Module 10

• Discuss one question or confusion that you have from reading the module (on social cognitive theory). You should comment on these within others' posts.



I have no confusions or questions for this module.

• The big idea of this week is that other PEOPLE (even on the large scale of culture and society) can affect the way that you learn, and also affect what counts as learning.

• Who or what can be a model? How do models support learning?

A model can be anything or anybody that serves as an example for someone else. By observing the model and imitating its behavior, the student can learn the expressed behavior. The model serves learning because the behavior that is expressed by the model, is then imitated by the observer (the student), depending on the relevance than this model has to the student the higher the chances are that the students will pay attention to the behavior and then learn it.

• What kind of models have affected your learning most significantly? OR, What kind of models are important in teaching your content area? Discuss this idea from the chapter and your own experiences.

Throughout my learning experience I feel like the most important models have been my parents. I think that the fact that we are so close with each other makes it easier for us to communicate more effectively and learn from each other. Ever since I was little I would look up to them because they were my first role models, I would do everything as they said so and I hardly ever disobeyed them. Most importantly I learned that by doing the right things in life I would get somewhere in life as well as staying out of trouble (vicarious reinforcement).

Blog Post 2 (Activity on Sociocultural Theory)

• Read the Driscoll chapter in Resources. It gives an overview of various kinds of social and situated learning. Skim it if necessary....

• You will be teaching students who are from many different cultures and backgrounds, with different assumptions about learning. Some cultures value (as intelligence) good storytelling rather than logical or mathematical capability. What potential cultural differences must you be most sensitive in your content area? (Are there any which might conflict with the values you have for your students?)

I feel like the hardest part in my classroom would be the importance of education in my students. I went to an inner city high school where there were all kinds of students. There were kids from all kinds of different cultures and different socioeconomic states. Since I’m a minority I know how hard it is for us Latinos to stay in school, there are other things that Latinos see as more valuable than an education and the same can be seen with the African American students. I feel like the hardest part about my job is going to be encouraging kids to do well and to stay in school, especially my minority students. I feel like it could be a little bit easier for me to get my point across to them because we have something in common, being a minority, and it would be easier for them to listen to me.

In your future teaching, you will be creating a classroom culture. This is a common culture among students (independent of all the of the other cultures in which they are a part). The culture which you create will determine what is valued as intelligence and learning within your classroom. What are the most important aspects of this culture to emphasize for your content area?

I want my students to have fun and to feel comfortable with their peers while still having a learning environment. I also want my students to be able to learn by sharing and communicating with their peers, since I’m going to be a Spanish teacher I want them to be able to communicate with each other in the new language. Also, I want them to learn by repetition and by using me as the model. By listening to me how I say things in Spanish my students can then repeat them until the words stay stored in their brain. My students are pretty much going to learn by imitating me and then practicing what they learned with their peers.