What?
The emerging theory quiz suggests that my philosophy of learning is almost equally split between a cognitive and behaviorist philosophy. Presently, I believe that my theory relies heavily on social constructivism. I believe that learners construct meaning from experiences that they have within the culture they live in. I use Piaget’s cognitive stages of development to try to understand how the students I teach might be thinking. In class, I enjoyed learning about the development of the brain and different theories of learning. These things enabled me to better understand the students I will teach. Going into the classroom to observe during my field experience, I was able to see the teacher using different techniques from the theories and watch how the students would learn. I observed the teacher using scaffolding in each lesson that she taught. She used discovery learning in many of her lessons which I thought was very effective for the students to gain an understanding of concepts on their own which I believed help them retain the information better. Small group activities were used several times throughout the day and the teacher encouraged the students to talk through tasks with their neighbors in a cooperative manner. In addition, the teacher must have conditioned the students to behave in a respectful manner which must have take place at the beginning of the year through a behaviorist approach. I felt comfortable in the classroom partly due to the fact that the teacher used educational philosophies which aligned with my own developing educational philosophy. I saw that these strategies worked in the classroom that I was observing which helped me understand their usefulness in the classroom.
So What?
I will use pieces from many learning theories when I am a teacher. I will use Piaget’s stages of cognitive development to understand the logic of how my students might think. I will use this understanding to help them move further in their stages of thinking. As I hope to teach kindergarten, I believe that many of my students will be in the preoperational stage of development. This will impact my classroom in several ways. The students will have an egocentric perspective, so they will not be able to see another’s point of view. As a teacher, I will need to point out different perspectives while reading books and dealing with situations in the classroom to help students see different points of view. I will focus on class inclusion and conservation giving the students opportunities to sort and re-sort, and to reshape and rearrange a substance. Hopefully this will give the students the experiences they will need to begin to understand class inclusion and conservation. I will give my students the opportunity to use discovery learning so that they will be able to construct knowledge from these experiences. I will try to connect new concepts to prior learning and provide many opportunities for social interaction.
I will use many of Vygotsky’s ideas of in my classroom including scaffolding, play, self talk, and providing tasks which are in their zone of proximal development. I believe that adults in every culture systematically teach children the acceptable ways to behave and respond to the world around them. In my classroom I want to include many opportunities for the students to learn in their zone of proximal development. As Vygotsky believed, it is working within a zone of proximal development that learning takes place. Providing challenging tasks with the necessary help will allow my students the opportunity to learn. I will use scaffolding techniques to provide the support they need to learn and experience new tasks which will eventually lead to them accomplishing these tasks on their own. I will take each opportunity I can to tell the students what I am thinking while teaching them so they understand how important it is to talk themselves through more difficult tasks. This will encourage them to use self talk to work through assigned tasks. I will encourage play which will enable the students to practice adult behavior in a non-threatening way.
I will include some behaviorist ideas in my classroom as I believe that students’ behaviors can be a result of the experiences they have in the classroom. From observing my cooperating teacher, I have come to believe that it is the teacher’s responsibility to condition the students through classroom management skills. The students in the class I observed showed respect to the teacher and to my partner and me in every situation. I believe this respect resulted from the teacher’s high expectations and her consistent insistence that the students behave appropriately.
Now What?
As I continue my education here at UVU, I will continue to learn from knowledgeable professors and gain valuable insight from field experiences. I will keep an open mind as to my developing educational philosophy to ensure that I include the proper techniques and strategies that will ensure I teach my future students in an engaging and effective manner. As I continue to build my educational philosophy, I hope I will be guided by exceptional professionals from whom I can use as mentors. I will continue to learn all that I can through course work, observations, hands-on experiences, and personal study to ensure that I will one day be an excellent teacher.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Chapter 4 Learning Log
What?
The chapter discusses group differences in regards to cultural and ethnic groups, gender differences, socioeconomic groups, and students at risk. Each of these groups has different characteristics which need to be addressed in order to help students in each succeed. It is important for educators to become familiar with the cultural and ethnic groups differences and keep these differences in perspective. In class, we did an exercise where we looked at pictures of students and made a judgment on what our expectations for each student were. It was interesting in that I looked at facial expressions and body posture to decide if they might be shy, outgoing, or serious; while some others in the class took into account ethnicity. I had not considered the ethnic background in my analysis. As a teacher, I should keep in mind the ethnic background of my students so that in general I might have a better understanding. The final analysis turned out to be that we do have a cultural lens through which we view the world. It was determined that while we need to be aware of group differences and what on average may be a characteristic of a group, we need to treat each student as an individual.
