Chapter 5

What?
This week we talked about chapter 5, Individual Differences and Special Educational Needs.
Theorists
SPEARMAN’s concept of “g”
-Intelligence is a single entity
-quickly and efficiently

GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
-suggests that there are at least 7 (8) different abilities or intelligences that are relatively independent of one another.
-Most, if not all, students are intelligent in one way or another.

CATTELL’s Fluid and Crystallized Intelligences

STERNBERG’s Triarchic Theory
-Analytical
-Creative
-Practical

Now what?
By knowing these theorist I can become a better teacher. I can focus different learning styles to fit the needs of my students. That is the most important thing. If I am the best teacher but cannot connect with my students, I am the worst teacher. If a teacher connects with a student and teaches in a way that the student can learn that teacher becomes the best teacher. Knowing the intelligences is important in knowing what kind of learning style us needed.

So what?
I am going to apply the things that i have learned in this chapter to my classroom when i graduate. I agree that all of us are different and we all need different learning styles to reach our greatest potential. I took the multiple intelligence test and found out that I am a very visual/spacial learner as well as logical and kinasthetic.

What?
Throughout chapter 3 and during class we talked about a lot of theories. The two that we focused on were Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg. Erikson has 8 stages that we looked at.

1. Trust vs. Mistrust=infancy
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt=toddler years
3. Initiative vs. Guilt=Preschool years
4. Industry vs. Inferiority=Elementary School Years
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion=Adolescence
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation=Young Adulthood
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation=Middle age
8. Integrity vs. Despair=Retirement Years

Kohlberg has 3 levels with two different stages in each

Level One: Pre-conventional Morality

Stage 1: Punishment avoidance and obedience

Stage 2: Exchange of favors

Level Two: Conventional Morality

Stage 3: Good boy/good girl

Stage 4: Law and Order

Level Three: Post-Conventional Morality

Stage 5: Social Contract

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle

We also talked about the marshmallow test. That is when a child is left in a room with a marshmallow, what does the child do? Another thing that we talked about is how our brain remembers things. We learned different strategies to memorize these theories.

So what?
I believe that it is important to know the theories and to know that everyone is different. I took what Dr. Byrd told us and put it into practice. While studying for the test, I made flash cards and went to the gym to study. This helped me memorize everything that I had written down. This is the way that I want to study for every test. I was not able to go to the study groups so I know that I will do better on the next test.

Now what?
I have already made plans to meet with a study group every week. I hope to take the things that I have learned so far and apply it into my life as well as my teaching. By knowing the stages of development I can understand what stage my students will be in so that I can help them to my best ability.

Extra Credit
I went and saw Temple Grandin. She is an amazing lady. I was surprised by how well she did in a large group. I loved the insights that she gave about children with autism. She kept telling us that autism is so broad of a subject that we need to look at individual cases to help our students. We need to find their strengths and build from that. She stressed that communication and attention is the key. I liked how she told us that Grannies are one of the best people to be with an autistic child because she can sit with them and keep them company. Temple taught me that even though she has autism, she can be a normal person. She has her doctorate degree and has a job that she loves. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to listen to her.

Chapter 2 Learning Log

What?
This past week I learned a lot about the importance of the pruning of neuronetworks, brain plasticity, and the two theories. Pruning of neuronetworks is very important in the development of the brain. There are things that you need to remember and things that are not so important to remember. Like the example that Dr. Byrd gave in class, when we are on vacation we need to know our hotel room number. When we get home there is no use remembering that number so our brain prunes it/forgets it. On Monday I went and saw Rainman. This pruning does not occur in his brain. He remembers everything forever. Brain plasticity is an interesting concept. This means that the brain can keep growing all of our lives. It is up to us if it keeps growing. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", is false. The two theories that we looked at were Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget's theory was derived by watching his own children. He has the stages of development. Sensorimotor is from the ages 0 to 2. This is an important stage where the child learns using senses and experiment with trial and error. They also develop an understanding of cause and effect relationships. The next stage is Preoperational from the ages 2 to 7. In this stage the child has a hard time realizing that a teacher is a normal person and not just a teacher. This is called single classification. This is a lower level of thinking. One thing that the child believes is transductive reasoning. This means that they believe that one thing is directly related to another, for example; snow brings Christmas or cake means birthday. Concrete Operational is from the ages 7 to 11. This stage is still a lower level of thinking, but is preparing the brain for higher thinking. This is where the child works a lot on conversation. The child can now understand other people’s perspectives and start to think more deeply. The final stage is Formal Operational from 12+. This is where the brain is able to think abstract and hypnotically. Vygotsky's theory talks a lot about relationships, the relationship between adult and child as well as child to child. Relationships are very important. Guided Participation is where the adult helps the child. He talks about the power of play. Running outside, role play, playing at the park are ways to help our children develop. We also learned about ZPD, zone of proximal development. This is the space between what a child knows and what a child will know with the help of an adult or capable individual. It is important to have challenging experiences to help the child learn.

So What?

This information is very helpful to me to become a teacher. With this information I am able to plan lesson plans appropriate to the level that the child is on. I will have a better understanding of what activities would be appropriate in my classroom.

Now What?

I am glad that we are able to take this class in the beginning of the cohort. With this knowledge I know that I will be a better student which in turn will make me a better teacher. This class has just started but has opened my eyes to new ideas and a new way of thinking.

Rainman
I am so glad that I had the opportunity to go see this man. I have always been interested in the brain so to see someone that can remember everything that he sees is amazing. I was amazed that he could tell people how to get to a certain destination and he knew the names of the roads. I would love to spend a day with him and pick at his brain. I was very impressed with his father and how much his father does for him. I was not impressed with the questions that were asked at the end. Overall I loved it!

