Atkinson 1

Atkinson 2

Anna Atkinson
Chris Georgen
P254 Final
18 December 2015
Part 1
Behaviorism: Shaping is when the learner receives reinforcement each time the behavior

approximates the desired behavior. For example, if a learner is trying to learn the alphabet and

they forget l, m, n, o, p they will still receive reinforcement because the behavior was close to

the target behavior. Chaining is when a complex behavior is broken down into simpler behaviors.

Again when learning the alphabet, the learner will most likely learn a, b, c, d, e, f, g first

because the task is less complex. Once this simpler behavior is mastered, the learner will receive

reinforcement and move onto the next simple behavior (Standbridge 2002). Reinforcement

schedules are tools used to control the frequency and timing of reinforcement in order to produce

the target results. Shaping and chaining relate to reinforcement schedules because they are

techniques used by the instructor in order to elicit results. With shaping, reinforcement is

typically given each time the existing behavior comes close to the desired behavior. Chaining

gives the learner reinforcement each time a simpler behavior is mastered. Shaping and chaining

generally merit fixed ratio reinforcement. However, reinforcement doesnt have to be given each

time the learner approximates the desired behavior or completes a simpler behavior. The learner

will continue reaching towards the end goal because reinforcement is given intermittently (Huitt

& Hummel 1997).

Social cognitive theory: Modeling is a demonstration of the task where the leaner learns by

imitating. According to the social cognitive theory, learning is influenced by modeling, self-

efficacy, and self-regulation. The role of modeling in the social cognitive theory is to provide a

relevant and competent demonstration of the desired behavior in order to increase student self-

efficacy and promote self-regulation. In order to increase student self-efficacy and promote self-
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regulation, the curriculum must include teaching through modeling. A good model can increase

self-efficacy and demonstrate how to self-regulate. Self-efficacy is influenced by past

performance, vicarious performance, verbal persuasion, and state of emotional arousal. Vicarious

performance is seeing someone else complete the same activity, noticing their success, and

determining if the activity can be completed based on the models results. In order to increase

self-efficacy, teachers must include peer and teacher modeling in their curriculum. A peer model

will ensure that the leaner finds the model relevant and a teacher model will ensure that the

learner respects the models status (Schunk & Zimmerman 2007). Teachers need to ensure that

students are receiving verbal persuasion, or positive feedback. In order to increase student self-

efficacy, it is important for students to feel as though they can accomplish the activity at hand.

This also requires that teachers help students build a history of success, meaning that they need

to provide situations where success is likely. Self-regulation requires that the students think about

what good performance is, consistently compare their performance to good performance, and

reflect afterwards on their performance and what can be done to close the gap between current

and good performance. In order for teachers to promote self-regulation, they must incorporate

the self-regulatory process into their curriculum. Teachers must ask their students to think about

good performance, to compare their current performance to good performance, and to reflect on

how to close the gap between their current performance and good performance. If this process is

done frequently in the classroom, students are more likely to take these ideas and apply them into

their own study habits (Nichol & MacFarlane-Dick 2006).

Cognitive Theories: Schemas are organized structures of thought that puts information into
categories and contains information on how they are related to each other. Schemas are created

as ways of storing long-term information. When a new piece of information enters the brain, it

goes into sensory memory. After reaching sensory memory, the information is either sent to
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working memory or leaves the brain. Once in working memory, the information is encoded and

either placed into an existing schema or a new schema is developed. These schemas are then

stored in the long-term memory until they are retrieved (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, & Glaser 2001).

Misconceptions come from existing schemas causing new information to be misconstrued or

existing schemas causing new information to be rejected entirely. If a new piece of information

does not agree with an existing schema, it is often altered to fit into a previously existing schema,

which creates false information. Misconceptions can be corrected through activation of the old

schema and direct modification of the false information. This will allow the teacher to correct the

false information in the students brains. This must be done repeatedly; otherwise the students

will just revert back to their original way of thinking. Simply providing correct explanations is

not enough to correct the misconception. The learner will subconsciously cling to the

misconception, and although they might understand and even agree that the misconception is

false, they will not be able to alter their thinking unless the existing schema is modified (Savion

