Contract Review #3

What are you doing well?

I finally feel like I am keeping up with the tempo of the class and I feel like I am on top of all of my work.

What are you not doing well?

Something I feel like I have not been doing very well is reviewing all of the information I have learned. I also feel like I need to work better at communicating with my content group about the assessment inventory. Although we have a great time together, we have not been very effective at making time to review all of the work we have completed throughout the semester.

Are you making sufficient progress on your goals?

I feel like I have made great progress on my goals. I feel good about all of the assignments I have completed, my study methods, and the content I am learning in the class.

List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals.

As far as communicating better with my group, we have recently met together and worked for a long period of time at editing all of the parts of our assessment inventory. I feel like we all know what we have to do and we are very organized. We have completed our assessment inventory and we feel good about our work.

Case Study Analysis - Chapter 10

1. Which teacher in the scenario demonstrates vicarious reinforcement? Justify your response with an example from the case study.

Mr. Kessinger demonstrates vicarious reinforcement in his classroom when he gets mad at Robin. When he asks Robin the question about the class material, notices her concept map, and then tears it up, he is using Robin as a bad example to the class. He believes her concept maps are a way of cheating, he cannot believe she is using one. When he tears up Robin's concept map, he explains his distaste to the whole classroom. After watching Robin get in so much trouble for creating a concept map, Mr. Kessinger's other students will most likely not create concept maps of their own. They will not want to experience the same form of public humiliation that Robin experience. Therefore, Mr. Kessinger is using vicarious reinforcement, or using Robin as an example to other students. Because of this, he will increase the number of students who will not take notes.

2. Is Mr. Kessinger considering reciprocal causation in his class? Explain your response, including all aspects of reciprocal causation in your reasoning.

No, I do not believe Mr. Kessinger is considering using reciprocal causation in his class. Mr. Kessinger seems to be completely disconnected from his students. He obviously is not affected by their emotions because he openly and harshly criticizes two of his students in the case study. I do not think Mr. Kessinger is thinking about how behavior, environment and a specific person's psyche effect how they learn. If Mr. Kessinger is trying to get his students to learn, then he probably does not think about how the harsh and unforgiving environment of his classroom affects his students. He seems to also care little about his students' personal characteristics. He openly tears down his students' actions. He is however, worried about the behavior of the students in his class. Mr. Kessinger does not want his class to create concept maps, and he does not want his class to come to class unprepared. I do not believe Mr. Kessinger is trying to create reciprocal causation.

3. Which self-regulated learning process is Robin engaging in when she creates her concept maps? Explain your reasoning.

Robin is exhibited self-regulated behavior. Robin obviously feels her classwork is important. She has many subjects which require memorization of terms, concepts etc. She analyzes how she learns and decides to make a concept map to increase her understanding and retention of the things she is learning in class. She is exhibiting very mature and responsible actions. Robin takes reponsibility into her own hands and makes the necessary actions to increase her learning. She is setting goals, and standards for herself and she is trying to keep them.

4. How do you think Robin's self-efficacy has been affected by this experience. Be specific about which self-efficacies have been affected and justify your response with examples from the case study.

Robin's self-efficacy in taking notes and participating in class has probably gone down with her experience in Mr. Kessinger's class. Robin worked hard on her concept map and thought it was something which would help her in her classes. After Mr. Kessinger gets so angry over her concept map and calls her a cheater, it probably made Robin feel she wasn't as good at taking notes and doing well in class as she thought. Therefore, her self-efficacy, or her confidence level in doing a certain task well, has gone down.

Case Study Analysis - Chapter 9

1. Does Mr. Kessinger's class represent a community of learners as defined in Ch. 7? Why or why not?

Mr. Kessinger's class most definately does not represent a community of leaners. In a community of learners, teachers and students work together to simultaneously help the students learn and the teacher work to best help the students. This means students and teachers support one another in the classroom. When students put forth effort to learn, teachers should encourage them. Mr. Kessinger blatantly emabarrassed Robin who was only trying to be a more successful student. He was also extremely disrespectful to his other students who were also trying to do well. His actions thwarted his students's learning rather than helping them to succeed.

