RV EUNICE M.

GARCIA | EDMAN203 | MAEd-SpEd

Activity No. 1: 21st Century Learner

  Among the principles of how learners learn enumerated in the readings that you did, choose three (3),
discuss each briefly and expound further based on your experience/s as a learner and teacher.
 
Learners learn by connecting new knowledge with knowledge and concepts that they already know, most
effectively on active social classrooms where they negotiate an understanding through interaction and
varied approaches.
 
PRINCIPLE#5: Allow students to work in groups some of the time, especially on the most
challenging tasks, but also inform them that learning is ultimately an inside job—that is, it
requires them to focus their mind on the material and their progress in comprehending and
recalling it. So we need to develop reciprocity and cooperation among students. 
o When students are encouraged to work as a team, more learning takes place. Characteristics of
good learning are collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working together
improves thinking and understanding. Cooperative learning has several benefits. Students care
more about their learning because of the interdependent nature of the process. Retention is
higher because there is a social and intellectual aspect of the content material. Students also find
the method more enjoyable because there is no competition placed upon them. Cooperation, not
competition, is more effective in promoting student learning. In my experience, I used to
incorporate a variety of activities into their subject including collaboration, group, and
individual projects, papers, assessments, and discussions to reach a variety of learning styles of
my students.

PRINCIPLE #7: Engage students in active and experiential learning techniques and when you
do a lecture, do so interactively, with frequent breaks for student activities. Basically, encourage
our learners to be active.
o To internalize learning students must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about
it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. Learning is an active process.
Students are not able to learn much by only sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing
pre-packaged assignments, and churning out answers. Students need to make learning a part of
themselves. Like, I allow my students to relate the material to their own interests through
presentations, projects, and so on. I encourage self-evaluation and peer-review. I also provide
my students with rubrics for evaluation and have evaluated the same project by using the
collaboration tools, chats, or discussion boards.

PRINCIPLE#16: Provide timely, targeted feedback that students can use to improve their

performance. In the form of giving prompt feedback.
o The importance of feedback is so obvious that it is often taken for granted during the teaching
and learning process. It is a simple yet powerful tool to aid in the learning process. Feedback is
 RV EUNICE M. GARCIA | EDMAN203 | MAEd-SpEd

any means to inform a learner of their accomplishments and areas needing improvement. There
are several different forms that feedback can take. They are oral, written, the computer
displayed, and from any of the interactions that occur in group learning. What is important is
that the learner is informed and can associate the feedback with a specific response. Like, I
utilize rubrics for grading projects and papers to standardize grading and provide prompt
feedback to students.

Students learn more easily when they have a desire to learn. As a teacher, we can help students learn to
build conceptual frameworks that are deeply interconnected, transferable, and rooted in a solid memory and
skills foundations.