Donna's Reflection Journal

Chapter 16

2008-12-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

Chapter 16: Summary

Improving Your Teaching and Reflection Skills

Effective teacher knows how to coordinate a diverse array of instructional elements and adapt them to differences in student needs, materials, and purposes.

Students are in a better position to evaluate teachers than anyone. So a more comprehensive and systematic approach is to distribute a questionnaire or evaluation form and ask students to record their reactions anonymously.

For teachers who adopt a constructivist approach and value student’s perceptions of how well constructivist learning principles are implemented in the classroom. (Example: Constructivist Learning Environment Survey CLES)

Students can not always tell you about technical flaws in your instructional techniques. So you may have a colleague complete an analysis of your teaching approach.

One of the easiest to create and use is a checklist Figure 16.2 page 553 example

Other ways is to videotape or audiotape your lessons.

Another idea is to use Reflective Lesson Plans
Divide a sheet of paper in half. Label the left-hand side “Lesson Plan”. Label the right-hand side “Reflective Notes”
On the lesson plan side, note relevant information, the objectives of the lesson, the tasks that are to be carried out in chronological order, the materials and equipment that are to be used, and how much time has been allotted for this lesson
On the reflective notes side, as soon as possible after the lesson, write your thoughts about the worth of the objective that underlies the lesson, the adequacy of the materials, and how well you performed the basic mechanics of teaching
Make changes to the lesson plans based on your analysis of the reflective notes.

Guided Reflection Protocol- a technique that is somewhat less structured than the reflective lesson plan. After choosing one or more teaching episodes answer the following questions honestly as possible:
What happened? Describe the incident as fully as possible
Why did it happen? The events that produced the incident
What might it mean? There may be several possible interpretations of the meaning
What are the implications for my practice? What might you do differently in a similar situation

Teachers may want to develop a reflection journal to: serve as a repository of instructional ideas and techniques that you have either created from your own experiences or gleaned from other sources; and to give yourself a format for recording your observations and reflections on teaching.
Search your memory for techniques that your past teachers used; describe
Ask others if they can remember any successful ways that their teachers made understanding easier
Examine the examples given in the text section
Add ideas that you pick up in methods classes or during your student-teaching experiences

Use a portfolio with your journal:
Title page
Table of contents
Statement of your educational philosophy
Resume
Statement of your teaching goals
Examples of lesson plans
Examples of learning activities
Samples of student work
Photographs and videotapes
Letters of recommendations
Teaching evaluations
Samples of college work
An autobiography
Reflections about how teaching has contributed to your growth as a person and a teacher
Official documents

Conford believes that for reflection to be effective, teachers need to possess two qualities: broad and in-depth knowledge of the classroom as a teaching-learning environment and strong critical thinking skills.

Using Technology for Reflection

Discussion Forums and Chatrooms:
The connect page of ALPS, Harvard’s Teacher Lab (http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/bigideas/q5.cfm )
The New Teachers Online page of Teachers Network (www.teachersnetwork.org/ntol )
The Interactive Forums page of the International Education and Resource Network (www.iearn.org/index.html )
The Teachers2Teachers page of Teachnet.com (www.teachnet.com/t2t)
The Teachers Helping Teachers Guestbook page of Teachers Helping Teachers (www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/guestbook.html)
The teachers.net “chat center” can direct you to “chatboards” arranged by grade levels, subjects, region, and so forth (http://teachers.net)
Multimedia Case-Based Instruction: using multimedia and hypermedia programs that feature case-based learning formats that encourage new models of teaching, learning, and assessment among both preservice and practicing teachers
· Houghton Mifflin Video Cases

What I Have Learned

I have learned so much from this class. I have never had a class that I came out with so much new knowledge before. We have completed worthwhile projects, learned new technology tools to use, and been given so many great resources that we can use in our classrooms. We have also discussed our ideas and thoughts with others and learned how to reflect on what we are learning using technology. There is so much that I could say but I will tie it all up into one statement, “What a Great Class This Has Been”.

Question of the Week:

I really don’t have a question, I just have a thought “thanks for everything Ms. Graff, you are great”.

Oh, where do you find all your great ideas and resources?

Understanding and Using Standardized Tests

2008-12-07T12:02:00.000-08:00

Chapter 15: Summary

Standardized Tests:
Standardized tests- items presentes and scored in standard fashion; results reported with reference to standards

Basic purpose of standardized tests is to obtain accurate representative sample of some aspect of a person.

Standardized test scores are used to identify strengthes and weaknesses, plan instruction, select students for programs.

Reliability- similiarity between two rankings of test scores obtained from the same individual

Split-half reliability: a single test is administered to a group of students, they create two scores by dividing the test in half, and measure the extent to which the rankings change from one half to the other. It gauges the internal consistency of a test.
Test-retest reliability: they administer the same test to the same people on two occasions and measure the extent to which the rankings change over time.
Alternate-form reliability: they administer two equivalent forms of a test to the same group of students at the same time and compare the results.

Validity- how accurately a test measures what users want it to measure.

Content Validity: how well test items cover a body of knowledge and skill
Predictive Validity: how well a test score predicts later performance
Construct Validity: how accurately a test measures a theoretical attribute

Norm group- a sample of individuals carefully chosen so as to reflect the larger population of students for whom the test is intended.

Meaningfulness of standardized test scores depends on representativeness of norm group.

Formal testing of young children is inappropriate because of rapid developmental changes.

Types of Standardized Tests:

Achievement tests: (1) single-subject achievement test (2) diagnostic test (3) achievement batteries (4) competency test (5) special-purpose achievement test
Aptitude tests: they measure predisposition to develop additional capabilities in specific areas
Norm-referenced tests: compare one student with others
Criterion-referenced tests: indicate degree of mastery of objectives

Achievement tests measure how much of a subject or skill has been learned.

Diagnostic achievement tests designed to identify specific strengths and weaknesses.

Competency tests determine whether potential graduates possess basic skills.

Standardized Test Scores:

Grade Equivalent Scores: interprets test performance in terms of grade levels
Percentile ranks: percentage of scores at or below a given point
Standard Scores: are expressed in terms of Standard deviations (degree of deviation from the mean of a distribution); normal curve (a mathematical concept that depicts a hypothetical bellshaped distribution of scores); z score (tells how far a given raw score if from the mean in standard deviation units); T score (raw score translated to a scale of 1-100 with a mean of 50)
Stanine: student performance indicated with reference to a 9-point scale based on normal curve

Misconceptions:

A test measures what its name implies
All tests with the same title are the same
A test score accurately reflects what people know and can do
Two tests that claim to measure the same thing can be made interchangeable
Test are scored by adding up the number of items people answer correctly
Scores of 70% correct, 80% correct, and 90% correct are equivalent to grades of C, B, and A respectively
Multiple-choice questions are useful only for measuring how well students can recognize and recall factual knowledge
One can tell if an item is good just by looking at it

Using Standardized Tests for Accountability Purposes: High-Stakes Testing

High-stakes testing: using test results to hold students and educators accountable for achievement

NCLB requires standards, annual testing in math and reading, annual progress for all students, public reports, and accountability systems.

High-stakes tests expected to improve clarity of goals, quality control, teaching methods, and student motivation.

High-stakes tests criticized because of structural limitations, misinterpretations/misuse of results, narrow view of motivation, adverse side effects.

Research on effects of high-stakes testing limited and inconsistent

Standardized Testing and Technology

Websites of state departments of education, private companies provide services that help prepare students for state assessments.

Smarthinking (www.smarthinking.com) povides tutoring through online instructors and digital whiteboards

TestGEAR (www.testu.com) students take a diagnostic pretest and are then provided with individualized courses in various aspects of math and language arts.

Computer adaptive testing: computers determine sequence and difficulty level of test items.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom

Before you give a standardized test, emphasize that students should do their best
Before your students take a standardized test, give them specific suggestions for taking such tests
Examine the test booklet and answer sheet in advance so that you are familiar with the test
Be cautious when interpreting scores, and always give the student the benefit of the doubt
Do your best to control the impact of negative expectations
Be prepared to offer parents clear and accurate information about their children's test scores

Life Experiences:

I feel my life experiences are best explained from my post in the discussion board this week.

Wow, I can really get on my soap box with this one discussion. There is a time and a place for standardized testing; and in some instances they are good and useful. BUT not the way that they are used right now. I work with students with disabilities and it just infuriates me when I see what these tests do to these kids. We have determined through important standardized testing that they are students with disabilities and in most cases are not able to complete work from their grade level but we except them to sit down for how many days and do the exact same test as all other students. How bright does that sound???? I understand that standardized testing is used for many purposes and many of them are important but our testing setup right now just does not cut it. Even students who do well in school get very stressed out when you mention those big tests at the end of the year. I have even seen kids that were so upset that they were literally sick. They have came up with alternative assessments for the significantly cognitively impaired but what about those kids with learning disabilities that just try their best but can not do it. We need to come up with some for of alternate assessment for them. Because the way things are right now, there is no way that they are getting accurate results for a lot of the students in school today. I know that teachers need a way to assess what their students have learned and the government needs a way to assess teachers because of No Child Left Behind, but there has to be something better. Right now they are putting so much emphasis on end of the year testing and trying to make it where if a child does not perform like they should then they can not go on to the next grade, that is crazy. I have seen some kids that have made tremendous progress in a year but if you went by that rule they would not get to go on to the next grade level and who knows they probably won't the next year either even with the best teacher. Good teachers conduct informal assessments on their children throughout the year and those informal assessments give a much better idea of where a child is at and how much progress they have made over that year than any standardized test ever could or probably ever will. How these changes need to be made I'm not sure or who will help to make these changes who knows?

How this class has changed me:

I have learned so much from this class. I intend on saving my book because it is full of important information for anyone who is working with students in a school setting. Even though I will not persay be "Teaching" students, I will be an individual that will help them toward achieving an appropriate education. I try to carry over information that I am learning in this class to other education classes that I am currently taking. I hope to also use it when I begin my speech language classes this summer.

Blogs:

I was nice to see that almost everyone in the class has the same kinds of concerns with NCLB and standardized testing as I do. We all came about it through different ways but it all boils down to there needs to be changes made in the current system because their idea of all children being proficient by 2014 is a long way off right now.

Question of the Week:

http://tcmtechnologyblog.blogspot.com/
Answer the following questions about the blog. I understand this is not a P-12 blog, but the ideas within it are great for this series of "questions of the week".
Would a blog like this one help you with your teaching?
Would you be able to get ideas for teaching from this blog? How? Why? Explain.
Did you learn something new from the blogger? What and why did it strike you as memorable?
Would you want to create a site like this for others? Why or why not?

Yes, there is alot of neat things at this website. I found a song for elementary students about polygons and an interesting video about why subtraction algorithms are hard to learn. I also found another website from it called "Interactive" it was full of neat math games. The more you keep going through it the more you will find. Even if you do not use the whole idea that is given maybe you can "tweak" it a little to fit your age group. I love math, it was always one of my favorite subjects when I was in school. I still try to help tutor other kids in math now if time allows. There are so many interesting blogs out there right now and I figure that new ones are being created all the time. I would love to be able one day to create a blog with as much important information about speech language or other things that interest me as this individual did, but time is always the problem factor.

Assessment of Classroom Learning

2008-11-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

Chapter 14: Summary

The Role of Assessment in Teaching

Assessment-collecting information about how much knowledge and skill students have learned (measurement) and making judgments about the adequacy of acceptability of each student's level of learning (evaluation) (Ex. exams, respond to oral questions, do homework exercises, write papers, solve problems, create products, and make oral presentations)

Measurement- assigning numbers or ratings according to rules to create a ranking

Evaluation- making judgments about the value of a measure

Why should we assess student's learning?

summative evaluation: (to provide summaries of learning) measure achievement, assign grades; to provide to all interested parties a clear, meaningful, and useful summary or accounting of how well a student has met the teacher's objectives; when testing is done for the purpose of assigning a letter or numerical grade; a one time event after instruction
formative evaluation: (to monitor learning progress) monitor progress and plan remedial instuction; are the students keeping up with the pace of instruction and are understanding all of the material that has been covered so far (Ex. periodic quizzes, homework assignments, in-class worksheets, oral reading, responses to teacher questions, and behavioral observations); a dynamic, ongoing and interactive relationship with teaching
diagnosis: constructing an assessment that will provide specific diagnostic information
effects on learning: potentially positive effects on various aspects of learning and instruction; it guides students' judgment of what is important to learn, affects their motivation and self-perceptions of competence, structures their approaches to and timing of personal study, consolidates learning, and affects the development of enduring learning strategies and skills

Moderate testing produces more learning than no testing or infrequent testing

Ways to Measure Student Learning

Objectives can be classified in terms of: knowing about something; and knowing how to do something

Written tests- measures that attempt to assess the range and accuracy of someone's knowledge

Performance tests- measures that attempt to assess how well somebody can do something

Written Tests:

Selected-Response Tests: (multiple-choice, true-false, and matching) sometimes called "objective" tests because they have a simple and set scoring system; used to assess foundational knowledge (the basic factual information and cognitive skills that students need in order to do such high-level tasks as solve problems and create products); they are objectively scored and efficient but usually measure lower levels of learning and do not reveal what students can do
Short-Answer Tests: (a brief written response from the student) they are used for measuring foundational knowledge; scored quickly, accurately, and consistently; easily written; but measure lower levels of learning (no information on how the student can use what they learned)
Essay Tests: (students must organize a set of ideas and write a somewhat lengthy response to a broad question); reveal how well students can recall, organize and clearly communicate previously learned information; they can call on higher-level abilities such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation; hard to grade; consistency in grading; time-consuming to grade and only a few questions can be given

Constructing a Useful Test:

significance- test measures worthwhile skills
teachability- effective instruction can help students acquire the skills and knowledge measured by the test
describability- the skills and knowledge measured by the test can be described with sufficient clarity that they make instructional planning easier
reportability- test produces results that allow a teacher to identify areas of instruction that were probably inadequate
nonintrusiveness- the test does not take an excessive amount of time away from instruction

Performance Test- measure ability to use knowledge and skills to solve realistic problems, create products

Authentic assessment- realistic conditions when using performanc testing

TYPES OF PERFORMANCE TESTING:

Direct Writing Assessment- ask students to write about a specific topic under a standard set of conditions; each essay is then scored by 2 or more people according to a set of defined criteria
Portfolios- contains one or more pieces of a student's work, some which demonstrate different stages of completion
Exhibitions- involves a showing of such products as paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, videotapes, and models
Demonstrations- students are required to show how well they can use previously learned knowledge or skills to solve a somewhat unique problem or to perform a task

Characteristics of Performance tests:

emphasis on active responding- focus on processes and products
degree of realism- are more like everyday tasks when appropriate (time, cost, availability of equipment, and the nature of the skill being mastered are all factors that affect realism)
emphasis on complex problems- questions asked should be open ended and ill structured
close relationship between teaching and testing- must be established by the teacher it is not automatic
use of scoring rubrics- they increase objectivity and consistency of scoring, align instruction with assessment, communicate teachers' expectations, and help students monitor progress
emphasize formative evaluation- can be used as a source of feedback to help students improve the quality of their learning efforts (Ex. dress rehearsals, reviews of writing drafts, and peer response groups)
probably more responsive to cultural diversity

Concerns with Performance Testing:

the amount of time required by these tests to construct, administer, and score
it is harder to explain to parents the relationship between how such tests are often scored and the letter grades on students' report cards
adopting new responsibilities; the teachers becomes more of a collaborator and facilitator than a gatekeeper
different purposes of traditional standardized tests and performance test

Ways to Evaluate Student Learning

Norm-referenced grading- assumes that classroom achievement will naturally vary among a group of heterogeneous students because of differences in such characteristics as prior knowledge, learning skills, motivation, and aptitude

