Learning and Teaching 1

Learning and Teaching Environment

Learning is essential to developing and maturing throughout various points in life. As the

Behavioral Learning Theory suggests, if a person does not gain the capacity and desire to

develop their natural abilities and learn new information, they wont be able to interact with the

world around them effectively. Our first lessons in life come from our immediate care givers,

then teachers and the feedback we receive from our outside world. Once we have received the

tools we need to gain our independence of grasping materials, the Cognitive Information

Processing Theory suggests that we then begin to us the stimuli as an input to produce an output

of the information we learn. Once we have gathered enough information and understanding, the

Schema Theory suggests that we store long-term information in packets that we are able to

recall. Finally, as Dempsey & Reiser (2012) quote, we use the Situated Learning Theory to

connect meaningful actions, actions that have relations of meaning to one another in terms of

some cultural system (Lemke, 1997, p. 43) in order to learn in a particular environment. This is

when instructors take material and craft it so that it can be understood by as much of their

audience as possible.

As aspiring instructional technologists, it is our responsibility to use what we know about

the psychology of learning to provide an environment that meets the basic needs of students and

promotes exploratory learning. Because we are using technology and the students are often

taking classes online, one of the main concepts we use is metacognition. Pintrich (2002)

believes that metacognition spans across all theories of learning and education and incorporates

not only general cognition, but cognition of ones own abilities. Pintrich (2002) also goes on to

express that there are three parts to metacognition: strategic knowledge, knowledge about
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cognitive tasks, and self-knowledge. Strategic knowledge refers to tactics students may use to

memorize material or comprehend what they have heard in the classroom. Knowledge about

cognitive tasks means that students not only have a strategy, but they realize that they may have

to use different strategies for different tasks. And finally, self-knowledge refers to a students

understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, or they realize that they dont know

something and pursue the proper channels to retrieve the information. If all of these processes

have been performed and repeated in the proper manner, by the time the student becomes

involved with technology, they should be ready. It is our duty to be sure students realize they are

becoming increasingly responsible for what they learn and we must give them the right tools to

develop a great environment for success.

To design an environment that higher education students can adapt to, we have to realize

that though most will have the cognitive skills they need, there are other factors affecting their

work we must accommodate for. Wrye (2015) realized students in higher education not only

took classes online, but they also had full-time careers, family lives and responsibilities outside

of the classroom. He noticed students were having trouble in the classroom because they were

taking too many hours and the assignments were not being interpreted the way they needed to be.

He wanted his students to succeed, so he developed templates and videos to minimize distraction

and focus on content by implementing three basic processes. The first process was developing

templates for APA styles of writing and provide additional sources that students could reference.

The students liked the organization and the ease of access to content. The second process

involved designing videos to show the students where they could find the content and give

detailed instruction for each assignment. And the final component of the process was to design

detailed rubrics that allowed students to measure their success in completing projects. These
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efforts were successful because they placed all of the information students needed in an expected

place. The purpose of designing a great environment is to provide students with the resources

and instructions and allow them to use their own abilities and judgements to apply appropriate

strategies toward completing the task. As teachers, we are there as guides and as a reference, but

I want students to be able to at least attempt to solve problems using their own system first. If all

else fails, then I will be there to support them.

In conclusion, learning occurs from birth with primary care givers being the first source

of information about ourselves and environment. Once students learn and develop the skills

needed to become more independent from instructors, students are able to take responsibility for

properly using resources provided to them by the instructor, they develop life-long connections

with learning the material. This creates an environment with the understanding that there can be

distractions, but the student is not alone and the instructor has plans in place for them to stay on

course. In my opinion, this is a great structure for incorporating technology in the classroom.
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References

Dempsey J. & Reiser R. (2012). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology,

Third Edition. Allyn & Bacon.

Pintrich, P. (2002). The role of metacognitive knowledge in learning, teaching, and

assessing. Theory into Practice 41, 4, 219-225. http://cmapspublic2.ihmc.us/rid=1JTPTQ9XB-

1142BSK-17N3/A01-004.pdf

Wrye, S. (2015). Three tools for supporting student success. Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching

Strategies From Magna Publications. Retrieved from

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/three-tools-for-supporting-student-

success/