Re:Shelby classroom seating

What types of seating arrangements are best for learning? What physical changes should be made to the classroom to make them more conducive to learning?

Shelby mentioned how the typical seating in classrooms are rows of uncomfortable seats and how it has always been this way. The typical classrooms are like this, yet I have experienced two different kinds of seating arrangements regularly in classrooms, one is with one or more semi-circle(s) of chairs facing the instructor and the second is large tables (about 3-5) with students at each. I think that like with almost everything, it depends on what is the best.

With discussion based classes it is really annoying to have row seating. It is in our culture to look at people when they are talking, it is a sign of respect, yet, I hate straining my neck every time someone at an odd angle from me is talking. People take that into consideration though, certainly I do not find people disrespectful if they are not looking at me in this set up, yet I probably would if it was a semi-circle.

Row seating is well-suited for the standard talk-and-chalk lectures. That type of teaching is not suitable for semi-circle seating because there is no need to see everyone and when you get stuck on the end it is tough to read the board. I agree with Shelby, this is also my favorite type of seating.

Group seating is efficient for group work and project based classes. This type of seating is not effective when there are lectures because some of the student's backs are towards the front of the class. Most of these classes are art or English classes through my experience.

Anything other than light colors I feel would be distracting or would look bad in the classroom. Neon, or dark colored walls would not benefit the learning environment, yet light and dull colors might benefit learning more than white.

When it comes to lighting, studies have actually shown that bright light is beneficial to learning. It makes sense when you think about it, when there is more light you are more aware, yet I'm not sure if that's the reason.

Question: What would make the classroom more enjoyable?

Motivating the Unmotivated

I found an article online written by Maria Koklanaris published by The Parent Institute titled "7 Proven Ways to Motivate Children to do Better in School." http://asfms.net/parentworkshops/pdfs/SevenProvenWaystoMotivateChildren.pdf

This article, as the title states, gives seven ways that parents can motivate their unmotivated child.

The First step is to set proper expectations. According to Koklanaris, a parent should expect their child to successed, yet they should base their expectations on the child as an individual, incorporating what they know to be their strengths and weaknesses. Communicate to your child that you expect to see them trying their best. Do not look at the goals look at the steps to get there. Re-evaluate them on their efforts and interests about every three months or sooner. Review the expectations and highlight their improvements so far.

The second way to motivate your children is by setting goals. Goal setting involves three steps. One is you writing goals down for your child so that they have a visual reminder. Two is making the goals measurable so that you can see progress. The third is emphasizing a plan on how to achieve the expectations clearly. If the goal is to improve your child’s math grade first make that expectation within reach. For example, instead of saying that you want to get their D to an A, set the expectation of getting it to a C. After that is met you can build from there. Explain how to reach these goals by setting little goals to help them get there, for example practicing math problems for 20 minutes each day and taking the practice test in the back, even though it is not assigned. The article then goes into more detail by giving Five steps that help your child accomplish anything. 1.Have them make a conscious decision to do something. 2. Decide when they will do it. 3. plan how they will do it. 4. commit to someone else that they will do it. 5. Make a specific appointment with a person to report whether they have done it or not.

The third way to motivate your child is by showing them that you think that school is important. Of course if you do not care, neither are they. Koklanaris outlined five ways of showing that you care other than helping them achieve goals and setting expectations. One of them is maintaining a relationship with your child's teacher. Discuss the teachers goals for the curriculum and work together to come up with ways to help your child met those goals. The second way of showing your child that school is important is by supporting school programs. It has been scientifically proven that parental involvement in school is correlated to academic success. These modes of involvement include: back-to-school night, parent teacher conferences, volunteering at school fundraisers, volunteering for field trips, and joining the PTA. A third way is to create a suitable environment to do their work. Make sure that they have a quiet, bright environment and let them know that you will get them whatever supplies that they need. Fourthly, keeping up with your child’s assignments, be aware of their assignment of when big projects are do. And Lastly another ways to let your child know that you feel that school is important is to stay positive, show enthusiasm for what they are learning.

The forth way is to support your child’s learning style. Early this semester we talked about the different learning styles: analytical, global, auditory, kinesthetic, visual, linguistic and musical. In this article they separate children into three groups: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Children feel more motivated about school when they can incorporate their learning style into it more. Koklanaris explains the attributes each learner has so that a parent can categorize them under the appropriate style, she then gave studying tips for that specific type of learner.