2. Does Mr. Kessinger utilize presentation punishment or removal punishment with Robin? Justify your response.

Mr. Kessinger utilizes presentation punishment with Robin. Presentation punishment means that a person adds a stimulus in order to decrease a certain behavior. Mr. Kessinger yells at Robin for making the concept map and embarasses her in front of the class. By yelling at her, he is presenting his anger and disappointment in Robin. This is a stimulus, as it mentions at the end of the case study, that causes Robin never to take notes in Mr. Kessinger's class again. The presentation fo Mr. Kessinger's actions decreases her behavior of taking notes.

3. Explain Robin's reaction in Ms. Yamashita's class from the perspective of classical conditioning.

In Mr. Kessinger's class, Robin was yelled at for making a concept map. Mr. Kessinger was extremely rude to her. When Robin goes in Ms. Yamashita's class, she is in a similar situation as Mr. Kessinger's class. She is being asked to answer certain questions and she is looking at her concept map. When Robin is asked a question by Ms. Yamashita, she looks down at her concept map to answer the questions. When Ms. Yamashita looks at her concept map, Robin immediately feels the same emotions as when Mr. Kessinger tears up her concept map. She does not pay attention to Ms. Yamashita's praise and runs down the hall because she expects Ms. Yamashita's comments to be negative. Mr. Kessinger has caused her to respond to a neutral stimulus (a teacher approaching her about her concept maps) in a similar way (she gets flustered and feels embarrassed).

4. How might Ms. Yamashita encourage Robin to create concept maps in the future? Include behavioral concepts such as shaping, reinforcement, etc., in your response.

Ms. Yamashita could encourage Robin to create more concept maps by simply giving Robin more private types of positive reinforcement. Instead of presenting Robin's concept maps to the whole class, something she is now extremely nervous about, Ms. Yamashita could approach Robin personally and tell her how proud she is of Robin for making the concept maps. She can explain to Robin how impressed she is by her organizational abilities and for her dedication to studying the material. By personally explaining to Robin how she believes her concept maps are wonderful, and how she thinks they are a great study tool, Ms. Yamashita can encourage Robin to create more concept maps.

Case Study Analysis - Chapter 6

Case 1: Mr. West wants his students to truly understand Civil War battles. He engages the help of a local Historical Re-enactment Society and assigns each of his students to the Union or Confederate side. His students join the re-enactors from 7:00am-7:00pm for a full day of activities which include a long march (complete with rudimentary battle gear), setting up camp, cooking over campfires, scouting territory, and engaging in a historically representative battle.

1. After participating in this activity, what do you think the students will remember? How might those memories differ from those students would have if they only read about the Civil War in their textbook?

After participating in this activity, I think the students will remember alot of things about the Civil War. One of the parts of RAD teaching is to give the students experiences which will allow them to make emotional connections. By giving students the opporunity to actually march carrying battle gear, set up a camp, participate in a mock battle, etc, the students will have feelings associated with those experiences. They will most likely feel sympathy for the soldiers because of how hard it was for them to do day to day things. They may feel gratitude for what they did and pride in the soldiers for how hard they worked. All of these emotions will allow students to remember the details of the life of a soldier in the Civil War.

If the students merely read about the Civil War from a textbook, their memories would be completely different. Although they may read about what the soldiers did each day, how long it took them to get to different battles, and how many friends they lost in the war, the students would probably grasp very little of what it was actually like for the soldiers. Since they would most likely have no emotions attached to the information they were learning, it would be harder for the students to remember the different concepts about the Civil War. Experience creates more vivid memories and emotional connections.

2. How does Mr. West’s use of a Civil War re-enactment engage students’ emotions? What is the relationship between emotions and learning?

As I said before, one of the main concepts of RAD teaching is to allow students to make emotional connections to the things they are learning. By letting the students particpate along with the re-enactment, Mr. West is letting the students establish emotional connections. The students experience struggle, excitement, industriousness, comraderie and maybe even some fear (I would be scared even in a Civil War battle re-enactment so some of the students may be also). By cultvating emotions, students can create more vivid memories. They can think about how they felt when they were marching with the re-enactors, or building a campfire. They have something they can connect the information with which will help them learn better and make a more lasting memory.

3. Based on the principles of dual-coding theory, what activities would be effective for Mr. West to use as a follow-up to the re-enactment?

