The End

Wow, the semester is almost over, so this will be my final Educational Psychology blog. I enjoyed learning about education psychology and blogging about it. I liked reflexing what I learned in class and relating it to my own life, and giving my opinions. I hope you enjoyed my blog, as well. I learnt a lot about educational psychology and also I learnt a lot about my views about educational psychology. What I learnt in educational psychology I will be able to take with me into my future career and also other parts of my life. Becoming an elementary teacher is very  important to me and learning about: professional skills, Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development, Vygotsky’s Theory, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory, Erikson’s Stages of Human Development, Kohlberg’s Levels and Stages of Moral Development, IQ, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, diversity in the classroom, gender ideals, special education, learning disabilities, operant conditioning, functional analysis, memory, study strategies, cognitive information, cooperative learning, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, motivation, learn-centred planning and instruction and any other material we learnt is relevant in my life and my future career. Therefore, I can take the information I learnt in this class and apply it for years to come. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and blogging. I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Learning-Centred Planning and Instruction

Learning-centred planning and instruction shifts the learning to teacher centred learning to the student centred learning. It benefits student’s cognitions and meta-cognitions. It is also good for motivation, developmental and social needs and it is good for individual differences. To me this is very similar in student centred learning and I do not really see the difference, as they are both shifting the learning from teacher centred to student/learner centred. They both can use problem or projected based approaches. I think school is gradually moving to learning-centred planning/ student centred learning, as when I was in grade 12 my class was one of the first classes to have a new social studies curriculum, which was more projected based and we taught ourselves the material by doing a project then presenting it to the class. We had guidance for our teacher, but we found the information ourselves. Then the teacher would discuss what we learnt with us. It was more work for me as a student, but I still remember what I learnt in grade 12 social studies. Therefore, I think learning-centred planning and instruction is beneficial for students, as it more interactive for the students and they are more invested in their work.
We watched another TED talk video in class today where Sugata Mitra talked about learner-centred planning and instruction. Here is the video:

Mitra shows how kids teach themselves. Children can teach themselves, but I think they still need the guidance of teachers to teach them what they need to know to function in our society and prepare them for the real world. Children can for sure teach themselves, but it will be things that they are interested in. The children in the video were interested in the computer in the wall and that is why they learnt how to use it. Someone told me when computers and internet came out it was said that computers would replace teachers. Computers and internet have been out for quite a while and we still have teachers and schools. Therefore, I think teachers will never be replaced, but maybe their role will change, as more of the courses will maybe on computers but there will still need to be someone to run the course. Teacher’s roles are also changing by shifting their teaching role to be more of a guide for students and have someone to talk to if they have a question. This reminds me of more of a college level learning, as the instructor is there if you have a question, but the students does the work, as they are finding research for their research papers and they have to read the textbook themselves.

Motivation

Today in class we watched a TED talk video where Dan Pink talked about motivation. It was called “Dan Pink on The Surprising Science of Motivation”. Here is the video:





He stated motivation comes from autonomy, mastery and purpose. When a person is intrinsic motivated rather than extrinsic motivated then they are more likely to do well, as a student I think a lot of my motivation is extrinsic, as I want high grades to get into university, but it is intrinsic, as I want to become an elementary teacher and feel very passionate about it. I have always been an average student. Last year in college I worked hard to get my C’s, but last semester I did very well. I even surprised myself when I achieved the principals list. I worked very hard that semester, as I was very worried about getting into university next year, but I was very stressed the whole semester, and therefore, not very happy. My performance was high, but I did not enjoy what I was doing. I was going through the motions to get the grades. I hope one day I reach mastery in my learning, as I will hopefully look forward to do the work and enjoy it. I think I will feel this way when I become an elementary teacher, because I feel very passionate about working with children. I think the big thing about motivation is being happy. If you are not happy about what you are doing then you are not going to do well and want to do it, as you will have to force yourself to do the task at hand. I hope when I become a teacher I help my students feel motivated in what they are supposed to learn. I think teachers help student’s motivation, as student’s can tell if a teacher wants to be there or not. For instance, I have a teacher this semester that you can tell that he does not care about the class I am in. He tells us what else he has to do and that he is very busy. I feel that my class is on the back burner for him and I feel that is not fair to me and the other students; because the teacher is not very motivated in teaching me, I am more very motivated in the course and learning from him. This course has a lot of assignments and I have trouble doing them, because the teacher does not care, so why should I? There are classes that I can tell that the teacher is passionate in what they are teaching; therefore, I feel more motivated in learning the course material. Since, they are passionate about the material they make the class more engaging and interesting. I hope to do this when I become a teacher.       

