Week 2 January 25

My fifth grade science teacher bought suckers with insects inside them, and every day he would give away one sucker to the student who earned it for answering the question of the day. He set it up in which he would tell the class the question, then the students could raise their hand to try and get it right. The first student to answer correctly won the sucker. To avoid students from just guessing each student was only allowed one response per day. This activity reflects the behaviorist theory of learning because the students are rewarded for being able to correctly answer the question and thus are encouraged to engage in the problem solving. Limiting the number of responses to one forces the students to thoroughly work through the problem rather than taking a haphazard guess and being satisfied.

Thursday January 20

Metacognition is essential for good learning because if one doesn't know how they learn best then the amount of knowledge retained will either be limited or it will take a longer time to learn the same material. Once one finds the most efficient method of learning, more time can be spent learning new material rather than struggling to learn the original concept.

One method that supports metacognition is using multiple forms of media when presenting material. The link below shows that most students believe they learn best when the amount of text to diagrams is around 50%. By presenting material using multi media the students are able to see which method they like best, and by using that information become better learners.
In the field of Tech. Ed. I could supliment text for a technical area such as when explaining how an engine works by also using a diagram or schematic to help the students get a better visual of the process.

Materials Used=Chart on pg 6 and first paragraph under DISCUSSION on pg 7 http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/mserra/Serra%20Dunlosky%202010.pdf