1. What are you doing well?
I have been keeping up on the homework all semester and turning it in on time. I have come to class everyday and participated in the class activities. During field experience I really tried to watch for things that applied to psychology class and to notice how the kids responded to those techniques. I have been trying to apply the information I have learned in class to everyday life.
2. What are you not doing well?
One thing that I am still not doing well in the class is reading the full chapters in the textbook. I read for the information we need to know for class and that is it. I know that the rest of the information is very helpful and beneficial but it had been hard to do anything this semester that wasn't required, since it was so busy. I would like to go back through the book and read some parts I skipped over during the semester.
3. Are you making sufficient progress on your goals?
One of my goals this semester was to learn more about the brain and how I can use that information to better teach my future students. As I was studying for the final I was actually surprised at how much of the information I remembered. Usually when I study for finals I hardly remember the stuff from the beginning of the semester at all, but this time I really seemed to remember and understand it just from seeing the word and not the definition. I think that I'm really starting to learn how knowing about the brain can change the way I think about teaching.
4. List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals.
One of my goals was to get help with anything that is not clear. There are still a few things that we learned in class that I felt like I didn't totally understand and I plan to research those things more in the future in order to better understand how they apply in the classroom.
5. How is your motivation? Are you focusing on mastery or performance goals? Does anything need to change?
I really started to focus more on mastery goals after field experience. I think it really helped me realize that the stuff we are learning in class really does apply in the classroom. The things that the cooperating teacher used that we learned about in this class really seemed to work well with the students and they really seemed to understand the information better when the teacher used things like scaffolding. I feel like I'm motivated more now to learn for my own benefit rather than to just get a good grade.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Personal Learning Theory
What?
The quiz said that I was mostly a behaviorist but I don't think it is very accurate because when we were learning about behaviorism in class I disagreed with a lot of what the theory says. I know that for educational purposes their needs to be a way to show that the student has learned it, but I do not think that learning is always visible.
* Piaget's Cognitive Development: I really like Piaget's ideas of Assimilation and Accommodation. I think it's important to get students to experience disequilibrium so they can assimilate or accommodate the new ideas into new or existing schemas. I don't entirely agree with all of the ages the Piaget put on his stages of cognitive development.
* Vygotsky's Cognitive Development: I really like the idea of Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development. I like the idea of using a scaffolding system to build up the child to the point where they can accomplish the task on their own. I like that the ZPD takes each students abilities into consideration and helps them work on things that are challenging to them but not to difficult to do with some guidance. I don't like the idea of Cognitive Apprenticeship if it is overused and the more competent peer is always paired with a student less competent.
* Erikson's Psychosocial Development: I like Erikson's different stages and I think they really apply to kids as they develop. I think that children need to have each stage satisfied or they will have problems developing in the next stage, but I also think they they are capable of developing a later stage even if a previous stage was not fully met.
* Kohlberg's Moral Development: I disagree with some of the ages that go along with Kohberg's stages of moral development. I also disagree with Kohlberg's gender gender stereotypes. I do agree that people go through these different stages of moral development throughout life.
* Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: I like Goleman's idea of emotional coaching and teaching children how to recognize their emotions and to respond appropriately by helping them see their options.
* Information Processing: I like the idea of using different rehearsal techniques in order to get information from the sensory memory to the working memory and then into the long term memory and ways to bring it back to working memory when you need to use that information.
* Knowledge Construction and Higher-order thinking: I agree with the idea of constructivism and discovery learning. I like the idea of giving students guidelines and having them discover on their own how something works instead of just telling them how it works. I like the idea of having a community of learners where the students can ask questions and learn from each rather than just learning from the teacher. I think that the idea of group work can be overused though and the students can get burned out with always getting stuck doing the work in their group or watching students that didn't work as hard get the same grade as everyone else.
* Behaviorism: I like the idea of using a token economy to help train students to behave in the classroom and to follow the rules. I also like the idea of using contingency contracts that the students help you come up with ideas of how and what they can do to improve their behavior in the classroom. I disagree with the idea that learning has only occurred if there is some physical evidence of that learning. I think that a lot of things can be learned without the person showing that is has been learned.
* Social Cognitivism: I think that the definition of learning for social cognitivism is too general, though I do agree that some learning does not result in a change of behavior. I really like the idea of self-regulated learning where the student helps come up with goals and evaluates how he or she is doing on those goals. I think a student must be taught how to be a self-regulated learner.
* Group and Individual Differences: I agree that in general girls are more sociable and have more intense emotions and that boys generally have higher self-esteems, etc., but I also think that gender differences are becoming less and less. I think a lot of it has to do with culture but I think some of it nature, that boys and girls really are generally different.
