Personal Learning Theory

Behaviorism & Social Cognitivism Case Study

Behaviorism (Ch. 5) Questions:

1. Does Mr. Kessinger's class represent a community of learners as defined in Constructivist theory? Why or why not?

No, Mr. Kessinger's class does not represent a community of learners at all. He calls on everyone individually and does not let anyone engage in any other type of learning, but his lecture. They can't work together to answer questions or build off one another's ideas and comments. It is strictly and individual learning environment. I seriously was so bugged by this guy in the narrative.

2. Does Mr. Kessinger utilize presentation punishment or removal punishment with Robin? Justify your response using definitions and evidence from the case.

I would say that this is more an example of removal punishment. Mr. Kessinger takes Robin's desired concept map and destroys it. The definition says, removing desirable stimuli to try to stop an undesirable behavior. Mr. Kessinger takes her concept map and tears it up and tells her she is not allowed to use notes in is class and by removing her desired stimuli it teachers her it is not acceptable.

3. Explain Robin's reaction in Ms. Yamashita's class from the perspective of classical conditioning. Which stimuli are paired and how does that condition her response?

Robin assumes the worst in Ms. Yamashita's class because of her experience in Mr. Kessinger's class. When the situation with her psychology concept map takes place she assumes that Ms. Yamashita's reaction will be similar to Mr. Kessinger's and flees from the situation because of her assumption. She was conditioned to fear the situation. The concept map is the stimuli that pairs the two separate situations together.

4. How might Ms. Yamashita encourage Robin to create concept maps in the future? Include behavioral concepts such as shaping, reinforcement, etc., in your response.

I think that Ms. yamashita will probably talk to Robin after class and use shaping to encourage Robin to continue creating notes and concept maps for her class and the curriculum. Positive reinforcement will be much needed for Robin to realize that she is in the right and Mr. Kessinger's rules only apply to his lame ass class.

Social Cognitivism (Ch. 8) Questions:

1. Which teacher in the scenario demonstrates vicarious reinforcement? Justify your response with definitions and an example from the case study.

I think they both do. Both teachers use Robin as an example. One uses her as a negative responsible to teach their students what is not acceptable in their classroom and the other uses Robin as a positive example to set a higher standard for her classroom and uses she uses Robin's concept map as an example to show other students what they can do to succeed in her classroom.

2. Is Mr. Kessinger considering reciprocal causation in his class? Explain your response, including all aspects of reciprocal causation in your reasoning.

Reciprocal causation is the interrelationship between a student and their environment. If Mr. Kessinger realized the environment he was creating in his classroom he might change is approach. These kids are scared to interact in classroom and how he treated Robin is just going to multiply and enhance these negative feelings for all his students towards his classroom's environment.

3. Which self-regulated learning process is Robin engaging in when she creates her concept maps? Explain your reasoning.

I would say that Robin is in the self monitoring stage of the self-regulated learning process. She is monitoring her own actions and progressing towards her goals on her own. I would also say she is in the self-control stage though as well. She is using strategies (concept map) to progress and accomplish her goals too.

4. How do you think Robin's self-efficacy has been affected by this experience. Be specific about which self-efficacies have been affected and justify your response with examples from the case study.

I think Mr. Kessinger just crushed poor Robin's positive self-efficacy. She really was working towards something positive for her learning experience and he destroyed that progression and confidence by embarrassing her in front of her peers in her classroom. She had no confidence in her actions, because when Ms. Yamashita went to give her praise for her the concept map she ran in fear from the because she had no confidence that her great idea and the work she put into the concept map was a positive thing anymore. I hate teachers like Mr. kessinger. They are the types of teachers that destroy positive self-efficacy in education and I know because I had an English professor do this to me before another one praised me for my ideas a two semesters later. It wasn't until I had this professors positive reinforcement, that I started speaking in class again. Mr. Kessinger is a failure, no matter what kind of remembering level learning he provides for his students.

Cognitive Development (Ch. 3) Analysis Questions

Cognitive Development (Ch. 3) Analysis Questions:
1. Laura is in the preoperational stage of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. She is trying to solve the environmental issue in her debate class, but she isn’t able to think realistically and logically. This is what keeps her from being in the concrete operational stage and leaves her stuck in the preoperational stage of Piaget’s theory.

2. Laura is trying to solve the environmental debate by using assimilation. She is using information she already knows to solve a problem that is much more complicated than her logic can handle. She should probably use accommodation. Laura needs to think outside of what she knows and be realistic in her problem solving, but the stage of cognitive development that she is in will not allow her to think that critically. She is stuck and frustrated in her lack of logic.

3. Mr. Marculescu’s strategy frustrates Laura, but he is trying to get her to stop being so egocentric. Laura is having a hard time realizing that his questions are leading her to more logical answers. If she could look at the problem from his point of view she might be able to come up with some realistic ideas and be more effective in her debate. Another way to look at Mr. Marculescu’s strategy is to look at it as him taking the role of the mentor or tutor to Laura, the apprentice. He is more capable and experienced and is trying to lead her into more effective answers.

4. Play in this case study, would be, interacting with your students by asking questions and leading them into more critical thinking. Mr. Marculescu is playing with Laura by asking her questions to help her eventually find the holes in her answers. She doesn’t know that her ideas are unrealistic and can’t think logically enough on her own to come to that conclusion, so the teacher has to play with her thought process to get her to see different perspectives.

