Classroom Management and Assessment

Managing the Classroom

My Opinion

To me this is the most frightening thing I can think of when it comes to teaching a class, because at times I can be a push over. As a student I was one of the worst behaving, I picked fights, was loud and talkitive, but I now see why I did it. I was a student who just wanted to seek attention. The one teacher I really admire is one who used my outburst as a teaching tool to me. She gave me options and treated me like a person not just a child, she understood where I was coming from and helped me through my behaviour. I think that when I am a teacher that I would use her as my greatest inspiration.

Dealing with classroom problems is a matter of timing, and the best time is before the problems occur (preventive), but sometimes problems arise and the teacher must deal with issues even if there was preventative measurements (reactive).Balance between preventive management and reactive management.

Teachers should ask what the function of the behaviour is, and why are they misbehaving? (Functional Approach)

Assessing the Seriousness and the Three Things to Consider

1. Severity: overall potential impact.
2. Chronicity: How chronic is the behaviour where does it take place?
3. Frequency: How often does it happen? If it happens all the time how effective is the teacher’s response?

Minor Interventions: These minor issues arise when the activity isn’t moving along and appropriate transitions are not in place.

Progressive Discipline Approach

1. Non-verbal: eye contact
2. Proximity: move closer to the issue
3. Redirection: make a general situation
4. Give needed instruction
5. Directly and Assertively tell them to stop

Moderate Interventions: Semi- Formal, like detentions, time outs, and with holding privileges.

Serious Interventions: Formal interventions that involve school administration, like suspension, in-school detentions, at home detentions, or even expulsion (usually last resort)

Assessing Students’ Learning

Alberta Assessment Consortium (AAC): Program of studies → Teacher as Planner → Teacher as Coach → Teacher as Judge →Program of studies …

Four Types of Assessment

1. Before instruction assessment: provides teachers with a baseline, where students are at before assessment.
2. During instruction assessment: Formative assessment ( FOR Learning) the teacher as coach stage, serves as a diagnostic to help the teacher and students know how they are doing.
3. After instruction assessment: Summative assessment (OF Learning) final exams, are the teacher as judge stage and assess the overall learning.
4. Assessment AS Learning: Self – Reflections involve meta-cognition allows for a higher level of cognition.

Three Features of Assessment

1. Reliability: Yields similar, predictable, reproducible, stable, and dependable results.
2. Validity: Measures what it claims to measure.
3. Fairness: All learners have the same opportunity to learn and show how they have learned the knowledge.

Current Trends

1. Use at least some performance based assessment
2. Examine some higher order cognitive skills
3. Use multiple assessment methods.
4. Have high performance standards
5. Use computers as part of assessment, incorporate new technology.

My Opinion

Assessment I think will be a easy part of teaching, but being the evaluating I think will be very tricky because at times you will know what the student is trying to say but the ideas presented will be too vague, and you might have to read between the lines. The questions is do you give the student a mark based on what you see or what you know, being completely objective to the situation and trying not to be subjective will be difficult. I hope that I will use as many different kinds of assessment so that all students have a chance to succeed this means I should use types for each type of intelligences. How can you find a way to teach math using music, or the students who ask why are we doing algerbra, when I have no need for it in real life? How can a teacher be truely fair?

Instruction

Learner-Centred Planning and Instruction

Constructivism: Student actively constructs own knowledge.

Four Principles

1. Seems to support Cognition and Meta-cognition, by facilitating thinking and self awareness by making corrective steps to fill in the gaps.
2. Seems to support Motivation and Affect, because it taps into the students desires to empower them to dig into the material.
3. Seems to support Developmental & Social Needs, because the students actively work with the world around them and by interacting with others.
4. Seems to be supportive to  Individual Differences, each student has a different learning style, gender, class and culture which the student can use in their own way to support their learning.

Three Strategies

1. Problem based or Project based strategies: students work together to solve a problem or create a project. This is how students can make a real world connection, and produce a product which would be a solution to a real world problem.
2. Asking Essential Questions: these are questions that dig down to the heart of the matter, like essay questions that ask to make connections.
3. Discovery Learning: Research based which guides the students understanding through the material. Guided discovery which is like Vygotsky’s scaffolding.

Integrating the Curriculum

1. Authentic: curriculum is more like the real world; subjects are normally holistically integrated, which makes the knowledge more useful to the everyday situations.
2. School: Subjects are not holistic, subjects are all taught separately and do not make any connections to each other which does not make sense when applying it to the real world.

Teacher Centred Planning and Instruction

Traditionalism: teacher centred approach, where the teacher is the direct provider of the knowledge the student needs to receive. Teacher lectures.

Behavioural Objectives: Statements that communicate proposed changes in the students behaviour to reach desired levels of performance.

1. Student’s behaviour, what the student will be able to do.
2. Conditions under which the behaviour will take place (when, where, how).
3. Performance criteria (measureable) and the terms (degree of accuracy or precision or quality).

*must be observable and measureable.

