What I know

We've learned a few things in class. Some things were familiar and others were new to me.

The most significant concept I have taken from Ed. 107 so far is the Developmental Learning Theory (Concrete first, abstract later). When we drew the line from concrete to abstract and applied the different aspects of learning (tangible, simulations, pictures, drawings, textbooks, formulas) the ease/difficulty of each aspect was put into perspective. I have always known that it is harder to learn a subject from a textbook than it is from a person. That much is obvious, but I never considered that reading a chapter before being taught what it is about makes learning the subject more difficult. I had a chemistry teacher who told us to read a chapter before class, then again after the lesson so we learned it completely. Maybe that first step is unnecessary, but it was probably unnecessary for us all to groan about reading the chapter period.

After the first few classes, I now can apply the term "zone of proximal development." As a teacher, I know I'll have students with varying abilities. I know some will be behind the curriculum, some will be able to keep up and others will be breezing through it. Everyone has different levels of difficulty--different zones. I can remember this falls under the social learning theory due to the variability among every student. I learned to expect my first teaching job to be a challenge. Not only am I going to need to formulate a curriculum with my content, but I'll need to consider the curriculum from the students' view points; and not all students are the same kind of student as I am.

Going from the social learning theory to the constructivist learning theory, is somewhat easy to think about because I can think of the ZPD applying to the role of prior knowledge. If something falls under the "too easy" zone for a student, the knowledge is likely prior knowledge. I think this theory is significant because it shows that learning is a process. Learning step by step, experiencing bit by bit, and building off what a student already knows is precisely how we should be teaching. Encouraging students to ask questions and try to answer them for themselves is how we should be teaching. Letting them think is how they are going to learn. Leading them to understand without simply 'telling' them why is how we can be successful. This may end up being the hardest part of the job.