Session 5, Presentations.

Paulo Freire: What I liked the most about this character was that he said that if we want reinvention, education is essential to achieve it. I totally agree with him, because education is the base for everything we want to change.

Pestalozzi: This character was really interesting for me, because for him, pedagogy was an art: "Education means a natural, progressive, and systematic development of all 
the powers". And also he created an open and popular education for everybody.

Rosseau: What called my attention about this character was that he considered education as a nature. I liked that his ideas were based on the goal to move societies back into the idealized natural state.

Innovate Teachers

-Melissa Gallardo

-Melissa León

-Karla Pineda

-Nicol Tapia

-Monserrat Yañez

Why teachers must know about their students?

   Nowadays, teachers are one of the principal agents in the Learning Process. They must be updated and have a wide knowledge about learning theories, methodologies and student’s learning styles. To achieve all these abilities it is important that the teacher gets to know the student in a wider and deeper level. In order to reach this knowledge, the teacher must understand the different learning styles. In that way, he or she will be much more prepared to develop appropriate lessons to guide his or her students.

     We can appreciate three different learning styles that can be very useful to the teacher as a pattern to follow. The first one states that some students learn easily by seeing graphics and reading displays to acknowledge some type of wisdom and experience. Then, the second style says that learners get the knowledge by hearing the subject matter described. Last but not least, we can find the kinesthetic style where students acquire learning by feeling through hands-on activities.

     Even when the teacher must be aware of these learning styles, he or she also must know that there are some elements or factors that can affect the way that students learn. We can find three major points. One of them is motivation that is defined as the principal key of progress and ability to learn. So, if a student presents lack of motivation the learning process is not going to be successful. Another factor is the student’s experiences that will determine the way students are going to behave and interpret what is going to be taught. Finally, we can find the previous training which models and disposes the student in front of the knowledge.

     As we said at the beginning, it is important for each teacher to get the right knowledge about different learning styles, factors that can affect the learning process, but most important they have to know how to apply them according to the student’s realities. All of these points are stated, because each student is different from each other, presenting their own rhythm, style and methods to process the information acquired.

-Melissa León

-Karla Pineda

-Nicole Tapia

-Monserrat Yañez

Reflection about Workshop 8

I think the activity was really helpful for us because the video explained in a simple way how Cognitivism, Behaviorism and Constructivism worked, their definitions, their intructions and how the mind is considered in each one. In my case, I usually got confused with these theories, but the video was pretty clear and easy to understand.

Workshop 8

Summary

We can define theories as windows, because they give us different perspectives and points of view.

There are three types of perspectives:

1.- Behaviorism:  - Considers the mind as a black box.

                           - Regular responses.

                           - Its instruction is according to repetition and reinforcement (practice).

2.- Cognitivism:   - Considers the mind as a computer.

                           - Defines learning as a recall of store information (Storage: long-term memory).

                           - Its instruction is according to grabbing attention and helping storage.

3.- Constructivism:  -  Considers the mind as a rhizome.

                               - Define learning as a building of knowledge by doing.

                               - Its instruction is guiding solving problems.

Then we have two types of theory:

*Descriptive: Is the learning theory and describes "what learning is?".

*Prescriptive: Is an instructional theory that gives us methods to foster learning and "how do we help people learn?".

Group:

- Melissa Gallardo P.

-Melissa León V.

- Nicole Tapia B.

- Karla Pineda B.

- Monserrat Yañez S.

Task 2 - Session 7

Personally, what model do you prefer?

I personally prefer the constructivism, because the student will have a better understanding of the information that the teacher is giving him, because the teacher is giving the student just the tools to help him to solve a problem or situation. This kind of education is guided to the action. This way, the knowledge will be more understanded, because the student by himself will find the answer.

Task Session 7

1) Define the three models in your own words.

-Traditional education is to transmit to a next generation those skills, facts, and standards of moral and social conduct that adults deem to be necessary for the next generation's material and social success.

-Educators began to rely heavily on teaching by specific behavior objectives and on using standardized methods of instruction

Skinner saw behaviorism extending into politics, economics, and other social organizations He strongly championed it as an educational method that is more practical and produces greater results than any other

-Constructivism is a theory of learning based on the idea that knowledge is constructed by the knower based on mental activity. Learners are considered to be active organisms seeking meaning. Constructions of meaning may initially bear little relationship to reality (as in the naive theories of children), but will become increasing more complex, differentiated and realistic as time goes on.

2) Mention three precursors for each model

-Traditional education: Sócrates, Comenius , Herbat

-Behaviorism: John B. Watson, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Burrhus Frederic Skinner

-Constructivism: Vygotsky , Piaget , Gaston Bachelard.

3) What do they have in common?

-The three precursors have in common the theory of education and how to apply these techniques.

4) What are the main differences among them?

-That each of the precursors has a different ideas or ways to apply and to measure the techniques or theories.

Integrants:

-Norman Vergara

-Noelia Smith

-María José Berndt

-Monserrat Yañez