Rock Star Theorists

Now that I am at the final stages of my MAT program, it is amazing how much my teaching style has changed. There have been many theorists that have influenced the way I teach from the creation of the lesson to the execution. The theorists that I feel most connected to in my teaching are Piaget and Skinner.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development has to do with four stages of development. The four stages are sensorimotor (0-2 years of age), preoperational (2-7 years of age), concrete operational (7-12 years of age), and formal operational (12 and up years of age) (American Psychological Association, 2020). The stage that of my students is the last stage of formal operational stage, which involves abstract logical reasoning and moral reasoning development. I connect most with this part of the theory because my students are from 10^th to 12^th graders. In teaching Geometry, the course is mainly about logical reasoning. In addition, I focus more on building the student rather than focusing on stressing about teaching straight math. I want my students to leave as better young adults and having more logical processing over just making impulsive decisions and not thinking about the outcomes, positive or negative.

Skinner’s Behaviorist Theory deals with following behaviors with positive reinforcement (Stevens-Fulbrook, 2019). By rewarding the positive behaviors and not responding to the negative behaviors, strengthens the “good” and weakens the “bad”. I connect with this theory when I reward my students with a show, movie, or some kind of food item. I reward students when they work hard and persevere in my class. I try to reward those classes that work hard with a movie day or extra credit video and questionnaire to follow, where they learn more real world applications for math. When students compete and work hard in my classroom, they are rewarded with a food item like Pop tarts or candy. This motivates my students to put more effort into their education when it comes to what we are learning in my class.

In my teaching, I take pieces from many theorists in creating my lessons for students. I try to do as much as possible to give my students the best chances in succeeding in my class. Though I do want my students to leave my class a better math student, I also want them to leave with more moral values. I want them to leave a better person than when they entered and teach them life lessons they can take with them forever. By incorporating multiple theorist’s ideas in my teaching, I am becoming a more adaptive and flexible teacher to teach to all kinds of students with different backgrounds and abilities.

Reference

APA Dictionary of Psychology. (2020). Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org/piagetian-theory

Stevens-Fulbrook, P. (2019, April 18). 15 Learning Theories In Education (A Complete Summary). Retrieved from https://teacherofsci.com/learning-theories-in-education/