This newest theory, social constructivism, brings with it a bunch of sub theories. One of them that stood out to me was the idea that "past success served to distract from the ultimate goal." One of my major goals is to get my students to successfully identify principles in the scriptures. I define a principle as a statement of action that can be place in an If/Then format. My students are getting quite good at this but now I need to push them beyond that into an application idea. I need them to be able to identify the principle quickly and then spend the time on the application part of the lesson. If the application doesn't happen then I have largely failed. But I'm seeing that their past success in identifying principles is making it harder for them to go beyond the principle into an application type setting. So that is what my next lesson plan will focus on. As to what real learning is, this would suggest that a student and a teacher can never be satisfied with an initial success. Knowing what 2+2 equals is great but knowing how to perform addition is paramount. I need to go beyond simply identifying the principles already found in the verses, to creating an application that can influence my life. I love this.
M
Hypoxic me
Denali 20,320'
About Me
- Big dyno D
- Montpelier, Idaho, United States
- I have been married for 8 years and I have 3 children. My bride, Liz, is from Wisconsin, my first child is Aurora, she's 7, Ethan is 5 and Leif is 4. We love being outside camping and hiking and climbing. I love teaching seminary in the Bear Lake valley!
I love Elder Holland's "Therefore, What?" talk. Sometimes forget to ask myself that question when preparing my lessons. Isn't that the real meat? Sometimes I am afraid that I serve "fried froth" to the students instead of something that will make them feel spiritually fuller.
ReplyDeleteGroup work is becoming a strong point of mine, I must say. I always thought it was a way for teachers to skip out on lesson prep and make the students do it. I am learning, however, that group work when done properly can really bless a student's life. My Pre-service director used to tell us, "whoever does the work gets the learning." I believe that.