Customized_Learning_Theory_Paper

Customized Learning Theory Paper Liberty University A combination of the views of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson would create the best learning theory because these three theorists created models which educators have followed for years. Piaget believed that peer interaction is important because peers can be models for fellow students and because they are at the same level of learning as other students it makes it easier for them to teach knowledge to their peers (Webb 1980). Hebrews 13:16 ESV states, “do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” God clearly wants adults and children alike to share the knowledge they have with one another. Children can often learn to accomplish difficult tasks with specific instructions by modeling after behaviors they see in others (Randi 2009). In Vygotsky’s social cognitive theory he explains that children learn from tasks around important adults in their lives. One of the ways teachers support students is by teaching them self-regulated learning strategies such as responsibility and persistence. In the NIV version of the bible, Proverbs 10:19 states “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” Here the scripture is explaining that associating with positive role models and people who have intelligence will help students be able to accomplish some of the more difficult tasks they will face in and outside of school. When forming identity, adolescents want to be an individual but at the same time still belong, and having teachers to accept them helps in this process. Erikson believed one part of a teacher’s job was to identify and uncover what adolescents do well and praise them for it. Erikson also believed that teachers should create an environment in the classroom that is safe for identity growth (Hamman & Hendricks, 2005). In the bible Jesus teaches by example throughout the New Testament by modeling which correlates with Erikson’s theory. The bible itself gives multiple examples of positive role models living for God and doing the right thing and shows the rewards they receive and how they are seen by friends and family as strong individuals. The bible is full of teachers that encourage adolescents to be responsible adults. By taking some concepts from the ideas of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson and coming up with a specific style of teaching that uses intentional teaching, direct instruction, STAD grouping with ample opportunities for students to help one another, technology, a good reward incentive system to encourage students to learn, using all three teaching modalities, and having a concrete punishment system in place for class problems a school can be much more effective. This learning theory is best applied to students in an academically gifted classroom because they traditionally have a greater desire to learn and are more likely to continue working when put in group environments than students who feel they have to be at school and don’t really care about learning. One of the most important things you need for proper learning is an effective teacher and an appropriate learning environment. Intentionality is an important quality for teachers to have. “Intentional teachers are those who are constantly thinking about the outcomes they want for their students and about how each decision they make moves children toward those outcomes. Intentional teachers know that maximum learning does not happen by chance” (Slavin 2009). It is easy for teachers to get lost in time filling activities instead of things that are essential for learning. This is why teaching requires so many hours reflecting on the practices taking place in the classroom and the outcomes the of those practices. The belief that what the teacher is doing in the classroom is having a direct impact on the student’s learning is called teacher efficacy. A teacher that believes learning is due to inherent abilities like inborn intelligence, home environment, and other factors that teachers cannot influence is not as likely to try hard and continue to make an effort as one that believes in teacher efficacy. All of these aspects of being an intentional teacher will bring students in the classroom more success than by a teacher who does not plan ahead or evaluate her lessons often. “Direct instruction is a teaching approach that emphasizes teacher control of most classroom events and the presentation of structured lessons” (Slavin 2009). Direct instruction calls for “active teaching; clear lesson organization; step-by-step progression between subtopics; and the use of many examples, demonstrations, and visual prompts” (Slavin 2009). In direct instruction the teacher is given the task of teaching the students and the sole responsibility of what they learn but surprisingly this method has been proven to give large gains in not only lower class and children with learning issues, but has wide range success across the spectrum of students. This method brings a larger rate of success to more students than any other method currently being used and it costs much less than most other popular methods. By combining what is economically feasible with a method that has been proven to work in numerous studies we come up with the best way teachers can approach education to ensure that learning takes place while having multiple interactions with individual students on a regular basis. Technology is one of the most important aspects of education today for many reasons and money should continue to be spent to keep a school up to date with current technology. Teachers use technology such as computers do look up lesson plans, assist with creating tests, word processing, presentations using overhead projectors and software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, and for storing scores and calculating averages with software such as Microsoft Excel. It is imperative for students to master how to use a computer effectively because of many reasons including the fact that basically every job on the planet requires the use of a computer and typing skills at some point. Also with a computer the correction of a paper can take a few minutes instead of the time it took in the past to actually re-write the entire paper. Cutting edge computers also pique the interest of the younger generation and allow for computer assisted graphic art and the use of the newest applications that are constantly being upgraded. The internet is another invaluable resource