* Motivation: I think that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation need to work together in students to help them want to learn. Intrinsic helps the student to be motivated and interested to learn what they want to learn and to remember it but extrinsic helps motivate them to do well on the tests in order to achieve a good grade. Some people wouldn't agree with situational interest, but I think situational interest can be a good thing because it is something the teacher can use to create interest in a topic the students are learning. It helps motivate them to learn a topic that they might otherwise find dull or uninteresting.
So What?
I think that students learn best in environments where they are not afraid to ask questions and where they are able to use their classmates help and ideas as well. I think they learn best when they are able to work with a group to discover the answers to questions and come up with their own theories of how the world works. I think that each person learns differently and there are some kids that do learn better by simply watching and not participating, but in general, students learn best when they are actively involved in the learning process. I believe that students learn more by having been exposed to a new idea a number of times over time then by repeating it 10 times the first time they learn it. If they hear the idea, then hear it again a month later, then hear it again, before they are required to actually know and learn it, they aren't as afraid of the new information because it is something they have seen before and it isn't so scary.
Now What?
1) When I am a teacher I will use a variety of different teaching techniques in order to try to best suit each of my students learning styles. I will use of variety of different cooperative learning activities so my students have the opportunity to work together and learn from each other. I will set up different discovery learning activities for my students to discover answers for themselves, even though it will take more class time. For example, when teaching math, I would have them work together to figure out how to measure a circumference rather than telling them the formula first. I will also have individual activities sometimes in order to help students that learn better on their own.
2) I would like to find out more about the difference between cooperative learning and simply group work. I don't want to overuse group work in my classroom to the point where the kids hate it or where some kids are getting by without doing hardly any work. I also need to research more about Piaget and Vygotsky because I get their two theories mixed up. Another thing I would like to learn more about would be strategies to help get students who are more shy involved in classroom activities. I would like them to feel like they can participate and be themselves in a non-threatening environment.
The quiz said that I was mostly a behaviorist but I don't think it is very accurate because when we were learning about behaviorism in class I disagreed with a lot of what the theory says. I know that for educational purposes their needs to be a way to show that the student has learned it, but I do not think that learning is always visible.
* Piaget's Cognitive Development: I really like Piaget's ideas of Assimilation and Accommodation. I think it's important to get students to experience disequilibrium so they can assimilate or accommodate the new ideas into new or existing schemas. I don't entirely agree with all of the ages the Piaget put on his stages of cognitive development.
* Vygotsky's Cognitive Development: I really like the idea of Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development. I like the idea of using a scaffolding system to build up the child to the point where they can accomplish the task on their own. I like that the ZPD takes each students abilities into consideration and helps them work on things that are challenging to them but not to difficult to do with some guidance. I don't like the idea of Cognitive Apprenticeship if it is overused and the more competent peer is always paired with a student less competent.
* Erikson's Psychosocial Development: I like Erikson's different stages and I think they really apply to kids as they develop. I think that children need to have each stage satisfied or they will have problems developing in the next stage, but I also think they they are capable of developing a later stage even if a previous stage was not fully met.
* Kohlberg's Moral Development: I disagree with some of the ages that go along with Kohberg's stages of moral development. I also disagree with Kohlberg's gender gender stereotypes. I do agree that people go through these different stages of moral development throughout life.
* Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: I like Goleman's idea of emotional coaching and teaching children how to recognize their emotions and to respond appropriately by helping them see their options.
* Information Processing: I like the idea of using different rehearsal techniques in order to get information from the sensory memory to the working memory and then into the long term memory and ways to bring it back to working memory when you need to use that information.
* Knowledge Construction and Higher-order thinking: I agree with the idea of constructivism and discovery learning. I like the idea of giving students guidelines and having them discover on their own how something works instead of just telling them how it works. I like the idea of having a community of learners where the students can ask questions and learn from each rather than just learning from the teacher. I think that the idea of group work can be overused though and the students can get burned out with always getting stuck doing the work in their group or watching students that didn't work as hard get the same grade as everyone else.
* Behaviorism: I like the idea of using a token economy to help train students to behave in the classroom and to follow the rules. I also like the idea of using contingency contracts that the students help you come up with ideas of how and what they can do to improve their behavior in the classroom. I disagree with the idea that learning has only occurred if there is some physical evidence of that learning. I think that a lot of things can be learned without the person showing that is has been learned.
