November 2011: Learning Strategies

November 2011: Learning Strategies

In her article on “Keeping the Scholarship in the Scholarship of  Teaching and Learning,” Heather Kanuka (2011) questions what scholarships means in SoTL within the context of educational research community. This article distinguishes theory from empiricism.   I realize the importance of underscoring the theoretical underpinnings of any educational research in order to maintain the “scholarship” in SoTL. This is easier said than done. With zero exposure to any educational literature prior to this program and after reading this article, I am a little worried. A particular point made in the article gave me some hope, as I can relate it to the learning principles. Kanuka says “much of the literature falling within SoTL has tended to adopt students’s approaches to learning as deep or surface when, in fact, important insights can be gained about students’ learning by investigating their learning strategies…”  She discussed  three classes of learning strategies in her article.

(a) Cognitive strategies concerned with the processes to construct knowledge, such as, selection and rehearsal (rote learning or learning to reproduce); elaboration and organizational/scaffolding (deep learning or learning to understand).

(b) Metacognitive strategies are concerned with regulating the cognitive and affective strategies. In other words constant monitoring and direction of one’s own learning through critical refection perhaps? This seems to resonate with the learning principle #7 in October 2011 post.

(c) Affective strategies concerned with emotional status and motivation, anxiety and fear towards learning.

After some further reading of the references cited by Kanuka in the above categories and thinking I concluded that encouraging reflection by learners on their learning can be a potential project topic. The learning strategy being emphasized here is metacognition.

Reference

Heather Kanuka, 2011, Keeping the Scholarship in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, International Journal for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1-11.