Learning and study skills - Research Proposal Example

Reflection Paper Regarding Learning Styles LEARNING AND STUDY SKILLS I am a visual learner so I need to be able to "see" whatever it is that I am doing. This means that I learn the bet through analogies and application. I am one of those learners that are intrinsically motivated to learn because of my thirst for learning everything I can learn. I struggle if there is no way to see what I am learning or when there is only lecture with no real application. My LSI revealed the same information and it gave deeper definition to what I already knew. It clearly showed that I learn and remember best by watching visual aids, performing the task, applying the concepts to lifes situations and by simulation; these are the areas I scored a 5 in. This test also revealed that as a teacher I tend to be care more about supervising my class (13% Leadership) and creating an atmosphere for fun and mentoring (11.4% and 11.6% Leadership respectively). As I thought about myself as a teacher I felt that this was accurate. I enjoy working with my students in ways that they need assistance but I also want to make sure that I have a disciplined classroom. In this way all children have a chance to learn. Interpersonal communication showed that I was more data oriented which did not surprise me because I am in the area of IT which is dependant on data. I am auditory in modality, prefer being the thoughtful observer and prefer hands on learning; this is probably the biggest reason I chose IT. One of the items I found interesting was that my philosophical methodology was both traditionalist and progressivist. I am not sure how these two work together but I thought it was an interesting point. I guess this is mostly because I believe that everyone should do some type of work and that they should have some type of education to do it. I also feel that they must have moral as well as practical education and that science and math are essential to anyones education. I believe that all children should acquire skill in science and math for many reasons. Perhaps the progressivist in me is the part that likes to experiment in new methods of learning. It is not surprise then that my study skills should support my learning style. It is important for me to be prepared for my tests so I study well for them. By being prepared I do not get have problems with test anxiety the day of the test. I take a laptop to all of my classes and I take good notes. I use the Internet when I cannot find a specific answer because it helps clarify concepts when I am not sure of the concept. Although the test did not reveal that I had good time management skills (65.33) I believe I do. I have to balance between family, work and school and I feel I do a very good job of it; I felt this percentage should have been higher. Reading and listening came out to the same (66.77) but I feel I am a better listener than a reader. It is clear to me that reading is not one of my stronger pursuits. I also do not like to write so having to write papers in college is a struggle for me and I am very happy when they are finished. I do have strong memory skills though they were reflected at only 70.91 on the test, which I felt was low. EXPERIENCES THAT LEAD TO EDUCATION One of the greatest reasons I chose education is because of what I have seen my children go through with traditional education. They have struggled when a teacher was not able to understand their learning styles. I have spent many hours with teachers attempting to get them to understand that children learn differently and just because they do not learn in the style the teacher wants it does not meant that they cannot learn. Some teachers are happy to work with parents and others are not. This fueled the fire for me to get a teaching license. I also have been a coach for sports and I had to adjust instruction for some children when they did not understand completely what I wanted them to do. This was an eye opener because I was not thinking that sports worked the same way as teaching other concepts. When I found that children had different skills in learning I understood that I needed to have more information on this topic. The final experience that made me choose education was the fact that my father was a teacher. He did not let me slack on my learning and expected me to go out and tackle my own accomplishments before I was able to do exactly what I wanted to do. He was strictly focused on the things that he felt would make me a better person in the world at large. I was more interested in doing only those things that I wanted to do at the moment but my father was clear about his priorities first. This did teach me discipline in education. DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY It is clear to this researcher that there are many different ways that children and adults learn and that this area needs to be explored more. I am most interested in helping children learn through "real world" application because I believe that they learn and retain more when they can attach the information they learn in a textbook to something that is meaningful in their lives. I do not believe that a child who must memorize for a test actually learns anything. When a child is to learn from a teacher, the textbook states that: …the most important takes is to make information meaningful to students by presenting it in a clear, organized way; by relating it to information already in students minds; and by making sure the students have truly understood the concepts being taught and can apply them to new situations ( ). The challenge to learning in this way is the fact that most teachers have to teach to the test. Instead of finding ways to get students to understand concepts they are consistently teaching only those topics that the school approves. Although this is necessary to keep their jobs it is imperative to engage students in learning or they are lost. REAL WORLD TEACHING ENCOURAGES LEARNING Many children today receive a lot of information from their computers and cell phones all the time. Teachers today have to create relevant classroom material or they loose the engagement of their students. When a student is not engaged they have a tendency to fall to sleep or to act out in the classroom. This is an observation in the classrooms that this researcher has watched. Students want to participate in learning and they need a way to accept learning through their five senses. They have to be able to touch and feel it in some way in order for it to become a part of them. The only way for them to integrate their learning is to be able to apply it to something in the real world. When they do not have this engagement they are bored and in many cases the teachers are also bored. According to John Taylor Gotto (2003) boredom is a common occurrence in most schools. Teachers and students are involved in a classroom but they are