WEEK 1 Reflection

ID# 2013201020 EDU502 Teaching & Learning

WEEK 1 Reflection

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of human behavior and its relation to thinking process. It is all about what

people think and what they think they do. It expresses the personal experiences that probably make

our ideas work well but not necessarily very effectively. The study of education psychology is

considered to be of a high level of importance as it is believed that every teacher needs to understand

the children growth and developmental stages to be able to understand how they learn and how to

teach them. And finally we can say that psychology is learning.

Educational Psychology tries to explain more about; learning process, memory , motivation ….etc.

which are all key areas in the educational systems in any nation.

There are four key areas in the Psychology of Education;

Psychodynamic perspective: where supporters of this perspectives pay their full attention on the

emotional development of a child and looks at that as an outstanding realm in the learning of children.

They expressed their views saying that children who have psychological concerns to be more

insightful than others.

Behavioral perspective: followers of this approach called for observing human behavior as a sign of

learning. This perspective highlights the environmental factors and it is great effect on human

behavior. They named that as stimuli and response; where if the cause is A the response is A, and if

the cause is B the response is B. behavior is b=not only the visible part of it that we can see and

observe, it is also about the knowledge and that skills that a person has gained.

Humanistic Perspective: it is about self development and potentials Abraham Maslow is the founder

of the pyramids of needs. For more information about Maslow Pyramid of Needs visit this web page:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23902918

Psychobiological Perspective: is about the levels of thought and actions it also considers a specific

biological structure of human beings to be the rationale of higher level of thinking and learning. This

perspective matches with the nature/nurture. The nature perspective explains that inborn features or

factors affect the development.

Cognitive Perspective: this perspective is about the human mind and how it processes the

information. Mind is not an organ in human body; rather it is a group of mental processes work

together and affect the way people behave. The big part of it is the internal stimulation within the

mind. And the minor part is the external stimulation from the environment surrounds it. The small

part ignites the big one to work properly.

As for the UAE Educational System, I could see that the cognitive perspective to be the nearest in the

teaching and learning process in this country. The UAE educational Authorities are against

memorizing the information and retrieving it back while testing and assessment. They would see

active learning and teaching skills as priority in public and private schools. The UAE government

saves no effort to be one of the top educational systems in the world. They are employing experts

from all over the world to ensure education and learning is based on the 21st century skills.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23902918


WEEK 2 Reflection Introduction:

Three different scenarios that I am going to comment on:

Cognitive psychology, the study of how people perceive, learn, remember and think is simply a

fascinating field of study. While the Continuous and then the discontinuous theories ‘grappled’ for

recognition – the one making the assumption that a set of predictable and invariant stages of

development through a smooth progression provided by social experience and the other conceding

that skipping the stages was impossible but that the stages might overlap in certain cases and that the

environment is the primary determinant influencing change over time. Piaget’s theory emerged to

identify four distinct stages through which a child develops its cognitive abilities

In the first week of school, Mr. Jones tried to teach his first graders how to behave in class. He said,

“When I ask a question, I want you to raise your right hand, and I’ll call on you. Can you all raise

your right hands as I am doing?” Twenty hands went up. All were left hands.

The first scenario is a direct reflection to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. It refers to the the

second developmental stage which is called “preoperational stage”. The teacher’s behavior refers to

his own perspective and level of thinking where the student’s reaction refers to their own view and

how do they see the world. Students at this stage level are not mature enough to recognize things from

the logical view; they only can imitate and mirror thing. I would prefer if Mr. Jones tells the students

and show them his right hand and his left hand. He could turn around in front of them and raise his

right hand. Students in this age reflect the image and they would do it properly

Because her students were getting careless about handing in their homework, Ms. Lewis decided to lay

down the law to her fourth grade class. “Anyone who does not hand in all his or her homework this

week will not be allowed to go on the field trip”. It happened that one girl’s mother became ill and

was taken to the hospital that week. As a result of her family’s confusion and concern, the girl failed to

hand in one of her homework assignments. Ms. Lewis explained to the class that she would make an

exception in this case because of the girl’s mother’s illness, but the class wouldn’t hear of it “Rules

are rules”, they said. “She didn’t hand in her homework so she can’t go!”

