This lecture taught me the various domains of learning - Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor...
Cognitive domain:
The cognitive domain refers to the manipulation of the learner by the teacher. The authoratative figure shapes his protege/student/child in whatever way he deems is correct. A youth football coach for example, plans his training methods in a way whereby it would mould the young footballer into the best player in the world in future. How much the young kid learns depends on all the various methods used by the coach.
Famous footballers and basketballers, such as players like David Beckham or Michael Jordan, have all attributed their success to proper coaching since young.
I beleive this cognitive domain of learning is extremely impotant especially when applying it to the younger generaion. As we all know, a lot of kids learn cognitively when they are young. i.e. We learn how to sing in a choir because of the training we receive during choir practices, or we lern how to act because of drama lessons.
How much a person learns, hugely depends on how well the authoratative figure (in this case, the coach or instructor) structures his lessons...
Affective domain:
The learner can make his own choices to pick what he wishes to learn and what he doesn't want to learn. In some way, this way seems to be the case in most of education systems here. I can attend a lecture, the lecturer can put in 110% effort into planning the lesson and teaching me, but whatever i learn depends on how much effort i put in into listening, and revising, and learning.
I personally teach in a choir during the periods of time when i am not studying in NUS. And what i have noticed is that this affective domain of learning can be applied and is very common amongst the students in my school. I devised lesson plans, played them youtube videos, structured games and activities, in a bid for them to learn their notes and learn the proper ways of singing.
Yet, i still find my progress and effectiveness of lessons depending very much on the students themselves. On days when they actually put in effort and time to learn, they learn very quickly. But on other days when they choose to 'switch off', my lessons become rather useless.
One blur area i see here would be how it overlaps with my football example above in the cognitive domain. Because, how much the young player learns also depends on how much he practices. The coach can only do so much for him, and the rest is up to him.
Psychomotor domain:
This refers to learning via observation. In psychomotor learning research, attention is given to the learning of coordinated activity involving the arms, hands, fingers, and feet, while verbal processes are not emphasized.
I developed an interest in music and singing after observing family members singing and dancing to music when i was younger. Subsequently, i was introduced to piano and i never looked back since then. The coordination of my right and left hands and my feet for the pedal can somewhat be seen like a psychomotor learning process... or can it?
the other example i can think of would be rollerblading, or cycling...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Week 5 - Needs Assesment
I crawled out of bed to attend this lecture today. Thanks to the sweets and the Mamee titbits did i somewhat managed to stay alert...
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The lecture today talked about conducting a needs assessment, and to determine whether or not a need for instruction should be developed.
The discrepancy model offers a pragmatic , systematic approach to a wide variety of evaluation needs. It emphasizes on self evaluation and a systematic programe improvement.
We have to first analyze a situation carefully in order to determine what can be carried out to improve or support the learning process.
i.e. The two case situations that were given to us during lectures today... the taxi driver case...
In this scenario, we have to first make use of the 3-face model to first ask ourselves if the problem faced by the taxi companies are caused by a lack of learning. If it is caused by a lack of learning, then we have to ask ourselves if there are instructions already given.
If instructions HAVE been given and the problem still persists, then we will make use of the discrepancy model to do a self evaluation and find out what the gaps are, and how we can close the gaps to rectify the problem.
One particular example i can think of would be with regards to Starhub's customer service. I had friends working there as telephone operators during the semester break last year. AND basically , they are given a whole set of instructions as to what to do, and how to react towards ridiculous customers, what not to say, and what to say, etc.
One day, i decided to call up Starhub because they have over charged me on my mobile bills. Instead of being polite like every customer service operator should be, the girl on the phone started being horribly rude and seemed to indirectly put the blame on me for the extra charges. I insisted on speaking to her superior after that and he confirmed that further action would be taken against that new staff.
In this case, we can make use of the discrepancy model to evaluate why this is happening.
1. Instructions have been given. Why is this problem still happening?
2. Is the onus on the customer service operator or was it also the customer's fault?
3. If it is the customer service operator's fault, then what can be done to rectify the problem?
4. Should the learning process be redesigned?
I'm not sure if i'm correct by using this example. So if anyone's reading this and you think there's a problem, do let me know :)
-----------
The lecture today talked about conducting a needs assessment, and to determine whether or not a need for instruction should be developed.