By June 15, Johnny will be able to correctly state all the provinces and capital cities in Canada with 90% accuracy.

ACT-How

1. Actions- the verb
2. Conditions
3. Terms
4. How? How will you know, how will it be assessed?

Instructional Taxonomies: There are a number of them including Blooms taxonomy, Affective Domain (emotional engagement), and Psychomotor Domain.

My Opinion

Personally I think the method Teacher Centred Instruction is most helpful, as a student I like to know what it is I need to know, and I can assume that if the professor states something I would probably need to know it. But I also like to incorperate the student centred approach as well, I think that it is important to dig deeper and find out material what you find interesting and expand it in a way that you find useful. It is important to show that you are able to use the ideas the instructor has taught you in a way that you can look at a subject and state what is going on even if it isn’t the particular example shown. I really find this most useful in biology and other science programs because the idea are too complex to understand if you teach yourself but with they help of someone who has the knowledge and knowing it for yourself in the end it is easy to find similar examples, or larger examples but explain it in a more complex way.  

Cooperative Learning and Motivation

Cooperative Learning: Constructing knowledge through social interactions.

Constructivist Approach:

We construct knowledge through our own knowledge of what we bring to the picture individually (learner specific).

Social Constructivist:

 Emphasizes on social and mutual construction. Vygotsky is a well known social constructivist.

Five Components of Cooperative Learning

1.      Positive Interdependence: Independent success is dependent on the success of the group. Everyone rises and falls together, this is common for me when doing group presentations because the overall presentation is what really counts the total effect of the work.

2.      Positive Face-Face Interactions: Sense of community which will reinforce the motivation to learn. When you see that everyone else is just as excited as you it is inspiring and motivating.

3.      Interpersonal and Small Group Interactions: People need to teach the skills and roles in group work.

4.      Individual Accountability: People don’t always contribute equally. Often teachers find a way to avoid this by assigning a mark based on what others had to say in your group.

5.      Critical Reflection: What I learned, and reflecting on the experience. Self reflection and self growth.

Motivation

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Deficiency of Needs: If the students don’t have these needs, the student cannot learn.

1.      Physiological: Most basic of needs, like food, shelter and clothes.

2.      Safety: A continuing supply of physiological needs.

3.      Love and Acceptance: Intimate core foundations of social relations.

4.      Self-Esteem and Respect: The social needs, feeling good about ones self and others.

Growth Needs: The needs we work for to become fulfilled.

5.      Knowledge and Understanding: Intellectual needs, want to grow and gain knowledge.

6.      Aesthetics and Beauty: Art, order, harmony, music, cinema, physical beauty.

7.      Self-Actualization: You as an individual are all you can be. Have peak experiences, and ecstasy.

8.      Self-Transcendence: No longer satisfied with self-actualization want to extend and contribute to others.

These needs drive behaviour. No matter what people do they do it because they have a need, there is always an explanation for peoples behaviours. The candle problem states that physical incentives don’t work, and that it stops creativity, this is true but not always true. I thrive on competition so if someone said I would be rewarded if I did better than someone else I would try my best. Like at work we were told that we needed to up sell some menu items, and that who ever did but would be rewarded. I told myself that I could do it that I would be the best and I did win. The candle problem also states that people should focus on the intrinsic motivations, the things that make us happy, I guess I did that too because winning is what make me happy, because I hate to lose and hate to be wrong.

2 Ways of Motivation

1.      Intrinsic: The internal reasons, we do what we do because we want to. (Higher levels of creativity)

2.      Extrinsic: The source that of motivation comes from the outside (Lower level tasks) money, power.

 Motivation.2

Orientation

1.      Helpless: People that just give up, state that they have an internal trait that just doesn’t make them successful.

2.      Performance: People are not focused on the process but the outcome, have a continuous eye on the prize, and if they don’t succeed it sucks away motivation.

3.      Mastery: Focuses on the tasks, skills, rather than the ability. Positive affect (enjoyment) generates solution orientation strategies that improve performances, curiosity and ownership of work and learning.

Memory

Memory: The process of recovering information about past events or knowledge, and Learning.

3 Processes of Memory:

Encoding

1.      Rehearsal: Is the conscious repetition over time. Example: writing out notes over and over again.

2.      Deep Processing: Dig into the concept and move towards deeper meaning. Example: Researching how different elements come into play and make the concept you want to know about more elaborate. Chemistry of why bread rises.

3.      Constructing Images: Another form of elaboration by making a visual extension of the concept. Example: Andi Bells super memory strategy.

4.      Organization: Make meaningful connections, by giving the concept structure. Example relating people in my life to Erik Erikson’s levels of human development, turns out everyone in my house hold is at a different level.

Storage

1.      Sensory: Fleeting in seconds or less. Most of it doesn’t stay. That why at times, when I am having a meaningless conversation I cannot recall what I just had said, because it doesn’t matter.

2.      Short Term: About 30 seconds. For me this would be random web searches, I will remember parts of that I had found out but not a lot.

