April Showers Bring May Flowers By: Brian Pinney, Ph.D. Educational Specialist Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson In this writing, I’d like to use this quote to expand upon student learning. The above quote is appropriate for student learning as there is a shared responsibility for learning as there is in plant growth. An educator establishes the environmental stage for learning as the gardener establishes the planting environment for the seed. However, the student shares a responsibility in the overall process of growth as does the seedling. Below are some elements that feed into this analogy.
Bringing this all together, it’s critical to recognize that instruction is but one (sometimes smaller than we might like) piece of the learning process. This underlies why it is so critical to establish expectations for learners as they are likely to spend significant time and effort outside the classroom studying. But this is also why we must think critically about #2. The method of instruction (PBL, Flipped Classroom, Simulation, Traditional Class) must be aligned to the desired outcome established for the students. While it can be challenging to accept that educators have limited control of student learning, it is also liberating. It encourages the notion that what is done in the classroom and the efforts to establish high quality learning objectives are truly worth our time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCenter for Teaching and Learning staff Archives
May 2017
|