Norm-referenced grading: compare one student with others

determine percentage of students who will receive each grade
arrange the scores from highest to lowest
calculate which scores fall in which category and assign the grades accordingly

Strengths and Weaknesses of norm-referenced grading:

evaluating advanced levels of learning
selection for limited-enrollement programs
few situations in public schools were it is appropriate to use

Criterion-Referenced Grading- permits students to benefit from mistakes and improve their level of understanding and performance; it establishes an individual reward structure, which fosters motivation to learn to a greater extent

Criterion-referenced grading: compare individual performance with stated criteria; provides information about strengths and weaknesses

Strengths and Weaknesses of criterion-referenced grading:

provide more specific and useful information about student strengths and weaknesses
promote motivation to learn
the performance standards that one specifies are arbitrary and may be difficult to justify to parents and colleagues
a teacher's standards may appear to be stable from one test to another, but they may actually fluctuate as a result of unnoticed variation in the difficulty of each test and the quality of instruction

A Mastery Approach: give students multiple opportunities to master goals at their own pace (Suggestions for this approach on page 496-497)

Improving Your Grading Methods: Assessment Practices To Avoid

worshipping averages- it ignores measurement error or extenuating circumstances
using zeros indiscriminately- for late or incomplete assignments
providing insufficient instruction before testing
teaching for one thing but testing for another
using pop quizzes- surprise tests produce undesirable level of anxiety or other students may just give up
keeping the nature and content of a test a secret- what will be on a test needs to be told to your students
keeping the criteria for assignments a secret- students need to know what is expected of them
shifting criteria- trying to shock students into more appropriate learning behaviors (changing the amount each part is worth after informing the students)
combining apples and oranges

Technology for Classroom Assessment

Electronic gradebooks and grading programs
Technology-based Performance Assessment: (Ex. GLOBE- a web-based simulation that leads itself to the assessment of scientific inquiry www.globe.gov/globe_flash.html ; multimedia tools with audio, text, video, and graphics)
Digital-Portfolios: collection of work that is stored and illustrated electronically; exhibits individual efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas (Ex. digitized pictures and scanned images, documents, audio recordings, video clips, and multimedia presentations)

Advantages: the ability of students to explain in text and narration why they gave their portfolio it particular content and form; they can demonstrate what they know, how they came to know it, how their knowledge increased and evolved, and what they have accomplished with that knowledge

Disadvantages: access needs to be restricted, passwords can be forgotten, portfolios that are stored on a school server can be altered or destroyed by hackers; work on saved while working can be lost if computer crashes

Special rubrics available to assess digital portfolios and presentations. www.4teaches.org contains Rubistar (provides templates for creating rubrics for several kinds of digital products)and other things related to technology

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Effective Assessment Techniques

As early as possible in a report period, decide when and how often to give tests and other assignments that will count toward a grade, and announce tests and assignments well in advance
Prepare a content outline or a table or specifications of the objectives to be covered on each exam, or otherwise take care to obtain a systematic sample of knowledge and skill acquired by your students
Consider the purpose of each test or measurement exercise in the light of the developmental characteristics of the students in your classes and the nature of the curriculum for your grade level
Decide whether a written test or a performance test is more appropriate
Make up and use a detailed answer key or rubric: (a) evaluate each answer by comparing it with the key or rubric (b) be willing and prepared to defend the evaluations you make
During and after the grading process, analyze questions and answers in order to improve future exams

Life Experiences:

We have all had to deal with testing or assessment. Now days our poor students have to deal with even more than we ever had to. I am not a big supporter of all of this standardized testing and how much pressure they put on students and teachers about it. There is way too many flaws in our state-wide assessment procedures right now. We can not have one test that "ALL" students must take except those that fall as significantly cognitively impaired. What about all those kids with learning disabilities, they are not significantly, cognitively impaired but they can not take those tests and do well like they want them to because they are not on grade level and they may never be. (Sorry didn't mean to get on my soap box, but this topic really gets me going)

Educational Psychology class:

I have learned so much from this class. It has been a great semester full of really good information. Sometimes you take a class and really wonder what did you learn, but not with this class. Ms. Graff, you are a great teacher. Keep up the good work.

BLOG of the Week:

I looked at each of these but I did not really care for http://www.speedofcreativity.org/ because it mainly deals with just technology and many ideas are way ahead of what can be done in a class. I also did not appreciate the OLPC foundation very much. How many students to computers do our school have right now, but we are to be so concerned with every child in another country having a laptop. I think we need to take care of our own children's needs in school and then we can take care of others. (Just strictly my opinion though) I just hate that our schools are so tight on money right now that we can not afford to add more technology resources for our teachers.

I choose the blog http://www.k12opened.com/blog/ because it contained some new information that I was not familiar with, open education. I have never heard of it and this website has some really great information. The idea of open-education textbooks that are out there and are free was a new thing to me. Also the idea of open-licensed content was new too. The blog about open vs. free unveiled some really important ideas about students blogging on certain sites and just because something is free does not mean it is open. This blog helps teachers to realize the importance of what they use out their and what their students may also be using.

Classroom Management

2008-11-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

Chapter 13: Summary

Authoritarian, Permissive, and Authoritative Approaches to Classroom Management
3 styles approaches to classroom management

Authoritarian- parents establish rules for their children's behavior and expect them to be blindly obeyed; explanations are not always given; rewards and punishments are given; "Do what I say because I said so"
Permissive- parents represent the other extreme; they impose few controls; allow their children to make many basic decisions and provide advice or assistance only when asked; "Do what I say because you are like me and respect my judgment"
Authoritative- parents provide rules but discuss the reasons for them, teach their children how to meet them and reward children for exhibiting self-control; cede more responsibility for self-governance to their children as the children demonstrate increased self-regulation skills; this style leads to children's internalizing the parent's norms and maintaining intrinsic motivation for following them in the future; "Do what I say because doing so will help you learn more"

The students of authoritative teachers better understand the need for classroom rules and tend to operate within them most of the time.

Preventing Problems: Techniques of Classroom Management

Kounin's Observations on Group Management

Show your students that you are "with it"- withitness (teachers that prove to their students that they know what is going on in a classroom usually have fewer behavior problems than teachers who appear to be unaware of incipient disruptions)
Learn to cope with overlapping situations- being able to handle overlapping activities helps maintain classroom control
Strive to maintain smoothness and momentum in class activities- some teachers caused problems for themselves by constantly interrupting activities without thinking about what they were doing
Try to keep the whole class involved, even when you are dealing with individual students- call on students in an unpredictable order
Introduce variety and be enthusiastic, particularly with younger students
Be aware of the ripple effect- when criticizing student behavior, be clear and firm, focus on behavior rather than on personalities, and try to avoid angry outbursts

University of Texas Studies on Group Management (well-managed classroom)

Students know what they are expected to do and generally experience the feeling that they are successful doing it
Students are kept busy engaging in teacher-led instructional activities
There is little wasted time, confusion, or disruption
A no-nonsense, work-oriented tone prevails, but at the same time there is a relazed and pleasant atmosphere

The first point can be interpreted as supporting the use of instructional objectives. The next three points stress productivity under teacher guidance.

Effective teachers plan how to handle classroom routines.

During first weeks, have students complete clear assignments under the teachers direction.

Middle, Junior High and High school classroom management:

classroom management has to be approached differently because of the segmented nature of the education for these grades

Emmer suggestions for classroom environments:

the arrangement of the seating, materials, and equipment is consistent with the kinds of instructional activities the teacher favors
high traffic areas, such as the teachers desk and the pencil sharpener are kept free of congestion
the teacher can easily see all students
frequently used teaching material and student supplies are readily available
students can easily see instructional presentations and displays

Manage behavior of adolescents by making and communicating clear rules and procedures.

Technology Tools for Classroom Management

Integrated Learning Systems- curriculum courseware and management systems that provide a type of individualized instruction; adjust for difficulty levels and content lessons to each person's progress rate; provide continuous assessment reports
New classroom roles for teachers

Techniques for Dealing with Behavior Problems

Influence Techniques

Planned Ignoring
Signals
Proximity and Touch Control
Interest Boosting
Humor
Helping ouver Hurdles
Program Restructing
Antiseptic Bouncing
Physical Restraint
Direct Appeals
Criticism and Encouragement
Defining Limits
Postsituational Follow-up
Marginal Use of Interpretation

I-Messages- tell how you feel about an unacceptable situation

Problem-Ownership- determine who owns a problem before deciding on a course of action

Violence in American Schools

Incidents of crime and serious violence occur relatively infrequently in public schools and have been decreasing in recent years.

Male aggressiveness due to biological and cultural factors.

Middle school and junior high boys with low grades may feel trapped

Misbavior of high school students may reveal lack of positive identity.

Classroom disruptions can be significantly reduced by various approaches:

classroom rules
teacher movement
reinforcement
token economy
response cost
group contigency

Judicious Discipline- this program teaches students that they have both rights and responsibilities with respect to their behavior (teachers and students discuss problems that have occurred and how they can be addressed)

Unified Discipline- teachers, administrators, and other school personnel create a uniform approach to managing disruptive behavior.

Life Experiences:

Every teacher that I have had has had a different idea or style regarding classroom management. Some have worked and some did not. This is a topic in education that is just not discussed enough in college. I never feel that I have a good grasp of different techniques that might work. This chapter has given me many ideas and the understanding of why they might work. But I feel that it is a topic that you just have to gain from experience too.

EDU Perspective

I have gained so much insight into education and working with children from this class this semester than any other elementary education class that I have taken. I was supposed to take it at West Plains but I am so glad that I did not. I have seen their book and it did not have half the information that this book did. I have also really enjoyed Ms. Graff, she is always there giving such great advice and so many different ideas that really make you think. She is a great teacher and I have truly learned alot from this class.

BLOG: http://mspappas.preknow.org/

Wow, what a great site. It is really enjoyable to read. I found a lot of great articles that I have saved so that I can go back and read them better and more intently when I have more time. I have said this blog in my favorites because it is full of some really important information for becoming teachers and certified teachers. I loved the article about "Eric Carle". His books are some of my favorites for young children. I use them with my students quite often. I can't wait until I can really go through this site and see exactly what all it has to over because I have already seen some ideas that I can't wait to try.

Chapter 12: Motivation

2008-11-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

Chapter 12: Summary

The Behavioral View of Motivation

Behavioral view of motivation: reinforce desired behaviors.

Students are motivated to complete a task by being promised a reward of some kind. (praise, grade, token, or a priviledge)

Disadvantages:

overuse or misuse of these techniques

extrinsic motivation- the learner decides to engage in an activity to earn a reward that is not inherently related to the activity

undermining effect (intrinsic motivation falls when students must compete for a limited supply of rewards; it may rise when the reward consists of positive verbal feedback and is available to all who meet the standard)

Intrinsic motivation- the student will study or acquire a skill because it produces such inherently positive consequences as becoming more knowledgeable, competent, and independent.

Extrinsic motivation can be dangerous because:

changes in behavior may be temporary

students may develop a materialistic attitude toward learning

giving students extrinsic rewards for completing a task may lesson whatever intrinsic motivation they may have for that activity

Give rewards sparingly, especially on tasks of natural interest.

The Social Cognitive View of Motivation

2 factors influence motivation to learn

the models to which people are exposed

people's sense of self-efficacy (how capable they believe they are to handle a particular task)

So the social cognitive view of motivation is to observe and imitate admired models and raise self-efficacy.

vicarious reinforcement- we expect to receive the same reinforcer that we see someone else get for exhibiting a particular behavior

Choice of learning goals:

task mastery goal: doing what is necessary to learn meaningfully the information and skills that have been assigned

performance-approach goals: demonstrating to teachers and peers one's superior intellectual ability by outperforming most others in class

performance-avoidance goals: reducing the possibility of failure so as not to appear less capable than other students

Self-handicapping behaviors: allow students to blame poor performance on the circumstances rather than on one's ability (such as putting off homework, studying superficially for an exam, getting involved in many in-school and out-of-school nonacademic activities)

Self-efficacy affects choice of goals, expectations of success, attributions for success and failure.

Other Cognitive Views of Motivation

Cognitive development view of motivation: strive for equilibration and master the environment

Need for achievement revealed by desire to attain goals that require skilled performance. Individuals with a high need for achievement have a stronger expectation of success than they do a fear of failure formost tasks and therefore anticipate a feeling of pride in accomplishment.

High-need achievers prefer moderately challenging tasks.

Low-need achievers prefer very easy or very hard tasks.

The four most commonly given reasons for why they did or did not do well: (Attribution theory)

ability

effort

task difficulty

luck

Unsuccessful students attribute success to luck and easy tasks; failure to lack of ability.

Successful students attribute success to effort and ability; failure to lack of effort.

There are two points where noticeable changes in children's ability conceptions occur: between 7-8 and 10-12

Students can be placed into one of three categories based on their beliefs about the nature of cognitive ability:

Entity theorists- they talk about intelligence as if it were a thing, or an entity, that has fixed characteristics

Incremental theorists- intelligence can be improved gradually by degrees or increments as they refine their thinking skills and acquire new ones

Mixed theorists- subscribe to both entity and incremental theories

Students with incremental beliefs tend to have mastery goals and are motivated to meaningfully learn, improve skills.

Students with entity beliefs tend to have performance goals and are motivated to get high grades, avoid failure.

A person's interest in a topic can come from personal or situational sources.

Personal interest marked by intrinsic desire to learn that persists over time; situational interest is context dependent and short term.

Personal interest may be influenced by one or more of the following factors:

ideas and activities that are valued by one's culture or ethnic group

the emotions that are aroused by the subject or activity

the degree of competence one attains in a subject or activity

the degree to which a subject or activity is perceived to be relevant to achieving a goal

level of prior knowledge

a perceived hole in a topic that the person already knows a good deal about

Factors that influence situational interest:

a state of cognitive conflict or disequilibrium

well-written reading material

the opportunity to work on a task with others

the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities

the opportunity to observe influential models

the teacher's use of novel stimuli

the teacher's use of games and puzzles

Flow is the mental state of high engagement in an activity. It is characterized by intense concentration, sustained interest, and enjoyment of the activity's challenge.

It is often difficult to arouse cognitive disequilibrium (such as when they have to go through dull and unrewarding information to answer)

Need for achievement difficult to assess on basis of short-term observations.

Faulty attributions difficult to change

The Humanistic View of Motivation

Maslow's theory of Growth Motivation: need gratification

5-level hierachy of needs: physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization (the lower a need is in the hierachy, the greater its strength; because when a lower-level need is activated people will stop trying to satisfy the higher-level needs)

Deficiency needs: physiological, safety, belongingness and love, and esteem (they motivate people to act only when they are unmet to some degree)

Growth need: self-actualization (people constantly strive to satisfy it)

Maslow also describes cognitive needs (the needs to know and understand) and aesthetic needs (the needs for order, symmetry, or harmony) besides the above 5

When deficiency needs are not satisfied, a person is likely to make bad choices.

Encourage growth choices by enhancing attractions, and minimizing dangers.

Teachers may be able to satisfy some deficiency needs but not others.

The Role of Self-Perceptions in Motivation

Maslow, Rogers, and Combs stressed that how students see and judge themselves and others plays an important part in determining how motivated they are and how much they learn.

Self-esteem is global judgment we make of self; self-concept is judgment we make of self in specific domains; self-efficacy is belief in our ability to carry out a specific action.

Self-concept and achievement have reciprocal effects. Not only does prior achievement affect children's academic self-concept, but also the current strength of a child's academic self-concept influences subsequent achievement.

