Thursday, September 30, 2010

Success

Richard Saint John while at a TED conference held a seminar  after 7 years research and 5000 interviews he came up with the 8 things people need to do to become success full
Passion- you need to enjoy what you are doing
Work- you have to work hard and have fun doing it
Good- to get good you need to practice practice practice
Focus- on one thing at a time
Push- push yourself physically, mentally
Serve- something of |Value
Ideas- to get you need to listen observe, be curious, ask questions and make connections 
Persist- through failure , through CRAP Criticism, rejection assholes and pressure 

I believe that this list is extremely accurate and gives people the guidelines they need in order to be successful in their lives

In groups in class we made our own list that as students we thought lead to academic success some of the top choices that students picked were:
Studying
Leading a Healthy lifestyle
Sleep
Determination
The want to learn

We also watched a interview with Malcolm Gladwell the topic of discussion was what role does talent play in success?  He Believes that success doesn't have much to do with talent but mostly to do with hard work and perseverance and practice.  That Talent is the desire to practice and the willingness to put your time and effort into practicing.  He also believes that culture can affect talent by creating a power distance, this is how you speak to someone that is higher up on the chain of command or has more superiority or your elder, This is because in some cultures it is unacceptable to correct seniority a good example would be a culture like china. Malcolm believes that the only way to be talented is to work hard at what you do.

I Believe that Malcolm Gladwell is right that to become talented at something you need to work hard and be dedicated to practicing no famous athlete has ever gone out on the playing field and was naturally a pro they had to put many hours of practice and training in to become the talented players they are.

Brofenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Erie Brofenbrenner bio-ecological model of development focuses on the social contexts in which students live, the people who influence their development and the interaction between students' characteristics and their environment His theory has Five environmental systems which are wrapped around the individual the first stage is called the Microsystem this includes the students family, friends, and school the microsystems is controlled by the students; because they control interactions and help to construct the settings. The next Layer is the Mesosystem and this is the sytem that connects all the microsystems together.  The third is the Exosystem this is the system that the has an impact on the individual but they have no control over, such as a parent losing a job or the availability to parks and recreational facilities in the area where they live.  The Forth system is the Macrosystem this involves society's values and culture and the last layer is the Chronosystem which refers to socio-historical conditions of students development. An example of this would be the conditions we learn in our different from those of our parents, we have access to wireless internet everywhere, being able to talk on the phone at anytime and texting.
                                                           
When dealing with children Bronfenbrenner wants us to think of all the microsystems.  As teachers we need to look at not only what is affecting the child during school hours but also in their lives outside of school.  I do agree with him that when dealing with children you have to look at all the areas that affect a child because things that are happen around us influence us directly and indirectly, they have a large affect on a person.  I think as a teacher that this will be a hard task to do, as you are caring for a large amount of students with different cultural backgrounds different circle of friends, coming from different neighborhood these children deal with situations affecting them differently; for one child it could affect them one way, same situation with a different child and it doesn't affect them at all.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Vygotsky's Theory

Today in class we talked about Lev Vygotsky theories on how a child's mind develops. I personally agree with Vygotsky's theory compared to Piaget's theory.  Vygotsky's theory takes into account that each child is different and that they learn at a different pace and in different ways. The 3 main points to Vygotsky's theory are assumption, zone of proximal development and scaffolding.  To go into detail about what Vygotsky mean about assumption is that a child learns by developmental trajectory is what a child knows can be used to build on, to teach them new things. A example of assumption would be math you can't ask a child with no mathematical background to multiply until they have learned the basics, so if you present them with the mathematical problem of 4*3 they must first know that what this equation means to solve that problem they also need to know the basic skill of addition.The second point is that cognitive skills are structured by language, as a child language is used as a tool that helps children plan activities and solve problems. The third point is importance of social relations and culture, a child's development is link strongly with the environment that they are brought up using the inventions of society such as computer and watching television they will be further along then those without.  This point is one that is extremely important, Piaget theory does not take into account that the use of technology and the culture you are brought up in plays a huge roll in the development of a children`s minds.  The last point to go with assumptions is learning is situated and collaborated this suggest that knowledge can best be advanced through interactions with other people.

