Education Psychology as a Whole

This class as a whole was very eye opening to me. I never realized that there were so many theories for the explanation of how children thought. I realized that this would be very important to me as a teacher and was excited to learn of the different theories. Throughout this class hints were offered of how this could be applied in classrooms as we make our journeys as teachers. This was something I found really helpful. The examples that were provided in class to help further illustrate the topic was something that really helped me on exams as well as when I was blogging. I would remember the story that was told in class and this would open up a tunnel to the other information that I obtained on the specific topic. The exams were something I really struggled with. I don't know why as I felt I attended class regularly and was pretty confident on my knowledge of all the theories. However after the second exam I have come to the realization that names of people in videos that we watched are very important to note. This will be helpful on the final exam. All in all this class was very interesting to me, this includes the stories, the discussions that notes, the blogging but most of all the interactions between the class as a whole. I felt this class was a place of safety where opinions could be shared and not judged and this really helped me in the learning process as there are many different opinions when it comes to psychology as there are many different theories. Being able to state my opinion and not be laughed at or mocked helped me process information. I found this class insightful and something I look forward to building on in the future. Thanks for the great class Rob!

Operant Conditioning

This video off of the Big Bang Theory perfectly describes operant conditioning:
http://youtu.be/euINCrDbbD4

Maslow

I agree with Maslows Hierachy of Needs to some extent. I believe that if a child is hungry, improperly clothed, and has a lack of shelter this will of course affect his or her learning immensley. Maslow states in his theory that if the child does not have the bottom four needs met (physiological, safety, love and acceptannce,and self esteem and respect of others) he or she may not aquire growth needs. However i believe that a mother may be lacking proper shelter, for example she could live on the streets and still be willing to give up her life for her child. Because Maslow does not give an explanation of how this would apply to parent child relationships it defects his argument. Just because an individual does not completely aquire one of the bottom four needs does not mean it intereferes or haults one of the top four needs (self transendence, self actualizaiton, aesthetics/beauty, and knowledge and understanding). When examing the stages and trying to put myself in one I realize it is a lot harder than it looks. I believe I have adequate shelter, food, clothing etc. My basic needs are met. I have a caring circle of friends and family that provide that love and acceptance. I have self-esteem and respect for others and I also feel safe in my environment. I would argue that my four deficiency needs are being met. However I don't think I have aquired all four growth needs, which I think is completely acceptable. Because, as stated, they are growth needs. Things that over time individuals aquire to be all that they can be. As I am only 19, I don't believe I will reach the top of the pyramid for a while and that is okay with me. Maslows hierarchy of needs, however insightful, has some pros and cons and would not be my number one choice when looking for an explanation of human needs.

Groupwork..yay or nay

In my personal experience groupwork has both its benefits as well as its drawbacks. I have divided the benefits and drawbacks into a list of pros and cons and therefore determined what I personally think of groupwork and if it benefits students or if it hold students back from there full potentions.

First the pros:
- Encourages students to interact with others, and therefore learn how to respect others opinions as well as stand up for his or her own
-When different minds tackle the same project or discussion the outcome can be very beneficial as ideas may not have been thought of if the individual was to tackle the project on his or her own
-Allows the teacher more time to mark each project and really evaluate all the aspects of the project. It would be alot easier to mark 6 projects instead of 18, can take time on each project.
-Creates room for student interaction. Allows students to see a new perspective, one he or she may have never thought of.
-Students who do not like talking in front of a large group of people (aka the whole class) may find comfort in small groups and may discuss ideas that would have never been discussed without the placement into a small group
Now the cons:
-Students may ride the coat tails of the group and recieve the same mark as the people that really spoke up.
-If group is made up of students that are inverted the discussion may lead nowhere and therefore no new ideas may be thought up
-If the group is made up of extroverts there may be arguments because students may not let other students speak if the idea of the other student does not match there own
-2 of the 4 students may do all the work and the other 2 students will recieve the same mark, causing unhappy students and therefore stressed teachers
-Students may feel that the mark does not clearly reflect his or her effort put into the project

After assesing the pros and cons of groupwork I believe that groupwork if placed in the right setting is beneifical to classrooms. The pros deal with the formation of ideas and the cons deal with unfairness of marks. Therefore groupwork is more beneficial when ideas are being discussed rather than if there are marks on the line. I personally think that because each student receives his or her own marks at the end of the school year he or she should be responsible for his or her own work. However, discussions in group work teach students the importance of listening and considering other student's ideas as well as creating ideas that may have never been formed if not for groupwork.