“The Exceptions Proves the Rule”.

This scenario reflects the importance of sharing the rules with the students in the classroom. They

should be a part of the discussions around any rule related to them. In this situation the moral of the

rule is not fully discussed and students at that age have the idea of “Rule is a Rule”, so the teachers

should explain the rule with its exceptions and tell the students what exceptions are permissible.

Ms. Quintera stated her eighth grade English class one day with an excited announcement: “Class, I

wanted to tell you all that we have a poet in our midst. Frank wrote such a wonderful poem that I

thought I’d read it to you all”. Ms Quintera read Frank’s poem, which was indeed very good.

However she noticed that Frank was turning bright red and looking distinctly uncomfortable. A few of

the other students in the class snickered. Later, Ms Quintera asked Frank whether he would like to

write another poem for a citywide poetry contest. He said he’d rather not, because he really didn’t think he was that good; and besides, he didn’t have the time.

In the third scenario we can infer that students are shy about their work being read aloud in front of

peers. They may be laughed at. Frank was very uncomfortable because he may feel that the poetry is

not manly. Although the teacher wanted to praise Frank for his skills in poetry, she ignored his

feelings in this matter. Teachers should be careful how they praise students. Frank may be immature

or his classmates may be immature. It is the physical and emotional development in that stage of

development that affects the learning process.


WEEK 3 Reflection

"The major differences between earlier attempts at describing the way learners

learn and the constructivist view of learning"

In this weekly reflection I am going overlook at the paradigm shift in teaching and

learning, specifically the two main perspectives; Behaviourism and constructivism

Behaviourism, along with several newer variations that have names like information

processing theory, emphasize the learning of facts and skills that authorities, such as teachers

or school boards, have decided are important. While these theories have many different

names we will use the term behaviourism here. Names associated with behaviourism include

John Watson, an American psychologist who was very influential in the 1920s and 1930s,

and B.F Skinner, another American psychologist who had a tremendous impact on education

in the 1950s and 1960s. Behavioural approaches to teaching generally involve the following:

1. Breaking down the skills and information to be learned into small units.

2. Checking student's work regularly and providing feedback as well as

encouragement (reinforcement).

3. Teaching "out of context." Behaviourists generally believe that students can be

taught best when the focus is directly on the content to be taught. Behavioural

instruction often takes the material out of the context in which it will be used.

4. Direct or "teacher cantered" instruction. Lectures, tutorials, drills, demonstrations,

and other forms of teacher controlled teaching tend to dominate behavioural

classrooms.

Behavioural teaching and learning tends to focus on skills that will be used later. You learn

facts about American history, for example, because it is assumed that knowing those facts

will make you a better citizen when you are an adult. You learn basic mathematics

computational skills because you may need them when you get a job. Behavioural learning

does not, however, generally ask you to actually put the skills or knowledge you learn into

use in a "real" or "authentic" situation. That will come later when you graduate and get a job.

The behavioural emphasis on breaking down complex tasks, such as learning to read, into

sub-skills that are taught separately is very common in American schools today. In the

elementary school classroom, for example, students may spend many lessons on phonics

skills such as consonant clusters, vowel digraphs, and diphthongs. Other literacy skills such

as appropriate uses of the comma may also be taught in separate lessons, often by whole class

lectures followed by individual drill activities.

On the other hand

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how

people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the

world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter

http://129.7.160.115/INST5931/Beyond_Freedom.html


something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe

changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any

case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions,

explore, and assess what we know.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different

teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use

active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and

then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is

changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' pre-existing conceptions, and

guides the activity to address them and then build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping

them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the

constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening

tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW

TO LEARN.

