Matthew Earl

Goal History Final Paper

FRLT 7130
December 1, 2008

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 After only being in this program for a short time, the impact on my teaching and on

student learning has been invaluable. This class in particular has really been a window

into the minds of my students and provided a means to decipher the changing behavior of

my sixth graders. Pedagogically, my approach has been enhanced, although I’ve only

begun to apply the concepts: the environmental influences of the behaviorists, the internal

processes and reaction to one’s surroundings presented by the cognitivists, and the

motivational strategies that impact behavior and learning. My goal is to integrate these

concepts into what is currently considered best practice. I would like to then apply these

concepts more consistently in order to maximize my effectiveness as an educator and the

ability of my students as learners.

My undergraduate degree is in secondary education and history. Most of my education

methods classes focused on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, unfortunately

leaving out many other important contributors to the field. My first teaching job was at a

small private school outside of Atlanta, Georgia where I explored other theorists and their

educational approaches such as John Dewey, Vygotsky’s constructivism, Maslow’s

hierarchy, Bloom’s taxonomy, Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding By Design, Jane

Nelsen’s Positive Discipline, and the power of service learning. The combination of these

approaches has shaped my teaching for the past seven years, especially in the latter part,

although I must confess I wasn’t implementing all of the methods as effectively as I

would have liked, perhaps because the students were highly self-motivated.

I am now teaching sixth grade social studies and coaching soccer in a rural public

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school and have found it necessary to use every trick in my bag in order to motivate

students. If students find meaningfulness and value in what they’re learning, they will be

much more determined to acquire to knowledge and skills. I would like to place more

emphasis on students applying what they learn in real world situations through creating a

culture of transfer. If this is built into the curriculum as an expected ritual and routine,

students will carry this over into other classes and perhaps try to see value in learning for

the sake of learning. This intrinsic motivation will stay with them for the rest of their

lives as they become contributing members of society and problem solvers of the future.

Learners with this sort of disposition will ideally be critical thinkers and advocates for

long-term solutions for our communities, nation, and world.

The learning environment is a very important part of the learning process. By this, I’m

not referring only to the learning space, but also to the tone and structure of activities,

assessment, and feedback. Students are rarely “blank slates” poised eagerly on the edge

of their seats, waiting to be imparted with wisdom of the ages. Students often behave in

certain ways because of various reinforcers that promote repetition of particular

behaviors. Often students make a decision to seek out attention of their peers and/or

teacher by behaving or misbehaving in order to attain social reinforcement. Persuading

students to do the right thing can be accomplished by giving positive feedback and

recognition to those who are making good decisions to do the right thing at the

appropriate time. Students who aren’t doing the right thing at the appropriate time will

realize that they need to change their behavior in order to be a recipient of material,

social, or activity reinforcers. This may not work for all students, unfortunately making

negative reinforcement or even punishment the next option. Negative reinforcement is

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different than punishment, in that negative reinforcement can be used to increase a

desired response, whereas punishment decreases an undesirable response. When I first

started teaching, I was such a push over and gave too many second chances. Ironically,

classroom behavior wasn’t out of control, but then again these were very well behaved

gifted students in a classroom of less than twenty. Now in a classroom of slightly less

than thirty, communicating clear expectations (terminal behaviors) and consequences

resulting from poor choices are important in maintaining an environment that is ideal for

everyone’s learning. I would like to have a balance between using positive reinforcement

and punishments, because students respect a teacher who is fair and firm. Contingency

contracts are used at my school for students who are at risk of failing. Students contracts

are individualized and tailored to the things that particular student need to work on in

order to be successful. If a student makes good choices, they receive a +, and a – for poor

choices. At the end of the week, the pluses accumulated can be exchanged for prizes.

These extrinsic reinforcers along with personal attention and coaching have made a

difference for most students.

No person is identical to another, especially in the way we learn best. Some function

better working individually, while others learn more effectively with the collective mind

of a group. Constructivism focuses on the ability of the individual, with the influences of

peers and adults to construct their own knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to have a

variety of groupings during class activities. Students need to have a metacognitive

understanding of how they learn best and which areas they can improve. Knowledge and

intelligence should be viewed as something that is dynamic and that can grow. We

focused on this part of the learning process much more at the private school, allowing

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students to have much more autonomy, and less in the public school. I would like to

come back to this fundamental component of the learning process. I can do this by giving

students options during tasks, when conferencing with students informally during

projects, and by having students complete self-reflections after activities. Having students

set mastery and performance goals is also an important component to success. Students

who have a purpose to work toward will be much more driven and autonomous.

Many of my students, especially learning disabled students, have developed an

attitude of learned helplessness. This is very difficult to undo because some of this

attitude is acquired from one’s culture. Teaching in a low-income area has revealed to me

that some students of low socioeconomic status learn to be dependant on someone else

doing things for them. For some parents it might be the government that is the provider;

for students, it has been parents, grandparents, and even teachers that have enabled this

attitude. Now when it comes to other things like hunting, farming, horses or whatever

that particular student is interested in and is familiar with, they exemplify an attitude of

mastery orientation. There is such a considerable difference in their level of confidence

and motivation. If I could use knowledge and skills in which students demonstrate

mastery orientation, and apply that to knowledge and skills that bring out learned

helplessness, perhaps this would increase motivation, confidence, and self-efficacy.

Learning is a not only an observable change in behavior to adapt to new situations. It

is also the formation of new physical connections in the brain, as well as a newly

developed understanding of the interrelatedness of our world. Learning allows us to adapt

as individuals and as a species, to solve problems in order to make a better life for

ourselves. My goal is to prevent any regression, and to promote as much growth as

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possible in my students. Each student is an individual with particular needs and

preferences, yet we all generally function in a similar way with identical basic needs for

food, clothing, and shelter. What we eat, wear, and where we live widely varies. How we

provide for our needs is all a result of learning what value we have and can contribute in

order to support ourselves and change our world for the better. It is an honor and a

privilege to be a part of this process with students who are only beginning to figure out

who they are and what they believe is important. If learning is “a long-term change in

mental representations or association as a result of experience,” (Ormrod, 4) then I want

to provide experiences for students to establish a positive change in how they see

themselves and the contributions they can make.

REFERENCES:

Ormrod, Jeanne E. Human Learning. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.