May 27 Reflection EDAT 6115

Description:

            This week we read chapter 5 in our textbook, Behavioral Theories of Learning. In it we read how several theorist view discipline in the overall growth and development of children. We discussed a video of Peppermint Patty misbehaving in class in our discussion groups as well as the pros and cons of sending students to the office. Lastly, we watched a video where Bandura discussed his social learning theory.

Analyze:

Children are constantly learning and this is a wonderful thing, except when they have picked up on a negative behavior.  Mayer defines learning as “long-lasting change in the learner’s knowledge as a result of the learner’s experiences” (Slavin, 2015, pg. 98).  Several theorist believe that learning is conditioning from observation and modeling.

           Pavlov believed that learning took place when a subject was presented with a stimulus.  His famous salivating dog experiment is where he drew his conclusions. He believed that he could take an unconditioned response, a dog salivating at the site of meat and a neutral response, a ringing bell that the dog does not react to and train the dog to salivate by simply introducing the bell every time he presented the dog with meat.  Conditioned response is when the desired result was reached (Slavin, 2015, pg. 99).
             Skinner believed that given a situation, you could change behavior based on pleasant and unpleasant consequences. He trained rats that if they pushed a lever they could receive food. The rats would repeat this behavior over and over even when not constantly rewarded. This led him to his operant conditioning theory. The believed you could strengthen desired behaviors through pleasurable consequences (Slavin, 2015, pg. 99)         

            Another way to condition children is through the use of intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcers. An example of an intrinsic reinforcers was seen in the Peppermint Patty video. Peppermint Patty loved art and needed no reward or encouragement to complete the task ("Peppermint Patty In School YouTube", 2015). Extrinsic reinforcers are when students need to be motivated to comply with the desired task (Slavin, 2015, pg. 103).

            When the situation calls for it, a punishment may need to be considered. This could be removal where the student is completely removed from the situation, situation cost where the student must pay with a time out, or sit-and-watch where the student stays, but does not participate (Slavin, 2015, pg. 105). While studies show that sit-and-watch corrected more behaviors, I think it is important to find the right punishment for the student and the situation.

Reflection:

            Classroom behavior is learned whether it was learned in your classroom or before they came to you. It is your role to create an environment conducive to learning and this may mean addressing and limiting undesirable behaviors.

            According to Bandura, children learn through observation and modeling ("Bandura and Social Learning Theory", 2013). In the video we watched this week, a model was aggressive with a blowup clown while children watched. When left alone with the same blowup, they behaved as aggressive, if not more aggressive. This seems to support Bandura’s theory; by watching how to interact with the toy, they modelled what they had been shown.

            If there is not consistency in the classroom, classroom management can quickly get out of hand. Students will watch and learn from your reactions, and those of their classmates. If child A is allowed to talk while the teacher is talking, then child B may decide it is okay to talk based on what he/she have observed. Once the classroom is out of control, the teacher calls for help or sends the student out in an effort to gain control. In my opinion, this too has taught the students something…The teacher isn’t the one in charge.

            Rather than allowing a negative reaction to occur, I feel that the better approach would be a positive reinforcer. First, there should be consistency. If it is not okay to get up and move about the room during a teaching moment, then this should be the rule 100% of the time. If a rule is broken, reward the others and ignore the small infraction. There are many things that happen in a classroom full of children each day that are small things. Skinner too believed that pleasurable consequences reinforced doing the right thing (Slavin, 2016, pg. 101).

            I was also surprised to find that the way I handled a student moved to my classroom late in the year based on his behavior in another room was an accepted practice called the Premack Principal (Slavin, 2015, pg. 102). I took a negative and turned it to a positive. He had repeatedly been sent to the office for misbehaving and I would not allow him to go to the office unless he did behave.

            This week’s reading was quite interesting. It helped me realize that I am on the right track in my classroom and it has given me ideas on how to tweak a few things.

