As I started reading chapter 8 of " Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works," I like the idea of keeping track of effort. Many teachers including myself do not have students keep track of their own effort. This will give students a chance to place a visual in relation to their effort of the course and the grade they receive. Hopefully this will set an alarm to some student's brains thinking, "wait you mean if I try I could also get good grades too!"
I also read chapter 10, in which incorporated a lot of strategies for homework and practice using technology to deepen the understanding of student content. I found no only was the reinforcement in these strategies positive, but allowed for students to relate information to something they enjoy. For example, in this specific strategy a coach was using a spreadsheet to keep track of the football teams lifting workouts and how much they could lift in a certain time period. Well a math teacher thought it would be interesting to take those numbers and convert them to parabolic functions using Microsoft Excel. I found this very interesting how this math teacher could not only take a real world application, but also to put the information in using software where her students could then practice adjusting the numbers and time in order to create different parabolic graphs.
The amount of instructional strategies using software that has been on the market for decades is unbelievable. Incorporating this into a behaviorist learning style would allow for students to broaden their minds to readdress the problems using other techniques.
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You’re right, there is tons of software out there that can be used in a behaviorist learning style. I liked that the reading for this week gave specific examples that we can take and use. Sometimes I feel over whelmed with the amount of programs that I end up not using any of them. I tend to do better with less at times. When I learn about a new idea to try, if I can take it and incorporate it right away with little to no effort I am more inclined to try it.
ReplyDeleteSo often we learn about these theoretical ideas, which are good, but would be so much work to create. For example, if chapter 8 just said make a rubric and spreadsheet, I probably would have blown off the idea. But sense they showed an example of the rubric and the excel sheet, I see this as doable. I plan to try it next year with my students.
I also liked the example of the math teacher and the coach working together to help the students with understanding their math. As a teacher and also a coach of two sports I am thinking of integrating some of the same ideas into my teaching. I am the one that is typically creating charts for the sports that I coach but I am going to let the students in my classroom work on it now as a project in class. This is something creative to get the students starting to think and then to build on it. Before this can happen students have to have some knowledge of the system being used, do you think students should be required to take a tech course their freshman year so they can have a base to build on over their years in school?
ReplyDeleteI too liked the idea of the math teacher and coach working together. The only problem is I dont really see this being able to play itself out in the real world. They had the computer lab beside the weightroom and also you have to have all your math students in the same weight class or playing the same sport. I do however see something that may be usable on a smaller scale.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for commenting on my Blog. Behaviorism theory learning can be used to help students reapply instruction and gives classrooms a productive strategy to practice if used in the right application.
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