Human Learning

Applied Learning Experience- Final Project

1) For this project I used my god son (Trey), his sister (Kyla), and two of their friends (Kaylee and Nick). They are all 9th grade students at Russellville Junior High School in Russellville, Arkansas. Trey, Kaylee, and Nick are all 14 years old, while Kyla is the oldest at 15 years old. This project took place at Trey and Kyla’s home in Russellville, Arkansas, at the kitchen table where they study. I was not very sure about Kaylee and Nick’s educational background, but Trey and Kyla are honor roll students at the Junior High. It might be because of the fact that their parents will not let them play video games or participate in any extracurricular activities if they fail to keep their grades up.

2) At this point in their science class at Russellville Junior High in which they all have together, they are learning about corals and sea creatures in their island formation and volcano unit and I thought I would help by teaching them the lesson. The goal of the lesson is for the students to work together in order to answer important questions from the textbook, they will determine the difference between corals and other sea creatures, and they will also work together to summarize other important information. 3) The lesson took place at approximately 7:30Pm at Trey and Kyla’s house in Russellville, Arkansas. This is the time the kids normally are told to study and begin homework because they are home from school and/or any extracurricular activities that they normally participate in. The lesson was done around the kitchen table with no television or and other distractions in the room.

4) I paired the students into groups of two, Trey and Kaylee in one group while Kyla and Nick were in another. Both groups were given one worksheet and were told to present one answer per team. Both groups were told to sit side by side to their partner and put their names on the top of the paper. The person on the right was to find and answer the question while the person on the left coached and helped the other person. After the answer was found and agreed upon, then both groups were to come together and discuss their answers to make sure it was agreed on. After everything was discussed and approved, the roles for the teams were switched and now the other partner was to find and answer the question while the other partner coached and helped out. After all of the questions were answered, I asked the students to write down and share three interesting facts and share with everyone else what they were.

A few resources and materials that were used were the student’s science text book, computer, photos of corals and sea creatures, pencils for students, and note paper. The textbook and computer gave the students two effective ways to find information on the questions they were looking for. I believe that if I would have just made the students look through the text book in order to find information then it would have gotten boring and repetitive for them. The photos of corals and sea creatures that I printed out really did not help anything because the students really did not look at them, and of course the pencils and the note paper were a necessity in order for the students to write down their comments and answers.

5) One of my favorite learning theorists that I have learned about this semester would have to be Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky. Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist born in Orsha, Byelorussia, the founder of an original holistic theory of human cultural and biosocial development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle. The reason that I tied him into the project is because he first stated that we learn through our interactions and communications with others. He suggested that learning takes place through the interactions students have with their peers, teachers, and other experts. He believed that teachers could create a learning environment that maximizes the learner’s ability to interact with each other through discussion, collaboration, and feedback. I was able to connect this lesson to his theory of social development because the students were able to work together in groups in order to learn about corals and sea creatures. They were able to discuss, collaborate, and offer feedback with one another.

6) I really think the students learned from the lesson that I taught them because everything went as good as it could go. I am also pretty positive that they did because they took a test on the material in their class a few days later and they all received a grade above a “B” and I felt like I had a lot to do with that. They also told me later that they learned better doing the lesson that I taught them then they did in the classroom when they learned the lesson. That might be because they were already prepared for it because of the lesson that I thought them. The students responded to the lesson a lot differently than I thought they would because at first I thought they would not take it seriously because they know me very well but they actually did a great job. They followed directions, helped one another, and did everything that was asked of them. It was a great experience for everyone including myself. By them being as interested and being as active as they were, it made everything that we did while learning the lesson run more smoothly than it ever could.

7) I believe the entire lesson went well. I really loved how the students took the lesson very seriously. They worked hard and helped one another throughout the entire lesson. I believe if I was to teach the same lesson, I would definitely try to get more students to participate so I could add more groups. I think it would be fun to see more disagreements about certain findings because that means that they would have to discuss more and go more into depth. That would definitely help them put more effort and would also help them learn more. I might also try putting girls into one group and guys into another because it would be interesting to see how both genders view each topic. Another thing that I might change is the textbook in which they were using in the class. I believe I would have tried to determine a better textbook for the class overall. The reason I say this is because I am a very visual person, along with the other 65% of the country, and there were very few pictures in the textbook. That would definitely better help the students who are reading the book better understand what is going on. Overall, I learned that group activities work extremely well when done correctly. It seems as if most teachers would like students to learn things on their own, but even in college and future careers, we always work together with others in order to achieve a goal.