Teachers should design instructional programs that are aimed directly at improving both academic self-concept and achievement

Motivating Students with Technology

Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation

the best combine both approaches (Jasper Woodbury series

membership in multimedia clubs, special computer events and fairs for parents or the community, and certficates of recognition

Using technology to increase motivation to learn

Technology increases intrinsic motivation by making learning more interesting and meaningful

Students were more inclined to complete their projects and to do high-quality work when they knew it would be seen by a wider audience

Email is often used to heighten student interest and motivation through pen-pal projects that links students in different countries or locales or to coordinate interest groups

Suggestions For Teaching in Your Classroom: Motivating Students to Learn

p.421- 428

Use behavioral techiniques to help students exert themselves and work toward remote goals: (a) give praise as positive reinforcement, but do so effectively; (b) use other forms of positive reinforcement Ex. on page 421 (happy faces, check marks, personal comments, reward menu based on the Grandma's rule)
Make sure that students know what they are to do, how to proceed, and how to determine when they have achieved goals (personal contracts with students)
Encourage low-acheiving students to attribute success to a combination of ability and effort and failure in insufficient effort (make sure they have the ability to succeed)
Encourage students to think of ability as a set of cognitive skills that can be added to and refined, rather than as a fixed entity that is resistant to change, by praising the processes they use to succeed.
Encourage students to adopt appropriate learning goals: (a) help students to develop mastery learning goals; (b) use cooperative learning methods (STAD: Student Teams-Achievement Divisions- includes a 4 step cycle Teach, Team Study, Test, Recognition)
Maximize factors that appeal to both personal and situational interest: (a) find out what your students' interests are and design as many in-class and out-of-class assignments as possible around those interests; (b) try to associate subjects and assignments with pleasureable rather than painful experiences by using techniques such as cooperative learning and constructivist approaches to teaching, as well as providing students with the information-processing tools they need to master your objectives; (c) link new topics to information students are already likely to have or provide relevant background knowledge in creative yet understandable ways; (d) select reading materials that are logically organized and written in an engaging style.
Try to make learning interesting by emphasizing activity, investigation, adventure, social interaction, and usefulness. (www.jasonproject.org, www.learner.org/jnorth, www.thinkquest.org, http://quest.classroom.com )

Activities:

give a few students a set of problems to do on the board rapidly as well as those at their desk; then have them switch out
find ways for students to go out of the classroom for learning

Investigations:

Elementary: learning centers with themes such as library, games, social sciences (lots of maps, charts and documents), cultural appreciation, and computer use (educational software, database programs, student created publications, computer with Internet access with a list of appropriate and interesting online sites)
Middle School: centers that pertain to different aspects of a single subject Ex. Science (appreciation center stressing aesthetic aspects of science, display center showing new developments in science, library center with attractive and provocative books)

Adventures:

redecorate the room to match what they are studying the next day
twenty questions about things in a newspaper; students compete to see who can answer the most questions accurately in the shortest amount of time

Social Interactions:

students pair up to ask each other questions before an exam or for difficult material
organize an end-of-unit extravaganza where students present or display projects then maybe celebrate with refreshments

Usefulness:

continually point out what is being learned can be used outside the class and have students keep a record of how they will use them
develop exercises that make students aware that what they learn has transfer value; job applications in writing class, balance a checkbook in math class, fill out a tax form or make a budget in math class, biology students will use their knowledge to figure out how they will use it to not get sick

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Satisfying Deficiency Needs and Strengthening Self-Perceptions

Make learning inviting to students
Direct learning experiences toward feelings of success in an effort to encourage an orientation toward achievement, high self-esteem, and a strong sense of self-efficacy and academic self-concept: (a) make use of objectives that are challenging but attainable and, when appropriate, that involve student input, (b) help students master your objectives

Life Experiences:

If students are not motivated, they are not going to learn. I know that when I had teachers that just pushed facts and information and not the reason why I needed to know it, or made it worth learning I just did not do as well as if they had tried to motivate me. I think that motivation is one of the most important parts of teaching. It takes a special person to go the extra effort to make their students want to learn and give them a reason to enjoy it. In my classroom, if my students do not want to help themselves then how can I ever truly help them. We must give them the reasons why they need it, and not just because "I said so".

Blog:

I am still using this blog to help me organize all the great information that I get from this class. But, I am trying to begin to use the idea of blogs in many different areas. My daughters are very smart children and they need extra things to help them receive continued enrichment in other things. I am beginning to teach them how to create their own blogs, like a daily journal. They can write their thoughts, wants, wishes, problems, and anything else that is on their mind. They are learning how to express themselves while also learning about technology.

Question of the Week:

Find another school district's website (this will be your fourth) outside of your hometown and/or Springfield (or the city you reside). Make sure that this school district is in a different state. Copy and paste (or type) the link into your blog. Answer the following questions about the school district in your blog:
Why would you want to teach in this particular school district?
What makes this school district stand out from others that you found on the Internet?
Are there specific features that this school district has to offer that you hadn't thought of before? What are they? If not, what would you like?
Would you ever consider applying for a job at this school district? Why or why not?
Based on what we've learned so far in this class, how does this school district measure up?

Campbell County School District in Gillete, WY http://www.ccsd.k12.wy.us/

This school district is a very large district that is divided up into many different smaller schools, approximately 20. I have lived here before and it is a nice area. I did not like the winters but we did like the landscape of this area and of the area around Sheridan. I like being close to my whole family so I would not want to have to move their unless my husband's job called for it. There are many schools in this area to choose from which helps, because many of them have drug problems. Their website was very informative. Most websites do not even focus on the Special Education part of the school, they just tell you about each of the different grade levels. Their website had alot of information about their special education department which I really liked. They use technology in many different areas and they have more specialist for these disabled students than most schools around here in our rural area.

Chapter 11: Approaches to Instruction

2008-11-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

Chapter 11: Summary

Devising and Using Objectives

goals are broad, general statements of desired educational outcomes

instructional objectives specify observable, measurable student behaviors

Taxonomy- a classification scheme with categories arranged in hierarchical order

3 taxonomy areas:

cognitive domain- stresses knowledge and intellectual skills

affective domain- concentrates on attitudes and values

psychomotor domain- focuses on physical abilities and skills

Cognitive Domain- knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation

Affective Domain- receiving(attending), responding, valuing, organization, characterization by a value or value complex

Psychomotor Domain- perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex or overt response, adaptation, origination

Most test questions stress knowledge, ignore higher levels of cognitive taxonomy. Using taxonomies will help to avoid ignoring entire classes of outcomes and overemphasizing the lowest level of the cognitive domain

Ways to State and Use Objectives

Mager's recommendations for the use of specific objectives

describe what you want learners to be doing when demonstrating achievement, and indicate how you will know they are doing it

in your description, identify and name the behavioral act that indicates achievement, define the conditions under which the behavior is to occur, and state the criterion of acceptable performance

write a separate objective for each learning performance

Gronlund's recommendations for the use of general objectives

examine what is to be learned with reference to lists of objectives such as those included in the 3 taxonomies

under each general instructional objective, list up to five specific learning outcomes that provide a representative sample of what students should be able to do when they have achieved the general objective (use action verbs: explain or describe)

Objectives work best when the students are aware of them, are clearly written, and the learning task is neither too easy or too difficult.

Students with average ability profit more from objectives than higher or lower ability.

Objectives lead to an improvement in intentional learning but a decline in incidental learning.

The Behavioral Approach to Teaching: Direct Instruction

behavioral approach to teaching involves arranging and implementing those conditions that make it highly likely that a desired response will occur in the presence of a particular stimulus

Direct Instruction- focus on learning basic skills, teacher makes all decisions, keep students on-task, and emphasize postive reinforcement

Components of Direct Instruction: orientation, presentation, structured practice, guided practice, and independent practice

Orientation- teacher gives an overview of the lesson, explains why students need to learn the material, relates the new subject to past learning or life experiences, and tells students what they will need to do to learn the material and what level of performance is expected

Presentation- explaining, illustrating, and demonstrating new material; also evaluate's student's understanding (question and answer session)

Structured practice- teacher leads the entire class through each step in a problem or lesson

Guided practice- students work at their own desks on problems of the type explained and demonstrated by the teacher; teacher circulates around the room

Independent practice-when students can solve at least 85% of the problems given during guided practice, they are then given problems to work independently in class or at home

Using technology to support behavioral approaches to instruction

computer-based approach

drill-and-practice computer-assisted instruction tools and integrated learning systems

multimedia technology

The Cognitive Approach to Teaching: Facilitating Meaningful and Self-Directed Learning

Information-Processing Approach: design lesson around principles of meaningful learning, teach students how to learn more effectively

Tell students what you want them to learn and why, and how they will be tested
Use attention-getting devices (orally emphasize certain words or phrases by raising or lowering your voice, use dramatic gestures, underline key words and phrases that you write on a chalkboard or whiteboard, when discussing the work of important people dress up to look like the person and speak as you think the person might have spoken)
Present organized and meaningful lessons (concept mapping- this technique involves specifying the ideas that make up a topic and indicating with lines how they relate to one another p.376)
Present new information in small chunks and do not introduce new topics until you have evidence that the students have learned the presented material
Build into lessons opportunities for students to write about, discuss, and use the ideas they are learning
Arrange for short practice sessions spread over several weeks rather than one or two long practice sessions
Present information through different medias such as pictures, videotape, audiotape, live models, and manipulation of physical objects; use alot of examples and analogies; prompt students to elaborate by asking them to put ideas in their own words, relate new ideas to personal experience, and create their own analogies
Practice what you preach

Constructivist Approach: creating their own understanding of reality using characteristics such as existing knowledge, attitudes, values, and experiences

Provide scaffolded instruction within the zone of proximal development (instruction should demand more than what a student is capable of doing independently and because of these demands instruction should be scaffolded {teachers should provided just enough support through such devices as explanations, modeling, prompting, offering clarifications, and verifying the accuracy of responses, that the learner can successfully complete the task})
Provide opportunities for learning by discovery
Meaningful learning aided by exposure to multiple points of view
Emphasize relevant problems and tasks (need to challenging and realistic)
Encourage students to become self-directed learners (how do teachers interact with the students)

Challenges to being a Constructivist teacher

they need to understand how different students think, how complete each student's knowledge is about a subject, how accurate that knowledge is, and how aware students are about the state of their own knowledge
they must know how to use a variety of methods to support understanding problem-based activities (modeling; providing prompts, probes, and suggestions; providing problem-solving rules of thumb; and using technology to organize and represent information)
they must guide students to choose meaningful projects or issues to investigate
they have to teach students how to work productively in collaborative activities
they need to have a deep enough understanding of a subject to be able to guide students who become puzzled by an observation to an explanantion
they need to know how to used a wide range of alternative assessment devices (interviews, observations, student journals, peer reviews, research reports, art projects, building physical models, and participating in plays, debates, and dances)

Technology and Cognitive Approaches

helps students to code, store, and retrieve information (electronic encyclopedias {Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia}, hypermedia databases that contain conceptual resources such as timelines, information maps, and overviews, and concept mapping software such as Inspiration)
Exploratory Environments: students might explore exciting information resources on the Web, enter simulations or microworlds like LEGO-LOGO, browse and rotate objects in a hypermedia or web database, and use imaging technologies to explore inaccessible places such as underwater canyons or planet surfaces)
Geometric Supposer: a tool that students can use to construct, manipulate, and measure different geometric figures
GenScope: help students better understand the principles of genetics
Guided Learning: teachers help students set goals, ask questions, encourage discussions, and provide models of problem-solving processes (Higher Order Thinking Skills program {HOTS}- grades 4 through 8 www.hots.org)
Problem and Project-Based Learning: requires learners to develop solutions to real-life problems
Situated Learning: knowledge is closely linked to environment in which it is acquired (CSILE, WISE, and the GLOBE Program, and the WEB Project, Author-on-Line Project {students read a book, wrote a book reports, posted them on a school website, the author posted her/his reactions, these were then shared in the class)

The Humanistic Approach to Teaching: Student-Centered Instruction

Humanistic Approach: pays attention to the role of noncognitive variables in learning, specifically, students' needs, emotions, values, and self-perceptions

Abraham Maslow: help students develop their potential by satisfying their needs (Self-actualizers: have an inherent need for experiences that will help them fulfill their potential)

Carl Rogers: Learner-centered education (teaches should try to establish the same conditions as do person-centered therapists); establish conditions that allow self-directed learning

Arthur Combs: The teacher is the facilitator, encourager, helper, assister, colleague, and friend of his/her students

Teachers seek to create a classroom atmosphere in which students believe that the teacher's primary goal is the understand the student's needs, values, motives, and self-perceptions and to help the student learn (student-directed or nondirective)

The Humanistic Model

defining the helping situation
exploring the problem
develop insight
planning and decision making
integration

Japanese classrooms marked by humanistic orientation, high scores on international math and science test. They also place high value on children's social and ethical development by (1.) giving children various classroom responsibilities so they feel a valued part of the school, (2) emphasizing such qualities as friendliness, responsibility, and persistence, (3) communicating to students that teachers value their presence in the classroom and the contributions that they make.

Humanistic Approach and technology

learner-centered technology tools can link concepts to everyday experiences, guide students in the problem-solving process, encourage learners to think more deeply, facilitate unique knowledge construction, and provide opportunities for social interaction and dialogue (Graphing calculators, hand-held computers, microcomputer laboratory equipment, prompts embedded in a word processing program, computer conferencing on the Web)

The Social Approach to Teaching: Teaching Students How To Learn From Each Other

Classroom tasks can be structured so that students are forced to compete with one another, to work individually, or to cooperate with one another to obtain the rewards that teachers make available for successfully completing these tasks.

Types of Classroom Reward Structures

Competitive: those in which one's grade is determined by how well everyone else in the group performs (grading on a curve); these may decrease motivation to learn
Individualistic Structures: students working alone and earning rewards solely on the quality of their own efforts; other students reward or failure do not matter;
Cooperative Structures: students working together to accomplish shared goals; positive interdependence; leads students to focus on effort and cooperation as the primary basis of motivation; motivated by obligation

Cooperative Learning

Group heterogeneity- small groups (4 to 5) and as heterogeneous (males and females, different ability levels, and different ethnic backgrounds and social classes if possible) as allowed
Group goals/positive interdependence- specific goals for the group to attain
Promotive interaction- students are shown how to help one another overcome problems and complete whatever task has been assigned (peer tutoring, temporary assistance, exchanges of information and material, challenging of one another's reasoning, feedback, and encouragement to keep one another highly motivated)
Individual Accountability- each member has to make a significant contribution to achieving the group's goal
Interpersonal skills- they must be taught basic skills such as leadership, decision making, trust building, clear communication, conflict management
Equal opportunities for success- ensure that all students have an opportunity to contribute to their team
Team competition- must be used appropriately between well-matched team, in the absence of a norm-referenced grading system, and not used too frequently

Does Cooperative Learning Work: YES (It affects motivation, achievement, and social interaction)

Why? Likely due to stimulation of motivation, cognitive development, and meaningful learning

Because of the proacademic attitudes of groupmates, appropriate attributions for success and failure, and greater on-task behavior.

Why do teachers follow the spirit but not the letter of the cooperative learning model?

perhaps teachers find the models too complicated and difficult to put into practice
teachers don't really believe the researchers' claims that certain elements of cooperative learning are essential for improved learning, perhaps because their classroom experience has led them to believe otherwise
teachers interpret the research as providing suggestions or guidelines rather than prescriptions that must be followed, leaving them free to construct personal adaptations
reseachers rarely explicitly state that the demostrated benefits of cooperative learning will occur only when certain conditions are met

Students with low and average ability in mixed-ability groups outperform peers in homogeneous groups on problem-solving tests; students with high ability in homogeneous groups score slightly higher than peers in mixed-ability groups.

