Chapter 6 & 7 - How People Learn

1. How does this fit into what I have learned already in this class? I really enjoyed reading these two chapters. It was nice to take a closer look into different learning environments and rethink the goals that I have as a teacher for what I want to see happening in my room. A learner centered environment helps students make connections between previous knowledge and new content being taught. A teacher in this environment takes a closer look at how preconceptions affect new learning. Sometimes this prior knowledge can interfere as students need to relearn new ideas. A knowledge centered environment lets students make decisions and problem solve based on the knowledge they have stored in their memory. This environment helps students learn for understanding. Assessment based environments must base grading on learning goals within the classroom. This reminded me a lot of the chapter in Cognition that referred to types of questions asked, such as nested questions. 

2. What am I still not clear on?  I think that I am clear on the four learning environments, I just still find it very difficult to align all four with the way schools are ran today. Each environment has great qualities, and seem to overlap in some ways, but it is hard to manage all these things at one time. 

3. I took away a lot of great ideas from chapter 7. I enjoyed reading about things the elementary teacher did in her classroom. I have learned to put more depth to each and every lesson. I never realized the smallest task such as taking attendance can have mathematical meaning behind it for my kids each morning. I realize the importance of having a classroom community act as a family. The impact of this connection leads to students focusing on and connecting with the material being learned. I want my students to be able to take what they have learned in class and apply it to their everyday lives, and I think these learning environments are meant to do just that.