My Personal Theory of Learning (Post 4)

Q: Which of the learning theories that we have discussed seems closest to your personal theory of learning? Think about one or two examples from your own life that reflect this theory of learning. Make sure to be specific, and to connect these theories to what we have learned in class. 

I am beginning to identify myself as a social cognitive learner, and thus my personal learning theory is also SCT.  Possibly, the two characteristics that I identify with most are modeling and self-efficacy. 

I am a very visual and hands-on learner. I am also a planner. I plan and research before ever diving into something new--hoping to get things right on the first try (not that I usually do, mind you). But research alone only primes me for seeing it done or doing it myself. I really relate to the students in my class who don't want to "do it wrong", and who are clearly distressed when faced with a new skill to learn or a new task to accomplish. While other students have already lept out of their seats and are diving in, I, like these students prefer to know and see exactly what I'm doing before I do it. This is where modeling comes in. In my library, I model how to fill out worksheets, how to access the right web site from the library home-page, how to use a shelf-marker and even how to carry a book or turn pages. If a project is the end result, I like to show examples so that students can visualize the outcome. 

I am also goal-oriented and can often achieve my goals through smaller tasks and steps. I love checking things off a list and creating charts to visually track success. In my classroom, a behavior management chart tracks the successes of every class in the school. Practicing procedures, and me verbally cuing students on how they will transition to check out books ("walking quietly") from the lesson is a form of helping students know how to move about the library, and what is expected of them. Students have more self-efficacy when they are confident they are doing what is expected of them. This also gets into self-regulation, in which charts and goals can also play a huge part for students.