not together as a learning unit. Because of the boredom and because of the structure of school, Gotto also suggests that school is not the place for children or teachers. He suggests that school does not need to be a part of a students life because people who have come before now have not needed it: …And plenty of people throughout the world today find a way to educate themselves without resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prisons." (Gotto, 2003). If this is the case and we do not need schools then why do they exist? Basically because the law says it must but there has to be a way that we can change the system so that students are more engaged. School reform is trying to address the matter of children and education but some of the challenge with this concept is that everyone is attempting to work within a structure that is not working. The structure that only teaches to a test and does not take into consideration that a child learns by doing and not by sitting and listening will continue to fail. It is not the teachers nor the students nor the school that is to blame but the structure that they all must work within. The structure that is present today dates back to the 1800s and is based on a Prussian model of education. Richmond (1994) points out many things about the Prussian model of education. He points out that kindergarten came because of this model to America in 1874. The purpose was to "rescue children from poverty and bad families by bringing them into the school system early in life" (p. 4). He also states that there were three reasons why the Prussian model was used: 1. To condition children to obedience, subordination and collective life (not intellectual pursuit). This meant that "memorization outranked thinking". 2. To create fragmentation in the learning and periods in the school days that were structured in so that self-motivation would be interrupted by "ceaseless interruptions." 3. So that "the State" would be seen as the "true parent of the child." (p.4). As education is examined today it is plain to see that nothing has really changed with this issue. Children are still learning today in an environment that for the most part has them memorizing data so they can do well on a test; it does not encourage them to think for themselves or be intrinsically motivated to learn. It is not at issue to say that every classroom is the same because there are innovative teachers who find a way to teach their subjects in a more hands on way so that their children are totally engaged in the learning. They are using processes and activities inside their classrooms that encourage a purity in learning so that they know that their students will take the learning with them. In some cases these classrooms may not be the ones that generate a lot of activity on the standardized tests but the students are learning. REAL WORLD LEARNING IS A TREND TODAY Teachers across America are looking for innovative ways to bring to their classrooms an understanding of real world learning. Many have developed programs as experiments first and then as an implementation to their curriculum that brings their students to an application of the learning they want them to use. Stansfield (2008) uses field trips to help her students understand mathematics in a different way. It was important for her as a teacher that her students understood that mathematics is all around them instead of only in the classroom. Her students take a Mathematics Enhancement Course and most will be teaching IT courses. Because they attend conferences like the ATM Conference they are able to relate their knowledge of everyday mathematics to their students in the classroom. Harris (2006) presented a program for HVAC (heating and air conditioning) conducted by Mark Todd where students learned by 50% lecture, 50% hands on training, real world application and an internship. Each student participates in a full year program to be trained as a certified technician. Todd did this because there was a need for qualified technicians and he encouraged the college he worked within to change the program and they did. The students are happier, he was voted Teacher of the Year and the employers are happy because they have qualified and certified technicians. Powell, Needham, and Aram, R. (2008) suggest that the way to incorporate learning back into the classroom is by "Using a big understanding—a guiding statement describing essential content you want students to learn throughout the unit … " (p. 40). In this particular case they used a science class and the interest was to help students not only learn science but also to develop questioning and literacy skills. The purpose of their article was to show teachers how to use the state standards to bring more meaning to the classroom through real world representation. The present a step by step way to use a concept web in order to generate ideas for the big understanding. From this process they were able to address other content areas using science as the avenue of expression. As an example, they linked social studies and mathematics. They were also able to link science information with story time (using nonfiction resources) and writing time (using their own journals to create their ideas and thoughts about what they learned). This created a connection for the students not only to science and math but also to the world around them. The conclusion of their article gave an understanding that a teacher can actually learn the material that they may be uncomfortable teaching by using "the big understanding" and that students retain the material at the end of each unit. In this example teachers became a guiding force in their classrooms instead of a lecturer. They kept their students engaged from the beginning to the end of the process. They opened avenues of success for every child instead of closing down some and helping others to learn. In the process these teachers admitted that they learned from many of the issues they taught their students. This meant that the teachers were also engaged in the learning process. The process that they used also showed the integration of differentiated learning. These teachers created a situation in which all students learned in a real world application way and they had enough variety in the classroom that their students were able to learn together. Adams and Pierce (2003) suggest another way for teachers to create an environment where differentiated learning can take place. They used the concept of "tiering" so that each student had a way to relate to the concepts being taught and so that it would address the various aspects of each lesson. The teachers created lessons that kept the process the same but changed the content of the lesson varied in its complexity depending on the students needs (p. 30). This is a concept that was presented when they had a variety of different abilities within one classroom. The result