1) Chapter 9 discusses using technology in the classroom in effective ways to improve student achievement. This is related to what we have previously learned in that technology is a tool in education to help kids understand and retain the information in long-term memory. As the cognition book mentioned students lean in different ways. Technology brings in a hands-on tool to help kids succeed.
2) What am I not clear on? I had no idea how much technology software is out there for use in the classroom. I will do my research this summer to try to use more of this in my classroom. The students will be more involved and more interested in their learning.
3) It is important to introduce new technology in the classroom because we live in a technology age where students will need to know how to use it in the future as they join the workforce. I am going to look into podcasts for students that miss assignments. In the weekly discussion it was mentioned that kids could make these. This might be a good idea in Algebra after a test to get another type of assessment for each student. I think that students would enjoy it and it would be more interesting for other students to watch.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Week 14 Reflection
1) There were 4 learning environments discussed in "How People Learn" Chapter's 6 and 7. These were learner, knowledge, assessment, and community based. The learner based environment focuses on giving the student the responsibility to learn the information through predictions and using their previous knowledge. The knowledge based approach is similar to the learner based in that the learner is very active but the type of instruction is more structured. In the assessment approach the teacher receives feedback through either formative or summative types of assessments. The community based instruction makes the classroom feel more like a family in which students do not feel threatened in the classroom. This relates to what we have learned in the cognition text by applying all of the cognitive principles to classroom instruction in order to achieve higher student achievement.
2) I think that the reason why math is moving quicker in Japan is that we have so much info to cover that we have to skim the top of everything. We are not doing our students any good this way. We are doing this because of the guidelines set by the state tests. Why do we continue to do this? Wouldn't it benefit our students if we had more time to try the learner based instruction where they would learn the material in more depth?
3) In my math classroom, I think that I take on a community based approach. The students feel comfortable in class. They know that mistakes are okay because we learn from them. I don't really make my students raise their hands to answer or ask a question. They are welcome to ask a question at any time during the lesson. I receive constant feedback by asking questions constantly. This would be an example of formative assessment. I would love to have more time to give the students the chance to do more with learner based environments. This would help the students have a deeper level of mathematical understanding and they will retain the info over time in their long -term memory.
2) I think that the reason why math is moving quicker in Japan is that we have so much info to cover that we have to skim the top of everything. We are not doing our students any good this way. We are doing this because of the guidelines set by the state tests. Why do we continue to do this? Wouldn't it benefit our students if we had more time to try the learner based instruction where they would learn the material in more depth?
3) In my math classroom, I think that I take on a community based approach. The students feel comfortable in class. They know that mistakes are okay because we learn from them. I don't really make my students raise their hands to answer or ask a question. They are welcome to ask a question at any time during the lesson. I receive constant feedback by asking questions constantly. This would be an example of formative assessment. I would love to have more time to give the students the chance to do more with learner based environments. This would help the students have a deeper level of mathematical understanding and they will retain the info over time in their long -term memory.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Chapter 10 Reflection
1. Chapter 10 focuses on language production including speaking and writing. This relates to just about every other concept in the book because there are many processes that need to be used in order to communicate. Production of language through writing requires planning, sentence generation, and revision. We use our short term and long term memory to write and speak. Our central executive is very active in this process. It is interesting to step back and think about all of the cognitive activities that are done in seconds as we speak.
2. The book mentions that there is not much research on writing even though it is a very complicated process. I wonder why the research is focused on the processes before writing, like comprehension, etc. and we do not research the end product in our writings.
3. I will be careful not to make the speech errors in my classroom like the sound, morpheme, and word errors. It is important to establish common ground with your students to ensure that the students are able to comprehend what we are covering. I feel it is important in math to remember my thoughts when I first learn the information and relate to my students. Sometimes math teachers do not realize the complexities because they have been doing the concepts for years. It helps to tell the students common errors when learning the material so that they are aware of them as they practice. I also thought that the benefits of bilinguals were interesting. The critical period hypothesis states that it is easier for young children to learn a second language as opposed to an adult. Maybe this is partly because as an adult, we have our attention divided to several tasks compared to a child. I think that it is possible for an adult to master a new language and I think it would be a benefit if they visited a country that speaks the native language.
2. The book mentions that there is not much research on writing even though it is a very complicated process. I wonder why the research is focused on the processes before writing, like comprehension, etc. and we do not research the end product in our writings.
