EDUC Courses Research

Field Experience

Area

School & Classroom Culture

Implications & Development

Area Research
Overall Goal: Creating a positive, all-accepting attitude in the classroom and among students.
Throughout my field experience and courses, I feel that I have gained important insights of how to engage students in the learning process and motivate them to learn.

Area

Research

EDUC Courses

Assessment & Evaluation

Personal/ Professional Integration & Development

EDUC Courses

Field Experience

Field Experience
Implications & Development

Implications & Development

Area

Learning & Behavioural Process

Implications & Development

Research EDUC Courses

Field Experience

Implications & Development: -since there is a lot of variability among students, including ethnic and cultural diversity, cognitive ability, gender, SES and other factors that can impact school success, it is important to create an inclusive, all-accepting classroom in which everyone respects each other and interacts -having groups collaborate can allow individuals with differences to learn to work with one another and learn and respect each others diversity -I have begun to develop strategies that promote interaction among students and address and celebrate diversity in classroom -strategies that I have seen used successfully are collaboration of students, working together in groups on assignments, projects, or even small tasks -acknowledging diversity in the classroom and having students speak and present about their ethnic diversity is also something Ive seen as effective -Ive learnt that its important to recognize all kinds of diversity in your classroom and respect it, and then students will model that behaviour from you as a teacher -I have also realized how these strategies can affect students motivation and engagement in learning: -students seemed more on task and engaged when they were working together with their peers

Area: -wanted to focus on ways to make classroom an environment in which students interact openly and celebrate diversity -wanted to create an allaccepting atmosphere that promotes engaged, motivational learning. Research: -educational psychology: children actively construct their knowledge and different children develop at different rates -Piaget: interacting with physical and social environments is crucial for cognitive development -educational psychology: student are more motivated to learn and achieve, have higher academic self-efficacy, are more often on task when collaborating with peers on assignments and believe that peers accept and respect them, thus important to create sense of community in classroom -warm and supportive classroom especially essential for diverse ethnic students

School & Classroom Culture

Field Experience: -teachers used collaboration in classrooms to have students interact with one another: -groups of students had to come up with a skit based on an assigned scenario, in which students were very engaged -two boys wanted to play with the same car so teacher had them take turns and play with cars together -students could work on word search puzzle together in groups -mural on school wall with various ethnic students holding flags from different countries, to show acceptance of all backgrounds -special needs students part of the regular classrooms and working with peers, not separated or put in exclusive classrooms -teacher let boy from Lebanon do PPT presentation on his country instead of province of Canada, demonstrating to students acceptance of different backgrounds in the classroom

EDUC Courses: -402 class: there is a lot of individual variability within any group -all Educ courses: collaboration can be a useful strategy to use in classroom -402 class: worked in groups to come up with classroom rules in which most people felt respect was most important -402 class: important to promote awareness and understanding of different cultures in classroom, such as by promoting positive social interactions among students from various ethnic groups -404 class: a lot of ethnic diversity in classrooms and many ELL (English Language Learners) so, important to respect all and create inclusive, accepting, classroom

Implications & Development: -using creative techniques can allow students to engage in the learning process -since every student has a learning style that works better for them, its important to explore various ways that students can respond to or express their understanding of texts and connect to the subject matter -its important to have a variety of multimodal strategies and traditional methods to cater to different students in the class -Ive begun to develop strategies that use creative ways to help students learn, which include multimodal methods (kinesthetic, visual, aural, digital/technology, etc.) -strategies that Ive seen which seem to be effective are creative methods which engage the students such as PPT presentations, video clips, painting, group work, typing on laptops, games, and various interactive learning -music also seems to engage some students -often, teachers integrate various methods such as movement, music, and visual, which I observed engaged more students -Ive learnt that it is important to recognize the various learning styles and create a balance of different and creative learning techniques in the classroom

Area: -wanted to focus on achieving creativity in the classroom to help students connect to the material -create balance of multimodal and creative strategies along with traditional learning styles

Personal/ Professional Integration & Development

Research: -educational psychology: creativity allows for divergent thinking, which is starting with an idea and rooting off in many directions -educational psychology: a more effective approach to help students learn is to incorporate skills and knowledge in various meaningful and enjoyable activities like group projects and games -Cohen (2008) recommended practicing for creative variability which is playing with the learning process in many ways or different contexts so that practice can lead to effective learning

Field Experience: -teacher for gr. 5/6 class had her students do a science presentation with a poster or a PPT and the students were enthusiastic with whichever presentation style they chose -in a gr. 3/4 class the teacher had some creative teaching ways such as passing around a Blackfoot artifact for the students to learn about First Nations, while also incorporating traditional methods such as writing in notebooks -in a gr. 7 class, the teacher used traditional methods by having students write about literary terms while using newer multimodal methods as well such as showing the movie Freedom Writers on the Smartboard (students were very engaged during the movie) -in a gr. 1/2 class, the teacher came up with a creative method to have the students learn about patterns: she had them collect leaves and then come up with a pattern to glue on construction paper

