Friday, December 12, 2008

Personal Theory

What?

I think that students can learn through any of the theories and definitely through a mixture of the theories. In the quiz that we took I was most closely aligned with cognitivism, more specifically though i feel that social cognitivism is the theory that helps students to learn most effectively. There are so many facets of social cognitivism that are part of the other theories and i feel that it is just the right balance of behaviorism paired with the ideas of cognitivism.

So What?

This knowledge will affect my classroom practice in every way possible. This theory is so large and involves the mental, emotional, and academics of the students. In using this theory i will have to remember that i am constantly a model for my students and the way i behave will help to shape their behavior. I also have to remember to use modeling during my instruction, especially cognitive modeling. The behaviorism part of this theory includes vicarious reinforcement/punishment. I have to remember that my students will see the way i respond to behaviors and will change their own. If they see someone being punished for a behavior and then see someone else do the same thing and not be punished the students will feel that they could do that same behavior and not be punished. I don't want my classroom to be on an equal basis, but built on the basis of equity, that each student is getting what they need. To do this studtents will have to understand that punishments and reinforcements might be different for every student, but that certain behaviors are innapropriate whether they are able to see the punishment or not. Another way that using this theory will affect the way i teach is that i will be trying to help my student build their self-efficacy and then help them learn to self-regulate.

Now What?

One of the steps that i need to take to be able to use this theory in my classroom is simply just remembering all the parts of it. Its nice that i have this blog that i will be able to look back on and remember all of the parts of social cognitivism or constructivism and be able to implement them in my class. I also want to learn more about the most effective ways to model and when to model. I think that with the more experience that i have as a teacher that these things will just come, especially if i am putting forth a concerted effort to remember that one way i reinforce a student will change behavior of other students. Earlier i stated that i wanted my reinforcement to be equitable and not always equal. To be able to do that in my classroom, my students would need to be able to understand that difference and be able to ask me anytime about why i did what i did. I think that even stronger than the vicarious reinforcement, this will send a message to the students that everything in life may not always be fair, but that they need to worry about themselves, they need to focus on their own goals and abilities and not always worry about how others are being punished or reinforced. By doing this i would hope that the students will be able to gain a respect for their fellow classmates and that they will all be able to understand each other a little better. These goals may seem a little out there for me, but this is what i am hoping for, this is what i am hoping to implement. I think that it is important to let the students know what is going on and why we do the things that we do. Most students will respect that and that will help our class to be able to have that safe, trusting environment.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Chapter 10 - Social Cognitive Views

What?

Social Cognitivism is a theory that is a combination of cognitivism and behaviorism. It defines learning as a process that may or may not lead to a behavior change. Basically it is that people learn by observing others. Within social congnitivism, we learned about modeling, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and vicarious reinforcement/punishment.

So What?

So why is this important? I think that the main way anybody learns is by watching others around them. Along with the vicarious reinforcement/punishment, we really do learn from other successes and failures and will change our behavior when we see the outcome of other's behaviors. This is important to us as teachers because through the reinforcement of 1 student the behavior of your entire class can change. The previous example also has to do with modeling. If we model things with our students they will be able to better perform their tasks. What i really liked was the congnitive modeling. It involves bemonstrating how to thing about the task adn how to do the task. Basically the teacher talking aloud about the mental process they follow as they complete a task. One more thing that i wanted to touch on was self-regulation. This is so important because when a student learns to self-regulate they have taken the learning into their own hands. They can set goals for themselves and they are able to reinforce and reward themselves. This is a crucial skill for students to learn because they won't always have somebody there reinforcing their behavior or their work, so learning to do that by themselves will help them to be a better student and help them prepare for that time when they don't have a boss, a mom, or a teacher reinforcing their work.

Now What?

Anyone can see why the points of social cognitivism would be so important to a teacher, but the thing is, is that you actually have to implement it in your classroom. Without even realizing it, the students automatically learn by modeling and by vicarioius reinforcement. One thing though that we will mentally have to make sure we as teacher do is that the modeling and example that we are showing is a positive one and that we are always using correct behavior. We also have to make sure that we are taking the time to do the cognitive modeling and building students' self-efficacy because that will help our students to be more self-reliant and to be better students and learners.

Chapter 9 - Behaviorist Views

What?

