5 Motivations for How I Learn
An applied personal interpretation of Davidson’s Pillars of Institutional Pedagogy: Ten Principles for the Future of Learning
1. Self Learning
I learn very well when I’m doing it for pleasure. I’m fairly sure that’s universal: if you’re enjoying what you’re learning, you remember it better. Specifically what I mean is that if I’m suddenly passionately curious about body language, I can spend a couple hours a day reading articles and watching informative youtube videos for a few months. Because I initiated the learning — it’s not for anyone else, no assignment is due, no grade is hanging over my head , there’s no ‘wrong way’ for me to do it — I have the freedom to acquire the knowledge I desire without worrying about pleasing anyone.
2. Horizontal Structures (Communist Group Work)
Communist in the sense that we all have to participate and we’re all equal. Group work is helpful. I feel motivated by social pressure — not wanting to let anyone down. Also, as much as I strive to be independent, almost always, two heads are better than one. Others have opinions and experiences different that my own, and their perspective is valuable. I sometimes get stuck in a loop of cause and effect (and cause and effect and cause and effect). When I’m working with others, hearing their third party perspective is insightful and allows me to step out of the loop in my thought process that would have otherwise been pretty difficult and/or time consuming.
5. Networked Learning
I see Networked Learning as learning motivated by a slightly different set of social pressures. I work pretty well under pressure to an extent, but it is not at all pleasant. Being motivated by a due date or fear of a negitive social-emotional repercussion produces results. This kind of stress/fear based learning is not long term. The knowledge is often stored in short term memory, and will dissapear once the social situation in which it was needed goes away. Also, it is not sustainable for me. The stress and fear of a negative social-emotional experience can pile up without me noticing, then once I notice it, I panic and am unable to get any work done, because I feel I must do everything at once, but I can’t, but I must, but I can’t! This is an example of a mental loop I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
7. Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity
The more you are actively interacting as you’re learning, the more you’re paying attention. Hands on learning seems to accomplish this through combining different types of learning. For instance, learning how to use a new tool: you see the tool in front of you, you can play with it and feel the mechanism of the tool with your hands, you can hear and see an instructor manipulating the tool as they explain how to use it, and you can interact with the instructor and others learning as you’re being taught. It logically makes sense to me that this learning principle might be the best for my brain, but unfortunately, I’ve so rarely been given the opportunity to learn like this that I’m not sure if it is in fact how I learn best.
8. Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning is so important! So much of what we are taught (not necessarily what we learn!) in primary school, we won’t remember for the rest of our lives, nor will it be necessary to. Lifelong learning is motivated by one’s own assurance that what they’re learning has intrinsic importance, relevance, usefulness, ect.
