Journal Entry #1

Chapters 2 & 8 

Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice 

Journal #1 

As I reflect on the readings this past week. I noticed that chapter two began discussing the success of an educator is only as successful as her/his connection to her/his students. For example, if he or she understands children’s developments, natural adaptations, and the way they learn and grow then success will be evident. Ultimately, it is not what I know as an educator, but it is how I use what we know to influence children based on their needs. This is tied into the presentation of the facilitation. For example, I can know how to multiply but why would a child desire to multiply. Understanding development is key. Children develop at different rates depending on the culture, parenting, education, biology, and other factors (Slavin, Page 22).   However, if I know that the child is more of an intrinsic or extrinsic motivated individual and consider the child’s instructional level, I can find the best correlation to meet the child at his or her developmental needs and motivating factors. 

As a teacher I understand that my students are not adults and have note experienced some of the things that I have. For example, my cognition, socioeconomic, background, language exposure, and other may or may not be similar, but generally mine are more advanced or have been exposed to more than my elementary age students. For this reason, we do not think and process the same. Having this awareness creates balance and obtainable learning experiences, especially when students in my class have learning disabilities. Things that I was able to connect as an infant may have been I’m hungry so I knew to go to my mother because she is the first person who ever fed me. As a toddler I knew my apparent and that I should use the potty because I no longer wore diapers. As a youth I knew that I was going to school to learn and this meant that my parents could not attend. As an adolescent I knew that my grades were dependent on my placement after high school and began to process that I did not want to live at home with my parents as an adult. As an adult I learned through those processes tow things. One living on my own meant that I have to pay bills and make money to pay bills. Two the importance of being an adult who gives back what was poured into me over the yeas is my purpose in life. I became a teacher for this reason. 

This plays a role in nature vs nurture. I think about this especially being an exceptional education teacher. My students’ biological/hereditary aspects cannot be altered especially related to their disability. However, can I find biological/hereditary aspects of theirs and shine a light on the positivity reflection of these “disabilities”? On the other side of this what can I nurture to support their developmental needs? This a is ongoing process in my learning environment. I teach a fraction of the following but when combined they create a whole, academics, social development, and emotional development. The exposure is super important. Experience and environmental factors also mold the child into who he or she is supposed to be. John Broadus Watson has a valid point relating to the relative influence of genes and environment. There was an example in the text that described how a young child showing a higher skill set than children his or her age in a sport typically gets more practice and support to sharpen the skill, which ultimately produces more exposure and leads to a greater athlete. This is a combination of nature and nurture.  This is one of my “go to” strategies when determining my interaction and presentation style for my class. 

In the beginning of the school year, I take an interest inventory of my students and I give them a survey to find out their multiple intelligence. I take this information and begin to strategically teach new information while creating a familiar learning experience through nurturing the nature from what was gain through their interest inventory and multiple intelligence. 

Piaget believes that knowledge comes from action and has develop four stages of intellectual and cognitive development (Slavin, Page 24) The patterns of behavior relating to scheme, assimilation, and accommodations is brilliant. For example, my small group was used to adding single digit numbers with their fingers (scheme) but this school year we were adding multiple digit numbers so adding with their fingers did not work.  Sometimes the old way of dealing with the world does not work so the child will have to modify a different schema to gain new information (Slavin, Page 24). I gave them manipulatives to support their adding (assimilation) and asked them to add with these (ten frames and base ten systems). Long story short the students realized that adding number was the same but the process needed to change in order to get the correct results in a quicker amount of time. With the correct accommodations and attention to detail my students have mastered using the manipulatives in our small group math class.  Their comprehension has grown, and they are able to add and subtract with regrouping successfully. In this practice I was able to interrupt their equilibrium which created disequilibrium (Piaget’s learning process). In order to rise to the occasion my students did what they needed to do in a manipulated environment created by me. I use fluorescent light covers to set a vibe, I have a humidifier running to create a scent that is associated with my class, acoustic music plays in the background, I provided manipulatives and model how to use them. The manipulatives were different colors of focus to support memory building and focus. Piaget’s theory of development stands for children actively building systems of meaning and understanding of reality through their experiences and interactions (Berk, 2018 & Schunk 2016, Slavin Page 25)

Understanding the stages of development are critical in determining the amount of rigor to give to a child. A child in the sensory motor stage and the preoperational stage will not be able to perform at the same rigor level. For example, a child in the sensory motor stage can eat from a bottle and consume baby food but a child in the preoperational stage can feed him or herself with a utensil and knows that if he or she shakes up his or her food he or she will make a mess. While a babe in the sensory motor stage openly shakes his or her bottle and splatters his or her food willingly with their hands. The can both consume food but the way the food is consumed and the expectation of what to do with the food changes with the increase stage of development.  

