Reading Reflection #2

I learned a lot from this week’s reading. Who knew that there were 16 (yupp I said 16!) Principles of Teaching & Learning! The 14 Principles  of Teaching & Learning are…

1.  When the subject matter to be learned possesses meaning, organization and structure that is clear to students, learning proceeds more rapidly and is retained longer.
2. Readiness is a prerequisite for learning. 
3. Students must be motivated to learn
4. Students are motivated through their involvement in setting goals and planning learning activities.
5. Success is a strong motivating force.
6. Students are motivated when they attempt tasks that fall in a range of challenge.
7. When students have knowledge of their learning progress, performance will be superior to what it would have been without such knowledge.
8. Behaviors that are reinforced (rewarded) are more likely to be learned.
9. To be most effective, reward (reinforcement) must follow as immediately as possible, to ensure that the student connects the desired behavior with the behavior they have performed.
10. Directed learning is more effective than undirected learning.
11. To maximize learning, students should inquire into rather than be instructed inthe subject matter.
12. Students learn what they practice.
13. Supervised practice that is most effective occurs in a functional educational experience.
14. Learning is most likely to be used (transferred) if it is learned in a situation as much like that in which it is to be used as possible and immediately preceding the time when it is needed.
15. Transfer of learning is more likely to take place when what is to be transferred is a generalization, a general rule, or a formula.
16. Students can learn to transfer what they have learned; teachers must teach students how to transfer laboratory and real-life situations.

All 16 of those were a lot to process and to try to decipher  however I did find that in order to create a solid foundation for teaching you need to make sure you keep them all in mind to help your students to succeed. Individually each component can stand and help students be successful but, to create the total package you need all 16 components.

As I was filtering through I started to think to myself, How in the world am I going to fit all of these Principles into one lesson or into everyday teaching? I know most of them occur naturally, but some of them will need to be used with activities and different types of lessons. Speaking of different types of activities, the second part of the reading was significantly helpful, especially in the planning process of how to develop successful activities in the classroom. I personally found the portion about planning field trips helpful and interesting, I am hoping (providing my schools allows) that I will be able to take my 7th grade classes on a field trip during student teaching. Knowing how to successfully plan the trip and get students to reflect on the trip, this way it is not “just a fun day of getting out of class.” 

I plan on using the techniques and how to’s from chapter 6 in the book to help me plan better quality activities for my lessons that I will have to create for student teaching. I think that as student teachers and the newbies to the field, we have to be able to create engaging lessons that allow students to maximize their potential. It seems to be the trend today that students do not want to learn because they do not see the real life value but if we was teachers give them the skills to help them get to their full potential and give them ways to relate real life topics to the real world, they will be more willing to learn and will gain skills that they will need for their future.