of this tiering is that students learned at their own level the concept that was requested by the teachers and they were able to be assessed differently. The challenge with this article was that it did not describe whether they attempted to raise the level of understanding for the children who were at a lower reading level or comprehension level than the more advanced learners. It was not clear whether they allowed for improvement within the framework of each unit or within the school year. This would have been an interesting aspect of the process to promote the idea of tiering. Differentiated teaching is an important aspect of helping children to learn and looking at their learning styles would promote tiering at a different level. This technique could also bring out the best in the students who are having challenges with the curriculum as it is and help them learn through incremental steps as they moved forward. This method does take time to develop and in some classrooms teachers may not want to spend the time to do each and every class in this manner. Another interesting aspect of real world learning is the Alternative School. The challenge is interesting because most children who end up in an alternative school are there because the "traditional" public school system has failed to teach them. They are sent to an alternative school where they will finally get the one on one teaching and the real world application. Tax payers pay a lot of money for alternative schools to do what traditional schools should have done for these kids. By the time they reach alternative schools many are broken and feeling like failures. Bailey (2008) points out that the alternative school (also called community school) is expected to adhere to standardized testing but that the children who come to the programs learn better through a negotiated curriculum. She suggests that the alternative schools purpose is to help them succeed by applying real world application and attending to the needs of the student. The reality of the situation is that these children are still pushed to succeed in a traditional way and many of them continue to fail. This attitude seems to depend on where the school is located. In another alternative school Hermann (2007) created a classroom atmosphere that gave the children a link to their tribal heritages and produced a work of art that transformed the school. His article is interesting because it is based on The Circle of Courage a management model by Peter Senge. By using this method with his students he was able to not only help them learn through hands on real world learning but also to help teachers in his school find ways to change their own classrooms. REAL WORLD LEARNING AND HOMESCHOOLING: AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL EDUCATION Many parents are concerned about their children today and the image of the public school. They find that their children are not learning in the ways that they expect and they are taking them out of traditional school where they can teach them directly. Although many school systems feel that children are not getting the same type of education the statistics show something different. According to The National Center for Education Statistics (2008) 1.5 million students were homeschooled in 2007 which was a 1.1 million increase from 2003 (p.1). When parents were surveyed and asked why they were homeschooling one of the reasons was because of their dissatisfaction with the school system. According to Ray (2008) home schooled children score 15 to 30 percentile points higher on achievement tests that students in traditional classrooms. Parents did not have to be educated themselves and they were not certified teachers in order for this to happen. These students also scored higher on ACT and SAT tests which mean that they are also top candidates for colleges. Although the report states that the information cannot "prove" that home schooling is better than traditional schooling it does make it interesting in light of differentiated learning. Taking a deeper look at homeschooling creates another avenue for the way in which real world teaching works. There are hundreds of websites that help parents create lesson plans to turn into the school systems to approve. There are a variety of homeschooling distance learning programs that parents can also pull from in order to designate a curriculum that works for their children. These alternatives create the real world application that the children are missing from traditional school. This is but one alternative to bringing education back into the embrace of children who need it. GENERAL REAL WORLD LEARNING As people continue to move forward and rebel against standardized testing in their classrooms many are seeing that by using real world applications their students retain more and are able to do a bit better on standardized tests. Many are finding that their classrooms are less difficult when their students are engaged in learning. Some teachers and schools are finding new ways to use the No Child Left Behind funding to actually work better with their students and create the real world learning environments. President Obama has inspired some schools to look at different ways to use information that comes into their classrooms. Lowell (2008) reports on a program that is teaching children about nature and actually takes them outside to learn about Green programs. She has a very important reason why she is teaching her children about the outdoors and that is because most children have no respect for nature. In order to prepare them to be more conscientious about the environment she suggests that classroom teachers must begin now to train them to care. She uses the book, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to help get her points across. The Lorax is basically about conservation and how ecosystems are dependent upon each other. This has been such an effective way to teach children about the environment that it has created the No Child Left Inside Coalition that is comprised of 200 member groups across the country who are attempting to gain more funding from the No Child Left Behind Act to create more environmental programs for children. They hope that the funding would: …support outdoor learning activities both at school and in nonformal environmental education centers, teacher training, and the creation of state environmental literacy plans (Lowell, par. 15). LEARNING STYLES AND REAL WORLD LEARNING Real world learning will insure that all the different talents that children have will be used. Inside any traditional classroom those children who understand standardized, multiple choice tests will excel. Those children who are more kinesthetic in their learning are often left behind because the material will not make sense to them. Learning styles must be taken into consideration and used when children are attempting to get through their coursework. It