Classroom Observation Analysis Paper

The observation was in Mrs. Ayo a second grade teacher, in addition to Mr. Wray’s 5th grade classroom. Both classes are giving at Kinser elementary School , Both classroom actually work together in a group Reading Buddies. Which educational theories were employed? The educational theories that were being employed in her classroom are the Social Learning Theory by Bandura and Behaviorism Theory by Watson. Behaviorism is â€Å"the beliefs that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed (Educational Theories, March 19, 2012).† The Social Learning Theory is â€Å"when an observer’s behavior changes after viewing a behavioral model (Educational Theories, March 19, 2012). † The teacher used Modeling with her Reading Mastery curriculum. The students were required to be paying attention before the lesson started. The teacher cued the students to find the title in the story and read the title together. One student did not read the title correctly, so the teach er said â€Å"my turn† and read the title correctly and then she said â€Å"your turn† and the students read the title again. Throughout the lesson, the teacher would praise students at different times.The assessments for the teacher with the lesson were questions asked to the student in the lesson, also the independent sections on the student worksheets. What educational theories could have been used to better enhance the instruction and learning? An educational theory that could have been used is Constructivism. Constructivism is â€Å"that learning is meaning, it is reflecting on experiences (Educational Theories, March 19, 2012). † Mrs. Mullins could have enhanced lesson to incorporate real life connections to the students to make it meaningful for them. She could have had students predict what was going to happen next in the story.How practical is the application of education theories in the classroom? It is very practical to apply educational theories in t he classroom like Constructivism, Behaviorism, and the Social Learning Theory. A teacher can use a combination of educational theories in a classroom. The teacher can build upon the students’ knowledge and emphasize problem solving and the teacher can also use the Social Learning theory with Modeling. The teacher can model the behavior to the student and use positive and negative reinforcements with Behaviorism. One can also use Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence in the classroom too.Gardner’s theory â€Å"has eight domains of intelligence (Linguistic, Logical, Spatial, Bodily Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic) according to Bee and Boyd, 2010. The different types of intelligence can be used in daily lessons throughout the day. How does the theory of information processing apply to student learning? Information processing has two areas: innate ability and acquired knowledge (Bee & Boyd, 2010). A lower IQ can compensate for acquire d knowledge. People with higher IQ’s will perform better than a person with a lower IQ.This also applies to student learning. Children with a lower IQ need effective strategies for processing information. These students have to acquire a vast amount of information on any subject before they can perform as well as their peers with higher IQs. How does the classroom environment affect information processing and learning for adolescents? Information processing theory explains that, â€Å"children are born with some basic, inborn cognitive strategies that will change from earlier years of life to more complex ones and the old ones being used with more flexibility (Bee & Boyd, 2010, p. 197).†As the information processing theory is explained in the text as an adolescent plays chess, the better they will become as seeing and remembering the relationships among the pieces on the board. In the classroom, it should foster an environment that allows the development of the complex cognitive strategies. There needs to be repetitive tasks that are geared towards building cognitive strategies, such as sight words. It can be studied by writing it, reading it, putting the word into a sentence, drawing a picture of it, and defining it. The repetitiveness of the activities can develop cognitive development.Compare adolescent student learning in a social environment and an educational environment. Which is more conducive to attention and memory? In a social situation there are usually more than one stimuli competing for the attention of the individual; whereas in a classroom attention is more directed to one stimulus (the teacher). This would seem to dictate that educational environments are more conducive to attention than social situations. Memory refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain, and later retrieve information. The three major processes involved in memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval.This does pertain to adolescent learning, it is important for new information to be connected to existing information. It is noted that rote memorization is not as effective as learning information through sayings or through stories. Learning through sayings and stories involve connecting the new information to existing information. Social situations would seem to have an upper hand, since social environments provides a context for learning that builds upon the pre-existing peer relationships and experiences. Some of these are present in the classroom, with the teacher and student, but it is not as great as the social environment.What teacher behaviors did you observe that facilitated student comprehension and reasoning? An activity that I believe facilitated student reasoning was when Mrs. Mullins would ask the students scripted questions from the curriculum program. This allows the teacher to know if the student understands the material that was just read. Also the student had to answer questions from their textbook and an independent worksheet to reinforce the comprehension. The students were required to answer the questions in complete sentences and circle the correct multiple choice answer.Why did the teacher behaviors positively affect student’s thinking and abilities? Both the activities required the students to think. The students are required to use different strategies to get their answers for the questions. I observed multiple strategies from the students. In this class, students were asked questions and sometimes the teacher would ask another question after the other question. Which teachers’ behaviors impeded student comprehension and reasoning? The teacher also gave a Spelling test at the beginning of the Reading lesson. The test may be the least productive activity of the lesson.The test was based on rote memorization of learning the word. The student was required to hear the word, then in a sentence, and then they were required to write the word on a piece of paper. Some children do not learn this way. Students all learn differently; some learn auditory, other learn visually, and lastly kinetically. There were a few students having difficultly writing down the spelling word because they could not remember the audible letters to match it to the written word. Why did the teachers’ behaviors negatively affect students’ thinking abilities?The students wanted to get a 100% on their spelling test to be able to get a prize out of the prize box. This auditory/visual deficiency also speaks to the inverted-U relationship between stimulation and performance. As stimulation increases (social pressure, teacher pressure, and peer pressure to make a good grade on the test), so performance on the test increases; however, there is a cutoff beyond which simulation begins to effect performance negatively. The students were motivated to get a 100% on their spelling test, because their teacher added increase pressure by adding a reward to the performance on the test.This affected the grades on their spelling test making the students to perform negatively, since the stimulation was too much for these students. How does delayed language development affect teaching? Delayed language development seems to be the result of a defect in the fast mapping processes and poor receptive language (Bee & Boyd, 2010). † Fast mapping refers to â€Å"the ability to categorically link new words to real world references (Bee & Boyd, 2010, p. 209). † In cognitive development, there are biological and environmental factors to language assimilation, acquisition, and recitation.The average vocabulary of a 2 year old is about 600 words, but it can be adequately be determined by the IQ scores of the parents; however, the language acquisition can increase if the child is read to by their parents daily. This means reading will compensate for any biologically or environmentally caused deficits in the language development. These deficits in the lang uage development can be through the use of a phonic approach that will translate to a specific letters into sounds and vice versa. Children who are poor language learners will have a problem with letter-sound recognition and combinations.This approach will overcome the obstacle. Lastly, the reading program is important; it should be flexible and responsive to student’s language needs. If the phonic approach is not working, then a reading comprehension approach should be tried. Being able to learn the words as a part of a sentence approach would be better. How does language development affect learning in children and adolescents? A systematic and explicit phonics approach to a language arts program states that lessons should move from simple words to complex words in an explicit manner that emphasizes the letter sound correspondence (Bee & Boyd, 2010).†The whole language approach seeks to teach language through meaning and context of the word rather than the actual struc ture of the word. This approach doesn’t explicitly teach letter sound correspondence unless the student has question about how the sound of the letter makes. The last approach is a balanced approach that is a systematic and explicit phonic and whole language approach. Language development can have a large impact on reading comprehension. Reading comprehension helps with the writing abilities of the student.