A 5 step process..
- noticing - catching one's eye .. consciously or unconsciously
- making sense of it - getting to know the material .. but only in how it interconnects (within itself)
- making meaning - getting to understand that the material is "meaningful" .. a holistic view
- working with meaning - getting to understand how the material relates to other ideas .. relationships with other materials .. which may change
- tranforming learning - evidence that the new learning has changed / transformed one's understandings of things .. creative / idiosyncratic responses
Steps 1 & 2 are more indicative of surface learning
how do we demonstrate learning through reflection .. using this continuum?
Suggested from my reading that we
- simply realize / demonstrate stages 3 to 5
- represent / summarize our learning (i.e. writing an essay, to explain something in our own way / words)
- upgrade our learning (integrating what we have learned with our understanding of other things - i.e. tutorials, using the discourse of the subject .. integrating ideas)
how do we support reflection in learning?
Look at the characteristics of reflection .. (review what needs to be in place to support these characteristics?)
- reflection slows down activity (students need time to process material and make links with other ideas)
- reflection promotes ownership of the material (need to allow time for students to put it into "student" voice, one's own context)
- reflection encourages metacognition - awareness of one's own cognitive functioning (need to promote student awareness of their learning processes - study skills prog)
- reflection emerges out of unstructured material (need to reflect on material that is not structured, to make sense of it)
- for quiet and time to process material,
- to summarize material in their own words,
- to put material into a personal context ..
Classroom management issues promote the use of a very structured environment (time / place dependent) . Classroom management issues and physical space / time limitations strongly direct instructional design…and type of learning possible because a teacher often feels pressured to present the material within a pre-set time frame (maybe not enough time for Ss to absorb and contextualize it).
- much less quiet and time to process material,certainly in the classroom
- much less time to summarize material in their own words,
- much less time to put material into a personal context ..
- to be aware of their learning style ..
Let me "reflect" on this.
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2 comments:
As you have already identified - Kolb's (1984) Experiential Learning cycle is relevant here as is Boud, Keogh ansd Walker (1985) who argue for the value of emotions in this model.
Honey and Mumford's (1982) typology of Learning Styles demonstrates how 'reflection' can come easier to some!
This link http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm
might be interesting for you, too!
After reading these notes from Moon again, I'm more conscious already about how I interrelate things - I think it goes with reviewing software or finding utility (or affordances in various web apps). A form of reflection in action - I'm conscious while playing with things as to their possible merit for teaching or learning.
Recent examples include
1) Twitter
Twitter was introduced to me by Danny in the first week of September
2) embedded objects in wikis
These are to help find and share info on topics that are otherwise boring / dull - ie. financial statements, what is a wiki, .. to share with others. As a means to providing quick and convenient access to interesting content.
3) wikis
I discovered Wetpaint over a year ago but no interest in applying it until the hockey team needed something to organize stats and pics so I investigated it - sensing that it had to be easy to use. In the process, I realized an online community for them .. without them even knowing they wanted one.
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