Marcel LaFountain

March 25, 2015

First Learning Event
For my Educational Psychology class I have the opportunity to volunteer at a local
elementary school in the Green Bay area. I volunteer during the after school program that occurs
after school, where I mainly help second graders with reading, fourth graders with their
homework, and do enrichment activities with all the children. For enrichment we do things such
as learning about paintings and simply recreating them, a project called honoring elders, and
activities that teach children lessons. An experience that I consider the biggest learning event
for me so far was one that occurred while I was helping the fourth graders with homework.
For homework time with the fourth graders, we go to a classroom that is away from the
rest of the children so that the kids can really focus. One day, a student whom I shall call Susan,
was having trouble with her math homework. I have helped Susan before with her homework
before, but today she was really struggling. She was working on long division, which was
something that she was fairly new to. She was having a difficult time looking at large numbers
like 343 and understanding how a small number, like seven, could go into it. I asked Susan what
kind of numbers she has done division with before and she said number less than 100. I told her
that doing larger numbers isnt any different. She was confused because she was trying just to
look at seven going into 343, instead of first looking at how seven needs to go into the 34 part of
the number first. To help I covered up the last three in the number and asked Susan to tell me
how many times seven went into 34. After a little guess and check with me telling her to try
each one by multiplying different numbers and seeing what she gets, she got four. Then after

subtracting 28 from 34 and dropping the last three, she had 63 and knew seven would go into
nine times. The child had solved the problem. After that, Susan implemented that strategy on
each of the problems and finished her homework quickly. She told me afterwards that what I
told her was helpful and that she would try to remember that strategy of covering up the number
the next time she had to do long division. I asked her why she wanted to finish her homework so
quickly, when she still had ten minutes left to do homework. Susan told me that if she got it
done and got it done early that she would be able to put two beads into the reward jar that my
supervisor has set up with the students.
The first concept that I came across in this spiral curriculum (The Spiral Curriculum,
2012). This was not the first time that Susan has seen division. Spiral curriculum is building on
top of previous knowledge and expanding on it as the child grows up. In this case, Susan has
done simpler division before. Long division is just an expanded version of simple division.
Concepts of multiplication and dividing smaller numbers come up with long division. Long
division just has more steps and is harder for a child to memorize. Without the knowledge of
past concepts, long division would be impossible to do.
The next concept seen in this learning event is trial and error learning (Hergenhahn,
1982). Trial and error learning says that learning happens in small, incremental steps, and not all
at once. The goal is that each time someone completes the task that person learns how to do the
action. The next time the person does the action or tries to solve the problem, they should be
able to do it faster because of what he or she remembers from the last time he or she did it. This
can be seen slowly throughout the assignment that Susan completed. She did a guess and check
style of trying to find what number could go into a different number for division. As time went
on and she did more and more problems and sometimes similar numbers came up, like seven

going into 34. After a while, she remembered that seven goes into 34 four times and then leaves
a remainder of six when 28 is subtracted from 34. Through her trial and error learning, Susan
was able to memorize the answers and hopefully remember the answers in the future where
shell be able to apply the concepts she learned to move onto the next step in learning. .
Something else that is used as in the classroom that I volunteer in, and not just for one
student but for all, is the Premack principal (Huitt, 1987) and positive reinforcement (Huiit,
1987). Premack principal is telling someone that if they behave in a certain way then they will
receive a reward. Positive reinforcement is if a student does something in a certain way they will
receive a reward for their actions, which makes him or her want to act that way again to receive
another reward.

Premack principal is a way to prep for positive reinforcement. Premack

principal is just saying that someone will receive positive reinforcement if he or she behaves in a
pleasing manner, while positive reinforcement is actually giving him or her the reward which
increases the chance that the he or she will behave that way again. By implementing these two
principals together, you can motivate a student. By telling students and by giving them a reward
the students are motivated to continue to do the actions that gave them their reward. The group
of students that I help with homework can receive beads and put them into a jar. They can get
beads by completing homework, helping other students, staying quiet if a student is reading, and
so on. When the jar gets full enough the students get a reward ranging from a pizza party to not
having to do homework for the day. In this case, the Premack principal is the supervisor telling
the students that they will get a reward if they behave in way that pleases her. The Premack
principal says they wont receive the reward but have the opportunity to. The positive
reinforcement is that if the students get enough beads theyll get the reward they were promised.

This motivates students to do homework, stay quiet, etc. so that they can try and receive another
reward.
Another way that Susan and other students are motivated to learn is through negative
reinforcement (Huitt, 1987). Negative reinforcement is taking away something negative from a
child in order to reinforce a behavior. Negative reinforcement also motivates students by taking
away something they dont like, so they are motivated to do the behavior again to get it taken
away again. Susan gets a form of negative reinforcement every time she finishes her homework
during the after school program. When Susan finishes her homework, then she isnt required to
read the next day. Since Susan doesnt really like to be forced to read during her homework
time, this is a good way to encourage Susan to do her homework and finish it before she goes
home.
The final concept observed from this event is the Zone of Proximal Learning (Gallagher,
1999). The Zone of Proximal Learning has three zones. The first is a zone that shows previous
knowledge. The second is the students capacity to learn. The final zone is how much more the
student could learn if a more intelligent peer or adult helped them learn. The final zone is
impossible for a student to reach by his or herself. In the case of Susan, she knew how to do
division, which is the first zone. Also, she kind of had an idea of how to do long division, but
she really needed an adult around to help give her a few tips and to push her along the right path,
which are the second and third zones.
This event has taught me many things about the concepts that have been taught in class.
Ive really been able to see the concepts first hand by going out into these schools and
experiencing it. Its been very helpful not to just learn the concepts, but to also be able to use
and apply the concepts in the field.

Annotated Bibliography
Gallagher, C. (1999, May 1). Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/vygotsky.htm
Hergenhahn, B. R. (1982). An introduction to theories of learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice H
Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (1997). An introduction to operant (instrumental) conditioning.
Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [date]
from, http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behavior/operant.htmlall. (p. 59-62)
The Spiral Curriculum. (2012, March 1). Retrieved March 28, 2015, from
http://gearup.ous.edu/sites/default/files/Research-Briefs/ResearchBriefSpiralCurriculum.pdf