Understanding human learning in elementary school essay.

Question:

To provide us with a sufficiently clear understanding of your proposed assignment for Module 4, and to confirm that you have thought through a number of key issues and consulted other sources where necessary, please write something in all of the following sections. (You can expand the boxes!)

1.Proposed title

2.What is the problem, issue or question you wish to address (you should have already agreed this with your tutor, and it should be phrased as a question)? Remember, your investigation should:

i.be small scale

ii.be exploratory

iii.focus on understanding

3.What is the likely relevance of this investigation to your own professional practice?

4.What model of understanding could be relevant to your investigation and how would it be helpful? Write between 500 and 600 words, including comment on the following:

What is the relationship between understanding and knowledge?
What is the relationship between understanding and learning?
What does ‘understanding’ mean in your context and for your area of inquiry?
How will your investigation explore the nature and quality of student understanding?

5.What literature have you consulted and do you plan to use in conducting and writing up the work? Please give full bibliographic references of what, at this stage, you consider to be the most relevant sources. They should cover the chosen model of understanding, your area of interest and the methods chosen.

(a)Model of understanding

(b)Area of interest

(c)Research methods

6.What research technique(s) do you propose to use and why have they been chosen? Write around 250-300 words about methods selected to summarise your thoughts, referring to literature recommended either in Unit 3 or elsewhere, and ideas about research methods from your commonplace book.

7.How will you carry out your investigation? Please write 300-400 words in answer to the following questions:

Who will your participants be?
How many participants will be involved in your study?
How will you use the research techniques discussed in section 5?
What data will result from your data collection procedures?
How will you analyse these data?

8.What ethical issues may arise in relation to your proposed investigation and how do you plan to deal with these? You should comment in between 300 and 400 words on the following issues, though not necessarily in this order:

How you will obtain fully informed consent;
How you will ensure anonymity, confidentiality and non-traceability;
How you will protect participants’ welfare;
How you will show sensitivity to difference;
How you will genuinely guarantee participants’ rights to withdraw from the research if they so wish;
How you understand the ethics of your own proposal in relation to Scott’s distinction between ‘covert’, ‘open democratic’ and ‘open autocratic’ research (Scott, 2011, p.137).

9.What is your timetable for the collection and analysis of data?

10.Do you have any particular areas of concern at this stage in your planning?

Answer:

1.Proposed title

The Human Understanding Process in elementary school through Different Learning Methods

2.What is the problem, issue or question you wish to address (you should have already agreed this with your tutor, and it should be phrased as a question)? Remember, your investigation should:

i.be small scale

ii.be exploratory

iii.focus on understanding

What are the issues regarding the understanding of the children through various models and theories?

3.What is the likely relevance of this investigation to your own professional practice?

The professional practices in the field of pedagogy are very much important for several reasons indeed. It has been exclaimed from the several researches that the student participation is one of the most significant issues in the pedagogical events. The spoken language of the students is one such descriptive method by which the desires of the students could be understood. Some sessions should be taken with the students in which the proper classroom talks should be recorded. I have investigated about the several methods of teaching that should comprise with the proper lessons learned by the students. As the classroom talks should be recorded it should be discussed between the teachers properly. The method of transcription should be done according to the recordings of the classroom talks. This transcription method will indeed be useful for me to comprehend the shortcomings of the students in a better way. I will have to take the proper ethical approval to use the recordings to understand the needs of the students from my seniors. The participants are mainly the students and the consents should be taken from them as well. I must use the voice recorders or the videos to analyze the findings from the participants. If any problems or ethical issues arise in this context the students should be made aware of this. Some role conflicts might arise in this situation. However, the proper data should be taken to make a thorough analysis indeed. I can also opt for the convert research approaches.

4.What model of understanding could be relevant to your investigation and how would it be helpful? Write between 500 and 600 words, including comment on the following:

What is the relationship between understanding and knowledge?
What is the relationship between understanding and learning?
What does ‘understanding’ mean in your context and for your area of inquiry?
How will your investigation explore the nature and quality of student understanding?

