Personal & Social Development

Chapter 3

(3.1) Personal and social development can have a major influence on both individual student

learning and the learning environment as a whole. Identify a case from the CSEL guidelines*
that you would like to address in your paper. Then, examine the possible developmental
factors that could be influencing your target student(s) or classroom in the case study. Consider
all dimensions of personal and social development, including cognitive, language, social,
emotional, and moral development. *CSEL guidelines can be found under CSEL Artifact. Cases
are included at the end of the document. Choose the case that best suits your desired grade level.

 

Elementary Education Case Study

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

It is possible that since Lisa seems determined to be disruptive and insists on getting her way, that she is a product of permissive/passive parenting who rarely punish discipline their children for wrongdoings. Her lack of discipline at home could have easily transferred to the classroom. It is possible that she is somewhat experiencing a culture shock by being presented different expectations than at home (Ormrod, 65). It also appears that Lisa lacks stable personality traits such as openness, agreeableness, and extraversion. If she does have stable traits, they seem to lead to the negative side and lead to her gaining attnetion in result. I also think something can be said for her sense of "self." I think it is very likely that she has low self esteem. Even though young children have trouble thinking in the abstract, I think by the third grade at least students start comparing themselves with others and where they range. They might see other students excelling and think something is wrong with them. Lisa migth fall into the category of having a low sense of self and might even feel like a "rejected student" and her image might have never been righted at home.

(3.22) Check out tables 3.1 (p. 75), 3.2 (p. 83) and 3.3 (p. 91) with particular attention to the age

ranges you are interested in teaching. Identify your personal favorite ways that an educator can
promote a child’s sense of self, perspective taking, and moral reasoning skills.

-Provide opportunities for students to look at one another's work only when eveyrone has something to be proud of (p75).
-Help students resolve interpersonal conflicts by asking them to consider one another's perspective(p83).
-Explain how students can often meet their own needs while helping others (p91).

Chapter 2 Cog Developement

 1)One of the most cited theories of human development is that of Swiss biologist Jean Piaget. After reading about Piaget's basic assumptions (p. 27-32) look with particular attention at the stage of child development you would like to teach. The other most cited theory of human development belongs to Russian developmentalist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development leads us to expect greater diversity among our same-ages students than Piaget. Given these two influential theorists' ideas on cognitive development, how might you accommodate students who are not yet working at the level of their peers?

After reading through Piaget’s  4 stages of Cognitive Development, I believe I will be interacting with children who are in the Concrete Operational Stage according to Piaget. In this stage it is said that “adultlike logic appears but is limited to concrete reality” (p.31). There are  many great points Piaget has to offer, but  I think he is assuming that children move and learn at the same pace which is completely untrue. Children are often able to think in a more advanced manner than the stage that Piaget places them in at that age level. In order to accommodate students who are not working on the same level as their peers I would first have to assess where they are at in their learning. I think meaningful, probing questions during exercises can allow me to see their level of understanding and if they are making meaning of the content. I think by challenging their illogical and incorrect ideas and guiding them in the right direction, they can construct their only knowledge but at this point, reaching equilibration by going through a process of better developing their understanding. I also partly agree with Vygotsky’s assumption that social interactions plays a big part in making meaning for children. Thus, I would most likely create groups of high and low learners so they can feed off each other and learn from each other’s ideas.

2)Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in cognitive development. Examine Table 2.2 (p. 51), paying particular attention to the age range that you are interested in teaching. Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own students.

I examined the section aimed at grades 3-5. I really liked the suggested strategy of having students create short stories and presenting them orally or in writing. This is a good idea because it can be used in almost all subjects, basically killing two birds with one stone. You can encourage creativity while at the same time checking for concrete understanding of a topic translated into concrete writing.  Presenting them orally helps build confidence and speaking skills. The more students read aloud, the better readers they will become.

 

Social Cognitive Theory

Which of the learning activities/skills can you think of that lend themselves to learning through modeling?

I believe that both academic skills as well as interpersonal behaviors lend themselves to learning through modeling. I like the idea of verbal, descriptive explanations. While I am explaining, for instance, a math problem, I would model a very clear thinking process so that my students could see that led to success, and wish to copy the same steps. I might also talk out how I used the context clues in a reading to allow me to figure out what a challenging word meant. If students are able to interpret these processes as the road to success, hopefully, they will willingly choose to model these steps, and in turn raise their self efficacy. I believe by modeling acceptable and wise actions, students will respect that, and choose to imitate. In this way, they would be gaining a sense of what a respectable person looks like and acquiring much needed interpersonal skills.

