Vygotsky Study Guide

Objectives: 

• Consider the role of culture and internalization in learning and development. 
• Explain the role of the More Knowledgeable Other. 
• Recognize the Zone of Proximal Development and consider ways to scaffold learning. 

Key Terms: 

Pages 58-66, 69-71 

Sociocultural theory – How society and culture influences our thought. Parents should help develop children through cooperative dialogues between their friends and older people. Children will learn how to behave through these interactions. 

Internalization – When someone internalizes a cultural thing... making it their thing too. 

Co-constructed – Social interactions when people create understandings to solve problems. Product is shaped by all participants. 

Cultural tools – Actual tools like computers, language, etc. that people use to communicate, think, solve problems, and create knowledge. 

Private Speech (Self-talk and Inner speech) – When you are speaking to yourself in a self regulation way. You can do this often times through writing, and journals. Gives people time to think about what they've learned. 

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) – Phase where the child can best master task with the appropriate help and support. They can't do it solely on their own, but need a little help. Some kids develop learned helplessness. As a teacher, we need to make sure we're giving the right assistance so our students can be in their ZPD. 

Scaffolding – Support for students while in their ZPD. We give them aids and helps until they are able to do something on their own. 

Funds of knowledge – Knowledge people have learned in the real world through family and community. This knowledge can be a basis for teaching. 

Summary: The biggest things I learned from this section were related to ZPD. I need to be making sure my students are able to do my assignments, but not so much so they are bored. I also liked learning about how culture can effect the way your brain is developed. In raising my kids, it makes me interested in implementing some aspects of Asian culture. I like how much they value family as their own and other things. As a future teacher, it is a little overwhelming the amount of things a teacher needs to be thinking of.

Piaget Study Guide

Objectives:

• Consider the role of disequilibrium and adaptation in learning and development.
• Evaluate the impact of a student’s developmental stage on his/her learning.
• Develop instruction that is developmentally appropriate.
• Determine the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory.

Key Terms:
General Principles of Development - Pages 31-33

Sensitive periods - Times when a person is especially ready for or responsive to certain experiences.

General Principles of Development – People develop at different rates. Development is relatively orderly (logical order). Development takes place gradually.

Piaget - Pages 45-57, 67-68

Scheme – Categories set up In brain. Categorizes perception and experience.

Assimilation – When your brain fits in new information to your scheme by matching up similarities.

Accommodation – When our brain has to accommodate a new idea. Alters schemes to fit in the new information. Ex. Cat has fur, but hairless cats exist.

Equilibration (Adaptation) – Brain and minds adjustment to the environment. Mental balance between schemes and information from the environment.

Disequilibrium – When you realize your current thinking is not solving a problem or understanding a situation. “out of balance.”

Sensorimotor stage (and its attributes) – (0-2 years) – sensor and motor activity. Makes use of imitation, memory, and thought. Begins to recognize things are still there even if you can't see it. Moves from reflex to goal-directed activity.

Preoperational stage (and its attributes) – (2-7 years) – state before you master logical mental operations. Develops use of language and symbols. Able to think through operations logically in one direction. Hard time seeing others point of view.

Concrete operational stage (and its attributes) – (7-11 years) – Mental tasks tied to concrete objects and situations. Solving hands-on problems logically. Understands conservation laws and can classify and seriate. Understands reversibillity.

Formal operational stage (and its attributes) – (11-adult) – mental tasks involve abstract thinking. Solving abstract problems logically. More scientific thinking. Develops concerns about social issues and identity.

Adolescent egocentrism – Belief that everyone else shares your thoughts, feelings, and concerns.

Summary: Students are in different thinking stages. It would be useful as a teacher to understand which students are in the concrete operational stage and which ones are in the formal operational stage. It was also interesting to learn about assimilation and accommodation. I'm realizing how similar my behavior reflects other things I do in life. We had a bunch of m&m's and I was given a spree and needed to somehow fit it with my m&m's. I took my spree and hid it under the other ones so I couldn't see it. When something is uncomfortable for me, I always run away or try and avoid it. I've learned that is a bad behavior and I should really accommodate for it instead. I need to learn how to overcome some of my issues if I plan on teaching my students better.

