Final Reflection
If you prefer, you can read the reflection in Google Docs.
I. Introduction
As I attend meetings about the upcoming year during my school’s professional development days, I am reminded of everything I have learned in my second year in the MAET program and how this knowledge will transform my teaching. Throughout the summer, we have studied how students learn and retain information, what teaching styles best encourage learning, and how technologies can redefine education. These concepts are all applicable to my Spanish classroom and will enhance my teaching.
II. How Do Students Learn?
Learning Theories
To effectively teach students, I must first understand how teenagers learn. My middle school students have just entered Piaget’s final stage of cognitive development- formal operational. They are beginning to learn abstract thinking and mature reasoning. Children at this age want to learn more about the world and begin to question things they see. “People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking” (Willingham, 2009, p. 3). To meet the cognitive needs of these growing students to get them thinking, I will use both behaviorism and cognitivism techniques. There are some situations where giving positive and negative reinforcements and punishments of behaviorism would yield the best results. For example, when first learning to conjugate verbs, I can gameify the practice so that students are motivated by reinforcements. However, there are other situations that call for a more cognitivism approach to teaching. Since students are not blank slates, I need to find out what they know, including misconceptions, and link new information to proper knowledge in their long term memory. “Thinking occurs when you combine information (from the environment and long-term memory) in new ways.” (Willingham, 2009, p. 14). When I am teaching a new grammar concept, it is easiest for students to learn if I link it to the grammar rules of English in their long-term memory. Then, students can see new patterns and commit the new information to memory more easily. When planning, I need to remember to use the right mixture of behaviorism and cognitivism techniques to deepen students’ abstract thinking.
Prior Knowledge & Misconceptions
One of the best ways to engage students is to know how they understand information. “To help students develop their understanding, teachers must directly address the knowledge students bring with them to school and build on it whenever possible. In order to learn, people have to link new experiences to previous understanding” (Levstik & Barton, 1997, p. 11). To teach effectively, I first have to find out what students know in their prior knowledge, including misconceptions. It is important to change misconceptions or fantasia so that I can chunk new information to correct knowledge in students’ working memory. Since there is limited space in the working memory, I need to know how to link new concepts to old to make learning easier for students. “Learners construct their sense of the world by applying their old understandings to new experiences and ideas” (Shulman, 1999, p.11). This idea is especially important when teaching Spanish grammar. If students can link new verbs to old knowledge of conjugating similar verbs, they will be able to conjugate new verbs much more quickly. Knowing students’ misconceptions or fantasia is arguably just as important as knowing what factual information students already know. Students need to confront their misconceptions to reconstruct that knowledge to be correct in their long term memory before they can link new information. If students link new information to a misconception, they are furthering their fantasia, where they think they know something but they really do not. There are many misconceptions about Spanish culture, so I need to address these misconceptions first before I can build on the cultural knowledge in students’ long term memories. Overall, when teaching new information, I need to chunk it in reasonable pieces and link that information to correct prior knowledge.
Inquiry-Based Learning
The best way to get students to commit information to long term memory is through student-led inquiry. “People learn when they seek answers to the questions that matter to them; their understanding changes only when they become dissatisfied with what they know” (Levstik & Barton, 1997, p. 13). I need to pose a question or thought to induce some confusion in students to entice them to ask questions and therefore learn new material. “Whoever asks the most questions does the most learning” (Wormeli, 2013, p. 36). Rather than teachers lecturing all class period asking questions that one or two students answer, students should take charge of the asking. Students should be confused by new material, ask themselves questions, and be compelled to find the answers on their own. To make my classroom more inquiry based, I am starting a “Genius Hour” project. I will give students allotted time each week to look into any topic they want about Spanish culture, history, grammar, etc. They can choose a topic that interests them and will have time to seek experts and find answers to their questions in order to learn something new. Students’ enthusiasm for their topic will guide their questions, therefore, making the information they learn “sticky.” Since students are doing the asking, finding a topic that interests and motivates them, and leading their own learning, they will remember the information well.
