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.