3.      Long Term: Lasts a long time, because we make a connection to something we already know to something we want to know. This extends to my interests in Biology I tend to remember what I study because I find it enjoyable and I want to know more.

Retrieval: Knowing where to find it.

Forgetting

1.      Cue Dependant: The label or cue to find the information has a lost connection therefore the cue no longer works.

2.      Interference Theory: Other new information we have learned interferes with old information being found.

3.      Decay Theory: The foundation of the pathways to the information disappears. Neuropath ways decay because of lack of use.

My Opinion:  The way I study is in a sense rehearsal, I like to study with flashcards which is repetition until you think you know the material. This study strategy works for exams but I don’t think it lasts in the long term memory. I think that if I made more connections to the material like my example of comparing family to Erik Erikson’s levels that it would last longer. Memory to me only works if you work on it, but I believe that it takes a lot of effort for it to remain and lots of the time I would rather relax or do something better, in a sense our brains are just as lazy as the user. So if people want better memory and be better, work on memory and work on yourself. Use the secrets of success.

Richard St.Johns secrets of success.

1.Passion

2.Work

3.Good

4.Focus

5.Push

6.Serve

7.Ideas

8.Persist

Functional Analysis and Cognitive Information Processing

Functional Analysis:

Involves examining a student’s inappropriate behaviour as well as the antecedents, and its consequences to determine the functions of the behaviour might serve for the students.

A-     Antecedents- what brings up, or happens before the negative behaviour.

B-      Behaviour- the negative behaviour.

C-      Consequences- what happens after the fact?

Positive Behaviour Support:

After indentifying the purpose of the inappropriate behaviour we find other ways to deal with the needs in an appropriate way.

5 Strategies:

1.       Directly teach desirable behaviours

2.       Consistently reinforce new behaviours in a way the student appreciates.

3.       In the classroom try to identify predictable routines. This reduces anxiety and makes them feel comfortable.

4.       Provide frequent opportunities for choice, learning through doing.

5.       Provide adaptations to support academic success, to allow for change we remove barriers.

My Opinion:

I understand that by doing preventative measures it may reduce negative behaviours but it seems to be that this is just makeup on the problem, nothing is really solved it just prevents issues for the time being. I think people need outlets where they can deal with issues and fulfill their needs; these ideas seem a bit manipulative. Sometimes even if routines are in place it won’t always be an effective strategy.

Cognitive Information Processing Approach:

The brain acts like a computer, bringing information into the system and storing it there in an organized fashion.

Robert Siegler’s 3 Characteristics:

1.       Thinking:  Information processing.

2.       Change Mechanisms: How information and content changes in the system.

1.       Encoding:  Storage- bringing information into the system and storing it in a way the brain can understand.

2.       Automaticity: Process at which the cognitive activities becomes automatic. The way the brain works and changes.

3.       Strategy Construction: Creating more effective and efficient ways of processing information in a conscious way.

4.       Transfer: Apply something we learn and transfer it to another situation.

3.       Self Modification: Meta cognition, thinking about our own thinking. How people can reframe a situation. This is an active process asking the questions am I really getting it.

SQRRRR:

1.       S- Survey: What’s to come, prepares mind.

2.       Q-Question: Mode of active engagement.

3.       R- Read: Kind of obvious

4.       R-Recite: Say it out loud, mobilizing modalities.

5.       R-Relate: Relate what you are learning to what you know.

6.       R-Review: Go back and do another survey.

My Opinion:

This way of looking at the brain is really effective, but I dislike the terminology of the computer, I think that there is so much more going on than that. The SQRRRR method really does work, I use it all the time not when reading though but when studying flashcards, to me I think this is the most effective way of studying but at times it is not effective when reciting something you did months ago.  In many ways the characteristic of Transfer is used most often in psychology because that is the reason for the blog I think to take the information we have learned and be able to recite and apply it to something else we know, or how we think we might use information in a particular setting.

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning:

Is the most traditional way of managing the classroom because “It Works”, as it is effective for managing behaviours. But it does have a down side, it fails to ensure lasting behavioural management, Students will behave while the teacher is there but not when the teacher isn’t. The students are not being proactive in their behaviour, and not managing themselves. This topic most closely reminds me of Lawrence Kohlberg’s levels and stages of Moral Development.

Lawrence Kohlberg states that there are 3 levels of moral development each stage becoming more internalized.  The first stage is Pre Conventional which includes A) Punishment: which is the fear of negative consequences. B) Hedonism: Doing something despite negative consequences because they like the product.

 The second stage is Conventional which includes A) Nice boy/girl: They want society to see them as a good person in society. B) Law and Order: not doing something just because the law says so.

And Lastly Post Conventional A) Social Contract: Society respects each other and there is an open agreement to do it because they themselves choose to. B) Universal Ethical: Purely internalized, and see the practical options.

I see the class room in terms of what was stated above as the fear of negative consequences, like Pre Conventional stage Punishment.