3. I will be careful not to make the speech errors in my classroom like the sound, morpheme, and word errors. It is important to establish common ground with your students to ensure that the students are able to comprehend what we are covering. I feel it is important in math to remember my thoughts when I first learn the information and relate to my students. Sometimes math teachers do not realize the complexities because they have been doing the concepts for years. It helps to tell the students common errors when learning the material so that they are aware of them as they practice. I also thought that the benefits of bilinguals were interesting. The critical period hypothesis states that it is easier for young children to learn a second language as opposed to an adult. Maybe this is partly because as an adult, we have our attention divided to several tasks compared to a child. I think that it is possible for an adult to master a new language and I think it would be a benefit if they visited a country that speaks the native language.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Chapter 9 Reflection
1) I think that language ties in with just about everything else that we have learned in this course. I thought that the info on negative language ties in with the Pollyanna principle from earlier chapters. In order to communicate and learn through our working and long-term memory we need to be able to understand language and reading to be successful learners. I though that the top-down and bottom-up processes were similar to the whole-word (top-down) versus phonics (bottom-up)approach to learning how to read.
2) I wonder why the ACT test has several negative questions when it is a timed test? The book makes a point that these questions/statements take longer to comprehend. Are there educators out there that just use the whole-word approach without going through the separate sounds and letters first? This seems like it would be a struggle for kindergarten students if both approaches were not used.
3) I will be more careful in how I phrase my questions to be sure that I am using positives, the active voice, not nesting, and watching my ambiguities. I do not think that it is bad for kids to be exposed to this either though. They should be exposed to these in order to be aware of them when they are writing and communicating. If we failed as teachers to expose them to these, the students probably would not be successful communicators later on in life. Of course, we cannot be consistently ambiguous and we should try our best to stray away from these because there is a decrease in comprehension. We all learn from our experiences and I think that I am a better teacher from seeing both effective and non-effective ways to communicate.
2) I wonder why the ACT test has several negative questions when it is a timed test? The book makes a point that these questions/statements take longer to comprehend. Are there educators out there that just use the whole-word approach without going through the separate sounds and letters first? This seems like it would be a struggle for kindergarten students if both approaches were not used.
3) I will be more careful in how I phrase my questions to be sure that I am using positives, the active voice, not nesting, and watching my ambiguities. I do not think that it is bad for kids to be exposed to this either though. They should be exposed to these in order to be aware of them when they are writing and communicating. If we failed as teachers to expose them to these, the students probably would not be successful communicators later on in life. Of course, we cannot be consistently ambiguous and we should try our best to stray away from these because there is a decrease in comprehension. We all learn from our experiences and I think that I am a better teacher from seeing both effective and non-effective ways to communicate.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Chapter 12 Reasoning/Decisions
1. Chapter 12 focuses on deductive reasoning and decision making which related to problem solving in Chapter 11. All three topics are related to thinking which is going beyond the information given to reach a goal, decision, or belief. It involves taking new info in(working memory), using our previous knowledge (long-term memory) and reasoning to make a decision.
2. I found it very hard to relate the decision-making strategies/heuristics to what I actually think of when I make a decision. It was hard to apply to my life. It seems to me that there should be plenty more strategies that people use to make a decision compared to the ones given in the book. I think that the book mentioned this also, but it seems like when a researcher is wanting people to make a decision in a particular way, like the engineer problem. Of course we think that the person is an engineer because we have been given other info that leads to that decision and I don’t believe that looking at the percentages of engineers and lawyers should be the only method of making this decision.
3. I could use this in my work by helping students realize that there might be limits to our decision-making processes. I need to remind students that the way a statement or question is worded may affect your decision. Students should look at both agreeing with a statement and disagreeing with a statement or finding reasons why something may be false. Overall, students need to form questions when they are making a decision or reasoning about something and be sure to think about all areas before making a final decision. I tell my students that they should even question their teachers when something does not seem to make sense.
2. I found it very hard to relate the decision-making strategies/heuristics to what I actually think of when I make a decision. It was hard to apply to my life. It seems to me that there should be plenty more strategies that people use to make a decision compared to the ones given in the book. I think that the book mentioned this also, but it seems like when a researcher is wanting people to make a decision in a particular way, like the engineer problem. Of course we think that the person is an engineer because we have been given other info that leads to that decision and I don’t believe that looking at the percentages of engineers and lawyers should be the only method of making this decision.
3. I could use this in my work by helping students realize that there might be limits to our decision-making processes. I need to remind students that the way a statement or question is worded may affect your decision. Students should look at both agreeing with a statement and disagreeing with a statement or finding reasons why something may be false. Overall, students need to form questions when they are making a decision or reasoning about something and be sure to think about all areas before making a final decision. I tell my students that they should even question their teachers when something does not seem to make sense.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ch. 11 Reflection Problem Solving
1. Chapter 11 covers problem solving. It is broken into understanding the problem, problem solving strategies, factors that influence problem solving, and creativity. It relates to what we have learned previously in that when we are problem solving we have to take new info into our working memory and use our top-down processing and info in long-term memory to help us solve problems.
2. I was mostly clear on everything in this chapter because it really relates to what I teach, mathematics. Most of the examples that were given were related to math so I enjoyed the examples. I have talked about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in other education classes/workshops so I was familiar with those terms also.
