Week 2 Blog Post

1. Chapters in this section discuss three contrasting epistemic (the study of what and how we come to know) stances: positivist, relativist, and contextualist (or hermeneutical). Positivists believe that the only truth or knowledge is objective truth. Relativists don’t believe that objective truth is possible and that all knowledge is subjective to perception or relative to a particular frame of reference. Contextualists believe that truth or knowledge is relative to context rather than individual, subjective understanding. While designers and educators with a positivist stance generally apply behaviorist principles to the design and development of instruction, those with either a contextualist or relativist epistemological framework employ constructivist theories and methods.
 Reflect on whether your stance is primarily positivist, relativist, or contextualist. Then, identify an instance when your perspective or stance as a learner conflicted with that of your instructor. Describe the conflict that you experienced and analyze whether opposing epistemic stances may have been at the heart of the conflict. How was the situation resolved by you (effectively or ineffectively), and what could/can be done?

After thinking about this I had trouble deciding which stance I fall in. I think as a music teacher I have to fall under the contextualist and relativism. This is mostly because the context is music. Music creation has changed very little in the past 200 years. You still have to begin learning what a quarter note is, what a music staff is, etc. But the individual learner can learn from their own environment. The rhythm of the bumps in the road, the tone that a vacuum cleaner makes. I think it ebbs and flows into both sides. I think because of my music background this has led to some conflict in other classes I’ve had to take over the years. I don’t particularly believe that knowledge is not always concrete and that it can change. Music is constantly changing. If it didn’t we would still be listening to Mozart playing on what we consider top 40 radio stations. In my own classes, if the stance did not match with my own, I would try to work around it by listening to the teacher. However, in the back of my mind I keep my own thoughts and biases. This seemed to work for me.

2. Various theories/models of learning and instruction are discussed in multiple chapters in this section. Which theories/models of learning or instruction are the primary one(s) you apply to your teaching or you can relate the best, and why? Then, please pick one project or instructional unit (briefly describe title, target audience, and learning goals/objectives) where your designing/teaching or learning was most  successful (or less than successful), and describe which theory/model or principle(s) from these chapters can be applied to improve design/teaching or learning. * You can reuse an instructional unit you used for Section 1 (or you can use a different one. In section 1 discussion, 6 components of good instructional design in chapter 2 was broad, and these chapters in section 2 should have given you more specific ideas about different approaches to teaching and learning