PLE 6- Constructivist Theory of Learning

The following discussion describes a Second grade constructivist lesson plan on the Presidents of the United States according to the following state standards.

TN State Standards: 
History
Second Grade
Content Standard: 5.0
History involves people, events, and issues. Students will evaluate evidence to develop comparative and casual analyses, and to interpret primary sources. They will construct sound historical arguments and perspectives on which informed decisions in contemporary life can be based.

List of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content through a constructivist approach:

• Place students into groups.

• Allow students to choose a President to research.

• Teacher should discuss the current President in order to activate prior knowledge.

• Students will individually research the President. 

• Groups will designate specific roles (i.e. researcher, reporter, artist, etc.)

• Groups will create a campaign brochure, poster, and speech to present each President.  

The student's individual constructivism is evident through individual research and assigning roles specific to each individual's talents and interests.  For the most part, this lesson plan lends itself to group construction. Working together as a group to research, collaborate, and present qualifies this activity as group constructivism.  

In order to lead students to discover these principles, I would provide clear instructions and frequently observe group and individual progress. Ultimately, learning will be assessed by grading group presentations according to a rubric. 

PLE 6: Memory

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions? 

Understanding the memory processes dramatically impacts my instructional decisions as a teacher. For instance, knowing that visual stimuli are lost after one second and auditory after two to four seconds spurs me to repeat information and present the material in different ways.  Also, because working memory has a limited capacity of seven items, I will not expect students to learn more than seven pieces of imformation at a time.  Additionally, when assessing students, I will include a variety of questions ranging from rehearsal, encoding, or retrieval.  Finally, I will draw on students' prior knowledge and existing schema in order to help them store information into their long-term memories.  

PLE 5: Cognitive Learning

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning? 

As a teacher, I believe it is essential for my students to be able to form connections between personal experiences and new information.  Thus, I will strive to help students make connections to existing schema in order to learn and retain information.  Additionally, I will encourage my students to engage in higher order thinking in order to actively manipulate and understand information.  In order to effectively teach students, a teacher must understand each individual's personality and interests.  Knowing a student's personality is crucial to determining which teaching style works best for specific students.  For instance, often individuals who are typically open to new experiences excel academically (Rosander 821). 

In his article, "The unique contribution of learning approaches to academic performance, after controlling for IQ and personality: Are there gender differences?," Rosander discusses the importance of considering gender differences when choosing learning approaches.  Having gone to an all girl's high school, I found this discussion particularly interesting.  Although I am not opposed to coeducation, I do believe teachers should be aware of learning differences between boys and girls.  Because boys and girls "differ in how they value various tasks based on their expectations regarding success," teachers must differentiate their instruction in order to successfully cater to individual learning styles.  Although teachers should implement differential instruction regardless of gender differences, it is interesting to consider the relation between personality and gender with regard to learning. 
 

Rosander, Pia & Bäckström, Martin. (2012). The unique contribution of learning approaches to academic performance, after controlling for IQ and personality: Are there gender differences?. Learning and Individual Differences, 22(6), 820-826. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.utk.edu:90/science/article/pii/S1041608012000684#

PLE 4: Assessment

"Good assessment is the foundation for effective teaching." 

Although the term assessment typically conjures negative and stressful thoughts of grades and standardized tests, assessment is necessary in evaluating a student's understanding and achievement.  In fact, Fountas and Pinnell claim, "Good assessment is the foundation for effective teaching" (275).  Contrary to popular belief, assessment does not imply the giving of a test.  While tests are certainly one method often utilized to assess a student's performance and accomplishments, assessment essentially is instruction.  As a teacher, I will strive to never give a test for the sake of giving a test; rather, I will assess students in order to promote learning and autonomy. 

Consider incorporating assessment in a reading lesson plan in a first grade class.  Effectively assessing students' reading is especially essential to productivity in elementary school classrooms.  There are two basic types of assessment--informal and formal.  While informal assessment is spontaneous, formal assessment is planned in advance for a specific purpose.  

Informal Assessment

1. The image below depicts a reading attitude survey, which would be an excellent tool for a teacher to reliably evaluate students' attitudes towards reading (McKenna and Kear).  I would give students this survey at the beginning of the school year to determine whether each student is interested in recreational or academic reading and modify my lesson plans accordingly. 
2. During a Read Aloud, a teacher can informally assess students' comprehension by asking thinking questions.
   

 

The entire Reading Attitude Survey can be found here.   

 Formal Assessment

1. Reading assessment can be incorporated into centers.  For example, in a Word Sort center, have each student sort the words and take a picture of his or her completed assignment.  As long as the student works independently and documents his or her work, this provides an accurate assessment of each student's understanding of the material.  Additionally, this activity can be modified to accommodate students' learning levels by assigning different colored words to each level. 
2.  Listening to a student read aloud and assessing his or her accuracy and fluency via Running Records is an example of formal assessment.  This assessment can be referenced when determining a student's reading level.  

PLE 3 (continued): CSEL Case Study

Assignment: Develop a full continuum of responses for dealing with the misbehavior of your case. 

