Learning Philosophy

My learning philosophy will challenge the status quo in education. It calls for a sense of urgency for the change of constraints placed on us due to educational exploration limitations. My innovation plan includes strides for blended learning. I see my self as proactive to change and as a facilitator and coach to my students. I want them to be successful with out me but I see education as a competition. I'm to teach you everything, show you the ropes, strategies and problem solving and coach you through the difficult times so that when we aren't together you will have the necessary skills and tools to be successful. Because this is my stance, I believe this to be most beneficial for the type of carefully crafted learning experience provided through blended learning. Teachers need to take on more of the facilitator role and increase opportunities to build a collaborative environment through personal experiences. Once the collaborative environment is established, teachers will utilize the experiences shared by students to create meaningful lessons that students can relate to, learn from, dive deeper and connect with other scholars over. This allows for authentic work to transpire and authentic learning to occur. 

• I believe that everyone was born with the capability and curiosity to learn. Learning is natural and shouldn't be stifled to fit the constraints of the developmentally appropriate educational objectives. Learning is necessary and furthermore, failure should be encouraged and growth through failure should be celebrated.
• Everyone, but especially coaches, facilitators and teachers should always strive to be life long learners. There is no greater gift than increasing your knowledge. As a learner, my quest for knowledge comes in many different forms, conversations with students and peers, learning through failure, attending conferences and so much more but the root still lies in learning and growing is inevitable so might as well make it enjoyable.
• Although both teaching and learning philosophies are important, teaching philosophies are teacher centered and can include passive education for the students involved, while learning philosophies create an inclusive environment for all (teachers included) to learn. Learning philosophies capitalize on the quest for knowledge through collaboration, experiences and hands on opportunities. I believe that a major issue our educational system holds is that it is very teacher directed and teacher centered that it doesn't give students the ability to take ownership of one's learning and the capability to access schema to make learning intentional, relevant and purposeful.
• The relationship between learning and teaching could be one sided, parasitic or a purposeful relationship. There could be occasions where teachers are teaching but students aren't learning or they are learning unintended material. There can also be occasions where teachers aren't teaching but students are still learning. Teaching and learning doesn't always have to be where teachers are the ones teaching and students are the ones learning, This relationship should be fluid in who occupies the role and how they intend on using it to promote learning. We have to continuously reevaluate the roles and relationships between teaching and learning and how it affects the current climate and culture of the classroom and content.

• After researching and diving deeper into the different learning theories, I concluded that my teachings and morals align with the constructivist theory.
• If you align with the constructivist you allow learners to use their schema and experiences to develop their own understanding. Autonomy is important in this theory and application of experiences to capitalize on aggregated mastery.
• I identify with this theory the most  because it allows learners to use their prior experiences to maximize their learning opportunities. I wish I would have had teachers who subscribed to this theory because group collaboration would have allowed for a deeper understanding of classmates and their prior experiences and how they have molded their lens of discovery. This theory allows for  easier transmission of schema which causes intentionality in learning and ownership of content mastery. It creates an open invitation for intellectual discourse through communication and complexity of prior experiences.
• Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and John Dewey are the theorists that are most credited for creating this theory. Each theorist adds a certain perspective to the theory. Piaget is more radical in his approach of this theory. Vygotsky focused on the social aspect of this theory and Dewey combined the two and dive a little deeper on how social learning promotes content mastery.