3. How would I relate this to my teaching? It is an everyday occurrence to use problem solving in math. My students are always asking where we are going to use the math that they have to learn later on in life. Math teaches the problem solving skills that are needed to be successful in the future. There are several strategies that are used to problem solve. I feel that my students often use the Means-end Heuristic and the analogy approach the most in my math classroom more than the hill-climbing heuristic. The means-end approach breaks a problem into smaller problems in order to get to the end result. The analogy approach uses our previous knowledge to relate the new problem to problems that have been previously done. We use the methods that we used in the previous problems in order to solve the new problem.
I find that some students are able to problem solve better than others. In our discussions this week someone mentioned that it maybe the difference between right brained and left brained people. A person that is right-brained maybe looking at the big picture and will be able to relate a new problem to an old problem even if it is a problem that is worded differently. A left- brained person has a harder time seeing the big picture. I think that this makes sense but it is not entirely true because I am very left-brained but seem to have no problem looking at the big picture when solving math problems.
2. I was mostly clear on everything in this chapter because it really relates to what I teach, mathematics. Most of the examples that were given were related to math so I enjoyed the examples. I have talked about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in other education classes/workshops so I was familiar with those terms also.
3. How would I relate this to my teaching? It is an everyday occurrence to use problem solving in math. My students are always asking where we are going to use the math that they have to learn later on in life. Math teaches the problem solving skills that are needed to be successful in the future. There are several strategies that are used to problem solve. I feel that my students often use the Means-end Heuristic and the analogy approach the most in my math classroom more than the hill-climbing heuristic. The means-end approach breaks a problem into smaller problems in order to get to the end result. The analogy approach uses our previous knowledge to relate the new problem to problems that have been previously done. We use the methods that we used in the previous problems in order to solve the new problem.
I find that some students are able to problem solve better than others. In our discussions this week someone mentioned that it maybe the difference between right brained and left brained people. A person that is right-brained maybe looking at the big picture and will be able to relate a new problem to an old problem even if it is a problem that is worded differently. A left- brained person has a harder time seeing the big picture. I think that this makes sense but it is not entirely true because I am very left-brained but seem to have no problem looking at the big picture when solving math problems.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Chapter 8 Reflection
1. Chapter 8 discusses general knowledge and semantic memory. There were 4 approaches to classifying new information from what we already know. The feature comparison model compares the new stimulus to a list of features and characteristics. The prototype approach compares the new stimulus to a specific prototype in long-term memory. The exemplar approach compares new stimulus to prior established examples. The network approach links the new stimulus to a variety of previous knowledge through a net system. The chapter also talks about schemas and scripts, which are already known general knowledge that can sometimes aid us or cause problems with learning new information.
2. I thought it ties in with everything else that we have learned but it shows how we can take our general knowledge and apply it in order to take in new info. I also thought that it tied into chapter 2 and the approaches such as the feature analysis theory and the recognition components theory in regards to the 4 approaches of the semantic memory.
3. I felt that there were a lot of details in this chapter. I had to continuously stop and re-read to understand it. The questions that were raised by the leaders really helped to organize the new information into a hierarchy type of system for me.
4. The prototype example is used a great deal in upper level math when we are graphing and translating graphs. Schemas helped me to realize that students have difficulty understanding because of what already exists in their long-term memory.
5. The author has provided proof as related to research in this chapter but I think that it would have been more helpful to provide more or better examples to explain the approaches and schemas/scripts. I felt that the author did a better job in previous chapters to explain using examples and to engage the learning process.
6. It is important to understand how we code and compare new stimulus to our pre-existing knowledge. This can help teachers to understand how our cognitive processes work in order to possibly organize new material into these types of approaches to help students better understand the material.
7. I use the prototype approach just about everyday in my Calculus class. When we look at an equation and picture a graph the parent graph is the prototype and all transformations of it form the graph. For example an absolute value equation forms a v-shaped graph. The parent graph of y = the absolute value of x would be the prototype because it is v-shaped and is centered at the origin. Other absolute value equations are all v-shaped graphs but differ in some way like a wider or narrower v-shape, moving up, down, left, right, or even flipped upside down. All transformations show characteristics of the prototype in that they all have a vertex and the sides have opposite slopes of one-another so we can classify these graphs in the absolute value category.
8. As I mentioned earlier, I found this chapter difficult to understand so I think more examples would have helped. I was also working on my workshop at the same time so I might have been a little distracted or involved in a divided attention task. I also think that depending on what new information that we are learning we use each of the 4 different approaches instead of just 1 specific approach.
2. I thought it ties in with everything else that we have learned but it shows how we can take our general knowledge and apply it in order to take in new info. I also thought that it tied into chapter 2 and the approaches such as the feature analysis theory and the recognition components theory in regards to the 4 approaches of the semantic memory.
3. I felt that there were a lot of details in this chapter. I had to continuously stop and re-read to understand it. The questions that were raised by the leaders really helped to organize the new information into a hierarchy type of system for me.
