Thursday, September 5, 2013

Assignment: Your learning process in class to date?

Unless otherwise noted, all posts are due on/before noon on Mondays before class.

What has been your learning process in the class so far? Reflect and write about yourself and not the learning process of your students or prospective students.

 

11 comments:

  1. I've learned more by "doing" and listening to my classmates in this class more than any other class before. I learn best by doing and experiencing things for myself. The experiment with the newton cars allowed me to understand Newton's laws more than a powerpoint ever could. Seeing things for myself helps me grasp concepts and really understand the material. My process for learning has also been slightly changed through this class. This class challenges me to think for myself. Instead of counting on my teacher for answers, I've had to depend on my classmates and myself to discover answers. Sometimes it take a little longer to understand or process the information I discover and often I've had to reflect back during the week to make sense of what we discussed in class. Through thinking for myself and reflecting on our experiments and discussions, I've been introduced to a new way of learning that doesn't involve lectures, text books and seminars. It is a change for me but I feel it is a very beneficial change.

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  2. I feel that I learn best through lecture, power points, and practice. However, this class has opened up my eyes to a new way of learning: through discussing, listening, and discovering. I really like that we talk about concepts as a group instead of just writing them down and moving on. Most of the stuff I have learned throughout my academic career has been purely factual and we never examined the "why." I definitely benefit through the experiments and science talks that are used in class, but because I am a factual based person I do also do a lot of my learning and understanding by using the book. Even though this is not something I am used to, I do believe it can make a powerful difference and cause us to really understand concepts rather than just memorizing them.

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  3. I find the instruction behind our lab activities to be very helpful in teaching me to teach. The idea of allowing students to come to conclusions on their own through repeated experimentation before even telling them what the concept they are learning will be is solid and effective pedagogy. Without knowing that we would be learning about the relationship between, force, mass, and acceleration, I made that inference through the Newton Cars activity. It was interesting (and I think far more effective) to discover a concept through implementation first and then through book or lecture work second. The lecture points and bookwork are a necessary reiteration to solidify the concept we experienced first hand and hands on. My experience thus far with the method of learning has been positive and certainly a resource that I intend to draw from as an educator.

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  4. I've learned and thought more in-depth about concepts in PHSC 4010 largely by discussing them with my peers. I've benefitted greatly from our first science talk earlier this week and the course's group experiments. SI has also been a useful tool in that the sessions I attended helped refresh my memory about things such as Newton's laws. Homework allows me to practice applying the aforementioned concepts to problem-solving, and, in commenting to blogposts like this one, I have the opportunity to think through what I hope to accomplish in this course and how I'll do so.

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  5. I am slowly learning how to come out of my comfort zone. There is a lot of technology involved in this class, and I am not such a technical person. Understanding how the blog and dropbox work have been a bit of a challenge, but I'm catching on. Speaking up in class has never been something I have been comfortable doing, but I have noticed that speaking in class has helped me to learn, rather than just listening and note taking. I think the science talks are a great idea, however I find myself feeling pressured into saying something. I hope that with more science talks, I will improve on my confidence of what I have to say. This class has taught me to look at a question in more depth and to ask why, The labs have really forced me to use my brain and made me come to realize how a simple activity can be so complex when you question it.

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  6. I feel like this class has allowed me to learn more than I ever have before and also in different ways. I am the type of person who learns through a lecture and then 'doing' the actions or taking notes. I feel like I am stepping out of my comfort zone in this class. I am learning that it is important to speak up in class which I am not normally one to do. I am learning a lot from my peers and hearing what they have to say in our discussions. I like how we are forced to work together with little to no instruction in our labs. It causes us to think and apply previously acquired knowledge in new or different ways. I think that science talks will eventually become very essential to my full understanding of a concept and very beneficial to the class as a whole.

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  7. I believe that this class has brought a different persecutive into looking in material (not just in this class, but in others too). Prior to this class, I always look at class material in a rational way and memorize the facts just for certain assignments. Even though I still do that at times, this class has made me realize to look into the material more in depth to deeply understand what is going on. For my learning style, I am more a visual learner, along with being engaged in a class. Thus, this class has done many aspects that applies to my learning strengths. However, it is difficult to understand this material in a different way, as we said on the science talk. Overall, it is an interesting experience trying to apply learning the material in a different way and I am curious to see how my thinking process will develop over the semester.

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  8. Through this course I have learned how important it is to be recourceful when leaning. By using the book, Internet, knowledge of others, and my own forgotten knowledge I am able to learn more and remember things that I didn't know I knew. Thinking critically and out-of-the-box has allowed me to learn a lot in this class. At times I become frustrated because I am being forced to learn in a different way then I have always learned. Though frustrating, I thoroughly enjoy the class because it challenges me.

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  9. So far my learning process has been a process of reprogramming. I am now aware that I have conformed the “learning” process of the U.S. schools. That means listening to a lecturer, taking notes, memorization, testing, and moving on. I’ve practice this method so long; I am a pro at it now. Therefore this class is forcing me to re-program myself. I am forced to discover and analyze old concepts in a new light. It is more comfortable for me to simply memorize Newton’s laws and spit it back on paper, but now I have comprehend and understand concepts. This understanding isn’t for bubbles on a scantron but to be stored in my long-term memory.

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  10. This course has definitely allowed me to view science from a different perspective. In the past science was a guided experience in which you learned from a book and closely guided lab activities. This course is a little different though, I feel as if I am able to perform the activities with my group with little to know parameters, which allow us to investigate and determine what it is we want to find. This new way of using science as a starting point to ask questions is very new and exciting. I am realizing it is not always the heavily structured subject I once though it was!

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  11. Out of all the classes I am taking, this class allows me to interact with my peers and interact with them in a way that reminds me of high school. I've realized that as a student and future educator, that having students writing tons of notes, cramming large amounts of information in their brain for difficult tests, and not allowing them the opportunity to speak occasionally drives, away students attention span and love for learning. Being that this one class is 4 hours long I find it interesting how fast time flies by when working in groups or having science talks. Not only am I gaining new knowledge from my colleagues and professors, but I am working on my social skills and getting the opportunity to see how science relates to those amongst myself. If I had to choose a number on a scale from 1-10, I would have to say my learning process is a 8 because in this class I feel as if I have opinions, questions, and concerns pertaining to physical science and I'm not afraid to be wrong or ask questions. I often jot down notes or technique s I can use in my class, such as science talks, blogs, and even dropbox. These great tactics I feel will expand and have a big impact on myself and my students. Dropbox is a well-organized site that has become quite intriguing and easy to use as I've gotten the hang of it. The blog website allows me to interact with my peers and instructor even when I'm not in class. Overall, I am looking forward to new ideas, experimenting with my peers, having in-class discussions (science talks), and much more.

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