Social Approaches and Technology

successful technology applications are embedded in an active social environment
collaborative learning- allows the students themselves to decide on their roles and use their individual areas of expertise to help investigate problems (GLOBE Program www.GLOBE.gov, WEB Project www.webproject.org, 4Directions Project www.4directions.org)

Life Experiences:

Every teacher throughout by educational career even up to now uses different approaches to instruction. They all would fall into the categories that are discussed in this chapter, but each teacher uses these approaches in a different manner. I really never had one that focused primarily on the humanistic approach though. This is an approach that I intend on using some because how a student speaks affects their basic needs. Most of my teachers used direct instruction, information processing and a constructivist approach. With the development of technology, we as teachers are able to use so many more different instruction techniques to help individualize our instruction.

Blog:

I have shared my blog ideas with the lady that I work with. She really likes all the ideas that I am adding to my blog from what I have learned. Besides being responsible for the Special Education Students and being the Speech Therapist, she is also in charge of writing our high school ACSIP plan. We have used some of the research that is discussed in this book within this plan. By having my information saved in a special place, I have been able to access it easily for her. We have also shared many of the technology ideas with so many of the other teachers that I work with. Without this blog I would never be able to find these ideas as quickly as I do.

Question of the Week: Find another school district's website (this will be your third) outside of your hometown and/or Springfield (or the city you live in). Make sure that this school district is in a different state. Copy and paste (or type) the link into your blog. Answer the following questions about the school district in your blog:
Would you want to teach in this particular school district?
What makes this school district stand out from others that you found on the Internet?
Are there specific features that this school district has to offer that you hadn't thought of before? What are they? If not, what would you like?
Would you ever consider applying for a job at this school district? Why or why not?
Based on what we've learned so far in this class, how does this school district measure up?

Thayer, MO website at http://thayer.k12.mo.us/

I do not think that I would want to teach in this particular school district mainly because it just does not have the qualities that I am looking for in a school district. It is pretty close to me so distance would not be bad but my license that I am receiving is not for Missouri, it will be for Arkansas. It is a good school district, but a little larger than I am looking for. I do know some of the teachers and adminstration there. They do use technology more than the school that I am currently at which is a major plus. The kids class scheduling is also different than what I am used to, but could be a plus I think. They do have more resources in some areas than where I am currently at, but unfortunately even with these additional resources and more technology their academic scores do not seem to be as high as I would have thought. They have a high majority of their students that are just in the basic range, I would have thought their scores would be a little higher.

Social Cognitive Theory

2008-10-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

Chapter 9: Summary
Social Cognitive Theory (social learning theory)- learning was based on the premise that neither spontaneous behavior nor reinforcement was necessary for learning to occur; new behaviors could also be learned by observing and imitating a model; this theory incorporate elements of both operant conditioning and information processing, and emphasized how behavioral and personal factors interact with the social setting in which the behavior occurs

Albert Bandura is generally considered the driving force behind social cognitive theory. He explains how learning results from interactions among 3 factors:

personal characteristics such as the various cognitive processes from information processing, self-perceptions, and emotional states
behavioral patterns
the social environment such as interactions with others

Triadic reciprocal causation- the process of interaction among these 3 elements; one's internal processes, behavior, ans social environment can affect one another to produce learning.

Bandura was interested in using social cognitive theory to describe how people become self-controlled and self-regulated learners.

The Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model: 3 elements

Personal characteristics- goals, anxiety, understanding of one's own cognitive processes such as planning and monitoring in learning, and self-efficacy
Behavioral patterns- self-observation, self-evaluation, creating productive study environments, and making changes in behavior to overcome or reduce perceptions of low self-efficacy, anxiety, and ineffective learning strategies
Environmental factors- individual's social and physical environment

Self-Control, Self-Regulation, and Self-Efficacy

Self-control- the ability to control one's actions in the absence of external reinforcement or punishment
Self-regulation- the consistent and appropriate application of self-control skills to new situations; self-regulating individuals set their own performance standards, evaluate the quality of their performance, and reinforce themselves when their performance meets or exceeds their internal standards
Self-regulation is both a cyclical and a dynamic process. Cyclical because the results of prior performance are used to guide and refine current efforts. Dynamic because personal, behavioral, and environmental factors are constantly changing.
Self-regulation is important because students are expected to become increasingly independent learners as they progress through school
Self-efficacy- how capable or prepared we believe we are to handle particular kinds of tasks; it helps influence whether people think optimistically or pessimistically
Students who believe they are capable of successfully performing a task are more likely than students with low levels of self-efficacy to use such self-regulating skills as concentrating on the task, creating strategies, using appropriate tactics, managing time effectively, monitoring their own performance, and making whatever adjustments are necessary to improve their future learning efforts.
Factors that affect self-efficacy: performance accomplishments, verbal persuasion, emotional arousal, adn vicarious experiences.
Types of behaviors affected by self-efficacy: selection processes (the way the person goes about selecting goals and activities), cognitive processes (using higher level thought processes), motivational processes (perseverance), and affective processes (emotions)

3 categories of self-regulatory processes: forethought processes, performance processes, and self-reflection

Forethought Phase: goal setting, strategic planning to achieve those goals, and motivational beliefs

Developmental Limitations in the forethought phase (younger children are more likely to be limited on these things than older children)

attend to a model, such as a teacher, for long periods of time
distinguish relevant model behaviors and verbalizations from less relevant ones
encode a model's behavior as generalized verbal guidelines
formulate and maintain well-defined long-term goals

Performance Phase: focus on task, process information meaningfully, and self-monitor

Developmental limitations in the performance phase (primary grade children will be more limited in these areas):

ignore both external and internal distractions (such as self-doubts and thoughts of prior difficulties)
perform the steps of a task more slowly and deliberately in order to avoid making mistakes
provide themselves with verbal reminders of the steps needed to carry out a task
select appropriate tactics for a particular task

Self-reflection phase: evaluate their performance, make appropriate attributions for success and failure, and reinforce themselves (self-satisfaction and adaptive inferences)

4 ways to self-evaluate:

students can adopt what is called a mastery criterion
students can compare their current performance against their own previous performance
students can use a normative standard
students can use a collaborative standard

Developmental limitations for the self-reflection phase (primary grade children may be more limited in these areas):

compare themselves to peers as a basis for judging their own capabilities
make appropriate attributions for their successes and failures
accurately assess the leve of their own capabilities

Helping students become self-regulated learners

Self-regulating learning: thoughts, feelings, and actions purposely generated and controlled to maximize a learning outcome (may also be called self-directed, autonomous, or strategic learners)

Examples:

prepares for an upcoming exam by studying for 2 hours each night for several nights instead of trying to cram all the studying into one or two nights
uses memory-directed tactics, such as mnemonic devices, to accurately store and recall information for test items that will demand verbatim recall
uses comprehension-directed tactics, such as concept maps and self-questioning, to deal with test items that will require comprehension, analysis, and synthesis of information
creates self-tests to monitor the effectivement of study efforts and takes some time off from studying if the results of a self-test are satisfactory

Learning strategy- a general plan that a learner formulates for achieving a somewhat distant academic goal (such as getting an A on the next exam)

Learning tactic- a specific technique (such as a memory aid or a form of note taking) that a learner uses to accomplish an immediate objective

Types of tactics: (memory-directed tactics: contain techniques that help produce accurate storage and retrieval of information; comprehension-directed tactics: contain techniques that aid in understanding the meaning of ideas and their interrelationships)

rehearsal: not a very effective memory tactic (rote rehearsal); cumulative rehearsal (involves rehearsing a small set of items for several repetitions, dropping the item at the top of the list and adding a new one, giving the set several repetitions, dropping the item at the head of the set and adding a new one, rehearsing the set, and so on) is a little more advanced
Mnemonic Devices (memory directed tactic that helps a learner transform or organize information to enhance its retrievability
self- and peer-questioning: self-questioning improves comprehension and knowledge integration
note taking: taking notes and reviewing notes aid retention and comprehension
concept mapping: helps sutdents identify, visually organize, and represent the relationships among a set of ideas

Conclusions to learning tactics

students need to be systematically taught how to use learning tactics to make connections among ideas contained in text and lecture, as well as between new and previously learned information
learning tactics should not be taught as isolated techniques, particularly to high school students, but should be taught how to use tactics as part of a broader learning strategy

Components of a learning strategy:

metacognition
analysis
planning
implementation of the plan
monitoring of progress
modification

Mnemonic devices include:

acronym: word made from first letters of items to be learned
acrostic: sentence made up of words derived from first letters of items to be learned
Loci method: visualize items to be learned stored in specific locations
keyword method: visually link pronunciation of foreign word to English translation

Mnemonic devices work so well because they meaningfully organize information, and provide retrieval cues. (Excellent example on page 289)

Observational learning (modeling)- observing and imitating the behavior of a skilled model

observation- learners pick up the major features of a skill or strategy, as well as performance standards, motivational beliefs, and values, by watching and listening as a model exhibits the skill and explains the reasons for his behavior
emulation-learners reproduce the general form of the model's behavior (inhibition- when we learn not to do something; disinhibition- when we learn to exhibit a behavior that is usually disapproved of by most people; facilitation- whenever we are prompted to do something that we do not ordinarily do; true observational learning- when we learn a new behavioral pattern by watching and imitating the performance of someone else)
self-control: marked by the learner's being able to exhibit the modeled behavior in the absence of the model
self-regulation: attained when learners can adapt the modeled behavior to changes in internal and external conditions

Why would they observe and try to emulate:

if they are unfamiliar with the task at hand or if they feel incapable of carrying out the task
if they admire, respect, and perceive them as having knowledge, skills, and attributes that they themselves would like to have
if they judge their behavior to be acceptable and appropriate
if they see that the model is reinforced for exhibiting the behavior and anticipate that they will be similarly reinforced (vicarious reinforcement)

Research on Social Cognitive Theory

self-efficacy, self-regulation related to each other and to achievement
Modeling is seen as an effective means of enhancing self-efficacy

Observing a peer model improves student's self-efficacy for math problem solving and math problem-solving ability.

Observing a peer model improves the quality of students' writing more than simply practicing writing.

Reciprocal teaching by Palincsar and Brown (RT): students learn comprehension skills by demonstrating them to peers (summarizing, self-questioning, clarifying, and predicting).

RT produced 2 general beneficial effects:

the quality of students' summaries, questions, clarifications, and predictions improved
the RT-trained students scored higher on tests of comprehension than before

TWA: how to think before reading, while reading, and after reading

Reciprocal questioning:

the teacher and students silently read a passage
the teacher closes his or her book
the students ask the teacher questions which the teacher answers
the students close their books
the teacher asks the students questions which they answer

TWA and RQ are both taught using modeling, direct instruction, and guided practice

Using Technology to Promote Self-Regulated Learning

Modeling: computers can help if teachers do not have time by providing a computer-based video model (Ex: Alien Rescue)

Providing Cognitive and Metacognitive Feedback: Summary Street can help teachers offer feedback precisely when it is needed by improving student's ability to summarize text by giving them many opportunities to summarize different types of text, by providing feedback, and by having them revise their summaries as often as necessary until they meet the standards built into the program

Providing Scaffolded Instruction: Decision Point! was used on 11th graders; it included 4 types of scaffolding such as interactive essays, a set of recommended documents, a student guide that provided categories to help them organize and synthesize information, and a journal in which students could note the effectiveness of their daily information-gathering strategies, the problems they encountered, and the progress they had made toward completing the task (it helped them to monitor their efforts). Of this 4 interactive essays was used the most and hyperlinks much less frequently

Computer programs that let students control access to information work best with those who have some self-regulatory skills

Summary of computer technology and self-regulated learning:

Computer-based instructional programs can play a productive role in the development and support of students' SRL skills, they can provide them with concrete examples of self-regulations skills and strengthen the skill of self-monitoring by reminding students at critical points to think about the nature of the problem being solved, similar problems encountered in the past, and appropriate problem-solving tactics, and provide a variety of scaffolds. So in short they can do many of the things that teachers can do, and then give teachers more time to work individually with the students who need additional help.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom

Include the development of self-regulated learning skills in your objectives and lesson plans: (1) emphasize the importance of SRL skills to learning and when they should be used (2) model SRL skills, including the standards you use to evaluate your performance and reinforce yourself (3) provide practice and corrective feedback for the SRL skills you want students to learn
Teach students how to use both memory and comprehension tactics and to take notes: (1) teach students how to use various forms of rehearsal and mnemonic devices (2) teach students how to formulate comprehension questions (3) teach students how to take notes
Establish the foundation for self-regulated learning in kindergarten and the primary grades
When teaching SRL skills, bear in mind the developmental limitations of younger students
Embed instruction in SRL in interesting and challenging classroom tasks
Help students develop a sense of self-efficacy for SRL
Use such effective strategy training programs as reciprocal teaching, but be prepared to make adaptations to fit your particular circumstances (1)strategy use problems (2) dialogue problems (3) scaffolding problems

Life experiences: (this also comes from my discussion board I felt it fit both areas)

Self-regulating is such an important part of speech therapy. The student must be taught how to recognize the appropriate way to articulate sounds. This is not something that they learn in a short period of time. It takes quite awhile for some students to ever be able to thoroughly grasp the idea of monitoring their own progress. Really young children can not do this; they are still in the teaching stage. Whereas, 2nd graders and up are more likely to have grasped the basic concept if taught correctly. With young children, I use a “speech phone”. This is a plastic piece of pipe that is shaped like a telephone. It is hollow so when the student places one end at their mouth and the other at their ear they can hear what they are saying much better than just regular speaking and listening. I use this technique to begin to teach the younger children how to listen to themselves. But as the kids get older, I switch to a different format. The students will read a selection to me from a book and I tape them as they read. This tape is then played back to the student so that they can hear the sounds that they made. I will then ask them to tell me the sounds that they did not articulate correctly. After they begin to grasp this technique, then I have them to continue this process by on their own at home when they read each night. By them continuing this process they are able to determine how they are progressing much better and they are also much better at correctly themselves when they are speaking to others because they have learned to actually listen to themselves talk. This process teaches them that self-regulation can help them to be better speakers.

I do not remember much about being taught SRL skills when I was in school. They probably did in some form but it was different. I was always a very good student and I taught many of my other classmates because the teacher just couldn't help everyone. I knew how to study just by teaching myself I guess. I do not now and did not then study way ahead of time so I guess in some ways I am not a self-regulated learner. My studying style is different than what the book suggests. But I do try to now help my children by showing them how to self-regulate their learning.

Journal:

Some chapters have more information that I want to remember for future reference than others. So I am able to just post the information that I want and the small details can be not included. It also allows me a way of studying. I type my blog as I read the chapter, by doing this I am able to remember the information much better. I used to write it down or highlight it but each of those caused problems sometimes. When I wrote it down, I either had to type it too or try to read my handwriting later. If I highlight the information, I have to go through every page to find the important ideas when I go back to study. So this blog as helped me in other ways than just saving information.

Weekly question: Find a school district's website outside of your hometown and/or Springfield (or the city you reside in). Copy and paste (or type) the link into your blog. Answer the following questions about the school district in your blog:
1.) Would you want to teach in this particular school district?
2.) What makes this school district stand out from others that you found on the Internet?
3.) Are there specific features that this school district has to offer that you hadn't thought of before? What are they? If not, what would you like?
4.) Would you ever consider applying for a job at this school district? Why or why not?
5.) Based on what we've learned so far in this class, how does this school district measure up?

Salem, AR at http://salem.k12.ar.us/

No I would not want to teach in this school. There are so many on the internet, but I choose this school not by how it stood out on the internet but by how close it is to me. I love where I live and do not intend on ever moving again. So determining where I would work depends on how close the school is to me, besides other qualities. This school does have a better technology program than we do in some areas but they are a much bigger school than where I currently work. I would not ever apply for a job there unless absolutely necessary because I like working where I am today because I grew up there and I know most of the kids and parents associated with the school. I also went to school with many of the other teachers or had them as teachers myself. It is a smaller school but I has a more closely knit atmosphere in so many areas. Salem school is a good school too, but just does not have the things that I am looking for.