Cooperative Learning

I think group work has pros and cons. Working with a group you get different ideas that you would not have otherwise, but it is hard to meet together and different personalities may have conflicts. I think at a college level group work it harder, because teachers do not usually give class time and you have to meet outside of class, but everyone has different schedules and responsibilities. Therefore, it can be very difficult to meet outside of class. In high school group work was easier, because the teacher usually gave class time and the people in your class were usually friends, so it was easier to get together and meet for a project. In college you usually do not know the people you are with until you do the project. In group projects there is usually someone that does not put as much effort into the project compared to the other group members, so group projects can be stressful and unfair in that way. Cooperative learning is also hard, because everyone has different work ethics and different expectations on their grades, so people do not put the same amount of effort into the project, but they get the same grade.

I think I would evaluate cooperative learning in my classroom by getting the students to do a group evaluation and a self-evaluation, because a group evaluation would give me an idea on who did what. A self-evaluation would also give me an idea on what the student thought they did. I would give them questions to answer as a guide line for them, so the evaluation process would be easier. Then get them to give a mark out of 10 for example. This would help me as a teacher on what mark I should give each student.

School is becoming more project based learning, as it is more interactive. I think it is a good thing, as it gets the students to problem solve and think outside the box, but it is harder for teachers to mark. I did many group projects throughout my schooling. Some were good experiences and some were not. I remember in grade seven, I did a group project. We were put into groups randomly and I just happened to get into a group with all boys that were friends. I ended up doing a lot of the work and there was some conflict between me and the boys. Sometimes it is good for the students to make up their own groups depending on their age, as disagreements can occur, but then there is always the chance someone will feel left out if they did not get into a group. Sometimes it is also good for students to try to work with people they do not usually work with. Some teachers give an option to do the project alone, as some students like to do the work themselves, as they can work on it on their own time and not worry about meeting with people. There are many careers that you have to work with people and problem solve, so learning that skill in school is a very useful thing.

A successful cooperative learning would be a project that everyone works together nicely, as everyone works hard to try to do well. Everyone is social, as they talk through ideas. There is an individual assessment as well as a group assessment. The teacher gets the students to think about what they learnt and what happened during the project.

SQ4R

SQ4R is a reading comprehension strategy. SQ4R are the different steps:

S is for survey, as you scan over the text you are going to read.

Q is for question, as if you question what you are surveying then you are more active in your learning.

R is for read.

R is for recite, you say the content out loud, as you may be able to understand it better.

R is for relate, relating the material to what you already know which makes it easier to understand.

R is for review, repeat the survey process again.

I think this process it better than just reading the information, as when I read my textbooks I do not comprehend what I am reading. I am just reading and have no idea what the textbook was talking about. By pre reading, reading, and post reading it makes the information “stick” better. You will be able to understand the information. Here is a link to a website that outlays the SQ4R method out nicely: SQ4R is a reading comprehension strategy. SQ4R are the different steps:

I think teaching this strategy to children would be great. Some children read a textbook, but have no idea what they are reading, so doing this in your classroom may be useful for some students, but other students may find it very tedious and not useful for them, as they understand the information when they just read it. I think this is a great method to use through and I will try to use it with the rest of my schooling.

William Ury: The Walk from “No” to “Yes”

Today we watched a video in class called “The Walk from “No” to “Yes”” where William Ury did a TED talk about conflict. Here is the video:

I felt that Ury’s message is a very simple concept, but may be hard to do in a conflict situation. If a person is mad at you it may be hard to sit back and think about the situation and what to say. Ury stated that the “secret to peace is the third side and the third side is us”. I think what he meant by this is that a third person can be there to not pick a side, but help resolve the situation and help the two people come to a resolution. Ury also stated that when you are in a conflict you should “go to the balcony”. I think this means that when you are in a conflict you should take a minute and breathe and think about what you are going to say so you do not regret anything. I think I will be able to use this with my students, my colleagues, family, my school, and my community, as when I am in a conflict I could go to the “balcony”, so I do not say anything I regret and think about the situation and cool down. In a classroom situation I think the teacher is there to be the third side sometimes, as they are in a neutral position and trying to get the students to resolve the conflict. I remember in elementary school my school try to teach students how to be the “third person”, as we had conflict mangers. Conflict mangers were grade 5 students that were “working” during recess and if students had a conflict they would go to the conflict mangers to resolve the problem. The goal was to get students to resolve their own problem instead of asking the teachers. Something you need an outside perspective to help you resolve the problem. My only concern with this is that the third person should not pick sides they should just be the mediator on the situation, but sometimes people pick “who was right” and that does not help the situation.

Study Strategies

The other day in class we were talking about memorizing and study strategies. We were asked: how do you study? What is your process? Does it differ depending on the subject? How do you feel about the results?

I usually read over my notes and try to quiz myself afterwards. It sometimes changes depending on the class and how the class in structured and what the tests are like. I feel like I can improve my studying techniques, as I feel like I do not have the best studying strategies. I found it helpful when my classmates stated what they do to study they said they:

·         Use flashcards

·         Read over their notes then highlight important points

·         Rewrite notes

·         Map concepts

·         Associate and connect concepts to something they already now  

I found these ideas helpful and maybe I will try these ideas in the future for my tests and finals coming up.