Concrete operational and formal operational stand out the most to me.  My students are at the concrete operational stage. My students are able to responds and solve problems. They are also able to build relationships in social settings.  Much of this is learned behavior that has led has grew into the ability to acquire the concept of reversibility. Seriation was also a big part at this stage which means to arrange things in logical progression (site page). I notice that my students use seriation. For example, if I ask them to line up in by height. They are able to do this without any assistance. To apply transitivity a child must grasp seriation. I have witnessed my students make this connection during an ELA lesson specifically. We were discussing inference. For example, during the lesson Kelly and Thomas are twins. Kelly and Thomas went to bed when the sky was black. Kelly and Thomas’s friend Amber was feeling ill so her mother checked her out for school. Kelly took a nap while the sky was light blue and sunny. How went to bed first. A student who has masted seriation is more likely to make the connection through transitivity and find the solution to the answer. By inferencing a light blue and sunny sky meaning daylight and school does not let out at night and inferencing that if the sky is black, it is night, the average child in the concrete state can figure out that Amber went to bed first. A child or an adult of the formal operation stage can figure things out beyond this point. As mentioned in the text, this is age 11 to adulthood. During a Science experiment the teacher gave students string and weighted objects on a pendulum. The students were asked which of these factors influenced the frequency? In the experiment the teen took a systematic approved by observing the lengths of het strings and associations with the weight. After some time, she concluded that strings length affects the frequency.    This is an example of recall and thinking abstractly. I’ve witnessed my older nieces and nephews asked questions and seek other objects to do this in their daily problem-solving life’s. As a child or person progresses with each stage the confidence and systematic, they become to seek the answer. 

Vygotsky is also a valid assertion of development. As mentioned, before I work with students who have Individualized Education Programs (IEP). I have students who are in the third grade that are at a developmental age of a first grader. So the fixed developmental stages does not work for my class as a whole due to deficits that are beyond my control and the child’s. I intentionally play games like Simon Says to help build focus and listening skills.  Instead of saying Simon says I have the students replace Simon with their names. I also, have a social skills lesson block in my schedule to support the growth and lessen the deficits control on the way that my students handle situations.  I believe strongly that when the social development is expanded the cognitive development is more feasible. Meditated learning takes place in children’s zones of proximal development, where they can do new task withing there capabilities only with the teachers or peer assistance ( Slavin, Page 43).

The idea of scaffolding happens systemically as a parent without even thinking of it. When my child was small and could not talk, we played with blocks. Most of the time the blocks ended up in his mouth. As he got older, he was able to stack the blocks. I did not realize it at the time, but I was scaffolding. Another area that Vygotsky pointed out is cognitive apprenticeship. This is modeling, scaffolding, coaching and evaluation typically during one and one instruction (Slavin, Page 34). Before my child could speak, I would read to him, and he would sit and listen. Most books were random kid friendly books that I got from the library. One day one of my church members gave me a set of Biscuit books. Biscuit is a dog and the main character of all the books in the series. These books increase the level of difficulty because of the site words progressions in them. Long story short I read these books to my son faithfully each day. One day I stop at a word and asked him to read it. To my surprise he read the word. I asked him to read another word and my child read the entire sentence. He was only three years old and was reading! From there I was able to create a song with the letters in his first and last name. He was able to spell his name without the song in no time. Since books was a huge deal in our family, I purchased a Paw Patrol book that had shoe strings and a shoe cover. This is how he learned to tie his shoes. I agree with Vygotsky we have support children in their zone of learning proximity.  Some children may be more advance while others may be premeditated. The only way to support and see the growth is by meeting them where they are and building forward. 

Bronfenbrenner made a big assertion. I gain knowledge from his insight on development as well. The social and institutional influences are critical in terms of the way that a child develops. For example, this school year alone. I was assignment to car rider duty. Each day I put a second grader in the car and spoke to her 2-year-old brother and mother. In November this family was in a car accident. The two-year-old died on contact. The mother sustained injuries and the second grader had a concussion and a body brace. She was hospitalized for a length of time afterwards she returned to school in the body brace. She tried to pick up where she left off in the learning environment, but it was never the same because of her constant need for her brother. She would draw pictures of him during class and her focus just was not there because she went through a traumatizing situation at a young age. There definitely will be learning gaps and developmental gaps (physically & mentally) for her this school year.  Long story short her mother moved them to another state to start new.  

I had another student loose her mother to cancer this school year. This haunted her all-school year long especially after Mother’s Day. In my personal life I am a divorce as of 2021. I have witnessed my son 10-year-old have a few behavior issues due to us moving and him attending different schools. When we moved I stop sending him to karate. He constantly asked. I got to see how it impacted him negatively, so I signed him up with a different karate teacher. I have seen big difference in behavior. I also stop attending church as much due to the move so that impacted him as well. I say all of this to say that Bronfenbrenner has a valid point. Children need consistency to progressively develop. Changes to their home environment, institution where they worship, extracurricular activities can alter behavior and development. 

