The One True Learning Theory Doesn't Exist

About Culturally Responsive Teaching

Article here: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/           

Trying to teach Black students by rapping or Latinx students by talking about Cinco de Mayo tokenizes students. I was never motivated to participate by being compelled to act as “the Jewish expert” when I was growing up.

The way to activate and engage students is through genuine, authentic connection. Without achieving authentic connection between students and teacher as well as peer to peer, learning will be stilted at best. Trust is the first step in learning.

We know that many children have Adverse Childhood Experiences (https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html) during K-12 education, and that these experiences can scar them for life. What can we do to better support the children in our classrooms as they are going through one of the most formative periods of their lives?

I feel quite strongly that the first few weeks of school, and whenever a new student is added to the classroom, must be spent building authentic connections.

We have to acknowledge that all of our students are from diverse backgrounds. Each one of them is unique, a human being with a human being’s story. Family, or no family, friends, or no friends… we all come to the table with everything that we’re born with and that we have lived. What is most important is that everyone has a voice, and that their voice is heard and valued. Listening skills are key. Many paths to knowledge and different pieces of knowledge depending on capacity must be available and easy to access. Technology is one of the necessary paths that must be widely available and utilized regularly.

I have been feeling frustrated by the theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. This idea of one theory being correct above all others doesn't make sense to me and seems too simplistic. I believe that reality is internal, external, and interpreted; and I believe that knowledge is both innate and acquired through experiences, thinking about experiences, and constructed.  

These things all go together. How learning happens is both clearer and more nebulous than I have seen properly articulated by any learning theory I have yet read. It almost seems as if there’s a desire to find the “One True Path” when such a thing does not exist. Teachers must meet students where they are and provide them with genuine connection and a broad range of social and academic activities.