The dual-coding theory is based off of the fact that people process visual and verbal information in different ways. When using both verbal and visual techniques when teaching a subject, a teacher can enhance a child's learning process. However, you must do this in a way which won't overwhelm the students. If you give a child too much verbal and visual stimulation at the same time, the child may get confused.

Some approriate verbal activties Mr. West can use to follw-up the re-enactment (since the re-enactment was a visual activity) are class discussions, personal written reflections and group brainstorms. Mr. West can have a big class discussion after the re-enactment where he has the students discuss what they learned during their day as Civil War soldiers. He can ask them what they felt about the different activities, what they feel about the real Civil War soldiers, what was hard about the experience, and what their favorite parts were. He can also have the students write reflections about their experiences. He can give them specific questions to answer and give them quiet time to give thoughtful responses. Another thing Mr. West could do is split the class into small groups. Once in the groups, he can have the students discuss their experiences and then make a written summary of all the things which they learned. He may even have the groups creat mnemonic devices to help them remember certain information. By combining these verbal and written activties with the re-enactment, the students should process the information more thoroughly.

Case 2: Mr. Dunkin and Mr. Richards, teachers at the same school, are debating in the teacher’s lounge about who provides the best type of organization for the students’ learning. Mr. Dunkin lectures and assigns reading and chapter problems Mondays through Thursdays. On Fridays he gives a short answer exam. In Mr. Richards’ class the students never know what will take place on any given day until they arrive in class and look at a detailed outline of the hour’s activities on the chalkboard. His class engages in mix of role-plays, lecture, videos, group projects and demonstrations. Mr. Richards occasionally gives surprise quizzes and his unit tests can include true/false, multiple choice, short answer, or essay.

4. Who do you think provides better instruction for his students? Support your answer from an information processing perspective.

From an information processing perspective, Mr. Richards provides better instruction for his students. Those who follow the information processing perspective are dedicated studiers of how a person processes information they are learning into long term memory. They study the reasons certain information lasts in the brain for a lifetime and why other information is lost. Through their study, they have found key activities which help people take new concepts and turn them into memories that last. Some of these strategies include guided instruction by the teacher (teacher leads the students to the most important topics), creating experiences which are relative to the new information, making connections to prior knowledge, and having group projects and activities which allow the students to have hands-on participation. Mr. Richards seems to involve all of these strategies into his classroom. He provides his students with many different activities which allow his students to learn in ways which will create long term memories. He allows them to interact with each other, have hands-on experiences and verbal instruction. All of these techniques are greatly encouraged by believers in information processing.

5. How would you expect the students’ learning outcomes to differ depending on which teacher they had?

I would expect very different learning outcomes with these two teachers. For those students in Mr. Dunkin's class I would expect students to learn the information, but I don't believe the information would stay in the students' brains for a long period of time. His students would probably feel pressure to "cram" the material each week so they could do well on the Friday tests. Although I believe Mr. Dunkin's class to have good organization, his students are not able to have varying experiences which would make it hard to make long term memories of the information they are learning.

With Mr. Richard's class, I would expect the students to be able to have a deep grasp of the concepts they learn in his class. He approches different subjects from many different ways which allows students to have multiple perspectives and multiple connections for any given topic Mr. Richards teaches in his class. Because of this, I would guess the students would be able to remember the information very well and be able to apply the information to later years of schooling.

Contract Review #2

What are you doing well?

I feel I am understanding all of the information I am learning very well. I feel comfortable with all of the concepts and I am really enjoying the class.

What are you not doing well?

I sometimes have trouble balancing my time. I am in three other classes, I work 25 hours a week and have a wonderful, wonderful husband to take care of. I know many other people in the class have much busier schedules than I do. I marvel how well they balance all the things required of them. I need to be better at making a schedule of when I am going to study certain concepts and when I am going to do my homework. I have not been doing this and I sometimes feel I am not leaving enough time to review all of the new information I am learning.

Are you making sufficient progress on your goals?

I feel I am making some good progress on my goals. As I mentioned previously, I sometimes feel I do not have enough time for review andd for in-depth study. I would like to make more time to review and study the concepts we are learning in our class.

List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals.

I need to schedule a time for a review and homework. I know I usually have some extra time on Friday mornings I usually use for reading other books or visiting with friends. If I wake up early on Fridays and do some review I would feel more on top of all of the things which are required of me.