Standard 1.

2 example of researching into how students learn – Educational philosophy

Assessment 2: Case Study: Theory into Practice
Year Level observed: Year 2/3 EAL/D Students
Theory Key Concepts of the theory Evidence – what have you observed? How does this inform your teaching? E.g. classroom set-up,
concrete materials, time allocation, practices
Piaget’s Constructivist learning,
Cognitive developing schemas, 1. Encourages children to think on their own- asking 1. Being in the pre-operational stage makes finding time
Development (assimilation/accommodation questions like “and then what happened?” difficult, they have such small attention span, yet need to find
Theory /adaptation) 2. In mathematics, getting the children to follow ways for them to constantly be engaged and learning the
Equilibrium/Disequilibrium patterns of skip counting, they could do a few before whole day
Pre-operational: socio- they got confused. The teacher asked them the same 2. Giving this activity was a challenge, however those who
dramatic play, combination of questions in different ways “what’s half of 12, struggled needed time to get their head around it and were
schemas, animism, what’s double of 6?” able to figure out how to skip count by the end
representations of reality, 3. Giving children time to think and decide attitudes 3. Getting children to think for themselves helps them make
categorising, egocentrism, for themselves, giving them visuals of socio- sense of the situation
centration, non-transformation, dramatic play to help them understand the topic.
irreversibility

Vygotsky Scaffolding 1. This is a key aspect when teaching EAL/D kids, how can they
Cultural values of learning, 1. Scaffolding using prompting questions. How? Why? understand a task when they don’t even know English, needs
Cultural tools, 2. Teacher to encourage group thinking, starts to be prompted
Language (social, private, discussions in the classroom- what did you think? 2. Working together with others develops social skills and
inner speech), Do you agree? vocabulary
3. Cultural tools heavily at play in EAL/D classrooms 3. Children have different backgrounds, therefore allows the
teacher to get to know each student individually
Behaviourism Classical and operant 1. Mainly reinforcement- positive and negative through 1. This encourages children to think for themselves and want to
conditioning, verbal communications do the right thing, for more praise
Positive and negative 2. Classical conditioning- the bell means line up, get 2. They are unintentionally doing the right thing, takes time to
reinforcement food etc. Clapping to get attention teach
Punishment 3. Removal punishment- walking with her at lunch 3. May feel harsh, but children remember and will learn.

Bandura’s Social Role-modelling, 1. Teacher modelling- She sets by example but also
Cognitive Attention, retention, lets them learn 1. Important to model the way for the students to learn and know
Theory reproduction, motivation, 2. When instructing lessons, she uses herself as an how to behave
triadic reciprocal causation example and will always practice it with the class to 2. Using
self-efficacy, self-regulation ensure they understand- attention retention 3. Important to enforce these high levels of self-efficacy and
3. Self-efficacy and regulation are constantly being regulation do develop confident individuals
developed in the class due to their decision making
skills- building confidence so they can regulate it
 themselves- clapping after doing an activity on the
board.
Attachment Relationships 1. Builds long lasting relationships with the children by 1. Creating relationships with students makes it easier to connect
Theory Security showing an interest by doing “messages” every day and understand their learning abilities and what level English
Sense of belonging 2. Helps them expand their vocabulary through weekly they’re up to
Class climate sight words- it helps that the children have a thirst 2. Being EAL/D students, teachers need the resources and vocab
for knowledge to teach the correct language
3. Knows each individual students- Children needing 3. Important to engage with all students in class so they feel a
constant attention-sense of belonging for each child sense of belonging and interaction
Erikson Industry vs Inferiority (6-11) – 1. Teacher encourages students to feel supported in 1. This does not happen overnight, however after spending a
cooperation, goal directed classroom through constant communication while with the class, you learn names and their passions
learning, opportunity to 2. Children can work on their own and cooperatively 2. Teacher makes the classroom tables into groups and putting
achieve success with others through varying the tasks and putting the them in ability levels based on how long they’ve been in the
groups with their different English levels program and English knowledge
3. Children learn to identify and meet goals in their 3. Getting the resources and planning these activities to do so
learning. “this term, I will” activity
Bronfenbrenner' Nested environments 1. The classroom environment helps the teachers
s Bio-ecological School context educate their students. The floor has a square for the 1. Creating a comfortable and supportive environment takes
Systems Theory Parent/teacher relations 1 Reception student. Comfortable environment- time, but crucial to have engaging colours helps children with
Child/teacher relations “cool down corner” trauma feel safe.
Cultural values of learning 2. Reconciliation Week- connections with the 2. Teaches different cultures to the children using resources
(curriculum) community 3. Wide variety of different cultures and respects their decisions
3. Ramadan- many of the students do Ramadan, she in the classroom
accommodates for this by letting them on computers
play during ‘eating time’. Conversation with parents
about health and culture
Information Short term memory: sensory 1. Visual Explanations- In my classes the teachers
Processing register, attention always associate their lesson instructions with visual 1. Resources like a white board, flash cards
Theory Working memory: focus, explanation. As the children are still learning to 2. Need time to repeat go slower for the students to correctly
processing, rehearsal, understand English, these pictures help make follow the example
cognitive load connections. verbally explaining it, visually- 3. This is also prompting a memory, getting the students to
Long term memory: transfer, pictures and videos, repetition, chunking, rehearsal, practice remembering
storing and recalling wait time
information, reconstruction, 2. Repetition- They heavily use repetition and only
meaning instruct 1 step at a time
Memory deficits (special 3. “What did we do last lesson?” “Does anyone
needs) remember what we do in health?” To stimulate
information, recite information from previous
lessons