EDUC Courses: -group discussions: we talked about how creative responses to material can allow students to gain a deeper understanding of material -404 class: in our group, discussed several articles that said using new and creative ways or multimodal strategies in classroom can help students with the learning process and it is important to have a balance of multimodal strategies and traditional learning methods -403 class: discussed an article that talks about the important of the image of a child and how every child is different and learns in their own way and has their own reality which needs to be recognized by the teacher -402 class: discussed how every child develops and learns at different rates -402 class: ways to promote effective knowledge construction for students are to provide opportunities for experimentation, promote dialogue, have authentic activities, have an inquirybased classroom in which the teacher exchanges roles with students

Implications & Development: -if I can effectively use positive reinforcement on the students I can get them to be successful in the class and motivate them to learn -some strategies Ive started to develop are making sure to specify what the desired behaviour is at the beginning, identifying consequences that are actually reinforcing for every student, administering reinforcement consistently, and making sure that every student has an opportunity to earn the reinforcement when giving it publicly -I want to continue developing more strategies to use reinforcement effectively in the classroom -strategies that I have seen used effectively are the teacher giving reinforcement consistently throughout the year to her students

Area: -wanted to look at positive reinforcement in the classroom and how to use it effectively Research: -educational psychology: there are various ways and types of positive reinforcement that can be used in the classroom to foster learning -motivation plays an important role in determining the consequences that students find reinforcing -some students exhibit extrinsic motivation so they are motivated by factors external to themselves such as good grades or recognition -social cognitive theorists state that one of the effects modelling can have on human behaviour is response facilitation effect which occurs when an observer displays a previously learned behaviour more often after they see someone else reinforced for that behaviour

Learning & Behavioural Processes

Field Experience: -in a gr. 3/4 class the teacher had a class party for the students every Friday to reward them for being on task and behaving well throughout the week, and to encourage this behaviour -in a gr. 1/2 class the teacher had a star reward system in which she recognized a student out loud for good work or behaviour and added a star to the chart (once they received a certain number of stars they were rewarded with a prize) -in a gr. 3/4 class the students were not behaving so the teacher delayed their gym time and once everyone was listening and quiet they were allowed to go to gym -Junior high teachers students were very well behaved and respectful so when asked why this is the case she explained that you have to establish the setting from the start and you have to be consistent, so reward them and compliment them when theyre good and vice versa

EDUC Courses: -402 class: talked about rewarding or giving credit to a student in front of class only if they are comfortable with it -402 class: discussed extrinsic motivation which is motivation that is promoted by factors external to the person, such as rewards

Implications & Development: -important because if I can decide on and figure out methods to evaluate students then students work can be effectively assessed and help them achieve success -good assessment measures can motivate students to learn -effective assessment tools and evaluation methods will factor in student differences, helping each student achieve success in the classroom -I want to continue developing and learning more assessment and evaluation strategies that will be effective in the classroom -strategies that I have seen used in the classroom are teachers taking samples of various forms of student work including written assignments, visual/artistic work, and oral presentations graded with a rubric

Area: -wanted to focus on deciding how to evaluate and assess the students -wanted to establish effective and appropriate assessment tools for various forms of student work

Assessment & Evaluation

Research: -there are different forms of assessment including informal and formal and different forms of evaluation -there are teacher-developed assessment tools that teachers develop to assess learning specific to their classrooms -educational psychology: assessments can be used as motivators to promote learning and they are especially effective as motivators when students see them as good measures of course objectives and feel challenged to do their best -when identifying and developing ways to assess student learning you should remember that students differ from each other in ways that affect their performance for assessment, such as, developmental differences, text anxiety, cultural bias, language differences, and testwiseness (knowing how to take tests which enhances test performance)

Field Experience: -several of the classes had standardized tests that students wrote -in a gr. 5/6 class the teacher made her own rubric for evaluating students science presentations -gr. 1/2 teacher said that she collects samples of students work to assess for report cards -one teacher said that she gives students with special needs breaks frequently so they can focus better on their work to be assessed -there was a variety of student work that teachers evaluated and assessed (presentations, posters, creative writing assignments)

EDUC Courses: -402 class: assessment tools evaluate and examine student knowledge, student memory, student creativity, teacher success, teacher development, and curricular goals but are only a sample of any of these -402 class: good assessments have reliability, standardization, validity, and practicality -403 class: its important to remember when assessing, that each child has their own reality, their own experiences and needs they come into the classroom with