At times I do not get these methods at all, because I have just resently moved in with my dad who has two young daughters, and it seems that no matter what anyone does they still act they way they do. You can tell them what they are doing is wrong, or you can praise what they do, and everything in between and the outcome is always the same. Is there just no hope for them?

Positive Reinforcement:

Increasing or maintaining good behaviour by adding something to the situation. An example of this in the classroom would be that the teacher sees that everyone is working quietly doing as they were told, and teacher adds a compliment, saying thank you all for working so nicely today.

Positive Punishment:

Decreasing negative behaviour by adding something to the situation. An example of this would be that the teacher sees a student picking on another student, so to decrease this behaviour the teacher gives the student a detention.

 Negative Punishment:

Decreasing negative behaviour by taking something away.  An example  of this would be the teacher sees that a student is not using computer time effectively, so the teacher takes computer time away from the student.

Negative Reinforcement:

Increasing or maintaining good behaviour by taking something away from the situation. An example would be that the teacher want to increase productivity and studying so the teacher says if you all work till the end of class appropriately I will take away the end of day quiz.

Generalization:

When there is a similar response to a similar stimulus. They will continue to show positive behaviour everywhere, so that the behaviour becomes generalized to every part of life.

Extinction:

You extinguish all types of Reinforcement and Punishment so that there is no stimulus. This is when nothing seems to work, just do nothing and see how the situation changes or if it does.

Differentiating Instruction

Differentiating Instruction:

The teacher modifies content, process, and product through the student’s readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

By modifying instruction all students will be able to learn despite all their differences, like strengths and backgrounds.

What Teachers Modify

Content:

Is “THE WHAT” and materials of learning. WHAT are the outcomes of the curriculum, how students can learn with different materials, like textbooks, posters, music, field trips, and all the other possibilities of materials that can be used to explore and expand the students mind. In short there is a choice and range of possibilities.

Process:

Are “THE ACTIVITIES” teachers use to get students to learn. How does the teacher want the students to learn the outcomes or “THE WHAT”. Will the teacher have the students create, read, research, listen? In many ways the teacher wants to have many choices to choose from, I myself would get tired if I only did one type of project, yes I would get really good at it fast, but I wouldn’t know how to use a variety of ways to get what I have learned across. It is important to also have many activities to allow all types to learners to feel engaged, if students just read then students who find this to be a challenge, then you put them at a disadvantage.

Product:

Are “THE VEHICLES” which students demonstrate what they have learned. Traditionally this is tests, asking can the student answer all the questions correctly? But there are many different ways that students can present their knowledge like, conversations, blogs, posters, demonstrating, or presenting. There are so many different possibilities, so teachers should give the students choices to show what they have leaned.

What Students Bring

 Readiness:

This is where the student is in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Sometimes the student is in a grade level which they are not ready for, or is gifted and understands everything that is presented. There are challenges when it comes to the student’s readiness, do you sacrifice one student even though they struggle, or do you try to bring them to the same level as everyone else despite the time and effort, I would hope everyone would try to help others but sometimes that is just not the case. When it comes to gifted students they are not always engaged with what you teach, but teachers tend to spend extra time with these students to help them achieve greater expectations. This parallel is a little one sided.

Interests:

These are the students passions, curiosity, what gets the students hooked. By using many students hooks we can get students passionate about their learning, they will actively pursue what makes them happy.   Many students say “what the point of learning this?” well if you show them that by learning something they think is trivial then they can apply it to what they love then it will get them more involved. Example: A student is passionately involved in skateboarding but they hate physics, so you can use examples of skateboarding and apply it to the problems.

Student Profiles:

This is the students learning styles, how do they learn in terms of Multiple Intelligences. Are they hands on learners, verbal, logical, reflective? Teachers are able to help students achieve success by using many types of learning styles.

Inclusive Education

Inclusive Education

Learner’s who are exceptional are students who require specialized programming or support.

Special Education: Is a way of removing barriers by having Individual Program Plans or IPP’s.

Inclusive Education is a way which all students are educated together, each having their own IPP’s.

Service Delivery Models

1.       Special Education Classes: This type is most common in today’s education system. It helps students who have needs that require more help. Some of these needs are managing ones behaviour, or emotions. This is a way for students with learning disabilities learn new strategies. 

In my opinion this is a good option in some ways, for students who are a constant distraction and influence the classroom in a negative ways, students like those who are verbally abusive towards the teacher and others. These types of classroom were more prominent in high school, the high school I went to had to types of special education classroom, one for students that did not fit the regular classroom environment (behavioural problems), and the other was for students with extreme learning disabilities. In a way this is helpful to the common teacher who has no training with this, but the way these people were presented was extremely negative, there was one classroom in the basement and one on the other side of the football field.  

2.       Resource Rooms: These rooms are part of the regular classroom, but students go off to these special rooms part of the time.

 I think this is the best way to deal with people who only struggle with learning disabilities in only some subjects. In my experience I think I might have gone to one of these before, because I use to go speak to someone, and read papers to test my reading levels, this was in grade 4 but I don’t remember going to one after that grade.

