Module 1
This week's readings were from Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapter 1 talks about learning and teaching Educational Psychology. The chapter breaks down student's diversity today, and the standards that teachers are held to. The chapter then talks about what makes a good teacher. Effective teachers prepare and plan, create a great classroom environment, meet all instruction requirements, and complete profession responsibilities. It also talks about the role of Educational Psychology, that it is not just common sense. That it can be conducted in many ways, through experimental research, case studies, and many other ways. Woolfolk ends with ways that Educational Psychology can be used teaching, like using and understanding development, learning, motivation, and teaching.
Chapter 2 focuses on cognitive development. Woolfolk by first explaining the human brain, from neurons to white and gray matter, to cerebral cortexes. She discusses then development of the brain and the connects it make brain development to instruction. These ideas introduction Piaget's Theory, a model that describes how humans go about making sense of their world by gathering and organizing information. It is broken down into basic tendencies and the four stages of cognitive development; sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, and formal. Woolfolk then compares Piaget to Vygotsky. Vygotsky's perspective is that human activities take place in cultural settings and they cannot be understood apart from these settings. Three of Vygotsky's themes were spotlighted; social sources of individual thinking, cultural tools and cognitive development, and the role of language and private speech. Again Woolfolk ends with tying these philosophies into teaching.
Chapter 3 covers the self, social, and moral development. This chapter starts off with covering the physical develop that children go through. It breaks down the process that begins with gross motors skill, fine motors skills, their growth over their young years, puberty, maximum height, and maturing. Woodfolk also takes the time to address the differences in male and female development. She takes the time to talk about emphasis on play with children, exercise, disabilities and challenges of physical development like obesity and eating disorders. The next concept that Woodfolk addresses is the Social development. She talks talking about context and bioecological model. The essential is that each contexts affect the actins that take place within it. Context can be interpreted in many ways, this lead to the biological context model, that recognized the physical and social context in which we develop our own ecosystem that constantly interacts with others. She talks about family structure, parenting styles, culture and parents, attachment, divorce, and peers all play in development of a child. There is a sufficient amount of focus on aggression; from relational to media, modeling, and video game aggressive behavior. Next, she talks about identity and the concept of self. This is where Erikson's eight steps of psychosocial development are introduced. (This will be covered later in my blog.) Woodfolk talks about racial-ethnic identity as well. This addresses being part of an ethnic group, as well as assimilation, marginalized, and integration. She takes the time to break down racial identity and pride. This leads to the concepts of self. It is multidimensional in structure, and it develops as a child ages, and is often referred as self-esteem. She again takes the time to break down the difference in self-concepts in both female and male. She ends the chapter in talking about diversity in moral reasoning, and development in moral reasoning.
Three concepts stuck out to me in these week's chapters. The concept of Educational Psychology common sense, how the brain can teach us about education, and scaffolding. On page 14, When speaking of the principles of effective speaking, Woodfolk says. "People are tempted to say, and usually, 'Everyone knows that?'' She gives examples like should students help their students. Common sense would say that "Yes of course teachers should help their students." However, when you look at research it shows that teachers who help their students without their students asking for help actually make their student feel and look incapable of achieving on their own. This stuck out to me because I have the tendency to walk around my classroom, and when I see a student struggling I jump into help versus letting them ask for help. My student Jaleria, always asks for help now, and says she can't do it on her own. I feel terrible that I could even partially at fault for having her think she is incapable. In actuality she is very bright, it just takes her a little longer to understand concepts. I hope that in the future I can be available to help my students and wait for students to ask me for help. Having students take ownership of their learning and not taking over for them.
The second concept that stood out to me was the neuroscience behind education. Woodfolk takes the time in Chapter 2 to break down the human brain. She starts with the basics of neurons and covers synapses and brain cortexes, she brings it all together by talking about how humans uses their brain in education. On page 39, she uses the example a study that was done to show how the same activity can create activity in different areas of the brain based of culture. "...when Chinese speakers added and compared Arabic numbers, they showed brain activity in the motor (movement) areas of their brains, whereas English speakers performing the same tasks had activity in the language areas of their brains." This concept interested me because I was able to see that neuroscience is something that we need to pay further attention to. Woodfolk also talks about how these studies can help aid students with learning disabilities. I know some of my students learn better because they see numbers as unit or visual objects. Connect areas of the brain for further understanding is something I plan on looking further into and work to emerge it into my teaching.
The last thing that stood out to me about the reading this week was Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development. Each stage is broken down by age, important events, and how the children grows. The first stage is basic trust vs. basic mistrust, where the baby learns feeding. The second stage is autonomy vs. shame/doubt, where the infant learns toilet training. The third stage is initiative vs. guilt, the 3 yo to 6 yo learns independence. The fourth stage is industry vs. inferiority, 6 yo to 12 yo goes to school. The fifth stage is identity vs. role confusion, the adolsent learns peer relationships. The sixth stage is intimacy vs. isolation, the young adult learns love relationship. The seventh stage is generatively vs. stagnation, the middle age becomes parents and mentors. The eighth stage is ego integrity vs. despair, late adult reflects on and accepts ones life. At each stage the child/adult can make a choice between the two even without the knowledge they are doing so. This is great tool to identify needs of people.
