Month: May 2025

Here Frankie Kerr wrote about their best learning experience.

That sounds like it was an incredibly engaging learning experience – almost like a weekly summer camp! It amazing to hear how passionate Vicky towards teaching her students.

I agree that Vicky took a more constructivist style of teaching. It seems like she prefers the ‘show, not tell’ approach, which I think amplifies the effectiveness of constructivism by allow her students to create their own experiences. I think another important aspect of this was the collaborative learning aspect you mentioned in the survival unit. Not only were you provided the chance to work and adapt as a team to survive, but you had the opportunity to share your team’s thought process and and learn from other team as well.

Thank you for sharing!

Prompt: Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

My single best learning experience while at university was in my first-year technical writing course. Prior to this course, I did not have experience with technical writing, nor did I have great proficiency with other aspects, such as grammar, audience, and being concise. After receiving a mark on an essay that did not meet my expectations, I went to my professor’s office hours for help. Here, he helped me reach a better understanding of these concepts. For example, the use of semi-colon. First, it started with a behaviorist style of instruction by being able to identify where to place a semi-colon in a paragraph, which was met by either a yes or no response. Although this was useful for understanding the basic function of a semi-colon, it was not sufficient for understanding why it was being used. The next step was to take a more cognitive approach: define what a semi-colon is and it’s proper applications. This served to increase my confidence to apply the punctuation in my own writing. Having new learned this new tool, my professor challenged me to use it in my next essay – this emphasized learner control and active use of knowledge through a constructivism-style of instruction. With the combination of all three instructional methods, I went from being unfamiliar of the use of a semi-colon to being fully confident in its application and using it correctly in an essay.

Effective transfer was created by using the instructional methods in a way that built upon eachother. Although the behavioral instruction did not appropriately ‘teach’ how a semi-colon is used, it was necessary as a foundation to develop more complex mental planning, so the information was stored meaningfully. With the information properly process and remembered, I could still use it later when writing my essay. I enjoyed this lesson because each step presented the challenge of learning something new, but the difficulty from step to step was not overwhelming, nor did it feel discouraging at any point. Lastly, I enjoyed this lesson because I felt like I gained knowledge and added a new tool to my academic writing skills.  

Hello, my name is Isaac Best and I am a 5th year student in Civil Engineering. Before I graduate, I still need to finish this semester and one more co-op job.

I am taking this course because I would like to be a teacher some day, so I am hoping that the content of this course will help me in the future. I don’t know what to expect from this course, but I look forward to learning along side my classmates this semester.

I live in Langford where I rent a room in my brother’s place. My interests include rock climbing, meditation, and general fitness. Recently, I have been working to improve myself by reading before bed, stretching, and maintaining a consistent diet.