The mind is not a passive receptacle into which knowledge is poured...

The mind is not a passive receptacle into which knowledge is poured...

One of the reasons it's a good metaphor to remember is that so often what we see in classrooms is teachers forgetting its truth. Classrooms dominated by teacher talk are not classrooms in which the teacher is acting on this knowledge about the mind.

--Dr. James Lee, SJU

Behavioral Learning Theory & Direct Instruction

Thoughts of Dr. James Lee of Saint Joseph's University, Professor of Theory & Practice in Secondary Teaching

I believe most of us see learning as occurring in a constructivist manner: students connect past knowledge and experience with new learning and, through accommodation and assimilation, construct new knowledge and understanding. The mind is not a passive receptacle into which knowledge is poured; instead, it is characterized by mental schema that are actively seeking new understanding in daily experience.

So it might seem, then, that the behavioral psychology principles upon which direct instruction is based are inappropriate for guiding classroom instruction. But not so, in my view. We make use of them every time we explain ideas or model how to do something, check to see if students have understood, and have them practice what we have just modeled and explained.

We often incorporate direct teaching principles into our teaching as part of a constructivist approach. Our assumption is, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, that if we tell students something (stimulus), they are listening and understanding (response). While this is not always the case, if we didn't believe it to some degree, we would keep quiet or just be a "guide on the side." We want students to understand, to "get it," to be able to use or understand correctly what we say, and we provide positive reinforcement when they do in order to increase the likelihood that they will continue to "get it." We often give them homework that has them practicing what we have taught them.

Now, we recognize that students bring to this learning their past experience and that the learning process is therefore one of constructing meaning. Nevertheless, much of the time we still want that process to produce understanding that is close to what we have in mind. (It is true that this is not always our intent; sometimes we teach for unexpected variety and originality in what students produce rather than to know what we know or do what we can do as close as possible to the way we understand or do it.)

We want our students to be able to use particular French tense constructions correctly; we want them to follow the format of a Shakespearean sonnet when they write their own; we want them to carefully follow the steps of scientific inquiry. We do not sit back and say, in effect, "construct your understanding of how to do this however you wish."

So while I do not support teaching based on a mindless repetition of information that does not recognize that learning is idiocyncratic, I do believe that we should make use of those principles of behavioral learning theory that help us teach knowledge and skills in ways that support their strengthening and retention over time.

We teach based on an understanding of how the mind constructs meaning, and we know that pairing teacher explanation and modeling with immediate student practice and implementation supports rather than undermines this process.

Something to remember

"Although we as teachers are constantly challenging students with new activities and assignments, we can’t just assume that students are going to know and understand how to perform these tasks."

--Alicia Bott, Education Student at SJU

This is critical for a teacher to understand before entering the classroom. --Dr. Eileen Erwin, Professor of Content Area Reading at SJU

Edublogs--using a blog for the class

Summary of website content and target audience

Edublogs (http://edublogs.org/) hosts over 350,000 blogs for anyone involved in education including teachers, students, researchers, professors, and librarians. They also offer Edublogs Campus for schools and universities that want to create, manage, and control blogs at their own domain. However, I think their main target audience is the individual teacher.

The standards Edublogs is free and comes with 20MB of space to upload which can be extended to 5GB if you become a supporter (pay for a subscription). Edublogs offers quite a few features. There are over 90 themes that can be used to customize the look of your blog. Also, “because Edublogs is made by educators, for educators, we know about how you can effectively use blogs in teaching and learning” Edublogs, 2009).

Potential usefulness of the website within the classroom

There are many ways that a blog can be useful in teaching. Edublog.org offers 10 ways to use your edublog to teach:

1. Post materials and resources

2. Host online discussions

3. Create a class publication

4. Replace your newsletter

5. Get your students blogging

6. Share your lesson plans

7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions

8. Organize, organize, organize

9. Get feedback

10. Create a fully functional website

I see the usefulness of this website not being physically in the classroom, but I think blogs can be very useful in teaching. I would like to utilize this website to create a blog for my future classroom for various activities. I would use it to post materials and resources such as assignments and helpful websites or extra readings. I would get my students blogging because I would want to use this website to host online discussions. I think students might be able to express themselves better in a virtual discussion rather than a classroom discussion. Also, Grabe & Grabe suggest on learningaloud.com that a blog can be used for extended projects or events. It would be perfect for science fair!

Would students benefit from the material?

I think students can benefit immensely from blogging. Blogging allows students to construct and evaluate knowledge which helps them reach the upper levels of Bloom’s taxonomy i.e. analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Kelly, 2009). Kris Kelly (2009) outlined other benefits that blogs can bring to the classroom in the article “To blog, or not to blog in the classroom.”

· The use of hyperlinks will help students to better understand the relational, interconnectivity of knowledge

· Promoting interactivity potentially increasing relationships with classmates and teachers

· Students have the opportunity to become subject matter “experts” in their blogs

· Increased feelings of ownership of knowledge and learning

· Realistic, authentic ways to participate in learning

· Providing opportunities for more diverse perspectives (Kelly, 2009)

Is it user-friendly? Is the site easily navigable?

This site is very user-friendly. There are tabs at the top of the page for navigation. They provide information about Edublogs, features, help and support, and Edublogs Campus. The blog is reported to be user-friendly as well. “All posts are automatically spell-checked, auto-saved (so you never lose that post you’ve been working on for hours) come with a complete feature rich editor (with optional plain text view), allow for simple uploading of images and other files, are podcast ready and have automatic YouTube, Google Video and more video insertion devices… and that’s just a selection” (Edublogs, 2009).

Would it be considered a Participatory (Web 2.0) website?

According to Grabe & Grabe on learning aloud.com, “the ‘participatory web’ concerns the technologies and cultural values that allow and encourage all of us to share what we know or at least believe with each other by way of the internet.” This website is definitely considered a Participatory (Web 2.0) website. Blogs are all about sharing ideas. The teacher is not just sharing information with students; rather, information is passing in every conceivable way. Students are sharing information with other students and the teacher. The teacher can share information with the students and parents.

How will you manage your classroom (behaviors and groupings) when using this website?

I think students will mostly be blogging from home so I will not have to worry about management in my classroom as much, but I will be managing it virtually. My role will be as an administrator on the blog. I will firstly make sure the students read and sign an acceptable-use policy so they understand the purpose of the blog and what they are and are not allowed to post. I will post a schedule of assignments and relevant material. I will host discussions and coach students to help them think critically and keep the discussion going. If I do assign group work for the blog, I would assign students so there is a mixture of achievement levels in the group. I would also make sure that every student has access to a computer with internet at home and if not, then I would make arrangements with those students to work something out.