Plotting the landscape

I am writing a blog in order to investigate my own teaching and learning philosophy and in particular my attitude towards on-line learning. This is a hermeneutic exercise, one in which I need to interpret my own responses to on-line learning and compare them with the literature left behind by others who have undertaken a similar exercise. Before I can do this though, I need to sketch an outline of my philosophy as it stands. 

This will at first be hazy, perhaps more of a mirage with only certain shapes taking definite form. I will certainly have to use metaphors, as a philosophy is something intangible and in flux. Firstly, though, I will need to describe the landscape that my philosophy is part of  - in other words define the parameters of my philosophy (as it is not a philosophy about life, but only that part of life spent teaching and learning).

There are two main parts to what must be investigated if I am to describe my philosophy fully: teaching and learning. These are not the same. Here is my first assumption, and one that may in fact be part of my philosophical viewpoint, but one that I cannot do without. I must separate teaching from learning because concerns about the two fields occupy different places in any planned approach to education. For example, a new teacher starting their first day on the job will have a keen awareness of the methods they can employ (freshly taught at training college) in order to facilitate a part of the lesson. This awareness is not the same as their awareness of the learners in the class and the various ways in which they respond to the new teacher and the new subject.  Their awareness is something separate from the milieu of the classroom and all the activity that takes place in a single lesson. In reality teaching and learning are not separable, but in our awareness and analysis of them they are discrete. 

If we consider teaching, then we have several fields of concern: how we teach – or the methodology; what we teach – the outcomes; and why we teach – the motivation. Each of these must be considered if the exegesis is to be complete and a personal philosophy about learning and teaching online is to be developed. In terms of learning, it will be important to investigate theories about how we learn as well as models of the types of learner. Once these areas have been mapped I can apply my discoveries to the condition of learning on-line.

Throughout the exercise I must make sure that I remain aware of James Draper’s caution that a practitioner’s language may not always be genuine: that there may be terminology that is in vogue but not really understood (Draper 1993). This is especially true when trying to get to grips with a philosophy of teaching and learning.

Draper, J. (1993) Valuing what we do as practitioners. In Barer-Stein, T., & Draper, J. (eds.) The craft of teaching adults. Pp. 55-67 Culture Concepts: Toronto