Information-Processing Theory

2008-10-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Chapter 8: Summary

Information-Processing Theory: seeks to understand how people acquire new information, how they store information and recall it from memory, and how what they already know guides and determines what and how they will learn.

The Information-Processing View of Learning

Theory rests of 3 assumptions:

Information is processed in steps or stages.

There are limits on how much information can be processed at each stage.

The human information-processing system is interactive.

Learning results from an interaction between an environmental stimulus and a learner.

A Model of Information Processing

3 memory stores: sensory register, a short-term store and a long-term store

Control processes help determine the quantity and quality of information that the learner stores in and retrieves from memory, and it is the learner who decides whether, when, and how to employ them.

The Sensory Register: the first memory store, the information it stores is thought to be encoded in the same form in which it is originally perceived; PURPOSE: to hold information just long enough (1-3 seconds) for us to decide whether we want to attend to it further

Recognition: involves noting key features of a stimulus and relating them to already stored information. Due to elementary school students' limited store of knowledge, they need more structured learning tasks than middle school or high school students. They must be provided with clear, complete, explicit directions and learning materials.

Attention: the selective focusing on a portion of the information currently stored in the sensory register. Information in long-term memory influences what we attend to.

Short-term Memory: (Working Memory) the second memory store, which holds information that has been attended to. It can usually hold about 7 unrelated bits of information for approximately 20 seconds. It is called working memory because it holds information we are currently aware of at any given moment and is the place where various encoding, organizational, and retrieval processes occur.

Rehearsal: Maintenance and elaborative

Maintenance Rehearsal: (rote rehearsal or repetition) only purpose is to use mental and verbal repetition to hold information in short-term memory for some immediate purpose but it has no effect on long-term memory storage.

Elaborative Rehearsal: (elaborative encoding) we use information stored in long-term memory to add details to new information, clarify the meaning of a new idea, make inferences, construct visual images, and create analogies. Elaborative rehearsal is based on organization and meaningfulness.

Organization: reduces the number of chunks and provides recall cues

Meaningful Learning: occurs when organized material is associated with stored knowledge

Visual Imagery Encoding: like pictures. images can be said to be worth a thousand words because they contain a wealth of infomation in a compact, organized, and meaningful format; The more concrete a passage is the more easily understood it is.

Dual coding theory: concrete material and concrete words are remembered better than abstract words because the former can be encoded in two ways, as images and as verbal labels, whereas abstract words are encoded only verbally

Long-Term Memory: permanent storehouse of unlimited capacity

Information in long-term memory is organized as schemata (an abstract structure of information)

Students remember much of what they learn in school, especially if mastery and active learning are emphasized. Less forgetting occurred among students who learned the material to a higher level before moving on such as making a high grade on an exam before progressing forward or by having to teach other less knowledgeable students. It also occurred in classes in which students were more actively involved in learning such as went on a field trip where the students had to observe, sketch, record and answer questions.

Metacognition

Metacognition: our own knowledge of how we think; cognition- describes the way in which information is processed (attended to, recognized, encoded, stored in memory for various lengths of time, retrieved from storage, and used for one purpose or another)

3 part classification scheme: 1.) Knowledge of person variables (knowing that you are good at learning verbal material but poor at learning mathematical material, or knowing that information not rehearsed or encoded is quickly forgotten); 2.) Knowledge of task variables (knowing that passages with long sentences and unfamiliar words are usually harder to understand than passages that are more simply written); and 3.) Knowledge of strategy variables (knowing that one should skim through a text passage before reading it to determine its length and difficulty level)

Vygotsky strongly suggests that providing children with opportunities to regulate their own and others' behavior, as in peer tutoring, is an excellent way to help them increase their metacognitive knowledge and skills and to improve the quality of their learning.

Insight into one's learning processes improves with age

Ways in which you can encourage your students to develop their metacognitive skills

By thinking about the various conditions that affect how they learn and remember

Young children should be told periodically that such cognitive behaviors as describing, recalling, guessing, and understanding mean different things, produce different results, and vary in how well they fit a task's demand.

For older elementary and middle school children, explain the learning processes, and focus on the circumstances in which different learning tactics are likely to be used.

Have students keep a diary or log in which they note when they use learning tactics, which ones, and with what success.

Encourage greater use of tactics among students whose performance and reported use of them are below average.

Technology as an Information-Processing Tool

This idea explains how technological tools help students process and represent information, so that they can acquire important knowledge and skills from different subject areas, and provide multiple representations of knowledge to regulate their own thinking.

Writing

When computers are networked, teachers can use Electronic Read Around (sitting at separate computers, each student writes on a topic the teacher gives; then each student clicks on an icon representing another student's computer, reads what that student wrote, and provides feedback in a different font at the end of the document; this process is repeated until each student has read and commented on every student's text; they then use the comments to revise and edit their own pieces)

Online synchronous chats (a student can share ideas in real time with one or more classmates on the topic they are writing about; basically like instant messaging)

The World Wide Web: weblogs (blogs); Weblogs in Education site (http://www.schoolblogs.com/)

Kidforum (www.kidlink.org/KIDFORUM/collaborative_writing.htm)

Through Our Eyes (www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ)

Reading

Reading a story from a CD-ROM where they can click on words for pronunciations and definitions, caused reading comprehension scores to improve.

Science and Math

Marcia Linn and other researchers argued that students should spend less time manually calculating and plotting data and more time using technology to summarize and interpret data, look for trends, and predict relationships.

They created the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) Project (http://www.wise.berkeley.edu/). It contains a variety of science projects that teachers can adapt to local curricula and to state and national standards. This project can help students make connections among science ideas rather than learn by rote isolated facts whose relevance is not understood and that are soon forgotten. SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA

Calculator-Based Laboratory (CBL): provides a data-collection system that uses probes, such as temperature, light, and voltage probes, to gather data into a graphing calculator. Students taking a math class might use this tool to represent and manipulate quadratic equations in algebra, visualize statistics and other information in geometry classes, and better understand derivatives and inequalities in calculus.

National Center for Health Statistics www.cdc.gov/nchs , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration http://www.noaa.gov/ , and the National Geophysical Data Center http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ can be used to find data to make relationships more concrete and have more meaning and then use graphing calculators and spreadsheets to create graphic representations of the data.

Art and Music

Draw and paint modules of Appleworks and Microsoft Works can be used to alter images.

Digital oscilloscopes help students to understand relationships between pitch and wavelength.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and Formal Instrumental Music Tuition (FIMT) allows students to compose at the keyboard, play a musical instrument and record it on a computer, and play one part of a multi-instrument piece while the program plays the other.

Multimedia Tools

Multimedia encyclopedias, databases, and libraries provide students with a wide variety of information sources. They offer multiple views on difficult concepts. They also provide more than one way to retrieve or visit the information.

Hypermedia Tools

This exists when multimedia information can be nonsequentially accessed, examined, and constructed by users, thereby enabling them to move from one information resource to another while controlling which options to take.

Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of the Dinosaurs (1st - 5th grades): students can explore multiple locations in different parts of the world and in 3 prehistoric time periods. It also offers a dozen games and activities that involve dinosaurs.

Habitat Management and Monitoring: interactive science modules developed for high school students by the EPA and Purdue University

Multimedia and Hypermedia Technology Information

These programs that make appropriate use of animation and interactivity improve learning.

When students select topics and associated terms for a Web search and then evaluate the results, they are engaged in metacognition: making decisions about what information to read, thinking about knowledge interrelationships, and engaging in extensive self-questioning and note taking.

When they create databases of related ideas or link information in multiple formats, they are making decisions and elaboratively encoding information. These are all important metacognitive skills.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Helping them to become efficient information processors

Develop and use a variety of techniques to attract and hold attention, and give your students opportunities to practice and refine their skills in maintaining attention. (print keywords or ideas in extra-large letters, use colored chalk, present ideas with intensity and emphasis, teach basic skills as part of class projects that relate to student's natural interests, and institute games that depend on maintaining attention)

Point out and encourage students to recognize that certain bits of information are important and can be related to what they already know. (give students the opportunity for them to express ideas in their own words)

Use appropriate rehearsal techniques, including an emphasis on meaning and chunking.

Distributed practice: short study periods at frequent intervals

Serial position effect: tendency to remember items at beginning and end of a long list

Massed practice: learn by way of a few rather long study periods, spaced infrequently

Organize what you ask your students to learn, and urge older students to organize material on their own

Make what students learn more meaningful by presenting information in concrete, visual terms

Life Experiences:

The idea of short and long term memory is something that we all "think" about. When trying to study for tests we have to place that information in our long term memory. We also have to place all of the strategies and techniques that we are taught in our long term memory so that we can use them when we become teachers. Our short and long term memory is both so important. I have to teach my students how to say certain sounds correctly. They must place that information into their short term memory while we are working on it but as time passes we have to teach them how to continue using that information by placing it into their long term memory.

Journal:

I have really enjoyed keeping this journal, especially for this chapter. There was so many different websites and good information in this chapter. If I did not keep this journal I would never be able to find the great things that I have learned so far. Unfortunately I am not a very organized person many times, my life is so crazy I just have to do things as I can. This journal has given me a way of keeping information a little more organized so that when I finish college I will be able to use it in the future.

Educational Blog:

She has begun posting quotes of the week, they are really great. Last week it was “Change your Thoughts and You Change Your World”-Norman Vincent Peale; and this week it is "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much" - Helen Keller. They are both really great quotes. I really like reading about how she is able to use technology to serve her clients better. She has used telepractice for quite sometime but with the addition of some new software she is able to play games with her clients online without having to make copies and play by watching each other. She can now link with her client and they can play the same game online together. By playing games while helping the individual they both are able to get so much more out of it. No one likes to just sit there are say words back and forth to each other but if they can play a game while talking you are giving them a better chance of carrying that information over into conversation. So many times when I work with kids I can get them to say it correctly if they are just saying one word at a time but if they are carrying on a conversation with me it just doesn't carry over. In today's society we are being pressured with so much financial concerns that people just do not travel as much as they did. By using telepractice, she is able to serve so many more individuals without them having to travel. She posted a really great YouTube video about how she uses the online games with her clients. It was very informational. She posted a website linking you to the ASHA website explaining what they require for using telepractice services. It was very informational especially for anyone who might use this as a form of speech therapy. Technology is evolving so much more everyday in our lives that we must begin to think of things like this because there are times we just can't meet with every client we may need to. I hope to be able to incorporate this into my services at some point in time. I want to work in the school atmosphere but I also want to be able to work with other individuals outside of the school setting. This may be away that I can be at home with my family at times and still be able to work.

Question of the Week: What are some specific techniques that you would like to incorporate into your teaching based on information processing? Why do you think these techniques will work?

I love the different sections about using technology as an information-processing tool. There was so many different and great ideas included in each of those sections. I love the technique of Electronic Read Around and online synchronous chats. Both of those techniques could help so many students when writing especially students with disabilities. I can't wait to check out the Kidforum and Through our Eyes projects, they both sound really great. The idea of using CD-ROM's with reading is a strategy that I used for my kids as they were learning to read. They played interactive book games on the computer and also used their LeapFrog which allowed them to interact while reading. After using blogs for this college class, I feel that so many students could benefit just like I have from it. Our school currently uses the Texas Instrument graphing calculators in the different math classes in high school, so why not incorporate the CBL's too and using those different sites of various statistics and information when using their calculators. I intend on telling our high school math teacher and science teacher about the WISE Project. Their students could benefit in so many different ways by using this project. Since I am going into Speech Language Pathology, many of these things cannot be as easily incorporated into my area like they can be in the regular classroom. I do want to inform my high school students and the other teachers about them so that they can use some of the information that I have learned through this chapter.

Kids learn so much more when they are interested in what they doing and they have some input into what they are studying. So by using these various strategies we allow the students to have some control over their education. No child likes to be told everything that they have to do, they like to be able to make some choices for themselves.

Behavioral Learning Theory: Operant Conditioning

2008-10-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Chapter 7: Summary

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning (Skinner's theory): many of the voluntary responses of animals and humans are strengthened when they are reinforced (followed by a desirable consequence) and weakened when they are either ignored or punished. They learn to operate on their environment in order to obtain or avoid a particular consequence.
Basic principles of operant conditioning: Positive reinforcement (strengthening a target behavior by presenting a positive stimulus); Negative reinforcement (same as positive except a desirable stimulus is removed); punishment (weaken a target behavior by presenting an averise stimulus after the behavior occurs); time-out (weaken a target behavior by temporarily removing a positive reinforcer); extinction (weaken a target behavior by ignoring it); Spontaneous recovery (extinguished behaviors may reappear spontaneously); Generalization ( responding in similar wasy to similar stimuli); discrimination (responding in different ways to similar stimuli); shaping (complex behaviors are shaped by reinforcing closer approximations to terminal behavior)
Continuous reinforcement-learning proceeds best when every desired response is positively reiforced and every undesired response is ignored
Fixed interval schedule- reinforce after regular time intervals
Variable interval schedule- reinforce after random time intervals
Fixed ratio schedule- reinforce after a set number of responses
Variable ration schedule- reinforce after a different number of responses each time

Educational Applications of Operant Conditioning Principles:

4 prescriptions about operant conditioning and education: (1) Be clear about what is to be taught (2) Teach first things first (3) Allow students to learn at their own rate (4) Program the subject matter
These ideas became the basis for 2 educational applications: (1) computer-based instruction (2) behavior modification (a set of procedures for helping students learn appropriate classroom behaviors)
Computer-Based Instruction (CBI) or computer-assisted instruction (CAI)
3 CBI programs: Drill-and-practice programs (sets of relatively simple exercises and problems that they practice knowledge and skills learned earlier); Simulation programs (microworlds or problem-solving programs; artificial environments that mimic the real world); Tutorial programs (programs that mimic what a teacher does in class by teaching students new information and skills in a methodical, step-by-step approach)
Tutorial and simulation programs produce higher achievement thatn conventional instruction
Integrated Learning systems (ILS): software packages that combine tutorial programs based on operant conditioning principles with programs that keep track over time of student performance and provide feedback to both the student and the teacher (comprehensive, self-paced learning system)
Behavior modification- the use of operant conditioning techniquest to modify behavior
Contingency management- using these techniques to manage behavior by making rewards contingent on certain actions
Techniques applied to strengthen behaviors: shaping, token economies, and contingency contracts
Shaping: (1) select the target behavior (2) obtain reliable baseline data (3) select potential reinforcers (4) reinforce successive approximations of the target behavior each time they occur (5) reinforce the newly established target behavior each time it occurs (6) reinforce the target behavior on a variable reinforcement schedule
Reinforcers for elementary: stickers, verbal praise, smiles, classroom priviledges; reinforcers for middle school and high school: letter or numerical grades, material incentives, and privately given praise
Premack Principle: they are told that they will able to indulge in one of these activities for a stated period of time after they have completed a set of instructional objectives
Token economies: where something that has little to no value but can be used to "purchase" things that do have inherent value (a flexible reinforcement system)
Contingency contracting: reinforcement supplied after student completes mutually agreed-on assignment
Techniques that weaken behaviors: extinction and punishment
Extinction, time-out, and response cost: time-out works best with disruptive, aggressive children; response cost (it involves the removal of a stimulus and is often used with a token economy; a certain percentage of what has been earned will be taken away)
Punishment: research is unclear about strength of negative effects of coporal punishment

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom p. 237-241

Remain aware that behavior is the result of particular conditions (make sure you are not rewarding them for misbehavior)
Use reinforcement and use it approximately to strengthen behaviors you want to encourage (use the weakes reward available to strengthen a behavior, when possible avoid using rewards as incentives, reward at a high rate in the early stages of learning and reduce frequency of rewards as learning processes, reward only the behavio you want repeated, remember what works for one may not work for another, set standards so that success is a realistic possibility for each student, and an often-mentioned goal of teachers is to have students become motivated or to take personal pride and satisfaction in simply doing something well
Take advantage of knowledge about the impact of different reinforcement schedules to encourage persistent and permanent learning (when students first attempt a new kind of learning, supply frequent reinforcement and then supply rewards less often; if you want to encourage periodic spurts of activity, use a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement)
Give students opportunities to make overt responses, and provide prompt feedback (require students to make frequent, overt, and relevant responses; provide feedback so that correct responses will be reinforced and students will become aware of and correct errors)
When students must struggle to concentrate on material that is not intrinsically interesting, use special forms of reinforcement to motivate them to persevere. (select with student assistance a variety of reinforcers; establish in consultation with individual students an initial contract of work to be performed to earn a particular reward; once the initial reward is earned, establish a series of short contracts leading to frequent immediate rewards)

Using Computer-Based Instruction in Your Classroom

Recognize that out of the thousands of instructional programs that are on the market, most have such significant shortcomings in their design that they are not worth using
Websites to help you get started: www.epie.org/epie_tess.htm (The educational software selector); www.clrn.org/home (California learning resource network); www.lrt.ednet.ns.ca (learning resources and technology resources); www.kathyschrock.net/lcomputer (software evaluation tool and resources); www.worldvillage.com/softwarereviews/educational.html (World Village educational reviews)
Recognize that it cannot substitute for high-quality classroom teaching

Weekly Question: Looking at both positive (PR) and negative reinforcement (NR), think about how you remember these being used when you were going to school. Write those examples down. How will you use positive and negative reinforcement in your "classroom" when you become a teacher? Give examples of PR and NR as related to your "classroom" in the future - relate these examples to concepts that you can remember.

