Final Blog

What? My theory in psychology is having a balance between humanism and behaviorism. When students have a balance of academic and social skills in the classroom, it will better help them be ready for what is out there in the world. If students don’t learn social skills, they won’t be able to work well in a work environment. At the same time, if the students don’t learn any academic skills in the classroom, they won’t be ready to be able to handle the work load of a real job and may not have the knowledge of how to perform at that job. Behaviorism, when used effective can really help the students to do well in their course work. When a student is reward for a good behavior, or a positive behavior that you want in class, they will continue to display that behavior.

So What? When I assign the students a worksheet for math, I will let them work together on that worksheet. As they work together, they will learn the academic knowledge they need to know, and the social skills of working together on an assignment. That is one way I can help implement humanism into my classroom. I will also complement a student who puts their name on their worksheet and thank them out loud for doing that. When the other students hear me thanking one of their classmates for putting their name on the worksheet, they will also start putting their name on their paper. This can create a positive behavior that is wanted in the classroom. Also thanking a student by name when they raise hand when they have a question can also create a positive behavior.

Not What? There are many topics in Ed Psychology that I would like to learn more about to help me become a better a teacher. One in particular is the Zone of Proximal Development (zpd). I understand how important this is to have your student at this stage, but I am not quite sure how to make sure my students are there. I will have to do more reading about this to learn more about it. Kohlbergs level of moral development is something that has been interesting to me. But I still haven’t learned how to recognize what stage each student is at. I think the best way to learn more about this is to do further reading and studying on it. But I think the best way to learn which level and stage students are at is to talk to teachers who are teaching and to have them tell me about some of their students and where they are at. Putting this information into action may seem to be the best way to help me learn it.

Chapter 4 Learning Log

What? When dealing with group differences, we need to keep a perspective in mind of the students in our class. There are many differences in cultural and ethnic, in the world. As a teacher, we need to learn the cultural of our students to better help them succeed in the classroom. As teachers create a more multicultural classroom environment, the students can feel more at home. Plus, then the students will get to know each other better and respect each other for our uniqueness. There are also socioeconomic differences to keep in mind.

So What? Learning about culture and ethnic differences can really help teachers become better teachers. As I learn about these things, and apply them to my future classroom, it will help my students. It will also help me to understand why some of my students may act the way they act. I will have a better understanding and wont get offended when a student does something that is different when a student does something that is different from what I am use to.

Now What? One way I will apply all of this to my classroom is taking the time to learn about everyone’s cultural in the classroom. As we learn about each other, it will help everyone to have an understanding of each other and where we all come from. Also getting the parents involved would really help make this work even better. With socioeconomic differences, there are a lot of different things that fall under that. The best thing I know what to do is keep my eye open for any of it, and be willing to help my students when they need help.

RAD Teaching

I really enjoyed the presentation on, Using Constructivism to Improve Teaching. It brought a lot new ideas to mind to help me become a better teacher. For example, expert performance, this is to provide an example of a person doing it in the real world. This could really help the students to have a better understanding of why they need to learn certain things and what they can do with it in the future.

Your part on the brain was really good. It was a great review of the things we learned at the beginning of the semester. The part that really stood out to me was the macaroni part. By just putting a random object on the students desks and letting them figured out for themselves what they think it is, is a great idea. It really helped me at the time to connect some of the things I have learned about the brain. I could really see this working great with my future students when a lesson comes up they do not understand or may not enjoy it.

Chapter 5 Learning Log

What? I learned about how students with special needs are now included in all classrooms. IDEA stands for, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This is what helped to make inclusion happen. Inclusion is the practice of educating all students, including those with severe and multiple disabilities, in neighborhood schools and general education classrooms. While students are in the classroom, you want them to have least restrictive environment. Least restrictive environment is when most typical and standard educational environment that can reasonably meet the needs of a student with a disability.

So What? Understanding the different kinds of special needs that my future students my have will help me to be able to better help them. It will help me by being able to modify my lesson plans to better help the students. Whether or not by making the lesson easier to do or give the lesson more information to help those who are gifted. This will help me to be a better teacher by helping me to be able to teach better. Teaching in a way to make sure everyone is learning to their best ability.