2009).
Sociocultural theories: Mediation is the process where an individual makes connections and

learns from their social and cultural surroundings (Boblett 2012). Mediators are what lie between

the learner and their goal. For instance, rules are considered to be mediators. They alter the way

the learner has to go about reaching the goal. If an individual had planned on climbing a

mountain using 4 materials but the park rule only permits 3 materials, the individual would have

to change his thought process and come up with a new plan for climbing the mountain. Peers are

also considered to be mediators. If a person was planning on buying a shirt in red but their friend

bought the shirt in blue, they might be more tempted to buy the blue shirt instead. The activity

triangle shows the relationship between the mediators and the end goal but also shows how all of

the different mediators are all inter-related and they each influence each other. The activity
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triangle shows all of the possible mediators and the details of those mediators. For instance, the

triangle includes all of the rules, the tools, the division of labor and the community. The activity

triangle shows all of the mediators required to meeting the end goal (Danish 2013). The Zone of

Proximal Development (ZPD) is the difference between what an individual can do on their own

and what they can do with the help of a more capable individual. The ZPD is generally used in

collaborative learning settings. For instance, the teacher would give students a task that they

cannot solve on their own, but provided a little assistance, they should be able to figure out. The

ZPD can also be used with group work. If there is one individual who is struggling with a topic,

they should be put in a group with an individual who is succeeding (Boblett 2012).
Interest-driven learning and motivation: Constructionism is the idea that people learn best

when they are able to use tangible and shareable objects in an interactive setting to aid their

learning. The three central tenants of constructionism are tangible objects, interaction with

others, and shareable artifacts. In an informal setting, such as an afterschool club, a

constructionist activity will be optional. For instance at the Boys and Girls Club, the circuitry

with E-Textiles was an optional activity that people chose to do. In a formal setting, such as a

school classroom, a constructionist activity will not be optional. In both a formal and informal

setting, a constructionist activity will involve tangible objects. Although the e-textile project was

done in an informal setting, it could just as easily have been done in a formal setting (Peppler

2013). Interaction with others will be present in both an informal and formal setting. Even in a

classroom setting, interaction with others is an important part of constructionism. In both an

informal and formal setting, the individuals will be able to have shareable artifacts. However, in

an informal setting, those artifacts are more likely to be encouraged than in a formal setting. In a

formal setting, shareable artifacts can be seen as a distraction outside of the specified activity.
Part 2
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In my classroom, I will use the sociocultural theory of learning. The sociocultural theory

of learning states that learning occurs through social interactions and cultural tools. In my

classroom, the sociocultural theory of learning will be used to define learning as a social activity.

It will also be used to keep my instruction culturally relevant and ensure that I keep my students

interested. My students will be allowed to self organize, the materials covered and resources used

will be constantly evolving, and I will allow my classroom to have a collection of overlapping

communities of interest in order to maintain every students interest (Danish 2013). In my

classroom, technology will be used as a supplement to my teaching. There will be times when I

will have my students do projects that require the use of technology such as a music composition

using garage band. When completing this project, I will provide my students with the materials

needed (i.e. computers/iPads) in order to succeed. However, the only use for these technological

materials is to complete the assigned project. There will also be times when I will use technology

as a teaching resource, such as an iPad orchestra. These iPads will only have the materials

necessary to create an orchestra. Students are only permitted to use technology when the teacher

provides it. This policy will support learning in my classroom because it the technology will be

used as one of the mediators in order to accomplish the objective. It will also allow for social

interactions because the students will be working together and bonding over something they are

all interested in. The technology is a cultural tool, especially in todays society. Technology has

taken such an important role in the lives of students today and will keep growing in importance.

My policy supports effective teaching because it gives everyone a mutual goal to be working

towards. The sociocultural theory emphasizes that learning cannot reach its greatest potential

unless each individual is reaching towards a mutual goal. If the teacher has one goal for the
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technology use and the students have a different goal, the learning will not reach its maximum

potential (Danish 2013).

Part 3
Part I: I will be working with a 3rd grade music class. Students will be able to use voices and

instruments to improvise an accompaniment to a poem, Beach Orchestra.

