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