Final Blog

What?
After having completed several readings and assignments within the domain of Educational Psychology, I would have to say that I have been able to develop a fairly well-rounded theory of how children and adolescents learn. Many of my current beliefs about the way children learn first began to formulate after analysing the differences between the traditional IQ Test and the more contemporary Multiple Intelligences Test. There is no doubt in my mind now that the ways in which children learn are as variant and numerous as there are children in a classroom. I have also come to understand, however, that the way a child learns is not only influenced by his or her identified intelligence, but also by his or her cultural affiliation. A child’s ethnic and/or cultural background may need to be taken into consideration when determining the way he or she learns best. Having said that, however - and as I’ve said before - I also acknowledge the dangers of using stereotypes as the only basis for determining a student’s learning style. Finally, I have come to realize that the way in which children learn is rooted in and affected by their interaction with their environment, with each other, and with myself. Learning takes place both formally and informally, in the classroom and outside of the classroom, explicitly and implicitly. As a result, my theory stands that learning and knowledge construction is an individual enterprise, and that students will ultimately create their own understandings and interpretations if guided effectively.

So what?
The theory I have developed about the way children learn will impact my classroom practice both through content delivery as well as through assessment and evaluation. In terms of content delivery, I would be sure to differentiate my instruction so that I can reach students of all types of intelligences. Whether it be incorporating visual material for a student with spatial intelligence, rhythms and rhymes for a student with a musical intelligence, co-operative activities for a student with a kinaesthetic intelligence, or Think-Pair-Share for a student with interpersonal intelligence, the lessons I create would cater to the greatest variety of learners as possible. In addition to trying to differentiate my instruction to various types of intelligences, I would also differentiate my instruction so that I could account for the cultural differences and/or barriers that may be present. I would accomplish this by presenting key historical events from different viewpoints and perspectives than just that of Western culture. I would be sure to acknowledge the differences explicitly and neutrally so that all students in the classroom could formulate their own opinions, and not be biased towards one particular cultural viewpoint. The theory I have developed about the way children learn would also be reflected in my assessment and evaluation of students. Just as students learn differently, it only makes sense that students demonstrate knowledge differently, and thus would require differentiated assessments. Such differentiated assessments would include tests, anecdotal notes, projects, presentations, surveys, peer-evaluations, self-evaluations, rubrics, etc. In this way, I would ensure that my assessment tasks were differentiated enough so that each student had the best opportunity possible to share his or her knowledge of the topic.

Now What?
As a teacher, I know that there will always be something more to learn and that it is my obligation to be a lifelong learner. At this point in my learning, I would really like to learn more about the individual theorists who have contributed to our present-day understanding of learning and education. From what I have learned so far about individuals such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Pavlov, etc, I am fascinated by the wide spectrum on which the topic of education is discussed. One area I would like to improve in is becoming better able to identify types of learners in a classroom. The quicker I am able to determine a student’s learning style and the more accurate I am, the better chance that student has in being a successful learner.

Educational Psychology and Teacher Decision Making - Chapter 1

What?
Educational psychology is an academic discipline that (a) systematically studies the nature of learning, child development, motivation, and related topics and (b) applies its research findings to the identification and development of effective instructional practices. In the book it talks about decision making and educational research. These things are closely related because the decisions we make as teachers may come directly from educational research. There are three types of research. Correlational, experimental, and descriptive. Each type of research has its own pros and cons. We need to understand that educational research is a huge aspect of teaching and we need to be aware of as many research findings as we can.
So What?
I kind of started talking about this in the last section, but we need to understand where all these educational theories are coming from and why certain people and teachers believe in different theories. We can conduct educational research in our own classrooms. I think that if we do not we are doing the students a disservice because we will not be teaching to our students needs. I have been in many classrooms and had many teachers. I have had teachers who did not care about the needs of the class and taught to their liking. I have also been in classes where the teacher took an interest in what form of instruction worked better in that particular class and my learning benefited from it.
Now What?
I will be implementing educational research as a part of my career because I want to better myself to be the best educator that i can be. I know that that is a little cliche. I want my students to be well educated in my content area, but more importantly I want to have an impact on their lives and teach them life lessons. Compiling some sort of educational research will assist me in understanding the students that i will be teaching at that very moment. I cannot have a mould that I will teach from my entire career. To be honest, that is what I am looking forward to the most, teaching students life lessons that they will carry with them forever, not just a concept in history that they will forget as soon as they are finished with the class.