As we also discussed, there are gender differences to take into consideration as well. Although there is very little difference in academics, there remain stereotypical ideas that boys are better in math and science, while girls are better in language arts. The real differences appear in academic motivation, sense of self, relationships, and classroom behaviors. These differences can be accounted for in heredity as well as environment. Dr Cox mentioned that it would be worth our while to video ourselves teaching and see if we treat boys and girls equally. Finally, there is a correlation between socioeconomic status and school performance with students from lower socioeconomic situations performing lower academically. Several risk factors come into play including poor nutrition, inadequate housing, unhealthy social environment, and emotional stress.
So What?
As a future educator, it is important for me to understand there are many group differences. As we live in a culturally diverse world, I need to have an understanding of each of the cultural and ethnic groups that exist in the school community. With a general understanding of these groups, I can begin to better understand my students as individuals. From reading the chapter, I have found that there are many things that I see from my cultural perspective and would not have realized there was a different cultural perspective. An example from the text explained that in some cultures for a child to look an adult in the eye would be showing disrespect. From my perspective, I may have interpreted a child’s unwillingness to look me in the eye as a sight of deception. My lack of cultural understanding would have been a disservice to the child.
Being aware of the gender differences will help me as an educator to provide adequate opportunities for both boys and girls to excel in their education. As mentioned in the text, I must make a concerted effort as I select teaching material to represent both genders in a positive light. Finally, I have the ability to foster resiliency in my students especially those coming from challenging situations. Most importantly, I can provide constancy and strength to my students. I can encourage my students and support them in their endeavors. In addition, I can help identify missing resources through the community to help meet the basic needs of the families in need.
Now What?
I look forward to learning more about cultural differences so that I can better understand and then meet the needs of the students I will one day teach. I realize that I with a greater understanding into other cultures, I will be able to better understand the behaviors my student exhibit. As a future educator, I want to promote a classroom community that welcomes and understands differences. In addition, I hope to be fair in meeting the needs of both the boys and girls I will one day teach. I will make a conscious effort to learn about each child in my classroom and meet their needs so that they will have a positive educational experience in my classroom.
The chapter discusses group differences in regards to cultural and ethnic groups, gender differences, socioeconomic groups, and students at risk. Each of these groups has different characteristics which need to be addressed in order to help students in each succeed. It is important for educators to become familiar with the cultural and ethnic groups differences and keep these differences in perspective. In class, we did an exercise where we looked at pictures of students and made a judgment on what our expectations for each student were. It was interesting in that I looked at facial expressions and body posture to decide if they might be shy, outgoing, or serious; while some others in the class took into account ethnicity. I had not considered the ethnic background in my analysis. As a teacher, I should keep in mind the ethnic background of my students so that in general I might have a better understanding. The final analysis turned out to be that we do have a cultural lens through which we view the world. It was determined that while we need to be aware of group differences and what on average may be a characteristic of a group, we need to treat each student as an individual.
As we also discussed, there are gender differences to take into consideration as well. Although there is very little difference in academics, there remain stereotypical ideas that boys are better in math and science, while girls are better in language arts. The real differences appear in academic motivation, sense of self, relationships, and classroom behaviors. These differences can be accounted for in heredity as well as environment. Dr Cox mentioned that it would be worth our while to video ourselves teaching and see if we treat boys and girls equally. Finally, there is a correlation between socioeconomic status and school performance with students from lower socioeconomic situations performing lower academically. Several risk factors come into play including poor nutrition, inadequate housing, unhealthy social environment, and emotional stress.
So What?
As a future educator, it is important for me to understand there are many group differences. As we live in a culturally diverse world, I need to have an understanding of each of the cultural and ethnic groups that exist in the school community. With a general understanding of these groups, I can begin to better understand my students as individuals. From reading the chapter, I have found that there are many things that I see from my cultural perspective and would not have realized there was a different cultural perspective. An example from the text explained that in some cultures for a child to look an adult in the eye would be showing disrespect. From my perspective, I may have interpreted a child’s unwillingness to look me in the eye as a sight of deception. My lack of cultural understanding would have been a disservice to the child.
Being aware of the gender differences will help me as an educator to provide adequate opportunities for both boys and girls to excel in their education. As mentioned in the text, I must make a concerted effort as I select teaching material to represent both genders in a positive light. Finally, I have the ability to foster resiliency in my students especially those coming from challenging situations. Most importantly, I can provide constancy and strength to my students. I can encourage my students and support them in their endeavors. In addition, I can help identify missing resources through the community to help meet the basic needs of the families in need.
Now What?
I look forward to learning more about cultural differences so that I can better understand and then meet the needs of the students I will one day teach. I realize that I with a greater understanding into other cultures, I will be able to better understand the behaviors my student exhibit. As a future educator, I want to promote a classroom community that welcomes and understands differences. In addition, I hope to be fair in meeting the needs of both the boys and girls I will one day teach. I will make a conscious effort to learn about each child in my classroom and meet their needs so that they will have a positive educational experience in my classroom.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Chapter 5 Learning Log
What?