Social and Moral Development Analysis Questions

Social and Moral Development (Chapter 4) Analysis Questions:
1. Laura, like any other human being, cares about what the people around her think about her. It is human nature to want to be accepted and not outcasted from the the social networks in our environments. Laura just wants to fit in and not be considered uncool, who wouldn't want that? When looking at Erikson's Theory, I would say that Laura is in the two stages that most high school kids are in:Identity v. Role Confusion and Intimacy v. Isolation. These two stages are where humans try to find out who they are, where they are going, and who they are going to create intimate relationships with. We all want to be attractive and loved, these two stages are the stages when we try and find both of those things. Ourselves and someone who we can share ourselves with.

2. If I was trying to find a niche for a student who was obessessd with attention and being the spot-light, I would see if they had interest in Television and have them join the schools news program. I think that giving them a little camera time, while learning about journalism, communications and research would do them some good. Aslo, another activity they could get involved in would be student government. See if they have an interest in working with their peers and being in charge of the other students in school. They could have the attention that motivates them while learning management skills, communication skills, politics and a lot of other great tools for future success.

3. Laura is in Kolberg's Individualism and Exchange stage of moral development. She only obeys the rules, such as the tardy bell, if they benefit her. She is more worried about her appearance than the concept of being punctual and responsible. Priority plays a huge part in this, Laura rather look good for class than be on time because she does not want to be a geek or have her appearance not meet a certain standard for her peers. Laura is for sure more concerned about her image and acceptance than any kind of rule or grade.

4. Debate covers so many learning styles and levels. Students have to be able to think at a deeper and more problem solving level, they have to be able to communicate their ideas and opinions effectively using language, they learn what is going on in their community and world around them and learn to think about the problems and try to solve them, and debate is a great subject to help students develop morally. I know that it wasn't until I started debating ideas and problems in my head that I finally realized that I had different ideas than the ones that I was raised with,and that is okay because my opinion was educated and I decided where I stood morally based on my research and not just information that was being fed to me. We all debate, everday. I think debate class is a great place for cognitive, linguistic, social and moral development. It covers all of these concepts and helps us realize that we debate over everything in our heads everday. Our morals become the conclusions to our debates.

Constructivism Case Study Analysis

1. Two similarities the lessons had are: both of the lessons involved the students finding measurements and the students were excited about finding the measurements of the boat and the whale.
Two differences were that the traditional lesson did not teach the students about measurement and the difference between different types of measuring (for example, centimeter, inches, ounces etc...). The constructivism lesson made the students search for measurements using hands, height, feet and other types of measuring. The teacher followed up their experiments by teaching the students about measuring and different types of measuring. Introducing the metric system helps students understand how we measure a boat or a whale. Just showing them the size of a boat or whale won't really put their size or sizes of other things in perspective for them as well as helping them understand actual size.

2. Two benefits of the constructivisim they will understand measurments and they will be able to measure things using the metric system. Two drawbacks will be that the lesson will take much longer to understand and explain and students will have to think at a higher level of thinking so the teacher will have to guide more. I think that the benefits are definitely worth the costs. Students will actually be able to go on and measure things after this lesson and not just know how big a whale is.

3. The constructivist forces students to think at a higher level by making them use trial and error to find their answers. Making the students measure with their hands, feet and height helps them to understand why we have a set universal system for measuring things. Not everyone will have the same size of hands, feet or stature so there had to be a system created to measure. The students had to come up with this conclusion on their own. By not just telling the students they had to really think critically about the situation at hand and they got more out of the activity because of it.

4. Yes, this is an authentic activity because it relates to real life. Students will take this lesson and continue to measure things througout their life. Whether they are measuring a wood for a house frame, or milk for a cake, these students will use this lesson for the rest of their lives to measure things around them. This is definitely an authentic activity.

Cognitive Psychology/Information Processing Case Study Analysis

Case 1:
1. After participating in a civil war re-enactment, a student will use their sensory memory so much and remember and understand this activity more than if they just read it in a book or text. They will remember how it feels, what it looks like, how the food tasted and smelled etc... These memories will be different than just reading in a book because they involve so many more of the students senses and will be easier to remember and engage in.

2. Emotions will be provoked more in the re-enactment than in a book because students will understand the hardships because they have somewhat experienced parts of it. Emotions are easier to feel if you live the process other than imagine the process. If you have passion or emotions towards what you are learning, you are more likely to pay attention and store these experiences into your memory.

3. Dual coding would mean that Mr. West would try to encode this information into the students memory by using other sensory memory that he didn't use in the activity. For example, reading a story about the civil war or writing their own fictional story or their experience with the activity down. This will help them to remember what they experienced as well.

Case 2:
4. Obviously, Mr. Richards wins this battle in the teacher's lounge. His class will satisfy many different learning types, where Mr. Dunkin will only satisfy the remembering level learners, that is if they even stay interested in his book work. A lot of teacher think that routine is effective, but students get bored and you will lose their attention. Some students might thrive in Mr. Dunkin's class, but most will hate it because of his boring organization and routine. Mr. Richards uses the information processing model because he combines his activities in his class for the visual and auditory learners, as well as pacing his class and making sure that he does not overload them with the same kind of boring work, and then his class gets to practice the curriculum in many different ways! Not just by reading the information and copying it down every Monday through Thursday and testing on Friday.

5. I personally think that it doesn not only depend on the teacher, but also on each individual student. Some students would thrive in Mr. Dunkin's boring class and just fail miserably in Mr. Richards class. I think that this is because Mr. Dunkin's class does not make the students learn at a high level of learning. If you look at Bloom's Taxonomy, Mr. Dunkin's students are remmaining in the lowest level of learning, which is remember. Now, if students are more hands on, visual and audio, they will be so much more successful in Mr. Richards class. He covers more types of learners and will entertain their attention more than Mr. Dunkin. A lot of students need this kind of motivation and being routine and organized like Mr. Dunkin will force the kids to lose interest. I think as long as you reach your objectives and goals, differientation is HUGE!!!!