This week we learned about what the behaviorist views are and how they are used in the classroom, including conditioning and stimulus.

So What?

Understanding the views of behaviorist is very important because it helps us to figure out what our view is and that will change the way we run our classroom. Behaviorism is a lot of things that i didn't even realize. A lot of the things that we do in our daily life and that we will do in our classrooms include that behavior modification. Without even realizing we do it, we offer rewards and praise for the actions that we seen and we may punish or withhold that praise to show our dislike of a certain action. Because the students we are teaching are in the Industry vs. Infereiority stage, they want to please their teacher (and they also want rewards) so they will do whatever they need to to get that praise or that reward.

Now What?

Now that we understand the views of behaviorists we can apply the principles in our classes the way that we see fit. I completely agree that token economies and rewards should not be given in an academic/learning situation. It really does undermine motivation and can create major problems. I want to be able to help my students motivate themselves instead of, in a way manipulating their motivation and having it be extrinsic. I also agree that the behaviorists' theories do work and have validity, but that they should be used maybe on a personal level instead of in a group contingency, or maybe as we discussed in class that they should be used for classroom management. Knowing about behaviorism really helps us to understand motivation a little more deeply than we had already discussed, this will be so important in our classrooms because that motivation and the source of it affects everything that goes on in a class.

Chapter 7 - Knowledge Construction

What?

We learned about knowledge construction, which is a theory that involves students construction their own knowledge. We focused a lot on social constructivism which implies that students will construct knowledge together.

So What?

This is important because it is a much better and more effective way to teach. Students will learn more if they construct the knowledge themselves. Sometimes it can be harder to implement these types of experiences with our students, but they are so worth it because they learn better.

Now What?

Now that i understand what social constructivism is i can use it in my classroom and allow for students to help each other figure out things for themselves. There were a few things that promote construction, they include: experimentation, presenting experts' perspectives, emphasizing conceptual understanding, promoting classroom dialogue, assigning authentic activities, scaffolding theory constructions, and creating a community of learners. Now that i know about these ways to help students effectively construct knowledge i will be able to use them in my classroom to create good learning experiences where the students will gain a real understanding of what they are learning and they will also be able to continually learn and stay interested in their education.

Chapter 3 - Personal & Social Development

What?

In moral and social development we discussed Erikson and Kohlberg's stages. We also learned about students' sense of self and how to promote social interaction within our classroom.

So What?

Knowing about Erikson and Kohlberg's stages is very important to us as teachers because it really gives us good guidelines about what we can be expecting from our students both socially and morally. I learned that most of my students will be in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage and this will be crucial to me as a teacher because the way i encourage my students and the type of instruction i plan can really help them to develop a stronger sense of who they are and help them to feel that industry. Knowing about moral development is also important because i feel that we have a responsibility as teacher to help our students to become moral and ethical individuals.

Now What?

Now that i know a little more about moral education, in my class i will address moral situation and like discussed in the text, will help the students reason at higher moral levels than they might have otherwise. This can really help the students to grow and will help them to be able to reason through their own situations when they run into problems.

Chapter 2 - Cognitive/Linguistic Development

What?

This chapter contained a lot of information on how the brain works and how we organize what we learn. It also talked about Piaget's stages of development and Vygotsky's principles of ZPD and scaffolding.

So What?

This is so important to us as teachers because we need to understand students previous schemes and be able to teach in a way that they can effectively accommodate or assimilate the information that we teach. This also gives us a basic understanding of how the brain works and will help us to understand cognitive disabilities.


Now What?

Now that i know this information i actually have to use it. I will definitely remember the principle of ZPD and Scaffolding because in my field experience i was able to see what a huge difference that it can make. A lot of the students were not working in their ZPD and there was not proper scaffolding in many of the activities. This was a major problem because the students didn't learn anything. They just floundered and goofed off because they weren't being challenged correctly and they didn't understand what they needed to do.