4. The prototype example is used a great deal in upper level math when we are graphing and translating graphs. Schemas helped me to realize that students have difficulty understanding because of what already exists in their long-term memory.
5. The author has provided proof as related to research in this chapter but I think that it would have been more helpful to provide more or better examples to explain the approaches and schemas/scripts. I felt that the author did a better job in previous chapters to explain using examples and to engage the learning process.
6. It is important to understand how we code and compare new stimulus to our pre-existing knowledge. This can help teachers to understand how our cognitive processes work in order to possibly organize new material into these types of approaches to help students better understand the material.
7. I use the prototype approach just about everyday in my Calculus class. When we look at an equation and picture a graph the parent graph is the prototype and all transformations of it form the graph. For example an absolute value equation forms a v-shaped graph. The parent graph of y = the absolute value of x would be the prototype because it is v-shaped and is centered at the origin. Other absolute value equations are all v-shaped graphs but differ in some way like a wider or narrower v-shape, moving up, down, left, right, or even flipped upside down. All transformations show characteristics of the prototype in that they all have a vertex and the sides have opposite slopes of one-another so we can classify these graphs in the absolute value category.
8. As I mentioned earlier, I found this chapter difficult to understand so I think more examples would have helped. I was also working on my workshop at the same time so I might have been a little distracted or involved in a divided attention task. I also think that depending on what new information that we are learning we use each of the 4 different approaches instead of just 1 specific approach.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Chapter 7 Reflection
1. Chapter 7 discusses mental imagery relating analog code v. propositional code. The analog code theory says that the information about an image is stored as an image. the propositional code theory says that we store images as language. The chapter also talks about imagery as related to size and shape and interference with imagery. The second part of the chapter focuses on cognitive maps for instance when we need to find a new classroom at SIUE we use a cognitive map of the campus.
2. This chapter is related to chapter 5 with long term memory and how we store our mental images. It is also related to chapter 4 when we take the stored mental image from long-term memory to working memory in order to use it. I think that once the image appears in working memory whether it was stored as an image or language, it is converted to a picture using the visuospatial sketchpad. Similarly auditory sounds are brought to working memory and is used through the phonological loop.
3. I did have a question about how chapter 4 relates to chapter 7. In chapter 4 it mentions that it is difficult to be completing a visual task and at the same time have an auditory interference. Chapter 7 says that interference occurs when there are 2 visual tasks happening at the same time or 2 auditory tasks happening at the same time. Does it occur in both cases then or is the interferences of working memory as opposed to long-term memory?
4. We use visual and mental imagery in math constantly especially in my calculus class. It is interesting to understand how the mental and actual image can interfere with each other. I think that I will be more aware of this in my classroom.
5. I think that for the most part the author gives several examples of studies that have been done to show proof. As I was reading about the alignment heuristic, the book said that they asked students where Rome was in relation to Philadelphia. The study said that people are accustomed to thinking things are in a straight line but what if they asked people that really have no background in Geography. How would this studies results show this result?
6. This is important to understand how our mental images can differ from the actual image. I found it very interesting when the book described analog code and propositional code. I think that I agree with what Pylyshyn explained. I thought about a computers memory when I was reading the book. He said that yes we are able to see these mental images but he thinks that they are stored as language in our long term memory and then can be pulled out of long term and formed into an image. There would be a lot more room for info, as with a computer, if things are stored as text and then using the visuospatial sketchpad we can convert them to a mental image.
7. I use mental imagery as compared to the actual image as we are doing transformations of graphs in Calculus. I give the students a parent graph starting at the origin of a function such as a parabola. By manipulating the equation by +, -, etc. the parabola moves and chages shape. My students practice making a mental image of the new parabola and then we check our results using a graphing calculator.
8. My only question about the books examples of studies is that they don't go into detail with the number of participants and how many times the study was completed, etc. I am sure that the references go into more detail about it. Most of the time good researchers will say what their limitations are in a study because no study is perfect. I assume that the actual researcher has done this but we would have to look further into the references listed in the book.
2. This chapter is related to chapter 5 with long term memory and how we store our mental images. It is also related to chapter 4 when we take the stored mental image from long-term memory to working memory in order to use it. I think that once the image appears in working memory whether it was stored as an image or language, it is converted to a picture using the visuospatial sketchpad. Similarly auditory sounds are brought to working memory and is used through the phonological loop.
3. I did have a question about how chapter 4 relates to chapter 7. In chapter 4 it mentions that it is difficult to be completing a visual task and at the same time have an auditory interference. Chapter 7 says that interference occurs when there are 2 visual tasks happening at the same time or 2 auditory tasks happening at the same time. Does it occur in both cases then or is the interferences of working memory as opposed to long-term memory?
