Course Contract #4

What are you doing well?

I feel that at this point, I did much better keeping up with assignments and staying organized. I felt much better at the end of the semester when I had all of my "required" work completed before the due date.

What are you not doing well?

Though I kept everything organized on paper, I don't personally feel that I kept everything "organized" in my head. Or probably better said, my automaticity on the things that I have learned I feel needs much work. Example, our final test, I studied for it, then I freaked and blacked out on the final. Where as, if I worked on staying and keeping organized mentally, I probably would have felt more comfortable while taking the final.

Are you making sufficient progress on your goals?

I feel that with my overall goals from the start of the semester that I did make sufficient and worthwhile progress. Though, I feel that I am only hitting the tip of the iceberg,

List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals

As I continue with my education and go on to teaching, I feel it imperative to continue working on the goals that I have imposed on myself. Even retailoring them to other classes and my profession. I need to continue to learn about educational psychology so that I will better understand my students and which stages they are going through and so forth. The better that I understand the psychological mind set of my students, the better I will be able to educate them and help them become more effective learners.

Personal Learning Theory

What?

According to the results of my test, my learning theory is more like Bruner. Whom talks about a "Community of Learners."

• Piaget's Cognitive Development -
• Vygotsky's Cognitive Development -
• Erikson's Psychosocial Development -
• Kohlberg's Moral Development -
• Goleman's Emotional Intelligence
• Information Processing
• Knowledge Construction and Higher-order thinking
• Behaviorism
• Social Cognitivism
• Group and Individual Differences
• Motivation

So what?

This is a tougher one than I thought it was going to be. I believe that people learn from what is around them, their culture and family settings. I would have to say that I am in agreement with Bruner & Vygotsky. People learn from what they experience in their lives. Everyone is different. My views and they way I learned things growing up is totally different from the guys next to me. This could be argued that this is some type of cultural lens, though, doesn't our culture have a great effect on the way we learn? I know that it had effected the way I learn. At the same token, looking at it through a different perspective, I am a person that learns through modeling, and watching somebody do it first. Then I follow. Again, everyone learns differently, though I strongly feel that a person's cultural influence effects the way that they learn and view different aspects of life.

Now what?

(1)How will your theory translate into teaching strategies in your future classroom?

I feel that the way that I view how people learn will benefit my students greatly. By understanding where they come from and by knowing that everyone learns differently will help me better realize my students strengths and weaknesses. What might be easier for one student, might very well be difficult for another, in this instance I would need to realize that I would either have to teach the concept a different way, or help that student individually. At the same time, I need to stay on my toes and continue to educate myself in my field. The more that I know as an educator, the more effective I will in teaching, and adapting my lessons to cater to different learning styles.

(2) What are the next steps for you to take in including topics in Ed Psych that you would like to learn more about and areas in which you need to improve

Even though I have learned a great deal about Educational Psychology, I know that I still have much more to improve on. I would say that my next step would be to actually make a list on this aspects that I would like to improve on, once this is done, I would like to actually implement a plan on how I could use it either in my daily activities or in my future classroom and then put them into practice. I feel that one of the best ways to learn and retain something is to actually do it & put it into practice.

Multiple Intelligence Project

According to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Survey, my strongest intelligence is Music. Which I was hoping would be the outcome since I am a musician. To integrate this with my Multiple Intelligences Project, I decided to use a little bit of technology and create a Jeopardy game which would incorporate questions covering material that a music class would typically cover. I like this project because in a classroom setting, I strongly feel that it would encourage collaborative learning. To play this game, which could easily be used as a review for whichever unit you are doing, the class needs to be split into two different groups. As the groups take turns, and are presented a question, they would need to collaborate to decide on an answer. This helps with retrieval or distributed practice if using this for a review of some sort. Hopefully, it would also help with the automaticity of the students knowledge. In short, I believe that this is a fun, yet very effective way to review material with your students and get away from the every day monotonous rigors of classroom life.

Course Contract #3

What are you doing well?

Well, up to date I feel that I have caught up with my assignments. Which I feel is a very good thing & a huge weight off of my shoulders! I have been doing so much better about getting my reading done & staying a bit more organized. It is so much easier to get things done when you are organized!

What are you not doing well?

Even though I am doing better at staying organized, I am not doing that great of a job of sticking to the study plan that I set up for myself at the beginning of the semester. Eventhough I am getting things done, it is not done on the days that I said it would happen,thus.... I find myself playing catchup. Like today, it is a Saturday & I am here with a list of things to do playing catchup. When in retrospect, many things on my list should have already been completed.

Are you making sufficient progress on your goals?

I feel that yes I am making progress. Sufficient progress? I would say sufficient but not significant.

List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals

- Now that I am staying a bit more organized, I now need to stick to my schedule.

- I need to stop letting myself get behind,

Chapter 10 Case Study Analysis

1. Which teacher in the scenario demonstrates vicarious reinforcement? Justify your response with an example from the case study.

I would say that Ms. Yamashita demonstrates vicarious reinforcement. The reason I say this is that she praised Robin when she found out about her concept map. By doing this, the other students pick up that doing concept maps are good & the teacher like them. This could very well encourage the other students in the class to follow suit.

2. Is Mr. Kessinger considering reciprocal causation in his class? Explain your response, including all aspects of reciprocal causation in your reasoning.