The zone of proximal development is a range of tasks that are to difficult for children to master alone but can be learned with guidance and assistance.  In the lower limits a  child can solve problems and tasks by working alone and the upper limit is the level of additional responsibility a child can accept with assistance from an able instructor

Scaffolding is the level of support that a teacher or mentor gives to a child and is based on each individual child's zone of proximal development.  When first teaching a Child a new concept you give them step by step instructions then you allow them to do problems on their own when a question is asked you show them how to fix the problem they have encounter as time goes on when a problem arises you ask them to go back to the problem and go over the steps to see if they can figure out where they went wrong on the problem by themselves.  This helps give  the child the support they need to be able to solve problems and be able to think through and solve problems on their own.

Vygotsky's theory makes the most sense to me and takes into account that the way each child learns is different.  He also understands the culture and society that a child is brought up in plays a role in that child's development.  



 

Friday, September 24, 2010

Piaget's Theory

Piaget Theory is that the mind uses Cognitive processes such as schemas to develop the mind (Cognitive Development).  There are two processes that are responsible for how children use and adopt their schemas, assimilation(an act in which individuals incorporate new knowledge into existing knowledge) and accommodation (an act in which individuals adjust to new information) Piaget also Believed that cognitive development happened in a sequence stages which are age-related. His four stages are called The Sensorimotor Stage, Preoperational Stage, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational Stage.  The Sensorimotor Stage Birth to 2 years of age the infants get an understanding of the worlds around them by sense of touch sight and hearing.  This includes a baby hearing a noise and turning to find what made that noise or discovering that different objects have different textures.The Preoperational stage age 2 to 7 is when the child expands there use of language and increase in symbolic thought. They are learning how thing are put together such as building simple puzzles or playing with Lego.  The next stage is the concrete operational Stage last from about 7 to 11 years of age. In this stage the child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different categories such as comparing sizes, knowing that cookies are made from adding different ingredients together. Piaget`s last stage is called the Formal operational stage and emerges between 11 to 15 years of age. This stage individuals move beyond reasoning about only concrete experiences and think in more abstract ,idealistic and logical ways.   This includes being able to reason through different possible choices and outcomes.

Although Piaget`s does understand what the basic learning skills of children in those stages his theory does have some flaws.  His theory does not take into account that children all learn at a different pace some are quicker learners and developers, what one child is able to do when they are 1 another child may not be able to do until they are 3.  In other cases a child can excel, where most children are doing a certain task at the age of 14 this child is only 10 and is understanding at the same level. Piaget also didn`t take it to account that culture and education play a role in how a child`s mind develops. The way children are brought up in a culture can have a large affect on how they develop. Depending on the teacher a child has can also play a role in how the child develops if they have a teacher that can help student to achieve higher standards then normal they would reach the next stage in Piaget`s theory before they were suppose to.

While Piaget`s theory is right that at certain ages in children`s life their minds is learning and developing. I Believe that Piaget`s Theory is only that a guideline as to where a child mind development should be because each child leans and develops differently based on family,and culture and that fact that no two children are the same

Monday, September 13, 2010

Effective Teaching

Going through school and playing sports has given me the opportunity to see different styles and techniques of teaching.  We each have different thoughts of what type of teaching or coaching methods we preferred or that worked best to help us reach our personal and educational goal.  The characteristics that our mentors had to make our experience more enjoyable such as humor, making the lessons interesting and a in depth knowledge of the topic that they are teaching us, also talking to as adults and trying to push us to be the best we can be made our learning experience enjoyable and even on topics we disliked these traits made the lessons tolerable  .
Teaching involves dealing with a diverse mosaic of children from different cultural background, different learning capabilities, each with there own personality, interests, and life story.  As a teacher you have to respect there culture, family values, and individuality, this makes teaching an extremely complex job. Assuming that classrooms in Alberta have an average of minimum 20 students per class, how as teacher do you meet each one of the student personal, cultural and educational needs. It seems that to meet these needs of the student would take a mental physical toll on a person so it takes a person of incredible patience,tolerance,creativity, understanding and flexibility to be a teacher