The original “Wow and Wonder Post” I am based on is:
“WOW”
This Tweet by Ilana Horn about what type of students learn better is something we should all think about (whether we are students or teachers). In my opinion, the people who will learn more are the ones who are very self-determined and motivated, they don’t set limits when they are learning, and they are always trying out different things. In China, we have a term called 原动力（Yuan Dong Li), which refers to the kind of motivation that comes from within. So people with Yuan Dong Li know first of all, why they are studying; two, how to manage their time; and third, how to balance between leisure and work. Hence, how could our classroom keeps students motivated and curious so they can have that Yuan Dong Li is something we should work on. As said in my previous “Wow and Wonder” post, “ in a traditional classroom, we as students are passive participants, we receive information, interpret information, and apply information in new situations”, is there any way to change that? I came across an article that studies learning disabilities, it’s called “Constructing dis/ability in science” by Wolff-Michael Roth (2002), it said that learning disabilities can be constructed by the situation. So traditional classrooms with teacher-oriented teaching methods, in my opinion, construct learning disabilities by taking away people’s Yuan Dong Li.
Below video “The psychology of self-motivation” by Scott Geller is a really great talk about self-motivation and how the classroom could foster an environment to keep students motivated. I like how he quoted Ellen Langer’s book “Mindfulness”, and the line goes: “Psychologists know, when you perceive choice, you perceive motivation” (Geller, 2013, 06:50). I think maybe this is how we should do in class, we should give students more choices, and a great example of giving students ‘more choices’ is by following the UDL guidlines (see figure 1).
“Wonder” Explained
In my original post, I asked: “In the article, Siemens (2005) questioned whether connectivism learning theory will lead to chaos, and this is what I also wonder about. It appears that connectivism learning theory aims to break down the existing structure in our traditional classroom, but this structure has been operated for hundreds of years, and if we change that, how can we know what we are doing is right?” And I have an answer for this question now because I read Alireza Tahmasebi and Michelle Week 3’s:
Alireza said that “Brightspace provides little opportunity for students to make long-lasting connections and learning networks”, and I think if we have these types of questions, we are already on our way to making positive changes to the existing structure in our traditional classroom using the connectivism theory. Michelle’s learning experience in her/his/they sociology classroom also showed me how ‘chaos’ might only be a perceived shortcome of connectivism theory. Maybe our cognitive abilities can manage the ‘chaos’ aspect when we are learning connectively. But we will never know this until we try. We are now live in a much connected world than before, and yes, I don’t deny the benfits of other learning theories such as behaviourism, constructive learning theory etc, but we should seek an opportunity to try learning connectively.
References:
Roth, W. (2002). Constructing dis/ability in science. In meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, New Orleans, LA.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1).
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