Thursday, February 25, 2010
Brain Awareness Project Proposal
I intend to create some form of video incorporating my core content area that displays the way our brain connects and stores thoughts. This will most likely include a PowerPoint creation with some YouTube video addition. This will also include some anatomy of the neuron structure and function.
Development Case Study
1. According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Laura is just entering the Formal Operational Stage. Laura is taking her ability to think concretely and attempting to apply it to hypothetical situation. Her limited experience forces her to assimilate her understanding of how the world works with the dilemma she is faced with. When her teacher begins to question her schema, she accommodates her previous explanations with new dilemma's that she is presented with. She is trying not to disrupt her cognitive equilibrium and the result is that her jump into the formal operational stage is tentative. Her teacher is guiding her through the process of hypothetical deductive reasoning by allowing her to test different variables against her hypothesis. She seems to be trying to apply concrete reasoning to this process. She is able to apply transitivity to her reasoning by reevaluating and regrouping her hypothesis, but she is afraid to let go of the equilibrium she is grasping to withdraw her hypothesis and consider an alternative.
2. It is likely that Laura has never seen the effects of pollution or even completely defined what pollution is. She narrowly defines it as consumed gasoline. When her teacher introduces her to landfill pollution she seems to vaguely understand the connection and has to accommodate her previous schema to this new idea. Ironically enough she does this by solving the problem with more pollution, chemicals. When this contradiction is presented to her she struggles to assimilate the concept into her recently expanded schema. It is at this point that her prior knowledge base limits her ability to engage in a rational discussion of an unfamiliar topic.
3. Laura's teacher is attempting to expand her zone of proximal development by allowing her to develop theories that she is comfortable with and then slowly challenging them to broaden her range of cognitive reasoning. He is using a scaffolding technique that expands her reasoning one step at a time instead of dumping a lot of challenging information into a semi-permeable schema. Through this type of guided participation all of the students are benefiting from the scaffold of information. By using a scaffolding technique, Laura's teacher allows her and her peers to assimilate and accommodate new ideas as they try to maintain equilibrium. By disrupting their state of schema equilibrium, he encourages cognitive development because they have to regain their equilibrium.
4. Piaget's theory discusses how learners acquire schema and adapt them by manipulating their environment and piecing information together into understandable cognitive pathways. He suggests that this happens independently as a child figures out the world around him. Vygotskii would take this process and intercede with an experienced learner to guide the learning process. This can be seen as Laura is allowed to develop her own hypothesis about how the world operates, or should operate, and then her teacher guides her through the rest of the play experience by guiding her reasoning processes though his own experience and understanding.
2. It is likely that Laura has never seen the effects of pollution or even completely defined what pollution is. She narrowly defines it as consumed gasoline. When her teacher introduces her to landfill pollution she seems to vaguely understand the connection and has to accommodate her previous schema to this new idea. Ironically enough she does this by solving the problem with more pollution, chemicals. When this contradiction is presented to her she struggles to assimilate the concept into her recently expanded schema. It is at this point that her prior knowledge base limits her ability to engage in a rational discussion of an unfamiliar topic.
3. Laura's teacher is attempting to expand her zone of proximal development by allowing her to develop theories that she is comfortable with and then slowly challenging them to broaden her range of cognitive reasoning. He is using a scaffolding technique that expands her reasoning one step at a time instead of dumping a lot of challenging information into a semi-permeable schema. Through this type of guided participation all of the students are benefiting from the scaffold of information. By using a scaffolding technique, Laura's teacher allows her and her peers to assimilate and accommodate new ideas as they try to maintain equilibrium. By disrupting their state of schema equilibrium, he encourages cognitive development because they have to regain their equilibrium.
4. Piaget's theory discusses how learners acquire schema and adapt them by manipulating their environment and piecing information together into understandable cognitive pathways. He suggests that this happens independently as a child figures out the world around him. Vygotskii would take this process and intercede with an experienced learner to guide the learning process. This can be seen as Laura is allowed to develop her own hypothesis about how the world operates, or should operate, and then her teacher guides her through the rest of the play experience by guiding her reasoning processes though his own experience and understanding.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Special Needs Case Study Analysis
Nathan does not display classic symptoms of a learning disability. Learning disabilities are identified by the student's struggle to perform tasks relative to reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, listening, and math. It is possible that Nathan has a listening problem, but more likely that he has an inattentive problem. The listening part seems to be working just fine because he knows what is expected of him, and his behavior issues do not only stem from listening. It appears that Nathan has ADD, or from the mention of hyperactivity in a previous environment, he could have ADHD. He seems to be fully cognisant that he is distracted easily. His teacher has noticed that although completely capable of doing the work, Nathan struggles to complete the task. This is occurring both in classwork and on exams. He also forgets to follow through with classroom procedures. This isn't happening because of defiance, but rather undirected focus. These are all classic symptoms of ADD.
