Module 1 - Chapter 1-3

There was a lot to read for this week, but the information was very useful.  In chapter one of the Educational Psychology book by Woolfolk there were a few ideas and concepts that I really enjoyed and connected with.  The first was about teachers’ sense of efficacy. “Teachers with a high sense of efficacy work harder and persist longer even when students are difficult to teach, in part because these teachers believe in themselves and in their students” (p. 5).  I think the most important thing for a student to grasp is the self-confidence and believe in themselves.  That confidence in themselves will allow them to try new things and allow them to accomplish more goals throughout the school year.  The best way to teach this is through the power of being a role model for them.  If the student sees that you have faith and believe in yourself as a teacher they will be more willing to listen and learn from you, instead of a teacher that is not so sure of what they are doing.  Also, believing in your students and showing them that they are valued in the class, can also help boost their self-confidence and get them to start believing in themselves.  

I really enjoyed chapter two because I am a physical education major and the first half of the chapter was how the brain works. I really connect with these concepts because it can help me learn more about how physical education does not only include being active.  The brain is very complex, and the development might be hard for some students to understand.  I plan to teach my students the connections between physical, social and cognitive developments and how they all intertwine with each other.  The book talks about maturation and how most of a person’s physical growth falls in this category, because of the stages of puberty and how the body changes due to their genetic make-up.   It also mentions how a person’s social development is influenced by the environment.  “Most Psychologists agree that in these areas, both maturation and interaction with the environment (or nature and nurture, as they are sometimes called) are important, but they disagree about the amount of emphasis to place on each one.  Having a welcome and positive environment is very important to me, most so than how fast or slow a student is maturing.  Since I will be in a physical education class, I will have to consider all the students who are mature vs. all the students that may not be so mature when creating lessons. This includes cognitive, social, emotional and physical maturation.  Creating a lesson that is not fit for some of the students will lower their self-esteem and then cause them to not even what to try the next time.  Getting the students comfortable, and willing to participate will help accomplish small goals; thus, boosting their confidence and getting them to be more willing to try more difficult stuff.  I also must consider those students that are mature and make sure the lessons are not to easy for them and they do not get bored, keeping all students engaged the whole time is important as well.

In the second part of chapter two, the author talks about Piaget and Vygotsky’s theory of development and how they both have similar views, but also a few differences within those views.  “Piaget believed that the most helpful interactions were those between peers because peers are on an equal basis and can challenge each other’s thinking.  Vygotsky, on the other hand, suggested that children’s cognitive development is fostered by interactions with people who are more capable or advanced in their thinking-people such as parents and teachers” (p. 58).  I am not sure I would be able to pick whom I agree with more, because I believe they are both very important concepts.  Learning and motivating each other with the teachers and parent’s encouragement the different interactions.  The book also brings up a good point with the technology these days a lot of what the children are learning come from the computer and video games.  There is a lot that I took out of these few chapters, but most importantly I learned that I have a pretty good mindset already when it comes to becoming a teacher, and it just helped me boost my own self-esteem and sense of efficacy.