Module 2

Hello everyone! This post will be talking about developmental characteristics and how that affects teachers teaching the students.

It is very important to know where students are at developmentally so the class is not too hard or too easy. Finding the correct difficulty is something we addressed in class and found very important. If the content is out of reach of the student they will be more likely not to pay attention, and the same can be applied to a class that is too easy. Also in a previous post I stressed the importance of assigning the right amount of homework to students. This ties in with not making the class too hard because if a student is struggling in class and tries to do the problems on their own, they are going to be very discouraged. As educators we need to be encouraging not discouraging our students. With trying to determine where students are at cognitively, we can use Piaget’s theory of four stages of cognitive development. There are different types of cognitive tests to see where children are at in these stages. They are described in the video I have linked that I highly suggest watching.

 

 

There are other things outside of school that can affect student learning. This is expressed through Urie Bronfenbrenner’s model of how certain things in a student’s life can affect their schoolwork and personal lives. The picture I have added is his model for what affects a students’ life.

 

An example of this would be the parenting style of the person who is raising the student. Depending on the style of parenting the child is receiving will determine how the student will learn. If the parent is very strict the student will be more likely to follow structure. Where as some one who is raised with less rules might respond better to be more creative and doing things a different way than just following a strict structure, or they may need even more structure depending on the student. This can be demonstrated in the popular TV show “Modern Family.” Claire and Phil Dunphy raise their children with some less rules then some parents when Alex does really well in school and can structure her life. While Luke and Haley on the other hand needed more structure in school because they were too used to doing what they wanted. This show is just one example of how parenting can affect the student in school. I encourage you to take notice of this in your favorite family TV show the next time you watch.

 

The benefits of cognitive theories such as these are that it gives the teacher a greater understanding about where their students’ are at cognitively and personally. The limitation of this is that this then puts students into groups and starts to section off the class. However, in the future this can possibly used to have students help each other and challenge each other. This way the class wouldn’t be sectioned off; it would include group work across different levels of abilities.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

 

 

Citations

 

misssmith891.(2011, April 26). Piaget’s Stages of Development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRF27F2bn-A  

 

(Image was found on Google)

Module 1 Blog

 

Hello! This blog post is going to be about research and how it is used for teaching. There are great benefits to using research in the classroom for teachers. Research can help identify teaching methods that are being used and evaluate whether or not the methods are working or they are not. This could be done using either quantitative or qualitative research. We can use test scores as a measure to see if the students are retaining the information or the students could be interviewed about what they learned and see if they can articulate it correctly. Also if I were a teacher I could use information literacy to seek out research to see if how I am teaching the students is a correct way or I could be doing better. Some examples could be the use of video games in the classroom, is it bad to assign to much homework, new games that can help students be challenged across the three domains (psychomotor, cognitive, and affective), etc. What all of this means for my future career is that education is changing fast and the way we educate kids could drastically change in 5 years even, because of the research that is being done. Such as finding out that giving a student to much homework can lead to stress and having imbalance in that student’s life.

 

Apart of this blog I am going to talk about a recent note that was sent home to parents of a class on that year’s homework policy. (See the attached Picture)

 

My take on this would be that this is a step in the right decision. In an article the research found that homework does not have a significant effect on a students final grade (Maltese, Tai, & Xitao, 2012). Another article found that giving a student to much homework could cause an imbalance in their lifestyle. Having so much homework some students found it hard to have relationships outside of school and had more stress in their life (Conner, Galloway, & Pope, 2013). Some people may be opposed to not giving any homework, which I think there needs to be some homework, and Voorhees came up with an idea about homework. She suggests that students are assigned homework based on their ability rather than set homework for everyone (Voorhees, 2011). This is a great point to bring up because she later goes on to say it will decrease some of the frustrations students face when they have homework. In another study it showed the benefits of having homework, teaching students important skills such as, time management (Stoeger & Ziegler, 2008). This goes to prove that homework is not entirely a bad thing, however to much of homework can cause a great problem for students. Thank you for reading my Blog!

 

Citations

 

 

Conner, J., Galloway, M., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic Effects of Homework in Privileged, High-Performing High Schools. Journal of Experimental Education, 81 (4). Retrieved from http://libproxy.uww.edu:2059/ehost/detail/detail?vid=11&sid=24c4ff77-e288-43c3-b0c7-95fd6050a7bf%40sessionmgr4008&hid=4212&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=89980043&db=a9h

 

Maltese, A., Tai, R., & Xitao F. (2012, October). When is Homework Worth the Time? Evaluating the Association Between Homework and Achievement in High School Science and Math. High School Journal, 96 (1). Retrieved from http://libproxy.uww.edu:2059/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=715652ea-815e-4804-91ad-9f201cd354da%40sessionmgr4009&hid=4212&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=87646416&db=a9h

 

Stoeger, H. & Ziegler, A. (2008, July 19). Evaluation of a classroom based training to improve self-regulation in time management tasks
during homework activities with fourth graders. Springer Science + Business Media. Retrieved from http://libproxy.uww.edu:2074/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f7037d11-ee5f-4233-8906-895aba479a24%40sessionmgr103&vid=4&hid=125

 

 

Voorhees, S. (2011, February). Why the Dog Eats Nikki’s Homework: Making Informed Assignment Decisions. Reading Teacher, 64 (5). Retrieved from http://libproxy.uww.edu:2074/ehost/detail/detail?vid=11&sid=3c5f1b4f-6c92-4ecf-9837-48b660e278e3%40sessionmgr101&hid=128&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=58771213&db=a9h