Introduction
Hello everyone,
Hope everything is going well.
My preferred way of teaching in my prior teaching experience relates to the constructivist learning theory in which the students construct their ideas and beliefs. According to Elliott et al. (2000), Constructivism is ‘an approach to learning in which people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner’. Most often, I interact with students in my class. Like, I assigned different questions to different groups and ask to construct their knowledge and ideas for an effective answer. In this process, the teacher act as a guide or facilitator and the students try to find the answer by communicating with their peers. Learning is seen as essentially a social process, requiring communication between the learner, teacher, and others (Bates, 2019). According to me, the students can learn in a better way from their own and other experiences that are possible only when the students work in a group and create their knowledge. In my future, I will apply all the rest theories also in my teaching process in different ways.
There is no doubt that digital technology has a significant impact on the learning process. It makes everything easier for students to learn in an efficient way. According to Lai (2011), Digital technology is seen as a driver of the growth of the knowledge economy. Technology helps us to escalate our knowledge in every era especially academic one as there is a number of resources available online to read. Although it is having a positive impact on the learning process, it cannot replace the importance of the teacher. Because the teachers can use digital technology in class to deliver their lectures in a creative and interactive way. Furthermore, the teachers can use different technological apps to teach the students that perfectly fits for four learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism.
Bates, A.W. (2019). Teaching in a Digital Age – Second Edition. Vancouver, B.C.: Tony Bates
Associates Ltd. Retrieved from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/
Elliott, S.N., Kratochwill, T.R., Littlefield Cook, J. & Travers, J. (2000). Educational psychology: Effective teaching, effective learning (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill College.
Lai, K. W. (2011). Digital technology and the culture of teaching and learning in higher education. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 27(8), 1263-1275.
Hello Harpreet,
Thanks for sharing your teaching pedagogy and views on the impact of technology in education. Same like you, I also believe that the role of the teacher in modern education is more dynamic. According to Montessori, “change” is needed to replace outdated concepts with newer concepts (O’Donnell, 2013). The “change” brought by educational technology has added a new role of teacher- as a digital expert. Not only in these pandemic times but present times, the teacher has to make sure to integrate this digital tool in teaching. Digital learning with social interactions can enhance the overall development of the learner and also can help in sustaining the teaching-learning process.
O’Donnell, M. (2013). Montessori and the first children’s house. Maria Montessori: A critical introduction to key themes and debates. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Take care,
Gagan
Hello Harpreet,
Thank you for sharing your pedagogical philosophy. I have similar views with you, and I personally prefer teaching methods related to constructivism. As you said, in the framework of constructivist theory, teachers play the role of guide. Indeed, the constructivist advocates learner-centered learning under the guidance of teachers. Therefore, both the learner’s cognitive subject function and the teacher’s guiding role are not neglected, the teacher is a meaningful improvement to help students be the main body of information processing, rather than the passive receiver and indoctrinated object of external stimuli. I think that the student-centered point is of vital importance to instructional design.
In addition, I also agree with your example. Educators should indeed design different questions that need to be explored for students in the teaching process to promote students’ self-development, self-generation and self-reconstruction.
Best,
Sheng Li