| | Goal 1Demonsatrates understanding of various theories and concepts that inform the practice of instructional technology Sub-goal 1:
Identify and describe several theories and/or concepts that have
informed your design projects. In
particular, explain why these theories/concepts
are meaningful to you. Sub-goal 2:
Describe how you have utlitized these theories/concepts in your designs
(or how you could have
used them in your design). Specifically provide evidence
from your design projects that show that
you have made design decisions that
have mentioned in Goal 1, sub-goal 1 above. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
During
my undergraduate course work, I distinctly remember covering learning
theories. It wasn't until this program that I realized that there
were more specific micro learning theories that can be helpful to use.
There are two micro theories that I have used so far in this
program: transformative learning theory and mathematical problem
solving learning theory.Transformative Learning TheoryIn
IT 500, my final course design project went through many phases before
finally landing on one idea. What I came to realize is that I
wanted to have my students engage in higher order thinking. While
this might not seem like a revelation for most high schoolers, I
teacher cross categorical special education classes for students in
ninth through twelveth grade. Most special education classes
require students to work in the knolwedge and comprehension levels of
Bloom's Taxonomy. These two levels have their purposes, but I
wanted to push my students further. After
analyzing my students, I decided to use transformative learning theory.
This theory has learners interpret and reinterpret the way that
they view a particular idea (citation). There are two types of
learning in the transformative learning theory, instrumental and
communicative. The communicative learning component, in my
opinion, would work particularly well with my students. In this
learning, students communicate their feelings, needs, and desires
(citation).This theory is considered
an adult learning theory because it is believed that it works best with
post-secondary learners. I believe that this will work well with
my students because they do an excellent job at communicating their
feelings. They know more about their feelings than anything else,
so following how their feelings change to go along with their belief of
a particular topic allows them to explore a topic that they are already
familiar with.An
example of how I am applying my IT 500 design project to my
professional teaching is the use of transformative learning theory,
specifically the communicative learning component is illustrated in a
unit that I have designed to teach the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. My unit starts out by asking students to give their emotional
reaction to slavery. This is the "baseline" emotion that the unit
will work off of. As we read the book, the students will describe
how their feelings change as they acquire more knowledge through the
experience of reading Douglass's experiences. The students willlearn about slavery by describing how and why their feelings about the subject matter changed over time. Mathematical Problem Solving Learning TheoryIn
IT 461, I developed an NTeQ lesson plan that involved mathematical
problem solvind learning theory. This theory, developed by Alan
Schoenfeld, says that the teaching of math should be done through a
problem-solving domain (citation). In
this unit, my students had to find the least expensive way to produce
an aluminum can that was capable of holding twelve fluid ounces of a
beverage. The students would need to figure out several things in
order to solve this problem. They would first need to figure out
that they have to find the smallest surface area of a container that
could contain twelve fluid ounces. After that, they would need to
find the formula for both volume and surface area. Then, students
would have to use both of those formulas in order to create an equation
that would allow them to figure out what the smallest suface area that
the container would actually be.In
my unit, netither the two formulas nor the equation would be given to
the students ahead of time. Because of this, the students would
have to find the information on their own. While I could give the
students the formulas before the lesson began, I believe that having
them find them on their own makes it more of a true problem solving
experience. | |