Kristin Wright, a professor at the school, came in and spoke with our class concerning students with special needs. I took an exceptional students class from Professor Wright last semester and found that she was extremely knowledgeable concerning students with special needs as she has previously taught in that capacity for several years in New Jersey. I am very glad that legislation such as the IDEA has been enacted to protect and educate all students. I understand that as a regular education teacher I will have students with special needs in my classroom. I realize that it will be my responsibility to accommodate the needs of these students in my teaching methods. Understanding the needs of these students and working to adapt to these needs will be the key to helping them reach their fullest potential. It will be up to me to create an accepting and understanding environment where all students can work together and thrive as a class.
In addition to discussing students with special needs, we began researching five different philosophies regarding intelligence. These include Spearman’s g, Catell’s Fluid and Crystallized, Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory, Distributed Intelligence, and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. In my experiences so far in my educational experience, I have only heard of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. From reading the chapter, I believe that each of these theories of intelligence are all very similar in that people are good at different things, and what they are good at has a lot to do with prior experiences.
So What?
As a future educator, I will have students with special needs in my classroom. Some things that can be done to help students with special needs will be helpful to all students in the classroom as well. I can minimize distracting stimuli, use many ways of presenting information, teach study skills and learning strategies and provide study aids. I can provide outlets for excess energy, help my students organize their time, listen patiently, and encourage regular communication. In addition, I can explain clearly my expectations and help to build student self-confidence by providing praise for student successes. Most importantly, I feel I will need to remember that each student is an individual and provide them with the tools to be successful.
I realize I will be called upon to teach a wide spectrum of students from those with special needs to those that are gifted and talented. I will need to prepare to meet the needs of each student. Using multiple teaching methods, I hope to be able to reach the needs of all the students in my classroom. By using different teaching methods, I believe that it gives the student many opportunities to explore what their talents may be.
Now What?
As I continue my education, I believe it is important for me to observe many different methods of teaching so that I can learn different ways to meet the needs of my future students. By closely paying attention to excellent teachers in the field and to professors here at UVU, I feel that I am preparing daily to meet the needs of my future students. In order to meet the needs of students with special needs, I believe that each year as I assess the students in my class I will find it necessary to do additional research into needs that may arise. In addition, taking additional classes and attending seminars on student learning and classroom management will be of benefit to my career.
Kristin Wright, a professor at the school, came in and spoke with our class concerning students with special needs. I took an exceptional students class from Professor Wright last semester and found that she was extremely knowledgeable concerning students with special needs as she has previously taught in that capacity for several years in New Jersey. I am very glad that legislation such as the IDEA has been enacted to protect and educate all students. I understand that as a regular education teacher I will have students with special needs in my classroom. I realize that it will be my responsibility to accommodate the needs of these students in my teaching methods. Understanding the needs of these students and working to adapt to these needs will be the key to helping them reach their fullest potential. It will be up to me to create an accepting and understanding environment where all students can work together and thrive as a class.
In addition to discussing students with special needs, we began researching five different philosophies regarding intelligence. These include Spearman’s g, Catell’s Fluid and Crystallized, Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory, Distributed Intelligence, and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. In my experiences so far in my educational experience, I have only heard of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. From reading the chapter, I believe that each of these theories of intelligence are all very similar in that people are good at different things, and what they are good at has a lot to do with prior experiences.
So What?
As a future educator, I will have students with special needs in my classroom. Some things that can be done to help students with special needs will be helpful to all students in the classroom as well. I can minimize distracting stimuli, use many ways of presenting information, teach study skills and learning strategies and provide study aids. I can provide outlets for excess energy, help my students organize their time, listen patiently, and encourage regular communication. In addition, I can explain clearly my expectations and help to build student self-confidence by providing praise for student successes. Most importantly, I feel I will need to remember that each student is an individual and provide them with the tools to be successful.
I realize I will be called upon to teach a wide spectrum of students from those with special needs to those that are gifted and talented. I will need to prepare to meet the needs of each student. Using multiple teaching methods, I hope to be able to reach the needs of all the students in my classroom. By using different teaching methods, I believe that it gives the student many opportunities to explore what their talents may be.
Now What?
As I continue my education, I believe it is important for me to observe many different methods of teaching so that I can learn different ways to meet the needs of my future students. By closely paying attention to excellent teachers in the field and to professors here at UVU, I feel that I am preparing daily to meet the needs of my future students. In order to meet the needs of students with special needs, I believe that each year as I assess the students in my class I will find it necessary to do additional research into needs that may arise. In addition, taking additional classes and attending seminars on student learning and classroom management will be of benefit to my career.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Chapter 10 Learning Log
What?