Garder's Multiple Intelligences

My experiences with Multiple Intelligences first began in Grade 12 Science class. My teacher thought very highly of the Multiple Intelligences and all of our projects were based on what he called "M.I Projects". At the beginning of the school year he handed out a test for us to take with about 100 questions that basically asked would you rather...option A, option B, or option C etc. At the end of the test we tallied up how many A's, B's, C's and so on that we had which told us which Intelligence was our strongest, and which was our weakest and all the ones in between in order from strongest to weakest. Every 2 weeks we had to do a M.I Project and it had to correspond to our strongest 3 multiple intelligences. For example if we were verbal smart we could make flash cards or do a report. If you were musical smart you could make up a song or perform in front of the class something musical. This could sometimes be challenging when it came to Science but it was a very beneficial way of learning that helped me remember a lot of the key terms. My next experience of M.I's was in my practicum in EDFX. The children in my Grade 1 class were given Multiple Intelligence tests. However, I did not feel that these were as beneficial as the M.I's in Grade 12. The questions on the Grade 1 test were things like, would you rather play on the adventure playground or write a story. 99% of the children answered: play on the adventure playground. Some of the answers interested me such as when a student would rather write a story than draw a picture. Multiple Intelligences have benefits but I can see how they are not always reliable.

Carol Gilligan

I agree with Carol Gilligan when she describes that justice and care have to be combined and that the model can not be too individualistic. The justice perspective although reliable does ot consider emotions or values which must be considered when concerning a child's education. However if the model is only concerned with the care perspective things can become out of order or unfair to the child. By combining the justice and care perspctive it provides a childs education with fairness as well as care. Because Gilligan is talking about moral reasoning her theory may also be questioned and there is no firm answer as to which will provide the highest moral reasoning.

Gender

Class Summary:Gender arguably is a learned behavior and school is a site for socialization of gender. it is where children learn there gender roles. Young boys learn that it is not cool to like Justin Bieber if you are a "real boy" and young girls learn what it means to be a young girl. This differs from the sex of a child because that is a biologically aquired trait. When discussing gender there are different views of gender development. Some believe that it comes from the way we are physically composed or "biological". Others believe it comes from social learning: the child watches or observes role models and learns his or her gender role. For example if a child only grows up with a male figure in her life, she may be a tom boy or aquire traits that are seen typically as masculine. Another theory is the cognitive development theory: this is another ages and stages theory and it is described as the way a child thinks about gender and it progresses as they age. The last theory is the gender schema theory: this discounts the cognitive development theory and says that the brain is like a computer and therefore the idea of gender does not develop it looks at the way a child processes information about gender.
Blog Question: Select some well-known person as representing the ideal each of feminitiy and masculinty. Give 3 reasons for each.

Feminity: WONDER WOMAN
1. Does good for the world-kind caring compassionate
2. Pretty- has feminine characteristics
3. Polite

Masculinity:
1. Built-strong
2. Family orientated- married
3. Well off

IQ..Right or Wrong?

The definition of an IQ test is: standardized test that claims to measure an individuals intellectual ability.
The above video is a video I found on youtube that I thought was very helpful in my understanding of how accurate and reliable IQ testing is. When I was doing my practicum in my Grade 1 class, one of my students was given an IQ test and scored 50. The teacher was telling me that IQ rarely changes and that this child would struggle in school due to this score. By observing this child I did notice he did struggle in basic tasks that other students had mastered. He was also a year older than the other children in the class as he was held back in kindergarten. I feel that if this child was told that he got an IQ score of 50 and truly understood what this meant it would be detrimental to his learning and schooling life. By being told that you will struggle and not do well this child will have no motivation because he was told that it doesn't matter how hard he tries he will never be at the same level as the other children in his class. To me IQ testing is a way of labelling a child with a number that he or she is stuck with the rest of his or her life. Some children do struggle in school I don't believe they need a number to further discourage them from trying their best.

