Page 167 - Foundations of Learning, 4th Edition (Revised)

Cooperative Learning

When working in cooperative teams, students have an opportunity to develop skills
in the social and affective domains (especially the processes of teamwork and
value development). Many times team roles are used so that each team member is
accountable for an aspect of the team’s overall performance. Learning to work with
others and achieve more as a team than as individuals will be of great benefit to you
in college and beyond.

Guided-Discovery Learning or Activity Learning

When placed in a guided-discovery learning environment, students must work with
various types of models, make use of background information, and answer questions
to arrive at new knowledge. In others words, rather than being told about something,
students work to discover it. Typically, guided-discovery is structured so that students
work in teams on a particular activity. This builds students’ learning skills at the same time the content
of the activity is learned. Key components of an activity are the performance criteria and the critical
thinking questions which guide the learner in his or her thinking.

e-Learning and Virtual Classrooms

As of 2006, almost 3.5 million students were participating in some version of
an online learning experience. It is even possible that you’re taking this course
online. At the very least, you’re using technology to expand the context of
your educational environment by accessing and using the online resources for
Foundations of Learning. Virtual classrooms do not exist in physical time and
space the way traditional classrooms do; they take advantage of technology as
a way to bridge the gap of time and distance between people. Increasingly, however, the idea of virtual
classrooms and e-learning is not simply a solution to a problem, but a new way to view and think about
learning—just because we can’t be together doesn’t mean we can’t learn and think together. We will
address technology and its evolving role in facilitating learning in Chapter 8.

Tying It All Together

You’re confronting a potentially overwhelming amount of information and it
probably feels like it’s coming at you all at once. It is important to recognize that
while you are ultimately the person in charge of your education, you are not alone.
You are not the first person to have scrambled and sweated over the questions of what
you’re doing, what you should be doing, and, last but not least, how do you get from
where you are now to where you want to be at the end of your educational experience.

There are advising and support services in place to help guide you along the path you’ve
chosen, and even to help you choose your path. You should take advantage of the experiences
of others, as much as possible, and relentlessly ask what they did and how they arrived at
their educational and career decisions. Knowing that others have successfully run the course
you’re on now will be a relief to you...and help you as you sort through the tough questions.
If you do not have a role model or mentor, consider working to find someone who might be
willing to work with you in this capacity. As someone once said, “A mentor is someone whose
hindsight can become your foresight.” That kind of help is truly invaluable.

Chapter 6 — Context of Performance 161