This week in education psychology I learned about social cognitivism. The definition of learning for this theory is that learning is an internal process that may or may not lead to a behavioral change. It is a combination of cognitive psychology and behaviorism in that change in behavior may take place and it recognizes that something is going on inside the brain. I thought that the Bobo doll experiment was very interesting to watch and see that children who watched an aggressive model were more aggressive to the Bobo doll. In the text it says that children are influenced by what they watch including videos, games, and movies. I have always thought that children are influenced by what they see; however, I am kind of confused about this because I think that it has been reported in the news that they don’t think there is a connection between what we see and what we do. This seems to not be true. In class, we talked about reciprocal causation and how environment, behavior and personal beliefs, perceptions, values, and emotions can all influence each other. There is an interrelationship between all of these things. We were divided into groups and went to the computer lab. Our group worked on a presentation concerning vicarious learning. Vicarious learning is when a person observes someone else doing something and they learn from the experience themselves. Three types of this include response facilitation effect, response inhibition effect, and response disinhibition effect. In the first, the learner increases an activity after seeing someone else being reinforced for it. The second is when a learner sees a person being punished for an activity and the learner decreases the activity. The final of the three is when previously punished activities are not punished in others and so the learner increases the frequency of the previously punished activity.
So What?
From this chapter, I have learned that modeling of appropriate behavior will have a great impact on my students. As I model the behaviors I expect my student to adopt, they will be able to use me as a model and make goals for their own behavior. As I help my student incorporate self-regulating in their behavior, they will eventually be able to make decisions about their behavior on their own. The things I do in class will have a big impact on all the students through vicarious learning. The students will feel vicarious reinforcement and punishment as they see me interact with other students in the classroom so I had better make sure that I am consistent in my behavior. Students need to have high self-efficacy in order for them to be successful in their lives. There are things that teachers can do to promote a high self-efficacy in their students.
Now What?
I will need to make sure that I am always a good model for my students. Students need to feel that I am competent as a teacher and as a person. They also need to feel that what I model is relevant to their personal situation. For this, I will need to make sure to make connections with what I teach to their lives. In the text, it indicated that I need to provide a wide variety of successful models so that my students feel that they too can be successful. To do this, I will look for resources in the school and in the community so that all of my students know that success is possible for them. I will need to be consistent in my reinforcements and punishments because I have learned that students can experience consequences for behavior either directly or vicariously. In order to promote high self-efficacy in my students, I can provide experiences in which they will be able to be successful in many different areas. I can help them be successful by providing necessary scaffolding. I can provide explicit ways that students are successful and I can communicate my belief in their ability to be successful.
This week in education psychology I learned about social cognitivism. The definition of learning for this theory is that learning is an internal process that may or may not lead to a behavioral change. It is a combination of cognitive psychology and behaviorism in that change in behavior may take place and it recognizes that something is going on inside the brain. I thought that the Bobo doll experiment was very interesting to watch and see that children who watched an aggressive model were more aggressive to the Bobo doll. In the text it says that children are influenced by what they watch including videos, games, and movies. I have always thought that children are influenced by what they see; however, I am kind of confused about this because I think that it has been reported in the news that they don’t think there is a connection between what we see and what we do. This seems to not be true. In class, we talked about reciprocal causation and how environment, behavior and personal beliefs, perceptions, values, and emotions can all influence each other. There is an interrelationship between all of these things. We were divided into groups and went to the computer lab. Our group worked on a presentation concerning vicarious learning. Vicarious learning is when a person observes someone else doing something and they learn from the experience themselves. Three types of this include response facilitation effect, response inhibition effect, and response disinhibition effect. In the first, the learner increases an activity after seeing someone else being reinforced for it. The second is when a learner sees a person being punished for an activity and the learner decreases the activity. The final of the three is when previously punished activities are not punished in others and so the learner increases the frequency of the previously punished activity.
So What?
From this chapter, I have learned that modeling of appropriate behavior will have a great impact on my students. As I model the behaviors I expect my student to adopt, they will be able to use me as a model and make goals for their own behavior. As I help my student incorporate self-regulating in their behavior, they will eventually be able to make decisions about their behavior on their own. The things I do in class will have a big impact on all the students through vicarious learning. The students will feel vicarious reinforcement and punishment as they see me interact with other students in the classroom so I had better make sure that I am consistent in my behavior. Students need to have high self-efficacy in order for them to be successful in their lives. There are things that teachers can do to promote a high self-efficacy in their students.
Now What?
