Chapter 7

What?

Chapter seven discussed the different methods theorists believe that are involved in constructing knowledge. Throughout the chapter it discussed how different people interpret different meanings from the same information. The reason people interpret things differently is because of his or her prior knowledge or experience. Teachers need to not assume his or her students will always interpret the information they pro tray the same way. Teachers should be specific about what information they would like their students to know. Teaches can accomplish this by having little or no room for misunderstanding. teachers can repeat the information several times throughout the class and always repeat the information they want students to remember the most at the very ending of the class period. Human beings are always trying to interpret information and categorize the information to help them better understand his or her world around them. So teachers should help instill in his or her students a way of helping them organize information they have given the to help them interpret new information about his or her world. The chapter emphasizes the importance of formal education as the key to students obtaining abstract knowledge. Teacher should use authentic activities in his or her teaching method to help his or her students better understand his or her world. The classroom should be a community of learners which involved both teacher learning from the student and the students learning from the teacher as well as other students. Through formal classroom instruction and informal out of school learning experiences individuals continually add to and modify his or her understanding of his or her world.
So What!!

Many teacher have forgotten how to be students themselves and run his or her classroom as a dictator would. Community learning gives everyone a chance to grow and learn from experience. I have had teachers in the past who assume I have prior knowledge about a subject and I have been completely lost throughout the class. As a future teacher I hope to gain insight about what students have been exposed to prior to starting lessons. This will give me more insight on what I as a teacher need to be covering throughout the lesson plan. I plan to never assume that an individual has prior knowledge about a subject, because I do not want to intentionally leave a student wondering what is she talking about. I hope to Orient my classroom with many authentic activity's which will show students what I am teaching them is applicable to the world outside of my classroom. I also want to have a community of learners within my classroom. I would like to give students the opportunity to learn from their peers as well as from me, but there are some problems with these types of activities. Students may have an under generalization or an over generalization of a subject and may not cover the material which needs to be covered. I hope to instill in my future student a love of learning about the world around them through formal education as well as expose them to the possibility of learning informally.

Now What?

I still need to understand how to be very clear on subjects and to get students to understand exactly what I want them to understand. I still need to learn how to use a community of learning with in a classroom. I find myself preferring to work alone rather than within a group. I also need to learn how to give students the opportunity to use what I teach them in the classroom and be able to apply it to the world around them. I find my self fascinated with how the brain retains information and how we categorize information. I hope to learn more information which would help me as a future teacher to help students retain information.