Reflection

Upon reflecting on the past seven weeks of my current Walden class, “Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology,” I took a journey back to the first week when we had to define our personal learning theory.  In defining my learning theory at that time, I said that in my Physical Education world and on a personal level, the learning theories that I think help our students to be successful in the experiences that we offer are the Constructionism and the Social Learning Theories.  In all activities and sports skills, there is a building process as well as understanding and storing of information. The Social Learning Theory naturally is a great fit for my Physical Education classes due to the high level of conversation and collaboration (Orey, 2001).   After a more in depth study of the learning theories, I still feel that I primary rely on the Constructionism and Social Learning Theories.  In our classes, we have our students participate in Cooperative Learning activities almost on a daily basis, and this strategy aligns with the Social Learning Theory.  Most of our units involve team sports or team building activities, so this theory and strategy work well for our classes. 

 In studying various resources for learning theories, I found that I love an idea by Dr. Judy Rink, one of my former professors at The University of South Carolina.  In an article written in The Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, Dr. Judy Rink (2001) states that “we need to be wary of appeals for wholesale adoption of particular teaching methods” (p. 113).  This solidifies the fact that we need to adopt a variety of teaching methods to ensure that our students succeed through the learning experiences that we provide for them.  Even though, I still feel that Constructionism and Social Learning Theories are predominant in our classes, even though some aspects of the Cognitive and Behaviorist Learning Theories have to be present. 

Immediate adjustments that I have made regarding instructional practice and technology integration are to incorporate some of the technology tools that I have learned about through this course.  Before this course, I had not used VoiceThread or Concept Mapping.  Both of these tools would greatly enhance our lessons and contribute to student success.  Utilizing these tools would help our students think more deeply about the skills and activities being taught.  This class has given me a greater understanding of how the Learning Theories, strategies, and technology tools go hand in hand which will also assist me in our districts teacher technology requirements and assessments.  We are required to pass a technology assessment and produce a student-centered technology lesson plan once per year.  This assessment is done once a year with in mind that the teacher will integrate technology on a more frequent basis. 

 In our state, we have strict activity guidelines for Physical Education.  Even with this in mind, I would like to make it a goal to integrate technology into my lessons at least once a quarter or more.  This goal will take some planning to determine which technology tools would be compatible with which units of study. Another goal that I would like to achieve is to assist our Technology Integration Specialist in helping classroom teachers with ideas on integrating technology.  I have already done this to some degree in helping the other PE teacher that I work with carry out a SKYPE lesson for his National Board recertification.    

 

References: 

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.

Retrieved  from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

Rink, J. (2001). Investigating the assumptions of pedagogy. Journal of Teaching in

          Physical Education, 20, 112-128.