I will need to make sure that I am always a good model for my students. Students need to feel that I am competent as a teacher and as a person. They also need to feel that what I model is relevant to their personal situation. For this, I will need to make sure to make connections with what I teach to their lives. In the text, it indicated that I need to provide a wide variety of successful models so that my students feel that they too can be successful. To do this, I will look for resources in the school and in the community so that all of my students know that success is possible for them. I will need to be consistent in my reinforcements and punishments because I have learned that students can experience consequences for behavior either directly or vicariously. In order to promote high self-efficacy in my students, I can provide experiences in which they will be able to be successful in many different areas. I can help them be successful by providing necessary scaffolding. I can provide explicit ways that students are successful and I can communicate my belief in their ability to be successful.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Chapter 9 Learning Log
What?
In class we discussed behaviorism. Dr. Cox passed out small sheets of paper and indicated that she would give us stickers for our contributions to the discussion. At the end of class, which ever groups had 5 stickers on their papers they would get to choose a prize. This is an example of operant conditioning as well as a token economy. Dr. Cox would give us a reinforcer each time a contribution was made and the students in the classroom were making more comments than usual to the discussion. In the end, if each group had five stickers we could get a better prize.
Behaviorism’s definition of learning is a semi-permanent change in behavior and the visual analogy for this is a black box. This means that we don’t know what’s going on in the brain, and we don’t care to know. One advantage to the definition is that the change in behavior is measurable. One disadvantage is that we want motivation to come from within not from a reinforcer. Two types of reinforcers discussed include extrinsic reinforcers and intrinsic reinforcers. Extrinsic reinforcers are provided by the external environment and might include an actual object, gesture, sign, or an opportunity to engage in an activity. Intrinsic reinforcers come from the learner themselves and are things like feeling good about doing a task well or feeling pleasure or satisfaction from accomplishing something.
The two types of conditioning which we discussed were classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when a neutral stimulus is presented at the same time as an unconditioned stimulus and eventually, the neutral stimulus begins to elicit the same or similar response that the unconditioned stimulus did. Pavlov discovered this with dogs and salivation. He began flashing a light at the same time as he presented dogs with their food and they would salivate. Soon, he could flash the light without having food present and the dogs would still salivate. Operant conditioning is different in that a response is strengthened when it is followed by a reinforcer. An example of operant conditioning was shown by Dr. Cox during class with her stickers. The students in the class were experiencing operant conditioning and we were participating more in class as a result of her reinforcer.
There is a difference between a reinforcer and a punishment. Reinforcers can be positive or negative but they both increase the frequency of what we are reinforcing. A punishment on the other hand is meant to decrease a behavior. The problem here is that sometimes we might be reinforcing poor behavior, and what is punishment to one student, might be enjoyable to another.
So What?
Through Dr. Cox’s object lesson we were able to discover several things. First, it is very time consuming to keep up giving reinforcers. Second, when one student was told that he couldn’t receive anymore stickers for his comments, it discouraged him from commenting anymore. Third, sometimes Dr. Cox did not give stickers to students who commented and they may have wondered what was wrong with their comment not to have received a sticker. As a class, we discussed that reinforcers should be used sparingly and that we should try to help students understand there are intrinsic rewards for doing their school work well. Reinforcers are stimuli that increase a behavior whether good or bad. Punishments are supposed to decrease a behavior. As an educator, I need to be careful to use punishment only in situations where it is absolutely necessary. I also need to be aware that one person’s punishment may be a reward (or reinforcer) to another.
Now What?
I need to keep in mind that I need to create a classroom environment where the stimuli including my own behavior is likely to create responses of enjoyment and relaxation. When my students associate my classroom with a pleasant circumstance, they are likely to learn that school is a place that they want to be. On the other hand, if I create a stressful environment, it may create responses of stress and distaste. My students then would associate my classroom with unpleasant circumstances and they will likely learn that school is a place they do not want to be. As I prepare to teach kindergarten, I will need to evaluate the reinforcers I use in my classroom. I believe that I would be interested in using a token economy for some reinforcement. However, I want to instill in my students that intrinsic rewards that are associated with doing tasks well are far better than reinforcers. I need to make sure that the praise I give is genuine and specific to each of my students. I will need to study different methods of reinforcement to determine what will work the best in my classroom. In addition, I will need to be very careful not to reinforce behaviors that I would like to extinguish. I will monitor progress in the classroom to see if my chosen techniques are working and adjust them as necessary.
In class we discussed behaviorism. Dr. Cox passed out small sheets of paper and indicated that she would give us stickers for our contributions to the discussion. At the end of class, which ever groups had 5 stickers on their papers they would get to choose a prize. This is an example of operant conditioning as well as a token economy. Dr. Cox would give us a reinforcer each time a contribution was made and the students in the classroom were making more comments than usual to the discussion. In the end, if each group had five stickers we could get a better prize.