Social Cognitive Views of Learning - Chapter 10

What?
This chapter is about the social cognitive theory and I think that it would be important to go over the basic assumptions of that theory. People learn by observing others. I think this is the main cause of learning in Children. When a child does something wrong, the first thing that the mother says is "I wounder where he learned that" while she looks at another person. Learning is an internal process that may or may not lead to a behavior change. I have learned a lot of things in my life but I do not change my behavior all the time because I learn something new. People and their environment mutually influence each other. Behavior is directed towards particular goals. Behavior becomes increasingly self-regulated. To understand this theory, we must be able to understand its basic assumptions.
So What?
If we as teachers want to learn how to implement this theory we must be able to recognize and assess the behaviors that are associated with it. It is import to understand that we are going to be under a microscope and everything we do the students are going to be watching us. they will copy our behavior. Although the students may be learning about a subject, their behavior may not change, but don't be discouraged because they still may be learning. The students are going to be interacting with each other, you better be sure that their behavior will influence each others. As students progress their behavior will become self regulated.
Now What?
We have to understand this little triangle that goes in a circle continuously. The three elements of the triangle are Person, Behavior, and Environment. It is important for us to realize that all three of these factors will impact each other. If we can influence one of these aspects it will have a ripple effect over the other two categories. I also think that our goal with using this theory is to get the students behavior to be self regulated. This will enrich the lives of our students for the rest of their lives.

Behaviorist Views of Learning - chapt 9

What:
We can understand a great deal about human learning and behavior by looking at stimulus-response principles. Conditions already present in a learners environment - antecedent stimuli - tend to evoke certain kinds of responses either involuntary (in classical conditioning) or voluntary (in operant conditioning). Those responses may, in turn, lead to changes in the learners environment. There are many ways that teachers can evoke certain behaviors. Such as punishment, reinforcement, and stimuli.
So What:
All students that we are going to have in the classroom have different personalities with different needs. We have the daunting task of using education to evoke the most productive behaviors out of every single student. This is going to be very difficult because students react differently to behavior shaping activities. I think the behaviorists theory is very interesting and we do need to study it to become better prepared to deal with students in our classrooms.
Now What:
I am a huge believer in reinforcement. I think that that is going to be my number one way to motivate students. I like positive reinforcement the best. Although I could see myself using negative reinforcement in extreme cases. As we discussed in class we need to be careful about the kinds of positive reinforcements that we use. One student may need a good pat on the back for completing an assignment, while at the same time there is another student who has no problem with any of the assignment and they could either feel left out or you could insult their intelligence. I find it so interesting the things that we are trained to automatically do in school and in life. I want to learn more about the subject.

Knowlegde Construction - Chapt 7

What:
Through both formal classroom instruction and many informal, out-of-school learning experiences, students continually add to and modify their understandings of their physical and social worlds. To some degree, this knowledge construction is an individual enterprise, because students must ultimately create their own views of physical and social phenomenon. Regardless of the extent to which student acquire their understandings either on their own or with the help of others, they all construct somewhat unique interpretations of ideas and events they encounter in and out of the classroom.
So What:
For the most part this is a great thing in education. A students can look at information and make their own unique conclusions about any topic. This could also be dangerous and can interfere with the success of the student. They could not understand the facts totally and have a wrong impression that hinders their attitudes or their learning experience.
Now What:
I thing that students need the opportunity to think for themselves and use reasoning to get to the bottom of problems. This learning style needs to be grounded in a foundation of good quality instruction that can give the students the proper scaffolding and guidance they need to make those unique points of view. I cannot Wait to be in the position of a teacher where the student can take what instruction I give them and turn it into their own unique pattern of thought.

Assessment - Chapter 15

As teachers the assessment and assessment strategics that we give our students will be the most important thing that we do. Sound assessment practices should be closely tied to instruction they should reflect our instructional goals, guide our instructional strategies, and provide the means through which we track students progress through the curriculum. And in one sense, at least, assessment is instruction. It gives students clear messages about what things are considered most important for them to know and able to do. There are various forms of educational assessment such as informal assessment, formal assessment, paper and pencil assessment, performance assessment, traditional assessment, and authentic assessment. It is very important as teachers that we use a variety of assessment strategies to cater to the needs of all the students in the class. some students may be better at different assessments and it would be unfair if we just used the same one. Good assessment has many different aspects. Reliability, standardization, validity, and practicality are all aspects of assessment that need to be taken into account when creating and appropriate assessment. Although summative assessment is extremely important. I think formative assessment is equally important because it can give me as a teacher a better grasp on the development of students. In my classroom I will use as many authentic assessments as possible. Things like group presentations and portfolio activities will be utilized to show cognitive development.

Learning and Cognitive Process - Chapter 6

To learn and remember something effectively, we must give our undivided attention- that is, we must mentally focus on it and temporarily make it the center of our cognitive world. As teachers we must continually emphasize the importance of understanding classroom subject matter, making sense of it, drawing inferences from it, seeing how it all ties together rather than simply memorizing it in a relatively thought free manner. This emphasis must be reflected not only in our worlds but also in our instructional activities, classroom assignments, and assessment practices. For instance, rather than just presenting important ideas in class room lectures and asking student to take notes, we might also ask thought provoking questions that require students to evaluate, synthesize, or apply what they are learning. Or as an alternative to asking students to memorize procedures to adding two two digit numbers, we might ask them to suggest at least three different ways they might solve the problem. And rather than assessing their knowledge of history, names, places, and dates, we might then ask them to explain why certain historical events happen and how those events altered the course of subsequent history. Such approaches will not only make student learning more meaningful and effective but will also enhance their belief that classroom topics are interesting, enjoyable, and in some way relevant to their own lives.