Activity 7: Timms Video

Alison McFarland
Tyler Gayheart
Antoinette Davis

Paragraph 1:

Our group reviewed the video, US1 GRAPHING LINEAR EQUATIONS on Timssvideo.com. In the video, the instructor used a behavioral technique to reinforce the student’s work and overall performance. The instructor used positive reinforcement by complimenting their work and overall progression towards learning linear equations. For example, he complimented the students on labeling the x and y intercepts as well applauding their collaborative efforts. The instructor circulates the room from group to group, working with each student individually. He leaves it up to the students to work in groups and acts as a facilitator, sharing the knowledge between the stronger students and the weaker ones. The class is engaged and participating, but for the most part are working in independent sets of three and four. The instructor is employing the help of the other students to help each other, but simultaneously reinforcing their behavior with his knowledge on the subject. When addressing the class to capture their undivided attention, the instructor counts down from 5 to 1 and the students are suddenly attentive. This is a method of conditioned behaviorism that the teacher utilizes to quiet the class. Also, near the end of the lesson, the teacher asks the students to write down what they learned today for self-reflection. 

Paragraph 2:

1)  Mr. Ormsby had the students work in groups of three or four to graph the packet of linear equations.  He told them that they could graph it any way they knew how as long as the end result was correct.  He went around from group to group helping them when they asked or when he discovered there was a problem with the answer.

2)  One of the students made her table different than the majority of the students.  Mr. Ormsby asked why she did her table that way and she said it was easier for her.  He said ok and moved on.

3)  One group finished graphing all their lines and they had him check their answers.  As Mr. Ormsby was checking their work he asked them to tell him which equation went with which line.  They told him and he asked them if they were sure.  The students doubled checked and realized they labeled them incorrectly.

These are examples because Mr. Ormsby is guiding the students towards discovery rather than telling them the answer.  He is also letting them construct their own knowledge structures rather than impose those structures on them.

Paragraph 3:

1. The teacher leads the instruction in the classroom and the students imitate her while they are sitting in their seats.

2. The child is given a chance to teach the teacher and the classmates about square roots as they solve problems on the board.

3. The students in the classroom are helping each other as they solve the problem while sitting down in their seats.

Each segment of the video relates to the key tenets of the theory because social interaction is utilized all throughout the video. Children are working together in groups so that they can use their brains in order to find the solution to the problem. The teacher is walking around the room after the lecture to make sure that students understand the information. After that, the teacher ask the students to work on their homework and then she chooses students who will post this work and solutions on the board. Overall, social constructivism is seen in this classroom because social interaction is occurring all throughout the class.

Paragraph 4 (Group Reflection):

I think that this exercise helped me to see that the techniques of Skinner, Piaget, and Vygotsky can be found in any class. It is easy to see theories in practice because these theories can be applied in various ways in the classroom.

Connection: Vygotsky says "The educational process must be based on the student's individual activity, and the art of education should involve nothing more than guiding and monitoring this activity." In the classroom, a teacher should be guiding the activities that will occur in the classroom. With proper guidance, the student will be able to complete the activities with the help of a group. As the child gets used to the material, they will eventually want to do the problems on their own.

After this exercise I realized that my favorite teachers were the ones that used several different techniques from each of the different learning theories.  Those teachers used rewards, punishments, reinforces, didn’t just give the students the answer, let the student teach one another, and guided the students in the right direction.  I believe that is why they were my favorite teachers and I learned the most from them.  When it comes to seeing theory in practice I wouldn’t say I could pick them out with no trouble but I would definitely say it is much easier now than before.  Theories, without doubt are useful lenses to examine what is goes on in the classroom.  Every student is completely different and they learn in completely different ways.  So, it seems like to me that it would make sense to examine classrooms through as many different lenses as we possibly can.

My first reaction to the overall organizational structure of the classroom and how my math experience was nothing like this. Sadly, I did not have a teacher as highly involved in the process of learning linear equations. And in my opinion, math skills are for typical students a conditioned skill that is acquired through practice.  I appreciated the sound academic habits and expectations he created in the classroom by reinforcing their performance with positive comments. However, these behaviorism ideas seem more natural in their application as part of the teachers “style” as oppose to a rigid application of a learning theory. Group work, peer-to-peer involvement and conditioned responses to grab their attention played a critical role in the student engagement, but also with the teacher maintaining order in the classroom. However, by “order” I do not mean in the context of a lecturer or by direct instruction, but by simply capturing the attention of the students through behavioral techniques such as counting down from five. The instructor employs the idea of shaping, during which responses are reinforced for getting closer to the desired end behavior.