The virtual session Learning Theories and Principles of Learning provided information about the three most influential approaches, behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism with their basic ideas and theories.

Behaviorism can be seen as the oldest approach which was on the daily programme in schools of the past. Especially in foreign languages teachers took and still take their preferred method drill and practice for vocabulary learning. In this case the teacher gives input and the pupils have to repeat it. In my school time this approach was used a lot and I really liked it because it was helpful for efficient vocabulary learning. For me it is important to hear vocabulary more than once to remember them and therefore the drill and practice is the best method for me. Unfortunately, this approach is regarded as obsolete today and rarely used in today’s schools. One argument for that is that it cannot be used for all kinds of learning.

Today’s teaching methods are mostly based on the cognitivism approach, in which the learner himself is responsible for his learning process by searching for information in order to solve problems. Through explorative learning the pupil exposes himself understandable information which assumes the curiosity and interest of the learner. I also like this approach, because the pupils become active and learn by doing. They gather information by themselves which makes them learn facts and strategies. Explorative learning takes real problems drawn from life, which arise the pupils’ interest, and the learner has to research information himself. But in this case, too, I think it cannot be used in every lesson and for every topic discussed in class.

The third approach, constructivism, focuses on primary concepts instead of isolated facts. For constructivists learning is a search for meaning, in which the pupils construct their own meaning. As a result the meaning is never objective as it is created by the individual. Therefore knowledge is constructed by the learner and not instructed by the teacher. I like the idea about the teacher being a coach cooperating with the students. But as far as I am concerned this approach as the pupil is regarded as an individual who searches for his own meaning does not leave space for the correct answer or solution to a special problem. Another problem is the time that this approach demands being put into practice. I think the curriculum does not leave enough time to use this approach often in German classrooms.

All three approaches offer different definitions of learning and knowledge. In my opinion, it cannot be said which approach is best to do in class. Therefore I think successful learning can be gained by the combination of all three.

Moreover the virtual session Learning Theories and Principles of Learning was about the important facts of lifelong learning, which is a form of pedagogy often accomplished by distance education. Further, lifelong learning means all learning activity undertaken throughout life with the aim of improving competence, skills, and knowledge. As distance education is mostly based on new media, e.g. the internet, I think it is indispensable to acquire media competence. This competence includes methodological (to obtain, structure, store, format, edit, interpret, evaluate and present information), scientific (professional proficiency, knowledge, and experience), and social skills (to communicate, to cooperate, teamwork, fairness, commitment, independence, self-confidence, compassion, knowledge of human nature, and critical faculty).

Looking at these various types of skills it becomes obvious how important it is to introduce the pupils in the new media and to help them with their use. Therefore it is necessary for us, the future teachers, to have media competence in order to teach our pupils the right use of new media, as they are regarded as the basis of distance education and lifelong learning.

The main topic the first session in the course New Media in Foreign Language Education dealt with was an interview with Mark Bauerlein, who wrote the book The Dumbest Generation – How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or: Don`t Trust Anyone Under 30).

One important argumentation we find in the interview with Mr. Bauerlein is the misuse of the internet by American teenagers, who only communicate via the internet with their friends after school, instead of regarding the internet as media which contains a lot of information about things that might be important at school. Because of chatting, playing online games or watching TV almost the whole day the pupils do not spare any time for more important matters – studying for school. As a result the teenagers get dumber and dumber and do not know anything about literature, history and politics, in which they do not take part by missing elections.

In Mark Bauerlein’s opinion the students’ attitude towards learning has to be changed by the teachers, who should remind their pupils of the importance that lies in reading books, in order to gain more knowledge that is essential for their future life.

Although Mr. Bauerlein gives a detailed argumentation throughout the interview, I think he is too general in his research by saying these failure can be found in every American student.

Of course there are many teenagers who spend most of their leisure time in the internet by chatting with their friends from school. This fact can be seen as a group pressure because a lot of pupils do that. Unfortunately Mr. Bauerlein does not make a distinction between the lazy children and the pupils using the internet for researching the topics discussed at school.

I think it is important to have communication via the internet with friends you cannot see every day because they live in another town or even in another country, but as some of the children mostly are in contact with their friends from school, I regard chatting as senseless. Although the pupils learn how to express themselves through written language, in my opinion it would be better to meet their friends after school in order to have real face-to-face conversations.

As far as I am concerned teachers and parents should clearly show the children what other things one can do with the internet instead of chatting and playing online games. The importance should be made on researching facts, in order to aim knowledge. Therefore it is the teachers’ task to introduce a more important way of using the internet to their students.

To put it in a nutshell it can be said that Mark Bauerlein talking about his book The Dumbest Generation is too general in his argumentation, although all of his statements seem to fit to most of the American teenagers. The course New Media in Foreign Language Education will be helpful for students who want to become teachers, in order to gain information about how to use the internet at school the right way. It is important for us to learn how we can show our pupils the different ways of researching special topics or events, because the teachers are the ones who have to explain to them why it is significant to have a wide knowledge in their future lives.

Hello readers!

Welcome to Lorenarausch’s blog.