Piaget in Action

Explain how you would teach a specific topic at the concrete level. Be sure to include how you would cause disequilibrium, how you would help them assimilate, and how you would help them accommodate.
One way I could teach planes at a concrete level would be to have students make some out of paper so they can see exactly what it is we're discussing. They can have models when thinking about 3-dimensional things. The disequilibrium would come because we're introducing what 3-D looks like rather than the 2-D they've been doing for so long. I would help them assimilate the knowledge by relating what they know of 2-D and making connections between knowledge they already have. I would accommodate by doing something that showed all the differences between what they know and the new stuff. To do this, I would most likely have them use their 3-D models and have them come up with things that they wouldn't normally be able to do in 2-D. I like the idea of having them discover the knowledge instead of having me simply tell them.

What would you add for the formal level?
For formal, we could hypothesize what it would be like in 4-dimensional. This could be a good lesson in a precalc or calc class because in calculus, we sometimes integrate equations to simulate what the 4th dimension equation would be. I could get them thinking about what it is they would actually be doing rather than plug and chug type work.

Motivating My Students

I can do this by:
Intrinsically:

• Having students think about what they want to get out of the class, and have them create performance goals based on what their purpose is.
• Talk about growth mindset, and let the students know the resources they have to accomplish everything needed in the class.
• Have a lesson on Self-Determination theory. Have the students evaluate the kinds of activities they are already self-determined in. Have them think about Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness. Then, have the students report how these 3 have been present in the self-determined activity. Have the students work in groups to come up with ways to have those same ideas relate to math, and have them present them to the class. Have the class vote on a few of their favorites that I will implement in the class. This activity will help them feel a bigger part of the learning experience and community along with allowing you better access to their motivation.
• Encourage an atmosphere of learning. Don't focus on a students points or grades.
• Lead by example. I will show them my excitement about learning, either when I was in school, or the things I am learning now.

Extrinsically:

• I believe you still need to have some form of extrinsic motivation factor for students who are less intrinsically motivated. During the year, you should continue trying to develop intrinsic motivation with all students.
• Class competitions
• Feedback when they do a great job or are improving. Lots of feedback, all the time!
• Occasional reward system pushes. These will be some self invented program that lasts just a short period like maybe a week or two.

Motivation Study Guide

Motivation Study Guide 

Objectives (These are to help guide your study. You do not have to respond to them):

• Recognize the signs of learned helplessness and brainstorm ways to overcome it. 
• Understand the differences between mastery goals and performance goals and how and why you should promote mastery goals in your students. 
• Promote self-regulation in yourself and your students. 
• Differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and understand how and when to use each. 
• Define various psychological needs that affect learning 
• Discover ways to spark curiosity and build interest in learning 
• Explore the effects of anxiety and self-handicapping 

Key Terms:
Motivation Basics, pages 459-464
Motivation – An internal state that arouses, directs, and maintains behavior.
Extrinsic Motivation – Motivation brought about by punishments or bribes, etc.
Intrinsic Motivation – Natural desire to learn or seek out challenges, etc.
Needs, Goals, and Beliefs, pages 466-481
Mastery Goal – improve and learn no matter how awkward you appear.
Performance Goal – Goal to look good in the eyes of others.
Attribution theory
Locus – internal or external

