EDU221BeConsciousOfLearning

As a teacher, you will want to know where your students are in their learning. Are they learning? Is this repetitious for them? too hard? just right? interesting? not interesting? and more.

To be good at figuring that our about your students, you must be fully aware of it in yourself. Seymour Papert describes epistemology as "thinking about your own thinking." How would you define epistemology? Do you lean more towards constructivist epistemology or positivism? Are you more comfortable with //a priori// or //a posteriori// knowledge?

In EDU 101 (and in all other education classes), we ask, "How can I start thinking like a teacher instead of a student?" (or some variation of that question . . . the question itself will evolve as your coursework evolves). But the reality is, you never want to stop thinking like a learner (which in this context is different from "a student" -- think of it as a learner is learning new things and wants to learn and a student is focused on grades and expectations whether learning is involved or not). Obviously, you can't completely stop thinking like a student or you might not graduate and then you couldn't be a teacher. But can you expand your thinking?

As you are learning (whether in a college classroom, a mentor's classroom, in the middle of a group project, during a conversation with friends or anywhere else), be aware of your process of learning. Be thinking in the back of your mind: what questions do you have? if you figure out an answer yourself, how did you get that answer? is there a better sequence for your learning style for learning this? was it easy or hard to learn this? did it take a long time or was it instant? how can you best capture and share all the resources you found helpful? are there some things that aren't helpful for you but that appear to be helpful for others? and more

Think like a teacher and think like a learner all while being a student. Be epistimological. :-)