Module 4

MODULE 4

CONCEPT 1: Principles of Learning Strategies

Summary:

            In chapter 9, one of the first subjects that Woolfolk emphasized was that of Learning Strategies. These types of strategies are focused on helping students “learn how to learn.” (344) Woolfolk tells us that developing good learning strategies is essential to the best learning. A challenge for teachers is working to develop strategies that they can use to teach their students good learning strategies. When considering how to instruct students in these strategies, Woolfolk shares some principles that have been attributed to good learning strategies. (345) The first principle focused on the fact that students need to be exposed to many different strategies, both general strategies and subject-specific strategies. The second stated that students need to be taught “when, where and why” to use the many strategies. The third focused on the necessity of growing a will in the students to utilize these strategies effectively. The fourth focused on the importance of students having the mindset that they CAN learn new strategies and apply them well. The final principle focused on the fact that students need background knowledge and techniques in the subject they are studying to be able to understand how these strategies apply. These principles are important to remember both when forming strategies and employing them in the classroom.

Reflection:

            Looking at the evidence and the principles that Woolfolk shares with us, I am struck by how applicable they are to how learning is done. When I consider my own learning, I can see the importance of many of these principles and how much they have given me both in learning techniques and the knowledge I have gained through it. Now that I have begun to look at these subjects through the lens of a future teacher, I also see these principles’ purpose and potential for helping my students learn well. Since these principles have assisted me in my learning and the fact that they are so highly regarded, it can be projected that they will also be important for my students to grasp. Not only that, but these principles should also help me as a teacher be able to design strategies and ways to teach strategies to my students.

            One principle that stood out to me was the second one. It seems so obvious that students need to not only be taught the “how” of a learning strategy, but also the “when, where and why” of that strategy. However, as Woolfolk shares, teachers often neglect to instruct on these details and tend to only teach the technique and not when to apply it. Knowing when to use a strategy is just as important as knowing the strategy, so I need to be sure that I do not also neglect this piece of the puzzle. A second principle that stood out to me was the third one, the principle that focused on the will of the student to use the strategy. This is a difficult principle to instill because it relies heavily on the student’s end of the relationship, which is something that we cannot control. However, as teachers we need to think of ways that we can engage this deeper will of our students to help inspire the effort and performance they have the potential to do. One way that I can think of to help this is making the strategies applicable to regular life too. If a student sees something that can work in many different ways for them, they are more likely to use that thing. If a strategy is useful for not only the classroom, but life outside of school as well, students will be more apt to use that strategy due to its application for a broader scope of life.

CONCEPT 2: Critical Thinking and Argumentation

Summary:

            When one considers learning, critical thinking is not often seen as a necessity in the classroom, but rather more important for innovators or people in the workplace. However, learning in the classroom also needs to employ and encourage critical thinking. Woolfolk defines critical thinking as “an effortful and deliberate cognitive process that entails reflection on and evaluation of available evidence.” (364) Seeing the fact that “effortful” and “deliberate” are present in this definition, one can conclude that critical thinking is something that can be worked at and developed with the appropriate focus and care. Another important piece to have in a classroom along with critical thinking is argumentation. Argumentation focuses on the ability of students being able to discuss and debate thoughts and opinions in a way that allows them to defend their beliefs and respectfully relate them to others’ beliefs. This can also be used in classroom learning, with argumentation becoming a way for students to learn different ways of thinking of things.

Reflection:

            When I found this in the textbook, I was very pleased and excited. Critical thinking and argumentation are skills that are essential to my life and one that I actually enjoy developing. However, when I was growing up these skills seemed to be restricted to an outside of school realm. I tended to learn more critical thinking skills outside of school in extracurricular activities or sports than anywhere in school. That was the case up until my junior year of high school when my teacher for “Doctrine and Ethics” worked critical thinking, reflections, and argumentation into the daily schedule of the class. Not only did this class become more applicable due to the skills we developed, but it also became more enjoyable too.

            I believe fully that a classroom that focuses on the skills of argumentation and critical thinking can be a classroom that best engages students. My reasoning for that begins with the fact that in these two skills students are actively and personally engaging with the material. Students need to understand the material more deeply to be able to think critically around it. Secondly, these skills make students actively and personally engage with each other. I believe that at the root of every career, every hobby, every day there is an underlying need and requirement for people to interact with each other through argumentation and a need for people to think critically about situations. If students learn how to harness these skills in the classroom, it will assist them greatly outside of it as well. Given the essential nature of these skills for daily life, what is stopping us from having classrooms that also integrate these interpersonal skills too?

CONCEPT 3: Cooperative Learning Groups

Summary:

            Near the end of chapter 10, Woolfolk gives us a great tool of facilitating learning and group interaction among students: cooperative learning groups. These groups are intended to teach students to learn more fully and to learn together, a skill that is essential to classroom learning. (403) A cooperative learning group assigns different roles to students to give them a different focus within the material and group. For example, some roles could include a recorder, a gate keeper, and a reflector. (403) A recorder’s job would be to write down the group’s ideas, thoughts, answers, or any other things that might be useful or necessary for the group to recognize or remember. (403) A gate keeper’s job could be to make sure that the group is not controlled by only one voice. (403) They could work to manage voices and attitudes in the group, keeping certain students from bossing others around or making sure that they do not progress ahead without the rest of the group. A reflector’s job would be to observe and keep track of what sort of progress that the group has been gaining throughout the work time. (403) This may not only help the group stay on task, but it can also help them make sure they attain their goals for the class period. Finally, another useful piece of a cooperative learning group is that is can rotate the roles for students and even interchange different group roles. This allows for students to take on different roles within a group setting and to grow a new skill in doing so.

Reflection:

            Cooperative learning groups are a subject that I find very important for classrooms. Growing up, these types of groups began in reading groups in elementary school, where my teachers would break us into new groups each time and directed us on our roles. They applied the role-rotation method that Woolfolk discussed in chapter 10, which I found to be useful for getting every student in my class involved both in areas where they excelled and areas where they needed growth. When I look back on those experiences, I think that those types of groups helped stimulate a great deal of growth, both in academics and in interpersonal skills, for my classmates and I. These groups helped us interact with material while also learning how to manage our roles, work within a group, and to interact with material from different angles.

            When I consider these types of groups for my future high school classroom, I have to work to adapt my elementary and middle school experiences into a high school setting. I think that these types of groups can still be effective, but it will take more detailed design and a deeper level of content interaction. These groups can still be effective in helping students interact together, but they also need to have an added depth to their questions and prompts so that the students will still receive stimulation and growth from it. I think that the role definitions may also need to be advanced to allow for students to stretch themselves and be forced to try new techniques or viewpoints. Another skill that I think would go well with these groups for high school is argumentation, where students could bring what they discussed together and present it or debate it either within their groups or between the class’ groups.