Fall 2014 proved to be another great learning and trying experience. I thought using my self-evaluations (a part of my assessment in college) as part of my blog posts last year really helped me reflect on what I had learnt, so, I've decided to do it again this year! Excuse the occasionally formal use of words. I wrote this with my professors reading this in mind.
Cognitive Development was a bit more of a traditional class relative to Hampshire's other classes. However, I was able to draw connections between these theories with what I was passionate about--different learning environments (such as the use of pretend play), social-emotional learning, and learners with developmental and learning differences--which was great! This culminated into amy final research proposal: the effects of pretend play on emotion regulation in kids with the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Glad that my interest superseded my not-so interest in the data and hard facts of research. All good learning!
The cognitive side of development has been interesting to learn more about. Being relatively new in this area of cognitive development, the readings have sometimes been quite dense but I have been generally enjoying the discussions. Have been growing more eager to draw connections to how this can inform learning spaces and explore the sociocultural aspect of it more. Autism has also been a topic I was very glad to delve into as I hope to learn more about other developmental differences.
December 2014
In the beginning, my intentions of taking this class were rooted in my curiosity in developmental and cognitive psychology. I knew I had an interest in how people learn and was inspired by a lot of the cultural aspects influencing learners but I wanted to learn about the other, equally important side, which looked at the biological and developmental side of things—in a way, to gage if this was an area of interest that I would want to pursue further.
In terms of work and performance, I thought the workload was relatively manageable aside from the usual peaks of the semester when work was slightly overwhelming—there was once or twice I had to miss class or hand in a paper slightly late because of this and being sick. But aside from that, I did try to put in effort in finishing all my papers and choosing and writing topics that I was genuinely invested in. As the class progressed, I did find the readings to be more scientific and statistical to my liking as well as what I was used to. There were several topics that were very theoretical or too detail-oriented (nit-picking the methods section), which was a slight struggle at times to stay engaged and fully invested in what we were reading and discussing. I tried to give input whenever I felt I had insight into what was discussed. A lot of the time, I felt more comfortable listening and digesting the information before giving my opinion about it. I do feel I am becoming more comfortable in Hampshire’s discussion-based classrooms from last year but still have room to improve in giving more input in discussions. Also, as a visual learner, it was still personally challenging at times to visualise all the experiments just by reading them on paper as I felt more connected when I saw videos of experiments or when we discussed exactly how the experiments were conducted in class.
However, towards the end of the semester, I found myself occasionally excited by the readings, particularly, autism, pretend play, and emotion regulation because I was able to relate the theories in the readings to what I am passionate about, that is understanding how to improve the design of learning environments, especially for those with learning differences and social-emotional learning. My follow-up study and my final paper would be my favourite papers to have written and feel like I would use the knowledge I gained to inform my studies in the future. Hence, I found myself learning the most when I was given the opportunity to apply the theories we read in the classroom to real life. I think this tendency will inform my future decisions in the kind of classes I choose and the kind of work I would want to pursue in the future. I have gained a greater understanding and respect for the importance of developmental theories. If there is one thing I have gained walking out of this class is a very great desire and drive to continue bridging theory and practice in my future studies.
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