Psychology Observational and Personal Learning Reports

Personal Learning Theory

I debated doing several different things for my ten hour project. I have an ongoing list of a zillion different things I want to learn and do and improve. This semester I knew I would have a lot of crazy things happening aside from school, so I wanted to choose a project that would be stress free.
Last summer my husband and I were house-sitting and decided to play a game of tennis at the nearby court. It was a first for both of us. We loved it so much that my siblings picked up on the idea and got us tennis rackets for Christmas. Instead of letting those rackets get dusty, I decided that this ten hour project would be the perfect opportunity for me (us) to learn to play tennis.
We found another couple that wanted to jump on board with us and we began to “learn” to play tennis. The first time we went we considered the idea of making it count for a point if the ball was a “home run.” I played volleyball in high school and I grew up with a ping pong table, so I think I had somewhat of an advantage over my husband, who would’ve killed the other team if it were baseball. Once, in the parking lot next to the court, a dad was teaching his daughter how to drive. My husband’s “home run,” which was her turning point, somehow survived several times of being ran over.
Now I’m sort of addicted to tennis. If it’s sunny outside, I want to be playing. I think the Easter bunny might even be bringing me a tennis skirt instead of candy. I’m still not a pro by any means, but I think I’m at least good enough to get a rally going.

Date Time Spent Time Left
2/20 30 minutes 9:30
2/24 90 minutes 7:00
3/03 90 minutes 5:30
3/05 75 minutes 4:15
3/11 90 minutes 2:45
3/19 90 minutes 1:15
3/24 90 minutes -0:15
4/02 90 minutes -1:45


Personal Learning Theory

A perfect balance between teacher guidance and student centered learning must be maintained to achieve the most positive and productive learning environment. There are several different theorists and theories that support this view. I believe that I can draw from each theory to come up with the learning and teaching ideas that work best for me as a teacher and learner, and for my future students. Every student is unique and has different strengths, weaknesses, and needs, and thus it is most beneficial to use different ideas and techniques with different students.
Vygotsky believes that a zone of proiximal development is best. In this zone, students are grouped heterogeneously to learn from each other. More knowledgeable students learn and gain confidence as they teach their peers. Less knowledgeable students glean learning from their peers in terms that make sense to them. Students are the best teachers of each other, and the more students are involved the better. Learning is scaffolded by students and teacher in this situation, and a more knowledgable other acts as an expert on topic of learning. As teachers we can act as that more knowledgable other, or we can create student groups where students will fulfill that role.
Motivation plays a key role in how students learn. My classroom will be balanced between extrinsic rewards, to capture initial attention, and extrinsic motivation to retain student attention. As students shift their drive from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation they learn to be facilitators of their own learning. As teachers, we need to teach and support children in making choices about their learning. As good habits are structured they will become lifelong learners.
As we guide children in their educational endeavors we can set appropriate limits and guidelines. Children need these limits and guidelines—they need structure. Students will thrive even more if they can manage themselves with these limits and guidelings. In teaching children responsibility for their own learning, management becomes key. Behaviorist theories help us understand that as teachers, how we respond to students’ actions affects how they behave. In terms of classical conditioning, or learned responses to stimuli, the situation might look like this: The teacher rings a bell, the signal, or conditioned stimulus, to clean up. If the student complies (conditioned response), we can strengthen their behavior with positive reinforcement. The ideal is that we bring students to a point where they can responsible to choose their own rewards. If a student is non-compliant, we may choose different forms of punishment to weaken that negative behavior. We could use removal (negative) punishment, which decreases the chance that a behavior will occur again by removing a pleasant stimulus following the behavior, like taking away some recess time. Or we might try positive practice by having the student practice putting his things away when the bell is rung so he will know how to do it next time. The ideal, however, just as in letting them choose their own rewards, is to bring them to a point where they choose their own consequences that relate to the misbehavior. The most important point I gained from studying behaviorism is that we can help to shape our students behavior. We should provide them with love and support as we teach them to manage their own behavior and learning.
I believe that I, as a teacher, have a responsibility to design instruction to be developmentally appropriate and engaging. Theories on cognition tell us that how information is processed (information processing) in the brain effects how well it is retained. When we first process information we keep it in our working, or short term memory. We can only hold around seven pieces of information in this part of our memory at a time, and for only about 20 seconds. Knowing this, we must provide our students with mnemonic devices, elaboration techniques, distributive practice, chunking and other devices to shift information to the long term memory, where it can be retained and used again in the future.
As we seek to be the best teachers we can be, and to help our students be the best learners they can be, we must have self-efficacy. We must believe that we can do it. As I follow the ideas outlined in the paper I can help my students to believe in themselves as well and set them up to be successful and achieve.