Psychology for Educators C913

Task 1

April 29, 2019

B1 Case #487 Applying the Language of Art to a Critique of One’s Own

Photograph. Art classes often use Performance Assessments as their form of

it is in this video, allows the teacher to assess the technical ability of the artist, but it

also allows for assessment of the students knowledge on the subject. The students

stand in front of the class and present their art piece, explaining the technical

process used to create it, problems they encountered and how they overcame those,

and their interpretations of the art piece. Once they have finished their presentation,

the student then receives feedback from his classmates and teacher on the art and

his interpretation of it, often leading to discussion about different concepts where

the whole class contributes to and learns from the discussion.

B1a. The art project completed by the students was a photography piece that

worked with a feeling and how they translated that into the photograph, but also

technical elements of photos and how they draw the viewer’s eye where it should go

within the photo. This performance assessment is appropriate for the learning

environment because it requires the students to display both their academic

knowledge of photography theory and the practical application of that knowledge in

the finished photo. As the students present their finished photograph and explain

the elements used in the photo and why they are important, the other students in

class are forming their own conclusions about the photograph. It is important in a

hands on environment such as art to use a method of assessment that challenges the

students individually and as a group to think beyond just the technical work and

move into critical thinking and alternate points of view.

B1b. One way I would adapt modify this assessment to ensure that all learners in

this video were successful would be to have the students provide one piece of
written feedback (at a minimum) to the teacher after each presentation. I feel it

would help all of the students to be successful because all students would be

participating, as opposed to a few of the more outspoken students dominating the

conversation during the assessment. Critiques are an excellent way to expand your

horizons and view things from a different point of view, and participation by all

students is ideal for many differing points of view.

B2 Case #2451 Constructing Rectangular Prisms to Build Understanding of

Volume. The teacher in this video is employing Cooperative Learning as her

instructional strategy. In the video you can see that the children are broken up into

groups discussing the area of their rectangles while the teacher circulates and

guides the students in their group work to figure out the problem. The group closest

to the camera was having some trouble confusing volume and area and perimeter.

The teacher asked open-ended questions for the students to discuss at their table

and allowed them to reach the correct answers by discussing it in their group.

B2a This instructional strategy met the needs of the students in the class because

the class is composed of 24 students, and almost half (11) are ELL students. By

making the groups heterogeneous as in the video all of the students are given the

opportunity to benefit from the diversity in the group and different ways different

people approach problems. Cooperative learning is beneficial to ELL students

because it has been shown to increase peer interaction, which helps in the development

of language and improves learning. (Robertson, ND) Cooperative learning also holds
both the individual and the group as a whole responsible for learning, as each student fills

out a worksheet for the assignment while working together to solve the problem.

B2b One way I would implement cooperative learning in my teaching would be

during Reading or English classes. I would have the students divide into

heterogeneous groups and provide a graphic organizer for them to write their own

short story. Group members would each have a role to play contributing to the work

as a whole. For instance, a group of four students would work together to name

their character or characters and develop a story around them and the adventures

their character encounters. The groups of students will work with the graphic

organizers to ensure they cover story elements that were taught in previous classes,

which will help with understanding of story elements and the writing process.

B3 Case #403 Applying Momentum While Learning and Practicing the

Vertical Jump. The teacher uses the Social Cognitive learning theory to teach her

students about a vertical jump while applying the ideas of momentum. The teacher

models the jump by demonstrating starting position and then the jump itself. She

then has the students emulate her start position and her jump. The students then

work in groups of two and assist each other with the jump while referencing visual

aids of the jump and correcting each other as they perform the jump.

B3a The social cognitive learning theory was introduced by Albert Bandura.