We also learned about Piaget's stages and this will be important to me now because the students that i hope to teach will just be able to see other points of views and will be able to hypothesize using variable. These are just a few of the things in Piaget's stages, but knowing all of these items can really affect the way that i design my instruction and will help me to design instruction that will be approprate for the level that my students are at.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

New Study Technique

I can't even remember what technique I wrote down that i was going to work on. But i went to study for our test with Bobbi and Toni and Toni suggested that we use concept maps becuase that was the one she had chosen. So we all got out our paper and discussed the different topics for essays and all drew our own little bubble maps for the different topics. I have always hated doing this, i'm more of a numbered and bulleted lists kind of person, but when i was writing my essays i found that writng the imformation in a different way than is was used to was really good becuase in addition to trying to remember the lists from my notes i also had these little bubble maps popping into my head and i was better able to recall exactly what i needed to know. I think that i will continue to do bubble maps for my reviews because it helped me to connect the information while still reviewing the way i would have before.

Learning & Cognitive processes

What: The last 2 weeks we have been learning about cognitive processes, just about how information is learned, stored, organized, and how we recall it.

So What: It is importatn to know exactly how memories are created and how things are remembered because as teachers we want our students to remember what they are learning. We want them to be able to recall the things we teach and the things that they are learning. It is our job to teach, but even more to teach in such a way that the information is engaging and useful for the students so that they will be able to use it.

Now What: Well just because we have learned how the brain encodes and how we learn best doesn't always come into play. As teachers we will conciously have to think about ways to connect and certain ways to teach so that the information isn't misconcieved and that the students will be able to recall it. We had our own little assignment to use a study technique that we had learned about that increased our ability to remember or to organize information and it was really hard because it was something that we were not used to, and a lot of this stuff we are learning is going to be like that, but we just have to remember that the way we have always done things may not be the best way and we need to look around and try new things.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Piaget Tasks

I did the pennies, lining up sticks and the water cups tasks, but since I don’t have very much interaction with kids because I’m one of the younger kids in my family and because at the moment I’m living with my grandma I just did the task with one of my friends. And believe it or not, she was able to do every one of the tasks without a problem. This would put her into the concrete & formal operations stage because she was able to do every task. The task with the water deals with conservation and she was able to do that which is a concrete operational thought.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Intelligence Tests

Personalized IQ report for Erica Porter !
Your age adjusted IQ score is 115 and the average score of all test takers is 100.
Your IQ score is the result of a formula based on the number of questions answered correctly on the test. This score has been further adjusted to account for the differences in capabilities among various age groups.
The IQ test was really odd because in my results it said that spatial reasoning was my strongest area, which is really weird because i have never thought that it was one of my stronger abilities. Maybe the spatial wasn't really all that great, but at least it was higher then any of my other logical reasoning skills. The results also seemed a little detailed for just 30 questions and later on in the explanation it said
Well done! Your performance on the test was well above the population average which means that you have the ability to achieve success in life. Typically, people with scores in this range can see logic in their surroundings and perform very well academically. You like to conceptualize ideas and gather your own information which means that you have the brains to go far. You should be able to handle all academic challenges and if you think of intelligence as an ability to adapt adequately to new situations then you are heading in the right direction.
It just seemed like to much of a detailed explanation. I hate those test where you answer like 2 questions and the seem to have analyzed your entire life and can fit you into a box with a nice little bow. Lots of people who have high IQ scores could be lazy or maybe lack social skills and can't adapt like the results said they could...

I also took the test about Multiple Intelligences and found out that my main intelligence was Naturalistic. I thought that this was really accurate because i love learning about nature and i love learning in nature. My second one was Kinaesthetic which was also very true because i move around a lot and i learn through body movements. In our curriculum class we had to take a multiple intelligences quiz but i liked this one a lot better because there were more questions and i felt that it was a better reflection on the way i actually learn.

Learning Log

What?

In class today we talked about group differences, moslty culture & ethnic differences (eye contact, wait time, personal space, language & dialect) gender, & SES.

So What?

This is really important because all teachers will face these situations we talked about, all people face situations where these group differences are a factor.

Now What?

In the activity where we shared our assumptions about the kids that we saw on the powerpoint i realized how quick i am to judge and how stereotypical my ideas sometimes are. I need to start working now to change the way i think and to try and stop judging people according to stereotypes.