* Social Cognitivism: I think that the definition of learning for social cognitivism is too general, though I do agree that some learning does not result in a change of behavior. I really like the idea of self-regulated learning where the student helps come up with goals and evaluates how he or she is doing on those goals. I think a student must be taught how to be a self-regulated learner.
* Group and Individual Differences: I agree that in general girls are more sociable and have more intense emotions and that boys generally have higher self-esteems, etc., but I also think that gender differences are becoming less and less. I think a lot of it has to do with culture but I think some of it nature, that boys and girls really are generally different.
* Motivation: I think that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation need to work together in students to help them want to learn. Intrinsic helps the student to be motivated and interested to learn what they want to learn and to remember it but extrinsic helps motivate them to do well on the tests in order to achieve a good grade. Some people wouldn't agree with situational interest, but I think situational interest can be a good thing because it is something the teacher can use to create interest in a topic the students are learning. It helps motivate them to learn a topic that they might otherwise find dull or uninteresting.
So What?
I think that students learn best in environments where they are not afraid to ask questions and where they are able to use their classmates help and ideas as well. I think they learn best when they are able to work with a group to discover the answers to questions and come up with their own theories of how the world works. I think that each person learns differently and there are some kids that do learn better by simply watching and not participating, but in general, students learn best when they are actively involved in the learning process. I believe that students learn more by having been exposed to a new idea a number of times over time then by repeating it 10 times the first time they learn it. If they hear the idea, then hear it again a month later, then hear it again, before they are required to actually know and learn it, they aren't as afraid of the new information because it is something they have seen before and it isn't so scary.
Now What?
1) When I am a teacher I will use a variety of different teaching techniques in order to try to best suit each of my students learning styles. I will use of variety of different cooperative learning activities so my students have the opportunity to work together and learn from each other. I will set up different discovery learning activities for my students to discover answers for themselves, even though it will take more class time. For example, when teaching math, I would have them work together to figure out how to measure a circumference rather than telling them the formula first. I will also have individual activities sometimes in order to help students that learn better on their own.
2) I would like to find out more about the difference between cooperative learning and simply group work. I don't want to overuse group work in my classroom to the point where the kids hate it or where some kids are getting by without doing hardly any work. I also need to research more about Piaget and Vygotsky because I get their two theories mixed up. Another thing I would like to learn more about would be strategies to help get students who are more shy involved in classroom activities. I would like them to feel like they can participate and be themselves in a non-threatening environment.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Social Cognitivism Case Study
1) I think that Mr. Corbet's teaching style goes along with Vygotsky's sociocultural learning theory. Vygotsky believed "social interaction to be the key mechanism for acquiring the language and culture of a community". In Mr. Corbet's classroom, the children watch and learn the culture and expectations of the classroom by watching and learning from each other. When the little boy raises his hand and Mr. Corbet gives positive feedback the other students see that and realize that is a culturally acceptable behavior in that classroom.
Mr. Corbet's teaching style also goes along with Erikson's stages of development. The kindergartner's is his class are most likely in Erikson's Industry vs. Inferiority stage. In this stage, children learn to "assert themselves in ways that are considered socially acceptable and learn to take initiative in their dealings with people and tasks". Mindy follows the examples of the other students by walking quietly and by raising her hand, thus showing that she is learning to assert herself in a socially acceptable way. The girl who was crying and demanding the the teachers attention to know where her mother was will most likely learn throughout the school year as she watches other students how to respond to situations in a less dramatic way. Mindy shows that she is learning to take initiative when raises her hand to call the teacher over when her friend is pushed off the swing.
2) One example of vicarious reinforcement is when the boy raises his hand. The teacher comes over to answer his question, thus teaching the students that raising your hand is the correct action to take when you have a question. Mindy repeats this behavior when she is on the playground and wants to get the teachers attention.
3) An example in the case study of vicarious punishment when the teacher uses the whistle on the playground. When the students are doing something they are not supposed to he blows the whistle and then has a talk with the student about their behavior. Mindy does not the teacher to blow the whistle at her or to be lectured about her behavior so she tries very hard to be good.
4) I think that Mindy has low Kindergarten self-efficacy. She does not know what is expected of her. For example, when she breaks the crayon she looks to see if anyone saw. If no one had seen, she probably would have hid the crayon so no one knew what had happened. But since a boy had seen her, she went to apologize to the teacher. However, I think that as Mindy goes throughout the school day, her self-efficacy begins to grow. As she observes the students line up for recess and the teacher comments on the students that walk slowly, she tries very hard to walk and not run. She is growing in her belief about how capable she is to do what is expected. Also, when she raises her hand on the playground, she is confident that the teacher will come to listen to her. She is learning that raising her hand is something that gets positive attention and she felt confident to perform that task when she needed to.
