What is one idea from the readings or videos that you disagree with, and why?

After watching the Backwards Bicycle Video, I would disagree that learners have to completely undo old understandings when confronted with new information. Although I agree that we sometimes give more credibility to ideas that we are already familiar with, it doesn’t mean people need to abandon what they knew in order to learn something new. For instance, when learning GRE vocabularies, I find it very hard to memorize new words from scratch. It is much easier if I just make connections to words I already knew. What I discover is that most GRE vocabularies are from Greek, Latin, Middle English, French or even Old English, without knowing what the root means in Modern English, it is very hard for me to memorize them. Also, once I figured out what the affixes mean (as well as the root),  I can understand a new word without actually knowing them. Hence, the Backwards Bicycle Video somewhat challenged my whole understanding about learning, the reason I disagree with the ideas presented in the video might because I have my own bias, and I need time to digest with this new way of thinking about learning. In addition, the ideas in Backwards Bicycle video contradict to constructivism learning theory, which values how learners assemble prior knowledge when confronted with new situation or new knowledge (Ertmer& Newby,2013). I have always been a big fan of constructivism learning theory, therefore, I would disagree with the ideas in the Backwards Bicycle Video, and contends that prior knowledge plays a huge role in obtaining new knowledge.  

Reference:

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.

Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

Last year, I was in an Econ class, and unlike other Econ courses I have taken before, this course has a lot of collaborative assignments. Initially, I was worried, because I have had a very bad experience with group work, where I ended up doing most of the work, which is time-consuming and frustrating. Fortunately, group members in this Econ class were very engaging. Everyone has their own specialty —one was good at making the presentation slides, one was good at presenting in the class, one was good at research, and one has the patience to proofread every sentence that goes into the project. Our project got the highest score and we enjoyed the time we spent working together, they also helped me to understand the course concepts much better. This particular experience made me appreciate collaborative working and see the beauty of it. Many educators tried to incorporate collaborative assignments in their curriculum in order to engage learners. The bigger challenge is how educators avoid the Ringelmann Effect or social loafing— productivity decreases when people pulled with a group because they think others will do the work. Hence, we can see how motivational problem arises in projects that aim to motivate learners as well. Therefore, one more consideration aside from Keller’s Arcs Motivation Model is—How to avoid the Ringelmann Effect in learning design.