Journal Table Five
Name: Andrea Hegna
Important Societal Factors/Significant
Observations from Field Notes
Scan the Prompt Question Sets 1-4 and your
Annotated Bibliography before answering this
question in Column 1:
A) How do the EDFD 400/401 and EDFD 460/461
courses, taken together, help you now interpret the 3
parts of the Pedagogical Triangle listed in the
Teacher Noticing PPT? (Note: You have this PPT in
your EDFD 460/461 Introductory Materials subfolder
on your computer)
The Pedagogy triangle has three main components. In
order to be a successful educator each of these goals
must be met. The triangle intertwines the teacher,
students and the content to demonstrate the
importance of the various roles of a teacher. The main
concepts include:
1) The teachers relationship with and understanding
of students
2) The teachers relationship with and understanding
of content
3) Teachers understanding of how students learn
content
1) The teachers relationship with and
understanding of students
I think that the first point is extremely valid and has
been shown in numerous ways throughout both EDFD
460 as well as EDFD 400. We learned the importance
of having a relationship with your students and
understanding not only where they come from but also
how they learn. In 460 we talked a lot about the
importance to having a Funds of Knowledge
approach in the classroom, meaning that as an
educator, you engage students [and] draw them in
with knowledge that is already familiar to them, and
using that as a basis for pushing their learning which
was discussed in Norma Gonzalezs article that talked
about the importance of this approach and why it is so
beneficial to not only the students but also the
educator as well. Being aware of a students life and
Course Content
B)DiscussyourrationalefortheFundsofKnowledgeData
Graphic(ThisisNOTyourClinicalSitepictures)thatyou
placedontheDigitalEthnographyClinicalSitepageto
illustratetheassets,strengths,andresourcespossessedbythe
learner(s)examinedinyourclinicalsetting(Seeillustrating
fundsofknowledgepossiblesources.Youwillhaveidentified
thesethroughyourobservations,conversations/interactions,and
researchforyourAnnotatedBibliography
The Graphic that I made discusses the question of if
the social construct of gender will influence
teaching and learning in my licensure area in the
future. I dissected the main points of three articles
that targeted discussions surrounding the roles and
stereotypes of gender and how they can be affected
within a classroom.
My first article was written by Judith Lorber where
she explained how gender is a human production
that depends on everyone constantly doing gender.
She goes more in depth and argues how gender is a
social construct within our society and how when
growing up, children learn to walk, talk, and gesture
the way their social group says that boys and girls
should. Because gender is so embedded in our
society I think that because students act based off
how they are treated, that they will in turn act this
way in a school setting as well affecting both how
they respond to teaching and learning and thus
affecting my future in the classroom.
I then discussed the main points of an article titled
Gender Myths & the Education of Boys by
Rosalind Barnet and Caryl Rivers. This article argued
that gender doesnt in fact contribute to the divides in
classrooms that some may think are present. It
explains how not all boys are falling behind girls,
how race completely swamps gender in regards to
academic problems and the fact that cognitive
differences between girls and boys are small in
comparison to other differences. I think that the main
point of this article is to explain that gender shouldnt
shift our expectations of our students and expect
 Journal Table Five
Name: Andrea Hegna
environment outside of school is absolutely vital to
their success academically. This ties into an article that
we studied by Eric Jensen that argued the importance
of students basic needs being met become they are
able to focus in school and succeed in an educational
environment. His article also touched on the
importance of building relationships with students and
implementing hope into their mindsets. Being an
educator is a lot more than just making sure that
students can take tests to pass standards. It is getting to
know and care for our students and their wellbeing
first and fore most and having an interest in the things
that they say and the talents that they each individually
have to offer. Knowing our future students funds of
knowledge bases and using this knowledge to then
create meaningful relationships with these students is
the main point of this part of the pedagogical triangle.
more of less of them just because of their gender.
The third article that I gave an overview of was titled
The Miseducation of Boys by Myra Sadker and
David Sadker. The most interesting argument that this
article pointed out was that boys are raised to be
active, aggressive, and independent but are then
expected to enter schools that want them to be quiet,
passive and conforming. This point is clearly stating
that the gendering of boys does ultimately affect them
when they are in school settings.
Overall, these three articles confirmed that the
construct of gender ultimately does and will
influence teaching and learning in my licensure area
because of how embedded into society are ideas are.

2) The teachers relationship with and

understanding of content
The second part of the pedagogical triangle describes
the importance for the teacher or instructor to have a
deep knowledge of the content that they are teaching
within their classroom. Not only do the many skills
that a teacher should possess fall under this triangle
(such as collaboration and negotiation skills etc.) but
so do qualities such as an understanding of different
cultures of their target students. Some more examples
include what we talked a lot about in EDFD 400 such
as knowing the developmental stages of students. It is
important to understand where a child is at in the
child, adolescent and cognitive development spheres.
Knowing their developmental stages will help the
educator know what a student already knows and what
needs to be taught still and if they are ready to
understand the concepts. It is also important for an
educator to understand and possess the 21st century
skills within their classrooms to help benefit the
learning of their students. All of these aspects go into a
teachers abilities to understand and have a
relationship with the content they are teaching. If this
relationship is fostered and has a strong structure, it
will greatly impact the success of the students
academically.
 Journal Table Five
Name: Andrea Hegna
3) Teachers understanding of how students learn
content
The third part of the pedagogical triangle displays the
importance of a teachers understanding of how their
students learn and understand the concepts that they
are teaching. A main take away that was covered in
EDFD 400 is that all students learn in different ways.
This can be explained through concepts such as
constructivism, which explains that people construct
their own understanding and knowledge of the world
through experiencing things and then reflecting on
those experiences. Through studying constructivism, it
is easy to see that because of these constructions, each
student brings different things to the table because
they all experience different things and have different
prior knowledge. Being able to understand this, as an
educator, is vital. This ties into the importance of
using multiple mediums when testing children by
using the various multiple intelligences. These
intelligences include musical, interpersonal,
intrapersonal, linguistic, logical-mathematical,
naturalist, spatial and bodily kinesthetic. Knowing that
each individual child has different strengths and
weaknesses is extremely important to successfully
teaching concepts and lessons to children. I think that
another really important part of this section of the
triangle is the importance of teaching children to apply
what they are learning to real world issues and helping
them connect what they are learning and apply it to
their own lives.
 Journal Table Five
Name: Andrea Hegna