Research Project

[Skip Breadcrumb Navigation]

Home

Chapter 6

Research Project

You are going on a scavenger hunt in this chapter. Complete the following tasks to ensure a successful hunt:
- Find and list 6 ideas that will help you as a potential teacher.
- Prioritize the list using this scheme for ranking and provide a rationale for the ranking of the six items.
  - One = Most important
  - Six = The least important
- Explain each item and discuss how you would utilize the concept in your classroom (please select a grade level that might meet your future professional needs).
Read the scenario and respond to the questions below.
Scenario
You are an elementary school teacher who is about to teach several lessons on (i.e. a unit) about The Civil War. During the first lesson, you realize your class does not know about: slavery, North and South, Abraham Lincoln and plantations.
Questions
According to Informational Processing and Cognitive Theories of Learning, what will make the learning about The Civil War problematic for you and your class?
Describe in detail the instructional techniques you should use before you begin this unit. Again, please refer to Informational Processing and Cognitive Theories of Learning.
Please read the scenario and respond to the questions below.
Scenario
As an early childhood teacher, you must teach the names of letters of the alphabet. This week you must teach the following letters: p and q. Remember your class has very little knowledge of these two letters.
Questions
According to Informational Processing and Cognitive Theories of Learning, how would you teach your children the names of these two letters? In this instructional paper, please address the following issues:
- How would you deal with limited attention span of your young students?
- How would you deal with limited storage capacity of the short term working memory?
- How would you make the learning meaningful so that your class will be able to store and retrieve the information easily from the long term memory?
- How will you ensure that your class doesn’t forget this new information?
- How would you begin the next lesson after the one letter was introduced and practiced?
- What metacognitive skills would you use to help these young students learn and remember these two letters?
Observe a class for 5 hours (please select the grade that is appropriate). In your observations, please complete checklist below. After you have completed the observations, write a reflection that discusses the elements found in the checklist that were either missing or present. For the elements that were missing, describe the effect of their absence on the instruction in the class.
Observation Checklist (PDF format)
Research the components of effective teaching and write a paper that describes them. Then in a Venn diagram compare these components to the principles of Cognitive and Behavioral Learning. Finally, write a summary statement that identifies the principles you would use if you were a teacher, and explain the reasons for your selection.

[Return to the Top of this Page]