Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Ch6: Constructivist Theory

Pg. 250 Verbalization  and Achievement
I was happy to learn that this is used often as a strategy to improve student learning. The last chapter left me wondering if there was something wrong with me since I tend to do this personally, but now I realize that I'm just helping myself understand whatever it is that I'm doing or working on, in essence I'm improving my own learning : ) . Now, I wonder if someone taught this to me and it stuck with me or if it's something that I just started doing on my own.

Pg. 256 TARGET
I found this very interesting. I like it. I did some of these things when I taught, but I don't think I incorporated everything in one single unit/lesson.

4 comments:

  1. Nila, I completely agree with you on the verbalization and achievement; I find myself constantly talking myself through the procedure of projects I am working on. I have even been known to congratulate myself out loud when I achieve something. You pose an interesting question; Where did we pick this up from? I wonder if I witnessed my parents performing this very behavior somewhere in my childhood, or Did one of my teachers along the way, teach this method to me?

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  2. I think when we learn as infants and children thinking aloud or saying what we are thinking is a way of demonstrating our knowledge or of opening ourselves to practice and to get it right. We are at the stage where we need to sound out words, expressed ideas and begin forming sentences. When parents correct their children and practice with them this is where I believe they begin to conform to the model of their family and friends. I found this topic to be very interesting as I still do this often to collect my thoughts and stay organized and focused. There are times that I also read aloud as it helps me understand and pick up the material faster.

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  3. I think self-verbalization is something that we observe at a very young age and we mimic. We watched the adults around us learn by “talking to themselves” and we copied this behavior. As we go older and attended school teachers used this form of learning with us and we incorporated into real-life situations. Now that we are adults we apply these same learning techniques in work and everyday applications. Then we start the cycle all over again with the children who look up to us. I guess they are right; everything I ever needed to learn I learned in Kindergarten.

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  4. I hope that you had picked that up by someone modeling it for you. Either way it is a great strategy to have picked up. In your classroom, it is a good way to show your students how to work problems out. Students will mimic your behavior, and thus learning a valuable skill.

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