Month: September 2024

Thanks for sharing! This is a great connection to the course content!

Have you ever faced a problem that seemed larger than you could handle?

When I first moved out, I lived in the dorms of my university. While many people love living on campus, I found it unbearable. Between the shared bathrooms, inedible food, and lack of home-school balance, I felt an overwhelming amount of homesickness and frustration.   For this reason, I decided to enter the renting market in December of my first year of university. When I made this decision, I had no clue the learning experiences I would have and the difficulties I would face. Although this is not a formal learning experience, I believe this was the most prominent and influential lesson I have ever had.

The initial consequences of the renting market hit me like a truck. Between the costs of damage and pet deposits, food, utilities, car insurance, gas, vet bills, and dog food, I quickly realized I was in over my head. Even working five shifts a week at a minimum wage job would not cover these expenses. Coming to understand the dire financial situation I was in lead me to begin budgeting, meal planning, and cutting costs whenever possible. This was not exactly the way I grew up or a concept I was familiar with, which presented its own challenges. Learning to budget my expenses was a tedious process. Since I was working retail and had differing hours each week, my paycheques were everchanging.

This learning process most closely related to that outlined in constructivism (Ertmer & Newby, 2018). Although I was physically on my own, I knew my parents were there to support me and help me through any problems I faced. My parents acted as my teachers as they helped me understand and implement the required tools such as budgeting and meal planning. In this way, my experience felt similar to an apprenticeship, which is one of the main strategies used by constructivist teachers (Ertmer & Newby, 2018). While the act of learning felt quite constructivist, I also feel that it was necessary to change my behaviours and routines, which relates to the behaviourist theory of learning (Ertmer & Newby, 2018). Through learning to meal plan and budget, it was required for me to stop eating out, begin buying more whole foods, and track every penny that entered and exited my bank account. These were difficult behaviours to change, however seeing the effects of these changes acted as a reinforcer and pushed me to continue working towards financial stability (Ertmer & Newby, 2018).

Learning to live on my own in a new town as a first-year university student as one of the most difficult tasks I have ever faced, but through trial and error, meal planning, and budgeting (and a better job), I was able to find a comfortable balance between work, school, and financial stability.

References

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2018). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology: Historical Roots and Current Trends. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/behaviorism_cognitivism_constructivism