Kohlberg

Kohlberg really outlines the stages that we as individuals goes through to gain morals. I believe individuals can be in more than one stage at a time and that these stages do not happen over night, rather gradually. Kohlberg's stages really help me understand the thought process of individuals at different stages and where morals could be implemented.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner focuses on group situations in contrast to Piaget's individualistic outlook on the cognitive proccesses of children and adults. One item that really helped me grasp the concept of Bronfenbrenner's theory was the picture chart shown in class. (Shown above) It really puts in perspective the different systems and how they work together/affect the individual. The activity completed in class kind of confused me as I was not sure what to to put for several aspects of the chart.For example family: Do I put my family members or what role I play in my family. I found it much easier to do for "Brandon" the example provided in class then myself which is interesting to me.

Erik Erikson.. where am I?

The question was presented at the end of class to acknowledge which of Erik Erikson's 8 stages us as individuals are currently in. After discussing the stages I interpret that I am in between the identity vs. identity confusion stage and the intimacy vs. isolation stage. The reasoning behind my thinking is that I still listen to different types of music dress differently occasionally for the simple reason of trying to define who I am. Although I have a pretty good idea of my beliefs and values and am pretty strong in holding those beliefs and values my outer appearance is something that I can honestly say is not srong and set in its ways. The next stage that I feel I may be part of is the intimacy vs. isolation stage. I have come to the point in my life where I don't count on my parents as much as I used to to meet my basic needs. I can go out and accomplish those myself without the aid of my parents. The reason that I feel I am in between stages is because I feel as if I know who I am to a certain extent, but there is still some room for self definition, and I feel that I still rely on my parents to be completely free of the intimacy vs. isolation stage and therefore am in between. I am not sure if it is possible to be in 3 stages but to a certain extent I feel that I am. When I look at the generativity vs. self-absorption I kind of feel like I have dipped a bit into this stage as well. My sister had a baby a short while ago and when I think of taking care of her and so on I think that I give up a lot of my free time, making it less and less "all about me". Another reason why I feel I am partially in this stage is the my goal to become a teacher. One of the main reasons I would like to be a teacher is to help children acheive their full potential and somehow right the wrong teachers I had going through the education system. I know this is going to take me giving up a lot of my own time and own self to do and therefore I feel as if I am in this stage as well. All in all, I believe I am in stages 5,6,7. I'm not sure if that is possible but that is what I got after considering where I am in my life and Erik Erikson's stages.

Lev Vygotsky

The above image was found on Google Images and I found it very helpful in my understanding of Vygotsky's theory about Education Pyschology. Vygotsky states that everything we learn in connected. This image shows the merging of the different aspects of one's life. Thought and lanaguage is very important to Vygotsky as he believes that without language thinking cannot happen. I agree with this statement because how we process information is done through language in our own minds. Thought and langauge is present in all other socialization including interaction with others as well as scaffolding.   --the pedagogical approach help students meet goals that they are not able to meet on their own. (support)
Cultural mediation is how society influences the individual. The example from class:
-If you are a young woman walking late at night, and a african american man in coming towards you, you generally move your purse to the opposite side that he is on.
This example is helpful because even though the woman may have not every been mugged by an African American or anyone for that matter it has been culturally influenced upon her to move her purse to the other side.
After combining all of these aspects of society and the individual I would say that Vygotsky's theory is the one that I agree the most with and find the most helpful and easiest to understand.

