Educational Psychology - Essay Example

Educational Psychology Instructional level implies that the objectives as defined by the teacher match the practice activities that are done throughout the lesson. Whether or not the objectives have been achieved should be checked during the assessment or closure part of the lesson. Aligning lessons/programs that are appropriate for the needs and various levels of students is critical to the ultimate success of students. Hence, teachers must follow strict guidelines to ensure that the teaching/learning experience correspond to the instructional strategies and teaching methods.   Firstly, the teacher needs to ensure that he/she is not teaching at a level that is too challenging for the student, thus causing frustration on the part of the student. On the other hand, the teacher should ensure that he/she is not teaching at a level that is below the capability of the student. In this case the student will not be interested in the material presented and thereby the intrinsic motivation that is needed to drive the momentum of the student will not be present. Consequently, the optimum level for instructing the student will be at the instructional level. An example of a lesson that is appropriate for the instructional level of the student would be in the teaching of number to the first grade students. The teacher must first assess the needs and the previous knowledge of the students. In teaching the value of the numeral five to students that are unable to valuate the numeral three would be teaching above the instructional level. Teaching the value of five to the same group of students who are able to valuate seven would be teaching below the students’ instructional level. The developmental level implies teaching not necessarily at the chronological age of the child but at the readiness level. For example, students may be in the same classroom and be at various levels of development. In this case, one student may be five years of age and able to count to two hundred whereas another student in the same class may be unable to count to 20. If the teacher decides to teach the concept of 20, it would be necessary for the teacher to meet the individual developmental level of each child by teaching the concept of 20 to the entire class but allowing the student who is comfortable with counting to 200 the opportunity to work on his/her own through the use of worksheets that are somewhat challenging to his/her particular level. At the same time the teacher must allow those students who are not yet comfortable with the concept to work in groups initially to gain confidence in their ability to complete the given tasks and gradually allow them to work on their own through worksheets or other exercises suited to their developmental level. Another dimension of developmental level is the stage theory posited by Piaget. He posits that a child in the pre-operational stage would be unable to perform conservation tasks. Hence the teacher should not give a task such as estimating the volume of a container to such a child. However, many critics have proved Piaget to be inaccurate about the time in which the student is developmentally ready to conserve and because children develop individually and not just static some students are able to operate at a higher level than others. Further, some students may need concrete materials to manipulate whereas others may be able to solve the problem abstractly. The author of this paper believes that selecting the appropriate lesson is important to the success of all students but it is critical to the success of students with disabilities. For example, the teacher with students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) may adopt a task analysis approach to the teaching of numbers. In this approach the teacher must during preparation time, systematically and sequentially go through the steps involved in the understanding of the value of eleven. The teacher must itemize each step as this procedure would become a recipe for understanding the value of eleven. The teacher would begin the lesson by reviewing previously taught lessons to ensure that students remember the previous concepts and are ready to move forward. Also it would focus their minds to the lesson. Once the teacher is satisfied that students have the required previous knowledge and skill, then the teacher may proceed to distribute concrete examples of the numeral ten. The teacher may then allow students to count the objects up to 10. The next step would be to add one more object and elicit from students the value of the previous objects and the additional object. The teacher would then supply examples and non examples of the concept of eleven both through large pictures and large objects. Students will then be divided into small groups. The ADHD student would appreciate the fact that each process of the lesson requires a new and different activity. In small groups the ADHD students would be allowed to use concrete objects to form groups of eleven. They may even be allowed to formulate an image showing eleven. Students would then be given practice to write the numeral eleven as a group they may be allowed to use creative ideas to form the numeral eleven and consequently they would be required to write eleven on their own. At the end of this lesson the students will be required to complete a written exercise on eleven which would include drawing eleven objects and circling a number of objects that are equal in value to eleven. In determining the reading level of a student a teacher would be required to perform a simple test on the student. There are three accepted reading levels. Firstly there is the independent level at which the child could read the material at ease. The second level is the instructional level in which the teacher would be required to assist the student with the material. The student at this level would not be able to read the material on his/her own. The third level of reading is the frustration level in which the student cannot read without assistance from the teacher. The student is below a level that would cause him/her to understand the material. That is, the material is too difficult for the reader. An example of a lesson that involves reading for the various levels in the classroom would be to read a story for the students on a chosen topic, “A Birthday party”. The introductory piece may the use of a large picture of a birthday cake. All the students are familiar with this topic but not all are at the same reading level. Hence the teacher may decide to utilize a Language experience approach where the students will be allowed to provide one sentence to the reading material. The student’s name and their exact quotation would be displayed. The teacher reads each sentence as it is added and reads the final product before asking students to read the particular sentence they constructed. At the end of the exercise each child would have read their particular sentence as well as the entire reading passage formulated by their classmates. Students can then be divided into within-class ability groups - those that are at the frustration, instructional or independent level. Those that are at the frustration level could be given an activity to reread the passage with their peers. Those that are at instructional level could be encouraged to identify the new vocabulary words and use them in sentences of their own whilst those at the independent level could be encouraged to write a different ending to the passage. Selecting lessons/programs that are suited to curricular goals is essential to the proper alignment of students needs to the required fulfillment of a particular subject area. Curriculum refers to the road map upon which students must follow to arrive at a specific destination. In this case the destination is the goal that is detailed in the curriculum. This curriculum should be age –appropriate, individually appropriate and culturally and sexually without bias. Hence a typical lesson/program that would be appropriate for the curricular goal of Health and Nutrition would be to incorporate a lesson which had its objective as identifying the five foods found in the meat group. The students would then be asked to discuss and be engaged in activities geared towards identifying these foods and discussing different foods eaten for breakfast or their favorite foods. In addition, students will perform group activity such as creating a menu for their made up restaurant. References Slavin, R. (2003) Educational Psychology. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Read More