Learning Log #10

What?
In chapter 10 I learned about social cognitive views of learning, which was kind of the other side of behaviorists view of learning that we learned the week prior. This chapter focuses a lot on goal setting, both personal and group goals that can be achieved short-term and long-term. Through the Social Cognitive Theory it is all based on children or people learning by observing others, that is also known as a model. Students learn from their teacher's explanations and demonstrations. This view teaches that students learn from observing others, learning is internal process that can or may not always affect behavior, people and the environment have a big influence on each other. Social cognitive views on reinforcement and punishment is interesting, which it says learners attend to look ahead of time at expectations an behave according to what those consequences will be. Learners also attend to act according to what happened to other people's consequences, learners also make decisions according to their own abilities and do what they can to be successful. They cognitively assess expectations about the future and the consequences to process that information for different situations. Learners attend to demonstrate their new behaviors more often if there is some sort of reinforcement involved. There are also needs to be an occurring expected consequence in order to have a reinforcing or punishing effect.

So What?
I will use this information to help me better understand my students learning process, and help me better understand them in general. It has helped me to remember to be aware of the fact that my students will watch me, observe and look at me as a model in showing to do what is right. It at times may put a lot of pressure, but it will keep me on my toes, and prepared. This chapter is important because it explains why social interactions and work is so important, which helped me to see the effects socialization has on people. It is important for me as a teacher to use and allow my students to use a lot of social skills through out the day. to help enhance their learning and memory process. It is also important for me to give correct instruction because it plays a big role in their learning process.

Now What?
I will use this information to make sure at all times I am being a good model for my students, and demonstrate appropriate and correct instructions. I now have the knowledge to help my students learn from models and how it affects their behavior. I will use the model to monitor the behavior of my students, and assess them through out the year. It will help be reinforce the correct behavior and they may also stop a forbidden behavior. As a teacher I have learned I can also help enhance my student's self-efficacy. I will try my hardest to make sure each and every one of my students has good judgment of themselves because self-efficacy effects so much. I will also help my students along the way by giving them encouraging advice, and let them know it can be done. Teachers need to allow students to see successful peer models, and also allow them to work in groups, which helps stimulate social cognitive development. I will use this information is chapter to be a good example at all times for my sake and also for the sake of my students.

Learning Log #2

What? In this chapter we learned about Cognitive and Linguistic Development, which was very interesting and dealt a lot with language and the development and understanding within cognitive aspect. We became familiar with the neuron, and it's different parts and how they all worked together to transfer information to other cells. It was also very interesting to learn about Piaget's and his theory. Piaget's assumptions consisted of children are active and motivated learners, children construct knowledge from their experiences (constructivism), children learn through he two complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation, interactions with one's physical and social environments are essential for cognitive development, the process of equilibration promotes progression toward increasingly complex thought, and maturational changes in the brain, children think in qualitatively different ways at different ages. Piaget also has his stages of cognitive development, so it's interesting to try to figure out which stage our student are in. There is the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operations stage, and formal operations stage. All these stages together make up the theory of Piaget and the cognitive development people go through. In this chapter we also focused on the theory of Vygotsky, which did a lot of scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which is the range of tasks that a learner can perform with the help and guidance of others but cannot yet perform independently. Vygotsky's assumptions were through both informal and formal conversations, adults convey to children the ways in which their culture interprets and responds to the world, every culture passes along physical and cognitive tools that make daily living more productive and efficient, thought and language become increasingly interdependent in the first few years of life, complex mental processes begin as social activities; as children develop, they gradually internalize processes they use in social contexts and begin to use them independently, children can perform more challenging tasks when they have assistance, play allows children to stretch themselves cognitively. So What? This information is important because Piaget and Vygotsky play a big part in cognitive development, that we as teachers need to be aware of. It can be very effective for our teaching and also for our students learning ability. It can help us better understand our students, and realize their stage of development. It is also important for us as teachers to be aware of linguistics and be an example for our students in helping our students speak correctly. It is good to know and always remember there is a great deal of diversity among children when cognitive and linguistic development is involved, but it's important to create help and accommodate those in need. Now What? As a teacher I will use this information and apply these different theories by Piaget and Vygotsky to my students to help them with their cognitive development and linguistic development. It helped me to be aware and to also remember to consistently promote good linguistic skills, by being a good example and always show the proper way of speaking and having conversations, especially when speaking to them personally. I will also allow my students to talk amoungst each ohter, critique them in the correct way to also help them through out the year have a better understanding. As a teacher I will also always take into consideration the different ways all the students need to develop and grow, it effects their learning and it's up to me to be patient and know who to teach each and every student individually. This chapter has also helped me to understand that each and every student and each and every class will have different kinds of learnes, and different development stages, which is something I must be prepared for and always take into consideration.

Learning Log #7

What?
In this chapter I was able to learn a lot about the construction of knowledge and how it has came to be. There are so many interesting concepts that I had never thought of before, that the text brought up. It is common for both teacher and students to have conceptual change, especially those dealing with specific beliefs that have been taught to them for so long. As teachers we will deal with students with a confirmation bias, because it's how students learn and remember things. Every day experiences may also effect their misconceptions, and don't comprehend how new concepts don't match their beliefs. Emotions play a big role in knowledge, and children attend to have strong emotional connections to their beliefs, which is very hard to get rid of or change. As teachers this may be a challenge but there are ways we can get around them. We first of all need to become aware of these misconceptions, we can then begin slowly teaching the truth and slowly build upon those upon them. This will allow students to learn the correct ways and help us teacher monitor what the students are writing and saying in group and class discussions.
This chapter also emphasizes the organization of knowledge, which is so important for children to start learning early. Teaching generalizations, which can be divided into two different categories undergeneralize and overgeneralize a concept can help the students in their learning abilities. Students may also find the nature in concepts, or construct a mental prototype. Teaching the students to also use exemplars is also another great way to organize their knowledge and information, people have so many capabilities it's just a matter of putting them to work.

