Journal #5

 Educational Psychology Chapter 8: Student Centered and Constructivist Approaches to Instruction 

Journal #5 

Chapter seven focused on student centered and constructivist approaches to instruction. Throughout this journal entry I will be discussing and responding to the following questions. 

• How did you feel about the concept?
• How is this concept significant concerning the context of your classroom?
• How might you use what you learned to become a better teacher?
• If this event sparked additional questions, what are they and what actions will you take to address them?

 

My Feelings about Student Centered Learning

I feel that student centered learning is a great way to increase student engagement. I also enjoy the social exposure of this instructional approach. I personally love when my students become independent. I want to give them the tools that they need and know that if I am absent or have a visitor walk in my classroom, they can continue to work without me hoovering over their shoulders. Less dependency on me is a beautiful thing. The constructivist learning theories embody this to me. Constructivist leaning theories focus on how students must discover and transform information on their own. According to Slavin, “children learn through adult interaction and peers…are expose to their peers thinking process…by successfully problems solving by talking through the steps (p. 195). I like that the students are not left alone, and I also like that the students are not solely dependent on me as the teacher. This learning theory builds the students confidence. This approach is great for confidence, inquiry, and teamwork building. If I do not give my students, the answer with this approach they are more likely to attempt to figure it out on their own or ask a neighbor. Isn’t this what we do as adults. When I don’t know something, I do my own research. This may be searching Google or calling a friend. I also like the idea of discovery learning. Discover learning students are encouraged to learn strongly on their own (Slavin, 2021, p. 198). I can do this by having my students do experiments and expose them to experiences that connect them to the information. For example, when I teach about money. I can set up a grocery store and have the students make purchase with play money. It’s a real-world experience that increases student engagement. 

The Significance of Student-Centered Learning

The student-centered instruction is a little different than traditional way of teaching. This teaching style that places a large focus of teaching based on students’ interest and motivations rather than on the instructor. In student-centered instruction, teachers and students serve as partners in the learning process. Student centered constructivist methods have positive results when implemented correctly. My the most significant result for me is how student centered-learning leads to critical thinking students. Critical thinking skills lead to high functioning adults. When teachers help build the students’ critical thinking skills the students learn to think critically and make rational decisions about what they believe (Slavin, 2021, p. 214). One problem is teaching critical thinking skills. Researchers have been evaluation and developing instructional programs that are design to increase students general thinking skills (Slavin, 2021, p. 212). The students in the chapter had months of practice to build their problem-solving skills. I like how discovery learning helps fill this void.  This approach can be time consuming but worth every second of this because these are skills that are lifelong necessities. 

Ways I can use Student-Centered Learning

One way that I can use student centered learning is through teaching critical thinking skills. When students possess the ability to connect previously taught information and build on it they can began to figure things their own verses me telling them. For example, the beginning of this chapter discussed a lesson where the teacher gave the students a problem to solve on their own. The previous week the teacher taught the students how to compute area of a circle and volume of a cube. The task for this week was for the students to determine how to compute volume of a cylinder on their own. According to (Slavin, 2021), “the task of education is not to pour information into student’s heads but to engage students’ minds with powerful and useful concepts (p. 194).” The reason why this works is because the teacher gave the students prior knowledge that help build into this concept from the previous weeks lesson. The teacher also provided the students with all the tools that they needed to solve. In the end the students successful solve the task within their group.  I want to be able to do this effectively in my class as well.  In need to be intentional and strategic about giving students time to apply and interpret information in their own way.  To get to this level of learning I must be sure to model and walk my students through the foundations of the concept that I am intending to teach. 

 

Additional Questions

One additional question that I have is related to teaching cooperative learning. How can I teach elementary age students how to remain focus enough to support each other in solving problems together? I asked this question because there is a need to decrease the playfulness and off task behavior when I assign my students to groups. Many students do not have the self-control for this level of responsibility, in my opinion it is due to immaturity. Younger students often want to play when they are place in a cooperative learning setting.  The success of the group depends on everyone learning but often with student groups this does not happen. With this model I must plan for their lesson and student management. Vygostsky’s ideas emphasize that students should be given complex, difficult, realistic tasks and then provided with enough help to achieve these tasks (Slavin, 2021, p. 196). I thought of some questions that will help me with my action plan to create a more structured and focused younger cooperative learning group setting. Here are my questions. How will the students transition from one task to the next? When/how will they know that they have completed what is expected of them? One thing that could help me is to put the students on the same playing field by assigning individual group jobs and responsivities. The second is to use this instructional practice often. I can intentionally put a cooperative learning in my lesson plan as least once a week. More practice and exposure the better. 

Slavin, R. E. (2021). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (13th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.