Think out loud

In completing this assignment I asked my peer what she knows about social problem solving, being a teacher in the special education department how to deal with confrontation will definitely be an everyday challenge for most of these students. When asking her to just think out loud about what she thought about social problem solving she immediately stopped and thought about a recent problem that she dealt with. She also referred to what she had done in the past using her previous schemas and how her skills in this department have developed and grown as she has found out what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to either confronting another individual or being confronted herself. In doing this she was demonstrating the constructive learning theory. After thinking about her previous confrontations she then listed a bunch of steps on how to look a the problem and deal with it. She first said that you have to look at the problem and figure out how your feeling about it, then talk about with her the peer you having the problem with but wait until you have both cooled off from the situation, then both take turns speaking and allowing each other to state their sides of the story, then come to a conclusion and talk about what both of you can do to avoid this situation in the future. Also, she said that when dealing with a problem that you should avoid speaking with others about the situation and to just deal with it by going directly to the person. She also gave a specific example of a problem that she dealt with which in doing so was demonstrating the Developmental Learning Theory.

Using DLT and SLT in lessons

My area of endorsements are in ELL and Special Education. Now, obviously in teaching in these areas I will need to encorporate many teaching strategies in developing lesson plans. For example if if were teaching ELL students how to put together a sentence, like proper sentence structure and formation, I could use the DLT which is the theory of having students start out learning something using a very concrete method to then having them approach the same thing but having them progress toward seeing the thing more abstractly. I would at first try and have them try and put together a sentence themselves or try and put together a sentence speaking to themselves, then I would maybe have them watch a clip of a video to allow them to visually see it and hear it and then after that I would have them try and converse with another student. I could also encorporate the SLT into this by having them correct one another or by asking one of the more knowledgeable peers to try and help them try and create a sentence. I do realize that is not a subject matter but in these areas alot of what I will be doing is trying to teach the students how to converse, as I will be working with english language learners as well as possibly severely disabled individuals. As for teaching them how to do something, more students in the special education department will need to be taught things most using very concrete material, however hopefully hey will be able to comprehend some abstract concepts. Now, obviously students in the ELL program will most likely be able to think abstractively once they have learned the language better.

How DLT informs all aspects of teaching

In the past few classroom sessions we have discussed as a class the use of the Developmental Learning Theory in the classroom. Although we were unable to really define what DTL is, i have grasped the concept of the theory a little better. In the beginning i thought that it was more of a teaching style rather than a set of ideas.

We were proposed the question "How does DLT inform all aspects of teaching?". In answering this question I would say that DLT informs all aspects of teaching because it is not a teaching style itself, rather a set of ideas that can be applied to every area of teaching in a unique way. DLT is a concept that has been theorized stating that individuals learn better when they are taught in a variety of ways in which are more concrete but then are able to grasp more abstract ideas as their knowledge of the material develops.

DLT definitely could be useful in the field of Special Education as student in these classrooms are frequently unable to grasp more abstract concepts and therefore need to be taught using more concrete ideas. Using DLT allows for them to be more hands on and to be taught subject matter that applies to them more so that they will be more inapt to take information away from the lesson.