Backward Design and Learning Outcomes
The concept of backwards learning can be beneficial to many students. It helps students grasp a general knowledge for what they are about to learn and encourages students to say organized and on task. Personally for myself, I like the idea of backwards learning because I am able to organize my notes and I feel prepared for what is to come next. An example of backwards learning in my education is through a course syllabus. Everything I will be learning throughout a semester is given out of the the first day of the class with dates of when assignments will be due and what weeks I have to complete certain readings. Every semester I take all my courses outlines and I write them out on a large calendar so I can visualize everything from all my classes. Having an end goal is beneficial to my learning style because it gives me something to work towards and to look forward to. The middle to end of the semester can be a hard time for students and knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel is always helpful to see, especially if you know what those work entail content wise. Having a detailed plan of a learning outcome or goal also helps builds confidence and motives students to successfully achieve those goals.
Surface vs Deep learning
When I was in high school the my personalized learning took a surface approach. Many of the test were memory-based and I did not find I was fully retaining the information I was learning. Although memoization has its benefits to the brain I felt that I would spend weeks before test memoizing definitions instead of truly understanding what the definitions meant. A deep approach to learning is taking the next step to comprehend and understand what those definitions mean.
I had a conversation with a friend who is taking a Finance degree, and she said something that made me think about surface and deep learning. She said, “I don’t need to know what’s going on in the class, I just need to know how to do the math.” To me, that concept made no sense because for my personalized learning style I need to know the detailed steps on how understand and outcome but for other people they just need to be able to memorize the basics. This also is an example of how people have different learning styles and what works for one person wont be the same for another person.
Inquiry-Based and Project-Based Learning
Inquiry-based learning encourages students to learn through questions and scenarios. This involves students digging deeper into a topic, either through research or experiments ect. This method of learning not only prompts curiosity but also helps develop research skills. An example of this through my education is through history classes, many times I have been given prompts what read “How did a particular situation have an effect on a community”. Through this question I was encourage to make a time-line like description of certain events and how the community was effected, not only does this answer the main question but also is a form of deeper research on the topic.
Project-based learning is a style of learning that involves a long, singular project. A good example of this is when professors assign a project at the start of the semester, and a student is required to hand in rough drafts periodically before they hand in the final assignment at the end of the semester. Almost like an ongoing tangible assignment.
Blooms Taxonomy
I found this short 5-minute explanation video on Bloom’s Taxonomy on YouTube to be extremely informative and broke down the concepts easily. Although Josh’s video was very informative and helpful, I also thought this source could be beneficial.