Auditory

· You know your child is an auditory learner if they:

o enjoy listening to music and hearing stories, they follow oral directions well, they are comfortable talking and feel, and they are more comfortable reading spelling words aloud rather than writing them.

· Study tips

o Auditory learners benefit from recording themselves and hearing it back. They also benefit from using pneumonic devices, rhymes, songs, and associated words. Have them play an audio recording of a book while they follow along. Have them talk through their problems “okay and now I carry the one…”. And lastly, give them an oral quiz.

Visual

· You know your child is a visual learner if they:

o learn best by reading or looking at graphs/tables. These students like to have something visual or written to help with oral presentations. They enjoy art, movies, and theater. Prefers studying charts rather than repeating aloud.

· Study tips

o Have your child make a poster or have an erasable whiteboard chart and have them fill in the things that they need to do that week. When they are assigned a textbook reading they should first skim through and look at all of the graphs and tables. When they are studying they should use colors as much as possible. Flashcards are a great medium for students who are visual learners.

Kinesthetic

· You know your child is a kinesthetic learner if they:

o Learn best from building or preparing a chart. These students like to move and would prefer to participate rather than observe. Prefers to create things and do hands-on activities rather than learn theories. When they are trying to remember things they tend to pace or study in a “non-sitting position.”

· Study tips:

o Encourage them to take study breaks where they do a physical activity. You should give them the maximum amount of room to study as possible. Parents should encourage hands-on projects for things like science fairs and also figure out ways to make any assignment a physical activity. You can aid these children with their reading comprehension by acting out passages in their text or be their audience.

The fifth way of motivating your child to do better in school is by giving encouragement. Koklanaris emphasizes that there is a big difference between praise and encouragement. Children unconsciously depend or your assessment of their success when you give praise. Encouragement leads the child to assess themselves. Praise should be used when the child worked as well as you wanted them to. Make sure to use opinion words and discuss the results that they received. This article did not mention this, but it also may be beneficial to let them know that their progress or achievement has positively affected you personally. Encouragement can be given whether or not they met the goals or not. Go over what to do differently if they did not reach the goal and use a positive attitude. It is essential to give encouragement when you notice effort and progress. Make sure to use descriptive words.

The sixth mode of motivating your child is reinforcing learning at home and in the community. Culture them and open their eyes to new points of view. Koklanaris gives the example that if your son or daughter likes basketball, take them to a ballet to show them that athleticism can be seen in all different forms. Culture can be taught in different ways such as a cultural family dinner night. Making cuisine from a different culture gives them a taste of that culture, using a sense that is not usually used for learning.

The seventh and final way to motivate children to do better in school is by encouraging them to be resilient. One neuropsychological study done by the University of Utah, supported that resiliency is developed by creating specific qualities. These qualities are: having a well-built notion that an adult will have unconditional love and support for them, capability to solve their problems without the help of others, understand and can focus on their strengths, and realize that everyone makes mistakes and that we can all learn from them. These qualities allow children to be prepared for whatever comes their way. There are four ways to install these qualities in your children: Empathizing with your child, giving your child practical choices, altering your method when the initial one does not work, and supporting your child’s interests and talents.

Question: What do you feel motivates you to do your work/ be successful?

Re: Mike 3/27/11

Do you think motivation is completely on the teacher or does it depend on the student? If so, what is more effective, positive or negative reinforcement?

Motivation is an internal drive, some people do not need to be pushed because they have it on their own, yet others need to be pressed. If people need to be pushed I feel like it is jointly on their family members, bosses, friends, and teachers to help give them that boost.

If a teacher wants to give their students a lift to cooperate in class, a behavioral intervention is one of the most ethical and easiest ways to go about it. I first want to make clear the differences between positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment, because there seems to be some confusion. Both types of reinforcement strengthen behavior and punishment weakens it. Positive reinforcement is when a stimulus is added in order to increase behavior. It is a common misconception to think of negative reinforcement as a "bad" type of reinforcement; negative does not refer to quality. The key word for negative reinforcement is "escape." When an adverse stimulus is presented, a person engages in the desired behavior in order to escape the undesired stimulus. A general example of negative reinforcement is when your car beeps until you put your seat-belt on. You put your seat belt on in order to escape the beeping. Nagging, complaining, and whining are verbal forms.

