Observation

The observation was in Mrs. Ayo a second grade teacher, in addition to Mr. Wray’s 5th grade classroom. Both classes are giving at Kinser elementary School , Both classroom actually work together in a group Reading Buddies. Which educational theories were employed? The educational theories that were being employed in her classroom are the Social Learning Theory by Bandura and Behaviorism Theory by Watson. Behaviorism is “the beliefs that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed (Educational Theories, March 19, 2012).

” The Social Learning Theory is “when an observer’s behavior changes after viewing a behavioral model (Educational Theories, March 19, 2012). ” The teacher used Modeling with her Reading Mastery curriculum. The students were required to be paying attention before the lesson started. The teacher cued the students to find the title in the story and read the title together. One student did not read the title correctly, so the teacher said “my turn” and read the title correctly and then she said “your turn” and the students read the title again. Throughout the lesson, the teacher would praise students at different times.

The assessments for the teacher with the lesson were questions asked to the student in the lesson, also the independent sections on the student worksheets. What educational theories could have been used to better enhance the instruction and learning? An educational theory that could have been used is Constructivism. Constructivism is “that learning is meaning, it is reflecting on experiences (Educational Theories, March 19, 2012). ” Mrs. Mullins could have enhanced lesson to incorporate real life connections to the students to make it meaningful for them. She could have had students predict what was going to happen next in the story.

How practical is the application of education theories in the classroom? It is very practical to apply educational theories in the classroom like Constructivism, Behaviorism, and the Social Learning Theory. A teacher can use a combination of educational theories in a classroom. The teacher can build upon the students’ knowledge and emphasize problem solving and the teacher can also use the Social Learning theory with Modeling. The teacher can model the behavior to the student and use positive and negative reinforcements with Behaviorism. One can also use Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence in the classroom too.

Gardner’s theory “has eight domains of intelligence (Linguistic, Logical, Spatial, Bodily Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic) according to Bee and Boyd, 2010. The different types of intelligence can be used in daily lessons throughout the day. How does the theory of information processing apply to student learning? Information processing has two areas: innate ability and acquired knowledge (Bee & Boyd, 2010). A lower IQ can compensate for acquired knowledge. People with higher IQ’s will perform better than a person with a lower IQ.

This also applies to student learning. Children with a lower IQ need effective strategies for processing information. These students have to acquire a vast amount of information on any subject before they can perform as well as their peers with higher IQs. How does the classroom environment affect information processing and learning for adolescents? Information processing theory explains that, “children are born with some basic, inborn cognitive strategies that will change from earlier years of life to more complex ones and the old ones being used with more flexibility (Bee & Boyd, 2010, p. 197).”

As the information processing theory is explained in the text as an adolescent plays chess, the better they will become as seeing and remembering the relationships among the pieces on the board. In the classroom, it should foster an environment that allows the development of the complex cognitive strategies. There needs to be repetitive tasks that are geared towards building cognitive strategies, such as sight words. It can be studied by writing it, reading it, putting the word into a sentence, drawing a picture of it, and defining it. The repetitiveness of the activities can develop cognitive development.

Compare adolescent student learning in a social environment and an educational environment. Which is more conducive to attention and memory? In a social situation there are usually more than one stimuli competing for the attention of the individual; whereas in a classroom attention is more directed to one stimulus (the teacher). This would seem to dictate that educational environments are more conducive to attention than social situations. Memory refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain, and later retrieve information. The three major processes involved in memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval.

This does pertain to adolescent learning, it is important for new information to be connected to existing information. It is noted that rote memorization is not as effective as learning information through sayings or through stories. Learning through sayings and stories involve connecting the new information to existing information. Social situations would seem to have an upper hand, since social environments provides a context for learning that builds upon the pre-existing peer relationships and experiences. Some of these are present in the classroom, with the teacher and student, but it is not as great as the social environment.

What teacher behaviors did you observe that facilitated student comprehension and reasoning? An activity that I believe facilitated student reasoning was when Mrs. Mullins would ask the students scripted questions from the curriculum program. This allows the teacher to know if the student understands the material that was just read. Also the student had to answer questions from their textbook and an independent worksheet to reinforce the comprehension. The students were required to answer the questions in complete sentences and circle the correct multiple choice answer.

Why did the teacher behaviors positively affect student’s thinking and abilities? Both the activities required the students to think. The students are required to use different strategies to get their answers for the questions. I observed multiple strategies from the students. In this class, students were asked questions and sometimes the teacher would ask another question after the other question. Which teachers’ behaviors impeded student comprehension and reasoning? The teacher also gave a Spelling test at the beginning of the Reading lesson. The test may be the least productive activity of the lesson.

The test was based on rote memorization of learning the word. The student was required to hear the word, then in a sentence, and then they were required to write the word on a piece of paper. Some children do not learn this way. Students all learn differently; some learn auditory, other learn visually, and lastly kinetically. There were a few students having difficultly writing down the spelling word because they could not remember the audible letters to match it to the written word. Why did the teachers’ behaviors negatively affect students’ thinking abilities?

The students wanted to get a 100% on their spelling test to be able to get a prize out of the prize box. This auditory/visual deficiency also speaks to the inverted-U relationship between stimulation and performance. As stimulation increases (social pressure, teacher pressure, and peer pressure to make a good grade on the test), so performance on the test increases; however, there is a cutoff beyond which simulation begins to effect performance negatively. The students were motivated to get a 100% on their spelling test, because their teacher added increase pressure by adding a reward to the performance on the test.

This affected the grades on their spelling test making the students to perform negatively, since the stimulation was too much for these students. How does delayed language development affect teaching? Delayed language development seems to be the result of a defect in the fast mapping processes and poor receptive language (Bee & Boyd, 2010). ” Fast mapping refers to “the ability to categorically link new words to real world references (Bee & Boyd, 2010, p. 209). ” In cognitive development, there are biological and environmental factors to language assimilation, acquisition, and recitation.

