UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

COLLEGE OF ART AND SCIENCES

SGDG 4022

APPLICATION OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

TASK: REFLECTION OF THEORIES

PREPARED FOR:

DR AMRITA KAUR

PREPARED BY :

NORATIKAH BINTI IBRAHIM (826138)

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REFLECTION 1 (DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES)

Throughout my SGDY4022 class, I have learned the different ways adolescence develops, think,

reason, and mature. Learning the different theories, models, and concepts will strengthen my

abilities as a teacher in the future. I have realized that I still have many things I will need to work

on becoming a great teacher.

By learning the developmental theories that I can understand that everyone learns differently and

as a teacher, you have to adapt your teaching styles to try to be inclusive. Teachers should try to

teach their students as much as they can and it does not only mean their subject. As a teacher,

you are shaping and molding the future of the country. The lessons can vary from the students

learning how to be sociable and talkative, to students learning more about themselves as a person

and learner, or even learning not just about their subject but about other subjects to broaden their

knowledge.

In developmental theories, I prefer to choose cognitive development which is Vygotsky and

Piaget theories. I was a teacher in the future and are individuals who play a key role in

developing children's cognitive skills to achieve optimal levels. Through these theories, it helps

me to guide the teaching and learning process in the classroom. From learning about some of the

theories of cognitive development, it helped me as a future teacher to understand the cognitive

development of my students and I was able to recognize each student's thinking level. In

addition, I am can develop a better understanding of their student’s thinking and understand each

of my students' mistakes. Although, if the student does of mistakes in their task, I am not really

are frustrated with my student's mistakes, I will be a model of patience and guide them in the

right direction. For example, if my students are making the same mistake in writing a word, I

will be guild the students and give them an opportunity to learn from mistakes.

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I will incorporate cognitive concepts into my learning process by providing learning materials

organized from easy to difficult. This is because understanding something is better than

memorizing. Whereas, the existing knowledge of students will be is applied and adapted to new

learning. So I will organize the content according to specific methods to help my students better

understand and remember it. For example in Malay Language subject, I need to teach them about

the fruit theme. I will give my students a description of the types of local fruits, as well as their

taste.

I will use teaching and learning methods where students need to be actively involved in group

activities so that they interact with each other. This allows for two-way communication and

exchange of ideas during the activity. I will provide students with a positive response to further

their cognitive development. For example, I will give them persuasion, support, and words of

encouragement for their work. From my knowledge of this theory, I understand that each student

has a different individual development. By knowing the zone of proximal development (ZPD) of

every each my students, it helps me to plan out my method of learning and which part I need

give more support to help them to accomplish their task. Its because as I knew that every child

has different ZPD and every ZPD has its own method which depends on what ZPD of my

students.

In conclusion, these theories are very suitable for application in the teaching and learning process

for a teacher. Students' cognitive development is closely linked to existing knowledge to form a

new experience. The teaching and learning process should give children a chance to explore on

their own to enhance their self-confidence and the process of interacting with peers and learning

materials.

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REFLECTION 2 (Individual differences theories and concepts)

From my learning these Individual differences theories and concepts, I can better understand that

individuals have a lot of differences with each other in aspect cognitive levels, type of

intelligence, level of socioeconomic, types of culture and others. Therefore, I know that everyone

will process the stimulus they receive from the environment in different ways. With this in

mind, I can emphasize that individual differences are the biggest challenge for teachers in

establishing good and conducive teaching and learning process.

Having studied the topic of these individual differences, I should have learned more about this

theory and thus, I would have been able to design an effective classroom management system.

To address the problem of student differences, I will be implementing cooperative and

collaborative learning or group methods to reduce the impact of different students. In addition, I

will also bring together students with similar abilities in the same group to make the teaching and

learning process more effective. For the most disadvantaged students, I will use the individual

teaching approach to overcome any learning problems. Besides that to ensure that all students

gain knowledge and skills, I need to make good preparation because in each group there will be

no equal group thinking and understanding of what I have to say. In this regard, I must study the

differences between their students to facilitate the teaching and learning process.

