Is Constructivist practice happening in the classroom?

Field work # 10

Observe your FW classroom (or give examples from the previous visits) and determine what elements/principles of constructivist practice you would see.

Jot down your observations and reflect on the findings in your blogs.

A specific example of constructivist practice observed in the classroom during my fieldwork would be when I observed the students doing research on a project.  Each student was assigned a country to report on. They could gain information by any means that they had available to them.  Some decided to use the computer to find out information about a their assigned country.  While others used magazines and books.  Some focused on foods and clothing in their country.  Some decided to do a collage to report on their country while others  choose to do a paper sharing what they learned.  Allowing the students different ways to express their findings is an example of a constructivist practice.   

What helps you remember?

Field work # 9

Interview your teacher and students:

·         Ask both your teacher and students, what helps them remember the concepts, new material.

·         In what subject students quickly remember the material and why.  The teacher explained rereading the information and taking notes helps to grasp concepts of new material.  This method is good for history.  When attempting to learn new concepts with Math or Science it is best to do the activity or problems multiple times to gain an understanding of the concepts.   When I asked the students that what methods they used some suggested that making flashcards to learn new vocabulary words helped them.  They agreed that when trying to learn new math concepts that it helps to do many different examples to gain an understanding of the concepts.    

·         What they would advise you as a beginning teacher to learn to do to help them remember the information better.  They suggested showing different ways of doing the same thing would probably be a good way to help them learn concepts.

Compare the answers of the students with those of the teacher. Provide your insights in the blog and be ready to share in class.  Both the teacher and students are using a variety of techniques to learn new concepts.  Some overlap one another while others did not.  Having different methods and way of learning the concepts seemed to be a theme since that was a suggestion on how to teach the information so that it could be learned in general.

Is there a place for bribing in classrooms?

Field work # 8

Imagine yourself being interviewed for a teaching position. During your job interview, the principal asks, "A teacher last year got in trouble for bribing students with homework exemptions to get them to behave in class. What do you think about using rewards and punishments in teaching. What will you say?"

Think over the question and share your insights in your blog. Support your answer with behavioral theory principles and arguments.

I would explain that I completely agree that there is no place in education for bribing.  That I do agree with 

using rewards and punishment in the classroom.  There is research based evidence that supports B.F. 

Skinner theory on Operant Conditioning.  When used correctly this theory offers a teacher many positive 

and negative reinforcers, punishment and extinction methods to motivate and control the students behaviors 

in the classroom.  There is significant distinction between bribing students and offering them a reward or 

punishment and I understand the difference completely.    

The value of incident learning and reinforcement

Field work # 7

Observe the classroom and record/note:

1. Each time an incident of learning occurs (when and how). Provide specific examples/evidence. May be you will prefer keeping a journal for 24 hh and note every time an incident of learning happens. Be ready to blog about and share in class.

In the classroom that I observed an incident of learning that occurred was during a history lesson.  The students were discussing the unfair treatment the colonists received from the British soldiers during the Revolution and how that was not fair that it happened.  The teacher reminded the students that anytime someone treats another person this way that it is wrong to do.  The students all agreed and then one student said, “that is why we all need to be nice to one another”.  The understanding that kindness needs to occur everyday for everyone is the critical learning that was demonstrated by the student in the class.

2. If and how the teacher uses reinforcement (positive/negative) and if s/he uses punishment. Record, blog, and share.

The classroom I observed had a moving up meeting one evening and the classroom that had the most participants was told that they would receive a reward for their involvement.  The classroom that I observed won this reward because 17 out of the 27 students participated in this event.

Another incident that was observed was when the teacher used negative reinforcement.  The class was being excessively chatty during lesson time.  After several attempts to out the class down and try to get them back on track to do the lesson the teacher was not successful.  As a result the teacher told the students to clear their desks off and to put their heads down on their desks.  The outcome was that the students had to sit for ten minutes with nothing to do.  In the future when the teacher asked them to settle down and do their assignment they will probably do so to avoid the silent time and doing nothing.

Reflections for five podcasts done by Anita Woolfolk

Reflection of Anita Woolfolk podcasts

Podcast #1 Importance of Teacher

Teachers are a significant part of every student’s life from the moment they enter the doorway as a kindergarten student to the day they graduate as a senior and receive their diploma.  Teachers matter most to a student when they become involved and show that they genuinely care about the student.  A teacher that can ensure a sense of belonging to a student  will gain that child’s attention and therefore be able to instill learning and knowledge for that child.  This vital sense of belonging that children require comes from caring teachers that take part not only in the child’s academic lives, but also their personal lives.  Teachers become a lifeline for many of the students that they encounter.  Invest in your students so that they benefit from having a vital teacher in their lives.

