Learning Theories and Emergent Theories of Learning - Essay Example

Topic Module Orientation Starratt (2008) delved on the significance of virtue and moral character in instruction and learning process for education leaders. Starratt (2008) argued that students should not only be taught to become competitive in the market based on curriculum but also to mould them to be prepared for cultural, natural, and historical reality in the world affairs. Starratt (2008) posit that decontextualized and depersonalized learning method in instruction posed an inauthentic, dishonest, disrespectful, and, hence, do not a virtuous learning approach (p. 1). Learners should be taught to discover the relevance and goodness of dialogue between learners and the relation of intelligible realities to their mutual interdependence (Starratt, 2008, p 1). These learning processes need learning-centred and extensive monitoring of their academic progress, as well as, diagnose the learning difficulties of students (Masters, 2005). Standard academic development is relevant to meet the needs and teachers must be constructivist broad-based leaders inside every classroom as a strategy (Lambert, 2003). The learning-centred approaches refers to the nurturing of students for clarity of knowledge, skills, and understanding including the academic design, diagnosis, and monitoring of individual progress (Lambert, 2003). Hence, it’s important that teachers possess quality teaching materials for effective teaching strategies (Lambert, 2003). Module 2: Authenticity and Authentic learning Gross (2004) observed that numerous educators and schools are not quite supported by the government and hence, confront serious disruption in their roles as educators and expert managers of educational institutions. With lacking supports, educators are pulled from completing and achieving their targets hence, demoralizing students, teachers and managers (Gross, 2004). Education can only be successful when institutions are supported by the government to make it an effective and efficient service institution. This value-oriented education will put all learners within the positive tract and will motivate them to become pro-active stakeholders in a community that is struggling to remove the vestiges of poverty, illiteracy, social inequities, and ecological-related problems (Starrat, 2005). This can bring about the highest form of commitment and leadership in all endeavours and context. Teachers therefore play a crucial role in nurturing values and principle-centred knowledge for learners to genuinely and authentically live their lives in a deeply meaningful and value-centred sense of purpose. But these ideals can only be undertaken with support for change management; curriculum-instruction assessment; professional development practices; innovative pedagogical approach; and, education management (Gross, 2004; Wehlage, Newmann, & Secada, 1996). The learning process should be innovative and motivating for an authentic outcome using learners and instructors’ skills and ability to innovate means to elicit or generate the authentic outcome of education (Parens, 2005; Glendinning, 2005) Module 3: Learning Theories and Emergent Theories of Learning Teachers must develop a curriculum that is supported of an environment where students are allowed full participation, dialogue, inquiry, reflection, and rediscovering of the transformational models to revive their sense of purposiveness in this world (Tuana, 2007; Wehlage, Newmann, & Secada, 1996; Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004). Everybody has the notion that teachers are there to engage learners to improve their crafts, to make them action and result-oriented, and to inculcate on learners to be adaptive to changes and to possess such disposition of assuming responsibility to question falsities. It’s also from this notion that those who’d found the need to rise up from challenges brace themselves to respond to perplexed and multidimensional concerns on civilization, poverty, lack of access to quality education, conflicts and war, excessive human rights violations, and about practicing equity (Tuana, 2007; Wehlage, Newmann, & Secada, 1996; Bush, 2006; Magliaro, Lockee, & Burton, 2005; Cooperstein & Kocevar-Weidinger, 2004; ). As civilization advance and the learning processes needs to be adaptive too of the post-modern developments, teachers need to undergo continuing education and trainings to update themselves of new emergent theories of education— from naturalist, realist, idealist, contemporary to post contemporary approaches of learning process. Education should lead and innovate ways for changes and development, too, so as not to make its system within standards; not archaic and too traditional (Deubal, 2003; Applefield & Moallem, 2000; Greeno, 1997; Richardson, 2003; Gregory, 