Punishment is the process of providing consequences for a behavior that decrease its frequency. Yelling is a type of punishment, more specifically called "reprimand." Punishment has many other forms, one is "response cost" this is when someone has to give up something as a form of punishment, a common example is a parking ticket (you have to give money). Another type of punishment is “overcorrection” this is when you have a person fix what they have done wrong and also repeatedly engage in the correct behavior on top of that. The last two types are "time out", and “physical punishment” which I think are both self-explanatory.

If a teacher wants to go the behaviorist route to motivate students the type of reinforcement or punishment used depends on the situation. If students are talking amongst themselves there are many types of ways to handle it using behaviorist techniques. You could go the punishment route by yelling (reprimand) or giving a detention (response cost). You could also go the negative reinforcement route by having an annoying sound be played every time the students act up. As soon as they are quiet, turn the sound off. After repeated pairings, in theory, they will no longer display that behavior. In order to use positive reinforcement in this situation you would have to wait until they display desirable behavior (being quiet) in order to thank them for shutting up (not in those words, of course). Every form has its place and with any situation you could devise plan behavior interventions and then choose which fits the situation the best.

Question: Behavior analysis is one tool to get students to cooperate in a classroom. Yet, does cooperating and doing what educational society wants of you necessarily mean that you are motivationally driven?

Re: Shelby 3/23/11

Shelby asked, "How can teachers and parents encourage students to be curious?"
Curiosity is an interest, desire, and thirst for knowledge. Curiosity is an instinct that we are born with and it is shown in the form of questions, exploration, wonder, and imagination. If you never question or seek answers how will you learn anything? As soon as babies are able to form questions, they never stop. They are curious about the world and all parents can do is answer those questions. The disappearance or diminishment of curiosity is likely due to external factors.
There are somethings that teachers can do to install the drive of curiosity in their students. The first that comes to mind is a technique that Professor Johnson uses in his teaching style, have students to ask questions. At the end of every Q&A and every blog post we have to end in a question or two. Asking questions enables one to receive answers and further their knowledge and inquiries. Another technique to install curiosity is to explore or research topics that one is interested in. Teachers at times have their students pick from a list of topics for papers or projects, this is important for the activation of curiosity because no one is curious about what they do not care about (yet maybe they are curious to why they do not care). A third method could be making the topic taught interesting. Teachers at times just resort to classic methods of teaching instead of thinking outside of the box. There are many ways to teach geometry or how to read getting students involved in what they are learning will make them want to learn more. A fourth method is having teachers ask the students questions that way they must wonder and formulate an answer. Answering a question involves puzzle piecing and if a student must answer a question, they then understand what is missing in order for them to answer it. By being asked they figure out what they do not know. And the final thing to do, which is a common practice among teachers, is to tell their students that their is no such thing as a dumb question and always leave class time to go over any confusion or further questions.
Question: Have you ever been told that you ask too many questions or has a teacher ever discouraged you to ask questions in a class?

Motivation

In class on Wednesday we talked about the over justification effect -- when giving external rewards for a desired behavior decreases the internal reward. I wanted to make it clear that not all reward giving decreases desired behaviors, infact it is often used and extremly effective in behavioral psychology. When an agent performs a desired behavior and they recieve a reward, it is known as positive reinforcement and you would be suprized on it's success. Tom Byrne, the Chair of the psychology department and behavior anaylst once said, "Teachers scoff because they think that behaviors cannot be influenced by M&Ms and gummy bears because 'it's not that easy'. But it is that easy." So why can gummy bears make someone behave a certin way and eventually cause them to establish an intenal reward, yet in the case of the over justification effect an external reward lowers the internal award? Well, these are behavioral interventions, they work to positivly reinforce a behavior that was not there to begin with. When tangible positive reinforcement occurs for individuals who already have an established internal award, they turn their focus on getting the external reward rather than enjoying the activity. Non tangible, or verbal reinforcement like saying, "good job" is helpful for both children who do not have an already established internal reward or the lack of one.
There was a study conducted that tested the effects of the poistive reinforcement phrases, "you worked hard" and "you are smart". The first group was given a test and after they had finished they were told that they did a good job and that they were worked hard. The second group recieved the same test and after they finished they were told that they did a good job and that they were smart. They both recieved a more difficult test and the group that was told that they worked hard not only did well, but was asking for more! The second group did not do so well. The two groups were then given the same test as they had in the beginning and the "hard working" group did the same or better and the "smart" group did worse. This shows that encouraging students to work hard is more important than being smart.
Question: What can teachers do to motivate their students?

