Leaving and learning

I come from a family of educators. My parents were both teachers, it took me two years before I packed my bags and left my past life. I made the shift to being an Art teacher. I never looked back. I must say, after going through our Module 1 in EDS 103, I find myself having a newfound respect for teachers. Being an educator entails a lot of responsibility in the life of the learners. A lot of things come into play, students bring with them their own unique personalities, conditions, learning disabilities, attitudes and beliefs. 

Through our different readings, I slowly internalised and digested the meaning of learning. Though not one universal definition is accepted, because of its complex nature, learning is referred to as an enduring change in behavior, which results from practice or other forms of experience (Schunk. 2011). However, some changes are not considered learning, but are instead ascribed to maturation. I came to understand its relationship with learning. When a relatively permanent change occurs in ourselves or others, the primary cause was either maturation (biology) or learning (experience), or, as is, often the case, some combination of both (Huitt, 2019). I see this in very young kids, they try to color every which way, but when physical maturation occurs their hand-eye (visual spatial perception) coordination develops. The learning comes in when the student observes others and begins to emulate coloring within the lines, which becomes easier to execute due to a more developed physique. 

I've been teaching Art, but this module revealed to me, how lacking I am in the knowledge of learning theories. There are some that I have used--even if I didn't know the official term for it--I was once a student after all, or probably in my research when I was a first time mom, I came across the reward and punishment system--making use of stamps, stickers, or other treats to help reinforce positive behavior. Exploring the different theories and understanding them, will help me become a better educator. Combining both theory and practice in a classroom set-up whether real or virtual, I now know, I will have to apply different learning strategies. There is no one blueprint to follow. The teacher has to reflect and choose which of the intersecting theories or personal practices in managing the class one has to employ.