Throughout the discussion this week, I reflected on the idea of independent learning that I began to look at critically in my course last semester. Looking ahead to next week, it seems I will have the opportunity to further develop these ideas.
We can never truly separate our own lived lives from educational construction. As John Dewey informs us: the educational process is a collaborative reconstruction of experience. Education is a transactional experience between the personal world of the learner (meaning focused) and the shared world of society (knowledge focused). We do not live in a vacuum and are influenced by every experience. Given this, we are constantly learning from others that we interact with. We are all connected by the red string; meaning we vacillate between the teacher and the taught throughout our days. Given this view, personal learning is an important aspect in support of a CoI because CoIs offer the opportunity to question, challenge, diagnose misconceptions, and achieve mutual understanding.
In the sense of independent or dependent learning, I do not feel they are separate. As suggested by Armellini & DeStefani, the elements of CoI overlap even more than originally theorized. Jon Dron (2019) also reflects this belief when he concluded “we are slowly realizing that independence and dependence on others in learning are not mutually exclusive extremes, but multiple facets of the same phenomenon. We are all dependent learners, and this is what enables us to be independent learners in the first place.” Given this way of thinking, I looked at the topic through the idea of a web and the influences that surround us. Through the use of a metaphor, fish and the water they swim in, I concurred that outside influences (our environment from which we have grown) leads us to be influenced in particular ways. We are constantly learning or teaching others that we interact with so therefore, we are never truly independent.
When critically looking at systematic education in the United States, I feel that there is a conflict to this theory demonstrated in the importance (false importance in my opinion) on standardized tests and test scores. Ultimately these tests guide learning and therefore hinder the individuality of educators and learners. That is not to say that all instructors must be the “sage on the stage.” I believe there is a continuum of independence that can be achieved. When employing the tenets of differentiated instruction, an instructor can provide independent learning tasks while guiding the learning objectives to meet the needs of set curriculum. In a differentiated classroom, “…educators actively plan for students’ differences so that all students can best learn. In a differentiated classroom, teachers divide their time, resources, and efforts to effectively teach students who have various backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests.” (ascd.org) Differentiated instruction relies on the principles of scaffolding and moving through the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy to meet each student’s capabilities. Tasks begin at the lower levels of remembering and understanding. Students complete different tasks, based on their interests, at each level and as they complete the activities to a set level of mastery, they can move on to the next level. Students will progress based on their individual capabilities and the teacher acts as a facilitator as each student progresses. Although the objectives of the lessons are set by the overarching curriculum, the tasks allow for student independence as they complete various tasks to meet their learning styles, capabilities, and highest potential. Differentiated Instruction allows both educators and students to recognize the differences in each person’s life experiences and supports learning that is coherent yet can celebrate the uniqueness of each person.
References
Armellini, A., & De Stefani, M. (2016). Social presence in the 21st century: An adjustment to the
Community of Inquiry framework. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(6), 1202-1216
Dron, Jon. (2019) Independent learning. In Moore, M.G. & Diehl, W.C. (Eds.), Handbook of
Distance Education (pp.47-56). New York: Routledge,
https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.4324/9781315296135
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