Muskan Hans Blog Post:
Hi Muskan,
Thank you so much for sharing your math learning experience with us. I like the picture you included in your post to help explain the math muscle that you mentioned in your learning process. I only took one math class throughout my university life, but I can still relate to the feeling you described in your post. I agree that math is still your muscle, and it is probably similar to how you ride a bike. Once you learn it, you know how to do it. We probably forgot how to do it for more advanced math, but we can quickly pick it up once the instructor reminds us.
I always feel it is more like a behavior learning experience during my limited math learning experience. We always have to do a lot of similar practice around the formula we learn, and eventually, when you go to the exam, you will be able to answer the question. Most of the time, math always has a certain answer which you know whether you are right or not. Your post mentioned that you” would go for cognitivism” for learning strategies. I wonder if you can tell me more about the cognitive learning theory applied in higher-level mathematics? Are there any different assignments compared to the traditional practice math homework?
Here is a YouTube video about how to learn math scientifically, I think it is helpful to relate the cognitivism learning to math teaching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH5Xq2Z7aQg
Overall, I really enjoy reading your post, it is fun and informative.
Thanks,
Guoqin
Joshua Hotchin’s Blog post:
Hi Joshua,
Thanks for sharing your opinion about the definition of learning. I fully agree that learning can not be simply concluded as just the enduring change in behaviour. Even though learning is also a result of practices or other forms of experience, the definition of the reading from this week is more focused on behaviour than other theories. Personally, I like constructivism more than the other two learning theories we learned during this week. I always feel I know better when I applied this knowledge to a real-life problem. And I always feel I have to understand why I am learning so I would pay more attention to learn. I feel myself is learning through various learning theories than just one of them.
Since you are an instructor and you have observed different learning needs from other student age groups. I wonder how you would design a course to make sure it fit most students’ needs? I have always been a student that wondered why I needed to learn this concept throughout my learning process. However, a lot of learning we have during elementary school are based on behaviourism learning design. It always bothers me because there is a lot of memorization needed. Is there any way to help include the special student need like me?
It’s been nice to “talk” to you in this virtual class. 😊 Thanks again for your great post. I want to add one more suggestion if you could include more media to help you explain your idea, that would be a great help.
Thanks,
Guoqin
