Sara Kate Palmer EDAT6115

  Chapter 6 of Slavin's "Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice" gave me a solid understanding of student information management - how they take in, keep, and recall facts, a necessity for designing good lessons. The chapter examined how learning happens - it covered information processing, attention spans, memory, and metacognition.For me it became particularly helpful in understanding why some students have trouble with content recall, and I better understand which approaches I can use to benefit their learning. How did I feel about the concept? This chapter held my attention - it showed what occurs in a student’s brain as they learn. I valued its description of how sensory, working as well as long-term memory operate. As a teacher I observe students "zone out" or struggle to remember facts - this chapter helped my understanding  of focus and significant encoding. Working memory has a limit and when students get too much at once, they cannot handle new fa...

       Chapter 5 of Slavin’s "Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice" gave me a better understanding of student learning through experiences, reinforcement, and social interactions . The chapter went over behavioral ideas (like classical and operant conditioning) and social ideas, particularly the work of B.F. Ivan Pavlov along with Albert Bandura. These ideas offer useful insights into ways I can influence classroom behavior and encourage good learning. How did I feel about the concept? This chapter seemed especially applicable to classroom management and how to motivate students. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning had personal significance because I already use strategies of reinforcement in my classroom for my second-graders. As an example I often use positive support like spoken praise, smiley faces or added privileges to foster behavior that is positive. The chapter helped me to see that I might be more deliberate with schedules of consistent support ...

      Chapter 2 of Slavin’s Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice gave me helpful information about how children develop cognitively  and how I can change my teaching methods to help them learn. The chapter emphasized Piaget’s theory of mind development and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. These both have a direct impact in my classroom. How did I react to the idea? The discussion of Piaget’s stages was quite instructive. It assisted in my understanding of why my learners think as they do. Second graders are in the concrete operational stage. They start to show logical thought but still require real events to grasp ideas. This fits with experiences that I have observed in my classroom. I have observed learners understand math topics well when they use materials such as base ten blocks for place value or tiles for fractions. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding showed the value of peer work and directed teaching. I noticed how socia...