that teachers and students alike need in order to do research, keep up with new trends, and instructional games that can assist with learning. Students can use the computer to interact with students all around the globe through the use of the internet chat rooms, blogs, and social web sites (De Lisi 2002). Teachers can also post students grades online and allow access to parents so that there is an open line of communication available before too many missed assignments or bad grades have made it impossible for a student to make a comeback in class. Finally interactive whiteboards allow the teacher to present books, art, video content, and more to a classroom of students with only the use of internet. “A large British study found that whiteboard use correlated with achievement gains” (Slavin 2009). The expectancy theory of motivation is “based on the belief that people’s efforts to achieve depend on their expectations of reward” (Slavin 2009). According to this theory there are two elements that are important in determining motivation, perceived probability of success and incentive value of success. If a problem is too hard the perceived probability of success will decrease. If the value of a reward is lowered, the incentive to win will decrease. Using this theory it would make sense to match evenly matched opponents against one another in order to see the most motivation to win being displayed. For students who think making good grades or honor roll is enough of a reward they simply need to see that this outcome is possible to really put forth effort to make the honor roll. For students who either don’t value the honor roll or don’t think they can attain it, another reward may be needed to increase motivation. The most important thing for teachers to understand is that all students are motivated by different things. A teacher should use a variety of sources such as informal conversations and journal entries to better understand how each student is motivated. Although sometimes a teacher can use intrinsic motivations by arousing the curiosity of the students and allowing them time to set their own goals, the most typical and easy way to motivate is extrinsically with grades, gold stars, and other rewards by stating clear expectations and giving clear, immediate, and frequent feedback (Slavin 2009). Problems and distractions are a common problem at some point in almost every classroom although the degree of seriousness varies depending on the students. One of the simple ways to discourage students speaking out of turn and causing behavior problems is to repeatedly praise the students who are doing a good job in class to make a clear correlation for students early in the year that the way to get attention at school is through good behavior. Generally students who are misbehaving in class are doing so to get attention and teachers must try to allow the students ample opportunities to be acknowledged with positive reinforcement before resorting to punishment. “There is a continuum of strategies from least to most disruptive: prevention of misbehavior; non-verbal cues such as eye contact, which can stop a minor misbehavior; praise of incompatible, correct behavior; praise of other students who are behaving; simple verbal reminders given immediately after students misbehave; repetition of verbal reminders; and application of consequences when students refuse to comply” (Slavin 2009). Another useful method is home-based reinforcement strategies in which teachers and parents are in constant interaction with one another through weekly progress reports that explain how a child is doing in school and any behavior problems that need to be addressed. Obviously these techniques do not work for all students and thus detention and expulsion are still used in the most serious cases of students misbehaving. Slavin (2009) states, “Homework gives students a change to practice skills learned in one setting at one time (school) and in another setting at a different time (home).”  I agree that homework is needed for all grades to reinforce what is learned in the classroom in a different setting.  Often when we learn in class there are cues in the room that may remind us of how to do something or remember some information.  Although these cues are present for testing so it appears that we have really learned the information, they are not present the next year in a new classroom and much remedial work must be done.  Practicing using any information in a variety of contexts makes sense because it increases the likelihood one could use the information in a reality based setting outside of the classroom which is the real purpose of all learning.  If what is being studied is never going to be applicable to a person’s life outside of one or two tests in school then it doesn’t really serve a purpose to be learned to begin with.  Teachers should use planning periods and the time before and after school when they are creating the lesson plans for the day to decide on the best ways to teach the lesson and on a homework assignment that may take from ten to thirty minutes per subject, much as Slavin suggested.  Homework need not be graded strictly like a test but more from the standpoint that students make an effort and attempt to remember what they learned outside of the classroom.   Something to remember about why homework is important can be related to when one should read the bible.  If we only read the bible in church and never applied it to anything else it would have much less meaning.  Similarly we must bring school teachings outside of the school just as we bring His teachings outside of the church. Social learning is based highly on the theories of Vygotsky. It is very important for students to engage in teaching one another in group settings because most students are in the zone of proximal development for the information they will be learning in their classroom and they only need some assistance from a teacher or another student who understands the information or can work with them to attain understanding. This also works well for those who know the information because in the process of teaching other students they concrete their foundation with this particular information and will understand and remember it more easily. Another idea Vygotsky had was cognitive apprenticeship which is basically the idea that by being an apprentice to someone and practicing on any concept one can become an expert at it. Group interaction is important because the teacher