Learning Activity - Making Meaning of Learner Centered Education Frameworks for Classroom-Based Practitioners - Assignment Example

Learning Activity - Making Meaning of Learner Centered Education Frameworks for Classroom-Based Practitioners Activity 1 Summary Children has learned blue and yellow from the story of “The Birthday Cake” from the previous lesson. Three of the students were able to name the color of green before teacher telling them. After finished the story, the other two were also able to name the color of green. Thought the color hunt in the classroom, all students were able to find and point the green color in the classroom and all of the students were also able to pronounce “green” correctly. Teacher reviewed blue and yellow which learned from previous classes before starting the color mixing activity, teacher demonstrated once and invited two children at a time to do the experiment by mixing blue and yellow color together. The outcome were surprised the students and they were able to identify, recognize and pronounce yellow, blue and green at the end of the lesson. Activity 2 Teacher translated in English and invited them to say after her. Teacher pointed at the picture and read aloud the sentence on the book “I want a robot.” and invited students to read aloud together. After reading, teacher asked who want to have their own “robot” everyone raise their hands.3 Teacher showed the materials in the divided tray, and explained how to put pieces together to make a robot on the paper. Children looked excited about it, and couldn’t wait to make their own one3. They found a seat and discussed with the peers before started doing it. Two of the girls were sitting together and telling each other how’s they wanted their robot looks like. “Big eyes, happy face, a girl robot”, they giggled a lot while they were doing their work. One of the boy was so exciting and kept asking his peers and teacher to look at his robot5. Most of them put the biggest pieces for the body, a smallest pieces for the eyes or mouth.6 Some of them drew the arms by chalks/markers, and some of them found some small long pieces for arms and legs.7 Every one of them were concentrated on making their robot and enjoyed the process so much. They were so happy about their work.8 At the end of the lesson, children introduced their robot in front of the peers. Everyone laughed out loud when seeing other’s robot. At the end, teacher pointed to one of their robot asked “What is this?” Everyone said “This is a robot”9 Analysis of the learning activities Classroom management is a complex issue that entails the arrangement of the physical environment, defined by rules, routines and also the establishment of productive relationships with the learners. This helps to prevent any event of misbehavior from taking place. In order to enhance a good control over the students, the instructional methods that were implemented came in handy (Martin, 2004). For instance, discussions and demonstrations are important determinants of the behavior of the learners in a classroom setting. I used the teacher-centered approach in some scenarios. For example, when the students seemed to exhibit negative behavior, this is an excellent method to enhance their behavior towards the positive dimension. The teacher-centered approach emanated when I gave out tasks that the students were supposed to finish within a specified timeline (Lattimer, 2015). However, this timeline was agreed upon among themselves, and I had to accept it for it was significant to consider their engagement. It helped me to obtain the desired outcomes as outlined in the lesson plan. The student-centered approach was evident in many learning activities that I carried out with the learners. Lesson planning A lesson plan needs to be active and exciting for both the instructor and the learners. The lesson plan that was adopted adheres to the adjectives above. First, the realistic goals of learning were chosen. It is essential to focus on the development of skills rather than only putting more emphasis on knowledge. The new contexts should be picked for the context of learning among the children. It is evident in the lesson plan that was developed for the learning activities in this paper. This was achieved after a connection between the interests of the students, and the topic of discussion was identified. Additionally, it became a crucial point to build the lesson on. During the development of the learning activities, the lesson plan that was developed took into a clear account of the needs and talents of the children. Preparation of the lesson plans considered the needs of all the learners, and therefore, this adheres to the demand for an effective lesson plan which tries to meet the needs of the learners. It also offers the children an environment that facilitates their learning. The children will be capable of learning in the way that they will most prefer. Moreover, when I was developing the lesson plan, I applied diverse methods to ensure that the intended knowledge is imparted to the children. It does not only make the learning activity dynamic, but it also promotes the learning activity. Appealing resources were also chosen as part of the lesson planning. For instance, the preparation of the audiovisual aids served a significant purpose of facilitating the learning process of the children in the classroom. The materials also add educational value to the lessons being taught. Fair assessment There are many observation techniques to use during the learning activity to monitor the progress of the learning of the children. Additionally, it helps to assess whether the lesson planning being followed needed any modifications to suit the needs of the learners