Learning

Last week while attending my church services, the topic of learning came up. In fact, the entire lesson was on learning, how it is everyone's right to be able to learn, and how in this day and age opportunities for learning are more accessible than ever. With that, we all need to take advantage of these opportunities and learn. I believe this learning needs to be balanced (just like everything in our lives). It needs to have a portion of spiritual learning (whatever your beliefs), it needs to have physical learning (to me that is knowing what your body needs, how to take care of it, and actually doing those things), and then you need to have learning that helps you succeed in the world (that can be anything from college, apprenticeships, or personal study). Now, learning needs to be something that happens everyday. It should be something we all desire AND something we share in love and gratitude. For what is the worth of learning something? Just for you to know or for you to do and share?

All of these thoughts brought me back to what I've been studying and doing in school. I have been somewhat doubting whether what I do will really make a difference for someone so their life if better. But, this lesson was a reminder that my work can and will make a difference for people. I am so excited to be stepping much closer to my dissertation this semester and have decided I want to work with the non-cognitive aspects of problem-based learning for my topic. The cognitive outcomes are encouraging and I believe this learning philosophy/strategy can make a difference in how people learn and in how they perceive learning.