Hilary Dobyns

Final Journal
EDUC 424
02/25/2015
Throughout the first eight weeks of the semester, I have learned a lot
about science but even more about teaching science to students that are
eager to learn. We have seen a plethora of activities that we can use in our
future classrooms in order to help our students grasp concepts and learn the
material. There are three things that I have learned from this specific class
this semester. The first thing is that learning is done through social
interaction, the second thing is that learning science is hands on, and the
third thing that I learned is that all students learn differently and through
multiple intelligences.
I learned that students mainly learn through social interaction, this
type of learning is called social constructivism. Dr. McKenzie talked a lot
about social constructivism. This is a huge way for students to learn. It helps
for students to learn the material and then teach it or talk about it with their
peers. By talking about the information that they are learning, students are
furthering their knowledge and absorbing the information. Students all learn
differently but it has been proven that majority of our students absorb
information through social constructivism. Vygotsky talked about outer and
inner speech as part of social constructivism. I learned that through outer
speech students inquire and share experiences, through inner speech
students rearrange and make sense of the information they have been

learning. I will use social constructivism in my classroom by constantly

asking my students inquiry questions and by having them work together to
answer the questions because by working together they are being social.
Through working together to answer the inquiry question then they are
discussing what they know, this uses outer speech to help students start to
absorb the information. By using social constructivism in my classroom, I am
helping students better learn the information and commit it to memory.
In science methods I have learned that in order for students to grasp
science concepts and to apply them, students need to do hands on activities
and experiments. During these eight weeks I have used my teacher hat
and my student hat to learn how students receive information from
teachers and doing activities, but also to learn how to teach the lessons to
my future students. I found that by looking at the activities from a students
perspective, it will help me make the activities better for their learning. I will
always try my best to base how I teach on how my students learn. When
teaching science I think that my students will mostly learn by doing hands on
experiments, so as a teacher I will have lots of experiments and small group
work going on in my classroom. I will try to help my students form their own
ideas through inquiry questions. I think that this is the best way to teach
science instruction in my classroom.
I learned that all of my students will learn differently. I will have to
create lessons that apply to different types of intelligences. I will have to
incorporate a large amount of hand on activities along with visual aids and

also throw in some auditory aids for my students that learn through listening.
I think that all of my students could benefit from learning in multiple ways.
By hearing the same information in different ways they have a better chance
of learning the information and making connections. I will incorporate
multiple intelligences in a multitude of ways. Some of these ways include
PowerPoints, hands on activities, and getting outside of the classroom to
make real world connections. I hope that by using instruction that caters to
multiple intelligences that I can help my students better grasp the concepts
that I am trying to teach them.
Overall, I have learned how to give my students the best science
instruction possible. I will always be learning information on how to better
teach my students, but I feel that I have a good grasp on how to begin. I
have learned the most through the activities that we have been doing in
class. I feel that I will use a lot of the activities I have learned about when I
become a teacher. All of the things I have learned will definitely be helpful
when I have my own classroom.