How People Learn (HPL) - My Learning Insights

- The big 'T' theory trying to explain how human learns and develop mainly polarizes the biological and the context in which the subject is subsumed. As a teacher I have seen both playing a crucial role and both failing to explain the exceptions. Myself, is one of them. I only went to kindergarten one week, but went to first grade of primary at the age of 4 accompanying my sister. Ms. Margot Chumpitaz was kind enough to accept and have me as a free student wandering about the classroom. I learnt to read and write without formal instruction but from everything I had access to in my sis' classroom: story books, the teacher explanations, students' chat and many others, I suppose. Context does influence development in the way Vigotsky explained (ZPD), but I also believe that my parents brought me up to be biologically ready for learning so Piaget may say I went from one domain to the other as expected. Although I had breakfast from 'vaso de leche', lunch from 'comedores populares' and dinner with a combination of both, I never missed a meal and now I can tell they were nutritious. My mom was the cook sometimes, of course. In short, behaviourists, cognitivists and lately constructivist theories intertwine when it comes to the learning experiences one can have. Still we should look at them with a critical eye.

- The word 'epigenetics' has called my attention and think I need to explore more about it. "Prolonged toxic stress can really cause alteration in our epigenes and affect our development and learning." (HPL, 2022) This is a short and good video on it. 


- We usually tell teachers in webinars, seminars and alike that they should 'plan' their lessons bearing in mind the students needs, interests and characteristics. However; we do not tell them how this can be done. I found the 'ecology of development ' proposed by Bronfenbrenner a useful tool that teachers-to-be in universities or 'pedagogicos' should apply to themselves and to their students eventually. Coincidentally, I had been requested to give a talk on 'Initial Teacher Education' and tried to explain this to the teacher educators and regional specialists of the Minsitry of Education. 

- I also confirmed that in ELT, as surely it is in other fields or subject areas, good teachers have three components that make them good: knowledge of the subject, knowledge of how people learn, and knowledge of how to teach the subject. Now, I know this is called PCK: Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Hattie, 2013).




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