Weekly Question answer and Life Experiences:

I use operant conditioning and many of the principles that go with it everyday such as positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, shaping, time-out, extinction, and others. I just have never thought of it that way until I read this chapter. We all do it if we work with kids or if we have kids of our own. We just think of it sometimes as bribery instead of positive reinforcement. When I was in school the teachers use it too. If we worked hard and were good then we received special priviledges or small rewards. Our schools now rewards our students who work hard all year and get good grades with awards and certificates. They used to reward with food but that has now changed due to nutritional guidelines. I reward my students with frequent praise and small treats. But they also do not receive those if they do not do as they are supposed to.

Blog:

In every chapter I find new ideas or new techniques to use with my students. This blog helps me to keep track of them. It also makes me be more dedicated to learning new information. I think that too many times after teachers have taught a few years they just get in a certain groove and never straw from it. I see teachers everyday that just will not go out of their way to help certain students because it just takes too much effort. I CAN'T STAND THAT!!! They are still using the same techniques that they learned when they went to college it seems like. So hopefully by working on this blog it will help me to never be like those teachers.

Educational Blog:

I just never cease to be amazed at all the wonderful information that I find in my educational blog that I am following. It is so great that I recommended it to the Speech Language Pathologist that I work with everyday. She has over 27 years experience and she still reads up on new things. She loved it too. I found a link on it to a great website by another SLP. This website contained some neat new strategies that I have never heard of to help students pick up certain sounds much quicker by fluctuating back and forth with sounds that are familiar (ex. hat/cat; bat/cat {working on /k/ sound}). Her blog for today deals with "supporting change" and what to do about it. Everyone needs to read it. She also had one yesterday about "embracing change". They were both really good articles to make you think. On October 6, she discussed a SLP's role in a child's education. If a student is having trouble with speech or language, their whole educational experience will also be affected if not dealt with correctly. Every SLP needs to read it because it really makes you think about how important an SLP's job is for a student to succeed in life.

Discussions:

Not everyone has responded or replied to the discussion boards so I will come back and add this part later.

Software Programs that range in drills, tutorials, simulations, and games: p.243

Operation: Frog (Scholastic)
My Reading Coach (Mindplay educational software)
Oregon Trail (the learning company)
Great Solar System rescue (Scholastic)
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (the learning company)

Accommodating Student Variability

2008-10-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Chapter 6 Summary

Historical Developments

2 approaches to creating more homogeneous groups: Ability Grouping (involves the use of standardized mental ability or achievement tests to create groups of students who were considered very similar to each other in learning ability; elementary and middle school: low, average, or high groups; high school: placed according to what they would be doing after high school such as college, secretarial work, or vocational school) and Special Education (for students who were deemed to be incapable of profiting from any type of normal classroom instruction; IDEA can from this)

Ability Grouping

tracking is used more in middle school and high school than ability grouping
4 types of ability grouping: between-class ability grouping, regrouping, the Joplin Plan, and within-class grouping
Between-class ability grouping (goal is for each class to be made up of students who are homogeneous in standardized intelligence or achievement test scores) There are typically 3 levels of classes in this grouping: high, average, and low. Students from one ability group do not usually have any contact with students in another group.
Regrouping (more flexible in assignments and narrower in scope than between-class groups; students of the same age, ability, and grade but different classrooms come together for instruction in a specific subject usually reading or math) 2 disadvantages: requires a certain degree of planning and cooperation among teachers, and many teachers are uncomfortable working with children whom they see only once a day for an hour or so.
Joplin Plan (a variation of regrouping; regroupings take place across grade levels) same advantages and disadvantages as regrouping; SUCCESS FOR ALL was patterned after this
Within-Class Ability Grouping (most popular; involves the division of a single class of students into 2 or 3 groups for reading and math instruction) One disadvantage: the teacher needs to be skilled at keeping the other students in the class productively occupied while working with the a particular group
Ability grouping assumes intelligence is inherited, reflected by IQ, and unchangeable and that instruction will be superior.
No research support for between-class ability grouping
Joplin Plan and within-class ability grouping for math and science produce moderate increases in learning.
Regrouping research for reading and mathmatics is inconclusive
Between-class ability grouping negatively influences teaching goals and methods. (best teachers assigned to highest tracks and lowest teachers assigned to lowest tracks) Low teachers expected and demanded less of their students and covered less and simplier material
Freedom of Choice programs- low track minority students are allowed to enroll in honor courses
3 courses of action: (1) to discontinue the use of full-day, between-class ability groups or tracks (2) to use only those forms of ability grouping that produce positive results: within-class grouping and the Joplin Plan, especially for reading and math (3) to dispense with all forms of ability grouping, detracking
Techniques that can be used to get high achievement in students: making clear presentations, displaying a high level of enthusiasm, reinforcing students for correct responses, providing sufficient time for students to formulate answers to questions, prompting correct responses, providing detailed feedback about the accuracy of responses, requiring a high level of work and effort, and organizing students into small, heterogeneous learning groups and using cooperative learning techniques.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Major Provisions of IDEA: A free and appropriate public education; preplacement evaluation (before placement, student must be given complete, valid, and appropriate evaluation; rules on p. 187); Individualized Education Program (IEP must include objectives, services to be provided, criteria for determining achievement; p. 187); Least Restrictive Environment (students with diabilities must be educated in least restrictive environment; Mainstreaming: policy of placing students with disabilities in regular classes)
Inclusion (or full inclusion): Inclusion policy aims to keep students with disabilities in regular classrooms for the entire day; Full inclusion refers to eliminating all pullout programs and special education teachers and of providing regular classroom teachers with training in teaching special-needs students so that they can teach these students in the regular classroom
Disabling conditions: autism, deaf-blindness, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, emotional disturbance, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment including blindness.
Regular classroom teacher's responsibility under IDEA: referral, assessment (multidisciplinary assessment team: determines whether student needs special services), preparation of the IEP (classroom teacher, parents, and several specialists prepare IEP), implementation and evaluation of the IEP (if student is in the regular classroom, the teacher must put into practice the various instructional techniques listed in the IEP)

Students with Mental Retardation

Mental retardation: a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. It originates before age 18. (2 or more standard deviations below the mean)
Characteristics: frustrate easily, lack confidence and self-esteem, appear immature for their age; mild retardation: tend to oversimplify, have difficulty generalizing, smaller memory capacity, shorter attention spans, the inclination to concentrate on only one aspect of a learning situation and to ignor other relevant features, and delayed language development
Suggestions for teaching these students on Page 196-198

Students with Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities: disorders in basic processes that lead to learning problems not due to other causes
Characteristics: poorly developed social skills, ignore teacher's directions, cheat, use profane language, disturb other students, disrupt group activities, and start fights
Identifying students with learning disabilities: at least an average score on a standardized test of intelligence and a significantly below average score (1 or more standard deviations below) on a standardized achievement test
Students with learning disabilities have problems with perception, attention, memory, metacognition
Disorder of basic psychological processes: refers to problems with how students receive information, process it, and express what they have learned
Reading program tested on middle school students that teaches them how to use reading comprehension strategies contained the following components: word identification (using a first letter mnemonic to help them recall the seven steps involved in decoding multisyllabic words), partner reading (pairs of students modeled fluent reading for one another and helped each other decode unfamiliar words), and collaborative strategic reading (improved comprehension and combined two proven instructional techniques: reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning)
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: many children who have a learning disability also have ADHD; symptoms of ADHD include inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
Treatment for ADHD: prescribed stimulant medication, school-based psychological/educational programs (Behavior management programs: the systematic use of reinforcement and punishment to increase the frequency of desired behaviors and decrease the frequencey of undesired behaviors; Cognitive behavior therapy programs: teaching students to remind themselves to use effective learning skills, monitor their progress, and reinforce themselves; Classroom environment restructuring programs: use techniques such as reducing classroom noise, assigning studnets permanent seats, seating students with ADHD at the front of the class, and providing frequent breaks between tasks), multimodal programs (invovle combinations of one or more of the earlier treatments
Suggestions for teaching these students on Page 202-203

Students with Emotional Disturbance

Emotional Disturbance: condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics: inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems
Schizophrenia
Behavior Disorder: focuses on behavior that needs to be changes, objective assessment
Characteristics: externalizing (aggressive, uncooperative, restless, and negativistic; tend to lie, steal, defy teachers, hostile, cruel, or malicious); internalizing (shy, timid, anxious, fearful, depressed, and lack self-confidence)
Suggestions for Teaching these students on Page 205-207

Students who are Gifted and Talented

Definition: children and youth who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities
Identification: standardized test scores, especially IQ scores; alternate assessments are beginning to be used
Characteristics: excel on tasks that involve language, abstract logical thinking, and mathematics; faster at encoding information and retrieving it from memory; highly aware of how they learn and the various conditions that affect their learning; exhibit such high levels of motivation and task persistence that the phrase "rage to master" is sometimes used to describe their behavior; tend to be more solitary and introverted than average children; tend to have very intense emotional lives
Instructional Options: Accelerated Instruction (allowing students to skip one or more grades, curriculum can be compressed [complete work for more than one grade in a year], school year extended by the use of summer sessions, and students can take college courses while still in high school); Gifted and Talented classes and schools (these may aid achievement but may lower academic self-concept of some students); Enrichment and Differentiated Instruction (using different learning materials, instructional methods, assignments, and tests to accomodate differences in student's abilities, learning styles, prior knowledge, and cultural background)
3 levels of enrichment: Type I (exploratory activities that are designed to expose students to topics, events, books, people, and places not ordinarily covered in the regular curriculum; this will stimulate new interests); Type II (instructional methods and materials aimed at the development of such thinking and feeling processes as thining creatively, classifying and analyzing data, solving problems, appreciating, and valuing); Type III (activities in which students investigate and collect data about a real topic or problem)
Websites mentioned: www.gnacademy.org; www.tip.duke.edu
Suggestions for Teaching these Students on Page 212-213

Using Technology to Assist Exceptional Students

Assistive technology: any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability. Ex: adapted spoons, joysticks, taped stories, adaptive switches, head-pointing devices, captioned programming, and communication boards
Technology for Students with Hearing Impairments: closed captioning, audio amplification, and cochlear implants
Technology for Students with Visual Impairments: Speech synthesizers, magnification devices, screen reader (software programs)
Technology for Students with Orthopedic Impairments: pointing devices held in the mouth, attached to the head, or voice activated; condensed or mini keyboards; touch sensitive expanded keyboards
Technology for Students with Speech or Language Impairments: computer software with a speech synthesizer and expanded keyboard
Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities: software programs for reading(computerized study guide, videodisc program, hypermedia study guide, software with synchronized visual and auditory presentation of text); writing software (word prediction software, e-pal program)
Technology for gifted and talented students: distance education (http://epgy.stanford.edu), web quest (www.webquest.sdsu.edu)

Life Experiences

I work with students with disabilities everyday so I see each of these kinds of kids. I see the differences that each of these students exhibit in learning and in social skills. So I understand that when discussing educational needs, instructional strategies, and grouping they need to be thought about and discussed in an individual basis. I do not agree with trying to mainstream all students with disabilities. Some children can succeed in a regular classroom if given the right instructional strategies and modifications, but so many others need that extra one on one assistance that a special education teacher can give them. If all schools had the money to hire a special education teacher for every classroom more children could be mainstreamed, but the federal government just keeps cutting our money so that just isn't possible. Even with this, the severely disabled still would not be able to function properly in a regular education classroom all day long. Too many times those who make these kind of decisions in government are not the ones who actually have ever worked in a classroom trying to teach students with disabilities and nondisabled students at the same time all by themselves.

Ideas:

I love reading the suggestion for teaching and finding all the neat websites full of new information that is in each chapter. By keeping this blog I am able to have a place to record this information and any new ideas that I read or hear about. I just wish I had a slower schedule for life so that I could put more information into my blog each week and read about new techniques or strategies that are coming about.

Discussion Boards:

It was real interesting reading everyone's view on students with disabilities and mainstreaming. There was a variety of perspectives given and a variety of reasons for these perspectives. I also liked the ideas that people shared about how they would deal with students in their classroom with learning disabilities, mental retardation, and emotional disturbance. I have not had to deal with a student that has a real prominent emotional disturbance, so this is something that I need more information about. So many students had great ideas of things that they would do in the classroom.

Educational Blog:

TinyEye had a lot of new information for this week. She had posted a video from ASHA about Speech therapy telepractice. It was a real informative video that I am going to share with the Speech Therapist that I work for. It gave me new information that I was not familiar with. She also posted a real neat statement about the importance of thinking differently. She said "“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” I really liked this statement because it is so true but we never think that way. There was also two posts about Breast cancer because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This really hits home to me because a year and a half ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has completed treatments and is doing very well. But it is always in the back of my mind if it will come back again. She had a whole blog concerning peoples thoughts about telepractice and how she is able to give her patients the same services online as if she was right in the room with them. She discusses all her different thoughts and ideas. Even if you do not use telepractice her ideas are great. Her website is so full of great ideas and new techniques, every speech therapist needs to read her blog. Even when this class is over I am going to continue reading her blogs and recording the information I find in my journal here. If she is half the speech therapist that she sounds like any person would be blessed to receive her services or advice.

Question of the Week: When looking at ability-grouped classrooms, how do you feel about this issue? Is this a technique that you would use in your "classroom"? Would it be beneficial - why or why not? Are there any parts of ability grouping that could be modified to work in your "classroom"? How?

I have mixed feelings about ability grouping. In some situations if used properly they could be productive but if not they could be detrimental to a students learning. The type of ability grouping that I might use would be a mix of abilities in a group such as 1 advanced, 2 average, and 1 low. By grouping this way, each student might be able to help another. The advanced student would be able to help all the students in the group and the average students could gain from the advanced and maybe help the low. Everyone would be able to prosper hopefully. A mix of ability groups is about the only way that I could use ability grouping in my classroom because I have limited students at one time. So many times the grouping I use has more to do with grouping by like disabilities instead of like abilities.

