Week 5: Sociocultural and Developmental Theory

Big Idea: After reading module 7, I think that children can learn through other people. A child has their own knowledge that has been developed individually and a level that they can potentially reach with the help of more advanced individuals. If the child is "paired" with someone who is more advanced then them, they can reach their highest level of development.

Activity: An effective activity that could be used in the classroom would be to bring in other students who are more advanced into their classroom. Each student could be paired with one of the advanced students and they could meet with their partner each week working on a certain subject area that is a struggle for the younger child. The older child can help teach or develop more complex concepts for the younger student.

Reflection: According to the reading, Vygotsky says that the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the difference between the students’ actual development that was constructed individually and their level of potential development which can be reached through the help from another more capable individual. All of the skills that the child could possibly develop falls under this ZPD. Once the child reaches their potential development, it then becomes their actual development level and there is a new potential development, so the process starts over again. From the model, you see that that student can work with a teacher or a person who is more advanced than them to reach their potential. The arrows represent them bridging the gap between each other using psychological and cultural tools so that they can effectively be partners.

Week 3 Redesign

Big Idea: After reading module 9, I think that students learn something when there is a change in their behavior. In the classroom, teachers use positive and negative reinforcement or punishment to help students learn. Negative reinforcement would be taking something away that is undesirable whereas negative punishment would be to take something away that is desirable. Positive reinforcement is giving or adding something that is desirable and positive punishment is adding or giving something that is undesirable.

Activity: An effective way to use these concepts in the classroom would be to positive reinforcement. Encouraging a student or rewarding them when they show good behavior in the classroom is a good way. As a teacher, we can use other students to demonstrate what good behavior is. Saying things like "Look how nicely Susy raised her hand and waited for me to call on her to speak." This shows those who are blurting things out that they will get praised for raising their hand verses blurting out, therefore causing them to raise their hand instead (behavior change). According to the reading, reinforcement can occur on an intermittent schedule; ratio which would be like every 3rd time a student raises their hand, interval which would be like after a certain period of time (every 5 minutes), fixed which would be at a fixed time that the students can expect such as rewarding every Monday, or variable which would be a combination of all where the students know they will be rewarded but do not know when because it is different each time.

Reflection: From my experience in working in a daycare, this is something that I do often in the classroom. Young children love attention and by pointing out what another student is doing brings attention to that student, so others are going to want to follow to gain the attention. The student who is being praised may feel good about themselves as well because they are gaining attention and are going to repeat that behavior so that they can continue to get attention. Though this is a great method, it is important to be cautious about students who may not want the attention and may withdraw because of the praise. The teacher should understand the function of attention for each student. My new model shows this because the student sees the people in the classroom raising their hand and sees that another student is being rewarded for this. The student then sees that by raising their hand or doing a good behavior, he/she will get rewarded so he/she raises their hand. This model is an example of positive reinforcement; however, I believe that positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment are also equally effective ways to learn.

Week 1 Post

Hello! My name is Mariah Highbaugh and I am currently in my Junior year here at IU studying elementary education. I am from Fishers Indiana which is north of Indianapolis. I have a total of 5 siblings; 2 brothers and 3 sisters and I am the 2 oldest. I am currently employed at a daycare here in Bloomington and I love it. Although I work with children a lot smaller than I will be in the classroom, it is still a joy! I think my interest in becoming a teacher started in the spring semester of my Freshman year, where I was taking a career development class. I have always loved children and knew I wanted to work with them, but teacher never crossed my mind until the end of that class. I am leaning more toward teaching the grades K-3 but I am open to 4-6 grade as well. I look forward to the field experience in the class and seeing first hand what it is like being in a classroom teaching.

                This model illustrates the way that I think children best learn. I think that through personal experiences, students are able to learn. The little girl on the left represents a student. The globe pointing to her eyes shows that each person sees the world differently and that the way that they view it helps them learn because of that they are seeing. Things like the way their families are modeled, the school they go to, the community are a part of, etc. are all ways that each student can personally see the world. The baseball bat and glove pointing to her hands represents that activities and experiences that they take part in personally. This would be like hands on things such as sports, work, school experiences, etc. All these things combined will produce knowledge for these students. That is what the arrow pointing down on her head represents. Everyone can experience things in different ways, either personally (hand and baseball bat) or second hand by seeing and watching others (world and hand) but through these experiences, they are gaining knowledge.

                I think that teachers can provide this type of environment for the students by allowing them to experience learning. The picture on the bottom right represents the students looking at the globe and visually seeing it, but also experiencing it on her own, hands on by getting up close in personal. The teacher is there to guide the student, help the students, and feed them information along the way, but ultimately it is the student that is learning on her own. Am activity such as a learning station would be a great example of this.