Class 10 refelection

I am proud to say that I have finished all the courses required for my transitional license.  It has been a long and arduous process but not one without merit.  I have taken a class geared toward teaching mathematics specifically, one that focused on in grating technology into the classroom and one that focused on special ed students.  After all this I can unequivocally say that Educational Psychology 401 has been the most difficult, painful and worthwhile one of them all.  There is no other class that covers the range of material that EdPsych 401 does.  Below, I will highlight some of my main takeaways from the class.

I really enjoyed the video by Ken Robinson.  He gave me new insight into the importance of allowing for creativity in the classroom. My blog post c6 concerns this and highlights many reasons why this is the case, especially in math and science. 

I was familiar with behaviorism before I entered this class but I was not familiar with the other learning theories. All of the theories have their strong points and learning about all of them can only help an aspiring teacher.  However,  I was particularly drawn to cognitive theory because I believe it gives the best account for how an individual learns complex things such as chess and mathematical equations.  It thinks of the human mind as an immensely powerful, but flawed, computer.  My CSEL paper is on this topic and is contains many useful ideas to help students learn.

Other points that I will remember are: Cattell's fluid vs. crystallized intelligence for its wonderful conception of expertise at chess, Piaget's cognitive stages and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development.  This class has also made me think deeper about how to motivate students and about the correct type of assessments to give.  It also made aware of how some of my students feel when I load them down with work!  Of all the classes I have been required take, this one was easily the most comprehensive, and while that might have been frustrating at times, I believe that everyone in the class left as a better teacher than they began.  

Class 9 reflection

What I have chosen to do for this post is to make a handy list of ways to keep yourself safe as a teacher.  All to often, teachers find themselves in compromising situations with students.  Quite often this is because the teacher initiated the situation.  However, good, well intentioned teachers can find themselves in scenarios they never envisioned or facing false student accusations.  In my two years teaching I have been placed into uncomfortable situations by students on several occasions.  Fortunately, these situations were very benign and nothing ever happened. And even though I felt blameless in these situations I couldn't help but think I should have taken steps to mitigate the risk of such situations.

This is especially important for young teachers to remember.  Many education graduates end up teaching high school and are only a few years older than their students.  In my personal experience, and many others I have talked to, this can be an awkward situation.  When high school students have a young teacher they much more likely to ask that teacher personal questions.  These may include: Questions about alcohol and drug use or statements such as, "Do you have a boy/girlfriend," "Do you like to party." Many of these questions maybe simple curiously on the part of the students, or they maybe trying to gain insight into a part of their lives that they will soon be leading.  In any case, if these questions are humored by the teacher they serve to undermine his/her authority and increase the likelihood of and awkward situation occurring. Below is a list of some suggestions to insulate yourself from this.

1. Never answer questions about your personal life other than simple facts. (Where you grew up, etc.)

2. Never find a student on Facebook or any other social media device.

3. Avoid being alone in a room with a student if possible.  If this situation does occur, which it probably will at some point, leave the door open.

4. Set boundaries and make sure that your desk and your personal possessions in the room are off limits to students.

5. Don't play favorites.

6. This is the biggest one.  Instill a constructive, respectful environment in your classroom. If the students do not respect eachother's personal space, it is less likely that they will respect yours.  Also, establishing yourself as a serious educator will make students less likely to ask you those personal questions.

Fluid and cystalized intellegence c7

I found Cattell's theory of fluid vs. crystallized intelligence to be very interesting.  Fluid intelligence is the ability to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge.   It is the ability to find patterns and relationships that problems revolve around and then use logic to solve those problems.  This is especially helpful in math and science.  Crystallized intelligence is the ability to use skills knowledge and experience.  A person’s vocabulary and knowledge of mathematical concepts is contained in this form.  While this theory has great application to the field of mathematics, the class I teach were it holds the most pull is chess.

Chess, for hundreds of years, has been considered the ultimate game of strategy in dozens of cultures.  Why has this game been so pervasive and why has an ability to excel at it been considered synonymous with intelligence, even by those who do not play the game?  The answer is simple.  There is no other game that requires so heavily, and so equally, fluid and crystallized intelligence.  The fluid intelligence comes into play because there are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the universe.  That being the case, a chess player is likely to be in a novel situation in almost every game he plays.  He must be able to recognize patterns and combinations and find creative solutions to the problems that face him. But what helps him recognize those patterns?  At natural ability to do so helps, but the clear answer is crystallized intelligence!  Even though a position in a particular chess may be completely novel, a player may recognize similarities in this novel position and between other positions he has been in before.  This knowledge of chess principles and patterns helps him use his fluid intelligence to get the upper hand on the opponent.

Chess is a wonderful game revered the world over for its cognitive challenges and Cattell has helped to show us why.

Piaget and Vygotsky c8

I have been thoroughly introduced to the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in Educational Psychology classes before. even though I believe there are some flaws and oversights by both men, I think their theories are worth noting and worth studying.

I particularly like Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Perhaps the ages of the stages are a bit off and perhaps they are not as universal as he thought but they do give us a good guideline. Teachers and parents alike can use these stages to help children advance more rapidly and completely.