Behaviorism’s definition of learning is a semi-permanent change in behavior and the visual analogy for this is a black box. This means that we don’t know what’s going on in the brain, and we don’t care to know. One advantage to the definition is that the change in behavior is measurable. One disadvantage is that we want motivation to come from within not from a reinforcer. Two types of reinforcers discussed include extrinsic reinforcers and intrinsic reinforcers. Extrinsic reinforcers are provided by the external environment and might include an actual object, gesture, sign, or an opportunity to engage in an activity. Intrinsic reinforcers come from the learner themselves and are things like feeling good about doing a task well or feeling pleasure or satisfaction from accomplishing something.
The two types of conditioning which we discussed were classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when a neutral stimulus is presented at the same time as an unconditioned stimulus and eventually, the neutral stimulus begins to elicit the same or similar response that the unconditioned stimulus did. Pavlov discovered this with dogs and salivation. He began flashing a light at the same time as he presented dogs with their food and they would salivate. Soon, he could flash the light without having food present and the dogs would still salivate. Operant conditioning is different in that a response is strengthened when it is followed by a reinforcer. An example of operant conditioning was shown by Dr. Cox during class with her stickers. The students in the class were experiencing operant conditioning and we were participating more in class as a result of her reinforcer.
There is a difference between a reinforcer and a punishment. Reinforcers can be positive or negative but they both increase the frequency of what we are reinforcing. A punishment on the other hand is meant to decrease a behavior. The problem here is that sometimes we might be reinforcing poor behavior, and what is punishment to one student, might be enjoyable to another.
So What?
Through Dr. Cox’s object lesson we were able to discover several things. First, it is very time consuming to keep up giving reinforcers. Second, when one student was told that he couldn’t receive anymore stickers for his comments, it discouraged him from commenting anymore. Third, sometimes Dr. Cox did not give stickers to students who commented and they may have wondered what was wrong with their comment not to have received a sticker. As a class, we discussed that reinforcers should be used sparingly and that we should try to help students understand there are intrinsic rewards for doing their school work well. Reinforcers are stimuli that increase a behavior whether good or bad. Punishments are supposed to decrease a behavior. As an educator, I need to be careful to use punishment only in situations where it is absolutely necessary. I also need to be aware that one person’s punishment may be a reward (or reinforcer) to another.
Now What?
I need to keep in mind that I need to create a classroom environment where the stimuli including my own behavior is likely to create responses of enjoyment and relaxation. When my students associate my classroom with a pleasant circumstance, they are likely to learn that school is a place that they want to be. On the other hand, if I create a stressful environment, it may create responses of stress and distaste. My students then would associate my classroom with unpleasant circumstances and they will likely learn that school is a place they do not want to be. As I prepare to teach kindergarten, I will need to evaluate the reinforcers I use in my classroom. I believe that I would be interested in using a token economy for some reinforcement. However, I want to instill in my students that intrinsic rewards that are associated with doing tasks well are far better than reinforcers. I need to make sure that the praise I give is genuine and specific to each of my students. I will need to study different methods of reinforcement to determine what will work the best in my classroom. In addition, I will need to be very careful not to reinforce behaviors that I would like to extinguish. I will monitor progress in the classroom to see if my chosen techniques are working and adjust them as necessary.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Investigations Math
What is investigations math?
According to the website http://investigations.terc.edu/, investigations math is a K-5 math curriculum designed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designed to help students understand fundamental ideas about numbers, operations, geometry, data, measurements, and algebra. Investigations math is a result of over 20 years research designed to improve teaching and learning math in elementary schools. Three principles that guide investigations math are that students have mathematical ideas and the curriculum needs to support the exploration of these ideas; teachers are engaged in learning about math and how students learn math, and that teachers and students work together to create curriculum in the classroom. From several sources I have determined that in this type of math the teacher presents a mathematical question and the students work together in groups to try to find a way to solve it. Apparently, time is spent emphasizing concepts, estimating, and using calculators. The traditional idea of memorizing math facts, and repetition and practice are not a part of this type of math.
What were the results of its use in the Alpine School District?
Alpine district began using investigations math in the 2000 school year. I was unable to locate the math scores for pre and post usage of the investigations math program. I only found mention of raised test scores in which the district spokesperson said that there was a 5% increase in elementary algebra and a 7% increase in geometry than the state average. I was able to find reported in 2005 that the legislative committee criticized the method and that the Utah State Office of Education removed it from its list of recommended primary sources of instruction.