How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

Sometimes by having someone other than yourself (the teacher) explain why certain behaviors are beneficial, professionals in their field are inspiration enough to raise students’ ways. In my case study, Lisa is extremely disruptive in her group, and will not allow work to get done unless she gets the job she wants. I think the idea of having a respectable person everyone is familiar with would be a great idea to raise my students (and in particular, Lisas) self efficacy, but I know that will most likely be possible. So, I would probably search the web for a good video of a famous person that emphasizes only by working together, and setting productive goals can we become successful. In this way, she would not just be hearing these words from me, but someone who seemed larger than life. This would hopefully allow her to redirect her behavior toward productivity. Once her self-efficacy increases, we could work on self-regulation skills and how to make her a student that is more in line with her success based on strategies she can do for herself.

Behaviorism Simplified

In order to better understand Behaviorism I researched more and found an imformational site provided by the University of Georgia. It is very straightforward but I like it because it is very simplified and touches on reinforcements, conditioning, and behavior modifications. Basically, it explains things that we will most likely apply to our own classroom models. The following link will provide you with a great wealth of information about Behaviorism: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism


Next, I found this diagram to compare and contrast a Behaviorists thinking with that of a Cognitive Psychologists. Notice how different the thinking is and how one relies on prior knowledge while the other focuses on reinforcement of behavior to produce the desired effect.

Chapter 9- Behavorist Learning

How would you define successful mastery of your lesson objectives from a behavioral view of learning? Well, I think in any lesson the take away is for them to understand the content thoroughly and be able to apply it. For example, if I had a vocabularly lesson I do not want them to just take away the spelling and meaning of the word for which they can simply memorize. I want my students to apply what they know and create sentences to show they understand the words in different situations and contexts. In this instance I might propose rewards for mastery at the end of the unit to teach students delay of gratification and also give them something to work for. I hope to create an environment that has air of competition, but does not intimidate students where their response is to let the high learners win the prize. Consider your CSEL intervention case study. Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case? What are they? I am not crazy about behavioristic approaches, but I think their are important and useful behavior techniques for the classroom in the form of reinforcement. In order to increase positive behaviors I may have a group goal available. In order to encourage students sitting in their seats, I will offer the reward of extra free time at the end of class. This will hopefully spark an interest since it is giving students the option to move around a lot at a later point. I will most likely use social reinforcers as well to discretely give praise while not giving too much attention to certain students. I might just smile often and give a thumbs up for good work, or a student that models good behavior, or I might even praise aloud in order to recognize, and feel as if he is really a star student.

Project Based Learning Success Story

This high school in Manor, Texas uses a project based learning style to give their students hands on and interactive experiences, and to constantly keep material interesting and fresh. Statistically, the school has consistently outstanding graduation rates and students appreciate what their teachers are trying to do. Teachers create many activites with the hopes of applying the materials to real-world experiences. The link below shares more about their goals and the 5 steps they follow in order to reach them. They are: 1. Start with the State Standards
                                    2. Entry Event: Define Learning Goals
                                    3. Assess and Adjust Throughout
                                    4. Critical Friends (Teachers)-Peer Feedback
                                    5. Asses on Multiple Learning Outcomes

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-project-based-learning-best-practices

Chapter 8: Metacognitive Processes

Chapter 8

Consider a lesson plan you might use.  Which metacognitive skills/abilities are involved as students gain facility/knowledge in this domain?

I think I would create a lesson on purposes of writing and narrow in on opinion pieces. This would be intended as a writing activity for a fourth or fifth grade classroom. We would discover the differences between fact and opinion through powerpoint, then view different pieces and talk about what context clues point to it being an opinion. I would require students to try and takes notes to follow along, possibly giving them a diagram to organize their thoughts and be able to write out their evidence and reasoning. I think I would incorporate probing questions to see what they know and their opinion about opinions. I think it is important to convey that there are not wrong opinions, incorporating ideas of acceptance and tolerance. I would then have students participate in an authentic task by writing an opinion paper/article to the school newspaper about an issue they have a strong opinion about (i.e. changing school dress code).

Think of an activity or lesson component that explicitly teaches one or more metacognitive and one or more problem solving skills.

 I would use a geometry lesson for third grade students. Based on the angles previous learned, I would create different scenarios where the student must use their previous knowledge to measure areas, perimeters, distances and angles. (i.e. of the backyard of a house) In order to answer the mathematical problem students must use an algorithm to find the correct solution(s). A strategy I would implement is drawing a model on a smaller scale with very simple numbers and writing the possible solutions in order to gain understanding of the concept itself. After they begin to catch on, I would draw my own model on the board and call on students to walk me through the procedure.