Skip to main content

Seminar 2: How Can One Actually Learn?

A very interesting thing I learned about in the second seminar was about the zone of proximal development. It sounds like a bunch of jargon but it isn't that hard to understand. The zone of proximal development is a theory in educational psychology that tries to find the optimal spot where children can learn and be independent at the same time. On one side, the student can do a task. On the other side, the student cannot do a task. A common trait that both sides share is that this is where learning does NOT happen. Strangely, I found it to be an important realization. Before, I would associate learning a very hard topic as learning, even if I struggled a lot and had no idea what was going on. Although I had an assumption that I was learning because it was a difficult topic, in reality I did not learn anything at all.
Other insights I got from the seminar is that it is quite hard for a teacher to ensure that all the students are learning and flourishing in the class. As the advisor said, "Teachers change their learning plan all the time." The students' range of skills are all over the spectrum so it is kind of hard to make their learning individualized when there is only one teacher and one curriculum. Unfortunately, in the classes I have attended, some students struggle a lot in class. Their answers are not valued as much in the class because they answered the question incorrectly. To prevent this scenario from happening (one where no learning takes place), their answers should still be valued in class discussion because instead of automatically correcting them as wrong or right, trying to listen to various answers helps to facilitate a discussion that is open to all students. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Accepted BU RISE Essays

BU RISE is a 6-week research program at Boston University. In 2019, the acceptance rate was around 16% so it is a selective program. There are two tracks- internship and practicum. The internship is the one I applied to because I wanted to work in a lab. Unfortunately, BU RISE in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. If you are applying to BU RISE, these essays may be a source of inspiration.  1.Why you selected your field of interest and what you would like to research (300 words)  First choice: medical laboratory research (biochemistry) Second choice: chemistry  Ever since 2018, I participated in a Science Olympiad event called Protein Modeling that sparked my interest in proteins. When I learned about the anti-CRISPR protein, it alarmed me that the protein stopped CRISPR from working. Wondering how this could happen, I used Jmol to build and visualize the protein model. Over time, I no longer viewed proteins as messy globs. Instead, I appreciated that the protein’s disti...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Funny Thing About Memory

 The more I stay in the U.S., the more I remember my years in Taiwan in a positive light. I feel like my nostalgia for Taiwan caused my memories to become distorted. When I lived in Taiwan, I disliked the humid environment and the gray skies after rainy days. I complained that the buildings had gray walls from the mold that grew on them. In elementary school, I wished that the city planning reflected the U.S. system where all the residential buildings were together instead of having commercial and residential buildings next to each other. After returning to the U.S. five years later, however, I don't really think those aspects of Taiwan were really downsides. Nowadays, I somehow manage to neglect those "downsides" whenever I think of Taiwan.  What I currently think about Taiwan is not what I expected to reflect upon the most as I boarded the plane to San Francisco in 2016. When I saw the green land vanish before my eyes outside my airplane window, I thought about how much...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why I Blog

 For the past two years, I have been blogging every so often, but I never asked myself why I blogged. The main reason I blog is to store and organize my thoughts that I keep hearing in my brain. These thoughts range from past memories to feelings of disappointment or anger. By writing my thoughts, I gain some clarity. Also, blogging serves as a form of self-reflection that I need to do on a regular basis or else my brain still acts fuzzy.  Although I write a lot of posts that aren't positive, I have a pretty good life. The reason that I tend to write a lot of negative things about myself on the blog is that if I don't write about bad things, then they keep bothering me. Worse, I may not learn from my mistakes or lessons. Still, I will try to balance out the negative content with some positive content because I want this blog to be useful for others. I don't want a blog where I all I do is criticize myself for failing to live up to my expectations. Instead, I want this websi...
Post a Comment
Read more