Elementary Education Case Study

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

After noticing that Lisa is struggling with participating in a cooperative learning group, I would devise a proactive restorative discipline plan.  First, I would schedule a conference with Lisa.  In this meeting, I would explain to Lisa that her angry outbursts and defiant behavior during group work is unacceptable.  Rather than telling Lisa that I do not want her to get angry with group members or refuse to participate, I would focus on what I want her to do.  For instance, I would explain that I want her to be respectful to her group members and contribute to the group's learning by carrying out her assigned role.  Additionally, I would create a contract with Lisa outlining her expectations.  Together, Lisa and I would set realistic goals and ways to improve her behavior.  Allowing Lisa to make decisions and have input would ultimately promote growth and encourage problem solving.  In order to encourage a sense of community and reconciliation, I would avoid separating Lisa from her cooperative learning group.  Finally, I would monitor Lisa's progress by listening to her group's discussions.

PLE 3: Productive Learning Environments

 "Despite much physical contact and daily intermingling, there is almost no community of intellectual life or point of transfer where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come into direct contact and sympathy with the thoughts and feelings of the other."

 --W.E.B. Du Bois

Although Du Bois made this claim many years ago, in her article, "The Importance of Multicultural Education," Geneva Gay submits that this remains an issue today.  Gay distinguishes between "coexistence" and "genuine communities in which they know, relate to, and care deeply about one another" (30).  As an intern in the Urban Multicultural Cohort, multicultural education is a topic that I am very passionate about.  

How does multicultural education relate to classroom management and productive learning environments?  According to Gay, "Multicultural education is integral to improving the academic success of students of color and preparing all youths for democratic citizenship in a pluralistic society" (30).  Part of the teacher's role includes setting the tone of the classroom.  By weaving multicultural education into the curriculum and classroom climate, teachers educate students about their peers' cultures, creating an accepting and productive environment.  By introducing different cultures of ethnic groups represented in the class, teachers help combat racial tension caused by ignorance.   This results in a peaceful climate where all students feel safe and accepted; thus, productive learning can occur.

 According to Skiba, et al., African-American males are suspended three times more often and receive more discipline referrals than the rest of the population.  However, teachers can prevent disruptive behavior from occurring and nullify this statistic by implementing multicultural education.   Gay states, "Many ethnically diverse students do not find schooling exciting or inviting...Too much of what is taught has no immediate value to these students. It does not reflect who they are" (33).  Students are more likely to exhibit disruptive behavior if they are bored.  Thus, in order to monitor classroom behavior, teachers must keep students engaged by catering to individual student's interests and experiences.  For example, teachers can provide quality books that positively and accurately depict different ethnicities.  Doing this not only increases students' awareness about different cultures, but also peaks the interest of students of that ethnicity. 

Additionally, when disciplining a student, a teacher must consider cultural characteristics.  For instance, in the United States, teachers expect students to look them in the eyes when being disciplined.  Conversely, in many Asian cultures, it is disrespectful to look in an authority figure's eyes.      

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1994). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Gramercy Books.

Gay, Geneva (2003). "The Importance of Multicultural Education." Education Leadership. 30-35.

Skiba, Michael, Nardo, and Peterson (2000). "The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality  in School Punishment." The Urban Review.

PLE 2: Carrots and Sticks

"If we really want high performance...the solution is not to entice people with a sweeter carrot or threaten them with a sharper stick." -Dan Pink

In his TED talk, "The Puzzle of Motivation," Dan Pink argues that extrinsic rewards are far less effective than intrinsic. Although his argument specifically targets the business world, the ideas of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation apply to a wide range of circumstances, including education.

If you have eighteen minutes, watch his whole talk here. Otherwise, I will hit the high points throughout this post.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of extrinsic rewards in a classroom context. As a teacher, my goal is to instill in my students a love of learning. By offering rewards for good work and effort, students often strive to make good grades in order to attain the candy or stickers rather than learning for the sake of learning. In high school, I had friends whose parents paid them for each A they received on their report cards. Even as a student, this concept baffled me. According to Pink, extrinsic rewards harm our work ethic and performance. He claims, "rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus and restrict our possibility." Instead of extrinsically rewarding students for good grades, parents and teachers should encourage students to set realistic goals and establish a hard work ethic. While extrinsic rewards are not inherently bad, they often yield lazy students.  

Conversely, I believe intrinsic rewards heighten a student's performance. This intrinsic motivation often stems from various factors. For instance, personally, if I am interested in a subject, or if my teacher is passionate about his or her subject, then I am more likely to work harder for the pure desire to learn. Last semester, I took my first education class, Reading Education 430. I was simultaneously taking geography. While the course load for each class was similar, my interest in reading education far surpassed my interest in geography. In my education class, there were no tests. On the other hand, there were several tests in geography. While I vigilantly read every article assigned for Reading Education, I rarely read any article for geography. This perfectly distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in a classroom situation.            

Dan Pink states, intrinsic motivation revolves around the following three factors: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. By assigning projects that allow students to choose topics of interest and express creativity,  teachers increase a student's intrinsic desire to learn the material. Extrinsic rewards often destroy creativity. Although extrinsic rewards might achieve adequate test scores, a successful teacher instills an intrinsic desire to learn in his or her students.