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UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA SOUTHEAST

“THEORY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING”

SUBMITTED TO JEFFREY L. LOFTHUS, Ph.D.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE LEARNER AND THE LEARNING PROCESS
ED 333
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

BY:
AMANDA ELDER

July 18th, 2016

Modified April, 24, 2018
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INTRODUCTION

My decision to become a teacher happened gradually over a school year while I was substitute

teaching for the Anchorage School District. During that time, I realized the importance of teachers and

the difference we can make on students in the classroom. I watched how teachers interacted with their

students and the positive impact they could make on them.

To be an intentional teacher is to understand and value the many aspects necessary to effectively

teach children. As a future teacher I want all of my decisions to reflect what is best for my students.

The field of education is always changing and growing and over time my theory on teaching will

continue to change too. As teachers we are also learners and I value the ability to continue to learn.

DEVELOPMENT

Jean Piaget believed that cognitive development happened in 4 distinct stages and every child

must pass through one stage before entering the next. Children develop by adjusting schemes in

response to the environment around them. Piaget’s stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete

operational, and formal operational start at birth and continue until adulthood, mainly relying on

discovery and biological changes, excluding outside influences such as culture. The neo-piagetian

view on development is based on Piaget’s theory but further evolves it to take into account individual

differences in culture, interactions, and social surroundings. Kurt Fischer, Juan Pascual-Leone and

Robbie Case were among the first to develop neo-piagetian theories. According to Fischer, (Marchand,

2012)

At all ages and in all cultures, people’s actions vary across contexts, tasks and
emotional state. The cause of these variations is the continued interaction between
person, context and culture. In other words, variability depends on the experience
individuals have in different domains and the support provided by the
environment.
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While I support Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the theory does lack consideration of

external outside influences. I believe that our environment and surroundings greatly influence our

development.

Like cognitive development, social development takes into consideration the environment and

outside factors the child experiences. Erik Erikson developed eight crises that a human goes through in

their lifetime. (Slavin, 2015, pp. 49-51) How these crises are dealt with alters the personality of the

child. As someone who wants to teach early elementary, stages three and four will be of most

importance to me. In stage three, initiative versus guilt, it will be important to encourage students to

discover who they want to become. Allowing creativity and play will help the child take initiative. I

should be careful not to discourage children from making their own decisions at this stage. Social

interaction, guided direction to safe and healthy decisions, and support will be of most importance to

the child. In stage four, industry versus inferiority, teachers and peers play the center role in helping to

develop self-confidence. Encouragement is incredibly important at this stage to help students feel self-

worth and accomplishment. Children will not go through each stage at the same age, therefore it is

important for me to also be aware of the other stages in Erikson’s social development. Some students

could enter school while still in stage one or two. I think it is possible for some students to repeat stages

or experience stages out of order if a major life change happens. Understanding what stage a student is

in will be imperative to understanding how to best teach the child.

INSTRUCTION

I believe to be an effective teacher you need to use various approaches of instruction to give

students a wide range of learning opportunities. While direct instruction will be useful in teaching a

specific skill or set of information, a constructivist approach will be useful to engage students in critical

thinking and more active ways of learning. I aim to make all of my lessons multi-modal to
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accommodate different learning styles. I want my students to be actively engaged and to enjoy the

learning process. Instruction is more than methods of teaching, I believe instruction also embodies the

attitude of the teacher about the learning process.

I do not want to be a teacher that relies on a lecture style of instruction. I want my classroom to

be full of activity, discussion, and discovery. However, at times it will be important to use direct

instruction in a lesson. When this is the case I would like to incorporate aspects of the whole brain

teaching theory to keep students attention and to help them better retain the information. Using the

teach-okay method in a direct instruction lesson allows the students to stay active in the lesson by

working with their classmates to teach each other important information. (Biffle, 2013) According to

the working memory and long-term memory research, students can keep only very small pieces of

information in their working memory. Because the whole brain method allows students to repeat or

teach their classmates the information they just learned, they are given time to transfer the information

to long-term memory. Slavin (2015) states that, “Instructional strategies that actively involve students

in lessons contribute to long-term memory retention.” (p. 132) The whole brain method accomplishes

that at a time when direct instruction is necessary.

Following Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, a constructivist approach to learning plays

on Piaget’s theory by allowing children to continually reconstruct their schemes through

accommodation. Children should be active in their learning and a constructivist approach allows this to

happen through cooperative learning, problem solving and thinking skills, and discovery. Perrone

states, “The point is that we engage our students most productively by placing before them questions

that are real and providing the fullest context possible for the content to be discussed...If we wish to

engage students successfully, we need to make each area of study larger than the convention that

prevails.” (Perrone,1991, p. 29) While Perrone isn’t directly stating a constructivist approach to

teaching, I believe this is what embodies a constructivist approach. We need to prepare students to enter
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the real world, and simply teaching them facts and dates isn’t going deep enough into learning to give

them the full advantage.

