I’m not going to lie this is my first attempt at a blog and yes it scares me...but that is because it's new, different and unknown. Don’t get me wrong I have subscribed to many blogs and enjoyed the often one-sided view that they present. This challenges my way of thinking, and at times has the ability to change my opinion.
As a pre-service teacher I am finding the resources that are presented in each of the class materials give me more in site on developing my way of becoming an effective teacher. My area of interest is student behavior and how often the misbehavior of a student can be wrongly identified as a "condition" to be "simply" treated with medication. In a study conducted by The University of Sydney over a four-year period it found children aged between 10-14 had the most rapid increase in percentages for prescribing antidepressant and antipsychotics and ADHD medications.http://anp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/06/12/0004867414538675.
With this in mind Dr Judy Wills presents a highly important message for me as a teacher in the Edutopia Webinar "How the Brain Learns Best: Strategies to Make Learning Stick.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZnfFD1maU
“Get to Know your Learner”:
A student will engage in reflective learning rather than reactive learning if the information is received into the prefrontal cortex of the brain “the thinking brain”. For this to occur it first must pass through two systems:
The Reticular Activating System:
Students are exposed to thousands of pieces of information; the brain cannot handle all of this information. Therefore, for the information to be received by the RAS stress must be reduced for the information to be passed through to the Amygdala.
Amygdala:
By reducing boredom, frustration and stress the Flight (oppositional/defiant), Flight (ADHD), Freeze (OCD/Social Anxious Syndrome) behaviors are able to be managed thereby allowing the information to be filtered into the “thinking brain”.
In the article Brain Imagery Supports the Idea of Diverse Intelligences Grace Rubenstein also refers to Dr Judy Willis by stating that “educators can achieve a lot just by designing lessons that appeal to multiple senses. She suggests that teachers lead a child into a new subject through his particular strengths and interests. Once he's engaged, a teacher can challenge him to use a different, weaker skill set for another part of the lesson, helping him develop those parts of his brain.”
Teaching is not about going in with a predetermined idea or manner, it’s about adapting and changing to certain behaviors and ability levels and then presenting what the students need to know in methods that they are able to comprehend. By being able to present information in a non-threatening, exciting and engaging manner, behavior management issues that are occurring may reduced and in turn the student can thrive. This will take time to implement, as you need to get to know your learner.
With students of today, in most cases are more up to date with the advancements in technologies and have a heightened interest in them than their teachers. Information Communication Technologies (ITC) are becoming an effective tool to engage students in a lesson. If teachers are able to implement ITC’s I believe we are bridging the gap and have another highly important learning mechanism at our disposal in order to manage the behaviors of students.
With the information presented by both Rubenstein and Willis the traditional classroom and the curriculum needs to be changed as we GET TO KNOW YOUR LEARNER! How.....well put very simply, again.... GET TO KNOW YOUR LEARNER, then adapt and change to what you are presented with.
Behaviourism:
Imagine a maze and at the end of that maze is food, now add a mouse. What is likely outcome?
If the mouse has been subjected to the maze before he will know there is food as a reward at the end.
This behaviour is learned through conditioning.
Cognitivism:
I ask students to refer to the Financial Statements for ABC Pty Ltd? If you were familiar with accounting terminology you would understand that this is a report that comprises of a lot of different documents... But, if you are a dancer do you care about the Financial Statements of ABC Pty Ltd? would you remember that the names of the documents that make up the Financial Statements of ABC Pty Ltd?.....probably not as this information is not important to you and therefore, has not been stored in your long term memory.
Social Constructivism:
In a group environment, there is a mixture of student abilities. When presented with a topic some students may know a little and some may know alot. By working together with the support of a teacher (as we know everything about our selected teaching areas) and "bouncing" ideas can help students consolidate their knowledge or take a limited understanding to a new level.
Connectivism:
If you do not understand a topic what do you do, you use the Internet "google it", open up Wikipedia (although this may not be the most reliable source of information...it at times provides and interesting read), read blog posting comments..... and then all of a sudden that light bulb goes on and it starts to make sense, you understand it.
If we take away all threats to our learning, by reducing stress, make lessons fun, exciting and engaging and allowing information to be filtered from the RAS to the amygdala and combine this with our learning theories above which will best inform successful learning approaches? I believe that this is a combination of three: Cognitivism, Social Constructivism and Connectivism as first you need to have an interest in the topic and if you find a student does not, can you engage them in a way that will. If you can, then students usually engage you in a conversation with peers about the topic, then if they want to expand their knowledge then engage in Connectivism.
Hope you have enjoyed my blog.
JRay.
Janita - I love the way you have related each learning theory back to the classroom, or learning situation - I didn't take this tack but I think it was very effective and I might "steal" your methodology in the future :)
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