Re: Stephen 3/9/11

What is music's role in education?

Lowell Mason founded the Boston Academy of Music in the early to mid 1800's and then became the superintendent of music for Boston public schools. He persuaded the surrounding towns to add music into their curriculum, which earned him the accreditation for starting music in the American public school system. He published The Manuel of the Boston Academy of Music which stated seven principles of music education. I couldn't find what these seven principles were exactly, but I do know that they did not explain why music is important in our lives, its aesthetic value, or standards for music education.
Music's role in today's curriculum, as it has been for many years is to teach team work, the application of fundamentals, the concept that you have to "keep going", how to approach goals with the right mind set, to use rules and theory to create something of your own, and many others. Team work as I and others have mentioned in previous blogs, is an important aspect of music. Everyone has to listen to each other and follow the conductor. The application of fundamentals is another important aspect of music, people who have been playing for fifty years still practice their scales and long tones prior to playing songs. Just like basketball players still practice their free throws after years of playing.
The most important thing with music that I have learned is the concept of "keep going." In video games you can just press the restart button, but when you make a mistake in a performance you cannot start over again, you have to pretend that you did not do anything wrong and the audience will forget, if they noticed. This can be very difficult especially if you are relying on your muscle memory, one wrong move and your muscles will not know where to go next. This is different than when a mistake is made in a sport game because since you are playing against a team whose reactions are only estimated when designing plays, that aspect of reaction and adjusting is almost programed into a players thinking. Yet with music it has a strict plan, your moves as well as others are known so when they are offset due to a mistake adjusting and knowing how to react may be difficult.
Another role music has in education is knowing how to set goals. Many people set goals that are difficult and high aspirations, yet they do not plan the steps on how to get there. With music you do not just play through a piece and move on to the next (well I suppose you could, but not in an educational setting). A lot of the time they do a quick read through first to work on sight reading abilities, and then they break it down phrase by phrase, slowing down the tempo, making sure the notes are clear and the articulations are correct. When the notes are clear, the right rhythm is played, and the articulations are correct with a slow tempo, the speed is then increased and the process starts over until the right tempo is reached. After that is completed one moves on to the next phrase and starts that process there. Of course there are many ways to approach a piece but all of them involve patience and practice. Patience and practice are extremely important concepts when reaching difficult goals.
Lastly, one of the important roles of music is learning the rules of theory and composition. There are the concepts of voice leading, 4 bars phrases, predictability, and I, IV, V. Yet after one learns these rules and how notes work together they can very well make a good composition using unpredictable 3 bar phrases while only using vii, vi, ii, iii!

Question: What is the most valuable thing you have learned from music? Or, what is the most important thing you have learned from any subject throughout your educational career?

Beautiful Mystery

Before ear training, dictation lessons, and learning a brass instrument, when I listened music I heard it as a whole -- one harmonious work. After, those skills had been developed I not only heard it as a one harmonious work, but also simultaneously heard all of the individual parts by themselves, and was able to understand how they worked together. It’s almost like I can hear a piece of music subjectively and objectively at the same time, when before it was only an objective view that I obtained. It is irreversible now, I cannot listen to a piece of music without seeing it from this perspective. It is almost like a curse because I can no longer just absorb; I must intake, analyze, and define. The lack of mystery to me, even after our discussion in class, does not appear to maximize a work’s beauty. There is beauty in the unknown. Because of this perspective, I understand music, and what I understand feels less intimidating to approach because it seems less of a challenge. Like with a end goal, if you know how to get there, the journey is less anxious. In the article he stated that beautiful things are difficult. After students learn a piece of music they find it beautiful even if they fist did not. This is not because they understand it more and think that it is more beautiful. The beauty is in the hard work it took, not the music itself. The piece of music is therefore a symbol of their dedication. The more difficult the piece, the more work you have to put into it. I would not be quick to say that the more difficult the piece, the more understanding there is obtain. It is the journey of finding understanding not the understanding itself. From an existential point of view would life be as beautiful if we knew why we were here? It's not meaning itself, but finding a purpose in life that give it meaning. Therefore mystery is beautiful because it initiates this curiosity to find an answer.

Question: If a piece of music is more beautiful the second or third time it is heard, than is improvisation less beautiful?