Padlet Week 3 Group Discussion by Daniel Funk

Principle 2- How do students learn and retain new information?

holmgrenrylie — 2024-09-15 05:11:35 UTC

I found this most interesting because I have a hard time retaining things. Seeing how I can better teach so my future students will be able to actively learn and retain the information I teach. The different ways that students learn were intriguing to me as well. What stuck out to me the most was the method of chunking information. I hadn't thought about it that way before and how that affects the cognitive thinking and retention process.

Principle 1 - How do students understand new ideas?

2024-09-15 18:03:44 UTC

Modeling, analogies, and many other learning modalities will create both a solid learning environment and a solid learner. Students learn by example really well so using that to your advantage as a teacher and supporting their learning with some ideas they can visualize and connect with will help them to understand new ideas.

Using more than one is an even better way to solidify the learning because it will help the children have multiple ways to recall and multiple instructional patterns to recognize.

Principle 5 - What motivates students to learn?

a02378308 — 2024-09-16 04:22:26 UTC

I have always found this topic very interesting because, throughout my life, I have encountered peers and young students who lack the desire to pursue higher education or to learn in general. This is especially prevalent among students affected by poverty and a lack of educational stimulation. Understanding how I can motivate a student to learn is crucial in helping me determine the actions I need to take to achieve this goal. It was interesting how it mentioned that letting the students set learning goals will help them be motivated. Throughout my life, I have never liked setting goals for myself since I find them hard to think of, and it gets me down every time that goal is not met. While knowing more about motivating students, I felt it would be nice if the students had a purpose to learn or find a purpose for why they need to learn to achieve that purpose.

Principle 6 - Common misconceptions about how students think & learn

a02267668 — 2024-09-16 04:35:19 UTC

I've been curious for a long time about which portion of the VART model I fit into best, but it never really made sense. I never really figured out which way I learned "best". Turns out there's no science proving the model, and it was used to explain the 'magic' behind educators teaching to some students better than others.

Along those same lines, I think "left-brained" a lot, but I also think "right-brained" quite frequently too. So I came to the conclusion that they were just preferences, and that an individual may spend more time thinking one way over another, but it's not a hard & fast rule that a person will only think "left-brained" or "right-brained". I haven't thought critically about this one as much, so I don't have much else to go off of.

I've thought about these before, so it's nice to get some additional information based in actual studies to help me complete my thoughts on the models.

Principle 4- How does learning transfer to new situations

2024-09-17 04:19:49 UTC

I'm actually really glad we had this week to learn more teaching science. I also connect with this principle very much as I've been diagnosed with ADHD and I become very conscious of cognitive load theory, because I kinda have a lot of cognitive load going on.... 😅.

To combat high cognitive load, we're given 4 tips:

Simplify complex information
- Break stuff down into easy pieces.
- Paragraph-packed slides are usually too much information
- Bullet points become my friends when taking notes to keep info simple.
Cut Extraneous Info
- Everything you use points back to your teaching objective
- Adding more info can keep lessons engaging, but can also slog students causing zoning-out
- Removing distractions is vital. Fidgets should be mindless, content is engaging.
Provide examples early
- People naturally relate to stories, great way to share examples
- Relating content to the real world connects more brain pathways.
Slowly fade guidance
- I do, then we do, then you do.
- Make sure students have time to practice the material with you
- This is where students create their own examples so they can do it.