My own assumptions about learning

(Based on my beliefs and experience)

I am truly convinced that the process of learning implies different variables such as shared efforts to construct knowledge, the creation of meaningful contexts, a good pack of effective strategies carefully selected according to students’ real needs, a good selection of material for them to explore the significance of English as a foreign language and the appropriate instruments to assess evaluation. All this procedure is quite necessary, although it can hardly complete learners’ acquisition of the English language.

Generally, teachers deliver their classes in badly equipped classrooms only using traditional resources like blackboard, piece of chalk, pens and paper, copybooks, photocopied material supported by signs, hand-outs, real objects and something of the sort. Some schools do not even have internet connection in the classrooms.  The entire class develops in a conventional exposition of language and grammar topics. It follows teaching isolated skills. As a matter of fact, students do not get involved in their own process of learning. They find these lessons quite boring and feel frustrated instead.

However, teachers discuss the problem concerning teaching with their co-workers in order to find more accurate techniques and strategies for increasing their students’ levels of motivation and enhancing performance in the class.

As if it weren’t enough, teachers do not know for certain if their students actually understand the lessons and the question arises: Are they ready to do tests at the end of the term?

As far as I am concerned, learning is one the most complex activities teachers can achieve nowadays due to lack of effective instructional strategies, technology factors and meaningful content curricula. Learners definitely require more challenging complex contexts to build up their own learning. The more they actively participate in solving problems the more they can get knowledge. If they can manipulate computers in class they can put their ideas into action, use the different interactive resources Internet offers, access to free e-learning sessions and make visible that process of learning which remains invisible to our eyes. Teachers could also follow their progress and enable social connections among them and most importantly achieve a teachable moment for both teacher and student.