Bandura believed that learning develops from the interactions of three factors:

behavior patterns, social environment and interactions, and personal

characteristics. His belief that these three factors worked together to foster learning,
led him to name the idea the Triadic Reciprocal Causation. These factors working

together allow the students to become more self-sufficient or self-regulated

learners. For example, in the video the students are broken into groups to work on

their jump. The group behavior is a direct result of personal characteristics like

personality and social interactions, which are all parts of the Triadic Reciprocal

Causation. Due to that, the students are able to self-regulate and work together to

complete the jump. The students take control of their learning and critique and

cheer each other as they perform the jump. The environment of gym class where

everyone is participating affects student behavior, which affects personal

characteristics and the desire to do well. (Snowman & McCown, 2015)

B3b One way I would implement social cognitive theory in the classroom using a

different strategy would be in a science lesson. I would model the steps of an

experiment for the students. I would then break the students up into pairs or lab

partners and provide a written set of instructions to refer to while they work to

reproduce the experiment and record their findings. By applying the Social

Cognitive learning theory, the students are receiving social interaction and are able

to work collaboratively while building self-regulation skills.

B4 Case #1163 Collaborating and Utilizing Technology to Create

Animations This lesson is heavily involved with technology. The technology used

in this lesson is a video recording software program called iStopMotion, digital

camera, and a laptop computer. For this lesson the students have created a piece of

art in characters made out of clay and based a story around them. By slowly
manipulating the clay figures and taking a picture after each movement, which loads

the images into the software, it will create a stop motion movie from their clay

model. Since the camera is digital the images are fed directly into the iStopMotion

software on the computer, it allows the students to instantly see if a frame needs to

be re-shot.

B4a. The teacher’s use of technology is an example of best practices because it

allows the teacher to provide instantaneous feedback to the students; as opposed to

non-technological approach where you would have to wait until film was developed

and edited in order to see if all of the stop motion scenes were accurately captured.

By providing feedback to the students as they are shooting pictures and seeing the

results instantly on the laptop, it allows the students to revise their work as they

progress in the project. The use of technology in this project makes for more capable

delivery of concepts to students.

B4b. The technology in this video enhanced student learning by allowing the

students to learn to operate sophisticated filmmaking equipment and to self-assess

their work as they proceed through the project. Students use feedback from their

teacher to make adjustments as they go through the project ensuring a consistent

finished product. Since the feedback they receive from their teacher is

instantaneous the students benefit from being able to apply the feedback to the

project and retain the lesson better because the feedback is given throughout the

lesson instead of far after the fact. Students are then able to begin assessing their

own images as they progress and can take charge of their project. At the completion
of this project students are able to assess and correct their own work and use

filmmaking software, operate a laptop and digital camera.

B5 Case #53 Observing and Measuring the Weather. The instructional

resources used in this video help predict the weather. The teacher helps the

students to use rulers, thermometers, anemometers, and wind socks, as the students

work together in groups of four to complete the project with each member of the

group using a different resource. Then the students go outside with the students

from the other groups who have the same resource as them to use their tool. For

example, all of the students from the different groups with rulers will go out to

measure the amount of rainfall together, all of the students with thermometers will

go out together to measure the temperature and so forth. Some of the resources are

purchased and some of the resources were created in the classroom before this

lesson. The resources that the teacher chose for this lesson allow the students to

work both collaboratively in their group to complete the worksheet and individually

with their resource to predict the weather.

B5a. The instructional resources chosen for this lesson are developmentally

appropriate and effective because they allow the students to get some hands on

work and are all within the student’s ability level to understand and accurately use.

For instance, the thermometer outside the classroom that is permanently stationed

there reads 46 degrees, however the thermometer that went from the classroom in

the children’s hand to the outdoors to measure the temperature was slowly

declining below 60 degrees but was not in the 40s yet. The children were able to
read the difference on the thermometers and accurately explain why the

temperature was different on the thermometers.

B5b An additional resource I would use to enhance student learning during the

lesson would be to add a weather vane and a barometer. By using a weather vane

students have the opportunity to measure wind direction with the use of one tool as

opposed to two tools like they did in this video. The windsock is used in conjunction

with a compass to determine wind direction in the video. With a weather vane the

direction is on the instrument already and a weather vane is an instrument the

students could make themselves in a class before hand. A barometer is another tool

that could be made ahead of time by the students and it would measure atmospheric

pressure. A barometer can be made with a jar, a pencil and balloon. Students would

be able to measure changes in atmospheric pressure through the expansion or

shrinkage of a balloon.

