Reflection
My philosophy in education is based
primary on constructivist approaches. Several of the lessons I work with focus
on student centered guidelines and revolve around using real life scenarios to
generate knowledge on particular subjects.
When I first discussed my teaching philosophy at the beginning of this
course I focused on constructivist and problem based learning. The constructivist approach revolves around "The learner being an information constructor. People
actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective
reality (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011)." Problem based learning is of the
constructivist paradigm but is "an instructional method of hands-on,
active learning centered on the investigation and resolution of messy,
real-world problems (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011)." I
discussed how I use spreadsheet programs to allow students to make connections with
experimental data. During particular
activities where students were working with large amounts of data they can use
spreadsheets to create data tables and graphs to illustrate connections in the
data. I’ve also used experimental
hardware via Logger Pro so students to take precise measurements and find
correlations. I also discussed how I use
several different activities from a text called Enhanced PRISMS (Cooney, 2005).
These particular activities are based on a three stage learning cycle
that fits constructivist theory with a variety of physics based real life scenarios.
There are a couple of instructional
theories that I have been working more with since the start of this class. An example is social learning theory via
cooperative learning. As discussed
before, cooperative learning is described as a strategy in which students work
together for a specific goal (Herrell, 2008). I’ve created a lesson that
focuses on students working together to build their note taking skills. Once again, in realizing that effective
cooperative work requires that students are placed in small groups for a
specific task based on ability and this is not their primary source of learning
(Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., &
Malenoski, K., 2007). Another
theory addressed in this lesson was cognitive learning theory. Cognitive learning focuses on how student’s
process information and the goal of the lesson is to increase their ability to
make connections and recall and they recall it (Smith, 1999). In working with a group students can learn
from one another about what information is important and how they can create
ways to remember content.
Some long term goals I have with
implementing various instructional theory and technology focus on our schools
switch to one-on-one laptops. Many of the activities I plan have multiple links to
using technology and making me more as a facilitator rather than a
teacher. I want to create a learning
environment that focuses more on a student centered classroom. I have already started the process of
building course websites where students can access information and communicate
with each other. I have also planned another
activity for using blogs to discuss various topics in science. Before switching to blogs, I used to do this
activity with students where they would find articles and television shows that
interested them in some aspect of science and they would present their ideas
and content to the class. This can be
used as a scaffolding activity that was illustrated in Richardson's text about
blogging where I can relate postings to classroom material (Richardson, 2010).
References:
Cooney,
T.M. Ed. D., Escalada, L.T. Ph. D., Unruh, R.D. Ed. D. (2005)
Enhanced PRISMS. Cincinnati,
OH: Centre Pointe Learning Inc.
Learning Theories Knowledgebase. (2011). Index of Learning
Theories and Models. Retrieved
from http://www.learning-theories.com/
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs,
wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Corwin Press.
Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2008). 50 strategies for teaching English
language learners (3rd ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K.
(2007). Using technology with
classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Smith,
M. K. (1999). The cognitive orientation to learning. In The encyclopedia of
informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive.htm