4. We use visual and mental imagery in math constantly especially in my calculus class. It is interesting to understand how the mental and actual image can interfere with each other. I think that I will be more aware of this in my classroom.
5. I think that for the most part the author gives several examples of studies that have been done to show proof. As I was reading about the alignment heuristic, the book said that they asked students where Rome was in relation to Philadelphia. The study said that people are accustomed to thinking things are in a straight line but what if they asked people that really have no background in Geography. How would this studies results show this result?
6. This is important to understand how our mental images can differ from the actual image. I found it very interesting when the book described analog code and propositional code. I think that I agree with what Pylyshyn explained. I thought about a computers memory when I was reading the book. He said that yes we are able to see these mental images but he thinks that they are stored as language in our long term memory and then can be pulled out of long term and formed into an image. There would be a lot more room for info, as with a computer, if things are stored as text and then using the visuospatial sketchpad we can convert them to a mental image.
7. I use mental imagery as compared to the actual image as we are doing transformations of graphs in Calculus. I give the students a parent graph starting at the origin of a function such as a parabola. By manipulating the equation by +, -, etc. the parabola moves and chages shape. My students practice making a mental image of the new parabola and then we check our results using a graphing calculator.
8. My only question about the books examples of studies is that they don't go into detail with the number of participants and how many times the study was completed, etc. I am sure that the references go into more detail about it. Most of the time good researchers will say what their limitations are in a study because no study is perfect. I assume that the actual researcher has done this but we would have to look further into the references listed in the book.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Memory strategies/Metacognition Ch 6 and 13
1. Chapter 6 talks about the memory strategies that adults use such as the key word method, the method of loci, and mnemonic strategies such as chunking, hierarchy, first letter technique, and the narrative technique. It also talks about metacognition and metamemory which are your knowledge of you cognitive abilities and how you learn. Chapter 13 basically examines the differences in age groups and the memory strategies used in each of the groups. It also talks about metacognition from young children to older adults.
2. It fits in with what we have learned with working and long term memory because we are able to access what works for us individually in order to take the info from working into long term memory and then be able to retrieve the info when needed.
3. I though that it was very interesting to read about the research that was done on infants and young children. Would it help people to learn and retain more info in the future if we taught them memory strategies at 2 - 4 years old? Would this age of children be able to understand the memory strategies if we worked on it? Children are like sponges, I wonder if this would make a difference. The government has been putting a great deal of money towards preschool programs so I guess we will see the results down the road.
4. I don't believe that all of my high school students understand their study strategies. I think that they sometimes continue to do the same strategy without trying others. I think that this also depends on the level of motivation that the students have. I talk to students before their math tests about the way that they can study. For example, I tell them to practice the concepts that they are having trouble with. The book talks about this in chapter 13. I don't think that this age of students really understand their own cognitive abilities and strengths (Metacognition). I also talk to the students before taking state tests like the ACT. We talk about strategies to take multiple choice tests. In my last blog, I talked about offering a study skills class to students that are at-risk. We do not always have time to talk about study strategies with the other curriculum that we have to cover but it is something that would definitely benefit the students.
5. There are several studies that the author has done on college students. I think that it would have been interesting to study young adolescents also. Chapter 13 seems like it only studied infants, young children, children between 6-9, college students, and elderly people. They skipped the ages of 11-18 and adults between 25 and 65. It would be interesting to see this research also. I thought the reasearch with infants would have been more interesting if they looked at the difference between premature babies and babies that went full term.
6. It is important to learn the memory strategies that help us to individually learn. As teachers I think that we should put emphasis on this when we have extra classtime because it can make a positive impact on student achievement.
7. As I mentioned earlier, I think that a study skills class would benefit students for the future. I think that the freshman level in high school is a critical time because of the adjustment to high school. By understanding their metacognition skills and trying different memory strategies could benefit them for the rest of their high school years and would make them more successful in the future in any avenue that they decide to pursue.
8. It is interesting that the studies have not included high school students. I think that if we can educate teachers in middle school and high school to talk to their students about memory strategies and metacognition we would be more successful and maybe we would see huge improvements on assessments and the level that the students can recall concepts that they have learned.
2. It fits in with what we have learned with working and long term memory because we are able to access what works for us individually in order to take the info from working into long term memory and then be able to retrieve the info when needed.
3. I though that it was very interesting to read about the research that was done on infants and young children. Would it help people to learn and retain more info in the future if we taught them memory strategies at 2 - 4 years old? Would this age of children be able to understand the memory strategies if we worked on it? Children are like sponges, I wonder if this would make a difference. The government has been putting a great deal of money towards preschool programs so I guess we will see the results down the road.
