Piaget

In my student teaching experience, I experimented with allowing the students to be in command of their own learning when it came to the new unit we were starting. I gave them access to resources to allow them to research the material and find the information for the unit. I ran into a problem when the students were using google searches. I assumed that they were able and knew how to properly use google to find information. Instead, they would type in one thing, and get millions of sources on the topic and was not what the students were looking for. I felt the students were in disequilibrium with how the students were to do their own research. To help fix this, I taught them how to do a proper google search in a 10 minute mini lesson. I taught them about using quotation marks to narrow down the search. Use addition symbols to add another topic, or subtraction to take out information that they did not want or need. I introduced a topic, saw it was then out of balance, and then helped fix this. This brought them equilibrium.

The students need guidance and a lot more practice to be able to more effectively be self efficient in doing their own research. It took a little bit of time for them to be able to understand what they were to be doing and how to find the answers. However, the more practice that the students had, the more they got a hang of it and were becoming stronger in finding their own information. Being able to use adaptation on both the students and the teacher to learn was very prominent in the learning on both sides. Setting up scaffoldings as well for the students as they go along will help also help guide them to be able to eventually feel comfortable doing the research on their own.

When teaching my lessons, I need to be aware of what it is I am asking my students and make sure that the have the prior knowledge to accomplish what it is that I am asking them to do. This does not just mean for google searches. This means that whatever I am having my students do, that they have that prior knowledge that will help them be successful in there learning. I need to adapt or use assimilation to make sure that the class knows what I am talking about. Then if I have to, prepare to adapt to the students instead of them having to adapt to me.

Kohlberg

One week in my Sports History class I noticed that the students in a little bit in all the levels of Kohlberg's level of moral development. I heard some seniors talking about another class, STATS 1040 class asking if scores were going to be out up soon so that they could show their parents their current grade in the class. They might have done this in fear of punishment if they didn't do well which would be stage 1 in pre-conventional. They might also being doing their homework and wanting good scores because they want to be seen as the good girl/boy in class. This is the Conventional level stage 3.

Metacognition

This week in the class, I tried to implement the use of metacognition a few times. I passed out homework assignments and then instead of just grading them and handing them back, I made notes on the side and handed it back and allowed the student to go back and see what they needed to improve on and hand the homework back in with the new corrected work. This allowed students to go back and look at the problems they needed to redo, then ask how they could fix those problems, and evaluate how they did and what they can change for a test or the next time they work on their homework. This is the metacognitive skills being put to use.

      I remember a time when I was in high school and my physics teacher co-regulated with us on how to build bottle rockets. She would give us a plan and a time line and would ask if we were staying on track. She also asked what we needed help with and helped us come up with different designs. She also let us try out the bottle rockets a few times before the actual test to let us see what worked and what didn't and to see what we could do to improve on the design. This helped us to use the cycle of self-regulated learning and really helped us develop the metacognition skills.