Matt+Malburg+-+Field+Placement


 * Field Placement Project #1**

//__Lesson Plan Topic__//

Reinforcement schedules. There are five reinforcement schedules, and they include continuous, fixed-interval, fixed-ratio, variable-interval, and variable-interval.

//__Research Question__//

What classroom activities and instructional strategies could best facilitate students’ ability to understand, and differentiate between, the five reinforcement schedules?

//__Observation Notes__//

Tuesday, November 8: In Advanced Psychology, we talked about an article review project that the students had turned in earlier. It was pretty much a debriefing about the article, and it seemed very beneficial to the class. The topic of the article was marriage (what works and what doesn’t), and the students had much to share about what they thought about the article. Among other things, the students recounted how marriage problems were resolved (by talking about them, not allowing yourself to go to bed angry, and counseling), what things people find attractive about their husband/wife (drive/passion, sense of humor, ability to challenge them, self-confidence, and more), and what problems frequently lead to divorce (lack of emotional and sexual intimacy, alcoholism, infidelity, money, lack of communication, lifestyle, and more). Mr. O is clearly a pro at engaging the students in the topic(s) for the day and focusing attention on life skills. He seemed to utilize several instructional strategies, including direct instruction, discussion/debate, and questioning. In Psychology, we reviewed Erikson’s stages of development. Mr. O’s class thinks learning should be fun; he said he didn’t really come to plan his lessons according to this perspective until his 6th year of teaching. He also focuses heavily upon life skills/truths; for example, it came up in class today that “things don’t have to be equal to be fair.” Fun and practical, that’s how I’d describe his style.

Thursday, November 10: Today, one of the school counselors came in to talk about careers in psychology. He was a very sociable guy, and captured students’ attention with stories from his life; he’d considered and/or pursued several different paths in psychology, and relayed what things he’d thought about when considering what/where he’d study and what he’d do after school. Also, Mr. O shared with Kellie, Matt L., and me between his two classes that he likes his class to be a place for fun and for seriousness. He also pointed out that he has a spot on his whiteboard titled, “Let’s Get It Started,” which blends these two ideas. It’s funny because it’s named for the Black Eyed Peas song, but it’s “serious” in that it provides a focus/direction for the class as soon as they enter. Speaking of which, as students enter Mr. O’s class, there is always an upbeat song playing. He leaves the song playing until it’s finished, at which point it’s understood that the students should have taken care of the “Let’s Get It Started” stuff and should be ready to go for the day.

Tuesday, November 15: In Advanced Psychology today, Mr. O introduced the final project that the students will be working on. For this project, students will work in groups of 2-4, they can choose any topic in psychology that they’d like (though approval must be granted), each member must locate 2 substantial articles and write brief summaries and reflections for both of them, and each group must create and present (to the class) an informational pamphlet regarding their topic. I especially liked that Mr. O gave his students a clear, concise handout with the requirements for this project, but that he also allowed much space for them to be creative with it. Matt, Kellie, and I were able to walk around the class and talk with students as they selected their topics, which ranged from lucid dreams to media violence, from memory to substance abuse. Also, Mr. O used articles to focus discussions in both of his classes, which he seems to do rather frequently and which his students seem to respond very well to. For example, it seems that the focus of one of his classes today was to learn about what facilitates and what hinders memory. The article for that class was largely about how crappy the lifestyle/environment of a college student is; the average amount of sleep, the common diet, and the many substances college students tend to take into their body (alcohol mainly, but also nicotine and marijuana) all negatively affect their ability to remember. This was a very engaging and memorable way to learn about memory, and, as is characteristic of Mr. O’s class focus, very practical. Also, Mr. O has his room decorated with great quotes. One of them reads, “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished; measure yourself by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”

Thursday, November 17: In Advanced Psychology today, Mr. O’s class went to the library to research for their final projects. There’s not too much to say about that, other than the fact that it seemed that the amount of freedom Mr. O had given them with the project was healthy, as nearly all of the students went about their business researching with little to no problem at all. Matt, Kellie, and I walked around and discussed the projects In Psychology today, Mr. O’s class did an experiment to demonstrate interference. To do this, the class was split into two groups. The first group stayed in the class and was show a list of rivers while the second group stood in the hallway. Then the second group went into the class and saw the list of rivers while the first group stood in the hallway. Then the first group went back into the room and was shown a list of mountains while the second group stood in the hallway. Then the second group went back into the room and did nothing while the first group stood in the hallway. Finally, the all came together and Mr. O had them recount as many rivers from the original list as they could. Though the effect wasn’t as big as was expected, the group who had been shown the list of mountains (interference) performed worse on the recall task than the group who hadn’t been shown the list of mountains. Doing this experiment with the class seemed like a great way to make it really come to life; I know that when my psychology teachers did experiments with my classes, I had a much easier time understanding the concepts that they were meant to illustrate. Additionally, Mr. O made it clear today that he’s ready to experiment with whatever ideas we come up with for the lesson he’s having us tweak, and would be glad to discuss it in person during his prep hour or over e-mail; at this point, e-mail has been our primary source of communication about this project, and it seems to be working.