cannot provide individual one on one practice for every student in the class at various levels, but by separating into groups the more advanced students can teach the less advanced how to understand and use new information to achieve the goals of learning for that day. Some of the goals of peer learning are for the students to learn to improve their academic skills and to gain understanding of how to manage their interactions with others students (De Lisi 2002). Of all the different types of learning teams that can be formed using the cooperative learning methods, Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) works the best for this theory of learning. In STAD there are four member teams that are mixed with gender, performance level, and ethnicity. All of the students are responsible for making sure the others have mastered the lesson presented by the teacher and help one another. Individual quizzes are given to grade each individual in the group and those scores are averaged together to get a group score that works towards a reward system outside of their individual grades. Using this system encourages people to put forth more effort to teach others and themselves and students want to help their group so that everyone will earn a reward. This method is most effective for learning factual information such as social studies and science history and facts, mathematical computations and other math applications, and language usage and grammar. Because creativity varies so much on an individual basis, tasks that include creativity such as writing creative stories or poetry, should not be learned in the STAD model and should simply be done individually. The three modalities in school that students most commonly learn by are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. For a teacher to be most effective they must teach using all three of these methods as often as possible so that all students will be given an equal opportunity to learn the lesson. Teachers should use handouts, encourage note writing, and use examples on a chalk board or other method of presenting the information to students in order to assist the visual learners in understanding the information. For auditory learners teachers should be clear and try to make it a point not only to state the important information in the course, but also to use question and answer scenarios, movies, occasionally songs and other oral presentation methods that will appeal to those focused more on hearing. For kinesthetic learners teachers should focus on making sure they have illustrations, examples, and projects that the students can work on with moving parts and have a more hands on experience to engage them properly. When looking at my personal Learning Styles Profile I found that almost all the categories were balanced and did not definitively point out what I was best at. For interpersonal communication I found that I learn well regardless of if the subject is people, things, or data but I learn slightly more effectively with people and things. When looking at the modalities of learning I learned best visually, next kinesthetically, and least auditory. I do believe that the most common learning modality is visual learning but I understand the importance of the other two in the learning process and feel strongly that all three need to play a role. When looking at my Study Skills Inventory I learned that my strengths for studying were abundant and included note taking, listening, written communications, critical thinking, research, technology, and health. My weaknesses were time management and decision making. I do believe that technology, good note taking, good listening skills, and critical thinking are very important parts of studying and can provide some of the maximum benefits. However, I see the need for improvement in time management so that students do not procrastinate and the need for good decision making. On the Philosophical Methodology of Learning Profile I scored highest in Behaviorist and Progressivist categories and lowest in the Humanist and Socialist categories. My Behaviorist category influences my belief that teachers should use stickers and other reward systems to praise students who are behaving well as a deterrent to negative classroom behavior (Van Brummelen 2009). My Progressivist category influences my strong desire to move forward to better conditions, policies, or ideas and my endearment of technology. Teachers in a classroom today need to use a theory that takes into account as many facets of education as possible and works congruently to form a solid learning style. Intentional teachers understand that optimal learning can only occur when both the teachers and students are giving it their all at the same time. Teachers need to use direct instruction when giving lessons to the class, and then separate the students into STAD groups to practice and fine tune their learning with an appropriate amount of homework each night in order to make sure learning is not simply limited to the classroom. Teachers need to use technology from both an administrative standpoint and as a classroom tool in order to keep students interested and to keep a portal to important new information available for all students. Teachers need to use the expectancy theory to keep students motivated with a reward system both in the classroom and at home. Teachers must integrate all three modalities of learning together in the classroom to make the subject matter available to more students. Teachers also need to be effective at taking care of problems and distractions in the classroom in order to keep the class focused on learning and not give unwarranted attention to class clowns and trouble makers. References De Lisi, R. (2002). From Marbles to Instant Messenger: Implications of Piaget's Ideas About Peer Learning. Theory Into Practice, 41(1), 5-9. Hamman, D., Hendricks, C. B. (2005) The role of the Generations in Identity Formation: Erikson Speaks to Teachers of Adolescents. The Clearing House, 79 (2), 72. Randi, J. (2009) I Think I can: Developing Children’s Concept of Themselves as Self-regulated Learners. New England Reading Association Journal. 45 (1), 55-64. Slavin, R. E. (2009) Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Van Brummelen, H. (2009) Walking with God in the Classroom: Christian Approaches to Teaching and Learning. Colorado Springs, CO: Purposeful Design Publications. Webb, P.K. (1980). Piaget: Implications for Teaching. Theory Into Practice, 19(2), 93-97.