I distinctly remember my 3rd grade teacher having a sign in her classroom that said, "Learning is Everywhere" and it wasn't until I took CEP 800 (The Psychology of Learning in School and Other Settings) that I really believed it. Besides, teachers are supposed to say things like that to get their kids excited about school, no matter the topic they were studying. Even though I went through a teacher preparation program and taught in my own classroom, I still don't think I ever fully believed learning is everywhere: I solely thought about it in the context of the classroom. One reason for that belief was of how I was taught about education growing up. There is so much research out there about what makes for the most effective classroom/teacher and especially lately, we are moving away from very formal classroom settings to more informal learning opportunities. I was always taught and told that the "best learning" happened in brick and mortar classrooms. "Formal learning environments are characterized by their highly structured nature," (Eshach, 2007) and this was what I grew up with being told this was the best way to learn. My learning schema was always about the classroom.
As I reflect on my teaching practices and experiences in school, I had very little opportunity to "bridge the gap" between home and school. I remember learning the importance of this in my teacher preparation program, but if I had more experience with this when I was a student, it may not have taken me to take this course to really believe learning is everywhere. This process can increase student motivation to learn, connect their background knowledge and prior experiences to the classroom, and help students develop new skills (Fallik, Rosenfeld, & Eylon, 2013). Bridging the gap also helps students see the value in their experiences outside of school, but also show them that learning happens outside of the classroom too. Before beginning this course, I always associated learning with a classroom. I knew there were so many things to learn in a classroom, either explicitly taught by a teacher or skills that unintentionally developed. We'd cover state standards, as well as what it means to work on a team, how to be respectful, and how to help out friends. But actually going back to the basics in this course helped me develop a new perspective on learning: that it really can happen anywhere. References
Bransford, J. L., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded Edition). National Academy Press. Eshach, H. (2007). Bridging in-school and out-of-school learning: Formal, non-formal, and informal education. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(2), 171-190. Fallik, O., Rosenfeld, S., & Eylon, B. (2013). School and out-of-school science: A model for bridging the gap. Studies in Science Education, 49:1, 69-91. Vadeboncoeur, J. A. (2006). Chapter 7: Engaging young people: Learning in informal contexts. Research in Education, 30(1), 239-278
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