Addressing Cultural and Socioeconomic Diversity

2008-09-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 Summary:

Culture describes how a group of people perceive the world; formulates beliefs; evaluates objects, ideas, and experiences; and behaves. It can be thought of as a blueprint that guides the ways in which individuals within a group do such important things as communicate with others, handle time and space, express emotions, and approach work and play.

A culturally aware teacher will emphasize the ways in which American society has been enriched by the contributions of many different ethnic groups and will not schedule a major exam or field trip for a day when certain students are likely to be out of schoo in observance of a religious holiday. They also should seek to foster an understanding of and mutual respect for the values, beliefs, and practices of different cultural groups. This is called multicultural education.

The Rise of Multiculturalism

Melting pot phenomenon- the assimiliation of diverse ethnic groups into one national mainstream
Cultural pluralism (cultural diversity)- a society should strive to maintain the different cultures that reside within it; that each culture within a society should be respected by others; and that individuals within a society have the right to participate in all aspects of that society without having to give up their cultural indentity.

Ethnicity and Social Class

Culture provides a set of norms that guide what we say and how we say it, what we feel, and what we do in various situations. There are two factors that distinguish one culture from another: ethnicity and social class.
Ethnic group- a collection of people who identify with one another on the basis of one or more of the following characteristics: country from which one's ancestors came, religion, language, values, political interests, economic interests, and behavior patterns.
Christine Bennett identified 5 aspects of ethnicity that are potential sources of student-student and student-teacher misunderstanding: verbal communication, nonverbal communication, time orientation, social values, and instructional formats and learning processes.
Classroom discussions may not go as planned if teachers have students who do not understand- or feel overly confined by - the mainstream convention of "you take a turn and then somebody else takes a turn".
Because of differences in clutural experiences, some students may be reluctant to speak or perform in public, whereas others may prefer exchanges that resemble a free-for-all shouting match.
Ethnic group members differ in verbal and nonverbal communication patterns.
They may also hold different values.
Ethnic group members may favor different learning arrangements and processes.
Some may prefer small-group learning centers over independent seatwork. Others may favor learning tasks that allow for interpersonal interaction, multiple activities, and the use of multiple sensory modalities. To teach math to these students you might involve them in problems that deal with buying, trading, or borrowing.
Teachers may need to wait longer for students to answer questions because some may be accustomed to longer periods of silence between speakers.
Some may prefer collaborative learning, open-ended questioning, inductive reasoning, whole-to-part sequencing of lessons, emphasis on visual learning strategies, and emphasizing students' cultural identity.
Social class is an indicator of an individual's or a family's relative standing in society. It can be determined by factors such as annual income, occupation, amount of education, place of residence, types of organizations to which the family members belong, manner of dress, and material possessions.
Socioeconomic status is determined by the first 3 things above by the federal gov't.
Minority students have lower levels of motivation, lower self-esteem, and weaker academic skills and they also more impulsive.
They also often score lower on tests and drop out of school sooner.
Acheivement gap between low-SES minority students and white students due to living conditions, family environment, characteristics of the student and classroom environment.
Low-SES children more likely to live in stressful environment that interferes with studying.
Middle-SES parents expose their children to a wider variety of experiences than Low-SES parents such as buying them more books, educational toys and games, to take them on more trips that expand their knowledge of the world, and to talk to them more.
Need for achievement is a drive to accomplish tasks and is thought to be one of the main reasons that people vary in their willingness to invest time and energy in the achievement of a goal.
Classroom atmosphere, teachers' approaches connected with achievement levels of Low-SES students. (a list on page 153 explains more attitudes and approaches that are included)
Pygmalion effect (the self-fulfilling prophecy, or teacher expectancy effect)- the expectations that teachers have for student performance and how those expectations affect the quality and quantity of work that students exhibit. Students come to behave in a way that is consistent with what the teacher expects.
There seem to be a limited effect on teacher expectancy and IQ scores, but a strong effect on achievement and participation.
Teacher expectancies influenced by social class, ethnic background, achievement, attractiveness, and gender.

Multicultural Education Programs

James Banks describes 4 approaches to multicultural education: Contributions approach (historical figures whose values are consistent with American mainstream culture are studied and any that challenge those views are ignored), Ethnic additive approach (an instructional unit composed of themes, points of view, and accomplishments are added to the curriculum), Transformation approach (there is no one valid way of understanding people, events, concepts, and themes, and Decision Making and Social Action Approach (it incorporates all of the components of the previous approaches and adds the requirement that students make decisions and take action concerning a concept, issue, or problem being studied).
Multicultural lessons are organized around key concepts such as immigration; culture; identity; perspectives; ethnic institutions; demographic, social, political, and economic status; racism and discrimination; intraethnic diversity; and acculturation.
On page 161 the book discusses several characteristics that contribute to the success some teachers have in teaching students from culturallyt diverse backgrounds that were developed through research by Eugene Garcia.
3 instructional tactics that are recommended most often by proponents of multicultural education: peer tutoring, cooperative learnin, and mastery learning.
Peer tutoring- involves the teaching of one student by another. When children with different cognitive schemes are forced to interact with each other, cognitive conflict results which then causes growth to occur because they try to resolve this conflict by comparing and contrasting each other's views.
Cooperative learning- by working in small, heterogeneous groups (of 4 or 5) and by helping one another master the various aspects of a particular task, students will be more motivated to learn, will learn more than if they had to work independently, and will forge stronger interpersonal relationships than they would by working alone.
Mastery learning- an approach to teaching and learning that assumes that most students can master curriculum if certain conditions are established: they have sufficient aptitude to learn a particular task; have sufficient ability to understand instruction; are willing to persevere until they attain a certain level of mastery; are allowed whatever time is necessary to attain mastery; and are provided with good-quality instruction.
The basic mastery learning approach is to specify clearly what is to be learned, organize the content into a sequence of relatively short units, use a variety of instructional methods and materials, allow students to progres through the material at their own rate, monitor student progress in order to identify budding problems and provide corrective feedback, and allow students to relearn and retest on each unit until mastery is attained.
Textbooks are just a starting point. A teacher who is committed to providing students a strong multicultural experience will have to seek out high-quality supplementary materials.
These multicultural programs are justified in several ways on page 165.
The basic purpose of multicultural education is to give students the opportunity to learn about the characteristics of people from different cultures and to try to understand how those individuals view the world.
Telecommunication projects allow students from different places and varied backgrounds to interact with one another, sharing ideas, and experiecnes and learning new points of view.
They can also allow more questioning and interaction than occurs in face to face settings with some groups.
Email exchange programs can also be used.

Page 167 some ideas to use technology to bridge the gap

iEARN (www.iearn.org) a program that allows teacher and students to work together online on various education projects

Interactive Forums and Learning Circles (interactive project-based partnerships which lasts 14 weeks)

4Directions Project (http://4directions.org)

Reading Upgrade- web-based program which uses music adn video within an interactive environment to maintain student attention to and interest in lessons that focus on decoding, phonemic awareness, fluency and comprehension

Bilingual Education

3 approaches that are used: Transition program (their is a rapid shift to English proficiency), Maintenance Programs (focus on maintaining native-language comptenence), and Two-way bilingual TWB (features instruction in both languages) features of this is included on page 175.

Life experiences:

I have not ever lived in an area where bilingual education or multicultural education was a large part of education. The biggest thing that I have run into with this would be children who are Jehovah witness and can not participate in parties at the holidays or saying the pledge of allegiance. These are then just dealt with on an individual basis with the parents and teachers. Now I do live in an area where low-SES can become a factor many times. We do have many students who may not have the money for trips, supplies or etc. The teachers have always been great about finding away to help each of them if possible. We have various groups that help give school supplies before school starts for students who do not have the money for these. The teachers have also been very good about helping the students if they do not have the supplies for a project by giving them to them or by helping them during or after school.

Blog:

This blog is still helping me to be able to organize my thoughts, ideas, or important information. I think it has been great to be able to have a place to write down those neat ideas that you read about in the lesson book.

On pages 144-145, 156-158, and 168-170 there are great ideas or suggestion for teaching in the classroom. I will come back later and add these to my blog.

Discussion Boards:

I liked what one student put in the discussion board. We are not just a melting pot but a salad bowl. This is so true because we are not always melted together but just mixed up in an area and we tend to keep our own individualized ideas, values and customs.

Most of us had the same ideas about teaching these student. It is just another part of teaching students in and individualized way just like learning styles. We need to be aware of their values and where they come from so that we can incorporate it into our teaching strategies.

We also all seemed to feel the same way about students not having all the supplies or materials needes sometimes. We all would help them out to the greatest extent possible.

Educational Blog:

I had a tough time trying to find a blog that went along with what I want to do, but Ms. Graff helped me out. She found a really great blog for speech language patholgist. I really enjoy it. There is alot of neat ideas and great information. It is located at http://tinyeye.wordpress.com/ . It is called TinyEye: Mind over Meltdown. She describes that we all need to sit back and relax sometimes. Her quote "Next time you feel a meltdown sneaking up – revisit the battery chargers. Also, grab that old hair brush and start singing." What a great idea that we all need to remember. She also talks about Telepractice, tips for parents, ASHA's public policy for Speech, and so much more. I can't wait until I can have a few spare moments to completely read through each of her blogs and add more great information to my blog.

Question of the Week: How will you become an effective multicultural teacher? What teaching methods will you use to guarantee you are effective with your students?

I think it is just like incorporating learning styles into teaching, we must also incorporate a multicultural education into our classroom. Even if we do not have students from other cultures, all students need to be given information about other cultures, areas and religions. Our ideas and values are not the only thing that is important. We need to have a vast knowledge of information. I want to be able to use technology to the greatest extent possible because we are in area that is not abundant with people from other cultures. So by using technology such as internet, email, and other web-based programs I can allow ny students to interact with a variety of children from around the world.

Understanding Student Differences

2008-09-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 Summary

Differentiated Instruction- the practice of using different learning materials, instructional tactics, and learning activities with students who vary along such dimensions as intelligences, learning style, gender, ethnicity, and social class

The Nature and Measurement of Intelligence

Intelligence test scores are closely related to school success, not job success, marital happiness, or life happiness. So it is asked to do something that it was not meant or designed to do. (Some say should have been called test of scholastic aptitude instead of IQ test)
"g" factor- general factor affects performance on all IQ tests; "s" factor- specific factors affects performance on only specific IQ tests (2-factor theory of intelligence)
There are limitations to IQ tests (what we test is only a sample of IQ capabilities, scores can change with experience or training)
Wechsler's defines intelligence as the global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment
Assessment of intelligence in everyday setting would be highly subjective and would take a great deal of time.
Robert Sternberg believes that most of the researhc evidence supports the view that intelligence has many facets and that traditional mental ability tests measure just a few of these facets. Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence (theory of successfull intelligence) has 3 main parts: practical ability (applying knowledge to everyday situations, using knowledge and tools, and seeking relevance), creative ability ( inventing, discovering, imagining, and supposing), and analytical ability (breaking ideas and products into their component part, making judgments, evaluating, comparing and contrasting, and critiquing). Also big part is how they use practical intelligence to adapt to their environment.
Students who complete homework and assignments that use analytical, creative and practical abilities outscored students who just used recall and learning factual info.
Howard Gardner's Mulitple Intelligences theory- logical mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetics, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. (Individuals with a high level of a particular intelligence may use it in different ways)

Using the New Views of Intelligence to Guide Instruction

Triarchic theory suggests that instruction and assessment should emphasize all types of ability. ( Teaching and testing can be designed to emphasize the 3 abilities: analytical, creative, and practical--as well as memory) Figure 4.2 p. 117
Gardner believes that teachers should use MI theory as a framework for devising alternative ways to teach subject matter. (It is a mistake to think that every lesson has to be designed to involve all 8 intelligences) Neat example p.118
Using technology to develop intelligences can allow children to "think outside of the box". Various technology tools may strengthen different intelligences.
Hypermedia -a marriage of multimedia (a communication format integrating several types of media such as text, graphics, animation, sound, images, and video) and hypertext (a system of linking text in a nonlinear way, thereby enabling users to jump from one section of text to another section of the same document or to other documents, often through highlighted words).

Learning Styles

A learning style can be defined as a consistent preference over time and subject matter for perceiving, thinking about, and organizing information in a particular way.
These styles are referred to as preferences. They are set in stone.
Reflectivity and Impulsivity: Impulsive students prefer quick action; reflective students prefer to collect and analyze information before acting
Field Dependence and Field Independence: Field-independent students prefer their own structure; field-dependent students prefer to work within existing structure.
Mental Self-Government Styles: Legislative style prefers to create and plan; executive style prefer to follow explicit rules; judicial style prefers to evaluate and judge (5 categories of Sternberg's theory: function, forms, levels, scope, and leaning) Figure 4.3 p. 123 describes these styles
Teachers should use various instructional methods to engage all styles of learning at one time or another (good ideas p.122)
Teachers should also use various test formats to expand students' repertoire of learning styles and measure accurately what students have learned. This may also stimulate students to expand their own repertoire of learning styles.
Amy Benjamin has written many books on differentiated instruction and argues that technology not only is an effective tool for accommodating student differences but also offers a unique opportunity for collaboration among novice and veteran teachers.

Gender Differences and Gender Bias

Males tend to outscore females on the following tests: visual-spatial ability, mathematical reasoning, college entrance.
Females tend to outscore males on the following tests: memory and language use.
The Mathematical acheivement differences between boys and girls was nonsignificant in most countries.
No one knows for sure why gender differences in cognition and achievement exist. There is hormonal differences, differences in brain structure, differences in cognitive processes, and socialization differences are all thought to play a role in it.
Duckworth and Seligman found that females demonstrated more self-discipline than males
You should be aware of the gender differences, but we should take steps to try to reduce them.
Gender Bias- responding differently to male and female students without having sound educational reasons for doing so.
Gender Bias can affect course selection, career choice, and class participation of male and female students
Loss of voice- students suppress true beliefs about various topics in the presence of parents, teachers, and classmates of opposite sex
P. 131 gives great examples of how to work toward gender equity in the classroom
There is not a real difference in which gender has access to computers, but what they use those computers for. Females use more for word processing and completing school assignments and males playing games.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your classroom p.133-135 GREAT EXAMPLES

Design lessons and test items that call for memory, analytical, creative, and practical abilities.
Design lessons that emphasize different intelligences
Recognize that different styles of learning call for different methods of instruction
Help students become aware of the existence of gender bias
Encourage girls to consider pursuing a career in science
Recognize that you will not be able to address the various abilities and cognitive styles of all of your students all of the time.

Comparison:

This chapter just insured what I already knew about learning styles. In every education class I have taken, the teachers always instruct us to think about these learning differences and make sure and take them into consideration when developing our lessons. Each lesson needs to have multiple learning styles incorporated into each one if possible. We will never be able to use all of them, but we can use some.

Discussion Boards:

This week's discussion boards were great ones to find new ideas for our teaching careers. I intend on going back through everyone's posts and saving all the different ideas. Everyone did such a great job developing lessons using multiple intelligences.

Blog:

Every week we learn more and more important ideas to help us to be better teachers in the future. I think continued education is a very important part of being a great teacher. We can never stop learning new ideas and new information. By keeping this blog we are able to place all those great ideas that we see, hear or read about in a safe place for future reference. I save everything from every education class and any other class that I think I might use in the future. One day I am going to go back through that stuff and add it to my blog so that it is all together. When we finish we might have enough information to write a book, who knows.

Question of the Week: We have looked at the different theorist, the age-level characteristics, and now student differences. Putting these concepts together, how is your "classroom" being built in your mind? Are you beginning to form an idea of how you might want it to look? What does it look like? What other information do you need before you start instructing?

