Blog 8

1. Explain the differences between overt and covert learning strategies. (Understanding) 

2. Based on your prior knowledge of problem solving, how could you use the problem solving strategies listed in the book in your future classroom- algorithm and heuristics (Synthesizing) 

Blog 7

Cognitive learning seems to be all about learning strategies, memory, retrieval, and knowledge. This makes a lot of since to me because we all have little tricks that we use to help us remember things. I think, as teachers, keeping cognitive learning and all the things that fit into the cognitive learning theory is important. If we know children remember things easier because our lesson is unusual, or if we trigger an emotion then why not intentionally teach with those strategies? It makes our job easier as educators because the students will be completely engaged in our lesson and the children will remember it because you used which ever teaching strategy in order to help them remember it.

I think that if children are aware of how they learn best and can identify their weaknesses and strengths, they will be able to succeed in school. As teachers we can help them by giving them tools and switch up our teaching strategies to focus on differentiated learning. A website I visited said that if children have a hard time with auditory knowledge, they may have trouble hearing blends and therefore have a hard time reading. Knowing this, can help us help students. This is just one of many examples on this website, but knowing where a child falls short cognitively is important.

Some learning skills that can help students include:
- meaningful learning- relating things to things they have already learned
-elaboration- learners use prior knowledge to embellish on a new idea
-rehearsal- repeating information
-organization- making connections
-visual imagery- pictures, envisioning
-mnemonics

Teachers can also use different skills to help students learn such as:
- distinctiveness
-use of emotional overtones
-connections
-regular practice
-relevant retrieval cues
-wait time


http://www.learningrx.com/what-is-brain-training.htm

Constructivism- is constructing your own knowledge

When thinking about constructivism, I think about exploration, experiences, the environment, reflection, problem solving, active learning, etc.

This is my favorite learning theory because I believe students will learn best when they are constructing their own knowledge through explorations they are interested in. I feel it is the teachers job to facilitate the students learning and provide curriculum (that is required) within this context. If the teacher can relate it to what they children are interested in, I think they will remember/ learn it better because it will be more meaningful.

This is similar to the cognitive learning theory due to the fact that they both rely on past experiences but constructivism relies more on the children being active in their learning. While in the cognitive theory it seems to be more of the teacher directing learning in a meaningful-ish way.

Field Trip

Friday October 11^th I went to an open session held by Deborah Ball, the Dean of education at the University of Michigan. It was interesting to me for a few reasons. First of all, it was interesting to hear the different professors talk about teaching students skills to teach. This was interesting to me because as a group, everyone was concerned about the best way to teach students skills. It seemed as if this is more important than teaching theory. I think this stood out to me a lot because when we really think about it, what are we teaching children? Skills, skills to insert themselves in society. We are giving them skills and tools to use in the real world, after school, or to further themselves in school. I think if teachers looked at teaching that way, teachers could be better teachers. Instead of trying to teach students bookwork, if teachers focused on teaching students curriculum by giving them life-skills, students may benefit more.

The next thing that I thought was so interesting was how Michigan’s program assessed their students. The students have to pass certain criteria each year in order to advance to the next year. If they do not pass, they have to work on whatever they failed to master before they could move on. I think this is important because as it was said at the open session, it weeds people out but it also ensures that you never get behind. This is also important at the elementary level. If students just meet the minimum to move to the next step without ever mastering the skill or knowledge, they will fall behind! This is not ok on so many different levels, if students get so behind they won't be able to keep advancing. This will set them up for continued failure.

The last thing I found interesting was the dual track program Michigan has set up. Majoring in the subject you want to teach, as well as, education makes a lot of sense. This way you have your specialty area mastered and will be able to better educate your students more efficiently. I feel like the CFS program at UT does a great job of preparing students to work with children, but I do not feel like I have had enough education on the actual practice of teaching. This is where it seems UT is falling short with their program, to me. It is great that I know all about child’s development but it will not help if I do not have a good practice of teaching. I know I will get more education and practice within the next year but as a senior I wish I had more at this point. I think Michigan does a great job of giving their students a lot of experience in both their specialty area and the education aspect.

blog 6

Problem- based learning: classroom activity in which students acquire new knowledge and skills while working on a complex problem similar to one that might exist in the outside world.

I think a great problem based learning activity to teach children math and life skills would be setting up a way for them to "earn" money and "spend" it. This was one of my favorite projects I ever did in school. In the 3rd grade my teacher gave us all check books and we could earn money and spend it. All while keeping our check books balanced and up to date. We could use our money to buy presents for our parents, treasures for ourselves, or how ever we wanted to spend it. I liked the project so much, I am pretty sure I will try to use some form of this project in my class room.

I think the children would like this project because they will get to be "adults" and save/ spend money. But at the same time, they will be learning to add, subtract, etc. This may be difficult for them but I think they will be motivated due to the real world application.

The obstacles I for see being an issue would be getting enough stuff, that the children would WANT, in order for the project to work. I, also, think coming up with ways for them to earn money would be difficult. It would defiantly take a lot of creative juice. But, overall, I think it would work. We could work on addition and subtraction in everyday lessons- so it would not take a great deal of time out of our every class lessons.

Blog 5

I would define mastery of my lessons objectives from a social cognitive view of learning by assessing if my students can successfully model back my behavior, make goals to improve a little each week, and/ or able to self regulate their behavior in order to improve their learning. There are many factors that tie into the social cognitive view of learning such as their behavior, the environment, and their cognitive abilities. With these three things working together, you can set up the perfect learning environment for you students. Continuing to reinforce these three things will ensure that students learn to their best ability. A few ways that you can induce your learning environment and use the social cognitive theory is to model to your students so that they can observe what your doing and take it in for themselves. An example of this could be working out a math problem with candy. In order to make sure the children know what they are doing say everything you are doing or thinking aloud. For example, "if I have 5 skittles and eat three, how many do I have left?" "hmmm... I have 1,2,3,4,5. Now I'm going to take away three 1,2,3. Now how many do I have left?" "1,2.. I have two skittles left." Modeling like this will give the children the knowledge and language to do it themselves. Another way is to help students set small achievable goals, such as this week I will learn how to subtract numbers from 5. Next week I will learn how to subtract numbers from 6..." There are many other teaching strategies that can be used to help ensure you have mastery over your objective from the social cognitive view of learning. 

http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Health%20Communication/Social_cognitive_theory.doc/

Defining the mastery of lesson objectives from a behaviorist view of learning is similar to the social cognitive view of learning but it seems to be much more concrete. Being able to see the new learned skill right away will tell me whether or not the students were able to master the skill or not. If they were not, I would add a reinforcer to get them to learn it or induce a punishment. In my elementary ed class the teacher, and author of our book, has 4 teaching strategies. The last one he talks about in his book is Direct Teaching. He says that to him this is basically a behaviorist style of teaching. In this teaching strategy he includes 4 steps:
1. Set the stage for teaching- tell class what the objective is
2. Present new material- directly tell them
3. Monitor and adjust- let the children do what you just taught them; if they get it, move on. If not, adjust the way you teach it.
4. Provide independent practice- this should be done during a separate time from the lesson

With all that explained I think step 4 would be the way to find out if your objective was learned and mastered. We had to write lesson plans during this class to show an example of this, I actually used a TOD at the end of the day, or before lunch.