LEARNING SITUATION: CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES - ECONOMÍA - 2025

A learning situation consists of carrying out a series of organized and articulated activities that a group of students must carry out in the classroom to achieve certain educational objectives in a specific period -semester, quarterly or annually- and under specific contextual guidelines.

Learning situations require certain types of interactions. For example, it is likely that group academic connections should be established between students or that there is participation of external persons, either representatives or some type of personnel corresponding to the educational institution.

A learning situation is made up of several activities linked together. Source: pixabay.com

Similarly, for a learning situation to develop successfully, it is necessary to encourage interaction between students and the information acquired through the use of various sources such as photographs, interviews, bibliography, videos, observations, web pages or virtual slides., among others.

Although learning situations take place mainly in the classroom or classroom, they also require some interaction with other spaces or environments, such as laboratories, companies and organizations, institutions, architectural works, museums, etc. This is to enrich the academic experience of the student body.

It is recommended that the learning situation be linked to real situations that develop in everyday life within the social or professional field. It can cover phenomena, facts, events or processes whose analysis is relevant to acquire knowledge that is applied throughout the academic course or block.

Taking this into account, it can be established that a learning situation does not function as a simple list of topics from which certain pedagogical activities derive, but rather involves a more complex, organized and dynamic process. Therefore, it can be stated that a learning situation implies the search for a successful educational totality.

A learning situation cannot be constituted by a group of disjointed activities: it requires a compulsory cohesion in the didactic material. The learning situations also do not function as individual generic actions - be they exhibitions, readings or discussions - but require full participation.

characteristics

Learning situations have a set of parameters and guidelines that not only make them identifiable, but also allow their construction and application within educational systems. These characteristics are as follows:

- A learning situation is closely linked to the main objective of the classes and the expected learning.

- Learning situations necessarily imply that students must establish relationships between what they learn during the course and their previous experiences and learning.

- They are focused on the student's activities and seek to promote their learning through their own actions and tasks.

- They cultivate group values, since they promote group construction of knowledge and learning through collaboration and tolerance.

- The learning situations also have the objective that the students put into use what they learn.

- A learning situation focuses on maintaining contact with real situations related to professions and jobs that take place in the social environment of the academic institution.

- Learning situations have the duty to contemplate and add all those resources, tools and materials that are necessary to help students reflect on the knowledge acquired.

Elements

According to pedagogical theories, the elements of a learning situation can be divided into two main branches: they can be structural or dynamic.

Structural elements

This stream focuses on two essential aspects of learning situations. It's about the body and the environment.

In the first case it is a question of establishing within a pedagogical situation who are the protagonist, the author and the receiver of the teaching results. This is very important because all these elements will decisively determine how the teaching dynamics will be.

In the second case, it refers to the external conditions that directly influence the learning situation, which in the same way are decisive for the achievement of the desired results.

Dynamic elements

This division refers to both internal and external elements that involve the pedagogical activities that are going to be developed during a learning situation. That is to say, it is about the elements that give dynamism, cohesion and effectiveness to learning situations.

For example, a dynamic element can be the realization of an activity that requires a visit to a museum or it could also be the execution of a group discussion at the end of a class. In this way, coherence within the structure of the teaching unit is guaranteed.

Implementation

To implement a learning situation in educational institutions, it is necessary for the educator to take into consideration a series of sections or guidelines that constitute the general structure of learning situations.

These sections guarantee that the implementation is successful and fruitful for the students. The following are the most important guidelines for a learning situation:

ID

The first thing that must be done to carry out a learning situation is to identify the information that you want to impart in classrooms and other academic facilities. Therefore, the learning situation must have a title and justification.

Likewise, in this section the meaning and objective of the learning is reasoned and justified, explicitly stating their intentions. In addition, the purpose of these learnings should be clarified, taking into account their relationship with the development of the future academic curricula of the students.

The objectives of the learning situation must be located within the plans and projects that the educational center develops. This is to promote the full cooperation of the institution and the respective staff.

Technical data

This section refers to the course, stage or area where the learning situation will take place. It is necessary for the educator to have all the information corresponding to these data, since they are essential elements for the correct handling of the pedagogical contents.

In addition, in this step it must be considered if the learning situation will be directed to several academic areas or if it can only be implemented in a single subject or chair.

The teacher can also choose to combine different areas or courses in case it is necessary to have more educational support.

Curricular foundation

In this section, the teacher must refer to the different stages of the school curriculum, such as competencies, content, learning objective and evaluation criteria.

That is, you will have to develop a scheme in which you can concretely visualize the foundation of the learning situation.

Methodological foundation

In this guideline it is necessary for the instructor to specify which teaching models will be used during the learning situation. There are several types of teaching and among the most common are the following:

Non-directive teaching

In this case, students are free to explore problems and make decisions according to personal criteria; that is, there is no teacher intervention.

Directive teaching

The directive education consists of the training of the skills and abilities of the students. For this, it is necessary to carry out a guided practice that will later allow the execution of an autonomous practice.

Simulation

In this type of teaching, the teacher uses simulators whose objective is to train the behavior of the students and ensure that in a real situation each student knows and can act appropriately.

Example

To exemplify a learning situation, a scheme will be followed that establishes the following points: subject, topic, course and learning situation. With this we seek to provide a demonstration that is as similar as possible to those used in educational institutions.

Matter

Biology.

Topic

Cold-blooded animals.

Course

Sixth grade of primary school.

Learning situation

It is intended to project a video showing the main cold-blooded species. Subsequently, a guided tour of the zoo will be carried out in order for the students to maintain more direct contact with the animals. During this tour they will try to identify those species that they consider to be cold blooded.

There will also be a set of readings with the aim of awakening students' interest in fauna.

After this, students must recreate a real situation through the creation of an ecological park. In this park, the students must assign some classmates who will be in charge of caring for the reptiles and explaining the different characteristics of these animals such as food, main habitat, skin and respiration, among others.

Finally, each student must prepare as a final product a documentary video in which the tools that were given during the previous activities are used. The objective of this evaluation is to verify the learning of the students regarding cold-blooded animals.

References

1. Martínez, N. (sf) Design of learning environments. Retrieved on June 10, 2019 from Teachers and teaching resources: edumat.uab.cat
2. Parra, S. (sf) Learning and evaluation situations. Retrieved on July 10, 2019 from Magazines and quotes: magazines.comillas.edu
3. SA (nd) What do we call a learning situation? Retrieved on July 10, 2019 from Teacher Resources: Recursosprofesores.iteso.mx
4. SA (sf) Guidelines for the development of learning situations. Retrieved on July 10, 2019 from the Government of the Canary Islands: Gobiernodecanarias.org
5. SA (sf) Learning environments. Retrieved on July 10, 2019 from the Network of Higher Education Institutions with Acacia Centers: acacia.red