Educational Psychology: Module 2 Blog

Module 2 

January 22nd, 2022 

Module 2 Reflection 

    I think this weeks group of assignments is a great way to help us educators prepare for the situations we may face in the classroom. I begin student teaching in the fall semester, and yet thinking about the different cultures that our students exhibit was one of the last things on my mind. Of course, I always keep an open mind, but thinking about the students comfort level with who they in terms of their culture was something that I didn't think about till now. I am a very open minded person, so I don't think there will be many problems when it comes to this. I always love learning about other cultures and how people see themselves in society. I want to approach this in teaching as a delicate form of getting to know my students. Not everyone is an open book and that's okay. I want my students to have the best possible educational experience, so if they feel comfortable sharing their cultures with me I am more than happy to listen. 

Chapter 4 Overview 

    In chapter 4, we get to look at Woolfolk's view on learner differences and learning needs. This is, of course, a crucial overview of being educator. Woolfolk talks more about the individual differences and how we can understand them better. Many of our students will have different levels of intelligence as well as different areas where they feel more comfortable. Some of these can include Math, Music, Interpersonal, Naturalist, Existential, Linguistic, Spatial, Intrapersonal, and Bodily-Kinesthetic. We are going to have students that are going to learn different from one another and being able to decide and understand what students can do based of their comfort in education is going to help us provide them the best possible educational experience. Another thing that Woolfolk talks about in this chapter is the fact that we will have students that may have some sort of special need or IEP, so we will have to be able to know how to handle that from the educators side of the interaction. 

Chapter 4 Reflection 

    I think chapter 4 is a great way to give insight on how we need to understand our students and what they need from us as teachers. I never really thought about the different types of intelligences that are out there in general. I understand the discipline aspect of intelligence. Some students will be better at math than they are at science or physical education, but this chapter really goes in depth with some of the ones that we don't really think about. One of the intelligences that I never really thought about was the spatial intelligence that people have. It seems obvious, but something you never really think about.

Chapter 5 Overview 

    In chapter 5, the main topics that are touched upon are Language development, Language diversity, and Immigrant education. As I mentioned before we will be dealing with students from all different walks of life. Some of these students may be from other countries who are still learning the English language. When it comes to immigrant education I have a little bit of experience in this. I will discuss further in my reflection of chapter 5. Woolfolk mentions things like sounds, pronunciation, vocabulary, etc. These are the types of thing that we will have to deal with when we work with students who struggle in these areas. You never know when you may work with a student who is from a different country, so I think that something to take away from this chapter is patience. 

Chapter 5 Reflection 

    As I mentioned in the overview of chapter 5 I do have a little bit of experience when it comes to dealing with immigrant education. I am the first generation of immigrants. My parents came to America from Poland so there were some struggles that I had to deal with early in life. They were very limited in their English, but still made things work. The main reason I bring this up despite it being talked about in the chapter is because having parents who immigrated from a different countries took away some resources that many other students were able to have. When I came home from school my parents were very limited in what they could help me with in terms of homework, essays, or projects. I had to figure out a lot of my school work on my own or have some help from my older brother who is only a year or two older than I am.

Chapter 6 Overview 

    In chapter 6 we get to read about culture and diversity. This chapter really works well with Module 5 and the work we had to do. One thing that really caught my attention to this chapter was the reference of culture being an iceberg. It starts with things that are typically the first things people think about when they think of culture. That being the tip of iceberg. Concepts like Heroes and Heroines, Cooking and food, Music, Games, etc. Then as we go down the iceberg we see the things that we don't typically think about when we look at cultures. Some of these include concepts like Childbearing beliefs, Justice and fairness, Concepts of personal space, etc. 

Chapter 6 Reflection

     I really enjoyed reading this chapter because it allows us to read about the different ways we can understand culture and diversity. Being educators we will see and work with a lot of different types of students. As educators we need to be able to understand and respect the different types of cultures that we are going to encounter. Another thing that was mentioned in this chapter was the different types of classes our students families are in. Upper class, middle class, and lower class is something that seems obvious, but is something that we will encounter in our careers.