Page 289 - Learning to Learn

LEARNING TO LEARN: BECOMING A SELF -GROWER 289
EXPERIENCE 10: READING FOR LEARNING READING
Jennifer’s Application of the Reading Methodology:
Step Jennifer’s Notes
1 Establish purpose My primary intent is to learn a bit more about what makes Process Education
“tick.” I think this information could make me a better learner in this class.
2 Set learning objectives I want to be a journalist and believe it is important to have breadth and
depth of knowledge. I want to learn enough about Process Education so
that I can make some sense of what it is and means.
3 Set performance criteria I will assess how I have met this goal by how well I can explain what I read to
my classmate, Molly.
4 Estimate time The actual article is quite long and will take me about an hour, though I
probably will skim some parts. For now, I am just using the methodology on
these three paragraphs, so this should take me about 10 minutes.
5 Vocabulary terms Most of the vocabulary is okay, but I probably should check out the definition
of “facilitator,” since this is a key work in this passage. I also am not too sure
what “locus of control” means.
6 Outline This article is about 10 pages long and is an academic article in a published
journal. The abstract gives an overview of the article itself, and that’s helpful.
7 Quick Read Who is the audience for this article? It seems to be written with other teachers
in mind, or at least those interested in teaching. It does seem to assume
I already know some things about educational philosophy. Because this is
academic writing, I can see that I will have to watch for jargon. For example, I
see phrases like “collaborative learning” and “facilitative learning.”
8 Comprehensive Read I think I did pretty well in my first reading to get the main points. I looked up
the word “locus,” and it means the place where something is situated, so that
would mean that the place of control would not be with the teacher/facilitator,
but with the class? With the student? Groups? I wonder how that works…
9 Inquiry Questions I wonder what makes a problem ill-defined? And about teachers serving as
facilitators...is that something my teachers do? I need to think about that.
Maybe journalists are a kind of facilitator?
10 Synthesis I understand that what is key here is that learning comes as a result of a group
cooperating to solve an “ill-defined” problem with the help of a facilitator.
11 Integration I can see how medical students would be better served from getting ill-defined
problems to work with. My father is a doctor, and he often told me that he
learned the facts in med school but lacked many of the skills he needed to
solve real problems. There was too much emphasis on knowing the facts. I’ll
have to ask him if he would have benefited from working on more ill-defined
problems.
Just from these few paragraphs, I have a better idea now why we have been
and will be doing so many activities. I will spend some time in each activity
observing our group and how our instructor interacts with our group. I also will
be more aware of the kinds of problems we are given. Are they ill-defined? So
far, they’ve been more exploratory than ill-defined.
12 Assessment I understand more about Process Education but ended up really focusing
on Problem-Based Learning and cooperative learning. I would have enjoyed
more examples, but I’m sure I can find them online if I look. My own efforts
were strong, and I came away from the reading with some things that I want
to explore in more detail. I think I met my learning objectives, and when I talk
to Molly later, I’ll see how well I met my performance criteria.