Sources:

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/


WEEK 4 Reflection

The United Arab Emirates educational Authorities are saving no efforts in striving for best teaching

and learning practices. Unlimited budgeting is allocated to improve the educational process in the

whole country. Experts are called form all over the world to come and implement the leading and

modern educational systems and make them work.

Research from different countries said that the students learn best when they do rather than being

just listeners in a classroom setting environment. As teachers and educators are encouraging

students to learn by doing. Students should be given opportunities to express and demonstrate their

learning. To do that students she be taught through ways such guided discovery learning.

Guided discovery learning:

Discovery learning is an inquiry-based, constructivist theory that takes place in problem solving

situations where the learner draw on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to

discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned. Students interact with the world by

exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies, or performing

experiments, as a result, students may more and more likely to remember concepts and knowledge

discover in their own instead of teacher transmitting information to students. Models that are based

on discovery learning include: guided discovery, problem-based learning, case-based learning ,

simulation-based learning

Proponents of this theory believe that discovery learning ahs many advantages including:

- Encourage active engagement

- Promotes motivation

- Promotes independent learning

- Problem solving skills

- Experiential learning

We are in the 21st century learning where knowledge is the world economic system. Teaching and

learning process adopts the 21st century skills (4Cs), Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking

and Creative thinking

Recognising the general trend and thinking about teaching and learning in the 21st century - putting

the learner at the centre of the learning process, the teacher being an enabler, a co-inquirer - this

form of instruction has it place in any educational system. Despite the proven advantages of using

guided discovery instruction as a learning paradigm in an interactive classroom, educators must still

have a myriad of teaching styles and methods at their disposal, striking a fine balance between how

to achieve the learning intentions and maintaining good classroom control.

As an English teacher, we used to implement the guided discovery in asking the students to work in

a project called the E-CART. Students are given a topic form a variety of life aspects and interests

might be related to the UAE heritage and culture, then the students work in groups to find more and

more about the topic by their own. They then come to present what their findings are in from of


other groups in the classroom and that’s gives them the opportunity to acquire some personal traits

that could be helpful to them in their long life.

In Arabic Language and Maths, inquiry based learning are conducted where the students are asked

to do A-CART in Arabic Language and also to do an Exploration in Maths. I myself found it useful to

students when they learn by themselves.


WEEK 5 Reflection

Assessment for learning

Assign a title/role for each of the representative individuals who are part of the

educational process. Provide one-page description on your rationale for make the choices

of the stakeholders.

Modified from Northern Colorado BOCEES SBE Design Team

The above diagram reflects my understanding to the learning process and the main factors

that affects the improvement in the education system. The numbers of stakeholders who are

in charge of the organizational structure in any educational system are almost 6 figures.

- Number 1 is the leader of the school, he is the corner stone of the change he drives

the educational community and spread the culture of education in whole association.

If he drives the right direction means everyone is in the right path.

- Number 2 is the students. The student should be kept in a safe environment where

his learning is facilitated and his needs are met.

- Number 3 is the teacher, the hard worker in the educational equation and the one

who dedicates his time and efforts to help students learn and improve.

- Number 4 is to represent the educational authorities with what they produce from

policies and regulations. And what they run from professional development

programs.

- Number 5 is representing the community in two different forms;

Parents and local services which help in reflecting the roles and responsibilities of

school staff and also provide services and medical care.

- Number 6 represents the use of technology and its bigger role in moving the change

forward towards world class system.

Regards

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WEEK 6 Reflection

Well orderly classrooms and Effective

Teaching.

Effective teachers typically have specific characteristics in common—positive expectations

for student success, the ability to manage a classroom effectively, knowledge of lesson design

that leads to the students’ mastery of lessons, and the drive to continuously learn about and

grow within the teaching profession. Teachers everywhere should be able to be as efficient

and effective as they can, regardless of their teaching style or level of experience. We have

devoted a whole unit of the book to each important quality of an effective teacher. Of all

these things, the principles of successful classroom management are probably the most

important. Every student and teacher will be more successful in a well-managed classroom.

