Module 1-1 Activity 4 - Behaviourism

While engaged in this Activity, the powerful lessons learnt are:

1.     Teachers need to constantly motivate students and to provide them with adequate and on-time
        feedback as this affects what and how much they learn.

2.     Learning does bring about a change in behaviour.

3.     Learners should be told what is expected of them  i.e. the acceptable behaviour patterns.

4.     Teachers should model the types of behaviour which they expect thier students to exhibit.

5.     Students are different and teachers must be aware of this diversity and use it to cater for all
        students.

6.     Teachers should take time out to listen to and get to know each student as they are all     
        valuable  and have something to offer to aid in your prrofessional and personal development.

1-1 Activity 3_ Reading 2: Social Cognitive Theory

My powerful lessons learnt during this Activity

 That children learn what they see and they model and imitate the behaviour of persons around them especially teachers. This scenario was recently expereinced by me as I watched my great nephew (5 years old) playing school with his teddy bears and toy trucks.
 He was the teacher and the teddy bear and toys were the children. He came to me and asked for a ruler. I asked him why and his response was "I am the teacher".  I questioned him and he said he was playing school with "Simba and my toys". I asked him again what is the ruler for and he said to me "Teacher use a ruler to point at the board and to beat." That triggered some emotions but  I calmed myself,  gave him the ruler and decided I would peek on him just to see how he was playing school.
  The toys were on the chair and he was standing infront with the ruler waving it in the air and saying
" Children listen and follow on the black board".
Then he hit one of the teddy bears and said "Simba you hush". Then he turne to the truck and waved the ruler at it and said "Truck, you and car keep still before I beat you". he then turned to the wall (blackboard) and pointed to it while looking at the toys and said "One plus one is two, now repeat".

It was in amazement as to his vivid role playing of the teacher and how he acted out the roles after only beginning primary school three weeks ago. It is quite obvious that the influence of this teacher on the child is great and it is quite obvious that from what he has displayed that this teacher like to beat and uses the ruler to beat quite often to drive fear into the children and it is not a good situation for learning.
We as teachers must always be cognisant of the fact that the students are watching us no matter how small they are and that at all time we have to be POSITIVE ROLE MODELS who EXHIBIT POSTIVE ACTIONS and ATTITUDES at all times. 

Secondly the Teaching and Learning process is a two way process where roles can be interchangeable. I wanted to become a teacher as I wanted to change the way teaching was done and I think I have actually done so in many cases at some point in time in my twenty six years of teaching. In relation to this reading I think I have done so by allowing students to take charge in the classroom. This has helped them to develop their self esteem, leadership skills, cooperative learning and who knows grooming a teacher in the making. ( Many of my students are now teachers). I realised I needed to help make school a place where young people can use their intelligence i.e their ability to come up with  new and creative/ innovative rational ideas which can be employed in the classroom to help their learning. Students should be encouraged to think and create, and the curriculum must be relevent and stimulating. They must also be taught at a pace that they can cope. I have been doing these things for a number of years and this reading brought up some past feelings which have allowed me to recognise that I am enacting EDUCATIONAL CHANGE.
   

1-1 Activity 2 Information Processing Approaches

While going through the reading material for this activity  with the idea in mind that the deadline expires within a few hours I realised that old feelings about learning was coming up. I found myself asking  the question "But I don't understand what I am reading?". I was underlining as I read but was still feeling confused  and kept
 saying to myself that I am a practical learner and that I learn by doing. However, I kept reading and underlining until I came to  Section 1.2.2 about helping learners remember what they learn. As I read this section I realised that I needed to employ a learning strategy and to find an appropriate tactic to help me. A light bulb went off in my head.
I started reading over from the start taking paragraph by paragraph  and extracting the main points and reflecting on my  teaching  and compare it with what I was reading to see if and how I had been helping my students to learn. As I began employing this strategy, the reading material began to make much sense to me.
I guess that because I had a deadline to meet and that I needed to complete the Activity to meet a specific deadline that I needed to grasp the concept. I realise that I had to find a strategy to help me understand and complete the task and to be responsible for my learning. I was able to reflect and to use past experiences to assist in strategizing my learning.

1-1 Activity 1: What is Learning?

The most powerful lessons that I learnt during this activity:

Engaging in this Activity, has allowed me to Reflect on and about my practice as an Educator. I have realize that there are many moments which have contributed to my development Educator for the past twenty six (26) years  and also as an Individual and that there are still these moments of development still taking place. This to me is an indication that “Teaching” sure is a noble and dynamic profession. 

All teachers must be reminded that the most important aspect of the job is the teaching and learning process. Teachers must always be aware of the needs of their students – their social, economic, religious and cultural backgrounds and to respect them all and to create an environment of learning so that all students will maximize their learning opportunity to develop into creative and emotional human beings.

They should also realize that their teaching process should stimulate and motivate students to want to learn and be eager to participate in their learning process through positive interaction and empowerment.

ccti-1-1_Learning, Teaching and Thinking with ICT and ccti-4-1 Assessing ICT Integration

Activity O
Hello everyone,
Bernard E. Richardson here.
 Its time to to be at the studies again becoming engaged in the activities and assignments. I look forward to working with everyone in the group.