Learning Philosophy
Beliefs About Learning in General
I believe that learning happens best when students are actively engaged, responding, and interacting with content using multiple senses. Perhaps this is what has drawn me into dyslexia therapy given that the best therapies are multisensory and are heavily based on the visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses. Learning is not still and quiet, it is an active experience.
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Early on in my teaching career I was struggling to engage my kindergarten students. And then I found and fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching (WBT). When I was in general education my classroom looked different. Learning was filled with gestures, call-and-response interactions, and moments of deep student participation. Learning happens best when students teach each other, reinforcing knowledge through social interaction and verbal practice. This concept, called Teach! Okay!, created by Chris Biffle revolutionized my teaching and changed the trajectory of my teaching career.
The role of reinforcement is critical in this process and this aligns with the Behaviorism theory (Skinner), which is rooted in the idea that learning is shaped through structured reinforcement. WBT thrives on immediate feedback. The structured repetition of WBT creates an environment where students are not just absorbing content but they are active participants in their learning process. This also fits in with Skinner’s Operant Conditioning (McLeod, 2024) where behaviors are likely to happen again if they are reinforced. In both of my educational settings I have relied heavily on reinforcement through immediate feedback, verbal praise, and structured routine to help student learning thrive.
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WBT also borrows from Bandura’s Social Learning Theory which suggests that learning occurs through observation and imitation (Cherry, 2024). When students watch peers model correct responses through gestures, mirroring, or the Teach! Okay! Strategy they internalize and then replicate those behaviors. In DT there is a strong component of therapist modeling and students imitating the structured response.
Beliefs About the Relationship Between Teaching and Learning
Teaching and learning go hand in hand. In dyslexia therapy (DT), very early on we talk about “My Job” and “Your Job” or the teacher’s job and the student’s job. Each person has a role they play in the learning experience. In the General Education/Kindergarten Classroom, WBT is based on a cycle called the Magic Circle (Biffle, 2023 p. 44-56).
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As a learning facilitator, my role is to guide students in engaged, structured, and joyful learning. I believe that direct instruction, followed by immediate student response and interaction, is the key to knowledge retention. Students receive a small piece of information and then the role is flipped and just like that, they are the teacher! Using big gestures they are now teaching their neighbor what they just learned. Just like WBT’s emphasis on whole-class engagement, I see learning as a dynamic process where feedback and participation create a cycle of growth. Big gestures provide big understanding. Students are actively involved in the learning cycle and so is their brain. What is amazing about WBT is that it engages multiple parts of the brain and so information is stored in multiple parts of the brain. This has transferred to my teaching style as a dyslexia therapist. Therapy is multisensory to reach each learner in their preferred learning style. While you will not necessarily see the magic circle happening in my therapy sessions, I do use big gestures to help make those multisensory connections.
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The structured and systematic approaches of both WBT and DT align with behaviorist principles and follow clear predictable patterns that not only reinforce knowledge retention, but allow new neuropathways to be formed in the brain (Kearns et al., 2019). Teaching and learning are also social processes, Bandura’s theory implies that students learn not only from direct instruction but also from observing and interacting with peers. In DT groups, students form a powerful bond and help each other with new concepts.
Beliefs About Myself as a Learner
The phrase “lifelong learner” has always felt a little cliche to me, but I do find that I tend to “nerd out” on those topics that I am highly passionate about. If it is something that I care about or hold high interest in, I will go on a deep dive for hours. Learning should be collaborative and filled with movement, reflection, and immediate reinforcement to solidify knowledge.
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Before COVID moved everything online I had the privilege of attending the in person Whole Brain Teaching conference. This was a full immersive experience where Biffle and his team used their methods to teach their methods. It was three days I will never forget. There was so much information jam packed into the sessions, but because they were using such multi-sensory and effective methods I remembered and held on to so much of it. I compare this to the way that I was exposed to the Texas Reading Academies. I am a STRONG proponent of the Science of Reading research and believe wholeheartedly that this is the way we should be teaching our students, however, the way that my cohort experienced this professional development was absolutely horrible and I see why so many teachers are against it, simply because of the way they were exposed to it. Spending nearly a hundred hours reading pages and pages of modules with no collaboration or interaction with colleagues or hearing someone get excited about the concepts is not the way to motivate an already overworked and burned out teacher. My passion for the Science of Reading came from my own research and good professional development that I attended on my own dime and choice.
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This contrast highlights why I align with Behaviorism. Learning should be observable, measurable, and reinforced through active engagement. My success in retaining information at the WBT conference was due to the structured, interactive methods that allowed for immediate reinforcement—whereas the passive nature of the Texas Reading Academies resulted in frustration and disengagement. Behaviorist principles suggest that for learning to be effective, students must be actively involved, receive immediate feedback, and engage in structured repetition—all of which were missing in my negative learning experience. Social Learning principles were also present as the instructor was modeling techniques while participants were mimicking their gestures and observing learning of others. Students are most successful when they are able to practice immediately.