Mr. Corbet's teaching style also goes along with Erikson's stages of development. The kindergartner's is his class are most likely in Erikson's Industry vs. Inferiority stage. In this stage, children learn to "assert themselves in ways that are considered socially acceptable and learn to take initiative in their dealings with people and tasks". Mindy follows the examples of the other students by walking quietly and by raising her hand, thus showing that she is learning to assert herself in a socially acceptable way. The girl who was crying and demanding the the teachers attention to know where her mother was will most likely learn throughout the school year as she watches other students how to respond to situations in a less dramatic way. Mindy shows that she is learning to take initiative when raises her hand to call the teacher over when her friend is pushed off the swing.
2) One example of vicarious reinforcement is when the boy raises his hand. The teacher comes over to answer his question, thus teaching the students that raising your hand is the correct action to take when you have a question. Mindy repeats this behavior when she is on the playground and wants to get the teachers attention.
3) An example in the case study of vicarious punishment when the teacher uses the whistle on the playground. When the students are doing something they are not supposed to he blows the whistle and then has a talk with the student about their behavior. Mindy does not the teacher to blow the whistle at her or to be lectured about her behavior so she tries very hard to be good.
4) I think that Mindy has low Kindergarten self-efficacy. She does not know what is expected of her. For example, when she breaks the crayon she looks to see if anyone saw. If no one had seen, she probably would have hid the crayon so no one knew what had happened. But since a boy had seen her, she went to apologize to the teacher. However, I think that as Mindy goes throughout the school day, her self-efficacy begins to grow. As she observes the students line up for recess and the teacher comments on the students that walk slowly, she tries very hard to walk and not run. She is growing in her belief about how capable she is to do what is expected. Also, when she raises her hand on the playground, she is confident that the teacher will come to listen to her. She is learning that raising her hand is something that gets positive attention and she felt confident to perform that task when she needed to.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Brain Fair
For the brain fair, Chelsey, Erica, and I decided to research the effects of drugs on the brain. As we were researching, we realized there was so much information that we couldn't possibly include everything so we started to narrow it down. We decided to focus on four different drugs: Marijuana, Ecstasy, Cocaine, and Meth. (I learned how to spell ecstasy and realized I've been spelling it wrong my whole life. I had no idea there was no X in ecstasy). It was really interesting learning about the different effects on the brain.
As we were researching, I realized how important and helpful the internet is in doing research. We were able to quickly find information on how drugs effect the brain. We didn't have to spend hours reading through books and encyclopedias in the library to do our research. With technology and the internet we are able to get the most current information simply by typing in a few key words. We found a website where you can interact with cartoon mice that are on different types of drugs. You click on the mouse and it drops it into a machine where you can look at it's brain and see what exactly the drug is doing inside his brain. I found that learning this way is so much more interesting than just reading the information. I think that students would find learning about hard subjects in an interactive way more helpful to remember and understand the information. They are able to see the information, hear it, and interact with it, creating different pathways in the brain to remember the information.
As we were researching, I realized how important and helpful the internet is in doing research. We were able to quickly find information on how drugs effect the brain. We didn't have to spend hours reading through books and encyclopedias in the library to do our research. With technology and the internet we are able to get the most current information simply by typing in a few key words. We found a website where you can interact with cartoon mice that are on different types of drugs. You click on the mouse and it drops it into a machine where you can look at it's brain and see what exactly the drug is doing inside his brain. I found that learning this way is so much more interesting than just reading the information. I think that students would find learning about hard subjects in an interactive way more helpful to remember and understand the information. They are able to see the information, hear it, and interact with it, creating different pathways in the brain to remember the information.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Constructivism Case Study
1) Both lessons gave the students an opportunity to measure something and they both found a way to get the students interested in what it was they are measuring. One difference is that in the traditional lesson, the teacher simply gave them a yard stick and showed them how to measure. In the second lesson, she let them come up on their own with a way to measure and to figure out on their own why it's important to have standard measurements. Another difference is that the traditional lesson took a lot less time to complete.
2) The drawbacks are that it takes a lot more time to do it. Also, there is a lot more silence when the teacher would be tempted to jump in and help the students out. The benefits are that the students learn the information better. They have to come up with the answers on their own and they will remember the results longer and it will encourage them to think of answers to other problems on their own instead of just hoping someone will give them the answers if they don't know it.
