Module 20 Post 1

-One question I had for this chapter is, is there a method that teachers primarily use in the classroom most often, and which methods have been proven to be the most effective throughout the learning process?



-The first method I will dicuss is inquiry learning. Inquiry learning is when students learn off of problem solving or hands on activities. The learning is inquiry based. This approach can be theorized off of Vygotsky's theory of individual constructism. This is when a person constructs knowledge by using their cognitive process to gain knowledge through experience. Piaget talks about four stages that learners go through. Throughout each stage students are able to gain more knowledge based on their development process. During each stage students are able to learn material based on inquiry based projects, therefore they are learning from the experiences that occur during these projects. Learning and developing in these different stages help them acquire knowledge that they can use to further learn and develop. For instance in the sensorimotor stage students explore sensory and motor actions. Then children in the pre-operational stage may learn one-way thinking strategies by playing with blocks. Then in the concrete operational stage students learn concrete methods by doing problems, such as math. Then in the formal operational stage students learn about abstract figures, from doing lab reports for example. There are inquiry based lessons that can help a student learn and develop in each of these stages. This is how Piaget's theory corresponds to inquiry based teaching. This way is benefitial because sometimes when students use self discovery the new knowledge is more likely to stick. I know that I took at inquiry based science class last semeser and it was very beneifitial. I was able to apply what I had done in class to what we were learning. If I didn't have the experience of what we done in class I probably wouldn't have understood the material we were learning as well.





-Mastery learning is a way of learning that is based on the behaviroism theory. The mastery learning method is that al students can learn curricular material if given sufficient time. The appraoches that are explained in this process of learning has many steps. The teacher splits the information up into sections. Teaches the information and then asses the information. Then the teacher reinforces the work of the students. This is one example of behaviorism , which is operant conditioning. If the student does a good job they can reinforce the student to increase the good behavior that they are portraying. If the student did not do a good job they could punish the student which would decrease their behavior of performing incorrectly on their assessments. Then over time they will learn their mistakes and be reinforced and the correct information will increased. This works in most classrooms, reinforcement is usually given after tests by rewards and punishment is given, for example more work or free time is taken away.