Jean Piaget

As a teacher it is important to know how children think, and in turn do the things that they do. After reading and interpreting Jean Piaget's cognitive stages I think it will be easier for me as a young teacher to understand how they process information, also known as cognitive processes. My sister had a baby about 1 year ago. According to Jean Piaget my niece should be in the sensorimotor stage. In this stage Piaget states that infants don't think instead they feel and move and in turn use their senses and ability to move to get what they want. After spending a lot of time around my niece I would say that this is not completely true. When she was 8 months old she learned to nod her head no and yes depending on if she would like to do the action asked of her or not. This was not determined by here senses or by her ability to move. After realizing this I understand that Piaget's stages are not specifically from the age 0-2 and of course can be altered depending on each child. To me it could be assumed that when my niece was 2-3 months she did not think and her needs were met by her senses as well as her ability to move. After thinking about this as an example my initial reaction was that Jean Piaget's stages were completely off base. But after some more thinking it can be determined that because each child develops at a different rate these are simply generalized stages rather than when a child reaches 2 years old they are in the preoperational stage.

Adolescent Egocentricism

The concept of adolescent egocentrism didn't really make sense to me so I did my own research and this is what I found:
-It occurs in tweens and teens
-At this point teenagers believe that everyone is very interested and attentive to what he or she looks like.
-"All eyes on me" feeling.
-It is a developmental normal cognitive limitation.
   --In other words can not be avoided it happens without the teenager trying to do so or not.
-It normally appears around 11 or 12 years old and dissapears around 15 or 16 years old.
-During this stage teens spend a lot of time preparing themselves before going into public because they think others will notice if they don't "look good".
-Teens are easily embarassed during this stage. They believe that everyone will remember forever if they did something that they felt blemished there public image.
-First discussed by pyschologist David Elkind.
Source: http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/behaviordiscipline/a/AdolescentEgocentrism.htm
After completing this research it is understood that this is a stage where teeneagers are very concerned with their image as well as what others think of them. One thing that is not clear to me is I am 19 years old and I know that at 15 and 16 I cared more than ever what others thought of me. To some extent I still do. I don't believe that it tapers off around age 15 or 16 as this is the year that most children are entering high school. One thing that came to mind when completing this research was the very first class' information about being careful when interpreting information about child pyschology. I agree with some of the information presented but it is important to remain wary and understand that is is not always completely 100% true. I remember going through this stage as a teen (maybe even a tween) but I definitley do not agree that is generally tapers off around 15 years old simply because of my life experience.

Being a wise consumer....

In this first class it was really surprising to me how much introduction was needed before beginning to learn about education psychology. This is a very important topic on the road to becoming a teacher so knowing the different aspects to watch out for in order to be a wise consumer of information about education psychology. One of the aspects that really struck a chord with me was the first aspect discussed:
1. Be cautious of what is reported in the popular media.
I have seen many news programs where they do studies on how children learn and the effective and ineffective ways that teachers can implement in their classrooms. Because the programs were on the news I had assumed that they were completely true and questions could not be asked of them. However after learning about traps that can hinder the consumption of proper information I have learned to be wary of what is presented in the news. Now this does not necessarily mean everything in the news I will research but as a teacher in training, I believe it is important to investigate every possible aspect before attempting to implement it in one's classroom. The video watched in class about the teacher who implemented an exercise program into her classroom seemed very unbelievable to me. Some reasons that made me doubt the validity of this program were:
1. It only showed one study.
2. It over generalized: Because it worked for her students it would work for everyone.
Not to say that exercise would have no effect on children in the classroom. The kids seen in the video were running or completing some form of physical activity in their clothes that they were to wear all day. I cannot see how kids would be excited to wear the sweaty clothing for the rest of the day. The teacher also commented how the students sat still for longer period of time. To me this seemed like common sense. If you exercise you are going to be tired and therefore will not have as much energy to disrupt the class. It was presented that the exercise affected the brain, and in turn made the students more willing to focus and complete tasks asked of them by the teacher. This may seem like a very pessimistic view of this experiment, however after learning of common traps that the public fall into concerning the mass media I think it is a fair judgement of this video.