Week 2: Chapters 4-9

Section 2: Theories and Models of Learning and Instruction

(I have to say that I was somewhat surprised that Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory was not discussed.)

• Identify a specific learning goal and how you would incorporate two learning theories highlighted in Chapter 4 to achieve this goal.

In teaching my students how to write a well-organized critical essay about a piece of literature, I would incorporate the following learning theories:

Constructivism

The textbook lists four requirements that constructivist-based learning environments should have. The learning environment should:

· Engage learners in activities that are authentic to the specific discipline. To meet this requirement, I would begin by teaching my students the basic fundamentals of literary criticism. The first step would be to introduce terminology and provide examples. Next, I would have the students read passages and find their own examples in the text. Once they were able to “talk the talk,” I would introduce short writing assignments including a variety of literary criticism elements. At the same time, I would begin teaching and/or reviewing composition, discussing organization, audience, thesis statements, etc. Once the students demonstrated mastery of the shorter assignments, I would gradually increase the length of the finished product until the students were able to write a 2-3 page critical essay (or more, if they were Pre-AP students).

· Provide for collaboration / engage multiple perspectives. I would use a combination of peer editing workshops and individual student conferences to provide feedback on students’ drafts.

· Support learners in goal-setting / self-regulation of learning. I would begin by surveying the students about the composition strategies they use (i.e., the process they use when writing an essay). The initial writing assignments would provide me with a baseline about their writing capabilities. I would also ask them for feedback on specific parts of the process that they struggle with; this would allow me to address the most common concerns and provide the students with a goal: “I want to get better at writing introductions and thesis sentences.” Once goals were set, I could then get ongoing progress reports from the students from discussions during the individual student conferences, as well as from my observations and assessment of their writing assignments. This could be useful in spotting issues—for example, if a student feels that he/she has become proficient at using embedded quotations, but I don’t see proficiency when I grade his/her assignments.

· Encourage learner reflection. This could be accomplished in the individual student conferences with the progress reports. I could also ask students to assess their own progress, and I could ask students to tell me (in a paragraph or a full page) one thing they have learned.

Cognitive Information Processing Theory

This theory is based on the idea of three memory systems (sensory, short-term, and long-term) that deal with patterns, connections, and retention.

For the sensory memory system, the key is teaching students to recognize patterns; I would use a variety of strategies for this area, especially modeling (analysis or organization) and drills (grammar or vocabulary). For the short-term memory system, I would continue the drills, but also require the students to connect the new information with other previously acquired information. For the long-term memory system, I would utilize authentic assessment (the essay itself) and multiple examples during discussions.

• Find a reference (other than the book) that describes Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. Then create a table or chart that compares and contrasts those events with the first principles described in chapter 7 and describe how you would apply each of the first principles to the goal you've developed from the first activity in this reflection.

(First Principles are in the row of the Events that I believe they most closely correlate to. The words in parentheses in the Gagne column are my one word summations of each of the Events.)

First Principles	Gagne
	Gaining attention (focus)
	Inform objective (expectancy)
Activation	Stimulating recall (reminder)
Demonstration	Present stimulus (content)
	Guiding learning (encoding)
Application	Eliciting performance (practice)
	Providing feedback (correction)
Integration	Assessing performance (evaluation)
	Enhancing retention (extension)

I would apply the First Principles to my goal of students writing well-organized critical essays like this:

· Activation – Connect the fundamental terminology and concepts to previous lessons or provide recognizable examples. Pre-reading activities could also be used.

· Demonstration –I would model the stages of the writing process, from pre-writing through the final draft.

· Application –I would have the students write critical essays that include the fundamental elements of critical analysis.

· Integration –I would have the students tell me what they have learned in a reflection activity (either oral or written).

• Develop a new goal or using the one you've already developed, briefly describe how you might use the whole-task approach, scaffolding, and mathemagenic methods to help students learn to perform a task.

I used the same goal for this question: students will write a well-organized critical essay about a piece of literature.

I think to implement the whole-task approach for this goal, I would just assign the students to write. Then, in repeated revisions, we would cover the fundamentals of grammar and composition. This is the reverse of my earlier process, where I would start with the fundamentals and build up to writing the essay. I can see advantages and disadvantages to this approach. I’ve noticed that my students tend to pay closer attention when they know what the big picture is. It’s like they don’t want to even start putting the jigsaw puzzle together unless they can see the picture on the box to know what it will look like when they’re finished. But I think this approach could be frustrating or overwhelming for some students—“I can’t even spell, and you expect me to write an essay?! Yeah, right!!!”

It’s harder to apply some of the mathemagenic methods to this goal (writing an essay). Random sequencing doesn’t work as well here, because there needs to be a progression of skills (to some extent). Asking leading questions during learning fits perfectly, and not just for essay writing. I use this method when my classes discuss a literary work. I ask the students questions that require them to use higher level thinking skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Scaffolding methods can also be used easily with this goal. The first thing that comes to mind is modeling the process, walking the students through what I would do from brainstorming to writing to revising and editing.

• Finally, after completing these activities, discuss the benefits of engaging in design research.

I think the main benefit of design research is that the instructor can obtain a wide variety of techniques that can be used—in other words, it puts more tools in the toolbox. If one type of instruction is not working for a given group of students, the instructor can simply move to another type. It also allows for greater flexibility within a group of students; they do not all learn the same way, so what works for one may not (and probably won’t) work for all. Knowing a variety of techniques allows for more differentiation.