I prefer to choose the Howard Gardner theory that stated about differences of intelligence in

comparison to other theories, which I think has taught me a lot for my teaching. Theories of

Multiple Intelligence provide a framework to analyze and develop skills to reach goals. I know

that intelligence is the ability to solve the problem, or to create products that are valued within

one or more cultural setting. Each individual has a different way of learning according to their

intelligence.

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Therefore, I need to identify students' intelligence to facilitate the learning process to tailor the

teaching and learning methods to the intelligence of the students. For example, if the majority of

students in a class have kinesthetic intelligence, then I will engage in activities that include

activities such as exams, exercises, etc. to attract students, however other activities are also

needed to sharpen the intelligence that students have. This allows me to further develop the

potential of students in other areas of intelligence that have not yet been explored.

In conclusion, each individual has different strengths and weaknesses. Through this theory, I can

see the potential of the students themselves. So, I need to combine multiple theories of

intelligence with my students' thinking skills. Through improvement in this development,

students are able to apply what they are taught in certain situations. Individual differences,

especially in aspect intelligence among students, need to be studied and identified by a teacher to

facilitate teaching and learning activities in schools. So, we as a teacher need to give the students

a better chance to develop their strengths, apply them to a greater range of problems and

challenges, and showcase their achievements.

REFLECTION 3 (LEARNING THEORIES AND CONCEPTS)

From my learning these concepts and theories of learning, I can understand that learning needs to

be something that is meaningful to students. Learning means that it needs to be embedded in

students' long term memory so that they can remember in long term learning. However, the

lesson needs to be structured and selected for each of the key concepts to give the students new

knowledge. This is because if all the information is provided at the same time by the teacher to

the student, it will cause the student to memory overload. I also know that teaching and learning

should be accompanied by positive reinforcement such as reward, verbal persuasion, and others

to stimulate good student learning. In order to teach the behavior, positive and negative

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reinforcement were performed. In addition, students also go through their own learning phase by

observing them in their social environment. So, if a social environment is positive, then they will

be positive.

I prefer to choose the Ausbell theory that stated about meaningful learning in comparison to

other theories, I think has taught me a lot for my teaching. I won't give my students some of the

meaningful learning during the teaching and learning process and help them to master a concept

taught effectively. This is according to Ausbell, meaningful learning occurs when the teaching

materials used are also meaningful. There are two aspects of this important material, namely the

text of the teaching as well as the aspect of the presentation of knowledge by the teacher. When

these two aspects are combined, it will result in meaningful learning as students gain a lot of

information that can be mastered simultaneously through effective learning materials, both

through text and the delivery of knowledge by the teacher.

I will provide students with valuable teaching materials. I will ask my students to associate

existing knowledge in their cognitive structure with new lessons. I will make the initial

management of a topic of study before my lesson where I will begin learning based on the initial

preparation. It is a structure that describes the relationship between the concepts to be presented

on that day. Initial preparation will ensure that students get early exposure to new teaching

topics.

It also allows my students to learn and understand the basics related to the topics that they will

be studying later so that they can understand the topic of the lesson more thoroughly. I will

provide you with basic information in the form of illustrations, text, event sketches and so on to

facilitate them to receive new information. For example, before I want to teach a size topic to a

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student, I will first explain it and make sure my students can compare the physical size, quantity,

and value of objects without involving the unit of measurement. This is because according to my

existing knowledge during learning this theory, the teacher delivers the lesson in a planned

manner by beginning to relate the existing knowledge and organize it in stages, its a process of

meaningful learning for the students.

In conclusion, the theory of learning is very important to me because it helps me to choose

teaching and learning strategies and also to help students in their learning. In my learning

sessions, I may encounter different students in terms of their abilities. This requires the expertise

of a teacher in determining teaching and learning strategies. This means that I need to determine

the approach, choose the method and set specific techniques that will suit the students'

development and abilities. The chosen strategy, in addition to potentially stimulating student

learning, should also be able to help analyze concepts or ideas and be able to engage students and

produce meaningful learning. All learning theories can be applied or applied at all levels of

learning.