According to Albert (2012) effective learning takes place through the interaction of a more knowledgeable other (MKO). Mangal (2019) states that an MKO can be a parent, a teacher or somebody who is generally more knowledgeable in a specific topic.
At the start of the session, we were instructed to open ‘Dream Weaver’, a web development tool which was pre-installed on the apple mac computers. Myself and my peers had never used this software prior to this session, and therefore Mark, our tutor for this module was our more knowledgeable other. Mark used his projector screen to show us, as a group a step by step demonstration of how to open dream weaver and set up the software correctly.
Fisher and Frey (2008) suggest that for effective learning to take place, the students must witness the MKO demonstrating the task. I agree with this statement as I found that watching Mark demonstrate each step on his PC helped me to retain the information more easily and I was able to quickly and effectively set up the software.
However, as it was the first time each of us had logged into this software, it resulted in numerous issues for some students. The main one of these which seemed to run throughout the whole session was that the group were continuously on different stages to each other. This led to many individuals, including myself waiting around. Fricke (2016) reports that this lack of instruction can lead to student disengagement within a session. Strickland and Alvermann (2004) also identify that learning time which is taken away from some students due to distractions in the classroom can have significant effects on their learning. I agree with both of these statements, as I did start to feel quite disengaged and also felt as though my learning was being affected.
While I understand that during a session like this one where we are following the tutor’s demonstrations, there will be issues such as these that can not be helped, however, for future lessons it could be beneficial to have a step by step instruction manual for each student to allow them to work at their own pace. This would allow the students who needed extra help to receive it, while not affecting the other student’s learning.
The main focus of this session was CSS, this is an acronym for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS pinpoints how the developer wants the HTML displayed on the page. We were instructed to copy the CSS codes from the board into our dream weaver software. While this kind of task can be extremely disengaging for me usually, I found that the software had code tips which came up as I began typing which were extremely helpful. Another benefit of using the dream weaver software was that if I had unintentionally typed in a code wrong, it would alert me by turning the line number bright red. I feel as though I felt this benefit even more after using text edit to type up HTML last week which did not have this feature enabled, resulting in numerous mistakes.
When the codes on the Dream Weaver software showed up red, Mark gave us the chance to discover why they were incorrect for ourselves and therefore allowing us to take a discovery learning approach. According to Piaget, effective learning is acquired through personal discovery rather than accepting new knowledge from others (Jarvis, 2005). “Discovery learning is a means by which students engage in problem solving in developing knowledge or skills” (Moore, 2009, p.178).
Although Ausobel did not agree that learning through discovery was efficient due to the time it can take (Queen, 2003), I believe that that this learning approach is extremely effective as I was able to work out for myself why the codes were not working. I also feel that I will remember this information better after discovering the solutions for myself.
Overall, while I initially found the dream weaver software very daunting, I easily got used to the basics of it and was able to complete of the set tasks and create a webpage with a specific layout and five pages which were linked onto my homepage.
At the end of the session Mark gave us time to experiment with our webpages which we had made. I wanted to make all the five pages have different background colours. Although we were not instructed how to do this task, I was able to use my newly found knowledge to create new CSS documents which contained the different background colours which I was then able to apply to the five web pages I had previously created. The successful completion of this task backs up the theory that discovery learning is extremely effective. Being able to do this made me feel like I had genuinely learnt a new skill during this session and I left feeling very positive.
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Reference List
Albert, L. (2012) Rhetorical Ways of Thinking: Vygotskian Theory and Mathematical Learning. London. Springer.
Fisher, D. and Frey, N. (2008) Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility. Virginia. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Fricke, K. (2015) Classroom Management and its Impact on Lesson Outcomes in Physics. Dissertation. University of Duisburg-Essen.
Jarvis, M. (2005) The Psychology of Effective Learning and Teaching. Cheltenham. Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Mangal, S. (2019) Psychology of Learning and Development. Delhi. PHI Learning Private Ltd.
Moore, K. (2009) Effective Instructional Strategies: From Theory to Practice. London. Sage Publications.
Strickland, D. and Alvermann, D. (2004) Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap, Grades 4-12. New York. Teachers College Columbia University.
Queen, A. (2003) The Block Scheduling Handbook. California. Corwin Press Ltd.
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