Stability – whether the cause is the same across time and different situations
Controllability – whether a person can control the cause
Learned Helplessness – expectation, that based of previous situations, all efforts will lead to failure. (This is my problem!!)
Learned Optimism (not in text) – I'm assuming it would mean previous experiences would lead to self confidence.
Entity view of ability – assumes that ability is a stable, uncontrollable trait.
Incremental view of ability – suggests that ability is unstable and controllable.
Self-efficacy – beliefs about personal competence such as contributing failure to a lack of effort in something you think you are good at.
Self-worth – Reflections your own emotional evaluation of yourself.
Self-determination Theory
Need for Autonomy – Desire for own wishes rather than bribes.
Need for Competence – Need to feel like you can do things.
Need for Relatedness – Need to feel connected to others.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – 7 levels of needs that range from survival to intellectual achievement.
Interest, Curiosity, and Emotions, pages 482-490
Arousal – psychological and physical reactions that affect us to feel alert, wide awake, excited, etc.
Anxiety – general uneasiness, tension.
Summary (Write one paragraph to help you remember the key points of this section):
Motivation in something internal that promotes specific goals and achievements. I've heard people often reference the Self-determination Theory. In thinking about parenting, motivation is extremely interesting to me. Do you ever try to motivate kids with fear or do you try and jump right to intrinsic motivation. How do you teach intrinsic motivation. I'm also trying to figure out how to motivate myself. I like how self-worth was lumped into motivation. I often think less of myself than I should and often find it difficult to get motivated to do things. I've read numerous motivation articles, but nothing has stuck with me. I'm not even motivated enough to try some of the motivation techniques. How do you get a student to reach the potential you know they are capable of? Overall, I find motivation extremely interesting and want to continue learning about it.

Emotional Intelligences

There are 5 aspects of emotional intelligences. I will list the aspect and strategies for developing each aspect in my classroom.
1. Recognizing one's own emotions
I feel this category is best done by writing about how you feel. By having to formulate your feelings into words, you think about and understand what's really important to you. I plan on doing this in several ways. First, I like the idea of having journals where the students think about a topic or idea. It can be related to Math or not, but I would just give students a key word like Motivation and have the students write how they feel about it and what motivates them, etc. I also like the idea of having students do a similar task, but instead of writing, having them talk to their neighbor about it. They are still formulating their thoughts into words, but can also get other's opinions.
2. Regulating one's own emotions
When there's a conflict or a student is doing especially well or poorly, I will ask the students to take a minute to think about their emotions and whether how they feel. I'll ask them to think about how their emotion is effecting the way they act or perform.
3. Recognizing others' emotions
Maybe we'll have a moment each week where we look at different scenarios and as a class brainstorm how each party thinks and feels when something happens. I'll try to pattern these scenarios over things that are currently happening in the school.
This can tie together Recognizing own emotions and Recognizing others' emotions. We can have an activity where students are acting out the back and forth feelings of two people. They would explain how they feel and what they would do and then we'd flip to the other person and describe how they would receive the action emotionally and what they would do in response. This will most likely have to be done with a scenario type approach.
5. Motivating oneself
I'll have an activity where I'll list tons of different ways to motivate. I'll have the students contemplate what their biggest motivators and and have the class come together to try and think of different ways we can motivate as a class. This will be done early on and periodically throughout the year we'll evaluate how our motivation is going and what we can do to change things.

I know my ideas are still kind of vague, but it is a great jumping of point to come up with more concrete strategies and ideas. Even though I'm teaching Math, I like the idea of taking half a class or so each week and learn about things other than math like emotional intelligence and other things that will help in society in the future.

My Initial Definition of Intelligence and My Response

In class, I defined Intelligence to be the ability to learn. In defining it this way, I had the mentality that how quickly you can pick up on something describes how intelligent you are. I still feel this is true, but want to amend my definition to include different kinds of intelligences. I agree with Gardner's multiple intelligence theory, and extend the ability to learn to each of those intelligences. If they are able to pick up on music quickly, they are musically intelligent, etc. Of course there will always be exceptions to this definition. For example, a students who learns well may be undisciplined and therefore don't learn as much as they could. Another student may struggle with learning may have the determination to dedicate tons of time to something and become exceptional at it. I do believe that everyone has some ability to learn, and my goal as a teacher will be to help the student spark their desire to learn so they can all utilize their intelligence.