Part II: The sociocultural theory of learning defines learning as a social activity. The

sociocultural theory states that learning must occur socially, learning must be goal directed and

learning should happen using social interactions and cultural tools. The sociocultural theory of

learning also incorporates the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference

between what an individual can accomplish on their own and what they can accomplish with the

help of a more proficient individual. In order for my students to achieve this learning goal, I will

design an activity that requires group work and opportunities for me as the teacher to give groups

my individual attention. I know that the sociocultural theory of learning places a lot of emphasis

on social interactions and cultural tools as well as the ZPD. Because of this, I will allow my

students to work on this activity in groups where I mix up the ability levels in my classroom. I

will create a division of labor in those groups, however, because I do not want one student doing

the whole project while the other students just sit idly by. I will use the activity triangle in order

to show my students what materials they have, what the division of labor is, and what the rules

are. The division of labor will be me dividing up the poem into 4-5 sections and giving each

student a section of the poem to improvise an accompaniment with. This way, the more

proficient students can work on their section and come up with creative ideas that might

influence the less proficient students. I will also be walking around to each group and asking the

students questions in order to spark their creativity. I will assess my students knowledge

formatively and informally. I will ask each group to perform their improvised accompaniments to

their poems for the class but I will not be grading based on accuracy. I will be grading based on
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if each member of the group is participating and if they incorporated both instruments and

vocals. This assessment makes the most sense as defined by the sociocultural theory because the

learning was based on social interactions and a division of labor. It wouldnt be right for me to

assess the group on the whole project when each person had a specific part to contribute. I will

be watching to see if each person was able to contribute and assess based on that. The potential

challenges to using this approach in my future classroom are that putting students into successful

groups isnt always easy. There will always be students who are great friends but cannot work

well in a school setting together. I will have to be wary of these situations and try to avoid them

when putting students into groups. It is also possible that the students who are less proficient will

not be motivated to attempt the activity, but hopefully with more proficient group members and

with the assistance from the teacher, they will be able to accomplish the task.
The second learning theory I would use is the constructionism theory. Constructionism,

similar to constructivism, defines learning as building knowledge in a public entity, with social

interaction. Constructionism also emphasizes the need for material objects and shareable

artifacts. Constructionism incorporates the use of connected learning. Connected learning is the

connection between interests, academics, and peer learning. Connected learning is peer

supported, interest driven, and academically oriented. In my classroom, I will use the principles

of constructionism and connected learning to design my activity. In order for my students to

achieve the learning goal, I will divide my class into smaller groups. This will allow the activity

to be peer supported as well as academically oriented. I will also provide several different

instruments and resources to create the accompaniment to the poem. With the different options

the students have to choose from, the activity will also become interest driven. The students will

have material items to aid their learning, social interaction with their group, and shareable

objects because they will all be collaborating on the same poem. I will assess the students
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knowledge with a formative and informal assessment. Just like the sociocultural theory, the

constructionism theory is based on social interactions and relies more on the learning process

than the performance. I will be going around to the different groups and observing them and their

work habits. I will watch how they collaborate and see the effort they are putting into the activity.

The potential drawbacks or challenges to using this approach are similar to the sociocultural

theory. The students could be more interested in the social interactions than in the activity at

hand. They could also not have an interest in the music activity at all, which would lead them to

not want to participate in the activity.

Part III: In my area of interest, these two learning theories both have a strong emphasis on

social interaction. In terms of music, a social environment is very important because music

should be a social activity. The sociocultural theory and constructionism theory allow for the

activity to take place in small group settings where the teacher is floating around the classroom.

This allows the students to learn from each other and gives the teacher an opportunity to spend

more individual time with the students who need it. The sociocultural theory adds the element of

division of labor to the constructionism theory and the constructionism theory adds the element

of interest driven learning. These two elements compliment each other nicely and ensure that

each student will be interested and have an equal part in completing the activity.
In my area of interest, the sociocultural theory and constructionism theory could clash

with each other in several ways. First, the sociocultural theory does not place any emphasis on

material items and shareable objects. In this particular activity, this should not be an issue

because the activity involves material items and shareable objects but the students are not

necessarily creating a shareable object. They are using the objects to create music, which can be

shared aurally with their peers. The constructionism theory does not place any emphasis on the

learning being goal directed. According to the sociocultural theory, if the learning is not goal
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directed than maximum learning will not be possible. This could be an issue in terms of peer

supported learning because if the peers are not reaching towards a mutual goal, they will not be

likely to support one another.