PERSONAL LEARNING THEORY!!!

With which theory are you most closely aligned? Take the quiz at the following URL to find out: Your Emerging Theory
I was tied with B and C, but H was only one point behind.


**Piaget's Cognitive Development: I like how Piaget has defined his stages and in working in a kindergarten class I have observed many of these to be true, but people don't all progress at the same level. Not everyone has the same way of thinking and so this makes his stages a little too structured to the age groups. I will use his theory in my classroom and be able to model teach the students so they understand concepts better.
**Vygotsky's Cognitive Development: Vygotsky has more of a progressive process with his theory. He knows that each person learns differently and that they need to be taught or have help in their own way. I can use scaffolding in my classroom and guide my students to help them progress their ZPD.
**Erikson's Psychosocial Development: Erikson has broken down his personal development to show how much we grow and learn. I have observed and experienced Erikson's stages in my self, family, friends and at work. In my classroom I can use his stages to help the students learn successful patterns to progress in the stages like they should.
**Kohlberg's Moral Development: My favorite thing about Kohlberg is that he does not put a time frame on his stages. He knows for a fact that people learn and grow at their own speed, but they tend to progress in way of his stages. You can look at your own life and see the ages you were around in his stages, but you can also go back and forth among the levels. When you hit a new stepping stone in life you might have to fall back to a lower level and work your way up in that situation or time in your life. I can apply this by helping my students progress in the classroom and prepare them for the next stage and next grade level.
**Goleman's Emotional Intelligence:
**Information Processing: You have to shape the way you teach to help your students put their learning to use. They need to learn how to bring the information to working memory and be able to make connections and progress it to long-term memory. In order to do this you need to be aware of how your students learn and retain information. This will help them be life long learners and develop their brain. I was not taught this in school growing up and I have a hard time studying and preparing for exams and other tests. I want to make sure I work with each of my students to get them to the place they need to be.
**Knowledge Construction and Higher-order thinking: You need to push your students to learn and think at a higher level. I would ask my students questions about what we are learning to see what ideas they come up with before we start learning the topic. This way they get their brain working and ideas going through their head. Then we can discuss the topic and see what they learned and the connections they can make with their prior knowledge ideas from the beginning. Another good thing with higher-order thinking is wait time. You need to give everyone a chance to think before you start calling on students.
**Behaviorism: I think that the way a student acts in class and their behaviors can make a difference on how they learn. You have to know how to control the behaviors of your classroom in order to teach and have each student be successful. I do think that psychology has to do with both behavior and the mind. These two things go hand in hand. The way you think and learn is the way you're going to behave and act in situations as well.
**Group and Individual Differences
**Motivation: You need to motivate your students to learn and retain the knowledge of what they are learning. This is important because they need guidance and when you motivate them you also guide them to learn and make the right choices.


I learned a lot more taking this class over. I was lucky because Dr. Cox teaches more hands on and is energetic in teaching and she taught me so much more. I want to learn more about how to apply the theorists in my classroom and more ideas. This class was a big help and will help me as a future teacher.