"Now I Understand".....

The student said, "and the projects are like manila folders. See, I need a picture in order to get it."

Moments of understanding cannot be hurried and are tough to replicate. Having executed both lessons I created for Ped II to the identified groups, I've had the chance to apply many concepts we've explored to real world experience. A few things I'm walking away with that I believe will help me as I continue on in my career.

Learning can't be rushed.
Instructors are facilitators to learning. As an instructor, I can present concepts and employ a variety of instructional strategies and methods, but I can't make the student learn. As Tomlinson and McTighe indicate in the Student Variance for Learning Chart on pg 17 of our text, many intersecting factors, weighted at various strengths, can each impact student learning.
Readiness to learn is critical to the learning process.


Impact of the culture of the learning environment.
The realization that in some environments little value is placed on learning, even on necessary learning, is tough to digest. And with the constraints of many business environments, coupled with a sometimes myopic focus on productivity and profitability, the value placed on the outcomes of learning can easily be overlooked.
Creating an ROI of proposed investment in educating or training may be a key variable to shifting the perception of the value of learning.

Understanding terminology.
Being able to think in terms of Instructional Strategies and Methods is so empowering. Finding resources that I can continue to use to develop and validate my instructional choices as I continue in my career is of great value to me.
My framework of understanding cognitive processing has expanded.

Planning takes time.
Although I came to the course having an understanding of the time involved in creating lessons, training programs, etc. the time investment to lesson planning really left an impression on my during this course. And I don't think it was just because we were studying the process.
Time to develop or implement instructional tools that effectivley support the method is significant.

I could go on with my meta analysis but will close here by saying I feel more confident in my understanding of learning and instructional design as a result of the experirnces that I've had during the past twelve weeks. This course has closed gaps for me with regard to instruction and has wet my appetite to continue to study cognitive processing.