Discussion Prompt #1: Why Epistemology?

     Why do you think it is important to understand the epistemology (theory of knowledge) underlying a learning theory?  Discuss the impact that an understanding of knowledge can have on a distance education professional’s choice of instructional practices and technologies.
     In chapter 2 of “The Nature of Knowledge and the Applications for Teaching,” Tony Bates gives us an example of different thinking views, and he talks about different approaches to learning and teaching.
     This is where I can give my own example. I grew up in Russia and went to Russian school, and then a college. In Russia, they have an objectivist approach to teaching and learning, where truth exists outside of our mind, laws of physics are constant, and a body of knowledge needs to be presented by a teacher to be learned by students (Bates, 2015).
     The teachers do include some elements of fun and game playing techniques to their students when they are younger, but it all gets eliminated in higher grades. For example, the students study a math chapter with a teacher, practice it in class, then they go home and read the same chapter, do additional exercises and answer additional questions not answered in the classroom. Repetition and revision are the key to success in Russian schools, because at the end of the semester the students always take accumulative exams that last about 6 hours for written exams, and the rest of them are oral, face-to-face with a teacher, who can ask any additional questions from the course. Basically, they work on long-term memory and understanding (Bates, 2015).
     Schools in the U.S. have a behaviorist approach to teaching and learning, where students stay longer in schools, absorbing and processing most of it in the classroom. Their homework is not that complicated until the start their higher education. The behaviorists rely on feelings, attitudes, and consciousness, where students can process a lot of information on a subconscious level using their five feelings (Bates, 2015).
     What I am trying to say is that people learn differently. Some have different backgrounds and culture. That is why it is important to understand the theory of knowledge. As a distance education professor, I will have to work on not only on giving my students materials to read, although this is how I learn, but also practical exercises, videos, tests, writing materials. Some people learn right then, and right there, others need some quiet atmosphere to revise and process, and a lot of it depends on their background and understanding.

References
Bates, A. W. (2015). Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Retrieved from: https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/