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.

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.