This was a paper I wrote for my mid term exam. Our professor asked us to write a paper similar to B.F. Skinner in 1954. Since I didn't have time to read his article, so I just wrote based on my own understanding. B.F Skinner wrote a paper with the exact same title in 1954 and after 57 years passed (I wrote this in 2011), I wrote a new one based on my understanding from the course.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One question that most of the instructors always ask themselves starting of each semester is “How can I best teach my subject?” In my opinion, in order to develop or design a quality and effective instruction is not about the question on how to teach but rather is about the nature of learning so this lead to the title of this article which is “The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching”.
Is teaching a Science or an Art? For me, teaching is both science and art. Instructors need to rely not only on research-based theories and principles but also their own knowledge, experience, judgments and decisions based on different context, environment and etc in order to design an effective instruction that not only maximize the learning process of learners but also can achieve the best learning outcome which mean to improve the learner achievement, performance, competency and also the learners satisfaction and also at the same time can engage and motivate the learner in the whole learning process. Since 1950s, ET has been introduced and after almost half a decade, with the introduce of new learning theories, new technologies, new media, new environment and “digital native”, from teacher centric education moving to learner centric and with the invention of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 and more to come in new future, what is our future teaching and learning model going to be?
As mentioned before, in order to teach first we should understand the nature of learning. So what is learning? According to Marcy P. Driscoll[1], learning is a persisting change in performance or performance potential that results from experience and interaction with the world and this include behavior and cognitive change. And in ET point of view, learning is closely related to learning theories that started to develop in 1950s. Learning theories attempt to explain how learners learn and in ET field we have seen many learning theories come and go over the years but they are a few that have survived and still influence the design of instruction today, namely: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. The most prominent learning theory will be the behaviorism theory by B. F. Skinner (1953) and to date its influence is still strong in the field of education especially in kindergarten education, elementary education or language teaching. This theory holds that learning is the result of an event which is stimulus, the reaction to that event, and the consequences for that response. Cognitivism is most often associated with Piaget (1952) was popularized as a response to Behaviorism. Cognitivists faulted Behaviorism for a difficultly in accounting for higher order thinking skills and a lack of focus on the mind in learning. Cognitivists are concerned with "how information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind on the learners”. For me, cognitivism is closely related to onstructivism. Constructivism is often associated with Vygotsky (1978). For me, both cognitivism and constructivism are overlapping to each other. First, we need to become cognitivist in order to become constructivist. According to Duffy & Jonassen (1992), knowledge is a process of developing understanding of something in a very personal way through situated activity so we cannot assume that two people understand in the same way. Learners create meaning from their own experiences that are separate and different from the meanings developed by others, even those participating in the same experience. Understanding is based not just on current experiences but the aggregate of all experiences, thus each person brings with him/her a cache of experiences that are brought to bear in a particular situation. All the learning theories described above are “The Science of Learning” and from them instructors could briefly know what kind of learning occur during a learning process and this help to design the instruction. After knowing “The Science of Learning” now we should move forwards to “The Art of Teaching”.
What is “The Art of Teaching?” Teaching is like an Art, every instructor has their own way of teaching. The most important factor here is that instructor should translate the learning theories into good and efficient instruction. Instructor should be innovative and creative in preparing the instruction based on their understanding of learning theories, experience, knowledge, different context, environment and learners group and etc. Instructors should not isolate themselves behind the classroom doors and practice their never changing teaching habits. Instructors in 21st century should open their mind and heart to accept new things and to try new things. They should not just teach but also to motivate and engage learners in the whole learning process. There are few factors that instructors should take care before starting to design an instruction such as knowledge and awareness about the diverse backgrounds and pre knowledge of the students or knowledge of the subjects teaching, knowledge on the teaching environment and etc.
After knowing the above mentioned factors, instructor should be creative and willing to use different kind of teaching strategies that can result in effective learning process during instructional design such as they could use some popular strategies such as collaborative learning, accelerated learning, problem-base learning, situational learning, critical thinking and etc based on difference context. According to Dr. Reigeluth, in 21st century teaching environment, instructor’s has changed from the “sage on the stage” to the “guide on the side” and that instructor should become the designer for the project and instructional space, the facilitator of the learning process and also a caring mentor. Instructors no need to perform the entire role in one class but they should choose accordingly base on the class context. There are few actions that instructor can use to support 21st century learners as guide on the side such as engage students’ interests in making connections to the outside world, integrate new learning with students’ prior understandings, uncover students’ misconceptions and replace them with accurate understandings, show the larger landscape of knowledge into which a given concept fits, establish opportunities for students to organize, experience, and apply new concepts, cultivate students’ use of metacognitive strategies and commitment to excellence and etc.
In conclusion, 21st century instructors should not just focus on which theory or strategy is the best to use but instead instructors should apply or even combine difference learning theories and strategies based on different context, learners and environment such as in elementary education, behaviorism and cognitivism should be applied whereas in high school and university all the learning theories can be applied based on different situation and context. Finally, with the ever changing world and technologies, teachers or instructors nowadays should also become a reflective practitioners or learners in order to provide the best teaching and learning process to the learners of 21st century.