I found information that indicated schools in California that used the investigations math approach for 7 years went from being top in math scores in the states to the second lowest. The thing that seemed to be the most obvious result of the use of investigations math was the divisiveness in the district. Some parents were so upset by the program, that they went door-to-door obtaining signatures for a petition against the program. They created a website which kept information concerning investigations math in the forefront of conversation. Some parents moved their children from the public school system into charter, private, or home schools. Several teachers supported the program; however, many others opposed it. In the news reports, children were scolded by teachers for using traditional math ideas and some teachers’ jobs were threatened if they did not use the program. Some teachers reported that they spent 10 minutes on investigations math then closed their doors and taught traditional math.
What are the arguments for and against the use of investigations math?
Arguments for:
Emphasis on concepts, estimation, and use of calculators
Teachers present concepts
Students explore concepts through investigations
Making students into thinking mathematicians
Students develop a deeper understanding and love for math
Arguments against:
Large amount of time for students to identify which solution will work
Fewer topics covered or diminished depth of content
No repetition and practice of basic math facts
De-emphasizes algorithmic methods
Deprives students of some essential skills
My Opinion:
I believe that there should be a balanced approach to teaching math. I believe that it is important for students to memorize basic math facts in order to make it easier to recall basic facts for more complicated problems. I believe that students need to have many opportunities to discover and work with manipulatives in order to solidify abstract math concepts in a more concrete way. As I prepare to teach kindergarten, I realize that my students need many hands on experiences to help them gain an understanding of many math concepts.
According to the website http://investigations.terc.edu/, investigations math is a K-5 math curriculum designed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designed to help students understand fundamental ideas about numbers, operations, geometry, data, measurements, and algebra. Investigations math is a result of over 20 years research designed to improve teaching and learning math in elementary schools. Three principles that guide investigations math are that students have mathematical ideas and the curriculum needs to support the exploration of these ideas; teachers are engaged in learning about math and how students learn math, and that teachers and students work together to create curriculum in the classroom. From several sources I have determined that in this type of math the teacher presents a mathematical question and the students work together in groups to try to find a way to solve it. Apparently, time is spent emphasizing concepts, estimating, and using calculators. The traditional idea of memorizing math facts, and repetition and practice are not a part of this type of math.
What were the results of its use in the Alpine School District?
Alpine district began using investigations math in the 2000 school year. I was unable to locate the math scores for pre and post usage of the investigations math program. I only found mention of raised test scores in which the district spokesperson said that there was a 5% increase in elementary algebra and a 7% increase in geometry than the state average. I was able to find reported in 2005 that the legislative committee criticized the method and that the Utah State Office of Education removed it from its list of recommended primary sources of instruction.
I found information that indicated schools in California that used the investigations math approach for 7 years went from being top in math scores in the states to the second lowest. The thing that seemed to be the most obvious result of the use of investigations math was the divisiveness in the district. Some parents were so upset by the program, that they went door-to-door obtaining signatures for a petition against the program. They created a website which kept information concerning investigations math in the forefront of conversation. Some parents moved their children from the public school system into charter, private, or home schools. Several teachers supported the program; however, many others opposed it. In the news reports, children were scolded by teachers for using traditional math ideas and some teachers’ jobs were threatened if they did not use the program. Some teachers reported that they spent 10 minutes on investigations math then closed their doors and taught traditional math.
What are the arguments for and against the use of investigations math?
Arguments for:
Emphasis on concepts, estimation, and use of calculators
Teachers present concepts
Students explore concepts through investigations
Making students into thinking mathematicians
Students develop a deeper understanding and love for math
Arguments against:
Large amount of time for students to identify which solution will work
Fewer topics covered or diminished depth of content
No repetition and practice of basic math facts
De-emphasizes algorithmic methods
Deprives students of some essential skills
My Opinion:
I believe that there should be a balanced approach to teaching math. I believe that it is important for students to memorize basic math facts in order to make it easier to recall basic facts for more complicated problems. I believe that students need to have many opportunities to discover and work with manipulatives in order to solidify abstract math concepts in a more concrete way. As I prepare to teach kindergarten, I realize that my students need many hands on experiences to help them gain an understanding of many math concepts.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Chapter 7 Learning Log
What?
Today’s lecture covered constructivism. This involves learning as an active process in which the learners construct their own meaning based on prior knowledge and experiences. Piaget would favor the idea that individuals construct their own meaning, while Vygotsy would say that society helps individuals to construct meanings. Today in class during the bell quiz, we had an object lesson of social constructivism. As we found out, it was much better to be able to have other class members to work with on our answers then answering them solely on our own. As a class, we were able to construct the meaning of what we had read in chapter 7 and make some sense of it.
Schema plays a big role in our learning as demonstrated by the paragraph that we read. At first, I thought the paragraph was about a girl doing homework and then friends came over to play games. Then upon further examination I thought that it was a group of musicians getting together to play instruments. I never thought that it was about a baseball game as some in class did. This exercise demonstrated that prior knowledge makes a difference in what we learn.