4. I don't believe that all of my high school students understand their study strategies. I think that they sometimes continue to do the same strategy without trying others. I think that this also depends on the level of motivation that the students have. I talk to students before their math tests about the way that they can study. For example, I tell them to practice the concepts that they are having trouble with. The book talks about this in chapter 13. I don't think that this age of students really understand their own cognitive abilities and strengths (Metacognition). I also talk to the students before taking state tests like the ACT. We talk about strategies to take multiple choice tests. In my last blog, I talked about offering a study skills class to students that are at-risk. We do not always have time to talk about study strategies with the other curriculum that we have to cover but it is something that would definitely benefit the students.
5. There are several studies that the author has done on college students. I think that it would have been interesting to study young adolescents also. Chapter 13 seems like it only studied infants, young children, children between 6-9, college students, and elderly people. They skipped the ages of 11-18 and adults between 25 and 65. It would be interesting to see this research also. I thought the reasearch with infants would have been more interesting if they looked at the difference between premature babies and babies that went full term.
6. It is important to learn the memory strategies that help us to individually learn. As teachers I think that we should put emphasis on this when we have extra classtime because it can make a positive impact on student achievement.
7. As I mentioned earlier, I think that a study skills class would benefit students for the future. I think that the freshman level in high school is a critical time because of the adjustment to high school. By understanding their metacognition skills and trying different memory strategies could benefit them for the rest of their high school years and would make them more successful in the future in any avenue that they decide to pursue.
8. It is interesting that the studies have not included high school students. I think that if we can educate teachers in middle school and high school to talk to their students about memory strategies and metacognition we would be more successful and maybe we would see huge improvements on assessments and the level that the students can recall concepts that they have learned.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Chapter 5 Reflection
1. This chapter explains how our long term memory works. This chapter focuses on the episodic memory. The depth of processing is important in what is moved to our long term memory. The deeper that we are processing by relating what we have previously learned can help us remember the material in depth. It is easier to remember something if the context matches how we learned the info. We are also more able to remember something if our mood matches the mood when we learned something. The Pollyanna principle says that we remember positive memories more accurately than negative memories. The end of the chapter talks about expertise with memory, flashbulb memory, characteristics of amnesia patients, and memories of eyewitness testimonies.
2. How does it fit in with what we have previously learned? Last chapter we learned about working memory. Long term memory does work with working memory. This chapter shows how we use our long term memory skills to commit what is in working memory to long term memory. Knowing how our memory works can help us to develop our memory tasks to hold more information. It can also help teachers to understand how our students learn and process information.
3. This chapter mentions that we remember information more if we can relate it to our life and make it meaningful. My question is related to teaching. When I teach Algebra 2 to my regular and lower level juniors it is hard to make it meaningful to them. I try to make it exciting and we do have fun in class. I still find it hard to always make it a priority in their life.
4. I think understanding how the brain works helps us to become better teachers. It is important to make sure that the context of the assessment matches the context of the way the info was taught. I was thinking about how the book mentioned depressed people think. I know that my students are dealing with issues in the home and I can understand why Algebra 2 might not be the most important topic in their life. I would think that it would be difficult for students that are depressed to learn anything in depth because they are combated by continuous negative memories. I try to make class fun in order to help depress those thoughts for some kids.
5. The author has mentioned many studies that have been done over time to explain the theories. I could relate how I learn to the depth of processing approach and the self reference effect. When I am in a meeting I try to relate everything to something that I already know. If I did not do this, I don't think that I would take in as much info. I am not sure that my self reference effect was quite as advanced in grade school as it is now. I rarely ever daydream anymore when listening to speakers or when I am having a conversation with someone. This was not always the case in grade school.
6. Understanding long term memory is important because if we can understand how it works we can help people to enhance their skills for better performance in their place of work.
7. When would I actually use this – I think that I will talk about recall and recognition in the classroom. Recognition is identifying what concepts were taught earlier. Recall asks students to reproduce what they have previously learned. On assessments it is important to include both recall and recognition. If students are able to recall a concept, then they will understand the info in more depth than simply recognizing it. I use this method when I ask students to explain how to do a problem in words. If they can reproduce or recall the process in their own words they will have more success on mastering the topic.
8. I think that if we had more time at the high school, it would benefit students to talk about the brain's activities and how they can improve their memory strategies to improve success. We are thinking about implementing a study skills class where some of this info could be used to help students.
2. How does it fit in with what we have previously learned? Last chapter we learned about working memory. Long term memory does work with working memory. This chapter shows how we use our long term memory skills to commit what is in working memory to long term memory. Knowing how our memory works can help us to develop our memory tasks to hold more information. It can also help teachers to understand how our students learn and process information.
3. This chapter mentions that we remember information more if we can relate it to our life and make it meaningful. My question is related to teaching. When I teach Algebra 2 to my regular and lower level juniors it is hard to make it meaningful to them. I try to make it exciting and we do have fun in class. I still find it hard to always make it a priority in their life.