Everytime I think I have an idea of what I want my classroom to be like, I find something else that I want to add. I do know that I want my classroom to be a fun but educational place for children. I want it to have different areas for children to work while I work with others individually. I want to be able to incorporate the different learning styles into these areas. My time with students is so limited that I have to be able to get the most out of a small amount of time. I like using things that allow children to get up and move around. Most of the children that I see are also students that have problems in school (behavior or educational) so they need something different. I want to be able to have a classroom that is very organized where the students know exactly where things are and what they are responsible for when they come in. I already incorporate student notebooks. When my students come in they are responsible for finding their notebook. These notebooks contain all the information about them (when they were last evaluated, when they are to be re-evaluated, what their disability is, and notes that I take during each session showing what we worked on). These notebooks give them something to bring them right in and get busy instead of wandering around the classroom. After I have been given their notebooks then we begin our activities for the day. These notebooks also give me something to show parents at conferences giving them information about their progress and what we have been doing. We save some worksheets and projects inside their notebooks too. I use this for all age levels because all children even 3 year olds know what their name looks like even if they can not read it. I try to also develop a theme for my classroom. Right now we are using "Charlotte's Web". All activities and projects revolve around this theme. I have also been reading this story to them throughout our sessions when time allows. At least by Christmas we will change themes to something else. I have been thinking about caterpillars and butterflies. (But who knows)

Age-Level Characteristics

2008-09-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Preschool and Kindergarten (3, 4, and 5 years)
Physical Characteristics:

Very active
Need frequent rest periods
Large muscles more developed than fingers and hands (may need assistance with buttons and tying shoes)
Eye hand coordination may be imperfect
Bones that protect the brain are still soft
The gender differences in physical development and motor skills are usually not noticeable

Social Characteristics:

Most have 1 or 2 best friends but they may change rapidly; preschoolers usually will play with most anyone, but they are usually of the same gender
They exhibit different types of play behavior which may vary from social class and gender
They are aware of gender roles and gender typing

Emotional Characteristics:

They tend to express their emotions freely and openly and anger outbursts are frequent
Jealousy among classmates is common

Cognitive Characteristics:

They begin to develop a theory of mind (being aware of the difference between thinking about something and experiencing that same thing and to predict the thoughts of others)
Kindergartens are quite skillful with language, especially in front of a group
They do not accurately assess their competence for particular tasks
Competence is encouraged by interaction, interest, opportunities, urging, limits, admiration, and signs of affection

Primary Grades (1, 2, and 3; six, seven, or eight years)

Physical Characteristics:

Extremely active and energy may be expressed in nervous habits
They need frequent rest periods
Large muscle control is still superior to fine coordination (boys may have trouble using a pencil)
Quite a few may be farsighted because of the shallow shape of the eye (have trouble focusing on small prints or objects)
May be extreme in their physical activities (accident rate is at a peak for 3rd grade)
Bone growth still not complete (can not stand heavy pressure)

Social Characteristics:

May be more selective in their choice of friendships
Often like more organized games in small groups (overly concerned with rules and team spirit)
Quarrels are frequent (words used more than physical aggression, but boys may indulge in punching and wrestling)

Emotional Characteristics:

Sensitive to criticism and ridicule and difficulty adjusting to failure
Eager to please teacher
Becoming sensitive to the feelings of others

Cognitive Characteristics:

They understand that there are different ways to know things and that some are better than others
Begin to understand that learning and recall are caused by particular cognitive processes that they can control
They still do not learn as efficiently as older children due to their neurological development still continuing to develop and their limited experiences
They may talk aloud to theirself

Elementary School (4th and 5th grade; 9 and 10 years)

Physical Characteristics:

Girls and boys both become leaner and stronger
Obesity can be a problem with some children
Gender differences in motor skill performance may be apparent
Physical development is relatively calm and predictable

Social Characteristics:

Peer groups become powerful and begin to replace adults as the source of behavior and recognition of achievement
Friendships are more selective and gender based

Emotional Characteristics:

They are developing a more global, integrated, and complex self-image (self-description, self-esteem, and self-concept)
Disruptive family relationships, social rejection, and school failure may lead to deliquent behavior

Cognitive Characteristics:

They can think logically but can be constrained and inconsistent
Simple memory skill tasks often are equal to adolescents and adults but complex tasks are much more limited

Middle School (6, 7, and 8th grades; 11, 12, and 13 years)

Physical Characteristics:

Physical growth is rapid and uneven (early-maturing boys may be more popular and have a more positive self-concept; late-maturing boys may have lower self-esteem; early-maturing girls may be taller and heavier, lower self-esteem and more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and panic attacks; late-maturing girls may look more like the stereotypical model and have positive self-esteem and popularity)
Puberty development is evident in most all girls and in many boys
Concern and curiosity about sex

Social Characteristics:

The development of interpersonal reasoning leads to greater understanding of the feelings of others
The desire to conform is highest at this age level

Emotional Characteristics:

The period of "storm and stress" can be an exaggeration at this age
They are typically self-conscious and self-centered

Cognitive Characteristics:

They need a classroom environment that is open, supportive and intellectually stimulating
Self-efficiacy is an important influence on intellectual and social behavior

High School (9, 10, 11, and 12th grades; 14, 15, 16, and 17 years)

Physical Characteristics:

They reach physical maturity and all attain puberty
They become sexually active
The birthrate for unmarried adolescents is still high as is the rate of STD's

Social Characteristics:

Parents and other adults influence long-range plans and peers influence immediate status
Girls seem to experience greater anxiety about friendships than boys
Many are employed after school

Emotional Characteristics:

Many psychiatric disorders either appear or become prominent (eating disorders, substance abuse, schizophrenia, depression, and suicide)
The most common emotional disorder is depression
If depression becomes severe, suicide may be contemplated

Congitive Characteristics:

They are more capable of engaging in formal thought, but they may not always use it
Between 12 and 16 political thought becomes more abstract, liberal and knowledgeable

Technology

Kidlink (www.kidlink.org): a nonprofit organization that helps teachers and students arrange electronic exchanges with students from around the world
Adventure learning: a program that allows students to interact electronically with experts and explorers around the world (virtual field trips) (Ex: Global Online Adventure Learning Site www.goals.com/index.htm and ThinkQuest's Ocean AdVENTure site http://library.thinkquest.org/18828 )

Experiences:

I work with all age level students from 3 to 18 so I see each of these age-level characteristics quite often. I think it is important to know what your students are like and what they are going through when trying to teach them. By knowing each of these characteristics we can find more things to do with them that fit them individually. Every child learns at a different rate and matures at a different rate so we need to be aware of this when working with them. After reading this I will be able to think about these characteristics in a little different way when finding activities and assignments for my students.

Discussion Boards:

There were so many different ideas for using technology in the different age-level classrooms that I have decided that I will go back and right down the ones that I like the most and add them to this blog latter. I also found many different handbooks that were really informative. I want to do the same with them. At the school that I work at the only handbook is the one that is put out by the school as a whole (1 for elementary and 1 for high school). I think it would be great to come up with a handbook for the parents of the children that I serve that has a lot of information that they could use. I also want to have a section for the children that is written at their level. It may not be as age specific but it will have things in it that are specific for my area.

Weekly Question: (Based on the grade level that you will be teaching, how do the age-level characteristics for you age group help you to better understand your grade level? Knowing the age-level characteristics and the theories that we learned in chapter 2, how do you think this will help you become a better teacher?)

I work with such a variety of ages that it will give me a better idea of activities and assignments that I would use for each of my groups. These characteristics help me to understand what each age-level is capable of doing if gone about it in the right way. The theories will help me to find that right way of teaching each of them. Teaching is building on our knowledge and experiences and does not happen all at once it takes time to develop and mold into what we really want and need.

Theorists and their views

2008-09-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Summary: Chapter 2 tells us about many different theorists and their studies of psychosocial and cognitive development in people. Each one had different views and each over the years has been critisized by other individuals.

Erikson-Psychosocial Development: A). our personality development occurs from succussfull resolution of psychosocial crises B) and the personality of an individual forms as the ego progresses through a series of interrelated stages (8 stages of psychosocial development) C). He felt that crises occur when people feel compelled to adjust to the normal guidelines and expectations that society has for them but not altogether certain that they are prepared to carry out these demands completely. D). he did not believe in competition for a limited number of awards (grading on a curve) he felt that grades should be based on realistic and attainable standards that are decided on ahead of time and told to the students
Piaget- Cognitive Development: A) Humans inherit 2 basic tendencies: organization (the tendency to systematize and combine processes into coherent general systems) and adaptation (the tendency to adjust to the environment) B). children develop schemes or organized patterns of behavior or thought C). People organize schemes in order to achieve the best possible adaptation to their environment, equilibration D). Piaget felt that there were 4 stages to cognitive development E). He felt that peer interactions do more to spur cognitive development than do interactions with adults because children are more likely to discuss, analyze and debate their views with other children F). Some did feel that cultural differences may vary the rate at which children develop each of the 4 stages
Vygotsky- Cognitive Development: A) How we think is a function of both social and cultural forces B). Parents and schools shape children's thought processes to reflect that which the culture values. C), Psychological tools are the most important thing that is passed down through a culture because they are the cognitive devices and procedures used to communicate and explore the world around us. (Ex. speech, writing, diagrams, numbers, chemical formulas, rules, musical notations, and memory techniques) D). Children gain more from those that are more intellectually advanced E). Teachers should teach children how to use the psychological tools that they have been given F). Zone of proximal development (the difference of what a child can do on his own and what they can do with some assistance): a student with a wider zone is more likely to experience greater cognitive development when instruction is given just about the lower limit of their ZPD than will students with narrower zones because the former are in a better position to gain from the instruction G). Scaffolding (helping students answer difficult questions or solve problems by giving them hints or asking leading questions) helps students to acquire knowledge and skills they would not have learned on their own because as they learn the information the learning aids are slowly faded and then removed. (Ex. prompts, suggestions, checklists, modeling, rewards, feedback, cognitive structuring [labels, rules, categories], and questioning) H). Mark Tappan proposed a 4 component model that teachers can use to optimize the effects of scaffolding and students move through their ZPD: 1). model desired academic behavior 2). create a dialogue with the students (exchange of questions, explanations, and feedback between teacher and student) 3). practice 4). confirmation (focusing on what they can do with some assistance which creates a trusting and mutually supportive relationship between teacher and student)
Using technology to promotes cognitive development- due to distance, time, and cost we are kept from wider-ranging interactions and technology can greatly reduce these limitations and expand our range of experiences
Piaget on Moral Development: A). age changes in interpretation of rules (as a child grows older their ideas of rules begin to mature)
Kohlberg's Description of Moral Development: A). Moral reasoning proceeds through 6 fixed stages and moral development can be accelerated through instruction
Gilligan's View of identity and moral development: A). Erikson's and Kohlberg's views describe more of what occurs with adolescent males than with adolescent females B) females care more about caring and understanding and less about seperation and independence C). females use a caring orientation to a slightly higher degree than the justice orientation

Comparisons:

I feel that by using parts of each of their ideas an individual could profit more than if they tried to just choose one theory. So is so many important parts from each of them. As I think back, some of my best teachers had characteristics of each of these. Like a teacher that use peer tutoring but those students also learn for their teacher who is more intellectually advanced than they are.

Discussion board:

I really enjoyed the post about the Maria Montessori because I had heard of those schools but did not know where they originated from. That post gave me information to further research on. I also just enjoy reading everyone's views of why they chose what they did. I had a hard time making a choice for the theorist that I felt matched me more and it was good to see that I was not the only one. When reading the posts we all have the same goals in mind but we have different ideas of how to reach those goals which makes us unique individuals.

Blog importance:

Throughout this chapter I found a lot of good ideas and unique information that I want to remember for later use. Instead of writing down everything that I liked I decided to just record a brief idea and the page number so that I can go back to it in the future.

Applying Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development p.33-34 A). play down comparisons and encourage cooperation and self-competition B). American school system has been described as a place where individual differences are either ignored or discouraged and negative feedback outweighs positive feedback C). promoting students to work toward short-term goals especially in the classroom
Science instruction programs called CASE p.42
Children who are in the process of developing the schemes for the next stage can be helped to gain those schemes faster through good-quality instruction. (teachers can teach the principles of conservation by using simple explanations and concrete materials and allowing children to manipulate the materials) p.42
An increase in formal operational thinking among 13 to 15 year olds may be due to teaching practices (creating tables to display information and using tree diagrams to clarify grammatical structure) p.43
Applying Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development p.44-46: A). focus on what a child can do at each stage instead of what they can not B). because of differing rates of intellectual growth, gear instruction materials and activities to each student's developmental level C). new concepts new to provoke interest and curiosity and be moderately challenging in order to maximize assimilation and accomodation D). Lesson plans should include opportunities for activity, manipulation, exploration, discussion, and application of information (Ex. small group science projects) E). Begin lessons with concrete objects or ideas and gradually shift explanations to a more abstract or general level F). Arrange situations to permit social interaction so that children can learn from one another
Technology applied to Piaget p.52-53: A). Geometer's Sketchpad B). Conservation of Area and Its Measurement (C.AR.M.E) C). Probability Explorer D). microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL)
Technology Applied to Vygotsky p.53-54: A).Reading Partner and Writing Partner software tools B). Telementor Program

Question of the Week: Looking at Erikson, Piaget, Kohler, Vygotsky, and Gilligan, which theorist associates most with the grade level you will be teaching and how? Please tell what level you will be teach along with what subject. Also, let me know how you believe the theory could be applied to the use of technology at your grade level.

When I first did my post for the discussion board I felt that you wanted a specific one and after your response I decided that I would rather for this blog take a more overall view. I do not want to choose just one theorist because I feel that I want to use information from each of them. I will be teaching Speech Language Pathology which covers preschool through grade 12. I also want to get my training for Special Services Coordinator which also covers the same age level. Because of this wide variety of age levels, I also feel that is another reason to use a more collaborative approach. I like Vygotsky's idea of that the more intellectually advanced help students, zone of proximal development and scaffolding and theoretical learning. I also like Piaget's idea of students learning through peer interaction, the 4 stages of development and what they each involve, and the idea of organization and adaptation. Erikson's views of motivating children instead of making them feel quilty or unsuccessful. His view of personality development through the resolution of crises is also important to me. I feel that by using parts of each that I can become a much better teacher and role model for my children. Technology can be used for any of these theorists. Piaget uses technology for displaying knowledge, fixing misconceptions and errors in thinking, and a source for same-age peers to debate issues such as Geometer's Sketchpad, Probability Explorer and chat rooms designed for same age peers that are watched by adults. Vygotsky uses technology as a tool to link learners to more knowledgeable peers and experts, and an expert peer or collaborative partner to support skills and strategies. (Ex. using a computer as a tutor for reading, writing, or mathematical tasks; using technology to research information)

Reflection: Why it is important?

2008-08-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1 helped me to get a better understanding of exactly what educational psychology is and what it does for education. So much research is done using educational psychology everyday that we never think about where these ideas really came from and that they have been scientifically proven. One example from the book was brought up in the discussion board, "peer tutoring". This is a strategy that I really believe works if used properly. I also learned more about National Board Certification. We just recently had 2 teachers from our school to become Nationally certified but I really did not know what they involved until reading "Case in Print". It gave me a much more indepth knowledge about what it is and what it takes to reach that goal. It was also nice to read how many teachers nationwide have earned this level of education. Fads in education really concern me because we as teachers want to do our best but we must be careful of these fads.
I have a tendency when I journal to kind of jump around with my thoughts so I hope by doing it this way I can do a better job. Reflection and journaling is a way that I can write down the things that I feel are important to becoming a better teacher later. Everyday I read something or hear some idea that I really like but I have so much going on in my life that if I do not write it down I will never remember it later. This will be a way that I can save those ideas for future use. If I run across a lesson that I just really love I can put it in my journal to use later. I can also use this as a way to reflect on lessons that I have taught to determine if they were effective or not. We all live in such a busy society now days that we forget to "pause and reflect" on what we have done.