I think that in a lot of ways the benefits are worth the cost, but if it takes away too much class time, they won't learn all the things they need to know for other subjects and topics. I think that for really important things or concepts that are difficult to understand and remember, that taking more time to come up with the answer is worth the extra time.
3) Critical thinking is "the process of systematically examining available information and coming up with conclusions that are based on evidence". The constructivist lesson promotes critical thinking because it allows time for the students to figure out the answers on their own, no matter how long it takes, without the teacher telling them the answer. They have to work together and come up with different theories of what might work, test them, and then evaluate what worked and didn't work and why. Examples of when the students used critical thinking are when the little boy realizes that the boat can't be 3 feet tall because he knows that he is 4 feet tall and the boat is way bigger than him and also when they realized that each time they counted they got a different answer and realized they needed to have a standard size and used the same boy to measure everything.
4) Yes, because it promotes problem solving that could be used outside of the classroom in the real world and not just on that particular assignment.
2) The drawbacks are that it takes a lot more time to do it. Also, there is a lot more silence when the teacher would be tempted to jump in and help the students out. The benefits are that the students learn the information better. They have to come up with the answers on their own and they will remember the results longer and it will encourage them to think of answers to other problems on their own instead of just hoping someone will give them the answers if they don't know it.
I think that in a lot of ways the benefits are worth the cost, but if it takes away too much class time, they won't learn all the things they need to know for other subjects and topics. I think that for really important things or concepts that are difficult to understand and remember, that taking more time to come up with the answer is worth the extra time.
3) Critical thinking is "the process of systematically examining available information and coming up with conclusions that are based on evidence". The constructivist lesson promotes critical thinking because it allows time for the students to figure out the answers on their own, no matter how long it takes, without the teacher telling them the answer. They have to work together and come up with different theories of what might work, test them, and then evaluate what worked and didn't work and why. Examples of when the students used critical thinking are when the little boy realizes that the boat can't be 3 feet tall because he knows that he is 4 feet tall and the boat is way bigger than him and also when they realized that each time they counted they got a different answer and realized they needed to have a standard size and used the same boy to measure everything.
4) Yes, because it promotes problem solving that could be used outside of the classroom in the real world and not just on that particular assignment.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Brain Project Proposal
Erica and I will be working together on the brain project to show the effects of different drugs on the brain.
Cognitive Psychology Case Study
Case 1
1) The students will remember the activities because they participated in them physically and weren't just told about them from a a test book or movie. They actually got to experience some of things and they'll remember it because of that. Students that only read about it a text book won't remember it as long because they aren't engaged in the learning process. It doesn't apply to them so they won't care as much. Hearing facts about something doesn't engage our emotions as much as actually experiencing something.
2)It engages the emotions because they are actually participating and getting a glimpse of how it would really be to be a civil war soldier. They actually have to participate, for example, setting up camp, marching, etc.
3) Show pictures from the civil war and have them analyze them.
Case 2
4) I think Mr. Richards does a better job because he uses a variety of activities to help the kids learn through all the senses and not just reading and answering questions. He uses variety so that all different learning styles are able to learn. He also uses different testing strategies so those who don't do well one one type, also have the opportunity to do well on the test. On the other hand, I think he should tell the students ahead of time what they will be learning that day so that their brain can be better prepared to learn that information.
5) I think that those who learn well through reading and answering essay questions would do well in Mr. Duncans class but overall, I think most students would do better in Mr. Richards class where they are able to apply auditory, visual, movement, etc. into the learning process.
1) The students will remember the activities because they participated in them physically and weren't just told about them from a a test book or movie. They actually got to experience some of things and they'll remember it because of that. Students that only read about it a text book won't remember it as long because they aren't engaged in the learning process. It doesn't apply to them so they won't care as much. Hearing facts about something doesn't engage our emotions as much as actually experiencing something.
2)It engages the emotions because they are actually participating and getting a glimpse of how it would really be to be a civil war soldier. They actually have to participate, for example, setting up camp, marching, etc.
3) Show pictures from the civil war and have them analyze them.
Case 2
4) I think Mr. Richards does a better job because he uses a variety of activities to help the kids learn through all the senses and not just reading and answering questions. He uses variety so that all different learning styles are able to learn. He also uses different testing strategies so those who don't do well one one type, also have the opportunity to do well on the test. On the other hand, I think he should tell the students ahead of time what they will be learning that day so that their brain can be better prepared to learn that information.
5) I think that those who learn well through reading and answering essay questions would do well in Mr. Duncans class but overall, I think most students would do better in Mr. Richards class where they are able to apply auditory, visual, movement, etc. into the learning process.
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