For an activity on developing a schema, our group was given the word “family” to define. We had a very difficult time trying to come up with something that we all felt comfortable with. In the end, we consulted Google and got a satisfactory definition of “A social unit living together.”
I liked the discovery learning example. I felt that the students were given enough direction to lead them to the conclusions the teacher wanted. I also felt that the students were going to remember the rectangles they built and retain the knowledge longer than if the teacher would have just told them the factors of 12. The students used more than just the ears to hear, they used their hands, worked in groups, and I hope made a better connection to the content.
So What?
As an educator, I need to understand and used different theories of learning to help meet the needs of all my students. What might work well with some students, might not work so well with others. I need to remember these theories and integrate them into my teaching style in order to reach as many students as possible. I need to remember the power of schema! Students will come from diverse backgrounds and I do not want to make any assumptions that everyone knows the same things. I need to evaluate, question, and find out what ideas and schema my student have and begin my teaching from there. Many times, I may need to correct misconceptions that students have in their schema. When I was a child, it would have been easy to describe the word “family” as what would have been considered a traditional family. However, today there are so many more ideas that make up this word. I need to carefully consider each student and their family situation making sure all students aware of the many aspects that make a family.
Now What?
As I prepare to become a teacher, I need to really understand and apply the appropriate theories to my lessons. I need to constantly ponder and evaluate if the methods I employ in my teaching are effective and meeting the needs of my students. As I begin teaching, I believe I will find where my students might have misconceptions in their schemas and I can learn to anticipate where I may need to focus my attentions. It will be important for me to watch for differing schemas through questions, testing, and surveying. I will need to use the existing schema for a basis of my lessons. As I prepare my lessons, I need to be sensitive to the diversity of students I will teach and find the appropriate theories and strategies that will help them learn. I would like to incorporate some discovery learning into my classroom as I believe that hands on experiences help reinforce concept attainment.
Today’s lecture covered constructivism. This involves learning as an active process in which the learners construct their own meaning based on prior knowledge and experiences. Piaget would favor the idea that individuals construct their own meaning, while Vygotsy would say that society helps individuals to construct meanings. Today in class during the bell quiz, we had an object lesson of social constructivism. As we found out, it was much better to be able to have other class members to work with on our answers then answering them solely on our own. As a class, we were able to construct the meaning of what we had read in chapter 7 and make some sense of it.
Schema plays a big role in our learning as demonstrated by the paragraph that we read. At first, I thought the paragraph was about a girl doing homework and then friends came over to play games. Then upon further examination I thought that it was a group of musicians getting together to play instruments. I never thought that it was about a baseball game as some in class did. This exercise demonstrated that prior knowledge makes a difference in what we learn.
For an activity on developing a schema, our group was given the word “family” to define. We had a very difficult time trying to come up with something that we all felt comfortable with. In the end, we consulted Google and got a satisfactory definition of “A social unit living together.”
I liked the discovery learning example. I felt that the students were given enough direction to lead them to the conclusions the teacher wanted. I also felt that the students were going to remember the rectangles they built and retain the knowledge longer than if the teacher would have just told them the factors of 12. The students used more than just the ears to hear, they used their hands, worked in groups, and I hope made a better connection to the content.
So What?
As an educator, I need to understand and used different theories of learning to help meet the needs of all my students. What might work well with some students, might not work so well with others. I need to remember these theories and integrate them into my teaching style in order to reach as many students as possible. I need to remember the power of schema! Students will come from diverse backgrounds and I do not want to make any assumptions that everyone knows the same things. I need to evaluate, question, and find out what ideas and schema my student have and begin my teaching from there. Many times, I may need to correct misconceptions that students have in their schema. When I was a child, it would have been easy to describe the word “family” as what would have been considered a traditional family. However, today there are so many more ideas that make up this word. I need to carefully consider each student and their family situation making sure all students aware of the many aspects that make a family.
Now What?
As I prepare to become a teacher, I need to really understand and apply the appropriate theories to my lessons. I need to constantly ponder and evaluate if the methods I employ in my teaching are effective and meeting the needs of my students. As I begin teaching, I believe I will find where my students might have misconceptions in their schemas and I can learn to anticipate where I may need to focus my attentions. It will be important for me to watch for differing schemas through questions, testing, and surveying. I will need to use the existing schema for a basis of my lessons. As I prepare my lessons, I need to be sensitive to the diversity of students I will teach and find the appropriate theories and strategies that will help them learn. I would like to incorporate some discovery learning into my classroom as I believe that hands on experiences help reinforce concept attainment.
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