3.       Inclusive Classrooms:  These classrooms involve all members equally contributing to the classroom, all students no matter what needs they need will be treated in the same class as everyone else, each student will have an IPP.

This is a good idea in theory but I just do not think that all students are capable of being taught in the same classroom. If this was to occur I could for see students sacrificing their own learning and progress. Sometimes it will be a lot of distraction; in elementary school I had two classes that were inclusive part due to the school being so small. One student was  really good, and only had minor outbursts, but in the other  one student was physically abusive to others, and always tried to pants students by pulling at the rip off Adidas pants, students had to stop wearing those to school.

To respond to the Question: “How difficult can this be?”

I think being a student with a learning disability can be very hard, it must be hard seeing, and processing information in a different way must be the most stressful thing someone can go through, the frustration, anxiety, and tension must be over whelming. But it will also be difficult to make inclusive education work, in a productive and manageable way.

Gender

Gender: A Learned Behaviour

Gender: The social-cultural dimension.

1. There are gender ideals
2. There are gender challenges
3. There are gender ranges (continuum's)
4. Some people find the ideals and continuum's oppressive.

In many ways gender ideals are completely subjective, but they are mainly a way that a society views the perfection femininity and masculinity. Some people think that a woman should be a classic beauty like Audrey Hepburn, or a curvey women with sex appeal like Marilyn Monroe, or even a women that challenges the boundries and are more athletic like Angelina Jolie. There are a wide range of ideas of femininty, but in my views the same is not true for masculinity. Masculinity throughout time has shown me that the ideas around being a man has not changed, men with masculine attrubutes are strong, fit, are scene as providers, and have courage. I may be wearing rose colored glasses because I am a female, but in many cases, the images of men are in this view like Chuck Norris.

Sex: A biological feature (aspect of gender) Male or Female Genitalia

Gender Roles: Expectations of thinking, acting and feeling. (cognition, behaviour, and affect)

Gender Development: Theories of gender typing, and how we learn to fulfill gender roles.

Biological view: Rooted in Physiology, specifically Neurobiology. Source of where gender comes from in the brain. Determining mechanisms that make someone male of female. But biology is not destiny, especially for complex attitudes.
Social Learning: Albert Bandura suggests that how we learn gender is said to be by imitating and identifying roles models. Mom and Dad are really influential when mirroring gender. Many reacting to what they see, and how others react to those role models. * Observation and Modelling.
Cognitive Developmental: Lawerence Kholberg, who is influential in Moral Development, is also influential in Gender Development. This idea is that the individual learns gender concepts, interprets the experience and processes the information. The individual will learn gender ideas over time the ideas will become permanent. Gender permanence in the individuals mind. *Even though the child looks different they can distinguish what they are, or what other people are.
Gender Schema Theory: This is a information processing approach. The child learns cultural frameworks of gender from the community. Overtime there might be a overlap. When individuals have the same views of gender as society they tend to have a greater self esteem and more success, while if your ideas do not match society even if society does not know your views these people have a lower self esteem, and form a disconnection from society.

Issues

Stereotypes: Broad categories of expected behaviours. People might have lower expectations, based on what people think of you.

Gender Bias: The separation of gender in a way which prefers one sex over the other. In education some teachers give more time for males to answer questions then females.

Sexual Orientation: Is the pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to a specific gender or both. In a educational setting some people might have issues with what is not the norm, and may discriminate based on a persons identity.

Erik Erikson

 

Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Human Development

Trust Vs. Mistrust
This stage is developed between the ages of 0-1 year old. In this time the infant is dependant on the people who care for them, and in order to gain trust of the world around them they must feel warmth and love from the caregiver. If the infant does not gain the positive outcome they will always fall on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Autonomy Vs. Shame and Doubt
This stage is developed between the ages of 1-2 years old. The infant starts to extend themselves away from the caregiver into the world. This extension is key when trying to develop Autonomy.
Initiative Vs. Guilt
This stage is developed between the ages of 3-5 years old. The child begins to care for themselves and their belongings. Self responsibilities are a way which Initiative is developed.
Industry Vs. Inferiority
This stage is developed between the ages of 6-till puberty, during the time they are in elementary school. Children will never be more curious than in this stage. Children want to learn and do new things. It is important to provide many different types of learning activities for children to flourish.
Identity Vs. Identity Confusion
This stage is from the ages of 10-20 during Adolescence. In this time they ask important questions about themselves, where do we fit in, and who we are.
Intimacy Vs. Isolation
This stage is from the ages of 20-30 years old. At this time the individual is looking for a Intimate partner to love and share a life with. This relationship will be responsible for the family aspects that need to be met.
Generativity Vs. Self Absorption
This stage is from the ages of 40-50 years old. At this point in life they will have a primary relationship, and will begin to look outward. What will they want to leave behind for their family and the generations to come. How does their live effect the world, and what is their legacy.
Integrity Vs. Despair
This stage is from the age of 60 and beyond. And is about reflection. Can the individual look back on their life and be proud of the live they have lived. If the individual does not have integrity they will only look back on their life with despair.