The discrepancy model offers a pragmatic , systematic approach to a wide variety of evaluation needs. It emphasizes on self evaluation and a systematic programe improvement.
We have to first analyze a situation carefully in order to determine what can be carried out to improve or support the learning process.
i.e. The two case situations that were given to us during lectures today... the taxi driver case...
In this scenario, we have to first make use of the 3-face model to first ask ourselves if the problem faced by the taxi companies are caused by a lack of learning. If it is caused by a lack of learning, then we have to ask ourselves if there are instructions already given.
If instructions HAVE been given and the problem still persists, then we will make use of the discrepancy model to do a self evaluation and find out what the gaps are, and how we can close the gaps to rectify the problem.
One particular example i can think of would be with regards to Starhub's customer service. I had friends working there as telephone operators during the semester break last year. AND basically , they are given a whole set of instructions as to what to do, and how to react towards ridiculous customers, what not to say, and what to say, etc.
One day, i decided to call up Starhub because they have over charged me on my mobile bills. Instead of being polite like every customer service operator should be, the girl on the phone started being horribly rude and seemed to indirectly put the blame on me for the extra charges. I insisted on speaking to her superior after that and he confirmed that further action would be taken against that new staff.
In this case, we can make use of the discrepancy model to evaluate why this is happening.
1. Instructions have been given. Why is this problem still happening?
2. Is the onus on the customer service operator or was it also the customer's fault?
3. If it is the customer service operator's fault, then what can be done to rectify the problem?
4. Should the learning process be redesigned?
I'm not sure if i'm correct by using this example. So if anyone's reading this and you think there's a problem, do let me know :)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Week 4 Lectures - Learning Design
The learning design is a very crucial component of e-learning.
In the reading, "Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design", a number of pedagogies and approaches were quoted. I have learnt that a better articulation and mapping of different pedagogical processes, tools and techniques, will provide an approach that is more reflexive and consistent with practitioner's theoretical perspectives on learning and teaching.
As i've learnt from the lecture, the learning objectives and the e-leanring tools are supposed to work hand in hand, with the learning design playing a complementary role towards the specific learning objectives.
I personally feel that with this whole idea of having a learning design seem to over complicate the whole idea of learning. It is difficult to design one programme that can fulfill everyone's standard of learning. In the first place, isn't learning supposed to be the responsibility of the student?
Most importantly, whatever plans the teacher has for his student often does not end up the perfect way he pictures it.
My experience relief teaching had given me a brand new insight on designing a perfect learning design to facilitate learning. No doubt i had put in lots of effort planing my classes and attempting to make lessons interesting, but like the more senior teachers put it, the students simply do not appreciate it.
And the benefits you picture that comes with your lesson plan, in most cases, do not happen.
It isn't easy being a teacher is it?
In the reading, "Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design", a number of pedagogies and approaches were quoted. I have learnt that a better articulation and mapping of different pedagogical processes, tools and techniques, will provide an approach that is more reflexive and consistent with practitioner's theoretical perspectives on learning and teaching.
As i've learnt from the lecture, the learning objectives and the e-leanring tools are supposed to work hand in hand, with the learning design playing a complementary role towards the specific learning objectives.
I personally feel that with this whole idea of having a learning design seem to over complicate the whole idea of learning. It is difficult to design one programme that can fulfill everyone's standard of learning. In the first place, isn't learning supposed to be the responsibility of the student?
Most importantly, whatever plans the teacher has for his student often does not end up the perfect way he pictures it.
My experience relief teaching had given me a brand new insight on designing a perfect learning design to facilitate learning. No doubt i had put in lots of effort planing my classes and attempting to make lessons interesting, but like the more senior teachers put it, the students simply do not appreciate it.
And the benefits you picture that comes with your lesson plan, in most cases, do not happen.
It isn't easy being a teacher is it?
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Week 3
Goal: to appreciate the theories of Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Socialculturalism.
Objectives: at the end of the lecture, student should be able to: State the essence of each theory in terms of:
Key assumptions on learners.