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To add a third, more conflicting view of myself, when it comes to technology learning for myself, I prefer a more exploratory style of learning. Harapnuik (2021) mentions this as a part of his Constructivist/Inquivisitism learning philosophy. I want to explore and play on my own. If I encounter problems I very rarely ask for help immediately, and I want to solve these myself. Much like he says “challenge me and I learn.” People often ask me how I know so much about technology and I often say “I just play around with it.” or “I’m not afraid to push buttons.” Perhaps he is on to something here.
Learning Philosophy vs. Teaching Philosophy
A learning philosophy focuses on how students receive information, while a teaching philosophy focuses on how instructors deliver it. In WBT, these two ideas merge. Effective teaching is active learning—students are never passive, they are always involved. Instead of just receiving information, they repeat, mirror, gesture, and explain concepts to peers, reinforcing their understanding through social and physical engagement. While this cycle does not look the same at my dyslexia therapy table, students still go through multiple different types of engagement, it is explicit and systematic which helps to form new pathways for their dyslexic brains. In the kindergarten classroom, this cycle is pure magic. The more areas of a student’s brain that are engaged the less areas of the brain can manage to get off task (Biffle, 2023, p. 38). WBT’s behavior component is based on the positive reinforcement of video games and trying to reach the next level. I have brought this in for some of my groups that need this and it has worked wonders. The brain gets the dopamine that it is craving and learning skyrockets (Biffle, 2023, p. 37).
Identified Learning Theory and Theorists
I identify most closely with Behaviorism and Social Learning Theories, which WBT is built upon. These theories. These theories create a structured, research-backed framework for understanding how students learn through reinforcement, modeling, and active engagement.
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Behaviorism: This theory was originally developed by John B. Watson is known as Methodological Behaviorism and only based on observable behaviors as a response to an outside stimuli (Main, 2023). Radical Behaviorism mainly established by B.F. Skinner, who believed that learning is shaped by reinforcement of observable behaviors, however incorporated the concept of some thoughts and emotions that were still able to be analyzed. Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning states that behavior is either strengthened by positive reinforcement or weakened by punishment (McLeod, 2024). Overall it is the belief that learning is behavior change (Main, 2023).
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Social Learning Theory: This theory, developed by Albert Bandura really builds on behaviorism adding that learning occurs through observation, modeling, and imitation. Cherry (2024) argues that Bandura’s theory claims that we learn through observation and imitation from the world around us, sharing our influenceability by pop culture and the world around us. Social learning theory also brings in the fact that mental states and motivation play a very important role in whether or not something is learned. The observational learning process has four important steps: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation (Cherry, 2024).
Connection to Learning Theories
I align most closely with Behaviorism and Social Learning Theories, as seen in WBT. B.F. Skinner (Behaviorism) emphasized that learning is shaped by reinforcement, which is evident in WBT’s use of positive reinforcement, structured routines, and immediate feedback. Albert Bandura (Social Learning Theory) highlighted learning through observation and modeling, which aligns with WBT’s use of mirroring and peer teaching. While these theories may look a little different in the dyslexia classroom, I have carried over multiple components of them into my new role.
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Behaviorism: Working with a large population of special education students, I align with this theory because I believe very strongly in positive reinforcement. Which is a large component of Skinner’s theory (McLeod, 2024). While I do not believe in rewarding kids with silly trinkets and candy, I am a strong believer in verbal positive reinforcement and even had a principal tell me when I was struggling to use the school wide reward system that she could see why I didn’t need it because I was so good with verbal praise. While I do subscribe to this part of Skinner’s Operant Conditioning, I am not a big fan of positive or negative punishment. Much like McLeod (2024) suggests, these methods are not very effective in changing behavior.
The emphasis on reinforcement, structured learning, and observable outcomes solidifies my belief in Behaviorism. In my classrooms, I have seen firsthand how structured engagement, positive reinforcement, and immediate feedback lead to real, measurable improvements. WBT’s behavior management strategies mirror Skinner’s approach—students learn best when they receive clear, immediate rewards for their efforts. Additionally, the gamified aspects of WBT (such as earning points and advancing levels) align with Skinner’s belief that motivation can be increased through reinforcement. By applying all these principles in both general education and dyslexia therapy, I can ensure that learning is effective and engaging.
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Social Learning Theory: The main components of Social Learning theory are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation (Cherry, 2024). Learning does not happen alone. Bandura’s theory helps explain why WBT is so effective. Students are not learning just from the teacher, but also from other students. When students see others around them engaging in the learning they are more likely to engage in the learning themselves. This powerful cycle of teaching and learning creates a classroom community where everyone is responsible for the learning, not just the teacher. Social learning theory also recognizes that mental states are an important part of learning. The motivation must come from intrinsic sources (Cherry, 2024). WBT is a big proponent of intrinsic motivation. I also believe this happens in the DT classroom. Once students start to see and feel the success of their therapy they want to learn more and continue along their path.
Impact on My Innovation Plan and Role as a Change Agent
My learning philosophy directly impacts my innovation plan, which focuses on gamified learning applications for dyslexics. By using engagement, such as repetition, structured responses, and interactive feedback, my app will ensure that learning is active, fun, and effective.
As a change agent, I advocate for high-energy, student-centered learning environments. Whether WBT methods or other positive reinforcement strategies and social learning theory engagement tools—if students are engaged, interacting, and reinforcing knowledge in a structured way, they will thrive!