TIE536_Meaningful Learning

The strongest concept I took from Monday night’s discussion on meaningful learning was the idea of making connections to prior learning and reshaping it. It was clear from the concept map constructed that there are many factors that affect meaningful learning, not the least of which is taking the time to examine the idea closely enough to try to define it.

In doing some extra reading on the topic, I found Judith Boettcher’s examination of the “Ah-Ha experience” interesting and pertinent to this discussion. Her analysis of this experience identifies it as occurring when "the new higher concepts in turn transform the meaning of the lower." She continues by talking about concept experiences, and concludes that “concept can happen when a magnet suddenly organizes lots of bits and bytes. Insight when bits, bytes suddenly are drawn in, attached to existing concept.” Being a visually-oriented person, I love the magnet analogy! I think we’ve all had Ah-Ha moments ourselves, but I thoroughly enjoy it when I observe this happening with one of my students—the moment when all the pieces fall together. The challenge of differentiating instruction is to figure what bits and bytes of knowledge will connect for any given student; or for that matter, figuring out what kind of magnet to use that will attract the right previous learning experiences in the right order to pull the picture together.

I’m paying more attention these days to working on expanding my repertoire of teaching approaches, using a variety of teaching styles, media types and collaborative learning situations to keep it interesting for the students, but also attempting to find the magnet that works for each student. The journey continues.

SOURCES:
Boettcher, Judith V. “Designing for Learning.” 2006. 2 Oct. 2008. http://www.designingforlearning.info/index.htm.