How I Believe Students Learn

Throughout all of human history, various views of learning have come and gone.
Some of these ideas have gained traction and, through research, have been confirmed to
be valid and useful learning theories. In this paper, I will describe those theories to which
I ascribe and how they will impact my teaching
As my endorsement area is Social Studies, I believe that Information Processing
Theory, as put forth by Atkinson and Shiffrin, helps with the rote memorization that is
sometimes required in a Social Studies class. The Encoding portion specifically would
help with learning the required information. Encoding is different techniques one can use
in order to facilitate memorization, and it includes six different sub groups: attention,
rehearsal, deep processing, elaboration, constructing images, and organization (Santrock,
2006, pg 249-255). Using these six strategies, students can better retain information, and
use the information they now know in the declarative knowledge portion of the
Information Processing Theory. This knowledge then leads to the next two stages of
procedural and conditional knowledge, which can be used to greatly enhance the learners
understanding of the connections between different types of information (Santrock, 2006,
pg 259).
Second, Social Constructivism describes a way of learning that allows the social
nature of learning to come into the picture (Eggen & Kauckeck, 2007, pg 236). Vygotsky
believed that in order to learn the student must have more than just raw information
thrown at them (Eggen & Kauckeck, 2007, pg 236). He thought that as children grow up
and become socialized to the world they could learn a lot from their peers and their peers
from them (Eggen & Kauckeck, 2007, pg 236). Different students bring different

strengths and weaknesses to the classroom, and the group type work that Vygotsky
extolled allows the students to be able to create different connections with different
information in order to better learn the information (Eggen & Kauchek, 2007, pg 236).
Another substantial piece of Social Constructivism is the Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD). The ZPD describes three different zones of learning for students. The lowest is
what the student can learn without any outside help. The highest is what the student
cannot learn at all, no matter what kind of help is given all the information goes right
over his head. The middle is the ZPD. This is what the student can learn with help from a
facilitator and more capable peers.
Third, the Social Cognitive Theory, as put forth by Albert Bandura, talks about the
different types of vicarious learning, such as types of influence and models, that students
use to learn. The types of influence include power (people that you feel have power over
you), prestige (people who have importance outside the learning environment),
competence (the knowledge of the material being taught), and similarity (different
methods of making the students feel at ease with the learning process) (Fetsco &
McClure, 2005, pg 103). Also important are models which allow the student to learn
without the teacher necessarily actively teaching. The models include live, symbolic,
verbal description, and observational learning. Verbal description is obviously active, but
the other three can be used while the teacher is doing some other type of teaching and the
student is just observing the teacher (Fetsco & McClure, 2005, pg 98).

How This Will Affect My Teaching

Information Processing Theory will allow me to help the students better encode
the information that will be given to them. The six types of encoding will help the
students to put the information into their long term memory, and then, accessing that
information, they will

have the declarative knowledge that they can then transfer

into procedural knowledge to gain a better understanding of whatever it is that we are

studying. This then leads into the conditional knowledge that allows the students an even
deeper understanding in order to know when to use and why to use what they know.
Attention grabbers are things, such as questions on the board to get the class thinking,
which can be used at the beginning of lessons in order to get the students interested in the
lesson of the day. Rehearsal can also be at the beginning of class by rehashing what was
covered in a previous lesson. Deep processing would be a discussion about where the
students can go that is outside of the classroom that will allow them to continue their
learning about a specific subject, such as visiting old Civil War battlefields. Using
elaboration, I would ask groups of students to delve deeper into specific subjects, and
then report what they learned to the class. This also incorporates Social Constructivism,
with the group work, but the group work is important in order to allow for more diverse
thoughts to be integrated into the elaboration of the subjects. Constructing images is
important because many students are visual learners. An image that I could implement
would be to have the students construct a replica of the United States with the capitals of
each state labeled. This would allow for better memory of specific facts. The final
strategy is organization. This I would use as a way for students to better understand the
chronological order of specific events in history. If I were to just throw dates at them they

probably would not remember them very well, but if I were to give them some context, or
organization, of which events happened in what order they could better understand why
the events happened in the order that they did. I would also be sure to keep all the
information I give to my students within the Zone of Proximal Development in order to
keep my students learning at the best rate they can without making things too difficult or
too easy.
Social Cognitive Theory would be used in my classroom to teach the students the
necessary tools to be active, social citizens in the world. They would be able to observe
my respectful and helpful behavior towards them, and hopefully implement that into their
own lives if I have enough influence with them. This influence comes from the different
types of influence: power, prestige, competence, and similarity. I would have power with
most of my students because they believe that the office of Teacher is one with power. I
would like to have prestige according to my students, and that could happen if they think
that going to college is a far off dream and I am a college graduate. Competence I would
have throughout all my years of teaching because I would competent in whatever subject
I am teaching. The similarity might be hard to come by, depending on where I end up
teaching, but I hope to be able to find some common interests in order to keep the
students interested in what I have to say. Hopefully I would be able to use all four types
with my future students in order to have the largest effect on their lives as possible. The
one model that I would actively use is the verbal description portion of the theory. I
would use verbal description to describe what behavior is preferred in my classroom and
why it is that I would like the students to be that way.

References
Eggen, P., & Kauchek, D. (2007). Constructing Knowledge. In Educational Pyschology:
Windows on Classrooms (pp. 234-257). Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentice
Hall.
Fetsco, T., & McClure, J. (2005). Understanding Social Cognitive Theory. In Educational
Pychology: an Integrated Approach to Classroom Decisions (pp. 91-115). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Santrock, J. (2006). Educational Pychology. Boston: McGraw Hill.