Chapter 2 focuses on cognitive development. Woolfolk by first explaining the human brain, from neurons to white and gray matter, to cerebral cortexes. She discusses then development of the brain and the connects it make brain development to instruction. These ideas introduction Piaget's Theory, a model that describes how humans go about making sense of their world by gathering and organizing information. It is broken down into basic tendencies and the four stages of cognitive development; sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, and formal. Woolfolk then compares Piaget to Vygotsky. Vygotsky's perspective is that human activities take place in cultural settings and they cannot be understood apart from these settings. Three of Vygotsky's themes were spotlighted; social sources of individual thinking, cultural tools and cognitive development, and the role of language and private speech. Again Woolfolk ends with tying these philosophies into teaching.
Chapter 3 covers the self, social, and moral development. This chapter starts off with covering the physical develop that children go through. It breaks down the process that begins with gross motors skill, fine motors skills, their growth over their young years, puberty, maximum height, and maturing. Woodfolk also takes the time to address the differences in male and female development. She takes the time to talk about emphasis on play with children, exercise, disabilities and challenges of physical development like obesity and eating disorders. The next concept that Woodfolk addresses is the Social development. She talks talking about context and bioecological model. The essential is that each contexts affect the actins that take place within it. Context can be interpreted in many ways, this lead to the biological context model, that recognized the physical and social context in which we develop our own ecosystem that constantly interacts with others. She talks about family structure, parenting styles, culture and parents, attachment, divorce, and peers all play in development of a child. There is a sufficient amount of focus on aggression; from relational to media, modeling, and video game aggressive behavior. Next, she talks about identity and the concept of self. This is where Erikson's eight steps of psychosocial development are introduced. (This will be covered later in my blog.) Woodfolk talks about racial-ethnic identity as well. This addresses being part of an ethnic group, as well as assimilation, marginalized, and integration. She takes the time to break down racial identity and pride. This leads to the concepts of self. It is multidimensional in structure, and it develops as a child ages, and is often referred as self-esteem. She again takes the time to break down the difference in self-concepts in both female and male. She ends the chapter in talking about diversity in moral reasoning, and development in moral reasoning.
Three concepts stuck out to me in these week's chapters. The concept of Educational Psychology common sense, how the brain can teach us about education, and scaffolding. On page 14, When speaking of the principles of effective speaking, Woodfolk says. "People are tempted to say, and usually, 'Everyone knows that?'' She gives examples like should students help their students. Common sense would say that "Yes of course teachers should help their students." However, when you look at research it shows that teachers who help their students without their students asking for help actually make their student feel and look incapable of achieving on their own. This stuck out to me because I have the tendency to walk around my classroom, and when I see a student struggling I jump into help versus letting them ask for help. My student Jaleria, always asks for help now, and says she can't do it on her own. I feel terrible that I could even partially at fault for having her think she is incapable. In actuality she is very bright, it just takes her a little longer to understand concepts. I hope that in the future I can be available to help my students and wait for students to ask me for help. Having students take ownership of their learning and not taking over for them.
The second concept that stood out to me was the neuroscience behind education. Woodfolk takes the time in Chapter 2 to break down the human brain. She starts with the basics of neurons and covers synapses and brain cortexes, she brings it all together by talking about how humans uses their brain in education. On page 39, she uses the example a study that was done to show how the same activity can create activity in different areas of the brain based of culture. "...when Chinese speakers added and compared Arabic numbers, they showed brain activity in the motor (movement) areas of their brains, whereas English speakers performing the same tasks had activity in the language areas of their brains." This concept interested me because I was able to see that neuroscience is something that we need to pay further attention to. Woodfolk also talks about how these studies can help aid students with learning disabilities. I know some of my students learn better because they see numbers as unit or visual objects. Connect areas of the brain for further understanding is something I plan on looking further into and work to emerge it into my teaching.
The last thing that stood out to me about the reading this week was Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development. Each stage is broken down by age, important events, and how the children grows. The first stage is basic trust vs. basic mistrust, where the baby learns feeding. The second stage is autonomy vs. shame/doubt, where the infant learns toilet training. The third stage is initiative vs. guilt, the 3 yo to 6 yo learns independence. The fourth stage is industry vs. inferiority, 6 yo to 12 yo goes to school. The fifth stage is identity vs. role confusion, the adolsent learns peer relationships. The sixth stage is intimacy vs. isolation, the young adult learns love relationship. The seventh stage is generatively vs. stagnation, the middle age becomes parents and mentors. The eighth stage is ego integrity vs. despair, late adult reflects on and accepts ones life. At each stage the child/adult can make a choice between the two even without the knowledge they are doing so. This is great tool to identify needs of people.
I liked your practical example of helping students before they are asked, it is interesting to hear real-life evidence of the research. I also enjoyed the neuroscience examples of how the brain is actually working when applied to learning concepts that are culturally different and why it is so.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading about how the brain works and how is developing during the childhood and adolescence, especially how by knowing this we can learn how to teach better. I also find myself like you, helping students whom I see struggling and trying to help them find the answer when sometimes what they need is just more time.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading about how the brain works and how is developing during the childhood and adolescence, especially how by knowing this we can learn how to teach better. I also find myself like you, helping students whom I see struggling and trying to help them find the answer when sometimes what they need is just more time.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Don't know why my replied showed as unknown.