Constructivist 

When I think about constructivist, I think about the traditional way of teaching. I think about the normal or most expected way for humans to learn and develop. Constructivist is centered around, knowing is a process and learners must individually and actively discover and transform complex information to make it their own (Slavin, Page 216). It’s thought that students need to be 

I like this development style because the support is focus on the emphasis of students being active learners so everything is student centered. The teacher is a guide to the student and not the sage on the stage, helping the students discover their own meaning during the learning process instead of lecturing and controlling activities (Slavin, Page 195). I often will ask a question in my classroom that relate to something that we are starting to learn just to test the water. I allow each student to give feedback or an answer. I don’t tell them if they are correct or wrong. I simply say thank you for adding to the discussion or thank you for participating. After everyone has shared out, I began to clear up misconceptions. Since the students are sure if they were correct, they are more prone to listen intently. I generally point out the person who got the answer correct or the person who game the closes. I also explain why some people got the answer wrong because I want them to know that I can see it on both sides. I generally choose students tho help me as I guide them through the answer. I didn’t realize until reading this is more of the top-down approach. This helps me get crowd participating and build their confidence because I am not doing the work while the watch, we are doing it together with my guidance. I am big on it’s okay to get the answer wrong, but it is better to know how to get it right. 

Cooperative

 Cooperative learning allows small groups of students to work together to help one another learn. I like this style of learning because it’s teaching children that we all are capable and that we play a role in success. It takes the way of “I am the know it all”.  My child is a high achiever, and he benefits from this type of work environment. It allows him to see that he’s not the only one with a “big brain” as I call him.  I love the Student Team Achievement Division (STAD). Groups such as this mixed in performance, gender, and ethnicity (Slavin, Page 204) is a great foundation for kids to get a real-world working experience. The students get to show what they can do on an individual level at the end. This is great because it gages specifically what each child learned or added to the pot. The United States of America is diverse in all of those ways. By starting the students out with this practice will help them be better teamwork and citizens later in life. My mine is going beyond that because it creates exposure to other cultures, languages, and ways of thinking. This is helpful with problem solving on a greater scale and in the classroom. It could be something as simple as. Who is going to be the line leader today? Why did the schedule change today? The experiences are endless.  This also works for students in my small group calls with disabilities.  It shows that everyone is not good at everything and that is okay because we all have strengths in something and when we put our strengths with someone else strengths it creates something new improved and better. 

Are problem solving skills and thinking skills taught? I think humans naturally are born to think and have a desire to solve problems. It also depends on their willingness to tap into problem solve. Even though I think we naturally think as humans… I also think that thinking skills can be taught and sharpened. For example, I was an auditory learner in school so a lot of information stuck with me through memory but when I got to college I could not sole rely on memory for those courses. I had to be taught strategic was of thinking. For example, how to I connect this new term to something or someone I know. How do I work on study skills to make connections that last between course to course? 

Often babies get upset when they cannot solve their problems and cry. For example. If a baby is hungry, he or she will cry or have a tantrum. Does this action solve the problem? To a baby this is just their natural reaction to not getting what they want. As the adult I must determine why is the baby crying. Once this is determined I will naturally check the diaper, check the Childs’s surroundings, and check the feeding schedule to determine what the baby needs. The baby did not solve the problem, but the baby did think to him or herself that a problem was present and because of the baby’s thought process crying was the way to communicate to the parent. 

In the text I learned that problem solving needs a formula such as I.D.E.A.L. to warrant the best results. This includes but is not limited to incubation time, suspension of judgement, problem analysis, the application of thinking skills, and feedback (Slavin, Page 216). I obtain the I.D.E.A.L. problem solving strategy from the text, and it is broken down in more detail below. 

Identify the problem and opportunities 

Define goals and represent the problem 

Explore possible strategies 

Anticipate outcomes and act

Look back and learn 

This formula is a great strategy that I can use in my Mathematics class.  I can start by having the students tell me what the problem is asking or underline the questions. Next, have the students determine what they know and what information is needed and not needed to prepare to solve. Exploring strategies can be a big learning opportunity. What if the students think they need to add instead of subtracting or divide instead of multiply? These are opportunities for me to give input such as key words that give hints to use the appropriate operation. I like real world scenarios in word problems because it allows me to put the students in the formula so that I can assist them with anticipating outcomes based on what they know and have gain. I really like this acronym and I will be using it in my class. 

This was my first journal entry, and I wrote quite a bit. I’m not sure if I over did it but I am looking forward to receiving your feedback. 

 Cite

Slavin, E. R. (2022). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 13th Edition Retrieved from https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Slavin-My-Lab-Education-with-Pearson-e-Text-Access-Card-for-Educational-Psychology-Theory-and-Practice-13th-Edition/PGM2605560.html