So What?
This information is so important for me as a teacher, so I can know how to help my students better organize their knowledge that I give to them. I want to help them be better learners, and understand the information I give to them. I feel like I can be a better teacher because of this information because it has given me some backward knowledge on knowledge construction and different teaching techniques about conceptual knowledge and learning. It has also given me a greater understanding on conceptual understanding to use in the classroom to help provide building blocks for my students learning and knowledge. This chapter also has given me some great ideas on getting my students involved in distributed cognition and how they will benefit.

Now What?
I will use this information that was provided in this chapter to help students better understand how important the things being taught or the assignments given are. It will also be great for my students to have the opportunity to teach find what kind of learner they are and see what works best for them. I want to make sure I fully understand all the different ways of constructing and understanding information, so I can better help each and every one of my students in their knowledge organization. I also would like to know ways for me as a teacher to know that my students are actually mentally organizing things they learn. I will help my students accurately understand what is being taught in my classroom. I will first organize my lesson plans around the core while incorporating different learning and teaching techniques. I will also make sure they understand each topic maybe by relating it to the students' personal experiences, cause like I said before it's a connection to the emotion. I will also use this information I learned in this chapter to help me better organize my conceptual thoughts and teaching strategies.

Mix up on chapter 7 and 9, I will post 7 asap. Sorry!
Learning Log #9 is under Investigation Math

Investigation Math

*What is Investigation Math?
Investigation math is a K-5 curriculum to help students better understand fundamental ideas of number and operations, geometry, data, measurement and early algebra. It eliminates teaching times tables to students and all memorization of math facts. It was aimed to help improve the teaching and learning of elementary mathematics.

*Results of its use in Alpine School District?
By the Alpine School District using Investigation Math, there was a petition signed by 1173 parents, 3122 children represented, and 740 moved toward charter/private schools just within the Alpine School District. It began lowering students test scores tremendously to the point of failure. It wasn't emphasizing enough of the basics, and is allowing the elementary schools to choose which program to use. The district hasn't stopped hearing complaints, and got a lot of wrath from parents.

*Arguments for and against its use?
The Investigation Math didn't provide enough emphasis to memorizing multiplication tables and learning long division. People felt it didn't prepare their children for college or life. Tremendous gaps in the first grade curriculum for the first year or two, there is a lot of time spent cutting and organizing, requires a lot of prep time, not enough practice time in learning math strategies with worksheets.

The students were able to explore and learn mathematical concepts through actual investigations. The games and activities are child oriented and fun , the games/activities build upon some first grade concepts, and it has a math workshop model built into it.

*My opinion?
It is a very flexible mathematics programs, which needs more structure and not so much investigation freedom. I think children need to know and memorize the necessary basics of mathematics. It is great for students to be creative, but there are other ways of incorporating that into the math subjects or using creativity for other curriculum. Having the students create their own problem-solving problems may seem a bit vague, and I don't know how much it would really help the students learn the necessary curriculum. I think it was a great idea for the Alpine School District to allow the elementary schools to pick, because if the parents and students aren't happy then no one learns. I feel as though the traditional way of teaching mathematics is the best and most affective way for students, and it's the way I would prefer.

Leaning Log #9

What?
In this chapter it discusses many behavioral concerns, reinforcers, and assumptions. Behavior has a lot to do with learning, and the ability the student has to progress. When an emotion is involved with learning it seems to last a lot longer, and really have an effect on the student. Whenever dealing with behavior it always seems as though there needs to be some sort of reinforcement, whether it's positive or negative. We must always remember as teachers we use the correct form of discipline at the right time for the right student. It was interesting to learn of the different ways to reinforce a child's behavior for the different age groups. There are also many ways as teachers that we can decrease bad behavior in the classroom and hopefully have it stick with them as they continue to grow. There are many ways we can apply behaviorists principles in our discipline and instruction as long as it's used correctly. They believe also behavior is a big part of their experiences, learning takes place with associations, when there are behavior changes lean ring takes place, when responses and stimuli work together learning also occurs, and and people learn in similar ways.

So What?
These different things discussed in this chapter are good for me to know, to help me know and understand the proper way to teach and have that learning connections with my students. It's also very good to know and to learn to have a better understanding of reinforcements, when they are necessary, how to use them, different ways to use them and to use positive reinforcements whenever possible. Having these correct tools will make such a difference in our teaching, and classroom atmosphere. As a soon to be teacher it's important to start practicing and know now the different behavioral assumptions, and the correct way to discipline. As teachers we must also know ways and the importance of correct ways to help eliminate undesirable behaviors, and enforce the good ones.

Now What?

I will use this information to help me better discipline my students and their positive and negative behaviors. There are many tips and great points that behaviorists gave through out this chapter, but the most important thing is not the hypotheses or study but the students, and I will use this information to better accommodate each and every student. I will also use this information to eliminate bad behavior that I don't feel is necessary in my classroom, but still keep a good positive relationship with my students. I also have the ability to make learning an opportunity to grow and actually use our emotions to gain knowledge and remember the information give to them. I will have the opportunity to help stimulate my students learning, and want to continue to learn.