Hello EDCI 335: My Views on Learning

About Me

Hi! My name is Yuyang, I’m a third-year student at UVic, and I’m major in Computer Science. I’m 24 years old and I from Hunan province in southern China.My future career goal is to become a full-stack developer.I really enjoy the process of coding, it feels like building with blocks, where each line of code adds to the structure untill it becomes a complete program. Debugging also brings me a strong sense of achievement, as finding and fixing bugs motivates me to keep practicing and improving my skills. For this reason, I believe motivation plays a key role in learning, and I will share more of my thoughts on learning in the following sections.

My Understanding of Learning

For me, learning can be defined as a process of setting goals, practicing consistently, and gradully overcoming challenges. I believe that effective learning happens when I actively engage with tasks and reflect on my progress. For example, when I first started coding, I found it very difficult. Through continuous practice, debugging, and working on projects, I gradully improved. What made this experience effective was not only the knowledge I gained but also the sense of improvement that came from solving problems step by step. In this way, I see learning as a process of persistence and progress toward the final goals.

Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism

Through reading the literature, I learned that learning theories include behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. For me personally, a purely behaviorist approach often feels boring. Although repetition and practice can help reinforce knowledge, I prefer to actively understand what I am learning rather than rely on mechanical memorization. Cognitivism aligns closely with my learning style, especially in terms of information processing. When I study new material, I like to summarize it in my own words and reorganize the concepts in a way that makes sense to me. This process of “restructuring” not only helps me remember more deeply but also greatly improves my learning efficiency. However, constructivism best represents my view of learning, because I often bulid knowledge through hands on experiences such as writing projects, debugging code, and solving real-world problems. This approach has also influenced how I participate in educational experiences. I prefer project-based activities, active problem solving, and opportunities to connect new ideas with prior knowledge, rather than relying only on repetition or rote memorization.

Motivation

The ARCS model outlines four factors of learning motivation: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. All of these play important roles in learning, but for me, confidence is the most crucial because it helps me sustain my passion for learning. In programming projects, I often encounter challenges and errors. For example, sometimes a bug takes me one or two days to figure out. However, each time I successfully solve a bug or complete a difficult task, my confidence grows. This confidence not only motivates me to keep working but also makes me believe that I am capable of tackling even bigger challenges. I remember when I first tried to build a program involving threads, I spent many days debugging before I finally completed the project. That experience gave me a strong sense of confidence, so now when I face similar projects, I feel much more prepared to handle them. At the same time, it also encourages me to take on even more difficult challenges. For me, confidence plays a key role in turning challenges into opportunities for growth and in sustaining my long-term motivation to learn.

Here is a short video that explains how motivation and dopamine influence our study habits. It connects to my reflections on confidence as a key facotr in learning

Prior Knowledge

Prior knowledge does not only come from academic study but also from everyday life experiences. One of my hobbies is cooking. When I first started, I had to follow recipes step by step very carefully. Over time, I built a foundation of basic skills such as cutting ingredients, seasoning, and managing cooking times. Later, when I tried new dishes, the process became much easier because I could connect the new recipes to what I had already learned. Many cooking techniques are transferable, and in practice, I sometimes even adjust recipes based on my experience, often with better results. This experience showed me that prior knowledge makes learning new things more efficient and less stressful, while also giving me the confidence to experiment and be creative. In the same way, I believe prior knowledge is important in all kinds of learning. It helps us connect the new with the familiar.

More thoughts

Looking back on the four parts of this blog, I’ve come to realize that learning is a dynamic and interconnected process. Learning isn’t just about acquiring skills, it’s about continually building new knowledge and connecting it to previous knowledge. As a participant in EDCI 335, I need to not only think about how to learn effectively but also about how to design learning environments that support others based on learning theories, motivation, prior knowledge, and so on. Thanks for reading this Blog!