What is Learning:
Bruner teaches that education must be centered on experiences and perspectives that encourage the student to learn outside of external rewards or punishments (grades, etc.). When a student is engaged in the lesson because he/she is interested in the subject matter, THEN readiness has occurred. That is why the first 3-4 questions that a teacher asks when starting a lesson makes all the difference. If it is engaging enough, and meaningful to the students, then student responses will flow naturally. For instance, I remember when I was in seminary and had the "Godly Sorrow" lesson. There is a video that goes with it showing a couple about to be married. At some point you recognize (through video dialogue) that the couple had inappropriate sexual relations before marriage. The boyfriend wasn't sorry it happened, and neither was the girl at first. When she started the repentance process she realized that in order to truly repent of this sin, she needed to feel the way God feels about it. The question my teacher started class with was, "Is sex bad?"
What an eye-opening statement to make, in seminary nonetheless! But, if you can imagine, even us teenagers went the rounds with that question for awhile. Now THAT was readiness!
How Can Learning Be Best Effectuated by the Teacher:
By allowing students to connect new instruction with previous knowledge furthering their ability to apply the new knowledge, spiral organization (or a learning helix) enlarges their understanding. Furthermore, by permitting students reflective time in their journals allows them an opportunity to go beyond the scriptural information given. Their learning is the result of group work closely coupled with mental exertion. They will have successfully and actively constructed their own understanding of the principles and doctrines being taught.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow, I like the lesson about Godly sorrow. It's interesting how you can remember that lesson and even the questions that the seminary teacher taught. Readiness seems to be integral for learning.
ReplyDeleteI think teaching is an art, and it's definitely an art to perceive when a student, or a whole class, is ready to learn.
Thanks.
This reminded me of a religion class I attended. The instructor started the lesson by announcing that the Christian apostle Paul would be teaching us about sex, only without midgets and handcuffs. This instantly hooked me :) More seriously, I completely agree with your statement about the importance of the first 3-4 questions of the lesson. If students want to discover the answers and we as teachers allow the students to discover the answers instead of just telling them, then students are far more likely to be interested in the learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree that student engagement is not brought on by the teacher engaging in a dog and pony show but rather getting students engaged in the content. So how might this be applied in online instruction? One of our Ph. D. students is looking at how to design online instruction for seminary students in areas without high LDS populations. One of the things he is thinking about is how to promote engagement.
ReplyDelete