Cooperative Learning and the Social Learning Theory

I do not think there is a more controversial topic with parents, students and teachers than group work. I have had parents and students absolutely despise me because I assign group work. Some teachers will not even assign it because it is so controversial. Personally when I was a student I hated group work or any time I had to work with others. It often was difficult to find time to meet outside of class and everyone had the same grade but not everyone put in the same amount of work. However in the educational world we find lots of research, theory (social learning theory) and requests from businesses that support teaching our students how to learn and work together. As I grew in my teaching I too realized that group work is needed. I always try to think of what my students need in life when they turn 18 and without a doubt they need to learn how to work with a group. If you go into any business or organization you will find people working together on projects, boards, co-ops, councils, committees, and so on. Therefore if I am going to prepare my students for life I need to prepare them to work in groups.
Students also can learn from each other. The social learning theory tells use that students learn from each other. While I think there are many ways to learn I do believe many students can learn by working together because others can provide a different perspective or set of knowledge.
Now that you know why I think group work is important I also have to say it is often times flawed. To limit or prevent these flaws groups need to be well regulated by the teacher, everyone needs to be accountable for their contributions and communication needs to be easy and appropriate. In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski, 2007) you can find many mediums for communication and cooperation. However these need to be monitored so students do not abuse them by sending inappropriate material or messages to each other.

Constructivism in the Classroom

This week's theory of study is constructionism aka constructivism. The theory is very big on the students finding out the information for themselves through experimentation, creating strategies and hypotheses and so on. The theory can do great things for students in their creativity and enthusiasm for school but it can be time consuming so it is not practical for every day classroom use in my mind.
Two strategies that were introduced by Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski (2007) are using Excel to make data sheets and playing games that require strategy and critical thinking. I really like both of these strategies because I can use both in my class. For my Business class my students have to make personal budgets for each stage of life so Excel is critical in planning out a budget and calculating needs. For some of my other classes the games can be really fun and educational. My favorite of the example games was the WWII strategy game that is online. The kids have to come up with a strategy and then test it in the game. The teacher who originally designed the game tested the effects of the game on his classes. The test scores and enthusiasm in the class with the game were overwhelming. Both of these strategies work well with constructionism and will be used in my classes.

Cognitivism in Practice

This week in my masters' class I am learning about cognitivism and how to use cognitivism theories in the classroom. The readings for this week were really interesting but the best part was the practical ideas for lessons in the classroom. From Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski (2007) I really learned how improtant concept mapping is. Concept mapping is plotting ideas on an area but in a non-linear way. Therefore you can have multiple paths or strands to follow. This is much more like how people think rather than linearly like in writing.
I will use concept maps more in class after reading this text because I do a lot of writting activities which are not reaching all of the learning styles in my class. If I add in some concept maps for both assignments and notes it should help my students. The reason I think this will work is because the cognitivism theory says that we need to do more work with how the brain works and learns rather than the ways we have always done. So my hope is cognitivism will work in my classroom by doing helping my students learn better with concept mapping.

Behaviorist Learning Theory and Instructional Strategies

This week I have been learning a lot about the behaviorist learning theory and how it works in the classroom. This week I also learned about two different instructional strategies that fit under the ideas of behaviorist theory (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).
The first instructional strategy is reinforcing effort (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). In this strategy the teacher makes sure that the student is putting forth their best effort. As a middle school teacher I can say this is the biggest challenge I face. My colleagues and I have often said in middle school students are not graded on how smart they are but if they do their work. Those students who work the hardest are guaranteed at least a B while other really bright students get F's because they don't try at all. The main tool used in this strategy is getting the students to realize how much effort matters in their success and how much effort they are putting in. From a technology stand point the best way I saw to do this was to track grades and a self-survey of effort through excel. The students can then make a graph that represents their grade and their effort and see how they are related. From a behaviorist stand point this is great because the students get to see how their behavior is effecting their learning and hopefully changed their behavior.
The second strategy is homework and practice (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Every teacher knows that we can not teach everything in the class. Therefore we assign extra practice outside of school we call homework. This home is great because it gets students to reinforce what they are learning in class. Again from a technology point of view practice is essential. Almost no one can do something on a computer once and be able to do that again and again forever. We all need to practice skills before we can master them. The part of this strategy that stands out to me as being behaviorist is the fact that students always need feedback on their practice. Then they can change or continue what they are doing so they can be more successful students.
Both of these strategies are useful for the classroom and both work well with technology. One can also categorize these strategies as behaviorist because they show students what is good and bad and allows them to change their behavior based on that analysis.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.