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Philosophy

How do you motivate your learners and promote an effective learning experience?  My work in patient education taught me that, effective instruction and a motivated learner could work together to improve the learning experience.  I believe teachers bear much of the responsibility to motivate their learners and to design and deliver effective instruction to assist their students in the learning process.

The first class in my graduate studies was MIT 500, where we were exposed to multiple theories on how individuals learn.  In the theory of constructivist learning, I found a strong connection.  According to this philosophy, learners “construct” new knowledge, as they actively engage with the presented material, based on their prior experiences.  Therefore, each learner may come away with a different learning outcome. 

Finding a way to motivate and engage the learner as they “construct” new knowledge, as well as understanding the variety of learning styles within the learning audience, is extremely important in designing effective instructional materials.  The instructor should serve as a guide in this learning process to assist the learners in ways to connect this new information to previous knowledge.  The constructivist approach can help achieve the learning goal, through problem solving scenarios, open discussions, and hands-on practice.

The five steps (analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate) in the instructional design process represent a proven procedure for designing effective instructional materials.  With the knowledge gained from the courses in my graduate education, I hope to continue and improve on that process.

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