in the classroom. In the lesson plan adopted, there was no test, especially, the written tests. This is a crucial tool that was missing. Indeed, assessment is taken as an ongoing type of observation that enables the instructor to identify the challenges that the learners have pertaining to their understanding of a particular topic. The teacher should also ensure that this is not the sole method that he or she uses in his or her teaching process (Martin, 2004). If that is the case, the learners may naturally develop negative attitudes towards the course. The learning and teaching environment The learning activities were useful, intentional, and had meaning too. The learning activities were aligned with the learning outcomes that are entailed in the module that I was to teach the children during that lesson (Martin, 2004). Therefore, it implies that the intent was clear to the learners and also to me as the instructor as well. Each of the learning activities was also meaningful. The curriculum Principles underpinning the curriculum design and review The design of the curriculum at any level ought to be responsive to the field that the learners learning needs fall. It needs to be relevant, and up to date, moreover, it is supposed to demonstrate awareness about teaching and assessment approaches in the relevant discipline. Curriculum documentation must have the learning outcomes incorporated within its scope. The learning outcomes should show explicit knowledge pertaining to a particular field or discipline. Furthermore, the cognitive and professional practices should be adhered to when designing the curriculum. Usually, learning outcomes are multifaceted, and they require knowledge, values, and practices. That is why those elements are usually an embodiment within the learning outcomes. In the process of reviewing the curriculum, proper consultation with the primary stakeholders should be done. I underpinned this issue because stakeholders are the influential forces that are part and parcel of a learning institution and process. Reviewing the processes is another critical element of curriculum design and implementation. Review of the curriculum helps to generate and accommodate the new concepts that are pertinent to learning. The changes need to be informed by the legit demands among a specific group of children. It also considers the affordances of digital technologies for the promotion of teaching and learning activities. Equity and redress should be part of the curriculum. The curriculum ought to follow a design whereby it meets the educational demands that are common to all the pupils in the learning center. There should also be a clear statement of the ways that can be used to bridge the articulation gap that exists between one level to the next one. Diversity is another critical element of a curriculum. Essentially, diversity of the students’ fraternity requires that the curricula being developed are very much sensitive to the various backgrounds and physical appearances of all the participants in the learning and teaching processes. There was a need to interrogate the current curriculum, and this will guide the design of the new curriculum. For instance, what forms the curriculum? This question encompasses many things, like the purpose of the learning course, the vision, and mission of the institution, the historical convention, the preferences and expertise of the teaching staff, and also the learning and teaching theories involved, among others. Considering the concepts above, which underpin the curriculum development, I adopted a more student-centered approach when writing the learning activities. For example, I gave out assignments for the learners. This really helps to promote responsibility among the children. Additionally, I adhered to a project approach. This is important since it makes the instructor remain relevant and also, it avoids confusion among the learners. Indeed, covering one theme and then moving onto the next one can prove to an ideal approach when dealing with a large group of children also. Learning theories Behaviorism learning theory This theory operated on the concept of stimulus-response. For instance, it states that all the behavior of the learners is as a result of the operant conditioning that is evident in the learning environment. While I was designing the learning activities, I considered the fact that learning can be imparted into the learners without the need to take into account the inner states of them, or their consciousness. I assumed that the learners are passive and this is especially when expressing their response to the environment of learning. Through this mode of learning, I usually punished the students who failed to do the tasks that I assigned them. Thus, positive reinforcement was exhibited in the learning activities I designed. This is through a follow up on the tasks that were given after the course learning. Indeed, punishment leads to a decrease in the probability that a negative behavior in the classroom will recur (Lattimer, 2015). And hence, the definition of learning encompasses the idea that there is an implied change in the behavior of the learners. When I was trying to motivate the children, I was influenced by the cognitive theory of learning. Indeed, this is an effective strategy that can be applied in the classroom to make the children learn in a practical way. In the process of learning, I made the children relate the course materials with other aspects, which enhanced them to have an excellent start for the course. For instance, the use of a story when introducing the lesson did very well in enhancing the motivation of the children to adopt the learning activity. There are many processes that are