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

Presentations

Character 1: St. Augustine

What called my attention from this character was his theory of the question-answer teaching philosophy. 

Character 2: John Dewey

Dewey propones something so simple but so necessary, that the students should relate all the information that they have been taught to experiences to have a better understanding.

Character 3: (I can't remember this character's name)

What was interesting about this character was that he related his believes in religios to the classes, for example, he related Jesus and his disciples to the teacher and his students.

Co-evaluations

I think co-evaluations are good for us and for the people that are presenting. This help us to start to learn how to evaluate and to be subjective, and the presenters to improve all their fails or weakness.

Reflection about Workshop 3

This workshop was really interesting. We have the possibility to analize the theory of Comenius, which is really common, but we didn't realize it. I think the theory should be aplied in every school, every country, so the children could be more prepared to face the superior courses.

John Amos Comenius

1. What is the historical context of this character?  A: He was born during the 16th century in the southern of Moravia, Europe during the reign of King Charles One.

2. Describe the character. Mention the main aspects of his life. A: He studied in the University of Heidelberg. In course of his study he became acquainted with the educational reforms of Ratichius. He was a teacher, educator and also a writer.

3. What does this character propound in education? A:  According to Comenius, since man is a part of nature he should obey its general laws, and all educational methods should conform to nature. While asserting that upbringing must be in conformity with nature, he also believed that education must rest on a study of the laws of man’s spiritual life and the coordination of all pedagogical influences with it.

4. What is the role of the teacher in his model? A:  According to Comenius, the teacher must be skilled in the art of instruction and enjoy his work. He must stimulate independent thought in his pupils and train them to become active persons concerned with the general welfare. Comenius contended that it was necessary to develop from childhood such positive moral qualities as justice, moderation, and courage, by which he particularly meant persistent endeavor. He ascribed an important role in moral upbringing to the example of adults and to the systematic training of children in useful activity and in the observance of rules of conduct.

5. What is the role of the student in his model? A: The role of the student is just to collaborate with his/her teacher and participate in all the tasks, workshops, etc. Maybe debate with his/her partners. And the most important thing, to be receptive.

6. Give an example of his model in a specific situation A: Comenius proponed that education should begin from the childhood, as soon as possible. So, a good example would be a workshop for kindergarten children in which the aim is to teach them the colors (their mother tongue is Spanish) . They can’t read or write, so it must be didactic, adapt to their possibilities and needs. So maybe a good idea would be to show them different objects with a variety of colors and make them recognize the colors in Spanish and teach the by repeating the names in English. After that make them search by themselves objects and say the colors.

Identifying the Fields of Study in Didactics

Definition of Didactics:

Many authors have different definitions of didactics. For example for Claparède is “teaching’s methodology”, for Mattos are “the techniques of efficiently directing and guiding students”, for Stöcker is “the principles, phenomenon’s, ways and laws of the whole teaching” just to name a few. The term didactics comes from the Greek “didajein” that means to teach, instruct and expound clearly. Is the nominative and plural accusative, neuter, of the adjective “didactics” derived from the verb “didajein”, “didasco” (teach) that means the related to teach, to the activity for the instruction. So we can define didactics as “the cience or the art of teaching, that focuses on the process of teaching-learning”.

Domains:

During the beginning of the XX century, many areas such as Psychology, Sociology or Medicine burst in with many contributions that spark off many trends like psychology, pedagogy, philosophy, sociology the theory of information and general of systems, communication theory, the new school or the pedagogical renews movements. From so many perspectives the concept didactics it’s not homogeneous, so it’s open to the perspectives of flexibility and dynamism that would probably change in a near future.

Members:

Diego Acevedo

Karla Ardiles

Norman Vergara

Monserrat Yañez

Expectations on the subject

My expectation on this subject it's to learn more about didactics, better ways to transfer my knowledge to the students in a fun, interactive but most importantly in an organized way. For now, I think it will be very useful for facing my first practical.