Sticky Ideas
“A sticky idea is an idea that’s understood, that’s remembered, and that changes something (opinions, behaviors, values)” (Heath & Heath, 2007, p.1). Sticky ideas force students to change their understanding. When students understand a concept, they are able to explain, interpret, and apply that concept. When a concept is sticky, it can change students understanding so that students gain a new perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. This resonates with me especially when I teach Spanish culture. I want culture, customs, history, daily life, etc. to stick with students so they see the world through a new perspective, have empathy for Spanish-speakers, and learn more about themselves by comparing their culture to another. By letting students guide their learning through inquiry, these ideas will become sticky, and students will have a deeper understanding of Spanish-speakers. Another way ideas can be sticky is when they have elements of aesthetic learning. “A greater number of students reported more varied and more complex perceptions and interactions with the world when learning for aesthetic understanding” (Girod, 2001). Aesthetic learning is when students start to apply ideas from the classroom to the world around them. To foster this, I would create visually appealing posters, much like the ones we made this summer, to get students to think about classroom ideas in a larger context. By seeing the fact with a real-world picture, students can make those connections from the classroom to the real world. New information needs to be “sticky,” meaningful, and important in students’ daily lives to change a student’s understanding.
Motivation & Praise
Finally, students have to have the motivation to learn. Learning has to be meaningful and easily applied to students’ lives. To keep motivation high, teachers have to appropriately praise students so that they are not easily discouraged. “When we focus students on their potential to learn and give them the message that effort is the key to learning, we give them responsibility for and control over their achievement - and over their self-esteem” (Dweck, 1999, p. 5). I need to completely change the way I praise work in my classroom. Right now, if a student does well on a test, I will simply write, “Muy bien” on the top of their assessment. I rarely give praise that highlights a student’s effort, attitude during a challenge, or reaction to a setback. I need to change how I praise students to prepare them to do well with future challenges. “Used correctly, it [praise] can help students become adults who delight in intellectual challenge, understand the value of effort, and are able to deal with setbacks” (Dweck, 1999, p.1). Properly praising a student can leave an impact on them that will carry them throughout their schooling and into their careers.
To effectively teach students, I must first understand how teenagers learn. My middle school students have just entered Piaget’s final stage of cognitive development- formal operational. They are beginning to learn abstract thinking and mature reasoning. Children at this age want to learn more about the world and begin to question things they see. “People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking” (Willingham, 2009, p. 3). To meet the cognitive needs of these growing students to get them thinking, I will use both behaviorism and cognitivism techniques. There are some situations where giving positive and negative reinforcements and punishments of behaviorism would yield the best results. For example, when first learning to conjugate verbs, I can gameify the practice so that students are motivated by reinforcements. However, there are other situations that call for a more cognitivism approach to teaching. Since students are not blank slates, I need to find out what they know, including misconceptions, and link new information to proper knowledge in their long term memory. “Thinking occurs when you combine information (from the environment and long-term memory) in new ways.” (Willingham, 2009, p. 14). When I am teaching a new grammar concept, it is easiest for students to learn if I link it to the grammar rules of English in their long-term memory. Then, students can see new patterns and commit the new information to memory more easily. When planning, I need to remember to use the right mixture of behaviorism and cognitivism techniques to deepen students’ abstract thinking.
Prior Knowledge & Misconceptions
One of the best ways to engage students is to know how they understand information. “To help students develop their understanding, teachers must directly address the knowledge students bring with them to school and build on it whenever possible. In order to learn, people have to link new experiences to previous understanding” (Levstik & Barton, 1997, p. 11). To teach effectively, I first have to find out what students know in their prior knowledge, including misconceptions. It is important to change misconceptions or fantasia so that I can chunk new information to correct knowledge in students’ working memory. Since there is limited space in the working memory, I need to know how to link new concepts to old to make learning easier for students. “Learners construct their sense of the world by applying their old understandings to new experiences and ideas” (Shulman, 1999, p.11). This idea is especially important when teaching Spanish grammar. If students can link new verbs to old knowledge of conjugating similar verbs, they will be able to conjugate new verbs much more quickly. Knowing students’ misconceptions or fantasia is arguably just as important as knowing what factual information students already know. Students need to confront their misconceptions to reconstruct that knowledge to be correct in their long term memory before they can link new information. If students link new information to a misconception, they are furthering their fantasia, where they think they know something but they really do not. There are many misconceptions about Spanish culture, so I need to address these misconceptions first before I can build on the cultural knowledge in students’ long term memories. Overall, when teaching new information, I need to chunk it in reasonable pieces and link that information to correct prior knowledge.
