Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

I love this illustration of the 7 principles, particularly because it combines the principles with technology which is increasingly important in today's learning environments!

PISA using Bloom to Measure?

For another class, I'm working on comparing the new common core curriculum with the framework used to get PISA rankings (don't know what PISA is? Don't worry, I didn't either! Here's a video overview). The PISA exam, particularly the reading section, seems like it fits into Bloom's taxonomy perfectly! The first level tasks are access and retrieve, followed by integrate and interpret at the second level, and reflect and evaluate at the highest level. They do not mention Bloom in their explanation of their framework, but I wonder if this was intentional? What do you think?

Back to Social Learning Theory

This morning, I was reviewing an article by Carla O'Conner as part of my comprehensive exam preparation. The article, "Dispositions Toward (Collective) Struggle and Education Resilience in the Inner City: A Case Analysis of Six African-American High School Students", presents the stories of six students who by all previous research would have been assumed to be failing in their education. But these students were not only succeeding, they were high-achieving and optimistic about their future. O'Conner found two things that were important to this unexpected success - experiencing struggle and having a model (a "sponsor") to illustrate how to best deal with the inequities of the system. And social learning theory is back! I like that we can apply these learning theories to things that are happening outside of the classroom, whether they affect what's going on in the classroom or not. Highly illustrative of learning as an all encompassing entity, not something that is contained to the school day.

Bloom's Taxonomy on the Screen

Here are a couple examples of Bloom's taxonomy that you may have already seen and didn't realize it! In this video, Finding Nemo is used as an illustration of the model. And for a bit more of a chuckle (and a longer time commitment), here is Bloom's taxonomy within Seinfeld. Enjoy!

Embodying Learning - No Really!

Great article in Education Week this week about a platform that allows students to actually construct their learning through technology!

Sir Ken Robinson

In one of my all time favorite TED talks, Sir Ken Robinson talks about how schools are killing students creativity and provides suggestions (rather constructivist ones at that) about how we might go about fixing this issue. Here is another Sir Ken Robinson talk (with help from RSA animate) that addresses similar ideas. Enjoy!

Montessori Materials as Teachers

This week, we spent a lot of time talking about the Zone of Proximal Development and how learning occurs within it. From my experience Montessori is excellent at focusing on the zone of proximal development because not only are there are teachers in the room focused on the specific needs of each child, but the materials are designed to help children get to the ZPD as well. The students are told the idea of the materials before hand, but left to work with them independently until they master them (see this video as an example) allowing them to work in their own ZPD. 

I think this is very useful, especially for young kids, but I am curious if you all have any ideas about how to translate this for older students?

Learning about Constructivism...with constructivism!

This webquest is a really cool way to illustrate how constructivism works while getting users to actually investigate constructivism as a theory. I always think it's fascinating to learn about learning theories using the theory in question!

Constructivism - Good or Bad?

Here's a lively debate comparing direct instruction to exploration and the possibility of combining them. The post also discusses how current educational reforms (like Common Core) may impact the argument. 

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/04/karl_wheatley_has_direct_instr.html?qs=constructivism

Welcome!

Welcome to my learning theory blog! I look forward to sharing current examples of learning theory and using them to construct my own teaching theories. 

Originally from central Kentucky, I am excited to be completing my second year of the Higher Education masters program at the University of Arizona! I am extremely fortunate to have an amazing position in Leadership Programs at the UA, working with students who are part of the ATLAS Leadership Certificate Program and the National Collegiate Leadership Conference. I love working with students and teaching courses through Leadership as part of my work.

I love my students and higher education, but my real passions lie in education reform and finding a way to make learning fun, from pre-k all the way through higher education. I was Montessori educated and truly believe that many of the methods utilized in that system can be implemented in the public school classroom in ways that make learning exciting and not so much of a burden. Since fostering a service dog in training, I have also become passionate about understanding the experiences of students with disabilities and finding ways to support that population in and out of the classroom.

While work and school tend to pervade all areas of my life, when I get free time I love spending time with the dogs at the humane society, cooking and baking (check out the cooking blog my coworker and I have! 2smallkitchens.blogspot.com), taking photos, playing card and board games, reading and spending time with friends and family.