Key assumptions on learning.
A representation of the process of learning.
Critique the theory's usefulness to different types of problems. Comment on theory's usefulness for the development of 21st century skills.
Assignment: Blog your reflections on the three theories and on their application to the different types problems. Respond to one and read at least three other students' blog.
Learning theories are vital in the field of e-learning as they provide a general explanation for observations madeand can also be altered as time goes by to suit the current state.
The 3 major learning theories that was taught during lectures are behaviourism, cognitivism and socioculturalism.
Behaviourism
Wortham explained how learning for behaviorism involves shaping the learner’s behavior to obtain an outcome that the teacher wants to have happen. At the same time, reinforcements towards that behaviour is vital so that the person does it again (if what he did was correct). And also, punishments (if he or she did something incorrect) so that the person doesn’t do it again
Such behaviour has been prevalent since our younger days in primary school. Teachers often allow students to make mistakes, and when they do, punish them by writing the same phrase a hundred times. At the same time, correct behaviour was always rewarded with stickers or pretty chops at the back of the exercise book..
One thing to probably note is if such a learning method can be applied to modern times. Children nowadays think and behave differently from us (just like how we behave differently from the older generation). Their mindset may deem such a method ineffective in education.
Cognitivism
The second theory cognitivism is based on a person's own internal perception or representation of things. Learning is done when people build new representations as they make sense of the world. The assumption for this theory is that an individual’s memory is the key to process and retain information and prior knowledge and experiences plays a huge role in learning.
However, people often have varying perceptions and they form conflicting ideas for one similar object. I may see situation A as positive, but another person may see it as a negative scenario. As such, the theory of cognitivism cannot be applied to every single person.
Sociocultural
This refers to the collective system as a whole, rather than the individual learner being the focus. It is suggested that learning must be understood as a process that is not solely in the mind of the learner.
In this case, learning is derived from the tools drawn from the environment as well, and language, being an important social tool. We are placed in a situation whereby we perform our best in dealing with the problems.
Objectives: at the end of the lecture, student should be able to: State the essence of each theory in terms of:
Key assumptions on learners.
Key assumptions on learning.
A representation of the process of learning.
Critique the theory's usefulness to different types of problems. Comment on theory's usefulness for the development of 21st century skills.
Assignment: Blog your reflections on the three theories and on their application to the different types problems. Respond to one and read at least three other students' blog.
Learning theories are vital in the field of e-learning as they provide a general explanation for observations madeand can also be altered as time goes by to suit the current state.
The 3 major learning theories that was taught during lectures are behaviourism, cognitivism and socioculturalism.
Behaviourism
Wortham explained how learning for behaviorism involves shaping the learner’s behavior to obtain an outcome that the teacher wants to have happen. At the same time, reinforcements towards that behaviour is vital so that the person does it again (if what he did was correct). And also, punishments (if he or she did something incorrect) so that the person doesn’t do it again
Such behaviour has been prevalent since our younger days in primary school. Teachers often allow students to make mistakes, and when they do, punish them by writing the same phrase a hundred times. At the same time, correct behaviour was always rewarded with stickers or pretty chops at the back of the exercise book..
One thing to probably note is if such a learning method can be applied to modern times. Children nowadays think and behave differently from us (just like how we behave differently from the older generation). Their mindset may deem such a method ineffective in education.
Cognitivism
The second theory cognitivism is based on a person's own internal perception or representation of things. Learning is done when people build new representations as they make sense of the world. The assumption for this theory is that an individual’s memory is the key to process and retain information and prior knowledge and experiences plays a huge role in learning.
However, people often have varying perceptions and they form conflicting ideas for one similar object. I may see situation A as positive, but another person may see it as a negative scenario. As such, the theory of cognitivism cannot be applied to every single person.
Sociocultural
This refers to the collective system as a whole, rather than the individual learner being the focus. It is suggested that learning must be understood as a process that is not solely in the mind of the learner.
In this case, learning is derived from the tools drawn from the environment as well, and language, being an important social tool. We are placed in a situation whereby we perform our best in dealing with the problems.
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