Learning Through Life

A documented timeline of a lifelong learner ~ Thank you for joining me

Category: 335 Weekly Reflections

Post 3 ~ Assessment

June 6, 2025 / / 2 Comments
Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash

When I think of ‘Assessment’ my initial response is an anxious pit in my stomach because instead of thinking, “Oh! A method of displaying my understanding and to help the teacher/receiver know what to review,” I think, “I’m not going to get a high enough mark/grade to satisfy me.” I presume quite a few people feel the same way about assessments. What is concerning is that I fear I will transfer these anxieties onto my students.

While reading through Chapter 1 of Assessment Strategies for Online Learning by Dianne Conrad and Jason Openo, I was struck with the mentioned theory of CoI, which was defined as “a process of creating a deep and meaningful (collaborative-constructivist) learning experience through the development of three interdependent elements – social, cognitive and teaching presence” (2018). When exploring more about the CoI theory on the website, I found this helpful Venn diagram to portray the connection between the three interdependent elements:

The CoI website describes the three interdependent elements as follows:

Social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities” (Garrison, 2009, p. 352).

Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001).

Cognitive Presence is the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001).

Garrison, Anderson, & Archer (2000)

This provides great insight for how I need to consider my actions and presence as a future -and current- teacher. It suggests that I need to foster the social, teaching, and cognitive presences of my students but also reflect that in my own instruction. I expect that this will need to be more deeply addressed in developing a community within the classroom: one that fosters meaningful connections and learning experiences that invest in the students’ interests.

I have much more to explore on the website and theory and feel I have only scratched the surface. Please feel free to share your perspectives in a comment!

References:

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education model. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.

Conrad, D., & Openo, J. (2018). Assessment strategies for online learning: Engagement and authenticity. AU Press. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771992329.01

Post 2 ~ Design Thinking

June 1, 2025 / / 0 Comments
Assorted-colour sticky notes on a whiteboard
Photo by Hugo Rocha on Unsplash

What Is It?

Design Thinking, as described by Jess Mitchell in a blog post, Planning Frameworks, is an “iterative approach to learning that encourages learners to prototype (as designers) in response to a challenge or problem” (2023). This means that learners are in a process of refining their learning or theories by actively testing them then integrating feedback for further improvements. It can be thought of how designers produce models or develop solutions to problems.

How Does it Work?

Design Thinking aligns similarly with the scientific method of proposing a hypothesis, or an initial product, then working towards producing an improved version rather than aiming for perfection or a finished product with the first try…

Below is a video detailing more about how Design Thinking is developed and what the process entails:

Video by Sprouts on YouTube

The Flow of Design Thinking

Step #1: Empathize ~ Through the process of interviews, or other information collections like gathering from comment or conversational forums, the designer empathizes with a specific situation or concern to then address. Here, you’ll want to engage a large sample size in order to find the most accurate and prominent information. Essentially, find a problem to help fix!

Step #2: Define the Problem ~ After conducting the information-collection process, the designer will need to identify the main problem that emerges from the interviews or forums then formulate the ‘Problem Statement:’ a statement that defines what the identified problem is.

Step #3: Ideate ~ Begin brainstorming various ideas that could be involved to help solve the defined problem and share them with the ideas with the people involved in the ‘study,’ or information-gathering process, to receive feedback on the ideas proposed.

Step #4: Prototype ~ Take the time during this step to consider how the feedback and ideas would fit together then work to develop and complete the final prototype design for the defined problem.

Step #5: Test ~ With the prototype in the testing process, subjects must be willing to participate to test the effectiveness of the design. It’s crucial to remain neutral while receiving feedback here in order to garner uninfluenced comments, criticisms, and questions. After all, the feedback helps the designer to continue refining and improving!

How Does this Relate to Other Knowledge?

When I think of Design Thinking, I find it closely resembles the mindset one must hold in order to engage in Design Thinking. Can you guess to which one I’m referring? Here is a good infographic from Mentorloop that helps outline the differences between growth versus fixed mindset:

This related because it is critical to hold a growth mindset during Design Thinking so the designer stays motivated, impartial, open to being wrong and learning from others, embracing feedback, views the challenge as an opportunity to improve, and stays focused on the refining process rather than trying to skip immediately to the end result.

How Does this Relate to the Lesson Design Blueprint?

For our Lesson Design Blueprint, we focus on the process and lesson of literary devices and their impact in writing poetry. Design Thinking may be relevant here in the process of refinement for quality work to be produced. While there may not necessarily be a defined problem identified for students learning about literary devices and writing, we may be able to combine the two aspects to develop an assignment that would require a problem to be addressed with literary devices!

We’ll have to keep thinking about this one. Any suggestions and feedback is encouraged and greatly appreciated!

Post 1 ~ Learning, Motivation, and Theory/Assessment: My Own Understanding and Experience

May 25, 2025 / / 0 Comments

After reading about the theories of constructivism, cognitivism, and behaviourism in the article, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective by P.A. Ertmer and T. Newby, I reflected upon my own learning style and couldn’t quite place myself into one specific area. I wondered if there was an overarching learning style where each of the specified categories would blend or overlap, considering the complex nature of the human experience and especially that tied to learning. Perhaps each theoretical practice emerges individually or simultaneously during a single learning moment. I wondered if the most prominent emergence would then be considered the theory dominant, specific to that moment and learner response.

My thinking cap was secure.

A woman leaning against a wood door, holding her chin and thinking
Photo by Paola Aguilar on Unsplash

My initial thought was that I align with constructivism more than cognitivism and behaviourism because I can be self-motivated and direct some of my own learning, but I have to wonder if each of these styles emerge continually throughout the process of learning. For example with behaviourism, I do tend to thrive when I have external stimuli motivating me like the act of keeping in pace with my peers. This means that I am motivated externally at times, even when none of my peers are establishing an expectation to perform to their level or above. It makes me wonder, again, if that is constructivismn at play as the motivation stems from my own drive towards achieving a non-existing expectation…

A example of my learning experience is a recent one while working on my car with my mechanic, or my vehicular guru, as I like to call him, who has been teaching me throughout my vehicle journey with my recent dream car acquisition. I have learned how to navigate the regular maintenance and then some. As I am becoming a teacher myself, I seem to have developed meta-observational skills -a term I made up- where I can identify the techniques or styles emerging from a teacher while I am in the state of learning. It really is a bizarre space to occupy as I feel both present in a first-person point of view and omniscient (only specific to my experience, therefore closer to a third-person point of view) when the meta-observational skills kick in.

Photo retrieved on ProWritingAid from Point Of View: What Is It?

To link this back to learning, motivation, and theory, I have to wonder how the skills of recognizing the learning theories helps or hinders my experience. Does being this aware actually advance my learning or could the experience be stunting my experiential learning by taking me out of the moment. Could these meta-observational skills foster support for students as it does for teachers? Perhaps the line between student and teacher could become blurred and would that be the worst thing? After all, who is teaching whom?

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