Educational Psychology

What? In chapter ten it talks alot about the social aspect of learning. In class today we did group presentations on a certain topic in the chapter. My groups was on self-regulation and the different concepts that fall under that category. From doing that presentation I realized how important it is for students to be independent in their learning. To learn how to self-regulate their own ability to learn. A teacher can do alot in building the confidence of a student but when it comes down to it the student needs to make the decision to be responsibile and in charge of their learning experience. It was cool to be able to apply all of these ideas to not only my teaching in the future but also to myself right now. A few of the vocab words we went over were terms such as observational learning effect, which is when a student does a behavior after watching someone else do it. Response faciliation effect- The increased frequency of a behvior after watching someone be rewarded for it. Just looking at these two terms I realized that we as adults do this all of the time! We learn and act according to the acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors of those around us. I liked this chapter because it also talked about the effects that reinforcement and punishment have on the classroom.
So What? This chapter helped me understand that although I may do as much as I can to create a wonderful learning experience for my students they will not take advantage of it unless they are motiviated enough to do so. I realized the importance of giving children as much confidence as possible through their learning experience because it will create a standard and basis of what they think of themselves for the rest of their life.
Now What? Now I realize that I will want to be careful about the punishment and rewards I do in my classroom. I will need to be constantly evaluating myself to make sure that I am acting in such a way that helps students have confidence in who they are! I will want to help each student realize that they can do great at school and they are good at something. I will want to help for a positive basis for my students especially since I hope to be teaching a younger grade and they will take that confidence or lack of confidence about learning with them through their education.