An Educational Adventure in Prague

      This week in Prague was a very busy one. Last week I went out of town and visited Venice, Italy and had alot of catching up to do when I came back. The trip was worth it though. Venice is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. The people there are so friendly, and every street holds a new building or view of the water that can’t be captured in a picture. It was fun to visit another area in Europe and see how very different this place is.

     Upon returning to Prague, it began to hit me that our time in Prague is winding down. With only two weeks left I have spent this week trying to make the most of my time here while completing assignments for class. It has involved a great amount of planning and time managment, but this busy week has proven to be a blast.

     One of the biggest learning experiences of the week was our micro-teaching activity in the third grade Czech classroom. Megan, Sarah, and I prepared a lesson reviewing verbs the students had learned using their workbook and our assumptions about their skill level. We had never observed the class, and weren’t really sure if our lesson would be too difficult for them. We had only observed first graders, who spoke no english, and put that knowledge with what we know about our second language classrooms at home to plan. When we entered the classroom we quickly learned that their skill level was far above what we anticipated. They were very able to use the verbs we were reviewing and were even able to form sentences. We never expected this, and thus, our lesson was a little off. While they had fun because it was an active lesson, they were not at all challenged and at times got bored with the content. This just reaffirmed Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development in my mind, and our lesson did not fall within that zone, but below that zone. If I could redo the lesson I would prepare a more challenging lesson for the students, but I would still incorporate ways of allowing them to be active and to work with one another to learn and review.

APPLICATION TO ELM:

In Assessment this week we talked about aptitude tests and their ability to measure cognitive skills and ability. We discussed Intelligence tests and how these are the popular choice of aptitude tests in schools. These are usually given to those being considered “gifted” and those being considered “handicapped” so as to decide where to place them in schools. The classroom we taught in this week was a gifted third grade classroom, as is the highly selective school. I am sure the students have some sort of aptitude test to decide which students are selected for the program, but I wonder if the aptitude tests in the Czech Republic are the same as those given in the United States.

APPLICATION TO EDP:

This week in Educational Psychology we discussed Classical Conditioning, the form of learning in which a new, involuntary response is acquired as a result of two stimuli being presented simultaniously. We use classical conditioning all the time in schools when we offer rewards and punishments to our students. When Megan, Sarah, and I were in the classroom on Wednesday we didn’t offer tangible rewards, but we did offer verbal rewards. If a student did something we approved of, that student was classically conditioned with a “Good Job!” Students don’t realize it, but they then strive for that stimuli the next time. Also, other students see that stimuli and begin to want that stimuli and work for it. The goal is to use classical conditioning tactics such as rewards in moderation so that students don’t become externally motivated and dependent upon such rewards, but they can push themselves to perform with intrinsic motivation.