Final Blog Posting

1. This is tough for me because I think that everyone learns in all the ways that we have studied. I believe that we construct knowledge through prior experiences and through discovery learning (constructivism). There is no denying that the chemical make-up of our brain can effect how we learn and what we retain (cognitivism). We have learned through studies and observations that we can change people's behavior through conditioning (behaviorism), and finally we know that the environment around us effects our choices and how we act (social cognitivism). However, if I were to identify one theory that I most closely support, it would be social cognitivism because it is kind of a conglamorate of all the theories...to a certain degree. I think another reason that I like it is that it provides an easy way to manage a classroom effectively through observational learning.
2. This will impact the way that I run my classroom because it will challenge me to really observe who is on task and then affirming that action. It will also be a challange to make sure that I am not giving the attention to the same people all the time. That all are getting the reinforcement that they need to raise their self-efficacy. I also think that the principle of reciprical causation will be vital to the classroom set up. If environment, behavior and personal variables all effect eachother, if one is out of control, it will effect the balance of the whole classroom.
3. The next step for me would be really looking into how I can control these variables (environment, behavior, and personal variables). What can I do to control classroom behavior and make sure that all are working together and that management does not get out of control? How can I create a learning environment where all feel safe and are encouraged to participate? How can I help shape the values, beliefs and emotions of my students? Really, you need to study all the aspects of psychology to accomplish all these goals, but I think if I can help my students in these areas, that learning will occur.

Social Cognitivism

1. Today we learned about social cognitivism which is basically a mix of behaviorism and cognitavism. The basic idea is that we observe the actions of others around us constantly and we learn and reflect from the behaviors of others. Based on the performances of others, we will create our self-efficacy.
2. This means that we have to be very careful as teachers what we are modeling to out students. Like someone in our class said, a teacher had a student with special needs in his class and he would kind of chuckle at the students responses sometimes because he didn't know how to act and it was a way to kind of shrug off the ridiculousness. Eventually, his students started to laugh at this student as well. We have to model good behavior and use vicarious learning to help student learn behaviors from each other.
3. I think the influence that we have on children is greater than we think. We need to keep in mind that they are constant observers. They see a lot more of what we do than we want them to so we have to keep in mind what we are modeling for them. We also have to help students learn how to self regulate and help them boost their self efficacy. These are all contributing factors to student behavior and their performance and achievement.

Behaviorism

1. Today we talked about behaviorism in the classroom. This theory helps us understand how we can help students to behave appropriately. This theory says that we can condition students through two different ways: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is a way that we can create a conditioned response from a conditioned stimuli. In Operant conditioning, we give reinforcers for a certain behavior to encourage a desired behavior.
2. With this knowledge we can not only help our students behave in a way that we need them to in a school environment, but we can understand why students behave way they do. We can look for conditioned responses and why they have connected to certain conditioned stimuli. If we understand that, we can help make that conditioned response disappear through extinction.
3. This is a principle that can be applied in our classroom. In many classes they use a token economy to encourage participation in the classroom. After reading this chapter however, I don't know how much I agree with it. Yes, it does help students to participate, but it does not help with students intrinsic motivation. I think it can be used because that is the stage of moral development that these children are in, but it should be used as little as possible.

Constructivism

1. Today we talked about constructivism which is the theory that children learn best when they construct their own answers. By using prior knowledge and discovery activities, children are introduced to an idea or concept and through exploration will define and discover what that concept really means.
2. This is a highly debated topic because sometimes students do not construct correct principles. When they are let free to discover, they will often have reconstruction errors or create misconceptions. There is also the argument that in subjects like math that if they do not "discover" correctly, then in higher math when the come across equations they will not understand how to use them.
3. I think that with everything else, constructivism should be used along with other things. It's like saying that carrots are good for you so all you should eat are carrots. We all know what happens when we eat to many carrots. Therefore, constructivism should be used as one method of teaching, but not the only method.

New Study Strategy

The study habit I committed to try this week was to make meaningful connections with the material. That is one thing that I could definitely do better because everything we are learning is for our benefit. If we are not constantly thinking "how can I use this in my classroom?" then it is useless for us to be in the class. I think that sometimes as students we just get into the habit of learning the material to get through the test. Especially now in higher education, when were are studying things for our specific profession we need to connect with the material and apply it to ourselves.
That is why I chose this strategy to try this week. I am going to be honest, I forgot that I had made that commitment until just now when I was looking up our blog topic, but I am glad I did so I can use that technique in my studies for the rest of the weekend.

Jill Stamm

1. Jill Stamm is a Professor at ASU who has been doing research on the nurture side of brain development. She has written a series of books about the importance of people contact with babies. She says that T.V. and all the programs like "Little Einsteins" are not as important as time with your child.
2. This will bring parents back to the fundamentals of child raising. Like Dr. Stamm said, that the things like eye contact and attention are vital to young infants. In her words, she said "babies don't need things, they need people." We have to remember that we can not ignore our children and expect that a television will make up for the attention that we are not giving them.
3. This is especially important for teachers to understand. That we can not expect that our students will receive the learning and attention they need from reading a text book or watching a video. They need personal interaction from the teacher. They need to feel cared for and loved in order for their brain to develop and retain what they learn in the classroom.

Emotional Development and Cognitive Psychology

1. Today we talked about the importance of emotional development and began to discuss the complexities of the brain. We talked about specific areas of the brain and how information is stored and transmitted and some of the basic assumptions that we make about cognitivism like that we are selective about what they process and the importance of prior knowledge and beliefs.
2. I feel like the more we learn about the brain the more we are able to utilize our own capacities. I also think it is helping us understand how to repair brain damage. We discussed a lot about how people have recovered from severe brain damage and how the brain has adapted. The more we know, the more we are able to help.
3. It is so fascinating how much we are learning and how much there still is to learn about the brain! It is effecting the way that we teach and the way that we helping children remember information and develop in every area. It will be important to stay current on research on the brain because you never know what scientists will discover next!