involved in the cognitive theory of learning — for instance, attention, perception, repetition, and coding. The above processes also enhanced the transfer of the material learned from one part of the brain to another — for example, the data processing aspect of cognitive learning. The learners will be able to exercise executive cognition, which is capable of directing their processes of attention in class, the perception of the ideas, and also coding the information obtained in class learning activities. The use of the audio-visual aids promotes the long memory of the concepts that the instructor gives to the learners. Constructivism This is another theory of learning that impacted the way I developed the learning activities for the children. Under this theory, great emphasis is put on active indulgence and involvement of the learners, so that the can construct knowledge among themselves. Sometimes this does not need an instructor in class. However, the function of an instructor is to make a follow-up and confirm whether the learners really followed what was expected of them by the teacher (Maden, Durukan and Akbaş, 2011). This was evident in the learning activities by the employment of the group discussions. The students discussed the idea among themselves before presenting the work to the teacher for approval. Additionally, making class presentations is a good idea that promotes constructivism in the learning process. The teacher needs to inquire about what the learners know when they come to class. From the design of the learning activities, the background of the pupil is built, and then it allows such child to improve his or her background knowledge. The teacher pursues the role of a facilitator rather than actually being the source of knowledge. Indeed, knowledge is in the course materials, therefore, what is needed is the background to enable the child to retrieve that knowledge. The learning activities also enhanced the autonomy of the children and also making them be curious about knowing more. For instance, the learning activity from a magazine article, which the learners were expected to look at, made them look for more information that is related to that. This is the element of curiosity that is being imparted in the children as they undertake their studies. Transformative learning theory of learning This theory is concerned with an explanation of the way human beings understand any material that they are reading on. The learning activity portrays the teacher as a facilitator. This is crucial to effecting the desired change in any reference frame. The teacher ought to provide an environment that allows the learners to discuss their points regarding the task assigned. The learning activity involved a task of listing the advantages and disadvantages of a given issue. Therefore, the students were expected to discuss that each one of them identified. Indeed, this is an enabling environment for transformational learning. Learning does not involve the teacher giving out points every time, to the learners. Teaching theories The cognitive context for theorizing Application of the taxonomy of Bloom (Anderson et al., 2001) gave me an insight into the cognitive process of teaching the group of children. The taxonomy is identified as critiquing. Therefore, when theorizing the learning activity, I had a purpose. For instance, giving a description of the problem as in the first learning activity (Schuell, 1986). Through this method, I also had quite a good number of examples to give to the students to enhance their understanding of the course. Sometimes the learners fail to understand the course material because there are invalid examples and illustrations on the course material that they are handling. Conclusion Adoption of student-centered approaches in the learning activities can lead to the best results. This may be regarded as a traditional method of teaching. However, it is still applicable to the current education systems. The principles of student-centered approach are explicit and easy to follow. First, students are incorporated in the decision-making process regarding matters of the class, and also all the students are assumed to be partners in the process of learning and teaching. Therefore, the learning activities that I adopted are applicable to a group of 5 to 6 children as earlier stated in the description. References Lattimer, H. (2015). Translating theory into practice: Making meaning of learner centered education frameworks for classroom-based practitioners. International Journal of Educational Development, 45, 65–76. Maden, S., Durukan, E. & Akbaş, E. (2011). Primary school teachers’ perceptions of student centered teaching. Mustafa Kemal University Journal of Social Sciences Institute, 8(16), 255-269. Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. McDonough, M. (2012). Applying learner-centered principles: From face to face instruction to a hybrid course learning format. Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 8(2), 31-39. Martin, S. D. (2004). Finding balance: Impact of classroom management conceptions on developing teacher practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 405-422. Brophy, J. (1999). Perspectives of classroom management: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. In H. Freiberg (Ed.), Beyond behaviorism: changing the classroom management paradigm, 43–56. Boston: Allyn and Bacon Richardson, J.C., & Swan. K. (2003). Examining social presence in online courses in relation to students' perceived learning and satisfaction. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 7(1), 68-88. Schuell, T.J. (1986). Cognitive conceptions of learning. Review of Educational Research, 56, 411-436. Read More