B6. Case #40 Assessing Sight-Singing Through Self-Assessment to Develop

Independence. The activity engages the students in the video at the analysis level

of Blooms taxonomy as the students search for patterns with eighth notes before the

chanting exercise even begins. As the students work through the chanting exercise

they are analyzing the patterns within the piece, and organizing the music in their

minds. The teacher helps the students in different sections of the choir identify

areas in the piece where the music breaks from the pattern and helps them to

prepare for those changes and recognize the breaks in the pattern. Then they go into
chanting the scales to put the patterns in to play and make connections with the

patterns and pitch, while organizing the song in their head.

B6a I would enhance student engagement in higher order thinking activities in

the video by choosing students within each section of the chorus (alto, tenor, etc) to

give their challenges to the initial reading without waiting for a show of hands by

asking leading questions. For instance, the teacher in the video does a good job of

encouraging students to provide feedback for their challenging areas of the song,

but she does not ensure that she gets feedback from each section. The feedback

activity helps all of the students in the analysis level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. By

having the students in each section to recognize the challenge areas and say them

out loud for the whole chorus, it will not only improve them for the next reading, but

contribute to the improvement of the chorus as a whole as well as individual section

performance.

C My personal teaching philosophy is most closely aligned with social cognitive

theory. Social Cognitive theory allows me to cater to more learning types as it

engages more of the senses and allows students to become self-sufficient. Students

have the opportunity to see, hear, touch and recreate what was presented in the

lesson. I like the idea of a well-rounded lesson and the Social Cognitive theory allows

me to provide that type of lesson no matter what the subject is. The other advantage

to Social Cognitive theory is the ability to be inclusive of diversity. The small group

setting when done correctly fosters inclusion and improves language for ELL
students due to peer models. Diversity and inclusion is an essential part of my

personal learning theory.

In video case #403 Applying Momentum While Learning and Practicing the

Vertical Jump, I observed the teacher breaking the jump down into workable

portions for the age group before putting them all back together for the full vertical

jump. For instance, she begins by demonstrating the correct stance and has the

students work on that before moving on to the jump. Once the jump is demonstrated

by the teacher and emulated by the students, she moves on to a one hand reach

demonstration to increase the height of the jump and then finally the landing

position from the jump. After the students have had a chance to see all four of the

steps they practice the jump in small groups from start to finish while she provides

feedback to the students and the students provide feedback to each other.

In the beginning of video case #680, Applying Listening and Speaking Skills

while Presenting a Digital Scrapbook about the Early Settlers, the teacher uses a

Direct Instruction approach. While she does a good job of keeping most of the

students engaged by asking questions, you can see that several of the students are

not engaged. Direct instruction works great for facts and figures like learning your

multiplication tables and things like that where it has to be memorized, but for

presenting listening skills there are many other approaches that would work. For

instance Information Processing Theory would help the students to retain the

information and keep them engaged by presenting attention-getting devices, which

jump start memory retention. Elaborative rehearsals in Information Processing

theory allow the teacher to present information that correlates with something the
student already knows to make new schemes or connections in the student’s

memory.

I love the classroom environment that video case #2451 Constructing

Rectangular Prisms to Build Understanding of Volume has. The student’s desks are

situated into their learning groups and desks are turned to face the center of the

group. This environment in the classroom creates a type of round table situation

where each student is equidistant from the center of the group allowing for equal

participation by all members of the group. In the Social Cognitive approach that I

like, a classroom set up in this way allows for the students to work together and

plenty of room for the teacher to circulate through the room to offer advice and

feedback. The students can all still see the board for presentations made with

technology by the teacher.

D. References

Robertson, K. (ND). Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Language Tips.

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Stamford, CT:
Cengage Learning.