Now What? I will apply this to my future classroom by adjusting my lessons to those that may need it. For example, in math, I will teach the class the topic we are covering, and then split the students into different groups to do hands on learning. Let’s say for those who may struggle with math, I will check with them often to make sure they are ok and may even give them less problems if that helps them to get some of the assignment done and learn how to do the problems.

Chapter 10 Learning Log

What? People learn all the time by watching others. In the process of doing this, they begin t assume control over their own behavior. Models are a big part in how people learn from others. There are many things that help a student do good in the classroom. They are self efficacy and self regulation. Self efficacy is when people engage in certain behaviors when they believe they will be able to behavior successfully. Self regulation is when we control our thoughts and actions. The reciprocal causation has three stages to it, to help see how environment, behavior, and person influence one another.

So What? This information is important to me so that I know as a future teacher the type of ways I should act. If a child learns by watching others, then they may pick up behaviors or other things from me. Understanding self efficacy is important to me, because if a student feels good about a certain activity, over another, means they will want to do the activity they feel more comfortable with. As I learn what students feel better doing, I can have activity’s doing that and then incorporate the activity they don’t like to help them gain some confidence in that area.

Now What? I will apply this to my classroom by helping my students gain high self efficacy. I can do this when the class does an art project of some kind after a unit has been taught. As the class goes around looking at other classmates work, I will have them leave notes of what they liked about that piece of art work. After that, I will ask the students to write down only one thing they would like to do better in the future if they were to do this project again. This will help them set good goals to help them gain higher self efficacy.

Chapter 9 Learning Log

What? Behavior’s come in many different ways. Classical conditioning was first described by Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who did research about salivation. Classical conditioning has many different stages to it that has an effect on how people act. It is done subconscious and naturally and is stimulus response. While operant conditioning is done conscious and contingent, this is the behavior reinforcement. Using reinforcement effectively can help to shape new behaviors that are wanted in the classroom. Addressing especially difficult classroom behaviors can be tricky, but if you do it in the right manner, you can accomplish what you are desiring. There are positive reinforcements and negative reinforcements that are used in the classroom. Positive adds to the students knowledge. Negative takes away from the knowledge and does nothing to help them.


So What? Knowing about the different type of reinforcers is helpful to know about as a future teacher. It is helpful because there is positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement will add information and other things to the students’ knowledge, while negative reinforcement takes away. Knowing about this will help me be a better teacher by knowing which reinforcers to use in the classroom to help keep order and to keep the students interested in learning.

Now What? I can apply reinforcements to the classroom in many different ways. I want to use positive reinforcements, because they will help the students the most. I am not all for the hot tickets to give to students. I think students should have fun learning, and don’t need bribery to learn. When that happens, the students don’t always remember what they learned. If the students have lost an interested in learning, then I will use the hot tickets to get them interested in learning again, and then take them away when they are no longer needed. Plus, hot tickets can more work for me as a teacher than I would like.

Chapter 7 Learning Log

What? Constructive processes in learning and memory. Correlation is a big part of learning. As students meet together to discuss the topics covered in class, they are able to learn together. This also helps, because we don’t all catch every point that is taught. By pulling all of our knowledge together, we are then able to learn all we need to know and more. There is construction in storage and retrieval, plus the knowledge of social process. When we organize our knowledge, we do it in many different ways. Promoting effective knowledge construction is a major part of this chapter. Accommodating students with special needs is a very important thing for every teacher to do. Sometimes this can be a hard part to do.

So What? This topic is important to me as a future teacher because I will then be able to better help my future students to learn correct explanations. Understanding what learning really is will helps me to better understand where my students are coming from. Some may say that two plus two equals five, because that is what they have been taught. But by helping them see what they might have misunderstood will help them not get mixed up.

Now What? I can help my future students’ discovery learning by teaching them in a new and fun way. To have students discovery learning is an exciting thing. I can best apply this by taking the a lesson and finding ways ahead of time different ways there are to learn that lesson. Then as I am teaching that lesson, apply some of the different ways I came up with and see how many students catch on better. But before I can really apply this, I will need to learn more about how to apply it and how it all works.