Module 4, Chapters 9, 10 & 11
The three chapters for reading this week focused on complex cognitive processes for chapter nine, constructivism and designing learning environments for chapter ten and social cognitive views of learning and motivation for chapter eleven.
Chapter nine explained metacognition, the understanding of knowledge, learning strategies, problem solving, critical thinking, transfer and robust knowledge. Although I knew of the generalization of these concepts and ideas I really enjoyed learning how they all worked together, especially the strategies involved in critical thinking and argumentation (p. 364-6) and problem solving (pp. 351-361). We certainly did not have this when I was in school, everyone should be taught how to successfully solve problems. I thought this was a gold mine of skills that would improve everyone's life and it is so little spoken about in our personal lives with problems that people face everyday. Also intriguing was the methods experts of certain fields become effective ( p.362). I have been reading about classical education lately and am attracted to how to educate students in using logic, to teach students to analyze and discuss thoughts and ideas using the Socratic method. I always marveled that schools removed logic from the curriculum but now I feel more hopeful for the future in education, as students are actually being taught to think, analytically and critically.
Chapter ten explained constructivism and how to design the classroom environment for learning. We did study about cooperative learning in a few of the past classes, but I particularly was interested in reading about how to successfully apply these cooperative learning methods, and what can go wrong when using these methods (pp. 400-401). Going through Table 10.6 also brings about questions to think about when planning cooperative learning activities. It seems that inquiry and cooperative group work takes a lot of forethought and specialized teaching skills in order to be an effective learning experience. I think the effort of learning how to be an expert in cooperative learning will be a huge boon for my future middle school science students.
As chapter ten focused on constructivism, chapter eleven focused on social cognitive theories and motivation. I have to say that I found the tables & visuals very helpful to guide me through this chapter, comparing these concepts to the behavioralist, constructivists and cognitive theories. (Table 11.3, page 455). The ideas of self-regulation, tying in self-efficacy and motivation so that students can be more successful in their learning are very important for students to understand and teachers encourage. For me, this was the most depressing part of teacher observation so far, seeing how much effort, encouragement and resources the teacher had put into inquiry activities for her class and having the half of the students respond with such a disconnected, blaze attitude that was almost heartbreaking. It seemed that the students who were motivated to learn, despite their intelligence level, did well and amassed great depth of knowledge, but it was not the majority of the students in the classroom. Reading about Bandura's life (pp. 426-7), that hunger for learning, that motivation, grit, volition and will is exciting and seems so sadly missing in the majority of the students. So I think any strategies for teachers to use buoy up students' motivation will be critical for successful education.
Chapter nine explained metacognition, the understanding of knowledge, learning strategies, problem solving, critical thinking, transfer and robust knowledge. Although I knew of the generalization of these concepts and ideas I really enjoyed learning how they all worked together, especially the strategies involved in critical thinking and argumentation (p. 364-6) and problem solving (pp. 351-361). We certainly did not have this when I was in school, everyone should be taught how to successfully solve problems. I thought this was a gold mine of skills that would improve everyone's life and it is so little spoken about in our personal lives with problems that people face everyday. Also intriguing was the methods experts of certain fields become effective ( p.362). I have been reading about classical education lately and am attracted to how to educate students in using logic, to teach students to analyze and discuss thoughts and ideas using the Socratic method. I always marveled that schools removed logic from the curriculum but now I feel more hopeful for the future in education, as students are actually being taught to think, analytically and critically.
Chapter ten explained constructivism and how to design the classroom environment for learning. We did study about cooperative learning in a few of the past classes, but I particularly was interested in reading about how to successfully apply these cooperative learning methods, and what can go wrong when using these methods (pp. 400-401). Going through Table 10.6 also brings about questions to think about when planning cooperative learning activities. It seems that inquiry and cooperative group work takes a lot of forethought and specialized teaching skills in order to be an effective learning experience. I think the effort of learning how to be an expert in cooperative learning will be a huge boon for my future middle school science students.
As chapter ten focused on constructivism, chapter eleven focused on social cognitive theories and motivation. I have to say that I found the tables & visuals very helpful to guide me through this chapter, comparing these concepts to the behavioralist, constructivists and cognitive theories. (Table 11.3, page 455). The ideas of self-regulation, tying in self-efficacy and motivation so that students can be more successful in their learning are very important for students to understand and teachers encourage. For me, this was the most depressing part of teacher observation so far, seeing how much effort, encouragement and resources the teacher had put into inquiry activities for her class and having the half of the students respond with such a disconnected, blaze attitude that was almost heartbreaking. It seemed that the students who were motivated to learn, despite their intelligence level, did well and amassed great depth of knowledge, but it was not the majority of the students in the classroom. Reading about Bandura's life (pp. 426-7), that hunger for learning, that motivation, grit, volition and will is exciting and seems so sadly missing in the majority of the students. So I think any strategies for teachers to use buoy up students' motivation will be critical for successful education.
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