The needs of the individual never goes away, if the individual never achieves the positive outcome for life, it will carry on throughout their life, but as an adult they can always go back and rectify what is missing in order to become a happier person.

What is my current, and main priority in life?

At this point I am almost 21 years of age but, my current priority for me right now seems to be conflicted, I want to find someone to be with me, someone I can share my life with, but I don't know who I am. Who I am plays a huge role in who I want to be, and be with.

Diversities and There Role In School

Diversities

1. Socioeconomic Status: (S.E.S.) Is the ranking in social and economic hierarchy. So this means that we all have a place in society in a hierarchical level. School are one way to sort society into categories, the ones that will succeed and the other who do not. We all come into schools the same, but we all come out differently. S.E.S. Is strongly correlated with academic success, people with a low status tend to have low academic success. In my opinion this is a very tragic yet necessary part of society, we can not all be doctors, lawyers, but we as society need people to be unsuccessful in order for others to have success. Not all people are equal and our society banks on and hopes for a wide range of levels of achievement.
2. Cultural Capital: Is the cultural feature associated with S.E.S., it is what each student brings culturally to school. Culture also plays a huge role when associated with success. School its self has a culture and when a student comes to school with the ideas that fit perfectly with the school ( the culture of the student themselves), it is a recipe for success, and if the student doesn't fix with the subscribed culture it only puts up barriers. But a student can always change their attitudes and culture to fit. Some features include language (swearing, dialect), fashion, and attitudes.
3. Reduce Barriers: How can we reduce barriers? One way is to watch our attitudes, examine the way we think of certain attitudes. Watch our expectations, and consider where the students are coming from. Does the student have other responsibilities, or the proper care of a guardian.
4. Multicultural Education:
   1. Empowering Students: We want to empower them to facilitate them to succeed, by embracing their individuality, and culture. We also should empower students to want to improve their overall community.
   2. Kanu's Three Recommendations:
      1. The school curriculum should be openly anti-racist and anti-discriminatory.
      2. Multicultural Education should be part of every students education.
      3. Students should be trained to be more conscious of culture, including their own.

Exploration: How in your own life and school career, have you observed education and diversity done? What if anything, would you like to do differently? Why?

Diversity has played a huge role in my education, in Primary to Junior High I lived in Terrace British Columbia, where everywhere you went they celebrated First Nation Culture. This culture was taught by making button blankets, wooden paddles, and nature walks in my earlier years, to first nation seminars and assemblies led by First Nation Drum ceremonies. Yes I do believe in celebrating culture, and that it can bring unity to society, but this also brought up alot of tension. There was empowerment to the extreme, and in a 50/50 community of Caucasians and First Nations, there were lots of disputes.

In High School I moved to North Delta British Columbia, where there was a definite hierarchy in social standing, the children who had issues with the contemporary school system had a portable across the field separate from the school, as well as students who had mental disabilities had there own room in what the students called the basement of the school. Yes there were other classrooms in the basement but they were always out of sight and out of mind.

For the first instance I would would incorporate other cultures as well as First Nation, this way I would hope that there isn't an over empowering experience. For the second instance it is hard to change that system in a high school. Schools have a certain culture because it works and works well, people can change their cultural influences but for the most part a school can only make little changes.

To IQ or Not To IQ

To IQ. or Not To IQ.

IQ Definition: “ A simple way to describe intelligence by assigning a number that represents the ratio of mental intelligence to chronological age, multiplied by 100. Average I.Q is therefore 100 and is based on comparison between an individual's performance and that of other comparable people.”

Mental Age Definition: The level of mental development compared to others.

IQ Formula: MA/CA x 100

Four Myths About IQ

1. IQ measures some mysterious property. Truth: Measures the one score on one day.
2. IQ is constant. Truth: IQ can change.
3. IQ is the only point we need to know about kids. Truth: IQ is only one of many points.
4. IQ tests are impartial. Truth: The test is full of Bias.

One Fact About IQ

1. IQ scores are correlated with academic success.

Should Kids IQ's Be Tested?

I am completely for testing kids IQ's, but only for the knowledge not for placement purposes. Knowing a child's IQ for the bases of knowing where the child stands on a academic level can be helpful. If the IQ test shows that the child has a low mathematic level, but a high vocabulary level allows the tester to suggest improvement in certain areas. IQ should in no way be used as a placement object, because it in no way inclusive education. The only children who will benefit from exclusive education are those with a irregularly high score, by allowing them to achieve greater than they would in a regular classroom, but in some ways I think this would be a disadvantage to their social skills. Children should not be dumb down by placing them in a class with children who happen to share the same IQ score, it treats the children as if the have leprosy where just because they are different from the norm they should be treated differently. IQ should be tested regularly to be taken seriously, because one test is not the defining word, a child may perform bad one day,but excellent another. This shows that we must be wise consumers of what IQ states. IQ should be used as a tool for figuring out issues in a child's education, not a way to decide the fate of a student. Because IQ is correlated with academic success, that is the only use for it, it does not show how creative the student is, or their ability to deal with situations, or even social skills, having a low IQ does not make a child dumb, it just shows one way to measure intelligence on a particular day.

