To appropriately think about learning, one must look beyond the field of education and at life in general. As I watch my now 14-month-old daughter develop, I see the open-mind and curiosity she enters each day with and often find myself comparing it to the approach that I take with my learning/teaching and that I see within my students. The relationship between teaching and learning is more natural than we let on and often overcomplicated. The brain naturally responds to adversity and craves using its problem-solving skills to get overcome obstacles. As Dr. Harapnuik (2019) mentions within his learning philosophy, I too view myself as the facilitator in the classroom. I believe the relationship between teaching and learning is collaborative and should take on a collective team approach, using individual specialties to reach a common goal, whatever it may be. Throughout my years of schooling as both a student and a teacher, I have learned and taught in various settings and seen the power of the dynamic between student and student as well as student and teacher.

            I have and always will view myself as a lifelong learner. Each year in the classroom I learn just as much from my students as I hope they learn from me. As a learner, I work best when I am challenged. Douglas Thomas (2012) discusses in his TEDx presentation the power of presenting learners with obstacles to overcome. When I am put in a situation where I must think critically and outside of the box, I gain a deeper understanding and a stronger ability to apply the material appropriately. Additionally, I have found that I learn best when I take the time to reflect on the learning processes that I went through to the reach the point that I am currently at, metacognition if you will. Understanding how I reached my current point and being aware of adversity I faced along the way allows me to continue to grow as a learner. As a mathematics major in undergrad, I required consistent exposure to the content with a great deal of repetition. I often compared this to my athletic career and used the connection between academics and non-academics to justify my approaches and the power of practice. Lastly, as a learner I need to know the why. I need to buy in that there is value in doing what I am doing and that it will somehow help me out in the future. This can be as broad as helping me further develop my problem-solving skills, or as specific as allowing me to work with an individual student who was a rare learning disability that I am unfamiliar with.

            My learning philosophy has helped mold my teaching philosophy to what it is today and continues to do so day in and day out. The main difference is that in my classroom I am responsible for establishing the culture, which I believe is the most important part of teaching. Both learning and teaching philosophies are fluid and adapt to their surrounding depending on a variety of factors, but in learning I am responsible for myself while in teaching I am responsible both myself and those in my classroom. My students look to me to facilitate the instruction and put them in the best position possible to be successful. And although many of my students would prefer direct instruction with me simply completing examples at the board, they come to learn that their conceptual understanding derive from being challenged and having some productive struggle where they are forced to recall on prior knowledge and make connections.

            It is difficult to identify myself with one learning theory as I feel I have reached the point where I am by collecting ideas from each. With that said, I believe I align most closely with Cognitive Constructivism. I view learning as an interaction, social, and contextual process and that teaching/learning is most effective when it is student driven. To be able to apply and synthesize the learned content, the learner must truly interact with it in a way that uses their self-built foundation and connects it to new ideas. Communicating ideologies with peers to compare strategies authenticates the learning for everyone rather than having a shared one-way understanding in a teacher-driven direct instruction setting. The main theorist that identified with this learning theory with Jean Piaget. Piaget viewed learning as a cumulative process, a message which I consistently emphasize to my students. He referenced three components: equilibration, assimilation, and accommodation as the catalyst to learning. My learning philosophy does take one of the main ideas from Humanism (which I believe is built into Cognitive Constructivism in a way) of prioritizing the teacher-student relationship. As a high school student and beyond, I felt I learned best when in a setting where I felt comfortable voicing my opinion and where I was respected by the authoritative figure in the room. Viewing the learners as equals and meaningful components in the learning process is key in student engagement and investment.

            The parallels that I have with Cognitive Constructivism have driven my desire to implement blended learning into my classroom and eventually my organization. Having students take ownership of their learning and manipulating my role from the class leader to the class facilitator will be a large step forward in ensuring that I am educating the whole student rather than simply developing limited skills. Blended learning is student-driven and makes use of the many available resources that are available to teachers and students nowadays. Having a course management system, Schoology, where my often inquiry-based activities can live, and built-in discussion boards can provide the ample environment for students to interact with one another even in a remote setting. My emphasis on truly interacting with materials within my own learning and my students learning will continue to drive my views on teaching and learning.

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