PD 7: Learning Woes

This post is part of my blog project “Pedagogy Discourses (PDs),” which is a course requirement at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU).

The Problem

Struggling with college coursework seems normal. In fact, I do not recall a course throughout my time as a student that I found very easy. However, there was one course that stood out in terms of sheer difficulty: my third year Survey of Non-Western Literatures class.

While we understand the need for rigor in higher-level classes, that course was extremely difficult that we all disliked how it was conducted. Firstly, the teacher imposed many expectations on our class without even asking what ours were. Secondly, he only asked us to read the literary selections without setting the context or helping us find an intrinsic reason or motivation for reading - something we had to find for ourselves. Thirdly, in our daily recitations, he always immediately goes to ask the hardest questions - those that require substantial interpretation - without even asking the basic comprehension questions or adjusting their complexity. Lastly, there was also a student factor: Apart from those who did not read, most of us struggled to properly interpret the selections. For example, while I could offer my group during groupwork my personal informed interpretations, they seemed to be not thoroughly informed by the perspective I was supposed to use.

In terms of constructivist approaches, I failed to properly learn for two reasons: Cognitively, I was stuck at a stage of disequilibrium. It was either my background knowledge was insufficient to assimilate new information from the teacher (or classmates) or we were unable to accommodate, change, or revise our prior understanding of ideas because of the complexity of the new information. Socially, I was unable to reach the upper levels of our Zone of Proximal Development on many occasions because of the proper lack of facilitation or guidance from either my classmates (as the secondary More Knowledgeable Other [MKO]) or the teacher (as the main MKO). Hence, learning the literary selection was inhibited of these two failures to activate constructivist principles.

Fast Forward: Future Directions

That unpleasant course could have been better if it had at least activated constructivist principles. On the one hand, as a learner, I knew that I had to drive my own learning, or nothing will happen (and I would not have passed the course). At that point, my circle of friends teamed up to read the texts carefully and do our own research before each class. Each of us served as the MKO for every roundtable discussion we held every week. For example, because I previously reported in a past Philosophy class about the Indian culture and folklore, I was able to provide enough guidance to my friends in understanding the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. As the MKO in those moments, I would like to think I applied a form of scaffolding where I established the context with them and helped them recollect their prior knowledge of Indian culture. After we had built the foundation, we worked together to enrich - and even rectify - our understanding and interpretation of those epics.

On the other hand, as a teacher, I told myself that the said literature class is something I do not want my future students to experience. While I have only taught literature twice since I began teaching, I have strived to apply constructivist principles. In so doing, I take the persona of not an absolute authority figure as is often the case in traditional classrooms, but as a co-learner and facilitator. For instance, I ask questions where the questions gradually become difficult during interactive class discussions. When students are unable to ask them, I return to questions that would enable them to tap on their background knowledge. I also give them opportunities to work in groups, where I also try to participate actively when going around the classroom. Furthermore, in literature (or reading) classes, I make sure that students understand the context of the readings and have the necessary prior knowledge that they can tap as they proceed through the class.