Bronfenbrenner's Five Systems

 

Bronfenbrenner's Five Ecological Systems

All five systems are centred around the individual. Individual characteristics include gender, age, ethnicity, and health.

1. Micro-system:Is the system with which the individual has direct association. The system interacts with the individual and the individual interacts with the system. The system is built through their contributions. Friends, School, Family, and Neighbour Hood are a few examples of the micro-system. Student is not doing well in school.
2. Meso-system: Is the system that connects other systems. Micro-system to Micro-system, and Micro-system to Exo-system. This is the connection that allows one system to directly effect another. Family issues also effect performance at school, is micro-system to micro-system.
3. Exo-system: In this system the individual is effected my the system indirectly and does not have an active role in molding system. If the parent loses their job, it causes stress at home and can then effect the individual, but the individual cannot actively control the job situation of the parent.
4. Macro-system: This is the attitudes and Ideologies of the culture the individual lives in. The Individual does not have the power to change the views of the people. Attitudes and ideas based on race, gender, social standings, is an example. If the student is not doing well in school because of family issues, because the parent has lost their job because of new found prejudices in the society is how the Macro-system effects the individual.
5. Chrono-system: The change in society over amounts of time. Views in society at any given point, what are the major events in the individuals life.

This is an example of how all the five systems effect one another and in turn the individual. At this point in time women in the work force are not being treated fairly because of the place in time, women are new to the work force. Men of power in society feel it is better that women do not work, but take care of their families. The mother is layed off, effecting the family because they do not have enough money and are forced to move, the move takes alot of hard work and the student falls behind in school. And in turn the student does not do well.

Start With Why- Why I Want To Be A Teacher

Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action

“People don't buy what you do but why you do it.”

Why do I want to become a teacher?

I want to become a teacher because I believe that children are the future, this is very true yet predictable. I believe that I can inspire and provide a service to students, parents, and the community. In many ways I want my students to know that I am there for them and no one else, yes teaching is a job and compensation comes with that, but anyone can work and make money. Choosing what I want to do, based on what I think will make me happy and fulfilled. I want to be inspire and inspire myself.

How I want to be a teacher?

I want to be influential, fun, and make school interesting. Being dedicated to school issues, sports, and activities. I will be a effective teacher by using the necessary skills of effective teaching such as:

1. Instructional Strategies
2. Goal Setting
3. Classroom Management
4. Motivational Skills
5. Communication Skills
6. Technological Skills

What I want to do?

I want to be a teacher. What I want to become is the proof of what I believe. Yes I might be a great teacher someday. But what will make me a great teacher, it could be that I am good at explaining the curriculum, or it could be that I inspire student to become better people themselves. These students want to learn because it gives them greater understanding of the world, like what it expects of them, and how they can change it.

What is the recipe for success?

Sinek talks about the recipe for success, I am not the smartest,or brightest, I don't have connections or money. But I proven to myself that I can get somewhere based on what I choose to do and the people who have taken me away from the things that corrupt me, I can take the bad and do my best to make it positive, I cannot say that I have become a success but I hope I will someday get there. I think that pushing students to succeed can produce great people, being part of a process in someones life is an amazing feeling. To me the recipe of success is not having all the power, money, and intelligence, its having people in your life who push you to succeed, people who believe what you believe and that is you. As a teacher I believe in the students and they should believe in themselves.

Start From The Inside Out

Simon Sinek's Bullseye
What (Outside)
How(Middle)
Why(Centre)

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

My topic is based on this video shown in my EDPY 200 class. Not all information displayed is not my own, some stated in class, text or this video.

Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky.

A theorist that believed that children actively construct their own knowledge.

Vygotsky's Assumptions:

1. Learning occurs according to a developmental pathway.- It must start with a strong foundation which builds over time.
2. Cognitive Skills are structured by Language- Through language we think, learn, and know, and without language there is no cognition.
3. Cognitive skills are originated social relations and are embedded in a socio-cultural backdrop.- One cultural way of learning might not be the same as another culture.
4. Learning is situated and collaborative - That people learn based on an apprenticeship relation. Teacher to Student, Coach to Player.

Zone of Proximal Development:

This is the space or skill level that is set just beyond the level that which the student knows, and the student can do it but only with the help of the mentor. This is important because if the bar is set too low the student is never challenged and doesn't learn new material. They will only get better at what they know to be true.

Scaffolding:

Is the support the Teacher provides in order for the student to reach the Zone of Proximal Development. As the students reaches and understands the new material, the scaffold can then be raised to a new zone of proximal development, in this way the student will always be challenged but has the support of the teacher or master.

