I was so interested in my findings from doing the Cooperative Learning Design and I wish I had the time to learn more about the others! I was excited to see what others had found out in their research, so I read a few different posts from my colleagues on the other styles. I was fascinated by the research that took place!

Learning Here’s Post on Direct Instruction

Post 2: Learning Design II – Direct Instruction

The explanation of direct learning is very clear in this post, and the seven key features are very well laid out! From my understanding, the method overall sounds very traditional, like that of higher education approaches where the teacher is there to provide information and the students either get it, or they don’t (thus requiring them to put more effort in).

I appreciate how it is such a straightforward approach, but I personally find the method too rigid. That being said, I appreciate it for what it is, I just don’t think it meshes with how I wish to teach in the future.

Elben’s Post on Experiential Learning

Blog post #2: Experiential learning

This post on experiential learning was very well done! It explains the concept simply and effectively, and provides a clear example of the process at work. What I gather is that experiential learning is more based around activating prior knowledge to bring in new information. If someone has a background knowledge of something, it can be much easier to organize new content to work with their understanding. If teachers are able to supply background information when teaching new concepts, students can then actively participate in sharing their experiences with it; for example, how they have interacted with the content in the past, or how they have experience with something similar to it and how it relates.

I believe that experiential learning is a great way to get students more involved in their learning process as they can connect it to what they already know. Everyone will learn the same content, but will experience their learning differently; this is part of the beauty of education and I can’t wait to experience it for myself!

Yuqi’s Post on Inquiry-Based Learning

Post 2: Inquiry-based learning

I have always been drawn to inquiry-based learning as I find it to be the most hands-on approach to learning. It allows students to get into the nitty-gritty of the process and take some control of the path they take to get to the understanding. The chance to participate and actually process the content to activate prior knowledge as well as stimulate new knowledge is a much more modern teaching method.

I particularly like this method, as I feel keeping students engaged is key to them grasping content and retaining it better. Inquiry-based learning is a style of teaching that I want to incorporate into my future career in elementary education, as I have learned that the more involved students are, the better they retain information, and the better they tend to feel about themselves as competent learners.