Module 4 Chapters 9, 10, and 11
Chapter 9 was about how teachers can use various strategies to help students learn and retain the knowledge they have learned to better store the information in their long-term memories and recall it when needed. This helps students move into more critical thinkers and become students and learners. I found the chapter to be very helpful as a teacher and showed me how I am as a student. I enjoyed the concept map experience as it helped me take the reading, break it down into smaller chunks, and better organize the information to make it more useful and understandable to myself.
I could relate to the topic of Overlearning (p. 371) and practicing a skill over and over again, until I knew it so well that I could automatically recall the information as needed. The example of multiplication tables is one that I could relate to. I remember practicing them over and over again and being timed on them as a child so that I could recall the answers faster and faster each time I took the test. As a teacher, I know that with my subject matter being Social Studies, I can help my students learn historical facts, dates, and even persons this way. I can make up fun games, songs, or mnemonic games to get them to know what I need them to know quickly and accurately.
I learned a lot about various classroom settings in Chapter 10. Most of the chapter discussed the benefit of positive learning environments and one topic kept resurfacing and that was on student-centered learning and how students should take ownership of their own learning and how they are more successful when they are more connected to the material they are learning. The quote on page 386 "Learners, therefore, are not empty vessels waiting to be filled, but rather active organisms seeking meaning." (Driscoll, 2005, p. 487) really made me think about my students and how they perform in classrooms. They can interact with peers, teachers, and the outside world. Learning is not just contained inside of the classroom, but it's also outside of it, and students need to know how to navigate through that environment as well. They internalize their learning and they can certainly take ownership of what they learn and how they learn. Reading about the different learning environments made me think about how I would like my classroom to look someday.
When students can collaborate and work together as a team or in a group, this skill can help them later in life when they find work in a setting that requires them to work well with others and not isolated or alone. As teachers, we can easily model this skill inside of the classroom and change-up our learning strategies to accommodate more learning skills inside the classroom to make better citizens outside of it. In reading through this topic, I did review the negative aspects to group learning and found that students do have to learn to become independent and need to know that they can figure out problems and solutions on their own and not just in a group setting. I also agree that "trial and error" helps students learn what the right and wrong answers are. That it is ok to make mistakes if those mistakes lead you to the actual solution. "Intellectual collaboration is a skill, learned through engagement and practice and much trial and error." (p. 401)
Chapter 11 really focused on the theory of Self-Directed Learning. I had difficulty with this chapter. Growing up, I did not learn what I wanted to learn in school. I learned that outside of school in the books I read or the videos I watched. I learned what the teachers wanted me to learn and that was what I thought was "normal." I don't think I was really given an opportunity until high school to explore outside interests and to incorporate those inside the classroom learning environment. College really gave me room to explore my interests and strengthen my skills both inside and outside of the classroom.
One thing I learned from this chapter and through my Teacher interview was the idea that from the beginning, a teacher must take control of his/her own classroom and do it consistently in order for the students to respond in a positive manner. Teachers should give choices to their students and create opportunities for their students to make the right choices so that they can model this positive behavior outside of the classroom and later in life. It's important for teachers to model good behavior and good decision making (p. 453) in order for their students to view what they should and should not do. The author talks about this model as being good for students to "Become encouraged to work collaboratively versus independently to ensure they have the support and shared regulation they need to be successful." (p. 453)
I could relate to the topic of Overlearning (p. 371) and practicing a skill over and over again, until I knew it so well that I could automatically recall the information as needed. The example of multiplication tables is one that I could relate to. I remember practicing them over and over again and being timed on them as a child so that I could recall the answers faster and faster each time I took the test. As a teacher, I know that with my subject matter being Social Studies, I can help my students learn historical facts, dates, and even persons this way. I can make up fun games, songs, or mnemonic games to get them to know what I need them to know quickly and accurately.
I learned a lot about various classroom settings in Chapter 10. Most of the chapter discussed the benefit of positive learning environments and one topic kept resurfacing and that was on student-centered learning and how students should take ownership of their own learning and how they are more successful when they are more connected to the material they are learning. The quote on page 386 "Learners, therefore, are not empty vessels waiting to be filled, but rather active organisms seeking meaning." (Driscoll, 2005, p. 487) really made me think about my students and how they perform in classrooms. They can interact with peers, teachers, and the outside world. Learning is not just contained inside of the classroom, but it's also outside of it, and students need to know how to navigate through that environment as well. They internalize their learning and they can certainly take ownership of what they learn and how they learn. Reading about the different learning environments made me think about how I would like my classroom to look someday.
When students can collaborate and work together as a team or in a group, this skill can help them later in life when they find work in a setting that requires them to work well with others and not isolated or alone. As teachers, we can easily model this skill inside of the classroom and change-up our learning strategies to accommodate more learning skills inside the classroom to make better citizens outside of it. In reading through this topic, I did review the negative aspects to group learning and found that students do have to learn to become independent and need to know that they can figure out problems and solutions on their own and not just in a group setting. I also agree that "trial and error" helps students learn what the right and wrong answers are. That it is ok to make mistakes if those mistakes lead you to the actual solution. "Intellectual collaboration is a skill, learned through engagement and practice and much trial and error." (p. 401)
Chapter 11 really focused on the theory of Self-Directed Learning. I had difficulty with this chapter. Growing up, I did not learn what I wanted to learn in school. I learned that outside of school in the books I read or the videos I watched. I learned what the teachers wanted me to learn and that was what I thought was "normal." I don't think I was really given an opportunity until high school to explore outside interests and to incorporate those inside the classroom learning environment. College really gave me room to explore my interests and strengthen my skills both inside and outside of the classroom.
One thing I learned from this chapter and through my Teacher interview was the idea that from the beginning, a teacher must take control of his/her own classroom and do it consistently in order for the students to respond in a positive manner. Teachers should give choices to their students and create opportunities for their students to make the right choices so that they can model this positive behavior outside of the classroom and later in life. It's important for teachers to model good behavior and good decision making (p. 453) in order for their students to view what they should and should not do. The author talks about this model as being good for students to "Become encouraged to work collaboratively versus independently to ensure they have the support and shared regulation they need to be successful." (p. 453)
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