4. I think understanding how the brain works helps us to become better teachers. It is important to make sure that the context of the assessment matches the context of the way the info was taught. I was thinking about how the book mentioned depressed people think. I know that my students are dealing with issues in the home and I can understand why Algebra 2 might not be the most important topic in their life. I would think that it would be difficult for students that are depressed to learn anything in depth because they are combated by continuous negative memories. I try to make class fun in order to help depress those thoughts for some kids.
5. The author has mentioned many studies that have been done over time to explain the theories. I could relate how I learn to the depth of processing approach and the self reference effect. When I am in a meeting I try to relate everything to something that I already know. If I did not do this, I don't think that I would take in as much info. I am not sure that my self reference effect was quite as advanced in grade school as it is now. I rarely ever daydream anymore when listening to speakers or when I am having a conversation with someone. This was not always the case in grade school.
6. Understanding long term memory is important because if we can understand how it works we can help people to enhance their skills for better performance in their place of work.
7. When would I actually use this – I think that I will talk about recall and recognition in the classroom. Recognition is identifying what concepts were taught earlier. Recall asks students to reproduce what they have previously learned. On assessments it is important to include both recall and recognition. If students are able to recall a concept, then they will understand the info in more depth than simply recognizing it. I use this method when I ask students to explain how to do a problem in words. If they can reproduce or recall the process in their own words they will have more success on mastering the topic.
8. I think that if we had more time at the high school, it would benefit students to talk about the brain's activities and how they can improve their memory strategies to improve success. We are thinking about implementing a study skills class where some of this info could be used to help students.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Chapter 4 Reflection
1) Chapter begins by explaining some of the previous research done on working memory. The magic number 7 +-2 was found by Miller about a century ago. Then it talks about the regency effect and the serial position model by Brown Peterson and Peterson. Atkinson and Shiffrin's model says that unless new info is repeated we will lose the info in about 30 seconds. People use rehearsal to improve memory. Schweickert/Boruff talks about pronunciation time where we can remember short syllable words with more accuracy. The term proactive interference shows that people have trouble learning new material because previously learned material interferes with the new material. A newer working memory approach was researched by Baddeley and Hitch. This says that the working memory has several parts working together. These parts are the phonological loop which stores sound for a limited amount of time, the visuospatial sketchpad which contains the visual and spatial components, the central executive that is the manager which I was most interested in, and the most recent episodic buffer which acts as a store house for info from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and the long term memory.
2) This fits into what we have previously learned in respect to attention. For example, the central executive can use selective attention to ignore certain information and to focus on something else. In opposition to the text I think that the central executive can complete more than one task at a time because of its job description. This may cause a decrease in accuracy if it has to divide the attention between tasks.
3) I think that I am clear on everything so far. I do have to continue reviewing the previous chapters in order to apply it and also to shift the info from working to long term memory as described in the rehearsal model of Atkinson/Shiffrin.
4) I can apply this to my own teaching as I understand how the brain takes in new info it will help me to better understand what my students are experiencing in class. I also did more research on the central executive and found that the central executive is damaged in Ahlzeimer's patients. They have trouble focussing on tasks and getting the job completed. I wondered if this would be similar to the brain deficiencies of my ADD and ADHD students since this is a similar problem of theirs. The link on this info is http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0010945208702077 .
5) I was intereested in the proof of the central executive. I did not agree with the text about the central executive not completing more than 1 task simultaneously. I used this as my question as a leader this week. I did more research and Smith and Jonides 1999 lists tasks of the central executive. Most were similar to the text but they also mentioned that it can switch swiftly between tasks so maybe this is why it seems that it can do more than one thing at a time. Maybe in reality it is not but instead switching quickly between tasks which makes it seem that it is completing them simultaneously.
6) It is important to understand how the working memory works so that we can improve our memory strategies, develop research on common diseases such as Ahlzeimer's, and as a teacher it can help us to understand how students learn to better meet their needs.
7) I had mentioned how I could use this in the classroom in #4 above also. I also think that it is important to understand how working memory comunicates with long term memory as new info comes in. I believe info must be passed back and forth between the two. We will learn more about this in the next chapter.
8) I think that it was useful to google the central executive when I wasn't sure if I agreed with the book. I think that it is important to look at what other researchers have said about the theories as well. I tell my Calculus students to question things that I say if it doesn't fit in with what they believe. I think that this type of continuous questioning helps to keep the info interesting to bring more into long term memory.
2) This fits into what we have previously learned in respect to attention. For example, the central executive can use selective attention to ignore certain information and to focus on something else. In opposition to the text I think that the central executive can complete more than one task at a time because of its job description. This may cause a decrease in accuracy if it has to divide the attention between tasks.
3) I think that I am clear on everything so far. I do have to continue reviewing the previous chapters in order to apply it and also to shift the info from working to long term memory as described in the rehearsal model of Atkinson/Shiffrin.