is difficult to watch as so many children seem to be wasted in the classroom because the teacher is attempting to get through the testing that must be done. Within the course of the regular school day they have no time to work with learning styles unless their classroom is a gifted or AP type of class. The value of learning styles is that you can really see how the child is taking in information and synthesizing it for their learning. Without this information teachers are trying to fit all children into the same mold which does not work. Houston (1995) suggests that as communities are looking at school reform they have to look at how best to serve children. He directs his ideas towards the development of schools in which learning styles are used to help students achieve instead of trying got support them in environments where they cannot achieve. Although Houstons article was written many years ago it is still relevant to today especially in light of the need for school reform today. Another challenge for teachers is that most children do not come prepared to study. Teachers expect that parents will help children do their homework but many have not finished school and they do not have the skill to help their children. Unless teachers also instruct parents on how to approach the lessons they may not understand how to help their children. Study skills should be taught to children in their classrooms in a way that they understand what to do when they leave school. It seems that school sets children and their parents up for failure when they do not attend to these needs. If students find a reason to do their homework by being engaged in the learning they will most likely allow for a stronger engagement at home. Howard Gardner spoke to the fact that children have multiple intelligences that help them in learning. According to Smith (2002, 2008) there are many successful schools that have success in using Gardners multiple intelligences (MI) theory. Those schools that are successful use the following markers: 1. Culture: support for diverse learners and hard work. Acting on a value system which maintains that diverse students can learn and succeed, that learning is exciting, and that hard work by teachers is necessary. 2. Readiness: awareness-building for implementing MI. Building staff awareness of MI and of the different ways that students learn. 3. Tool: MI is a means to foster high quality work. Using MI as a tool to promote high quality student work rather than using the theory as an end in and of itself. 4. Collaboration: informal and formal exchanges. Sharing ideas and constructive suggestions by the staff in formal and informal exchanges. 5. Choice: meaningful curriculum and assessment options. Embedding curriculum and assessment in activities that are valued both by students and the wider culture. 6. Arts. Employing the arts to develop childrens skills and understanding within and across disciplines. (Smith, p. 9). These markers are designed to assist students to learn real world concepts and they incorporate the arts back into the classroom. They provide a reality check for teachers in that each child is able to discover how they learn best through the ability to value students. CONCLUSION It is very apparent to this researcher than in order for a child to learn they must be immersed in the experience of learning. They are not automatons who simply sit in a seat and regurgitate answers to a stream of complicated ideas. This is not what true education is design to do. Instead children must have the opportunity to get engage n their learning and be motivated to continue throughout the grades. Can we imagine a school where teachers acted more as facilitators of learning than as talking heads in front of a classroom? Could we ourselves in the mist of concepts being developed because children were encouraged to bring forth their ideas because each idea would have value to the entire class? Would this be a place where students would feel safe to learn all they could learn? This is a sincere hope for this researchers classroom and it is hoped that children under this tutelage will gain a respect of learning so that they can not feel beaten up by the system. References Adams, C. M. and Pierce, R. L. (2003). Teaching by tiering. Science and Children, 41(3), 30-34. Retrieved February 21, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 440043611). Bailey B. (2008). BACK TALK. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(3), 232.  Retrieved February 22, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1615001221). Gotto, J. T. (September, 2003). Against School. Harpers Magazine. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/hp/frames.htm. Harris, A. D. (2006, November). Putting students on the fast track. Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, 229(11), 28. Retrieved February 21, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1169212811). Herman, D. V.  (2007). Celebrating Courage in the Learning Organization. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 16(3), 50-52.  Retrieved February 22, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1388499781). Houston, Paul D.  (1995). School reform through a wide-angel lens: The consideration of context. Daedalus, 124(4), 169.  Retrieved February 25, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 6966892). Lowell, Clare.  (2008). Beyond The Lorax? The Greening of the American Curriculum. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(3), 218-222.  Retrieved February 22, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1615001141). National Center for Education Statistics (2008). 1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007. U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf. Powell, D., Needham, D. and Aram, R. (2008). Connecting children to their world. Science and Children, 46(4), 40-44. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1629163491). Ray, B.D. (2008). Research facts on homeschooling. National Home Education Institute. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://www.nheri.org/content/view/199/. Richman, S. (1994). Separating school & state: How to liberate american families Chap. 3: Why there are public schools. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://www.sntp.net/education/school_state_3.htm. Seita, J. R. and Brendtro, L. K. (2007). Attachment and transformation: A Positive Bias. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 16(3), 2-4. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1388499731). Smith, M. K. (2002, 2008) Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences, The encyclopedia of informal education, Retrieved February 23, 2009 from http://www.infed.org/ thinkers/gardner.htm. Stansfield, J. (2008, September). Please sir, I want some more! Mathematics Teaching,(210), 18-19. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1600985681). Read More