How I Believe That Students Learn

I believe that students can learn through many different methods and different
philosophies of teaching. The ideas in social cognitive theory and social constructivist
theory are what help shape my ideas for my philosophy of education. I think that
combining these ideas and theories will help to make me an effective teacher. There are
main parts of each theory that I subscribe to as a future educator and that I have seen
proven true based on my own classroom experiences.
One theory that appealed to me, as a future educator and as a student, is social
cognitive theory. Bandura talks about reciprocal determinism, which means that the
environment affects people and that they have an affect on the environment around them.
There is a very good, and simple, visual that is drawn to help clarify this idea. The visual
is a triangle labeled behavior, person, and environment located at one point of the
triangle. Arrows, which illustrate the relationship between the three labels, show us that
these three ideas constantly effect and connect to one another (page 93). The way that
you teach or conduct a class is affected by your personal beliefs and your behaviors. But
the way you conduct a classroom or lesson can change because of the way your students
are behaving. Another reason your behavior, as an educator, can change is the element of
teaching your students in a different environment. For example, you are now teaching in
a computer lab instead of your regular classroom, so the students behaviors might be
different because the environment is not something that they are conditioned to. Another
aspect of this theory that I subscribe to is delayed modeling. This is the ability to
represent experience symbolically and using past experiences to guide behavior (page
94). Finally, I believe in is self-regulating. In the readings they talk about how this
involves self-observation, self-judgment, and self-administered consequences (page
109). Students need to be held to a certain level accountable regarding their education.
Students need to make sure that they are keeping up with the material and assignments.
Teachers need self-regulation as well. For example, make sure the lessons they plan need
to be educational and relevant to students success.
When looking at Banduras views he has a lot of good ideas, but social
constructivist theory has some good point as well. Vygotsky has a view on educators that
I really believe in. He describes a teacher, according to social constructivist theory, as a
facilitator and guide who makes it so the students can connect with other skilled peers
(Santrock). This idea relates to social constructivist theory. Social constructivist can be
seen when two people carry on a conversation and continue to grow in understanding
(page 236). In my opinion students learn more from working in peer groups rather than
just individual work all of the time accompanied by complete guidance from a teacher. If
you were to walk into a class room and saw active small group work or groups gathered
around working to achieve a common goal while the teacher guided some discussions
from the sidelines of the classroom this would be considered social constructivist
theory. I believe that it is more beneficial for students to lean content knowledge through
conversations they have with other peers about that content. Students should not just
internalize information, they should learn in a way that involves co-construction.
How This Will Affect My Teaching
Reciprocal determinism is something, as a teacher, that I will be on the look out
for. I think that the environment plays a big role in childrens behavior, which affects the

students around them. I want to teach at the middle school level and one thing that I
noticed about this period in a childs life is that they look to their peers when wondering
how they should act. Cliques or groups of friends tend to cause more of a ruckus when
they are together. In my classroom I will arrange it so friends are separated at different
table. This way they will not affect each others behaviors in the small groups, which
would than disrupt the class as a whole. My goal is to make it so that when we work in
small groups the friends are all separated and the students can mix and mingle with other
class members. Causing the friends in the cliques to create more relationships with other
students.
Delayed modeling is something that I can do as a teacher, but the students can
contribute to as well. The idea of taking your past experiences and using them in the
classroom is something I think an effective teacher does. If the lesson plan is for a class
discussion on a book that the class is reading and the teacher schedules the whole class
period for the students to talk but no one comes prepared the teacher will know that
something needs to be changed for the next class period. Being the educator it is my
responsibility to create some questions for the students to answer. I will have to find other
way to get the students actively talking and thoroughly engaged in the discussion
assignment,
When is comes to self-regulation, I believe, it is the students responsibility to do
the work assigned and come prepared to class. A student needs to know what has to
accomplish in order to be successful in the classroom. For example, one thing that I will
do in my classroom is write the homework down on the white board and verbally
describe what needs to be done by the next time we meet as a class. After I verbally
explain the assignment one time it becomes the students responsibility to either write the
assignment down in their planner or somewhere else so they will remember what they
need to do for class. I should not have to chase down a student to make sure s/he knows
what is expected of them. Another activity I will do with self-regulating is have meetings
with my students about their work. For example, I would have a meeting with Billy about
his most recent reflection paper where he tells me how he felt he did on the assignment
compared to the last reflection. This activity will help me gage how Billy thinks he is
doing with the papers in my class and if he sees improvement within his own writing. In
doing this Billy will be applying self-observation and self-judgment to his own writing.
The observation would be him talking about what he did differently for this reflection
compared to last time and the judgment would be comparing the two pieces of writing
side by side.
The teachers role, or my role, in this classroom is to walk around and make sure
that the students stay on task. I also think that it is the teachers responsibility to
encourage students to go further in dept with the discussion and learning. I will make sure
that there are an abundance of different sources to access information with any where
from classroom computers, magazines, newspapers, and anything else the students think
can help benefit their learning experience. As an educator it is our job to create many
different outlets for students to learn.
It is important for me as an educator to help my students learn, but this does not
mean my lesson plan should include a lecture everyday. It is important for me to create
opportunities for students to learn and grow by working with one another. To apply this
to a classroom setting, one activity that I can do with any subject area is, have the

students read the material individually and then talk with the people around them to
compare notes about the material. After talking in small groups we can turn it into a
whole class discussion. This will give everyone a chance to share his or her point of view
or different meanings they took away from the readings. Another activity we can do is
something called expert groups. The students would be split into five separate groups.
The number created varies based on class size and content, but the different groups will
look at one particular section of the material. This is what makes them the experts on
that subject. I can than regroup them putting one member from each expert group
together to share and teach the other students their sections. Conducting things in the way
means the students are reading the material on their own, internalizing it, and than
sharing out with their peers and the classroom, externalizing the information, which is a
form of co-construction.

Works Cited
Eggen. P., & Kauchek, D. (2007). Educational Psychology: Windows on classrooms (7th
ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Fetsco, T., & McClure, J. (2005). Educational psychology: An integrated approach to
classroom decisions. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Santrock, J. W. (2006). Educational psychology (2nd ed). Boston: McGraw Hill.