Dialogue and Rational Organization:

With the use of language our thoughts become more organized. What we think can be pieced into what we say, being able to have an idea and explain what we know. Dialogue can give the mentor a background to the students level they are at, and can intern decide the Zone of Proximal Development. Teacher's can guide students in the right direction, because for an example if the student doesn't know addition the teacher will not make the student learn multiplication.

• This point really interests me, because we don't always say what we believe to be true, our thoughts are always picked apart and scattered. It's almost reversed in a way, the ability to speak disorganizes our thoughts because we think about every detail that comes out of our mouths and try to figure out how it will be taken. The more we think about what we want to say, lots of the mental organization is lost. Sometimes it is hard to put together what are mind and mouth are saying in uni-sen. What people are saying is not always what are mind is thinking, it is as if it's a lie. Might have gone off on an idea there, but i hope its of some relevance, but what i was trying to say is that dialogue can also leave people with rational disorganization.

Comparison between Vygotsky and Piaget.

Piaget who I have mentioned in the previous blog and Vygotsky have very distinct ideas about how students and children learn. Both theorist agree that the student cannot advance from one stage of learning or skill till they have completed the previous one. The age limitations of Piaget can be hard to believe but they in fact make sense when thinking of the average age, some may grow learn faster and others slower but in general true. While in the case of Vygotsky he states that cognitive skills are structured by language, and with out it there is no cognition this point is one which needs clarification, does Vygotsky mean only the verbal language? If so why doesn't it include body language or any other form of recognition. Just because one person cannot speak does not mean they cannot think, reason, or remember. Piaget's theory is not very detailed in this way because he does not incorporate the use of language into his theory. Both theory's have there good point and bad points, Vygotsky seems to be more modern, while Piaget is more concrete and to the point. There is not right or wrong path to follow but we might want to take all of it and use it simultaneously. One can use the idea of cognitive stages but at the same time use the scaffolding technique and if the time comes where the student reaches an age but Piaget thinks at that point they cannot succeed, the teacher can still push the to success and maybe past the boundaries set out. All people are different so each person has there own path of development no matter what Piaget or Vygotsky may think, the only thing to worry about is reaching your potential.

Jean Piaget's Theory

Jean Piaget.

Cognitive theorist (thinking, reasoning, and remembering)

Piaget states there are two processes for which information can become incorporated into a person's schema,which is the framework of beliefs and how each person thinks.

1. Assimilation.
This is the first process at which new information fits perfectly into what we know without challenge.
2. Accommodation.
This is the second process where new information does not fit, your schema will have to rearrange things to accommodate it.
To me the second process is more meaningful, it allows our schema's to branch out and grow as new information becomes available. This transformation allows people to pick apart every detail, whether we agree with one thing and disagree with the other, we manage to expand our minds as new branches and connections are made to what we know and what is new. If new information fits perfectly into what people think of the world, how is it able to stand out, it is information that we may never really think about again because we agree with it. One piece of new information can change everything we think we know, and in turn become new people. The world was never really flat, that is just what people knew to be true, to find out that it was round must have changed what they thought of alot of ideas.

Piaget's Four Stages of Development.

Another Idea of Piaget's was that all development happens in four distinct stages, that it is a progression from a lower (simpler) understanding to a higher more complex level of understanding.

1. The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 yrs), at this point children understand the world by feeling, hearing, and moving through it. The world is only part of what they themselves have experienced, their is nothing outside of themselves.
2. The Preoperational Stage (2-7 yrs), at this point the child is beginning to use Symbolic thought- to use signs and symbols and being able to relate them to physical objects, to be able to think through the use of language. Also the child begins to make predictions of the world. At this point in development it has two limitations Egocentrism and Animism. Egocentrism- is the inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective. So in other words not being able to realize that although they are happy you are not. Animism- belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action. Like the swing doesn't like me it pushed me off. (Educational Psychology P41)
3. The Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 yrs), at this stage the child is now able to preform conservation. Which is being able to distinguish that even though two portions may look different they can be the same, and example would be cutting a pie in three pieces vs cutting it into four pieces although one pies has more cuts the total amount is the same. A child who is at this stage can reason through the problem, and use logic, but has a limitation being that it must be tied down to physical object. They can also classify objects into categories. This is also the stage where a child can preform Seriation, and Transitivity. Seriation- a concrete operation that is being able to place objects into a series, such as varying lengths of sticks. Transitivity- the ability to transfer information and make decisions based on deductive reasoning.
4. The Formal Operational Stage (11-15 yrs) at this stage a child can now preform abstract reasoning, they can now preform Hypothetical-Deductive reasoning which is asking what could happen if they did this, they make hunches to reach conculsions. They also develop another form of egosentrism meaning everyone is as interested in me as I am. This really resonates with me because I am living with my step-sisters who think the world revolves around themselves, that even though you might just be minding your own business you are ruining there life.

A video I found showing Piaget's Conservation.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLEWVu815o again I didn't create the video. My sources are my Education Psychology Class with Robert Christopher Nellis and Educational Psychology Textbook.