Piaget's Cognitive Development
Like: Piaget's ideas of assimilation and accommodation are the strongest two ideas that emerged from his theory that I liked. I really like the concept that kids will build on their old ideas and base new knowledge on the foundation of previously learned knowledge. To be able to assimilate new concepts and build new schemes, is key to the development and retainment of knowledge.
Dislike: I really do not like the idea that kids learn on and individual basis, this is not something that has been proven to be the most beneficial to the development of kids. Kids do not only learn from their own experiences, this is one of the Primary things that Piaget believed, I think others' experiences also impact the development of kids.
Vygotsky's Cognitive Development
Like: There were a couple of concepts that I liked about his theory they were social learning and the idea of Zones of Proximal Development. These are both good examples of students and how they learn with outside resources, social learning is good because it gives students' the opportunity to learn through others' examples. The idea of apprenticeship and building within the ZPD are good because it goes hand in hand with working with a teacher to build on knowledge and completing tasks.
Dislike: I am not a huge fan of his interpersonal communication concept, I don't like the idea of internalization as much as I do the apprencticeship theory. Internalization is the basic concept of being able to do something, I see how it is relevant but it is not a huge concept that is primary in development, these ideas such as riding a bike or being able to pour a glass of milk are basic ideas, they are not complex.
Erikson's Psychosocial Development
Like: I really liked his entire theory, his stages when applied to the development of children go in the right order of how they develop. He had an accurate idea of which the stages of development and how they happen.
Dislike: His concept of how they are all occurring individually and are not happening simultaneously, I do not agree with. Development can be intertwined with stages and they could be occurring at the same time.
Kohlberg's Moral Development
Like: Kohlberg's division of the stages into three broad categories are very fitting for the idea of moral development. Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional Reasoning, they are easily divided for distinguishing where an individual might be.
Dislike: The different elements make his theory more difficult to grasp, individuals motives and whether they are forthright or misleading make the elements in his theory harder to learn and distinguish on a smaller application level.
Information Processing
Like: This is another theory that when it comes to application when teaching, the entire theory becomes relevant and important to the different learning styles that individuals might possess. Students will be more likely to relate to the different ways that information may be presented and better be able to relate to it on different levels and retain it better.
Dislike: I don't like the idea that memories are lost after they have not been used for a long time. I do think this is a relevant theory and that it does happen on a regular basis, but I don't think memories are necessarily lost just disregarded for awhile. This theory simply states that they are lost, I don't think the human mind will lose memories just due to lack of use.
Knowledge Construction and Higher-Order Thinking
Like: I really like the idea that students will generate ideas from their own experiences, this generation of ideas creates a higher-order thinking and develops stronger skills. Educators should build upon this theory and help students to be able to see the positives of these types of behaviors.
Dislike: As far as it applies to instructional teaching, the fact that meta-cognition is complex and hard to understand, students are more likely to learn how rather than how to actually apply that learning, it causes too much congestion in the clear process of presentation.
Behaviorism
Like: I really like the idea of presentation and removal, using this inside of the classroom the teacher will better be able to help gain appropriate behaviors in the classroom. The visual display that plays in part with this theory is beneficial to learn as an educator because it presents more stability in the classroom for children that have to have different types of reinforcement for different behaviors.
Dislike: Although I do not like the ideas of conditioning they do happen in the classroom without the teacher necessarily realizing it. But the idea of teaching with conditioning bothers me more due to the fact that students are not animals to be trained. Their routines need to be changed and evolving along with their learning.
Social Cognitivism
Like: I had already previously back from Vygotsky's theory that I really like the concept of social learning in the classroom. I do agree that most people will learn and relate ideas and concepts to those observed from others' experiences and things happening in their surrounding environments. Being shown by example will teach students how to properly deal with experiences.
Dislike: I don't like the concept of cognitive behavior modification, it is too out of line for educators I believe. We are not trained to deal with psychotherapeutic ideas and how to best modify individual's behaviors for issues.
In the end I really think that individuals learn and relate best to their own experiences and the experiences of others. If students have the opportunity to participate in different activities and acquaint those activities with different learning aspects then they are more likely to be able to recall and relate better to that particular knowledge. There are many different learning aspects that students will be exposed to as they have the opportunity to go through school and learn new concepts, they will be able to apply these to themselves and how they learn. Students will also be likely to learn from observing their peers and most likely to apply those observations to their own learning. By being able to observe others both inside and outside of the classroom, they will not have to be involved in any detrimental effects that are deterring from their own learning in the classroom.
My own emerging theory was the Higher-Order, however I really think that I am more of a behaviorist when it comes to learning and application in my own classroom. I am already teaching and my own classroom already has a lot of hands on activities and group work so that students are learning from themselves and others as well. I already use several methods to reinforce concepts that students are learning and need to retain. Sometimes with my own students I am already using conditioning whether it be operant or classical, I tend to use both of these conditioning methods depending on the situation. My teaching styles are still developing and I would like to apply the different applications of this theory in my classroom to help my students be able to retain the material better and for my own teaching to evolve with my students. I would like to make my classroom one of routine, but an evolving routine that enhances positive learning and application processes in the lessons and materials that are being presented.
When it comes to educational psychology, I struggle more with cognitive learners and the application of different schemes. This seems to be a bit more of a gray area to me and confuses me with the processes of different ways to apply it. I need to research these theories better and how I can personally teach and apply them with my own students. By doing this, I will be able to better understand where my students are personally coming from and how these theories will apply to them in the classroom and the methods of which they learn best.
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