My current definition of learning is the process of adding to and adapting schema. It's gaining knowledge, but it's also figuring out what reality is. Babies have a very poor concept of reality and very little knowledge and as they grow they start to understand so much more. As a teacher, it is our job to add to and adjust student's schema so that can better understand themselves and the world around them.
Lately, I feel like I've been learning a lot about learning. I was recently was studying for the Praxis Exam and getting frustrated with my knowledge on social studies topics. Even though I was spending hours a day reading or watching videos I didn't feel like I was absorbing anything. When I thought about what I had learned I couldn't bring anything up. That was until someone brought up a historical, political, psychological, or economic topic in conversation and I found myself explaining it clearly to them. Turns out I was absorbing a lot more than I thought, I just couldn't access it without a trigger. What this taught me is that we are always learning whether we are trying to or not. You never know what sort of things will stick in your brain.
I believe that people learn in a number of ways and that everyone has a unique learning style. However, universally I believe that people learn better if they are learning about something that peaks their interest (hence why absorbed much more about Medieval European history than I did Islam world history) and if they are not bored. I believe that everyone learns a lot better if they are active participants in their learning and not passive participants in their learning. Lastly, I believe that everyone learns better if they believe that the knowledge is accessible.
In many ways I'm still trying to figure out how learning will look in my class and I honestly might not have it completely figured out until I have taught for five to ten years. My first instinct is to teach students the way that I learn, but I know that won't work for a majority of them. I am an individual with a unique learning style, and so are all of them. So, my goal is to learn many different ways to teach so I can hit as many learning styles as possible.