I don't believe that he is. First of all, reciprocal causation entails environment, behavior, & personal variables. By yelling at Robin about creating a concept map & wanting to learn, he is creating a bad learning environment, not only just for her, but for other students as well. He is teaching them that if they take notes, they will get in trouble. Now, don't we as educators want our students to take notes & create such things as concept maps? This would be a good behavior, this is what we want our students to do. He is essentially disciplining his students for having good behavior. Also, by doing this he is really affecting Robin's & his students self efficacy, (personal variable)

3. Which self-regulated learning process is Robin engaging in when she creates her concept maps? Explain your reasoning.

This one I feel could probably go a couple of different way. Though for this question, I am going to go with Solicitation of outside help when needed. Robin is not trying to do everything on her own. She realized that she needed help so she makes a concept map & takes notes on what other students are saying. She wants their input to help her complete her goals of learning the material. She is not afraid to listen to others to help learn the material any which way she can.

4. How do you think Robin's self-efficacy has been affected by this experience. Be specific about which self-efficacies have been affected and justify your response with examples from the case study.

Her self efficacy in my opinion has been affected greatly. Before she had the run in with old man Kessinger, I believe that he self efficacy was at a high level. She is studying, doing well & learning. Though, after the run in, he pretty much shoots down her confidence & even though she did something good (concept map) & demonstrated good behavior, she was punished. Now, when she goes to her other class & the teacher praises her for her good behavior, she still thinks that she did something terribly wrong & took off crying. So even her resilience of self efficacy has been effected. She is having trouble completing successful tasks after experiencing a serious set back.

Chapter 3 Case Study Analysis

1. From a social development standpoint, how might we explain Laura's preoccupation with her appearance? In particular, consider this statement by Laura: "I don't want people to think I'm a geek!" Include information from Erikson's theory and social development in general in your response.

From where I stand, it seems like Laura is in the "Identity vs Role" stage in Erickson's theory of psychological development. She seems to be very self conscious about her appearance not wanting to be considered a "geek." She spends the time in front of the mirror making sure every last hair is in place, etc. She is still trying to find out who she is and where she fits in.

2. In suggesting that Laura join the debating class, Ms. Watkins is hoping to pique an interest in classroom subject matter by capitalizing on Laura's desire to be the center of attention. What two other strategies might the school faculty use to motivate students who seem to be more interested in social matters than in academic pursuits?

Well, one thing the faculty could do is encourage the students to serve on the student council. Here, the students have a voice where they can be heard. Another thing that could be done is they could encourage the students do participate in athletics. Here, the students are at the center of everyone, all eyes are on them. Plus, as they participate in athletics, they need to keep their academics up, so this could also be used as a motivator.

3. From the perspective of Kohlberg's theory, in which stage of moral development is Laura? Justify your response. How might Mr. Marcalescu help Laura to advance her moral reasoning?

I feel that Laura could very well be in stage 4 of Kohlberg's theory. The Law & Order stage. You see, Laura knows that there are rules that govern society. There is a right & a wrong. She know's that essentially, pollution is bad for our society. So by making everyone walk everyone, there is no pollution from automobiles. So her solution? Take away everyone's car. Then nobody can drive & problem solved. Though she neglects to look at the needs of our society. One way Mr. Marcalescu could help is that he could help her realize the needs of our society and how we could still have laws that could help the pollution problem, but also fill the needs of our society.

4. In what ways might a debating class contribute to students' cognitive, linguistic, social, and moral development?

A debating class definitely stretches the cognitive abilities of the students. It makes them think at a fast pace. In the linguistic sense, it also gets there mind going at a quick pace to thing of the right words to say to be able to get their point across. As far as their social and moral development go, debating with other students promotes social development. Talking and debating different topics with their opens up their minds to other points of views that they might not have thought of before. By doing this, their moral views on different subjects could be shaped and become more mature.

Chapter 9 Case Study Analysis

Chapter 9 Questions:

1. Does Mr. Kessinger's class represent a community of learners as defined in Ch. 7? Why or why not?

Mr. Kessinger does not represent a community of learners in his classroom. In a community of learners, the teacher & the students work together to help one another learn. Kessinger doesn't really seem to want to help at all. Instead of yelling at Robin about her notes, he should encourage her & want her to share with the class.

2. Does Mr. Kessinger utilize presentation punishment or removal punishment with Robin? Justify your response.

This one made me think. Though, I would have to say that he utilized presentation punishment. He scolded Robin for using a concept map. This in turn lead to a reduction in her behavior & her confidence. I say this because after she was scolded, she went from being presumebly happy & taking her notes to just putting her head down & not doing anything the rest of the class period. Plus, when she went to her other class, she was very unconfident when the teacher asked her a question to the point where she left the class crying.

3. Explain Robin's reaction in Ms. Yamashita's class from the perspective of classical conditioning.

Robin's reaction was greatly affected by the way old man Kessinger got after her. She is now association Kessinger towering over her desk & yelling at her with fear & that she has doing something wrong. Now, when another teachers comes over to her desk, it doesn't matter what the teacher is asking, she immediately associates that with fear & that she has done something wrong.

4. How might Ms. Yamashita encourage Robin to create concept maps in the future? Include behavioral concepts such as shaping, reinforcement, etc., in your response.

Well, she could let Robin know that by creating a concept map, it helps her as a student organize her thinking, this being able to learn more effectively. This could be considered as shaping, by positively reinforcing this, this could very well help Robin decide to continue to create concept maps to help her study more effectively throughout her educational career. She could also encourage her by letting the class know that they could learn from Robin's idea to create a concept map.