Other teachers seem to have noticed similar patterns of behavior because specific actions were taken to help Nathan. It appears that he was medicated by a doctor to increase his ability to focus. Although this was effective, Nathan always felt tired, and does not want to continue taking medication. His teachers also placed him in a resource environment. This probably seemed effective because the classroom size is much more limited and the teacher was more able to meet Nathans needs. It is likely that resource classes didn't continue into junior high school because Nathan did not have a learning disability, only an attention problem and so the resource teacher did not feel it necessary to continue services.
Nathan can receive services under IDEA in a category entitled "other health impairments". Nathan could also benefit from an IEP in which he can collaborate with his teachers and parents as well as other educational staff to find ways to help him succeed. Some ways that might be considered are explained below.
It seems that Nathan does not struggle with beginning an assignment or with understanding it. He only struggles with completing it. Therefore, it would make sense to break assignments into smaller chunks and allow in between time for some type of activity involving movement. In this way, Nathan would be able to complete large assignments a piece at a time.
One possibility might be to allow Nathan do move around the room to different stations to complete different portions of his assignment. In this way he would be less likely to get off task in a daydreaming mode because he would be engaging a motor skill in his assignment/exam process.
It has also been helpful for children with ADHD to have something in their hands to manipulate during instruction time so that their mind can stay focused and their hands can be engaged.
Another idea regarding the procedure of handing in homework could be handled through the buddy system. Students could be grouped by tables or rows and each student in the group could take turns being responsible for gathering their groups homework. In this way Nathan would be reminded to retrieve his homework from his backpack and turn it in. The group leader could then report to the teacher any missing assignments so that the teacher could immediately seek out reasons for missing work.
Many schools have implemented day planner systems to help their students track their work. In this way Nathan would be reminded at the beginning of each period what assignments he needed to turn in and at the end of the period what assignments he needs to take home. This is a technique that he can carry with him into the rest of his life. It allows him to be personally accountable.
4-6% of Children have a learning disability, and 3-5% of children have ADD or ADHD. This means that it is likely that you will have at least one of each type of student in all of your classes as a teacher. It is also likely that children with ADD will also have a learning disability. In fact, 25-70% of children with ADD also have a learning disability. This information can be found at http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/teachers/index.asp and at http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/teachers/understanding/adhd.asp
Other teachers seem to have noticed similar patterns of behavior because specific actions were taken to help Nathan. It appears that he was medicated by a doctor to increase his ability to focus. Although this was effective, Nathan always felt tired, and does not want to continue taking medication. His teachers also placed him in a resource environment. This probably seemed effective because the classroom size is much more limited and the teacher was more able to meet Nathans needs. It is likely that resource classes didn't continue into junior high school because Nathan did not have a learning disability, only an attention problem and so the resource teacher did not feel it necessary to continue services.
Nathan can receive services under IDEA in a category entitled "other health impairments". Nathan could also benefit from an IEP in which he can collaborate with his teachers and parents as well as other educational staff to find ways to help him succeed. Some ways that might be considered are explained below.
It seems that Nathan does not struggle with beginning an assignment or with understanding it. He only struggles with completing it. Therefore, it would make sense to break assignments into smaller chunks and allow in between time for some type of activity involving movement. In this way, Nathan would be able to complete large assignments a piece at a time.
One possibility might be to allow Nathan do move around the room to different stations to complete different portions of his assignment. In this way he would be less likely to get off task in a daydreaming mode because he would be engaging a motor skill in his assignment/exam process.
It has also been helpful for children with ADHD to have something in their hands to manipulate during instruction time so that their mind can stay focused and their hands can be engaged.
Another idea regarding the procedure of handing in homework could be handled through the buddy system. Students could be grouped by tables or rows and each student in the group could take turns being responsible for gathering their groups homework. In this way Nathan would be reminded to retrieve his homework from his backpack and turn it in. The group leader could then report to the teacher any missing assignments so that the teacher could immediately seek out reasons for missing work.
Many schools have implemented day planner systems to help their students track their work. In this way Nathan would be reminded at the beginning of each period what assignments he needed to turn in and at the end of the period what assignments he needs to take home. This is a technique that he can carry with him into the rest of his life. It allows him to be personally accountable.
4-6% of Children have a learning disability, and 3-5% of children have ADD or ADHD. This means that it is likely that you will have at least one of each type of student in all of your classes as a teacher. It is also likely that children with ADD will also have a learning disability. In fact, 25-70% of children with ADD also have a learning disability. This information can be found at http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/teachers/index.asp and at http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/teachers/understanding/adhd.asp
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