{"id":2,"date":"2012-11-20T06:03:34","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T06:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2012-11-19T23:40:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T06:40:57","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/sample-page\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundamentals"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Personal Learning Theory \u2013 building upon Fundamentals\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Etec 512<\/strong><\/p>\n

My Personal Learning Theory is a vital artifact from MET experience.<\/p>\n

The declaration of theory is only 300 words in length, but took a full 3 months to develop.\u00a0 In many ways, Etec 512 was a transformational experience.<\/p>\n

Like many of you, I was conferred an Education degree with honours.\u00a0 I studied under highly accomplished professors and benefitted from the generous mentorship of my school advisors.<\/p>\n

I then interviewed for work in two different school districts, Kamloops and Surrey, and taught in both.\u00a0 I interviewed at least six times for different positions, including my most recent interview to become a department head.\u00a0 Many times, school and district administrators asked me what I do with students.\u00a0 Not once did a single person ever ask me a very pivotal question:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do your students learn?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Cliff Falk was the first person to ask me that question and I was floored by it.\u00a0 I remember thinking that this Falk fellow was asking me the wrong question. \u00a0I remember wondering: \u201cthe learning just happens \u2013 why do I need to explain the internal processes in students\u2019 minds? Why on earth doesn\u2019t Falk just ask me about the strategies I use in class to facilitate learning?\u201d\u00a0 I knew in general terms that\u00a0 try to engage students, get them excited about class, get them active, take them into the community, expose them to real-life experts, have them role play etc\u2026<\/p>\n

I knew that these activities fuel learning, but I really had no good explanation as to exactly how learning takes place.\u00a0 I knew from provincial exam results and feedback that my students were internalizing what we did in class, but I was lost as to exactly how or why.<\/p>\n

Another thing I knew is that Dr. Falk could care less about provincial exam results or testimonials.\u00a0 He was seeking a research based answer to a very precise question.\u00a0 It had been almost 15 years since I had taken a course in Educational psychology, and I wondered if I had the skills to answer this question in a manner a university professor would find acceptable.<\/p>\n

In Etec 512, we were provided with many opportunities to drill down into the writings of leading theorists such as Bandura, Vygotsky, Piaget, Ausubel, Skinner, Gardner, Anderson, Nardi, and Anderson.\u00a0\u00a0 During each week, I was surprisingly enthralled with course readings and began to appreciate the significance of the learning process.\u00a0 It became clear that learning extends far beyond the explanation provided by any single theory or theorist.<\/p>\n

In what appears to be a futile attempt to try to capture the complexity of learning in one sentence, I began my statement with: \u201cLike human learning itself, my personal learning theory is multi-faceted and incorporates elements from developmental, cognitive, social, and behaviouristic approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a few more highlights:<\/p>\n