Carol Davis EDPS 6451 Final Paper Throughout this course I have reflected on my teaching beliefs, style, how

my classroom runs and how what I do connects with the ideas of the different theorists we have learned about over the semester. It is no surprise that I favor aspects from all the theorists and disregard some. I would like to apply the aspects I believe in of four major theorists who are: Abraham Maslow, B.F. Skinner, Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner. Although Maslow wasnt a focus in this class, I am a firm believer in his theory, so I had a hard time leaving him out my thoughts. I received my first teaching job in a low income elementary school. As a naive, young teacher who grew up in a middle class home with a loving support system, I had no idea what I had in store for me. I had heard the stories and struggles of low income families, but that was never a reality for me until this point in my life. I had never truly been involved first hand. In college I remembered learning about a theorist named Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs (A theory of human motivation. Maslow, A. H. Psychological Review, Vol 50(4), Jul 1943). I wanted to become reacquainted with his work to have more insight into the population that I was serving. I believe that a teacher can try to teach these children all day, but if certain basic needs are not met, then learning will not occur. Maslow has this same idea. His theory consists of five needs. Certain lower needs must be satisfied before the higher needs can be met. In my classroom and at my school, we provide services that try to help with the first three needs of the hierarchy which are: physiological needs, safety needs and love and belongingness needs. As an educator, I know that my job is to help them learn, but if I try to bypass them as a human being, then Im not going to help them much as a learner. Supporting my students with the basic needs that everyone needs to gain self-fulfillment is very important to educate the whole child. As most teachers know and understand, it is difficult to create a conducive learning environment in a classroom when it is not being managed. The way that Im able to manage my classroom relies heavily on a behaviorist type model. I believe that this is the most effective theory for students to learn what is expected of them in a classroom setting. B. F. Skinner talked about the idea of different types of reinforcement that can be used to get a certain outcome (Driscoll, 2005 Page 37). The type that I believe is the most effective in teaching is using different forms of positive reinforcement. I believe that everyone is able to learn and grow when someone is there to push them along in a positive way. As a teacher, and especially where I teach, the children get enough negatives in their lives from their different home situations. I want to boost them up at school and reward them for the good that they are doing. Yes, there are times when a rule is broken that a child must receive a punishment in order to hopefully understand not to repeat the same action, but that is not my primary focus of reinforcement. I see more from my students when they are being reinforced for the positive things that they are doing rather than the negative. They are more willing to follow the rules and be an example to their peers when they are recognized for doing something well. There is a saying that I think applies well with mine and B.F. Skinners positive reinforcement idea, You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar.

Now that the learning environment is conducive to learning by the theories of Maslow and B.F. Skinner, there are two remaining theorists. I have pulled ideas from both Vygotsky and Bruner of how I think learning is best achieved in my classroom. Lev Vygotsky talked about the Zone of Proximal Development. This idea explains that teachers must understand what the learner is able to do independently and then provide the student chances to learn new material with support given. (Driscoll,2005 pages 253-255). This makes it so that what is being taught isnt too simple or too complicated for the student. It is finding the instructional area that is just right for the learner to tackle. This is something that I have come to believe in and understand more as I have taken instructional design classes. Collecting data and analyzing it to know where a students ZPD is, is critical for the success of the student. I know that all students can learn. The process of learning is continuous, there isnt a day that goes by that something new isnt learned. Teachers need to take the time to understand the prior knowledge of their students to know where to instruct them. If this does not take place, then material will be out of their ZPD and the student will lack the interest to learn. I do believe direct instruction needs to take place in the learning process but done in the most effective manner for the student. Small group instruction allows children with similar ZPDs to be grouped together to receive the instruction that will best benefit them. Jerome Bruner also had a similar idea like Vygotsky about a childs readiness, believing that age shouldnt determine if a child is ready to learn a certain skill at a specific time. My overarching goal as a teacher is to have my students love to learn and become lifelong learners. Often times in education we dont let students learn and discover things on their own, it is done in a teacher directed format. I do believe that there are times that direct instruction is the most effective format, but I believe that children need to be given the opportunity to learn on their own. Bruner refers to this as discovery learning (Driscoll,2005 page 234). When I use this type of learning in my classroom, it is amazing! The children are motivated to figure out the problem at hand. I did have some students at first who were very bothered that I would not help them get to the right answer. As we have continued using this format, they have been able to think outside the box to come up with a solution. I think there is too much of fact regurgitating in education which is a disservice to our students. They need to be able to take a problem at hand and think of ways to work it out to find a solution. That is when I see if a student truly understands what they are doing, rather than drill and kill formats all day long. The drill and kill type of learning is disconnected to the real world and will be less effective as they move on with their lives. In conclusion, I tried to show the building blocks that I take as a teacher to create a successful learning environment for my students. This is created by: first, looking at the student as a person with feelings and needs, then move to the management of the classroom to create positive structure and safety, next instruct students in the area where it is developmentally appropriate and lastly create a place where they learn by discovery to help foster lifelong learning.