Learning by Doing (RIGHT NOW!)

Class,

First off, I hope you all enjoyed the seminar this past Monday evening! I was unable to make it because I am at training for a new job so I look forward to hearing about it from you when I return. The quote to reflect on for this week is defintely hitting home from me in the sense that I am doing this exact quote right now. I'm at training for a new job that I haven't even started. I know we are all different learners, but learning by doing is the best way I learn. I do need to know background knowledge first, but then I can't role play or fake it, I need to dive in and do it to learn. It is a sales job in which I am learning our buying/ sales process and different techniques to be successful at it and overcome objections etc. I feel as if I have learned all of these things and my brain is on overload and I just want to get home start my new job and learn as I go and do it! Our students might feel this way sometimes and if we don't offer up the chance for them to learn by doing, some may never actually learn. Some students need the opportunity to learn by doing and it benefits every student to do it.

I thought it would be interesting to share some of the learning techniques that the instructors have used here to compare to what we have learned in our class thus far. First and foremost, the instructors I have here at this training are doing a great job at differentiating the instruction. The first day of my training they did a module with us on explaining the different learning styles and we took an assesment in which we identified what are learning styles are. Throughout the training they have accomodated to all of these learning styles in that they have us role play with others, do independent work, watch videos, listen to lectures, gain hands on computer experience etc. Every morning we have assesments from the day before in which have also been differentiated as well. It was a relief to see that differentiated instruction and assesment was important to these instructors. I can tell when my peers feel comfortable with certain methods and when they don't, but I have realized that students need to be pushed out of their comfort zone at times because this is a true way everyone learns by doing. We gain valuable informaton and experiences when we are pushed outside of our comfort zones and to me this goes hand in hand with learning by doing. Role playing the sales techniques we are learning has been something new to many people here at my training. They have never done it before and you can tell. They get extrememly nervous and it seems they don't know the information, but they do! They just are being pushed outside their comfort level and are learning when they don't even realize it. As teachers we need to do this to our students so they can truy experience learning by doing. This teaches explicit, implicit and null instruction. Think of how many null lessons are taught by pushing students outside of their comfort level and forcing them to learn by doing. They are learning the feeling of being challenged, learning to feel comfortable in their own skin, learning to present themselves and present information on the spot. They are learning to deal with being nervous about the information they know. Pushing students teaches more than just learning by doing. It is an important life lesson!

As I mentioned above, we are having assesments every morning at this training to test our knowledge. Some are written, some are verbal. It is interesting to compare these assesments to the outline of Chpater 7. The Goal--> Teach--> Test cycle is defintely implemented here at my training. The goals are consistently laid out, both at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day at class end. When I leave training every day, I am aware of and understand what will be on the assesment and how it pertains to the goals of the training! I feel good when I leave the class and comfortable that I have the knowledge to succeed on the assesment. Students should never feel like they don't have the appropriate information to do well on the assesment. It should be up to them on whether or not they put the energy and focus into it to do well. My assesments have been inclusive of me (the learner) in the sense that I know what's going to be on the assesments and I even engage in the some assesments with the teacher (role playing, answer questiosn out loud etc.) I have realized that differentiating assesments is also important because students are experienceing different ways to capture the learning in which they are more likely to truly understand the material when it is evaluated in different ways. Sometimes things have hit home when I write it (on a paper assesment) or when I hear a peer say it aloud (on an informal group assesment).

Sorry to keep babbling, but I am truly learning by doing right now when it comes to being a teacher myself someday!