As I freshly embark on a new educational journey through post-secondary education, I personally found my seminar group’s two chosen articles to be highly relevant towards shaping a path for the next few years to come; the promptness in denouncing productivity-based learning through the principles of land-based education combined with the proposed fundamentality of learning incentives manifested some insightful and explorative class conversations.
As a result, I experienced a rekindlement in my self-awareness towards developing my educational resolve, which is currently undergoing turmoil due to our modern culture of productivity-based learning:
By committing to narrow productivity models, features that can be easily measured and quantified … By individualizing learning and imposing highly competitive evaluative structures, coupled with a gradual corporatization of many areas of education (primary, secondary, and tertiary), educational institutions, policy, and society itself have adopted an essentially neo-liberal conception of education. (Campbell, 15)
Considering the career-oriented and competitive nature of a Computer Science degree, I’ve been too fixated on short-term goals like perfecting assignments and memorizing course material to comply with the modern culture of standardized testing and maintaining a high GPA. Unfortunately, this neglects time towards reflecting on and clarifying my educational disposition from a long-term, higher-order perspective; I’ve lacked “the mental energy that is necessary for the learning process to take place”, as well as the “the continuous mental balance of the learner” (Illeris, 10) associated with well-developed, innate incentives. Fortunately, now that these class discussions and articles have allowed for reflection time, it’s time to confront this void of academic uncertainty.
First off, Kai’s proposition of finding a learning incentive outside the actual contents of learning instantly resurfaced my number one drive to excel in my studies: my parents. Leaving behind their lives in the Philippines and overcoming numerous financial and survival struggles has allowed me to have the edu ational oppportunities I have now, and it is only fair for me to to honor their sacrifices and hardships by being intentional with my studies. Second, although I cannot fully incorporate land-based learning into my field of study, I can be mindful of its upheld values to override the harmful effects of more traditional ones. For example, the unhealthy perfectionsim associated with maintaing a high GPA can be nullified by understanding that “learning is fragile, messy, and risky”, that mistakes are integral to the learning process (Campbell, 11).
By spending some time reflecting on and attending to my learning philosophy, I aim to continue adventuring the whole to best