4) I can apply this to my own teaching as I understand how the brain takes in new info it will help me to better understand what my students are experiencing in class. I also did more research on the central executive and found that the central executive is damaged in Ahlzeimer's patients. They have trouble focussing on tasks and getting the job completed. I wondered if this would be similar to the brain deficiencies of my ADD and ADHD students since this is a similar problem of theirs. The link on this info is http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0010945208702077 .
5) I was intereested in the proof of the central executive. I did not agree with the text about the central executive not completing more than 1 task simultaneously. I used this as my question as a leader this week. I did more research and Smith and Jonides 1999 lists tasks of the central executive. Most were similar to the text but they also mentioned that it can switch swiftly between tasks so maybe this is why it seems that it can do more than one thing at a time. Maybe in reality it is not but instead switching quickly between tasks which makes it seem that it is completing them simultaneously.
6) It is important to understand how the working memory works so that we can improve our memory strategies, develop research on common diseases such as Ahlzeimer's, and as a teacher it can help us to understand how students learn to better meet their needs.
7) I had mentioned how I could use this in the classroom in #4 above also. I also think that it is important to understand how working memory comunicates with long term memory as new info comes in. I believe info must be passed back and forth between the two. We will learn more about this in the next chapter.
8) I think that it was useful to google the central executive when I wasn't sure if I agreed with the book. I think that it is important to look at what other researchers have said about the theories as well. I tell my Calculus students to question things that I say if it doesn't fit in with what they believe. I think that this type of continuous questioning helps to keep the info interesting to bring more into long term memory.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Chapter 3 Reflection
1.Chapter 3 focusses on attention and consciousness. Attention is divided into divided attention, selective attention(Dichotic listening, and Stroop effect), and Saccadic eye movements. There has been a big focus lately on research about consciousness.
2.This information fits in with previous chapters for example, change blindness and inattentional blindness were explained in chapter 2 and linked to selective attention in the 3rd chapter.
3.I think that I am clear on everything so far.
4-8. I though that the saccadic eye movements was interesting. I was thinking about my special ed students in my lower level class. When we do math word problems they seem to be discouraged at first. This theory explains that it takes much longer for a low level reader to read the problem as shown in the diagram in the book. This theory related to theme 1 in the book has helped me to understand some of the difficulties that my students bring to algebra class.
Divided attention was another topic in this chapter. The book mentions that when you are having to pay attention to two or more concepts we will miss some of the information more often than focusing on 1 concept. As I teach a new topic in Algebra I think that it helps my lower level class if I type out the notes for them. That way the students do not have to be distracted by writing the problem and can focus more attention on the explanation of the problem. I am also able to see their faces to determine whether they are "getting it".
2.This information fits in with previous chapters for example, change blindness and inattentional blindness were explained in chapter 2 and linked to selective attention in the 3rd chapter.
3.I think that I am clear on everything so far.
4-8. I though that the saccadic eye movements was interesting. I was thinking about my special ed students in my lower level class. When we do math word problems they seem to be discouraged at first. This theory explains that it takes much longer for a low level reader to read the problem as shown in the diagram in the book. This theory related to theme 1 in the book has helped me to understand some of the difficulties that my students bring to algebra class.
Divided attention was another topic in this chapter. The book mentions that when you are having to pay attention to two or more concepts we will miss some of the information more often than focusing on 1 concept. As I teach a new topic in Algebra I think that it helps my lower level class if I type out the notes for them. That way the students do not have to be distracted by writing the problem and can focus more attention on the explanation of the problem. I am also able to see their faces to determine whether they are "getting it".
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Chapter 2 Reflection
1. Chapter 2 focused on visual, face, and auditory perception. The chapter discussed the differences between top-down processing and bottom-up processing.
2. Chapter 2 is related to what we learned in Chapter 1 but it has gone into more depth about the perception processes that were briefly described in Chapter 1.
3. The only thing that I am not clear on is the large amount of theories and terms in the chapter. It is hard to keep track of all of the theories. I think that it helps to apply it to my own teaching.
4 and 7. Apply to my own teaching? In the visual perception I was interested in the change blindness. I have my students in Algebra look at problems that are incorrect after they have learned a concept to see what errors the student has made. I choose mistakes in problems that are commonly made by students. This helps the students to read the steps of each problem and it is sometimes hard for them to find the mistakes because they are very minor. I think that this would be an example of change blindness as described in the book. After doing this activity, I think my students understand the steps of the problems more in-depth and avoid making some of the same mistakes.
5 and 6. The book gives several examples of the theories and terms which gives proof to these theories. For example, in change blindness the book gave the example where the stranger changed. There is also 2 pictures in the book to show that it is sometimes hard to see the difference unless you are extremely observant. I think that people are not always this observant because there is usually several things going on at the same time that people have to distribute their attention between.
8. Faster ways to achieve this? As for my correction activity it only takes about 15 - 20 minutes of class time for students to locate the mistakes and explain the mathematical problem. I think that this is more beneficial than just telling the students where common mistakes are made.
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