Ed 107 Reflections

Thus far, this class has been an experience the likes of which I've only had twice before. That experience is being in a class where I'm not just learning new information, new facts, but where I'm rapidly learning new ways of thinking and new perspectives on learning.



In high school, there were two teachers with whom I had similar experiences. First, in AP European History, my teacher got a class of 25 sophomores genuinely excited about the Rennaisance, the French Revolution, the Unification of Germany, and just about every other topic we covered that year. From him, I learned to view history as one big net of interconnected stories. Those stories- whether it be the death of Louis XVI or the Italian conquests of Garibaldi- are all related and connected in ways too numerous and complex to ever fully understand. Two years later, Mr. Chierico showed me unique and novel, yet surprisingly simple, ways of looking at success and life. In Public Service Practicum, dubbed PSP, we organized our own fundraisers in small groups, managed every little detail, and saw the projects out through the end. Chierico gave me a concrete example of how the cliches I had been rolling my eyes at my whole life could be applied in a meaningful way. That anyone who worked hard enough could achieve greatness. In both classes, I left for summer with a significantly different outlook on academia, myself, and the web of life.

This class, more than any I've had so far, has revolutionized my thoughts on education. Previously, my assumptions were that I would be a good teacher because younger kids respond well to me and I'm  a fairly understanding, patient person. Now, I realize that the skills I had before were only the tip of an iceberg of educational techniques I would need to master.

Am I Using Learning Theories?

Regarding Developmental Learning Theory, I came up with a few questions that I hope I always ask myself when planning a lesson to make sure I'm using DLT appropriately. First, I'll examine each representation of the material individually and ask myself where that representation falls on the concrete vs. abstract spectrum. If the representations don't begin at an appropriately concrete level, if they don't move gradually from concrete to abstract and back again, and if they don't fall in the student's Zone of Proximal Development, then my lesson isn't using DLT in an efficient way.


 For Social Learning Theory, I need to consider interaction and language. Regarding the first component, I need to ask myself who the more knowledgeable peers are in any given classroom setting, and if those more knowledgeable peers are being effectively utilized. Also, in every situation that I'm communicating with my students, which occurs almost constantly, I need to pause and consider the language I'm using and if that language is the best way to present the material.

 When applying Constructivist Learning Theory to my teaching, there are three main questions I need to ask myself: how are the student's current schema's constructed, are those schema's correct and to what degree, and how can I reconstruct their schema's in a way that they will be receptive to.

History, DLT, and SLT

To me, history is a subject that can either be made very engaging for students, or it can be boring and confusing if Developmental Learning Theory and Social Learning Theory aren't considered. I've sat through history classes that were lecture from beginning to end, and every day I walked to that class knowing that I was going to sit in my seat and rapidly scribble down dates and names for fifty minutes. I've also been in a history class, AP European History, where I looked forward to that class all morning long and remembered almost all of the people, places, and events we talked about. In terms of a high school history class, the student's age limits allow them to potentially develop a complex and abstract understanding of the subject matter. That understanding however, needs to first be supported by concrete examples.

For example, in teaching the French Revolution, instead of lecturing for days on end and then showing an educational movie as some type of reward, as most of my history teachers have done, I would show the film first. By doing this, students will have visual imagery to reflect on when I'm teaching about the Revolution. Educational videos however, can lose the interest of many students, so showing a film that is related, such as the relatively recent Hollywood hit "Marie Antoinette",  and not just a video lecture will engage students much better. The idea here is that they will be able to recall what Paris looked like during the Revolution, and how people dressed and talked while they are being presented with more abstract representations. Before the showing the film, you could do an in-class role playing activity that resembles the social dynamics of the French Revolution but doesn't explicitly talk about the event. The students will experience first-hand something like the Revolution, then see a video representation of it, and then learn the details.

Thoughts on Developmental Learning Theory

I haven't had the chance to implement Developmental Learning Theory in a classroom setting myself, but I have had the opportunity to use it in other ways. During summers, I work as a camp counselor at a summer camp near my home in Grayslake, IL. I've had the same group of boys from the summer they were seven to this most recent summer when they were all nine. I had to learn to present instructions to them in a way they could understand, in a developmentally appropriate way, if I wanted a good response from them. When we were going to play a game that most of them had never played before, I learned by trial and error that I could explain and talk until I was blue in the face, and most of them would remain confused by the rules of the game. At ages 7-9, my boys just can't visualize an unfamiliar game that has several steps and rules. As I grew familiar with my group and the best ways to help them understand new concepts, I realized it was easier for everyone if I just showed them, step by step, how to play the game.


I didn't realize it at the time, but I was using Developmental Learning Theory to take my instructions from abstract (verbal instructions) to concrete (real life demonstration). The first time I tried this, it was like I could see lightbulbs popping up over their little heads, and many of them said "ohhhhhh, now I get it". After that, I never wasted much time explaining rules to them using only verbal instructions. I knew that if a task or a game involved more than one or two steps, I would need to demonstrate each step at least once, and then further help those who forgot the instructions to later steps. This took a bit of patience on my part because coming back from a year at Drake, I wasn't used to repeating myself five or six times (literally), but that's to be expected, and it was all worth it when I could see a kid make a mental breakthrough and understand a concept that previously confused them, even if it was just a simple camp game.


My group, young as they are, aren't unique in the sense that they need developmentally appropriate instructions. Often, I watched other counselors, whose kids were around 10-12 years old, get incredibly and inappropriately frustrated when their kids weren't responding to their instructions. The counselors figured that since their kids were approaching middle school age, they should understand all verbal instructions. While the 5th and 6th graders were certainly more developed than my youngsters, there were still certain concepts or complicated instructions that they couldn't visualize and really understand just through being told. Their counselors needed to realize that the kids were trying, but the information wasn't being presented in a way they were developmentally ready to comprehend. The counselors should have calmed down, switched gears, and looked for a more concrete way to communicate with their campers.

Although I didn't realize I was using Developmental Learning Theory with my group, the steps I took definitely helped both myself and all my boys during past summers. I'm excited to go back to work with them now that I have a better (and more concrete) understanding of DLT. I think that my new knowledge about presenting information in a developmentally appropriate manner, along with my campers being a year older and more developed, will result in much better communication and understanding between us.