(photo: sunstar.com.ph)
Padajon! This was overheard as someone encouraged a student to
endure the challenges encountered with the new learning modality. You see, a
lot of the learners are given modules and worksheets which require them to
read. Yet, reading is a least favorite among the learners. People who are even
using social media sites skip those posts with lengthy words. They skip such blogs
and proceed to a more visual and entertaining content.
People consume a lot of entertainment
these days. The media platforms provide such to the point that hilarious posts
and vlogs are the viral ones compared to the more serious and academic posts.
Phil (2017) posits: I think some
people just aren't "built" to enjoy the written word as much as
readers do. How long does it take you to read an average book? Let's say 10
hours. In that time someone else could watch 5 or 6 movies or hockey games or a
whole season of Game of Thrones or play Call of Duty or just go talk with
friends for 10 hours and they would get more pleasure than if they read the
same book as you did. There's nothing wrong with them; we're all just
different.
This is consistent to the theory
of Multiple Intelligences of Howard Gardner. In his 1983 book Frames of Mind:
The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, he suggested that all people have
different kinds of "intelligences." In order to capture the full
range of abilities and talents that people possess, Gardner theorizes that
people do not have just an intellectual capacity, but have many kinds of
intelligence, including musical, interpersonal, spatial-visual, and linguistic
intelligences.
Differing intelligences require
varied preferences. Probably, most of the learners now are not inclined to have
linguistic intelligence.
According to Heick (2019), students
are increasingly seeking briefer, more visual, social, and dynamic media.
Because not only are these media forms effortlessly entertaining, they rarely
require meaningful investment of themselves. And it is this kind of connection
that makes reading–or any other media consumption for that matter–feel alive
and vibrant and whole. When readers are younger, there is a natural ‘give’
between the reader and the text, their imaginations still raw and green and
alive. But as readers grow older, there is less give–and more need for texts to
be contextualized differently.
(But), data from Learner
Enrollment and Survey Form (LESF) showed that 8.8 million parents preferred
modular, over the 3.9 million who voted for blended learning, which is a
combination of different modalities: module, television and radio or radio with
online. Parents who opted for online only numbered 3.8 million (Ciriaco, 2020).
Since modular learning is the
preferred modality, it is now time to adapt. It is expected that difficulties
and challenges will be encountered since this is a novel delivery of lessons.
Intelligent WILL must be embraced by both the parents and the learners.
Modern psychologists, according
to Graeme (2011) often use the word volition in preference to “Will”. Volition
is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a
particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving, and is one of
the primary human psychological functions (the others being affection [affect
or feeling], motivation [goals and expectations] and cognition [thinking]).
The author continued that volitional
processes can be applied consciously, and they can be automatized as habits
over time. Most modern conceptions of volition address it as a process of
action control that becomes automatized.
Within Gary Kielhofner’s “Model
of Human Occupation” volition is one of the three sub-systems that act on human
behavior. Within this model volition considers a person’s values, interests and
beliefs about self-efficacy and personal capacity.
In this case, the cliché “If
there’s a will, there’s a way” can be applied.
If modular learning is the most
feasible way to continue learning, parents and learners must WILL themselves to
gain a lot from it and allow the processes to hone their capacities NOT to
curtail their mental development. Later, if this will become part of the norm,
we will see the silver linings on the seemingly dark clouds.
Padajon!