Social Learning Theories

This weeks learning at Walden university has focused us in the direction of social learning and how it can be applied in the classroom. The thinking behind social learning theory is that students learn best from the social and environmental interactions. In this blog posting I will be correlating some of the principles that I have learned about social learning theory with an instructional strategy called Cooperative learning and the technology that can be used to apply it. Cooperative learning is very similar to collaborative learning where students form a group to investigate a specific question or project, however, cooperative is different because students are assessed as a group as well as individually for the work that they produce.

The cooperative learning strategy sounds like an excellent tool for reaching a wide range of abilities and behavioral needs of students as its use is described by Orey as something that motivates students to do academic work whilst helping them to acquire critical thinking skills, clarify concepts and ideas through discussion and debate. Orey also goes on to say that by allowing students to participate in non-teacher led discussions, students will contribute much more to the debate and as such the level of discussion will be taken to an advanced level.

There were many recommendations for implementing this strategy into teaching but it was stressed by Orey that teachers need observations, training, practice, mentoring and time in order to implement it successfully in their classrooms. Once the strategy is also implemented into a project, it is very important to have team members assign roles within the group and also for them to have a good understanding of what it is they are learning about, expected to do, and how to achieve with the use of a specific rubric.

There are a huge number of technology resources available for students to use to cooperate to complete projects either face to face or virtually. Students can produce multimedia presentations, they can work to produce blogs, wikis, concept maps and ‘prezis’, they can build and manage websites, they can manage their time and assign responsibilities using online calendars and they can download assignments from a class management system such as Moodle and then upload their completed assignment, or even better, email it to their teacher! Another option that has been introduced to me as part of this week’s assignment is the use of voicethreads. The concept behind this is that images and video clips can be placed online and anybody with the URL can access this information and make comments on these. As part of this weeks assignment I have created a voice thread using an image that I already use with my classes. I have uploaded an image of a house that I sketched on illustrator and am asking my students to make voice thread comments based on the content of the image and their prior knowledge. The voice thread URL is http://voicethread.com/share/2500156/, please check it out!

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Constructionism in Practice

This weeks blog post looks at how the theory of constructionism correlates with the instructional strategy of generating and testing hypotheses as discussed in a book called Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works.

Constructionism is a theory of learning that states that people learn best when they build or construct something that they can share with others. This is something that all of my classes do as they work to design, develop and manufacture working solutions to problems based on theories and their current knowledge and understanding.

The instructional strategy of generating and testing hypothesis is about getting students to use and apply their prior knowledge and understanding to hypothesize about something that they then to test to see if the conclusions correlate with their prior understandings. This process is designed to get the students critically thinking about the problem they are hypothesizing about whilst boosting their overall understanding and knowledge base. The strategy states six methods that the teacher can use to help students create their hypotheses, and from these there are two that I use most frequently with my project-based classes and as such will dedicate the posting of this blog.

The first is called ‘Problem Solving’; it is defined as ‘students looking at various solutions given the obstacles and restraints posed by the problem’(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Many of the projects that I set for my students start with a problem that they need to design and create a solution by using their prior knowledge and understanding as a base to build from. Students start each project by ‘breaking down’ the problem into a list of ‘specification points’ that the manufactured end product must fulfill, they then research these specification points further until they have enough information and understanding to make informed design decisions to create a series of ideas that they feel would satisfy the problem.

The second method is called ‘decision making’, this is defined in the resource as ‘students defining criteria and applying weight to the various criteria to decide which choice makes the most sense’(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). The way I use this strategy is to get my students to look closely at the list of specification points (as discussed above) that they defined and then give each criteria a weighting as to the most and least essential. Once they have developed this weighting scale they use this to help decide which one of their ideas will be the most suitable to develop further and finally manufacture.

The combination of both of these strategies leads to my students developing realistic design solutions that meet the needs of the problem whilst also teaching them and reinforcing specific content of the curriculum, and also critical thinking, creativity and problem solving skills. These instructional strategies are pure constructionism as students are learning from the process of designing and manufacturing an end product to fulfill a need whilst overcoming any obstacles or misconceptions that they may have had in their understanding of the content being addressed.

