Hailey Hodel

EDPS 6451
My Personal Learning Theory
As this semester has progressed, I have recognized how my learning theory has
changed. As we continued to study the various learning theories, I believe I have found
my very own personal learning theory; and in turn, teaching theory. By becoming more
self-aware on my learning and teaching theory I have been able to identify aspects of
both how I learn and teach. I believe I teach in the same style in which I learn most
completely. I learn by doing. I teach by doing. I believe in self-discovery and how
learning by doing retains knowledge. Throughout this paper I will identify my improved
learning theory.
As stated in my previous learning and teaching theory, I believe in learning by doing.
Self-discovery rings true to how I learn best. But as my knowledge of the various
learning theories grew one factor seems to reign for why I learn how I do and that is my
personal background and culture. Through my own background, motivation has played
a large rule as to why I learn and why I like to learn. As a teaching strategy, I believe
constructivism allows me to engage in my learning more fully and make it more
meaningful to me. My statement of learning includes; from my personal background and
culture, and motivation from each, learning is best engaged through a constructivist
approach. Background, motivation, and constructivism all play an important role in my
learning theory. I believe not enough emphasis has been placed from other learning
theories on background and culture; particularly on family background. Through my own
family background, I know it has played a huge role in my motivation and how I view
education as a whole. I was taught from a very young age to value education highly. I
had parents who helped me succeed in school and made sure that my educational
needs were met. They motivated me to find subjects to enjoy and to excel in them. As I
was younger and going through high school, extrinsic motivation definitely was present.
My parents would pay me for good grades at the end of each report card. Although at
the time I didnt know the learning strategy that engaged me the most, I now know it
was through constructivism. Some of the most valuable lessons I learned in school were
through real life situations presented in the classroom. Having my teachers facilitate as
to the importance of what I should be learning, but ultimately by self-discovery finding
the knowledge through the activities by myself. Overall, I believe not enough emphasis
on learning is placed on family background or culture. If wed spend more time knowing
a childs background, we may fully understand what other learning theories to implore to
engage them individually and to make learning achievement occur.
To continue, my theory is most congruent to interactive cognitive development,
motivation, and constructivism theories. I believe many of the theories we discussed in
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class didnt even take into account culture or background and I believe that makes a
monumental difference. If parents, grandparents, guardians, as well as teachers could
help motivate to learning, I believe children would naturally be more excited to learn and
participate in their learning willingly. In Piagets stage theory a criticism exists because
his theory doesn't take into account the background, environment, or home life of the
child. Bruner believed in an outside in approach. The role of interaction was vital
between genetic dispositions and experiences; between different people; and between
individuals and their culture. Bruner also believed self-discovery occurs through the
interaction between prior knowledge, guided practice in inquiries from the teacher. I
believe Bruner was on the right track with stating that in the role of culture in cognitive
growth one representation mode more than likely will be important in one culture, but
not others where it is not developed. I would expound this one step further and put
further emphasis not just on cultural representations but to focus primarily on personal
background alone.
As discussed in class, motivation and constructivism are dependent on each other.
They both play a role in my learning theory because without motivation there would be
no need for a constructivist activity. Motivation is very individualized and in my theory I
believe background plays a pivotal role in not only learning but in motivation. As
discussed prior, my parents always motivated me to excel in learning. When I achieved
well they took that as an opportunity to build my confidence. I then had self-satisfaction
and wanted to do well moving forward. Finding intrinsic or extrinsic motivation in
teaching is important to the overall success of learning. Through training adults extrinsic
motivation is present in learning the content I train on because it applies directly to their
jobs.
Constructivism as a learning strategy fits perfectly with my instructional practices. Since
I work with adults doing IT training, I bring real world scenarios into instruction. This
makes the content more meaningful and motivates them to participate. Since they are
adults who are motivated to participate in the training because of their jobs, I dont have
problems engaging them, but I still try to make the content relevant. They construct their
knowledge and I facilitate the important learning objectives throughout the training
session.
In summary, my personal learning theory is as follows: from my personal background
and culture, and motivation from each, learning is best engaged through a constructivist
approach. I used how and why I learn best to develop my theory. Like many other
theories we discussed this semester, it may not be universal to all. Each theory has its
criticisms and I believe one of mine would be that it is too specific and not employable
with many students. I believe learning needs to be a joint effort between individuals in a
students environment and personal life and their teachers. If all were involved, a
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student would be more likely motivated to learn. If parents and teachers can create a
culture in a students life early on to encourage education and aid in education, as they
succeed they will continue to be motivated to learn. Ultimately, if given real life
scenarios they will be able to construct their knowledge and solve real world problems. I
teach utilizing real world scenarios through a constructivist learning strategy. I dont
necessarily think that my theory balances out all other theories we discussed in this
course. This is particularly individualized to me and I recognize it may not be a universal
fit. But like all theories there is a no one size fits all approach.