EDUC 633- Blog #2

I thought when I started reading about behaviorism and cognitivism that they would be dependent on one another. It turns out one can be present and the other part is still at a low level. Behavioral engagement is defined as the action a learner takes during an instructional episode (Clark and Mayer, 2011).  In distance education, the behavior could be pressing the forward button on the keyboard or verbally responding to a question and getting involved in an online discussion. Then cognitive learning can be defined as paying attention to material and then connecting the new knowledge to prior knowledge (Clark and Mayer, 2011).

When a student has high level of behavioral engagement, it does not necessarily mean that they will have a high level of cognitive processing. On the opposite hand, a student can watch a very informative video, which does not require any behavior engagement but it can lead to high levels of cognitive engagement (Clark and Mayer, 2011).

There are strengths and weaknesses to both arguments. Students could go through the motions of participating in an online course or in a face-to-face course but not be actively engaged. This is the strength of the argument, because the students could look like they are working but just going through the motions and not retaining the information. This would be evident when the students take an assessment, and the teacher could connect this information to the student’s behavioral performance. The weaknesses in this argument are that usually when a student is behaviorally engaged then usually they will be cognitively engaged. It is hard to go through motions, especially in a face-to-face setting without a good level of understanding of the content. Most of my students who are behaviorally engaged are cognitively engaged as well in high school math class. The students who are not cognitively engaged are typically not behaviorally engaged either.

This is why it is important to develop meaningful media elements to engage students in an online setting (Clark and Mayer, 2011). Students could fall into a trap of going through the motions and their cognition of the content is not high.

Reference:

Clark, Ruth, Mayer, Richard. (2011). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 

EDUC 639- Blog #2- Most Important Point of View

I interviewed Mrs. Collins, who is the ITRT at Southampton High School. She has been in education for thirty-seven years. The last seven years have been spent as the ITRT and before that she was a high school math teacher. One of the most important issues seemed to be how electronic devices will be integrated into the classroom. There are a lot of elements that go into properly implementing electronic devices and there is also teacher professional development that also needs to take place.

Since the trend is heading toward all digital textbooks there are issues that arise with that. Some students will be required to bring their own device and they may not have access to a device, which presents a problem. This is an important point because this is the direction all education whether it is distance or face to face is heading.

I have not changed my views, because I work closely with Mrs. Collins since she was a math teacher and she works closely with the math department still. So I know a lot about what she does on a daily basis. This is very relevant to my life after graduation, because I would love to one day be an ITRT for my school. Mrs. Collins is the only one for the middle, high and alternative schools for our county. So she could always use some help even if it was part time. 

EDUC 633 - VB #1

EDUC 639 - VB #1