Resources

Peppermint Patty In School YouTube. (2015, June 21). Retrieved May 23, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTKJ4crsNlY

Slavin, R. E. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and practice (12th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson

Therealmarcsmith. (2013, August 30). Bandura and Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=NjTxQy_U3ac

May 20 Reflection EDAT 6115

Description: 

      This week we are focusing on the development of students. Children develop rapidly in the first 18 years of their lives, but what does that development look like? What influences it? This week we are focusing on the development of students and the philosophies of several well revered theorist. 

Analyze: 

      Over the course of 18 years children grow and change in both physical and intellectual ways. They do not develop at the same rate, or in the same ways as others. Slavin (2015) states, “Individual children develop in different ways and at different rates, and development is influenced by biology, culture, parenting, education, and other factors.” (p. 23). When teaching a classroom full of children, it is important for a teacher to realize that while they may all be relatively the same age they have not had the same experiences. These experiences can greatly affect development in a positive or negative way. 

     Although Piaget’s views have been scrutinized in recent years he believed that all students move through the same four basic stages of development (Slavin, 2015, p. 25). Through that first stage, sensorimotor, they are trying to decipher the world through schemes. They use what they know, make adjustments, and develop new schemes. It is through this repeated process that they grow cognitively (Slavin, 2015, p. 26). Piaget believes that after leaving that first stage they move into a stage called preoperational. At around 2 years of age, through about the age of 7, children are concrete thinkers and unable to see in an abstract way. This causes their viewpoints to often be misguided. For example, they do not understand that a sandwich cut into pieces is still the same amount as the uncut sandwich (Slavin, 2015, p. 28). After this stage, children move into the concrete operational stage. From the ages 7-11 children move away from being as self-centered, they begin to infer, and they can process simple problems such as the sandwich mentioned earlier. They are, however, not abstract thinkers. This does not come about until the last stage, formal operational (Slavin, 2015, p. 29). 

     Vygotsky believed that “cognitive development is strongly linked to input from others” (Slavin, 2015, p. 33). He felt that children learned first by use of non-verbal command, such as pointing, later moving to talking to oneself, especially if they are trying to puzzle out a problem on their own. The next stage is proximal development or working with or next to a more capable individual. This is followed by, learning through meaningful, teachable moments and/or scaffolding. Finally, they learn through cooperative learning (Slavin, 2015, p. 29). 

      Bronfenbrenner believed that the world around a child greatly influences their development. This is in contrast to Piaget whom focused mainly on the child him/herself. Bronfenbrenner focused more on a mesosystem believing that every person that a child came into contact with influenced that child (Slavin, 2012, 37). 

      Literacy is by far the most important aspect of education. Slavin points out that a child’s vocabulary increases rapidly and can become more extensive in direct part by their parent’s influence (Slavin, 2012, 43) 

Reflection: 

     I teach in a co-taught classroom and see all stages of development going on around me every day. I am constantly reminded that we do not all learn in the same way or at the same time. However, I am also reminded that we are each good at something. By understanding where my students are individually in their development, I am better able to serve them. I would never ask a child that is reading at a 150 Lexile to perform to the same degree as the student with a 700 Lexile or a child that still struggles that the fingers on her hand will always equal five to multiply two digit numbers. With that being said, they are all expected to perform at a standard level at the end of the year, during state testing.

     The “powers that be” tend to frustrate me from time to time. I do not feel that they always take into consideration children’s cognitive abilities. For example, I have taught third grade for a number of years. We are required to teach abstract nouns (GA DOE, 2015). My students struggle with this every year and rarely do I have someone understand the concept. I believe this is because they are still concrete thinkers. 

     While nothing will ever be perfect, it is good to be reminded by this chapter that while everyone is not in full agreement all the theorist discussed believed that children are capable of many things and it is up to us to help facilitate their journey to a productive adulthood where they are everything they ever wanted to be. 

Reference:

3rd Grade English Language Arts Georgia Standards of Excellence (ELAGSE). (2015). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Frameworks/ELA-Grade-3-Standards.pdf 

Slavin, R. E. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and practice (12th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.