The average vocabulary of a 2 year old is about 600 words, but it can be adequately be determined by the IQ scores of the parents; however, the language acquisition can increase if the child is read to by their parents daily. This means reading will compensate for any biologically or environmentally caused deficits in the language development. These deficits in the language development can be through the use of a phonic approach that will translate to a specific letters into sounds and vice versa. Children who are poor language learners will have a problem with letter-sound recognition and combinations.

This approach will overcome the obstacle. Lastly, the reading program is important; it should be flexible and responsive to student’s language needs. If the phonic approach is not working, then a reading comprehension approach should be tried. Being able to learn the words as a part of a sentence approach would be better. How does language development affect learning in children and adolescents? A systematic and explicit phonics approach to a language arts program states that lessons should move from simple words to complex words in an explicit manner that emphasizes the letter sound correspondence (Bee & Boyd, 2010).”

The whole language approach seeks to teach language through meaning and context of the word rather than the actual structure of the word. This approach doesn’t explicitly teach letter sound correspondence unless the student has question about how the sound of the letter makes. The last approach is a balanced approach that is a systematic and explicit phonic and whole language approach. Language development can have a large impact on reading comprehension. Reading comprehension helps with the writing abilities of the student.

Abstract

This essay discusses participant observation as a method of collecting anthropological data from the tube. This method allows researchers to gather information through observation and interviewing of individuals who are taking the tube as a means of transportation. Strengths of this method include directly observing how people interact in the tube and writing down this observation for future interpretation. This method allows observers to use their five senses to interpret data collected from the tube. Limitation of this method includes possible subjectivity of interpretation of data.

Introduction

This essay will discuss participant observation as a method of collecting anthropological data from commuters in the tube. The discussion part of this essay will explore the strengths and limitations of this method.

Discussion

Participant observation is an ethnographic method of qualitative studies that allows researchers to observe the sample population in their natural setting (Murchison, 2010). This allows researchers to observe and describe situations using the different senses of the body (Murchison, 2010). Hence, it is said that participant observation is a written photograph of what is happening in the field (DeWalt and DeWalt, 2011). Polit et al. (2013) explains that a detailed description of an event or people’s experiences allow observers to analyse situations exhaustively. In terms of my study, I chose participant observation since I felt it would help me gather relevant data on what is happening in the London Underground. While this type of observation allows for more in-depth observation of events and people’s actions (Muchison, 2010), participant observation has also some limitations. First, there is a need to immerse one’s self in the world inhabited by participant. This is accomplished by taking the tube as a mode of transportation to experience what others are experiencing when taking this transportation. Part of participant observation is to interview people regarding their experiences. This might be a challenge since participants might not be willing to be interviewed while in the tube. It should be noted that there are many commuters in the tube who do not know each other. This might be a challenge when collecting data since participants might be wary of answering questions from a researcher (Hek et al., 2011). Polit et al. (2013) reiterate that participants might not act naturally since they are aware that the researcher is observing them. This presents some bias in the data since behaviour of the participants might not be reflective of their actual behaviour. Meanwhile, reflexivity in data would allow researchers to interpret data according to the perceptions of the participants.

Researchers might also bring a degree of bias and subjectivity when they collect data and information from the participants (Murchison, 2010). The researcher’s own perceptions, feelings and knowledge might be used to interpret actions, conversations and expressions manifested by people riding in the tube. There is the risk that interpretation of data becomes highly subjective. However, this could be avoided if the researcher allows participants to confirm findings and inform the researcher whether interpretation of the interviews is accurate. Hek et al. (2011) emphasise that subjectivity could be prevented by objectively interpreting data. This is done through adopting a nonjudgmental attitude, being open and genuinely interested in what participants are saying (Oermann, 2010). This would lead to data that are more reliable since researchers allow participants to verify the findings. In my experience, I adopted a nonjudgmental attitude to help me empathise with what the participants are saying to me. Placing myself in their situation helped me better understand what they are expressing to me during my collection of data. Parahoo (2006) states that it is important to define phenomena and experiences according to the participant’s perceptions.

Reflection

I felt that I am part of the community of commuters in the tube since I regularly use this as a mode of transportation. I felt that this is an advantage to me since in-depth analysis of the behaviour of the commuters involves immersing one’s self in the actual environment. Hence, my previous experiences commuting in the tube could help me understand what other people might be experiencing while commuting in the tube. I also realised that different people ride the tube and their diverse background could add to the complexity of analysing the cultural behaviour of commuters in the tube. However, I also realised that the ethnographic method would yield valuable information on the general behaviour of commuters in the tube. Finally, ethnographic method was appropriate for my research question since this helped me form an objective and detailed description of what is happening in the tube.

Conclusion

Participant observation is an effective tool in collecting anthropological data since this allows researchers to immerse in natural settings. This helps researchers collect more reliable data as participants are observed in actual settings.

References:

DeWalt, K. & Dewalt, B. (2011) Participant observation: A guide for fieldworkers. Plymouth, United Kingdom: Rowman Altamira.

Hek, G., Judd, M. & Moule, P. (2011) Making Sense of Research, 4th ed., London: Sage Publications.

Murchison, J. (2010) Ethnography Essentials: Designing, conducting, and presenting your research, London: John Wiley and Sons.

Oermann, M.H. (2010) Writing for publication in nursing, 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Lippincott.

Parahoo, K. (2006) Nursing Research: Principles, Process and Issues, 2nd ed., London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Polit, D., Beck, C.T. and Hungler, B.P. (2013) Essentials of Nursing Research. Methods, Appraisal and Utilization, 8th ed. Philadelphia, Lippincott.