There are many
pedagogies out there. Instructivist, Constructionist,
Constructivist... and the terms are often muddled together with
learning theories... behaviourism, Cognitivism, Social Constructivism,
Connectivism...
Pedagogy is to do
with teaching. But it is mainly used in conjunction with education,
of which teaching is only a small part. And, indeed, learning, of
which education is again only a component.
Pedagogy is about
the study of teaching, but is used as a term for particular modes of
teaching.
In my opinion, it
is a much misused word, and I am as much of an offender as anyone else I
know.
On this page,
then, and those related to it, I plan to talk about learning theories,
modes of teaching, and beyond that - learning environments.
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Learning Theories
I can honestly say I need to read a lot more on these.
But one thing I can say - behaviourism really doesn't belong with the
rest. Behaviourism, and Radical Behaviourism, look at learning at a
very basic level, describing how we can model the way the biological unit
learns. Whilst it may be the root of how the whole system works,
the scale of the model is not really, in my opinion, suited to the study
of how people learn. Not bad for how flatworms learn though.
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Learning Environments
Apparently, one can learn in environments other than
online! I was surprised by this, but learning can not only take
place, but be supported in real 'spaces' in real 'places'.
Designing a space to support learning is a fine art, or
perhaps science, depending as it does on a good knowledge of the types of
people, and their learning styles, who will use it.
Flexibility, to me, would seem to be the key. A fully
flexible space allows different cohorts to configure the space to suit
their learning needs. Sometimes you need a communal area in which
you can chat. Sometimes you need space to act things out (though
probably not if you are a computer scientist, in which case charades is
quite mortifying enough), and sometimes you need a big table to work
together on. On other occasions, you all need separate working
space so that you can focus on something, whilst still being in range of
an occasional question.
All these things can be provided to some degree or another
in an online environment, of course.
There are many problems endemic in the learning space
concept. To be able to fully utilise it, many people need to feel
ownership. If you feel guilty for moving a table, you won't learn
well using that space. But if one group owns it, another group will
feel ostracised. Many places?
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