Podcast #3 NCLB

All teachers will one day be involved in their first faculty meeting.  If it is being held in the beginning of a new academic school year the chance are that the test results from the last year will be discussed and reviewed.  The staff will develop a plan on how to improve and any grades that did not meet the standards.  Schools are expected to meet their Annual Progress Goals each year and when that does not happen a plan must be put into place on how these goals will be achieved going forward.  The negative side to NCLB law is that a school not meeting these standards is that the school may be closed.  The positive side to NCLB law is that “ALL” children receive special attention to improve their education / test scores.  This law has increased the requirements that a teacher is now mandated to have in order to become certified to teach.  

Podcast #4 Learning

The three kinds of learning are behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist.  Behavioral learning deals with understanding consequences and practices.  Cognitive learning encompasses attention and memory.  Constructivist learning entails making sense of what you learn and how you understand information.  As educators it is important to understand the importance of each.  Constructivist and cognitive learning relate to one another since you need to understand information and remember information.  This further relates to behavioral learning because you need to practice what you understand in order to remember it.  All three relate and intertwine with one another and are equally important for teachers.  

Podcast #5 Reinforcement

Concept of reinforcer is anything that follows a behavior and causes the behavior to maintain or increase to get stronger, longer or more frequent.  It is important to understand that something is causing the behavior.  There are two types of reinforcers.  The first is when you add something after a behavior.  This is known as a positive reinforcer.  An example of a positive reinforcer would be that you carefully read a textbook on Child Development and are able to do well on an exam.  The reinforcer is that reading careful lead to a good grade.  The second reinforcer is known as a negative reinforcer.  This is when you avoid / escape an unpleasant situation.  By doing this the behavior will be repeated in the future if you liked the outcome.  The consequence of avoiding or escaping removed something unpleasant and this increases the behavior by negating the unpleasant situation.  An example could be that a student gets sick just before gym class.  Because of this they miss gym class.  If they like that consequence they may get sick before gym class again so that they can avoid it.  The repeat this behavior.   

Podcast #13 Academic Optimism

Anita Woolfolk discussed her research that she has been involved in during the past twenty-five years that entails the concept of teachers and how they are related to their students achievements.  The strongest predictor traditional for student academic optimism is associates with the economic level of wealth for that particular school district.  Wealthier communities have been know to do better on scoring than areas that are known to be in poverty areas.  So the focus of academic optimism focuses on what teachers can do to have their students achieve better and reach academic optimism.  The three characteristics that are associated with teachers in poverty areas having students that indicate academic optimism are teacher that have a high sense of efficacy, trust in their students abilities and press for academic achievement by setting high standards for their students to obtain.  A positive belief that a teacher has will assist greatly in academic optimism being obtained.  Academic optimism covers thoughts, feelings and actions.  This is achieved through cognitive means that entail beliefs a teacher has in their own efficacy.  It is achieved with effective means when a teacher has trust in their student and their parents.  Lastly, it is behavioral because it represents how a teacher manages behaviors in their classroom.  It has been observed that the more optimistic the teacher is that there is a direct correlation to their commitment to their profession, they are student centered and have exceptional classroom management.  These teacher further focus on the positive aspects of their students.  The research concluded that the three factors necessary to achieve academic optimism are talent, motivation, and learned optimism which is "hope:"  

Farewell ED5410 Summer '14 session

At the beginning of this course I was introduced to many new forms of technology that would be needed to complete the assignments.  These new sites include such  things as a blog, google documents, e-text book, movenotes, voki, pininterest, concept mapping, live binders and many more.  At times it was mind boggling as to how to operate some of the new technology.  Many times the processes had to be redone to reinforce what was needed.  I am thankful that I had a classroom full of peers that felt the same way as I did so we to assisted one another as needed to ensure we all accomplished the assignments.  With that mentioned I have gained much more knowledge about programs and the technology that I can incorporate into my future classroom.  Doing research on a specific theorist that influenced child development and learning theories has allowed me to gain a better understanding of his impact towards these critical areas. This is important since these theories and learning development concepts will impact me as a teacher.  Having my peers contribute by doing other significant theorists was also beneficial because it was presented in a meaningful way that I was able to associate with and grasp.  The assignments offered additional reinforcement to ensure the concepts were understood and learned.  As a future teacher I am more prepared for the classroom after taking this course.

    

Observing how diverse learners are being accomodated

Field work # 6

Observe a classroom paying attention to the diverse learners in the classroom and how teachers accommodate their learning during the lesson.

Ø  During the observation some ways that the teacher paid attention to the diverse learners in the classroom to accommodate their learning during a lesson included the teacher giving specific page number to the students so that they could get the details to follow along when examples had been given,  provided a recap of what was read, highlighted significant points and gave a summary of the main idea discussed in the reading, encouraged critical thinking and offered some insight about the reading, reviewed key vocabulary mentioned in the reading, emphasized the main points indicated in the reading, and had the students engage in independent writing answer the necessary question.  The teacher used the smart board to offer visual learning.  The teacher repeated aloud significant points aloud from the reading.  The teacher had the students set up in groups to allow discussions of the materials so they could collaborate.