While effective classroom management has always been a subject of active discussion in

many educational circles, a wealth of understanding was gained by looking at motivation in

relation to its connection to cognitive aspects. There was clear knowledge about providing

students with extrinsic incentives to learn such as expressing clear expectations, providing

immediate, clear and frequent feedback. New insight into the value of intrinsic motivation

and knowledge about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how these might have a bearing on

education were important issues discussed in my writing task about classroom management

and motivation. Basic human need for physical and psychological well-being, the needs for

knowing and understanding which people try to satisfy after their basic needs have been met

as well as the need for self- actualisation all determine to some extent how motivated learners

will be to achieve success. It was also noted that teachers can enhance motivation by helping

students set goals, igniting their interest and curiosity and varying different modes of

presentation to appeal to the different styles of learners. As underlined in our lecture notes,

individual differences do affect classroom dynamics and learning outcomes and research

suggests that students’ efforts should be taken into account.


WEEK 7 Reflection

Portfolio Task for Week 7

How does the main aspect, in your view, of exceptionality or TESOL discussed today in

class inform teaching and learning?

My focus on this weekly portfolio task is going to be on the inclusive education.

Inclusive education is a part and parcel of the priorities of education in the UAE. The

educational authorities save no effort to adopt the theories and experiences of other countries

who are leading in the field of Special Education. The idea of inclusive education is new to

some schools in the country. The acceptance and attitudes of both teachers and parent is still

in need for more and more to compromise.

Inclusion is the preferred method of placement for students with special needs whenever

possible. In the UAE, it is clear that students with disabilities must be educated in regular

education settings to the maximum extent appropriate in light of their needs, and prohibit

their exclusion unless education there cannot be achieved satisfactorily even with appropriate

supplementary aids and services.

According to the presenter of the session, an inclusive classroom should be having;

Students need to be active - not passive learners.

Children should be encouraged to make choices as often as possible; a good teacher

will allow students some time to flounder as some of the most powerful learning

stems from taking risks and learning from mistakes.

Parental involvement is crucial.

Students with disabilities must be free to learn at their own pace and have

accommodations and alternative assessment strategies in place to meet their unique

needs.

Students need to experience success, learning goals need to be specific, attainable and

measurable and have some challenge to them.

The teacher facilitates the learning by encouraging, prompting, interacting, and probing with

good questioning techniques, such as 'How do you know it's right - can you show me how?'.

The teacher provides 3-4 activities that address the multiple learning styles and enables

students make choices. For instance, in a spelling activity a student may choose to cut and

paste the letters from newspapers or use magnetic letters to manipulate the words or use

coloured shaving cream to print the words. The teacher will have mini-conferences with

students. The teacher will provide many learning manipulative and opportunities for small

group learning.

The most important thing is to put in the back of our heads that a students with special needs

would always say to the teacher “DON’T LIMIT ME”.


WEEK 8 Reflection

The guided – discovery instruction proved itself to be one the teaching and learning best practices.

When there is a question to be given to the students and also they (students) will be taking the

responsibility for their own learning; this is called the independent learning. Such an activity like the

one we have been practicing in session 8, gives an opportunity to all participants to have an effective

role playing in the classroom. It was encouraging both critical and creative thinking which are

supposed to be the core skills for the 21st century learning.

This what the UAE country strives to achieve in their education system, where students are learning

by doing and engaging themselves in hands-on activities that will to a great extent reduce the

behavioral issue in schools.

As an English teacher, I will adopt such exercises and try to implement them in my class seeking

active learning to happen. This will keep the knowledge in the minds of students for longer time.

