Without my superiors’ knowledge and approval, I, on my own, prepared a statement that I would want to share with students of the Doctor of Communication Program at UPOU when we undertake the UPOU Doctoral Orientation Program on 19-20 May 2011 at the UPOU Headquarters in Los Baños. This is my own personal point of view and doesn’t necessarily reflect the thinking of my colleagues at the UPOU. Hence, take it with a grain of salt, so to speak.
If I’ll be unable to read it during that orientation program, at least it shall have appeared in this blog. So here goes.
In the realm of learning, there are various points of view or differences of opinion. I don’t know which one is right or wrong. To me, it’s a matter of philosophical inclination. Unfortunately, this philosophical inclination almost always influences one’s view of how learning shall occur. It becomes an important bone of contention especially for those who might still be in the process of deciding or developing their own philosophical orientation to learning.
Perhaps one of the more common errors in the process of ascribing meaning to the learning experience is that learning from elementary to graduate school is a similar process, following similar principles and procedures. There may be reasons for this presumption, but there’s a wide latitude of discrepancy in terms of purpose and procedure of learning from elementary to high school to college to graduate school. For example, basic education might need completely structured guidance or supervision; collegiate education may be enhanced through guided mentoring; while graduate education, particularly doctoral education, might require emphasis on independent learning. These are levels of independence in learning, depending perhaps partially on one’s learning style, or the collectivity of one’s interests, and levels of motivation and need for achievement.
When one is going through the process of earning a doctorate degree, one is largely on his/her own. Of course, this is more philosophical than otherwise but the simple reason behind this is that at such level as graduate education one has fully established one’s learning habits and such wouldn’t change anymore. It is said that learning ought to be a pleasant experience, and for it to be pleasant experience it should be according to one’s own established learning processes where one is most comfortable in. This differs from individual to individual, therefore the need to focus on individualized and independent learning experiences. To put it simply, to each his own.
Individuals who prefer to learn together with others would ultimately find ways to link up and learn together, while individuals who prefer to learn alone would eventually do their thing alone. One should not be forced to work with others if one isn’t inclined to do so.
The important point in all this is that the responsibility to learn rests completely with the learner, not the professor. How one learns is one’s own problem, not anybody else’s. However, one has the full option of validating what he/she might have considered to have understood with anyone he/she has confidence in. This is not necessarily always the professor of the course.
Many times, we validate what we encounter with some one we have confidence in, such as a trusted classmate, a friend, or even other professors. That’s what we do. We do not necessarily run to the professor all the time. The professor, on the other hand, provides the necessary resources, such as reading materials and perhaps time structure to study content, and other procedural matters that would enhance one’s own personal learning experience. More by choice than by force of a rule, the professor may be nice and amiable or difficult to deal with. That’s what personal differences are all about. Still, the learner himself has the option of taking advantage of this environment of learning resources. He/ she can always choose to do things on his/her own.
In other words, if you’re not sure about what you’ve come up with you may decide to validate it with others, including your professor. Do not, however, expect that your professor will always automatically do the validation for you. You seek it when you think you need it based on your own evaluation of your validation experience. What your professor can do is to provide you with various options that would lead to the same point so that you might be able to decide for yourself which option you would take.
You need to know if what you think is the correct one? Well, is there a one single right one or correct one to begin with? Is our knowledge not a synthesis of collective wisdom? This is exactly why learning is always a continuing effort. It never stops.
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