Ashley Valdahl 1 Ashley Valdahl C&I 210, Section 9 April 30, 2012

Observation

Date

Time

Grade Level

Teachers Name

1 2 3 4

2/9/12 2/9/12 2/10/12 2/10/12

9-10am 1-1:55pm 8:50-9:30am 11:15am12:05pm

3 10 7 5

Ms. Maubach

Ms. Matejka Ms. Finnegan

5 6

2/14/12 2/17/12

11:15-11:45am 9-9:30am

4 1

Ms. Baber Ms. Schumacher

7 8 9

2/21/12 2/23/12 3/6/12

12-12:55pm 12-12:55pm 12:35-1:15pm

9-12 11-12 2

Ms. Corpus Mr. Burk Ms. Gordon

Ashley Valdahl 2 For my clinical observations, I observed in various grades from first grade through twelfth grade. I will be giving a summary of the behaviors and developments I saw in the classrooms. Each summary will include a theoretical application as well as an example. There will be a summary for elementary, middle, and high school. I hope to show the differences in behaviors and development of the students through the different grade levels. In one of the elementary classrooms I observed in, the teacher used a bell to transition between subjects. The students knew that when the bell was ringed it was time to be quiet so they could hear the instructions for the next lesson. This would be considered classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a form of conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that causes involuntary response until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and also causes the response (Meece & Daniels 88). This concept came from a Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, and would be considered in the social domain. It is social because it is teaching the students to listen to others. This could also be cognitive because students are learning to follow directions. Another theorist whose theory could be applied to situations I saw in the elementary classrooms is Piaget and his theory of cognitive development. In some of the younger grade levels I observed, the class was split into small groups. Some of the groups had trouble getting along. These students would be considered to be in the preoperational stage because they showed signs of being egocentric. Egocentric is the tendency to see the world from your own point of view while failing to see other peoples

Ashley Valdahl 3 point of view (Meece & Daniels 100). This is a social domain because the students are working together in groups, and learning how to understand others views. At the middle level, I saw Eriksons psychosocial theory being applied. In the class I observed, they were working in groups to make Rube Goldberg Machines. In the groups, I saw identity versus identity confusion. Some students had the identity of being a leader while others were quiet. Some groups did have a few problems when there was a dominant leader, but overall the students got along well. Although cliques are a big thing at this age, I surprising did not see any in this classroom. This is another example of social behaviors as well as emotional. The students are working together and learning how to cope with an outspoken person. I could tell though that the groups were motivated by extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is the desire to pursue an activity for reasons external to the activity such as a getting a reward, avoiding punishment, or earning a grade (Meece & Daniels 527). As in this case, the students were going to be earning a grade for their machine. Freud is another theorist. He believed that jokes purposes can be simply to make others happy and laugh or to show aggression (Meece & Daniels 348). At the high school level, students joked around with each other as well as the teacher. Although most students would laugh at the jokes, some jokes said to the teachers were more to snub the teacher than to make them laugh. Joking around in the classroom could be considered an emotional domain. Students are trying to get others to laugh as well as possibly hurt someones feelings. I also saw high school students people reading or applying the theory of mind. Theory of mind is the ability to infer mental states in others, such as beliefs, desires,

Ashley Valdahl 4 knowledge, and intentions (Meece & Daniels 336). I saw one student go up to another student and ask if things were alright because the student did not act like their normal self. Also, students were good at helping each other with problems. This is an example of the physical domain because the students are reading the other students through their body language. There were definitely lots of differences between the grade levels. Physical differences included the heights of the students, and reading the body languages. Based on the cognitive domain, I think that younger students sometimes showed more interest in learning than the older students, but the older students were able to apply the information they learned better. Socially at all age levels students had problems getting along with each other. With the older students, they were able to handle the social problems themselves while the younger students had to involve a teacher. It was good to see that all throughout the different grade levels; teachers were providing group work which allows students to interact socially with others. This also shows how emotionally stable the students are. The middle level and high school students are more emotionally mature compared to the elementary students. As in the high school example, the student was able to help the other student when he/she was emotionally upset. Overall, I felt that getting to observe in nine different grade levels was very affective. It helped me to see how the theories we learned in class were applied to classroom situations. Also, it helped me to understand the four domains (physical, social, cognitive, &emotional) better.

Ashley Valdahl 5 References Meece, J.L. & Daniels, D.H. (2008). Child & Adolescent Development for Educators. Third Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.