If you have ever watched a young child collect rocks or dig in the soil looking for worms you

probably recognize that children have a natural tendency to enjoy experiences in nature. Young

children actively engage with their environment to develop fundamental understandings of the

phenomena they are observing and experiencing. They also build essential science process skills such

as observing, classifying, and. These basic scientific concepts and science process skills begin to

develop as early as infancy, with the sophistication of children’s competency developing with.

The Importance of Science in Improving thinking skills: Research studies in developmental and cognitive psychology indicate that environmental

effects are important during the early years of development, and the lack of needed stimuli

may result in a child’s development not reaching its full potential. Thus, science education in

early childhood is of great importance to many aspects of a child’s development, and

researchers suggest that science education should begin during the early years of schooling.

There are several reasons to start teaching science during the early childhood period. First,

children have a natural tendency to enjoy observing and thinking about nature. Young

children are motivated to explore the world around them, and early science experiences can

capitalize on this inclination. Developmentally appropriate engagement with quality science

learning experiences is vital to help children understand the world, collect and organize

information, apply and test ideas, and develop positive attitudes toward science. Quality

science learning experiences provide a solid foundation for the subsequent development of

scientific concepts that children will encounter throughout their academic lives .This

foundation helps students to construct understanding of key science concepts and allows for

future learning of more abstract ideas. Engaging science experiences allow for the

development of scientific thinking. Supporting children as they develop scientific thinking

during the early childhood years can lead children to easily transfer their thinking skills to

other academic domains which may support their academic achievement and their sense of

self-efficacy. Early childhood science learning also is important in addressing achievement

gaps in science performance.


WEEK 9 Reflection

Provide one-page report of an issue/topic we addressed in class this session

Talking about self efficacy means the same as talking about higher expectations. Inspiring

teachers would be able to inspire their students and build self-motivation throughout encouraging

them and talking to them positively.

Teachers also need to have self efficacy as well as students. This self efficacy in teachers is

a product of hard work and gaining a lot of knowledge and also being up to date with technology

and and good communication skills.

In social cognitive theory, self-efficacy is believed to be affected by the existence of three

major factors: parents, peers, and also institutions (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, & Pastorelli,

2001). In addition, besides affecting the development of self-efficacy, those three major factors

are also affirmed to have a big influence in shaping gender roles as well (Bussey & Bandura,

2004). In view of that, in this section, the impact of gender orientation on self-efficacy beliefs

will be discussed further.

Males and females indeed have differences in terms of the average level of confidence. As

the result of many research conducted, the so-called gender differences in self-efficacy (Wigfield

et al., 1991) illustrate the divergence of the performance of both genders in academic tasks. In

certain academic areas such as mathematics, science, and technology males perform better as

they have higher confidence then females (Pajares & Miller, 1994; Wigfield, Eccles, & Pintrich,

1996). However, girls judge themselves to have better writing skills than boys (Pajares, Miller, &

Johnson, 1999). In fact, the differences in self-confidence were interpreted as the function of the

differences in self-efficacy (Wigfield, Eccles, Maclver, Reuman, & Midgley, 1991).

Regarding the fact that mathematics turns out to be the subject that females dislike, Eccles

(1989) believes that the reason for this is actually a matter of cultural factor supported by some

strong variables such as self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. However, Pajares (2002b)

believes that self-efficacy is the strongest among the other variables which, thus, can be used for

discovering this phenomenon better due to its specific characteristic than self-concept and self-

esteem.

Students’ different interests in certain academic areas as mentioned above actually show

the function of gender orientation -- the stereotypic beliefs about gender they hold – rather than

of gender (Eisenberg, Martin, & Fabes, 1996; Matsui, 1994). Based on some conducted research,

it is proved that females have more interest in feminine activities rather than in scientific

activities as they have higher sense of self-efficacy for the former (Junge & Dretzke, 1995). It is


found out that women have high sense of self-efficacy for quantitative activities imbedded in

stereotypically feminine activities, but they have low sense of self-efficacy when these same

quantitative activities are imbedded in scientific activities.

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WEEK 1 Reflection