Different Minds: Same Thoughts

We may all have different minds- producing different words, expressions, feelings but in context, we did the same.

This is my reflection in our first assignment in Theories of Learning course. When I read some of the answers of my classmates, we all have the same context of what is intelligence and learning mean to us.

Learning is an unending process. We use intelligence in every moment of our lives. For me, intelligence won't matter on the cognitive abilities but on how you will use these abilities in serving society. This notion has been with my mind since high school, thus, creating my own Sabonsolin's Social Responsibility Theory.

This theory was commended by one of my classmates and also even though not stated but the same context to the answer of one of my classmates. She actually emphasized that it is the right of the state to use this intelligence to strengthen and solve concerns especially in basic social services.

For some scholars and theorists, and even to my fellow classmates, we all have our definition of intelligence. We do have our own perception of learning. We do have different paths to take and envision to go.

However, think of this question, why do you really want to learn? to whom do you want to dedicate it? and will you consider yourself successful without serving and contributing to society?

Let's all take this as a challenge. A step of using our intelligence for the betterment of our society, not for your selfish ambitions.

Always, Serve The People!

Intelligence of Intelligent

This is my first journal for my second semester of having my PTC course. I learned a lot of things about our introductory topic- Intelligence. I would like to highlight three things that I learned most in this course- definition of intelligence, nature vs nurture, and IQ testing.

Intelligence is a mental ability to solve the problem, to understand things in society, and on how you behave in an unexpected circumstance that comes in your life. 

There are so many great psychologists and scholars who actually argued and defined intelligence. However, I was struck to the words of Robert Sternberg when I read over the modules. Sternberg actually describes intelligence with three aspects, these are: analytical, practical, and creative. Before I read the module, this is also my notion of having intelligence by the different individuals. Personally, I won't be amazed by the cognitive aspects of individuals. When I am also a student, I also hate standardised tests (see my post in Assessment). However, I will be starstruck by those people who can analyze situations and could solve problems directly, creative with their works, and practical enough for new environments. 

There are also existing debates on nature vs nurture of intelligence. Nature means the biological factors and inheritance meanwhile, nurture talks about the influence of the environment. My stand on this is a mixed nature and nurture. Both factors could help an individual to develop and improve someone's intelligence.  

Lastly is the IQ or intelligent quotient. When I was still a kid until I become an Instructor, I actually associated IQ test results as something achievement that could define myself to become successful in life or not. However, in this module, I've learned that this is just a myth. 

IQ test results won't define ourselves. It might foresee your success in academics but not in life. Strive as hard as to how you want to be. And Serve the People always in your endeavours in life. We may have different perceptions, conceptions and notions about intelligence, it is still intelligence of the intelligents (intelligent people). 

Just Spell It.

L-E-A-R-N-I-N-G

This is a familiar word for all of us. Since the pre-elementary grades, our parents want us to learn. This word always reminds me to spare time for myself to gain knowledge about the lessons in school. However, it broadens my understanding of learning after I read the first module of our course "Theories of Learning".

I defined learning as an unending process and product in acquiring knowledge of certain things through experiences. I believe that this process of moulding ourselves through soliciting thoughts, ideas, and perceptions in life won't end. Every moment of our lives and every second of our experiences are in the process of learning different things in life.

I also learned that it is not just a process but it is also a product. A product created through the learning process can also be called learning.

There are actually a lot of ways on how people learn. In an online article, Cherry (2018)  (Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-learning-2795332 ) shares her insights into the learning environment that could be classical conditioning where we learn through our associations, operant conditioning where we learn through reinforcements and punishments, and observation where we can learn without being conditioned, reinforced and punished.

Lastly, I learned the importance of theories in the learning process. As an educator and researcher, I really thought beforehand that theories are just conceptions of the different scholars in the world. However, I learned this time that it is an essential thing in the learning environment. Theories serve as a guide in understanding and analyzing the things. I now fully understand why we need to find theories in our research studies and why we need to have a theoretical framework. Indeed, to understand learning, we need to understand first the theories and what are those about.

Because we cannot spell the first word of this article without understanding theories.