Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

I believe that cooperative learning is very important when it comes to student interaction. Unfortunately with so many students in all the classes it is hard to really meet other people. In specials the students in the various classes are mixed. This gives a great opportunity for other students to meet each other. But students tend to stick with others that they know. I try to incorporate many activities that involve cooperative games and team building. In the chapter Cooperate learning it describes “ five basic components: 1. Positive interdependence ( sink or swim together) This strategy involves students working together if they succeed then the whole group will, but if not than everyone will be unsuccessful. 2. Face to Face, promotive interaction. ( helping each other to learn, applauding efforts and success) When students cheer on their group members giving positive support is extremely important in building team work. 3. Individivual and group accountability- Each student must contribute for the team to be successful. The slacking members will not help the team succeed. 4. Interpersonal and small group skills. Communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution) this is the most important one. Being able to communicate with your group members working together to achieve a goal. 5. Group processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better). It’s good to ask questions after the activities to see what the students thought they could do better, or what things that was difficult for their group to achieve the goal (Pitler, 2007).

Voice thread is an interesting way to learn about a particular object. The voice thread orientation discussed how it worked. I found it very interesting about the mother in the photo with her children. She was reflecting on what was happening on the day the photograph was taken. Then each child gave their account on what they were thinking. This is a great tool for students to learn about a subject but even families to know more about their heritage.

Instructional strategies and social learning theories correlate together when collaborating with other members in a group to come to a solution. Many different strategies that help students learn especially involving activities built around social learning theories. Cooperative games are a way to incorporate student involvement to achieve a goal.

Constructivism in practice

Both constructivist and contructionist have similar theories. When I think of contructivist it reminds of piaget of thinking cognitive and social interaction. Then contructivist reminds of Vygotsky of thinking of critical reflection. In physical education there is plenty of social interaction. I like having my students work with different partners every class. This way the same people are not grouped with their friends all the time. It makes students work with someone they might not normally talk to. I believe that positive social interaction in class benefits the students tremendously. One way to promote social interaction throughout the year is the use of cooperative games. These activities are meant for the students to problem solve and work together. At the younger level it tends to be much harder for them. Some of the cooperative games that I use are setup in stations. There are various activities that have students thinking and working together to complete the task. In the reading there are six tasks that teachers can use to help students generate and test hypotheses. Three that I like for cooperative games activity include “problem solving, experimental inquiry, and decision making (Pitler, pg 203).” One of the tasks that the students are asked to accomplish is having multiple students stand on a 10x8 sheet of plastic. The object is for the students to turn the sheet over on the other side without stepping of the plastic. This is very hard for some groups of students. But this way the students are social interacting, problem solving, and decision making. They are working together to accomplish a task. Teachers need to create learning environments so that learner can be involved in the lesson. There are several instructional strategies that include direct instruction, indirect instruction, experimental learning, Independent study, and Interactive instruction. I believe that interactive instruction makes learning more enjoyable for students. By having them more involved in the learning process they will retain the information more.

Cognitive Learning Theory

In the reading in this week’s text we explored two different instructional strategies. The strategies included “cues, questions, and advance organizers” and “summarizing and note taking (Pitler, 2007).” The cognitive theory is based on many different theories that revolve around auditory and visual learning, The learner is like a computer processing information, and that students learn from each other from demonstrations and visual modeling. The instructional strategies described in chapter 4 talked about cues, questions, and advanced organizers. In physical education, cues are very important for students to learn the concept. Cues are related to the cognitive learning theory because it modeling a visual in the students minds of what is expected. For instance when describing a certain skill it is helpful to give the students some sort of cue to remember. When describing catching a football, if the ball is above your waist your pointer finger and thumbs together forming a “diamond”. If the football is thrown below your waist your hands will be closer together forming “pinky’s touching.” These forms are demonstrated visually multiple times so students can grasp the concept. Many students tend to ask questions, I feel that answering the questions is important. The more time you take to demonstrate and answer questions will make the quality of learning in the lesson greater.
The one thing that I found frustrating was taking notes. Especially when you didn’t know what was expected on the test. Most of your time was spent taking notes not really paying attention to what was really being taught. In the chapter “summarizing and note taking” it talks about more efficient ways to take notes. One recommendation that I found useful was “give students teacher-prepared notes (Pitler, pg 120).” I like being straight to the point and having my students know what I’m looking for. This eliminates time spent trying to find the answer or what is expected. They can study the notes off the sheet that was given to them. I think mapping is a great way for students to learn. Since most of the time students are in activity it is hard for me to have students take notes. This is their time to be moving around getting some activity in building up their Heart Rate. Therefore giving students notes of what is expected on the quizzes helps me and them understand what concepts I’m looking for them to learn.

Behaviorism In Practice

The two strategies that are talked about in this week’s reading included.“Reinforcing Effort” and “Homework and Practice.” The behaviorist method has to do with reinforcing desirable behaviors. In the reading about reinforcing effort it discusses about teaching students about the importance of effort and have them keep track of their achievement. I see many problems with that scenario. One having students understand how to use an excel spreadsheet, and actually have them keep track of their achievement. The students that do not have problems learning this is a great idea. But the students that have difficulty believing that effort pays off, this theory will not work very well. I understand the point of it showing hard data to show how they excelled. But frankly this will be difficult for students who are not giving the effort to begin with.
“Homework and Practice” is the other strategy that relates to the behaviorist learning theory of repetition of the task. Homework is assigned for practice to make the student understand the concept after repetitions. Math was a difficult subject for me to comprehend. When I would receive homework it would involve repeating the skills. This method made me feel comfortable understanding the problem. But when the problem would change slightly it would throw me off because it was different. One of the recommendations explained “design a practice assignment that focus on specific elements of a complex skill or process (Pitler, 2007).” By breaking down the problem it is making it easier for the student to succeed.
Both of these strategies correlate with behaviorism because it is using a method of learning by using rewards. In this case the reward is keeping track of your grades through spreadsheets and word processing applications. At the end you get to see how well you have achieved throughout the course.