Inquiry-Based Learning
The best way to get students to commit information to long term memory is through student-led inquiry. “People learn when they seek answers to the questions that matter to them; their understanding changes only when they become dissatisfied with what they know” (Levstik & Barton, 1997, p. 13). I need to pose a question or thought to induce some confusion in students to entice them to ask questions and therefore learn new material. “Whoever asks the most questions does the most learning” (Wormeli, 2013, p. 36). Rather than teachers lecturing all class period asking questions that one or two students answer, students should take charge of the asking. Students should be confused by new material, ask themselves questions, and be compelled to find the answers on their own. To make my classroom more inquiry based, I am starting a “Genius Hour” project. I will give students allotted time each week to look into any topic they want about Spanish culture, history, grammar, etc. They can choose a topic that interests them and will have time to seek experts and find answers to their questions in order to learn something new. Students’ enthusiasm for their topic will guide their questions, therefore, making the information they learn “sticky.” Since students are doing the asking, finding a topic that interests and motivates them, and leading their own learning, they will remember the information well.
Sticky Ideas
“A sticky idea is an idea that’s understood, that’s remembered, and that changes something (opinions, behaviors, values)” (Heath & Heath, 2007, p.1). Sticky ideas force students to change their understanding. When students understand a concept, they are able to explain, interpret, and apply that concept. When a concept is sticky, it can change students understanding so that students gain a new perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. This resonates with me especially when I teach Spanish culture. I want culture, customs, history, daily life, etc. to stick with students so they see the world through a new perspective, have empathy for Spanish-speakers, and learn more about themselves by comparing their culture to another. By letting students guide their learning through inquiry, these ideas will become sticky, and students will have a deeper understanding of Spanish-speakers. Another way ideas can be sticky is when they have elements of aesthetic learning. “A greater number of students reported more varied and more complex perceptions and interactions with the world when learning for aesthetic understanding” (Girod, 2001). Aesthetic learning is when students start to apply ideas from the classroom to the world around them. To foster this, I would create visually appealing posters, much like the ones we made this summer, to get students to think about classroom ideas in a larger context. By seeing the fact with a real-world picture, students can make those connections from the classroom to the real world. New information needs to be “sticky,” meaningful, and important in students’ daily lives to change a student’s understanding.
Motivation & Praise
Finally, students have to have the motivation to learn. Learning has to be meaningful and easily applied to students’ lives. To keep motivation high, teachers have to appropriately praise students so that they are not easily discouraged. “When we focus students on their potential to learn and give them the message that effort is the key to learning, we give them responsibility for and control over their achievement - and over their self-esteem” (Dweck, 1999, p. 5). I need to completely change the way I praise work in my classroom. Right now, if a student does well on a test, I will simply write, “Muy bien” on the top of their assessment. I rarely give praise that highlights a student’s effort, attitude during a challenge, or reaction to a setback. I need to change how I praise students to prepare them to do well with future challenges. “Used correctly, it [praise] can help students become adults who delight in intellectual challenge, understand the value of effort, and are able to deal with setbacks” (Dweck, 1999, p.1). Properly praising a student can leave an impact on them that will carry them throughout their schooling and into their careers.
III. How Do I Effectively Teach Students?
Now that I understand how students learn best, I need to reevaluate how I teach to make sure I meet the needs of all students. First, I need to look through the lens of TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge). “Expert teachers consciously and unconsciously find ways to orchestrate and coordinate technology, pedagogy, and content into every act of teaching. They flexibly navigate the affordances and constraints of each technology and each possible teaching approach to find solutions that effectively combine content, pedagogy, and technology” (Mishra & Koehler, 2009, p. 17). I teach in a school that is 1:1 with computers, so I must question every new technology I bring into the classroom: “What can my students do with this technology that they could not before? What constraints does it have? Can I make the content more sticky with this technology?” I must use TPACK as a guide to know what the best way to teach a new concept is. In addition to TPACK, I need to check new technology tools against the SAMR model. Technology has four purposes in the classroom: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition. It is my goal that new technologies modify and redefine what we already do in the classroom. Technology should give students opportunities to do something that was previously unavailable. For example, using Google Maps to take a virtual field trip through the streets of Peru is a modification of how I usually teach Peruvian culture and how students usually use Google Maps. Using noise canceling headsets with a microphone (like in my Dream IT grant proposal) would redefine the way I am able to give listening and speaking assessments, thus making all assessments more holistic and authentic. Finally, I could use flipped classroom techniques to free up class time to allow more time for student inquiry and discovery rather than note taking and lectures. With flipped learning, “Class becomes the place to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning. Most importantly, all aspects of instruction can be rethought to best maximize the scarcest learning resource - time” (Tucker, 2012, p. 82). The technology of flipped learning would redefine how class time is structured. TPACK, the SAMR Model, and flipped learning change the way I present information to students, thus making learning more meaningful.
