Additional Assignment #2

Sugata Mita: The Child-Driven Education
This particular video was one that I feel is very informative and reaffirm some of my beliefs as it relates to learning. For starters, I feel that before anyone can reach their maximum learning potential, they must be motivated. That's not to say that an unmotivated person will not learn, I just feel that they will not maximize how much they learn. I feel that a motivated learner will go the extra mile to get the most out of their educational setting, even if that means teaching themselves. Even though the use of computers and having access to the internet can be a great tool, I feel that a teacher who is present will play the most important role in helping a child to learn. Within this video, Mr. Mita talked about a couple of instances where he did a learning experiment with school-aged children. After listening to the responses from the children, it is apparent that not only are kids able to learn, but when they are motivated, they are more than capable of teaching themselves. One of the questions that I'm suppose to answer in this blog post is: How do you motivate someone to learn? After I really thought about this question, my answer would have to be that there is not one single method that one can point to as an answer. Since we all learn differently, we must use multiple methods when trying to get a group of people to learn. As it relates to children, I feel that allowing them to interact with their peers is very effective in terms of getting them to learn. Personally, my motivation for continued learning comes from my desire to become a teacher who can make a difference. In order for me to do that, I must be competent in what I'm going to be teaching my students.