Learning Theories - Week 2

If you collect data on your students, then you have thoughts to use to to create better more appropriate lesson plans for your students because you may be able to have a better understanding of who they are and how they learn.

Week 2

There were again many new techniques that were demonstrated in class this week. The RSQ2C activity is something that I could imagine using instead of a simply having myself review the material from the previous class. I am gaining an appreciation of the different techniques available that reinforce concepts in learners, forcing them to recall.

The Dialogue Stations Activity was an excellent way to stimulate discussion on various topics and have many and various opinions discussed. Discussion in smaller groups can foster more participation and by having each group write their thoughts, those ideas were shared as well.

The Integrated Lesson Plan was challenging. Often times it is easier to plan something if you have been taught that way because you have examples to go by. When there are no past experiences to fall back on, the path is not as clear and the direction to can be so much harder to find.

The case study on Erik's dilemma was very enlightening since he had great intentions and a plan but things were not working out they way he thought that they would. I am always amazed at the variety of ways that a problem can be looked at for a solution as in this case I just assumed that it was bad that the students were not mixing better. But through the discussion I realize that they should not integrate just because Eric thought they should. They may be able to complete the class goals in the groups that they prefer.

I think that it is great that we are getting to practice giving feedback too. It is easy to forget sometimes how important positive feedback can be in a learners day. Grades etc will give feed back but that might not necessarily be positive and given how influential teachers can be it should be something that we take the time to do.