IV. How Will This Knowledge Change my Teaching in the next Five Years?
Looking forward, there are some big changes I will make in the next five years in teaching. I want to redefine the structure of the classroom. My department is making moves toward standards based grading since that is a more comprehensive way to assess and show exactly what students know. To complement standards based reporting, I have to change how the classroom works. I want my class to be more inquiry-based. I want students to question what they learn and find information on their own, in the style and media that is best suited for them. I want students to see the real-world applications of learning Spanish rather than just learning arbitrary facts, grammar, and vocabulary lists. Therefore, I will bring in more authentic materials through technology to modify what students see everyday. I want to have more time for authentic conversations and real-world practice in class, so I will try to give notes and concepts in a flipped classroom setup to free up more time in class to grapple with concepts and use them. I want to give students an audience to share what they have learned since, “Learning flourishes when we take what we think we know and offer it as community property among fellow learners so that it can be tested, examined, challenged, and improved before we internalize it.” (Shulman, 1999, p. 11). Finally, I want to make understanding stick. I want to address misconceptions up front and change students’ viewpoints so they have a deeper understanding, perspective and empathy towards Spanish-speakers. I want learning to be meaningful to students and be linked to prior knowledge so new information will stay in long-term memory.
In order to accomplish these goals, I will reach out to experts who know more about these tactics than I do. I will read books and articles written by people who have made these changes in their classrooms. I will use my personal learning network on Twitter to follow and keep in touch with teachers who give good advice on mastery learning and inquiry. In addition, I will collaborate with colleagues and attend conferences to learn face-to-face with other teachers in the field. In some of these areas, I am a novice and need to learn from the experts around me. As I learn, I can share my experiences, successes, and challenges with other learners.
In order to accomplish these goals, I will reach out to experts who know more about these tactics than I do. I will read books and articles written by people who have made these changes in their classrooms. I will use my personal learning network on Twitter to follow and keep in touch with teachers who give good advice on mastery learning and inquiry. In addition, I will collaborate with colleagues and attend conferences to learn face-to-face with other teachers in the field. In some of these areas, I am a novice and need to learn from the experts around me. As I learn, I can share my experiences, successes, and challenges with other learners.
V. Conclusion
After completing this coursework, I have a deeper appreciation for how students learn, and I can teach more effectively. When teaching a new concept, I first need to find out what students know, including misconceptions. I have to confront any ideas in students’ working memories that are not correct. Then, I need to chunk new information and link it to prior knowledge in students’ working memories to make it easier for students to comprehend. I have to give students opportunities to inquire about the new concept and find the answers to their questions on their own. Using TPACK and the SAMR Model, I will make sure to only use appropriate technology during instruction to assist in making ideas “sticky.” Finally, I need to give students an audience to share their new knowledge as well as valuable praise about their efforts and attitude. After discussing the theories of learning, the process of learning, and how to best facilitate learning this summer, I know I will be a better teacher.
VI. References
Dweck, C. (1999). Caution: Praise can be dangerous. American Educator, 23(1), 4-9.
Feynman, R.P. (1989). It’s a simple as one, two, three..
Girod, M. (2001). Teaching for aesthetic understanding (modified from dissertation)
Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2007) Teaching that Sticks.
Levstik, L.S., & Barton, K. C. (1997). The theory behind disciplined inquiry. In Doing History: Investigating with children…
Shulman, L. (1999). What is learning and what does it look like when it doesn’t go well.
Tucker, B. (2012). The flipped classroom. Education Next, 12(1), 82-83.
Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School: A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wormeli, R. (2013). The Collected Writings (so far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy good stuff I’ve learned about teaching along the way. U.S.A: Association for Middle Level Education.
Feynman, R.P. (1989). It’s a simple as one, two, three..
Girod, M. (2001). Teaching for aesthetic understanding (modified from dissertation)
Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2007) Teaching that Sticks.
Levstik, L.S., & Barton, K. C. (1997). The theory behind disciplined inquiry. In Doing History: Investigating with children…
Shulman, L. (1999). What is learning and what does it look like when it doesn’t go well.
Tucker, B. (2012). The flipped classroom. Education Next, 12(1), 82-83.
Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School: A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wormeli, R. (2013). The Collected Writings (so far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy good stuff I’ve learned about teaching along the way. U.S.A: Association for Middle Level Education.
