KFM3 - Task 2 Educational Philosophy 3 - Cherri Harrison-West PDF

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The learning theory with which I most closely identify is the Behaviorist Theory.
A2.
This theory most aligns with my current view of teaching because as a young student, I valued teachers who had a very direct approach when dealing with students, especially students that seemed to alw...

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A. One of the truest statements ever written about education is that “it takes a village to raise a child.” Within this statement lies my philosophy and my reasoning for wanting to be an educator and help future generations reach their highest heights. My upbringing was in a small community where the village concept too precedent. I remember going through school knowing that each teacher had a connection to my family. As I would find later, my teaching philosophy was being modeled for me all along. The lessons such as, punctuality, preparedness, and productivity would all helped shape me, and I hope to pass them along and do the same. A1. The learning theory with which I most closely identify is the Behaviorist Theory. A2. This theory most aligns with my current view of teaching because as a young student, I valued teachers who had a very direct approach when dealing with students, especially students that seemed to always have behavior issues. I strongly believe that teachers bear influence on what students do in their classrooms. I can remember one teacher that modeled this, Mrs. White, a sixth-grade mathematics teacher. She adopted the village mentality and now I can see that that mentality was simply her understanding that behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. Her classroom was always a model for how students should act. She did lots of activities to reinforce learning, and proper behaviors. She was very hands on when teaching mathematics, and now I whole heartedly understand her approach and want to model my teaching strategy after hers. A3.

If I were to need an understanding of the developmental needs of students in 1st and 7th grades, the theory of Behaviorism would help because I would already know that students who struggled behaviorally, in a drastic manner, may be behind developmentally. Knowing this on either grade level would help me differentiate my instruction as needed. Students in 1st grade may need reinforcement with behaviors involving sitting down, not being disruptive, and focusing on tasks, but students in 7th grade should not need that same type of behavioral reinforcement. If they do, developmental issues may be present. Also, in turn, students in 1st grade may be able to model teacher behaviors, but they may not be able to do this to the caliber of those in the 7th grade. Students in 7th grade could be supported by the Behaviorist theory by being introduced to concept repetition and activities that reinforce learning. A teacher could help 7th grade students by making sure that the questions listed on an assessment are ones that showed up on practice exams that had been previously reviewed. In addition, 7th grade teachers can also use rewards to reinforce behaviors, and they can measure if their students are meeting certain verbal and environmental cues when necessary. If the students do not, the teacher now has data to begin helping the student. Lastly, if students in the 1st grade or 7th grade could not understand verbal cues or respond stimuli appropriate for their grade level, then this can help with developmental lesson planning. A4. Many learning barriers can veer up in the educational setting. Two barriers that students can experience are fear of judgement and unequal disciplinary practices. These two barriers fall under the social-emotional domain. If these things came into play in my classroom, I would rely on the constructs of the Behaviorist theory to aid in easing or ridding these issues. First, I can make sure that my behaviors model inclusive practices so that no one feels left out. I can also

teach and model positive behaviors that will help keep students from being written up and sent to the principal for disciplinary actions. In addition, I can adopt a non-punitive discipline practice in my own classroom for small infractions. I can create a healthy balance of rewards and punishments to model that good things happen when good behaviors are practiced, and punishments come when they don’t. Things like praise, and a reward system will assist too.

A5. One diverse population of students I want to always reach is the unengaged learner population. This population arises because teachers sometimes neglect to differentiate instruction and cater to all learning styles. For example, if a student is a kinesthetic learner, and the teacher only appeals to auditory or visual learners, then that student may become unengaged with the content. That mistake is explained here by theorist M. L Tate, “Visualize the worst professional development workshop you have ever attended. Chances are, you sat passively as your presenter talked aimlessly regarding a topic of little interest to you. The presentation may have been accomplished by an endless stream of PowerPoint slides from which the presenter read to you as if you could not read them to yourself. Never once were you given the opportunity to interact with the other participants. By 24 hours after the forgettable experience, if you could bring yourself to admit this, you were probably lucky to recall 10% of the content delivered” (Tate). I could avoid this happening in my classroom if I created drills that appealed to all learning styles and allowed those students who answered correctly to come to me to retrieve a treat, or question and answer reviews that allowed students to raise their hand or come to the board to answer problems. Both methods, if modeled correctly.

References

Tate, M. L. (2009). Workshops: Extended Learning Beyond Your Presentation with These BrainFriendly Strategies. Journal of Staff Development, 30(1), 44-46....