Vygotsky, like Piaget, but to an even greater degree, placed an emphasis on play.  As someone who was once a child myslef, I find this to be an astute observation.  I often worry about the youth of the 21st century. Kids are encouraged to play...video games.  However, they are not put into situations where they must entertain themselves with mud or a tree or a ball, at least not as much.  I wonder what will happen to the future adults of this age who have had all the entertainment created for them. Will they be able to innovate? Will they be able to exist without constant support? These are questions that remain to be seen and questions that will continue plague me. 

I also enjoy Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) It states that were learning occurs is in the middle.  What I mean by that is that if a task is too easy, learning does not occur.  Also, if a task is simply impossible, then no learning occurs either.  It is in those middle difficulty tasks were learning occurs.  I have found this to be true of myself and of my students and it is something that I will keep in mind during my future teaching experiences and during my praxis exam.

Creativity c6

I found Audrey and Georganna's presentation on Creativity to be especially interesting.  The part that I remember most clearly, and the one I thought had the greatest application to my teaching, is the distinction between convergent and divergent thinking.  According to a study that I heard about from Ken Robinson, a noted expert on education, 98% of kindergarteners are geniuses in divergent thinking.  This makes perfect sense because even a very simple, mundane object to an adult can provide hours of fun for a small child.  They tested the children as they got older and with each passing year their divergent thinking scores decreased.  Part of this may have simply been the process of growing up but the convergent thinking that is so heavily emphasized in schools is certainly a culprit as well.  After years and years of being told there is only one right answer no wonder divergent thinking, and as a result creativity in general, tend to fade with age. 

All this is especially troubling for me as a math teacher.  Math above all other subjects, at least it is commonly believed, has only one right answer.  While this might be true with regard to the more elementary aspects of math, the real-life math that helps us understand and manipulate the world around us isn't a multiple choice test.  It is a world filled with billions of problems and possibilities and a human race in desperate need of creative mathematicians, physicists and philosophers to solve them. The question remains, how can we teach technical subjects like math without destroying divergent thinking?

The best I have figured out is to put students in real world situations as often as possible in order to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it in real life.  It is important that these situations not be contrived or gimmicky, but rather situations that students may actually face and ones where maybe even the teacher is not in full  possession of the solution. 

Creativity is not exclusive to art or music. It is an essential need for us a species and it is our job as educators to facilitate it whenever possible.

Cognitive Theory c5

Cognitive Theory

So far cognitive Theory is by far my favorite approach to learning.  Behaviorism and Social Learning Theories have their perks, but both are far too simplistic to really explain how a human being learns.

One of the main attributes of Cognitive Theory is that it gives detailed description of memory.  The theory breaks memory down into two basic parts.  1. Memory Storage  2. Memory Retrieval.  Both are important for learning.  In order for memory storage to occur several things must happen.  The subject must be aware of a stimulus, perceive the information and interact with it in some way.  This theory explains why so few of our experiences make it into our long-term memory.  We simply do not give enough attention to them.  It also explains why people learn in different ways.  The key point is that you must interact with the information in some way.  Interaction does not simply mean picking up the information and playing with it.  It means that the information has to have an affect on you.  What affects different people, and to what degree, is highly individualized.  This is why different people are classified as audio or visual or kinestetic learners.  A sound may have a lasting impact on one person and be completely innocuous to another.

The are many interesting facets to long-term memory retrival but I will highlight the most interesting, namely, interference.  Interference is believed to be the most common reason for forgetting and there are two main types.  1. Proactive interference occurs when old information blocks the retrieval of new information.  For example, your address may have recently changed and you keep putting your old address on forms.  2. Retroactive interference occurs when new information blocks the retrieval of old information.

As you can see, Cognitive Theory, at least in my opinion, gives a much more robust explanation of the phenomenon of human learning.

Theories of Learning c4

 Theories of Learning

Behaviorism

 Behaviorism is an interesting philosophical and psychological theory that I had never really applied to
 teaching or learning.  In fact, I still don't know how it applies.  It obvious can be very effective for teaching
and learning specific rudimentary behaviors but I don't know how it applies to more complex activities.  How can a knowledge of behaviorism help me teach a student math problems or chess or physics?  Perhaps there is something I'm not thinking of, but until I am shown other evidence I remain skeptical.

On the other hand, behaviorism can help a teacher with classroom management.  However, I don't know if this is way to go about it.  Using classical conditioning seems like training robots and even operant conditioning doesn't seem much better.

I do think that a large majority of the claims made by behaviorists are correct.  I also think they have provided a very simple but insightful way to view human behavior.  The reason I don't think behaviorism will be my paper topic is because of its limited scope.

Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) is interesting because it incorporates learning from others.  The bobo doll experiment showed this. However, the theory didn't seem to say anything interesting.  Perhaps this is because the theory is so ingrained into the social consciousness, but it all seemed like common sense to me.  People, especially small children, imitate.  People who grow up in violent surroundings are more likely to be violent, and vice versa.  While I think this is a beautiful view of humanity, namely that we are not violent or selfish by birth but rather trained to be that way, It doesn't say anything interesting.  At least not to me.