The miracle of concepts . . .

Once upon a time there was a young girl who, like countless before her, got swallowed up in the frenzied, chaotic realm of adolescence. Through many wrong turns, trial and error, and little success she found herself in a neck of the woods known as The Hood. This Hood was in dire contrast to the beautiful and pure Child Hood that remained vaguely reminiscent in her past . . . this Hood was known as the Hood Of Young Adults. The young girl stumbled clumsily, constantly finding herself at dead ends. Numbers and faceless silhouettes passed her by as if she were a ghost, never stopping to offer direction or shelter. She searched for a way out; peeling her eyes for directions to the ‘Free Way’. Sure enough when she thought she could endure no more of the battles and beatings endured in the rough Hood, the young girl made a friend. His name was Concept. Concept held the map she’d been blindly searching for; the map she feared was nothing but a fallacy; the map . . . to the ‘Free Way’. He took her hand and led her through the blocks of the Hood as the hands of the faceless did all they could to drag her down, shrieking in despair at the realisation she had found a way out. But Concept held on tight, lifting the weight of the shell that had grown around her. Finally in the distance, peeping over the horizon was a bright light, so bright she had to shield her eyes with the back of her hand. Tears welled in her eyes at the realisation of how long she had been wondering through the dark. Concept had one more gift for the young adult, once a young girl, before she set out on her journey to the Free Way. With gratitude she took the gift and placed it safely in her pocket. She stared deep into the eyes of her new friend. She would never forget her Concept.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Redifining the concepts of teaching and learning - A personal Reflection

What is teaching? What is learning?
Reflecting on a recent learning experience of my own has given me insight into understanding myself as a learner . . . and went a little something like this:
  • Learning Experience: Introductory Graphics Workshop (da da da dummmmm)
  • Reason for Learning: To advance me in my chosen degree and was therefore self motivated learning.
  • Was I Anticipating Success: Hell yes!
  • Did I Achieve It: With a lot of perseverence, sweat and tears!
  • Was The Motivation Intrinsic or Extrinsic: Both . . . I think (will come back to this one)

Experience Outline and Reflection: This workshop was demonstrated by a high school Graphics teacher who modelled the content as well as explained the desired outcomes i.e. what we need to know to understand and teach the content to future students as well as pedagogical strategies. Success was identified through daily objectives as well as summative and formal testing over the five day period. Feedback and praise was received more from my peers than the teacher himself and this really opened my eyes to how motivating and elating it can be to feel this support from my peers and be able to share and enjoy our success together. Despite being one of the lower achievers in this group, being a part of the 'team-like' atmosphere that had developed between the students in the workshop as well as completing something that was new and challenging was extremely rewarding.

Upon reflection I have identified myself (in this particular experience) as a learner who struggled in the beginning to stay motivated when faced with new and challenging content. If it were not for my peers 'egging' me on, encouraging me as well as sharing and expressing their own frustrations and triumphs, this would have been a very unpleasant week for me!
So what does this implicate for me as a future learning manager?
I want to provide an environment where students are encouraged to work together and share their experiences along the way and to not be afraid or shy to openly admit that they are not finding particular activities easy or even fun. I never realised how much fun 'failing' can be when it's not experienced alone and in this experience, failing as a group lead to every single one of us succeeding!
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