Reflective Journal Entry #2

 Dear Cognitive Development

Reflective Journal Entry #1

 Dear Human Development

     They say that the best things come in threes. Most plays have three acts, genies grant 3 wishes and when it comes to understanding how students think, learn and grow-- three brilliant theories lead the way for educators like myself, to understand how students do just that. The big three are Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Urie Bronfenbrenner.

     As a first-year educator, I have experienced a lot throughout this year. We can call this year the year of filling my toolbox by collecting new strategies and figuring out what kind of educator I am becoming. There are things that I have done as an educator to the betterment of my students that I didn't have an explanation for, but it just worked. In with knowing that, I have truly seen these theories that these theorist have placed in my hands. These theories and concepts have helped me though my first year of understanding the "why's" of my students actions. These theories have helped me understand how to operate and make sense of what's going on in my students mind, whether I realized it or not.

     As mentioned, I'm a first year educator who needs all the tools that she can get to fill up her tool box. In with I learned throughout the reading, these cognitive development theories will forever aid me in becoming a better teacher. Understanding Piaget's theory of cognitive development will significantly enhance my effectiveness towards becoming a better teacher. Slavin (2020) describes how Piaget explored both why and how mental abilities change over time. Many teachers believe that students are mini adults. Slavin (2020) explains that children are in fact not miniature adults and that they see the world differently than we (adults) do. As an educator of the younger age group, I had to understand that a lot of the task asked of my students have been too much for their minds to handle and understand. I had to understand, well learn, that my students are in different stages of thinking and how their mental abilities change over time (Slavin, 2020). 

     With knowing that my students are in the preoperational stage (working with the age group of 5-7), there are certain tasks that the student can do, but won't understand. In kindergarten, we do basic addition and subtraction. Within addition and subtraction, there are patterns that some students will pick up , and others just won't see it. Sometimes I sit there wondering, "Why don't they see this pattern?", and then I read about reversibility. Slavin (2020) defines reversibility as the ability to change directions in one's thinking to return to a starting point. This limitation is clear, if I were to tell a student that 5-2=3, and then ask them, "What do you get if you add 2 back to 3?" Many students struggle to understand that adding 2 would return it back to 5.  As a teacher, recognizing this helps me avoid pushing such abstract concepts too early and to instead focus on using hands on activities, visual aids, and concrete examples to build number sense gradually.

     This same principle applies when promoting literacy development. Development of language and literacy is a key objective of teaching (Slavin, 2020).  In this preoperational stage, my students are just beginning to understand that letters represent sounds and that those sounds make up words. In the beginning of the year, they were able to sound out words like "mat", but didn't understand that changing the "m" to a "h" makes a new word. Their thinking is still concrete, so they benefitted from meaningful literacy experiences like storytelling, rhyming, and phonemic awareness activities. Understanding how young children think, gives me what I need to guide their growth. This reading helped me understand for next year, to better align my instruction with their developmental stage. That will support my classroom mathematical and literacy development that re age appropriate and meaningful.

     While Piaget helps me understand what young children cannot yet do, Vygotsky helps me understand how I can help my students develop those abilities. Vygotzky believed that learning takes place most effectively when children are working within their zone of proximal development (Slavin,2020). A major piece with working with children who are working within their zone of proximal development is the process of mediation. That is, older children and adults help learners by explaining, modeling, or breaking down complex skills, knowledge, or concepts (Slavin, 2020). With using the earlier example of math, mediation would be me using physical counters or a number lune while working through a subtraction problem. Like I said earlier, these theories have helped me understand how to operate and make sense of what's going on in my students mind, whether I realized it or not. There are so many theories practiced in my classroom that I didn't have the explanation for, but in reading it, I'm like "Wow!, I have been practicing this theory without even knowing so".

     What's been the most eye-opening for me is realizing that I've unconsciously been using Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, even before I read to understand what it was called. With working with such a young age group, I take a lot of things in account; a child's home life, if they had dinner, figuring out why they're coming to school tired, or changes in behavior and if this is being affected by something outside of the classroom that is happening. Slavin (2020), describes the importance of the biological approach is in emphasis the interconnectedness of the many factors that influence a child's development. When I reach out to parents, collaborate with the counselors and social workers, or make my expectations meet the student, its because I'm responding to their microsystem and the mesosystem. With me teaching in South Georgia, and example of this practice is me using language that resonates with my students, recognizing religion and family structures and it just shows that iv'e been operating all in the bioecological model. All of these unconscious choices have helped me become a better teacher, and now that I understand the theory behind them, I can use it more intentionally moving forward.

     In with practicing these theories without realizing it, I felt validated and really relived to know that many of the choices I've been made as a teacher, it has given me and explanation to something I haven't been able to put into words. Piaget gave me the tool to understand why some student struggle with certain concepts, and it's not because they're not trying, but because their brains are still developing. Vygotsky handed me the tool to help them grow, showing me the importance of scaffolding, peer interactions and the Zone of Proximal Development. Bronfenbrenner reminded me that my students bring their world into my classroom, and how those social and institutional layers deeply influence how they learn and behave. 

     In my classroom, these theories are more than academic, they are practical. These theorist have been more than just names that we have read or talked about. They have been my quiet mentors in my classroom helping me to understand and support my little learners each day. The Big 3 didn't just help me teach my students, but they helped me truly understand them.

     A question that I will leave you with is how can I better partner with families to support their learning at home? How do I make sure I'm not underestimating my students because they're in the preoperational stage? To answer these, I plan to collaborate with my counselors at the school more, maybe even asking them to hold a parent engagement workshop, seek out mentorship from the veteran teachers on my team, and continue educating myself to be an amazing tool for my students to use. These tools are helpful for me to grow into the teacher I want to me.

References

Slavin, R.E (2020). Educational psychology: Theory and practice 13th ed.). Pearson Education.