The discussion in class today was very interesting to me and because I don't want to forget what I was thinking i'm going to write down some of what was running through my mind during class. We were talking about competition and how it will vary from group to group, but competition is also a very individualized trait. Within my family we have so many different types of people. My brother turns everything into a competition, and i hate competition, but have learned to deal with it as i started running. I realized that though i was competeing against myself to become better i wasn't as good as i could be if i had a better competitive edge and pushed myself to beat the girl next to me. I have been able to learn to be competitive and i love it, but only in that aspect of my life. I still don't compete in other areas of my life, i hate doing it becuase i guess that don't want to make anybody feel bad. I don't want to win and make somebody else lose. I don't like people looking at me and saying, "she's smart" or "she always wins" I really don't know why, but i have always hated the stereotype i recieve of being smart because i feel that anybody can be just as smart if they would just work as hard as i do. I understand that people are definitely at different levels, but everybody can improve and can be better and to do this we have to create a competition to be better within ourselves instead of having the competition be between others, where somebody is the 'loser' and somebody is the 'winner.' I probably also feel like this because i have definitely been on both ends of the spectum in my running. I have won races and felt so awesome about myself, but then seen the ohter girls crying & i wish that i could have changed things to make everybody happy, I guess it just comes down to that i'm a pleaser and with most competitions, everybody can't win, and i want to be able to have everybody win and to have everybody feel good about themselves. Now that i realized this about myself, i will definitely be a lot more wary of competition that i do with my class and i will try different motivational techniques instead of pitting students against students.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Learning Log

What?

We learned about different types of research that we might encounter or be a part of as teachers.

So What?

It is important to us because we have to decipher things that we see in the media or studies that we are given and decide if the information is true, whether it has the correct conclusion, or maybe if it is biased.

Now What?

I can definitely use what we have learned when i am a teacher. We learned about action research which is a way for a teacher to conduct their own research. We can put our observations together to try and reach a conclusion about maybe the behavior of a student or if our teaching methods are having the desired result. I will also be able to use this information right now because as i continue through this program and through this semester i am going to see educational studies and now i will understand what type of study it is and will be able to make a decision about what I think of it and how relevant it will be for me.

Ninth-Grade Attendance Rates Predict High School Graduation


This little study was very interesting and showed a correlation between the attendance rates in 9th grade and then whether a student would graduate from High School. It didn't include much more information that would be crucial in being able to tell if the data was correct. It just said it was students in the public schools in Chicago. What we would need to know was how many schools & students were involved in the study and did it span more than just one year of students? The study explained how important the 9th grade year is for students and how crucial that transition is. So it would make sense that if students were in class during this crucial period they would be more likely to graduate. From what i read though it seemed like they were trying to apply a conclusion and show a cause and effect, which they can't do because this is only a correlational study, it was interesting though to see the relationship that school attendance had on the graduation. This relationship obviously isn't true for all students, i'm pretty sure that i missed about 15 days (or more) of school each semester in 9th grade and i still graduated. It would be interesting for me to be able to see the spread on students who were absent, but still graduated from high school.

http://www.mdrc.org/area_fact_35.html

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Motivation

What motivates me? Well I guess my basic motivation in school is my desire to be a teacher and so that is why I'm here. I am motivated a lot of time by grades, something that I have been trying very hard to change. I hate that a simple letter A through F can control my ability to be motivated. I understand that the motivation has to come from somewhere else and be something that I believe in and something that I know and understand why I am doing it.

The reasons I may fail is my level of organization or my preoccupation with grades. I may not be failing in the full sense of the word by focusing on grades, I still get so much out of what I am doing, but by focusing on what I'm actually learning and thinking about how I'm becoming a better teacher will help me to really succeed. The reason I'm where I'm at today is because of always working my very hardest. I have always been motivated to do my best because I'm a pleaser. I like to please my teachers, the people I work with, my family, and especially myself. This desire to please can help me to succeed because I work so much harder, but it can also be something that causes me to fail because I do things for the wrong reasons.

Something that will definitely have to change this year is just trying to stop pleasing everybody. I just need to do the things that I need to do to reach my goals, not just what other people think I should be doing. I receive a lot motivation from people around me, but what I need to focus on is remembering the motivation that comes from me. I am so excited for the things that I am going to be learning in the next few years in my education classes and as I become a teacher. I just need to remember that and have my love of learning motivate me. Another thing that needs to change before I can succeed is my organization. I am very scattered and have a hard time remembering anything, especially when I get overwhelmed. I get really anxious, which can be a good thing, but sometimes it can really interfere with me being able to do what I need to. My motivation is in the right place, but I just need to change my environment to be able to facilitate my ideas and make things easier for me.