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitive learning theory has been the focus of this weeks studies and with it two instructional strategies called ‘Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers’ and ‘Summarizing and Note Taking’. This weeks blog focuses on correlating these strategies with the cognitive learning theory.

Cognitive learning theory is about learning being a mental operation whereby information enters the brain through a sensory input, this information is then mentally processed in the short term memory and if rehearsed or reviewed it should enter the long term memory for it is be used and referred to at a later date. This theory is totally different from behaviorism as internal, mental activity is the focus rather than external changes in the environment as discussed in last weeks blog posting.

            The cues, questions and advance organizers strategy is all about helping students to develop their ability to recall, use and organize information that they process (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Cues and questions are used to jog the students memories in order to recall the information the have learned, and advance organizers are tools that teachers give students to help them better organize and understand the information they encounter. I have just started experimenting with an advance organizer to better help my students learn my curriculum content and hopefully more easily recall this information in the future. The advance organizer that I am using is a concept map supplied by webspiration.com, it has been really easy to set up and it has allowed me to set up a resource to organize and represent connections between concepts whilst also including visual representations so that the information is more likely to enter the long-term memory.

            The other strategy of summarizing and note taking focuses on developing students’ abilities to condense and filter information that they have learned into notes that can be used to study from. The resource explains the importance of teaching students how to take quality notes and summarize if we want them to have something to study from so that they can succeed in what they are studying. There is an abundance of educational technologies available for teachers to help guide their students into taking quality notes and summaries such as wikis, blogs, concept maps, google docs etc. These documents can be completed individually or in collaborative groups but it is important to teach students that notes should be considered ‘works in progress’ and can always be edited and added to.

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Behaviorism in Practice

As part of my masters program I have been asked to look at two instructional strategies and correlate these with the principles of behaviorist learning theory. B.F.Skinner developed behaviorist learning theory stating that learning is a manifestation of behavior and that behaviors can be programmed into students by reinforcing desirable behaviors with rewards and eliminating undesirable behaviors by punishing. The two instructional strategies that I am correlating with the principles of this learning theory are ‘reinforcing effort’, and ‘homework and practice’ detailed in the classes resources.

The reinforcing effort strategy stresses the importance of making students realize the importance of putting effort into any work that they undertake by having them document and compare their efforts against their achievements. To do this, it is important to first create a rubric so that students know what different levels of effort look like, students then self assess the amount of effort they put into tasks and chart this with the grade obtained from completing the task. This strategy is designed to allow the students to clearly see how their efforts correlate with their grades and will thus spur them on to put greater effort into work they complete in the future. The reinforcing effort theory also stresses that it is important for students to see the successes of other student’s hard work and efforts and this can be done with the use of bulletin boards and online postings that celebrate the achievements and success stories of other students at the school (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This type of strategy goes hand in hand with behaviorist learning theory whereby desirable behaviors are reinforced with rewards and recognition to encourage similar behaviors in the future.

The homework and practice strategy is about giving students an opportunity to extend and reinforce the knowledge and skills and understanding that they developed in class. The theory stresses that if homework is set it should be clear about its purpose and expected outcome, feedback should be given to the students and it should try to focus on giving students the practice they need to develop and master skills in specific areas stating that “multiple exposures to material help students deepen their understanding of content and become proficient with skills.” Technology is now an integral part of most of our students’ lives and setting homework to be completed online is a reasonable expectation, collaborative homework assignments can be completed on wikis with discussions also taking place on skype and other chat forums. Technology can also be used to create ‘drill and practice’ quizzes and games that students can complete online to reinforce their classroom learning. This type of drill and practice activity is also an integral part of behaviorist learning theory where desirable behaviors (e.g. answering all the questions correctly) are rewarded by allowing the student to progress to the next question or level of the game or puzzle. I teach a mechanisms unit in one of my classes and in the resources I found a website that is a nice example of where I could use this type of drill and practice type of online questionnaire can be found at the following website where students could again read a recap about the three types of lever that they had previously learned about in my class, they would then go on to answer a series of questions about the three classes of lever. The website link is: www.elizrosshubbell.com/levertutorial (Hubbell, 2004).

References

Hubbell, E. (2004). Lever Tutorial. Www.elizrosshubbell.com. Retrieved from http://www.elizrosshubbell.com/levertutorial/
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.