2002 Haynes, Mills, Christie, & Lingard, 2006 Rowe, 2006; Twomey, 1996; & Hamilton, 2007). Module 4: Leading Learning For students to learn, the teachers must lead. Teachers must continually improve their knowledge to increase their knowledge needed for classroom and experimental constructivist instruction (Lewi & Hill, 1998; Freilec, 2004; Smith, 2007; Davis & Sumara, 2007). This could also help facilitate critical academic discourse in generating inferences on social realities while at the same time keep options within the bounds of moral choices (Wehlage, et al., 1996; Robinson, 2006). With wide storage of knowledge, they can offer in-depth coaching and share leadership skills but at the same time, approach their learners and colleagues as valued contributor in a sharing, dialogue, critiquing, rethinking, and bridging of professional community and delving on issues on ecological preservation (Wehlage, et al., 1996; Fenwick, 2000; Smith, 2007; Lewis & Andrews,2007; MacNeill, Cavanagh, & Silsox, 2005). Education must therefore be adoptive to changing times (Bishop & Limerick, 2006; Storey, 2006 ). It’s in this context that experts dealt the dualism of educational philosophy: language and practice (De Souza, 2004; Hayes, Christie, & Lingard, 2004; Fink, 2005; Southworth, 2005). They adopted an educational pattern for cognitive development and for values education to develop a standard behaviour and intelligence of learners and to nurture that sense of commitment among individuals based on virtue and values (De Souza, 2004; Lambert, 2003, Noddings, 2010; Mulford, 2006; Frost, 2006; Duignan, 2007; Andrews & Crowther, 2002; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005; Bezzina, Burford, & Duignan, 2007; Robinson, 2007). Module 5: Authenticity in Catholic Education De Souza (2004), Treston (2007), Davis (1999), and Shimabukuro (2000) asserted that Values Education and Clarification have been considered by the state as significant matter that should be integrated in the curriculum to teach learners moral values as an inspirational tool in defining their good relation with the rest of humanity and creation. Since the 1960s, moral values are a significant parcel in the formation of the learners’ affective domains to integrate their emotional, attitudinal, values and beliefs’ constructions (De Souza, 2004; D’Orsa, 2008). Experts believed that values and moral are derivatives of peoples’ emotive sense and, thus, are not viewed as relevant in their cognitive being (Burford, 2004). Hence, it’s this dichotomy of human existence that made it confusing and difficult to arrive at a common understanding on values of education (White, 2008). Some psychologists observed that this has been considered as an effective tool since historical experiences proved that the integration of values in improving learners’ intellectual pursuits made people resilient in times of recession, conflicts, and social upheavals and during wars (Cacioppe & Edwards, 2005; Glendinning, 2005; Gross, 2004). It also served business companies who struggled to survive from economic depression; to adopt principle-centred business management; and to manage the changes required to sustain its business interest (Herrington & Kervin, 2007; Hodgkinson, 1996). Many of these business leaders have integrated values in their relation with their human resources, with customers and with the rest of their business stakeholders (Starratt, 2008). As such, it can be inferred that if values are significantly lived as a model or pattern of behaviour to maintain a credible and integral corporate image (Parens, 2005; Peterson, 2005; & Starratt, 2005). From personal values, transformational leaders could adopt these principles as an organizational value that will govern their relation with the community (Tuana, 2007; Wehlage, Newmann, & Secada, 1996). Some sociologist shared purview that values is a phenomenal attribute of human beings whose education attained has nurtured them to opt for positive attributes instead of those negative attitudes. Therefore, moral education is important so that people can choose to apply positive behaviours toward a value-led life (Yelland, 2006). Experts believed that the wisdom derived from ideation and empirical facts, from information (including disinformation) and images, weave the meaning and knowledge to make sense of the world about us. Education is said to be the panacea to both personal and social illnesses. Experts argue that as a number of youths seemed to be confronting such perceived mental illness born out of depression, thus, there appears need to holistically respond to look into the physical, emotional, psychological, social and cultural necessities or well-being of learners to make them become adaptive of resilient measures (Putney, 2008). 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