Direct instruction and a constructivist approach are only two of the many approaches to

instruction. The Instruction and Assessment guidelines in the Standards for Culturally Responsive

Teachers (1999) state that as teachers we should, “utilize multiple instructional strategies and apply

those strategies appropriately and flexibly in response to the cultural and instructional environment in

which they are situated.” I know that to be successful in teaching I need to vary my instruction

approaches to fit the learning styles of my students. As I continue to learn in my own education and as

the field of education continues to change, I look forward to discovering new methods of instruction

that will improve learning for students.

STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENT

A teacher cannot understand how successful she is with her students without understanding how

much has been accomplished. The use of pre, mid and post assessments are of vital importance to

understand student learning. Assessment data is not only important to the teacher but can also be of

importance to the student so he or she can visually see the progress being made. Productive, successful

assessments stem directly from state or district standards. In order to align standards to assessment and

lesson activities it is important to use backward design in lesson planning.

While Common Core Standards have not been adopted by the state of Alaska, I do understand

and stand by the importance of trying these standards. As the Common Core is still relatively new and

not much research has been done to the success of the program, I find the intention and goals of the

Common Core to be realistic and fair across the nation. To ensure every student across the country is

held to the same standard in order to offer a fair education is a benefit to all students. A student in a title

1 school should be given an equal opportunity to learn the same curriculum as any other child in any
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other school, therefore being given the same opportunity for a higher education. All standardized tests

will come with limitations and downsides, yet the Common Core Standards aim to reduce the negative

variables within standardized testing.

FOUNDATIONS

As an intentional teacher, I want to produce a classroom of respect, inclusion, and most

importantly caring. Fostering relationships with my students will build trust and in turn I believe will

make for a positive learning environment.. I am a firm believer in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and that

learning is affected by environment. A student that is plagued by hunger or constantly concerned about

being bullied will not be able to fully concentrate on learning what is being taught. A study completed

to determine the correlation between deficiency needs and growth needs shows that academic

performance can be positively impacted by an improvement in deficiency needs. In the summary of the

study, a quote by Ziegler and Finn-Stevenson states exactly what I aim to do, “…we believe that

educators must address not only cognition and academics, but other developmental pathways (e.g.,

physical and mental health, social–emotional behaviors) that strongly contribute to school

performance.” (Noltemeyer, 2012) I want my students to feel respected, empowered to learn, and

happy everyday they enter my classroom.

A sense of community and physical fitness are two aspects I want to incorporate into my

classroom. Perrone (1991) mentions a great deal about connecting communities and schools in Chapter

four of A Letter to Teachers. Children can learn a lot from their communities and communities have a

lot to teach. I want to build a strong connection to the community in my classroom. The Alaska

Standards for culturally responsive teachers states under learning environment that teachers should,

“effectively utilize the local community as an extension of the classroom learning environment.”

Especially in Alaska, most communities are rich in culture and heritage. I plan to incorporate lesson
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plans involving the diverse cultures our communities have to offer and to plan field trips out into our

communities whenever possible. Physical fitness and well-being have played an important role in my

education throughout my life. I have found that during periods in my life when I am regularly

exercising I feel more confident, receive a greater satisfaction from life, and greater accomplishment.

The first time I stepped into a Montessori classroom the kindergartners started their day with simple

yoga and stretching moves. Yoga has so many benefits to the mind and body and I really appreciated

how yoga was incorporated into the daily school routine. Many studies prove a positive correlation

between physical fitness and academic achievement. As I build a relationship with my students, I want

to share with them my love of physical activity and the benefits to staying active.

DISCUSSION

My work with children has varied between babysitting, working as a camp counselor and three

years of experience in substitute teaching. I feel that I can’t begin to say what would be best for a

classroom of students without actually experiencing it for myself. While I have learned a lot through

my program at the University of Alaska, I know I have a lot more to learn and I look forward to putting

my learning to use as a new teacher. I am very fortunate to be able to work with children while

obtaining my education degree and I consider it a great asset to be able to see my learning put to use

and to gain the first-hand experience while in school.

DIVERSITY

I believe it is very important to be aware of diversity in our schools. As a future teacher I want

to ensure an inclusive and accepting classroom and school for all students. Aiming to celebrate

differences and always being aware to ensure a culturally responsive classroom are my main goals. As

mentioned above, using a variety of instructional methods to accommodate different types of learners
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will be necessary in a diverse classroom. I will have a no tolerance policy on discrimination of any

kind. Every student should feel welcomed and accepted at school and it is our job to ensure that safety.

CONCLUSION

While I have learned a lot over the last two years, I still have much to learn and I am genuinely

excited to improve upon my teaching and learning philosophy. Through experience and research I hope

to be successful in putting my philosophy to use in my future classroom.

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REFERENCES

Noltemeyer,A; Bush, K; Patton, J; Bergen, D. (2012). The Relationship among

deficiency needs and growth needs: An empirical investigation of Maslow’s
theory. Children and Youth Services Review, 34,1862-1867.

Marchand, H. (2012). Contributions of Piagetian and post-Piagetian theories to

education. Educational Research Review, 7, 165-176.

Slavin, R. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. Boston, MA: Pearson

Perrone, V. (1991). A Letter to Teachers: reflections on schooling and the art of teaching.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Biffle, C. (2013). Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids. Whole Brain Teaching,
LLC.

Guidelines for Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers for Alaska’s Schools (1999).
Assembly of Alaska Native Educators