Learning Log

What?

I learned so much in class last week! Learning about the brain is so interesting. There are many different parts of the brain and each part has a specific role. We were able to research in pairs about a specific part of the brain. This was a very good way of letting the students teach themselves and others. In my group we looked up Amygdala. This one-inch almond shaped part of the brain is located in the temporal lobe. It is important because it deals with memory, emotion and fear. After looking up our part of the brain, we were able to get into groups and discuss all parts of the brain. I never knew how complex the brain is. After this lesson, the brain makes more sense to me.

There are four different studies that we read and studied; descriptive, correlational, experimental, and action research. We made a chart and also had a bell quiz about these. With these studies we can become better teachers because we will have background knowledge on how students learn and preform.

So What?

With the knowledge that I obtain this week I am more prepared to be a better teacher by understanding how the mind works and how to assess my students. This will give me a chance to know what level a student is and help that student progress in his or her learning. I believe that these topics were chosen because it is so crucial to the development of children to be taught at there own level. That is why we as teachers need to know the level of the child and help them.

Now What?

There is so much that still needs to be learned. This is a life long process but I believe that we are off to a good start. By learning the development of the brain we know that to increase our knowledge we first must know where to store all our information. While growing up I had teachers explain that out minds are like a library with unlimited files. We must keep all of our files organized or we will just have a big mess. I believe that teacher was right. We all have the ability to learn and remember things throughout our lives, we just need to keep it organized. By knowing this I am able to teach this to my students and help them organize their thoughts so that they can learn. I also will be able to use the different studies and apply them to my teaching so that I can be the best teacher for my students.

Reflection on Educational Research

Write a What? So What? Now What? reflection about educational research as follows:

What? Summarize what you have learned about each of the four educational research types.

• These four research types will be very helpful to me as a future teacher.
• Each research type will help in different ways in the classroom.
  
• Descriptive study I learned that we can answer questions that help us understand situations and know the facts and statistics on those situations.
• Correlation study I learned that two situations can be related and we can know that relationship.
• Experimental study I learned that different situation or things effect other situation or things.
• Action research I learned that even though will be a teacher I can participate in research to better understand learning and also so I can help my school where I work.
  

So What? Write a critical analysis about the importance of what you have learned about this topic.

• I believe that this is very important to learn about because we learn how we can assess our students and by doing this we are helping our students. With these different types of research we can teach in the best way possible to our students.
  

Now What? Write a critical reflection about (1) what you still need to learn about educational research and (2) how you will use educational research in your future career as an educator (both as a consumer of research and as a researcher).

• (1) There is much more that we can learn about educational research. Life is always changing and there are new ideas daily. By using educational research we can research the best ways to teach. There will be new ways to research and so we always need to be lifetime learners.
• (2) I will definitely use educational research in my future career. I love to learn new things and to see why that idea would be the best. Anything that will help me become a better teacher, I want to know it. I also love to research. With the knowledge of these different types of research I am now on path to assess my students in a way that would be effective.
  

List 2-3 specific goals you have for this course.

• Learn to understand how the brain works
• Learn how psychology will help me become a better teacher
  

Describe your weekly preparation plan. Be specific. What will you do each day of the week to prepare for this course.

• My weekly preparation plan for this class is to do all of the homework and read everything that is required. Each day I will work towards the homework that is due for the week. I also will remind myself daily of the things that were taught in this class.
  

Outline the study strategies that you will use to understand the material.

• As this class has set up a blog i will use that to reflect on the things that I will learn. I will also use the help of the internet to look this up if I do not understand it.
  

Explain the process you will follow if you do not understand a topic.

• First I will research by looking in the book and then on the internet. If I cannot find an answer I will turn to my classmates. If I still cannot answer question or I am confused I will come to the teacher to resolve the problem.
  

Complete the following statement:

I will reach my goals in this course by putting my best effort into learning the material that will help me become a better teacher.

1.Why are you here (in the teacher education program, in this class, at UVU)?
The reason that I am in the teacher education program is because I want to be a teacher. Ever since I was little my dream was to be a teacher. After school and in the summer my sister and I would play school. I always wanted to be the teacher. Another reason why I am here is because I honestly love learning. This is the best career to be a lifetime learner. I want to teach my students to become lifelong learners. If the children learn this at a young age I believe they will be better students and better people.
To be completely honest the reason that I am in the class is because it is required. Psychology has always interested me, but it has also frightened me. I am very excited to be in this class to learn more. I love to learn what things are and why they work. The brain is very interesting and I would like to understand it more.
I chose to come to UVU right after high school. This school was the closest to my house but was not the only reason why I am here. When looking for a college to go to I looked at the top schools for elementary education. UVSC was in the top schools in Utah.

2.What motivates you?

There are many things that motivate me. Self motivation, interest and desire are the most important motivations in my life. My parents and friends are also huge influences on me as well. When I have the desire to do something and positive motivation from others, my tasks are much easier and I enjoy working towards finishing the task.

3.Why do you succeed?
This is a very interesting question, one that I don't think that I have ever asked myself. After contemplating this question I came to the realization that I succeed because I want to succeed. If there is a task that needs to be done, no matter what it is, I can succeed. The mind is a very powerful tool.

4.Why do you fail?
The reason that I fail is due to boredom and lack of motivation.

5.How do you need to change your motivations and mindset for this class in order to become a great teacher?
For this class I need to have the desire to succeed. I need to take my love of learning and apply it to this class. When I do this I know that I will learn important concepts that will make me the best teacher that I can.