and I don’t regret the change in careers for a moment. Not only has the education field allowed me to teach in different classrooms, but it is allowing me to learn new things and I’m now in a role that wasn’t even available in my area when I started in this field. Things are always changing and in the education field if you don’t keep learning you fall behind quickly.

While reading the different materials in this class, I studied about being a constructivist, behaviorist, or cognitivist. I have decided that I am mostly a constructivist for many reasons. WIth constructivism, the belief is that everyone learns in a different way based upon their own experiences and background. This means that each of us is going to understand something a bit different than our peers which leads to further discussion and ideas. I also like how this learning theory focuses on how learning is part of our life and not something that we do separately. Learning is tied in with everything we do each and every day. Finally, this learning theory states the same thing I did at the beginning of this post: that motivation is the key to learning. Learners have to be engaged and have motivation to be successful at learning something new.

My learning philosophy and the impact on my innovation plan

I believe that my learning philosophy has a great impact on my innovation plan. When I started my position as our District Technology Integration Specialist, I knew that I had to do something different when it came to assisting my teachers in learning technology. When I was offered this role, our district had just gone 1:1 with Chromebooks for grades K-12. In addition, it was about a year after Covid so stress was still high with teachers, expectations for student improvement was higher than usual, and now they had this new technology they had to learn how to use. I could feel the fact that they were overwhelmed and that these Chromebooks felt like just “one more thing” they had to do. This was where I needed to come in. I needed to find a way to assist the teachers in learning how to use technology in their classrooms in a way that they were excited to explore. I needed to find a way to help them find their motivation and build on it. When I work to help teachers learn about the proper way to use technology with their students I start with what they are trying to accomplish. Once I can help them determine their curriculum and end goals, I can start to show them ways that technology can help them in new ways. As I help them start small with just one tool, they start to gain the confidence and see the enjoyment in their students and they want to learn more. Over the past two and a half years in this role, I have found my teachers to be less opposed to the new technology and more open to learning how it can fit best with them in their classroom. They seek out more information and attend more optional training sessions with me. I have worked to make this centered on their needs and questions which leads to them finding the benefits in the technology.

Changing how things have always been done is hard. You face mindset struggles, time constraints, and lack of resources. I have found that the best way to teach change is to model it. It’s not a fast process nor does it have an end. Working to change how people learn takes time and is a continual process.

Annotated Bibliography

Collins, A., & Halverson, R. (2018). Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital revolution and schooling in America (Second edition). Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

This book was helpful for the technology side of my current position. It talked about the problems and opposition that technology in education has faced. It further discussed the different eras of education and how to rethink education in our new technology driven world. The pros and cons discussed in the book were helpful to view all sides of the topic of technology in education.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success (Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition). Ballantine Books.

A person’s mindset will greatly affect their learning and thinking. This book discusses the different mindsets and how they affect people. Understanding mindsets and how to recognize them will assist me when teaching and guiding others to learn to their full potential. The different examples in various areas of life were beneficial to show how different mindsets affect different areas of a person.

Harapnuik, Dwayne. (2009, September 18). Learning Philosophy. It’s About Learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95

Harapnuik describes his own learning philosophy that he has built on over decades. In addition to the post itself, he linked a video where he went into more detail on learning environments. He discusses the importance of active learning and learner-centered education.

Mcleod, Saul. (2022, November 3). Constructivism Learning Theory & Philosophy of Education. https://www.simplypsychology.org/constructivism.html

This article has detailed information regarding constructivism. The benefit of this article was that it was written with more of a psychology mindset versus an education mindset. It was able to offer different perspectives of this learning theory. In addition, it went into more detail on traditional classrooms versus constructivist classrooms. It also compared behaviorism and cognitivism with constructivism. The large number of references at the end of the article also opened the door to more resources to review.

Sinek, Simon. (2009). Start With Why. the Penguin Group.

This book has guided my learning philosophy and styles by putting focus on the motivation behind why we learn and do things. If a student can understand their why they will be able to learn in different ways. This book also discusses how to help others find their way and assist in their motivation.

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

In this book, the authors discuss different types of learning environments and the changes that need to take place for authentic learning to happen. This book has helped guide my learning philosophy by reminding me that the education system has been the same for far too long and change needs to happen. This book was written over 10 years ago, pre Covid, and in my part of the world little has changed since before the publication of this book. It helped me realize the urgency of not just talking about change, but working to make it.

What Is Constructivism? (2020, May 27). Western Governors University. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-constructivism2005.html

This article was helpful to me when I was researching constructivism. It discussed not only the aspects that make up this learning theory, but also how it could be viewed in a classroom. It also discussed the biggest criticism of this learning theory, which is the lack of structure. However, I found that the lack of structure was part of the allure of this particular learning theory.