Learning issues...

First of all, I could say that some aspects of the introduction of the article “Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students” by Finnan and Shaw, support most of the discussions we have had so far, since the beginning of our course. The authors say that the aim of teaching is to “transform students from passive recipients of other people’s knowledge into active constructors of their own and other’s knowledge”, and this is the key issue I have been trying to address since I started researching and studying about how to improve our students’ learning. I strongly believe that the students we have in our classrooms nowadays are not motivated by everlasting lectures, or the idea that the teacher is the owner of all knowledge. Therefore, there is an emergent need for new tools to help teachers and students to feel comfortable in this novel way of teaching and learning, each of us in new roles in the process: teachers as helpers, guides, advisors, and students as actors.


The other assigned reading, “Using Learning Styles to Adapt Technology for Higher Education”, by Terry O’Connor, inspired lots of reflections about the topic. First of all, the author says that “for educators, the question is not simply one of trainable skills or attitudes, but recognizing that people who have fundamentally different instincts are in the classroom”. And added, “They are unlikely (or unable) to be successful when limited to activities that are not compatible with the attitudes they bring into the learning situation”. This thought is totally connected to the point that we must know our students so that our lesson planning addresses their expectations, needs, so that learning effectively happens during the class or during the course.

I feel very comfortable to say that these theories can echo all around the world, since all my colleagues in this e-course share the same opinion, that we, teachers, need to think in our students, and change our classes to fit this new generation.

In the next post I will talk a little about the way I see and feel technology in relation to these aspects.



Thanks for the attention, and I am waiting for comments!