processes of theory and learning

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Alan Sinfield                PGCE

Processes of Learning and Teaching – CED 351

Learning, what a bore!  This was how I addressed the daily issue of attending school.  If someone had told me then that learning could be fun and I would spend a good part of my adult life involved in ‘voluntary’ learning I would have said they were mad.  How wrong was I!  On reflection, I can trace my Post-16 learning experiences back to shortly after I left school when I joined the Army in 1985.   For the next 10 years I was immersed in the ‘official’ training required for promotion and job related tasks.  This included a combination of military and engineering courses taken at various Army units across the United Kingdom and Germany.  I was also surprised to see that there was a 6 year period in which I did not attend any formal training courses.  In 2001 I started studying with the Open University (OU) and in 2004 I gained an entry level teaching qualification at a civilian college.  In 2004 I was posted into an instructing job where I was required to visit Army units around the world to give varying levels of tuition into the use of an engineering Management Information System (MIS).  I have gained additional, but limited teaching experience at HMS Sultan where I help to fill a long term teaching vacancy.  In this assignment I will look at the different learning and teaching methods used during my basic training and how they influenced my attitude and behaviour during my change from a civilian to a trained soldier.  I will look at my Artificer training, which was the last formal learning I did before the 6 year break, to discover if any of the learning and teaching methods influenced my decision not to participate in further education.

When discussing the role of the teacher, Reece and Walker (2005) suggest two possible approaches to the design of a teaching program to make learning as quick and easy as possible.  The first of these approaches, shown below, is dismissed as having a fundamental drawback but in my opinion captures the essence of how I was taught the core modules of basic soldiering when I was a ‘raw’ recruit.

‘A programme …. derived from an analysis of the students …. vocational

needs which is implemented by you in such a controlled and organised

manner that the student is almost certain to learn and is aware when the

learning has taken place.’

                                                (Reece and Walker, 2005, p3)

The military programme I undertook was derived from the vocational needs of a trained soldier.  The job of the military instructors was to change and mould the behaviour of a large group of civilians in such a way that we became the trained soldiers required by the Army.  The teaching methods employed many of the Behaviourist tools to change and mould my behaviour and attitude.  In some lessons the learning was achieved by using a number of measurable short term targets whilst working towards the overall requirement.  The instructors frequently gave rewards for reaching the short term targets but would also punish poor performance.  This ‘conditioning’ quickly shaped our behaviour and approach to the tasks in hand and we were soon motivated by the rewards (or lack of punishment) as much as achieving the required end state.  Other skills, in particular Weapon Handling which ensures safe and speedy correction of a number of weapon faults, were taught using Rote Learning.  The instructors were only interested in the learners memorizing the drills and retrieving the knowledge when necessary.  Each drill was repeated over and over again until it could be repeated at will and only then was the next drill introduced to the learners.  As a learning experience this was not the most enjoyable time but as a teaching method it was ideal.  Although this method of teaching required no original thought from the learner and there was no time given to process the information, the continuous repetition of the drills further conditioned me to react unconsciously to any given weapon state and edged me toward the final aim of firing a weapon safely.  But there must be more, I am more than a civilian who has been taught map reading, weapon training and other similar subjects.  

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I have five lessons to teach, what lessons they learn is entirely up to them.’

                                                        Nanny McPhee, 2005

The quote mentioned above was used by the character ‘Nanny McPhee’ to imply that some lessons are learned without there being a conscious awareness of the requirement to learn.  The context of the quote (and the short conversation before) further implied that there may not be any knowledge of how lessons are being learned and without there being any knowledge that a lesson has been learned (until after the fact).  This approach to learning falls into the field of Behaviourism ...

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