Module 4

The importance of understanding metacognition can help with students who struggle to find the main idea. Being able to reflect on what you learn and find ways to remember the important idea can be helpful to students who struggle with comprehension or any form of cognitive learning (pg. 328). Finding out the important elements of learning, whichever topic it may be, and finding ways to stay away from all distractions can help with comprehension and understanding (pg. 329). It is important to tell the students that metacognition doesn’t have to happen all the time, and things will become easier and more routine and automatic. I remember growing up, reading was my worst subject. I would rush through the story and never comprehend anything. It was something I struggled with throughout my schooling, but once I found strategies that worked for me to help with my comprehension it all became easier. I think that finding out ways students enjoy and pay attention to will help them with comprehending and paying attention for longer periods of time.

After reading about all the different learning strategies, they all sparked a memory from my different levels of schooling. Teaching certain learning strategies that help with comprehension is important to learn early on so you don’t have to struggle when the content becomes more difficult and in-depth. Some of the important principles the book mentions were mnemonics, self-taught, desire to learn, belief in the subject, and background on why it is important to know (pg. 323). The biggest principle that stood out to me was the desire to learn. This was something that really affected me in college. I was taking all these biology and chemistry classes that I had absolutely no interest in. Once I sat myself down and told myself I need to do something I will enjoy for the rest of my life, I changed my major. Taking classes that I was interested in changed my whole mindset of school and I was doing much better that I had before. This is important when teaching, even though we must follow a curriculum, using these principles can make learning more fun. Especially giving background on the subjects that may not be as interesting, but finding the purpose of why its important may be a way to increase interest.

Learning about the different kinds of problem solving was also very interesting to me. Looking at functional fixedness with getting stuck on using convention materials is probably something that happens quite often. Some students only know one way to solve a problem and don’t want to go the extra mile to try something new and different, even though it could save them time. This also relates to response set, with only one way of representing a problem. In the real world, problems we may have encountered in school may be presented differently somewhere else. Being able to learn the similarities makes this problem-solving skill important (pg. 346).

The last topic I wanted to talk about was the importance of creativity. Working with divergent and convergent thinking and the importance of purposing different ideas helps with creativity. This can be measured through originality, fluency, and flexibility. Each of these are building blocks to increase both kinds of thinking (pg. 350). Creativity in the classroom is important because it’s involved in personality factors, motivational patterns, and background experiences (pg. 351). I think giving your students the chance to express themselves in different ways is very important, and I also think that it’s very important to push them to be creative. In the classroom I shadow, the teacher always encourages them when drawing to make it big and colorful and to take up the whole page. They usually draw little stick figures and finish quick. I like that she sees the importance of simply drawing and coloring and make them express themselves in this kind of way. Being able to express themselves through a picture can involve critical thinking because it is a different form of expression. I intend to push this in my classroom as well.