Several models of understanding have been discussed in this module. I would have to choose the best model that would fit the most for the investigation about the subject. Some of the models of understanding that are very much relevant for my professional practice are the behaviourist model of understanding, constructivist models of understanding, dialogical accounts for the understanding and multidimensional character of understanding. I can say that the dialogical accounts for understanding would be the best mode indeed. It is because the role play conflicts might arise during the understanding of the models in my professional practice. This is why I feel it is very much important to use the dialogues between the speakers and the listeners. The form of the dialogues will indeed be much helpful for me from several aspects. Thus this social view of the understanding will really be much effective from many viewpoints. The understanding is a very collective issue and it has to be present between the teachers and the students. Otherwise the entire process would be left with no options. The expert like Voloshinov had said that it is indeed very important to make proper negotiations between the speakers aand the listeners. Only then the proper interchange of opinions could take place. The other models of understanding like the Constructivist and Behavorist models are will not fit properly to the purpose indeed. This would lead to the teachers understand the most useful things that the students want to say. The psychology of the students must be understood indeed.

The relationship between knowledge and understanding is quite relevant in terms of pedagogy. A person who has enough knowledge about something does not mean that he understands every bit of it. It is because the knowledge might be bookish and this could derive from mugging up the texts. In order to understand the texts the person should develop an understanding on the background of the text indeed. The understanding of the facts should help in developing the knowledge of the texts properly indeed.

There is a strong relationship between the understanding and learning as well. The difference lies in the fact that it is a very much separate thing to learn something and understand it completely. The teachers always give their best effort to make the students understand the various parts of the curriculum. It does not mean they understand it completely. In order to understand something, they must possess an in depth knowledge about the things they are learning. Good learners will always memorize the data supplied by the teachers and understand it properly.

In my context and inquiry the proper understanding means that I have to make conversations with the students and understand what the students need from me. If I am unable to understand their psychology I will never be able to deliver my best efforts to them. On understanding the important things I would go on to make the proper decisions on how I could make them understand the important things and enquiring what they need actually.

My investigation will be very much important for the students to understand their curriculum properly. At first I must explore the nature and quality of the students. In this context I should consult with the students and make the proper conversations. This conversation should depend on the understanding of the curriculum by the students. In my investigation process I would rather enquire about the areas that are needed to be understood properly. I would go on to make the students learn those things with heart and memorize the relevant data. Only then the students would understand the relevant things to the full.

(a)Model of understanding

Berkovich, I., 2014. Between person and person: Dialogical pedagogy in authentic leadership development. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(2), pp.245-264.

Rasku-Puttonen, H., Lerkkanen, M.K., Poikkeus, A.M. and Siekkinen, M., 2012. Dialogical patterns of interaction in pre-school classrooms. International Journal of Educational Research, 53, pp.138-149.

Sarid, A., 2012. Systematic thinking on dialogical education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(9), pp.926-941.

(b)Area of interest

McLaren, P., 2015. Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. Routledge.

Riding, R. and Rayner, S., 2013. Cognitive styles and learning strategies: Understanding style differences in learning and behavior. David Fulton Publishers.

Rojas-Drummond, S., Torreblanca, O., Pedraza, H., Vélez, M. and Guzmán, K., 2013. ‘Dialogic scaffolding’: Enhancing learning and understanding in collaborative contexts. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2(1), pp.11-21.

(c)Research methods

Harasim, L., 2012. Learning theory and online technologies. Routledge.

Marton, F. and Booth, S., 2013. Learning and awareness. Routledge.

Stahl, S.A., 2013. Instructional models in reading: An introduction. In Instructional models in reading (pp. 11-40). Routledge.

Van Manen, M., 2016. Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Routledge.

The research techniques that is proposed will comprise of participant observation, group interviews, verbal reports, analysis of classroom talk and case study observation. The study has proposed multiple methods in order to overcome the shortcomings of single research design. The study will use video recordings which will facilitate in examining the understanding levels of the different individuals depending upon the different methods of learning. The group interviews is essential for gaining personal insights from the students and this will provide better understanding of the learning from different methods. The participant’s observation has to be conducted to covertly understanding the level of the understanding of the students but as this method is unlikely to get approved, it has been kept as an option that may enhance the findings but will not affect the success of the research if not conducted. The case study method is the final method used for analysing the understanding level of the students in the research. In this method, few selected students will be chosen and rich description of a one or two students will be gathered and different methods o analysis will be used which will consist of interviews, observations and statistical analysis.

This shows that the study will use mixed research design to make sure that accurate findings can be developed in the research. The research will consist of small number of participants and closed group of participants will be used for the research. This is one of the limitation of the research where the results may not be applicable for different participants in diverse environments.

7.How will you carry out your investigation? Please write 300-400 words in answer to the following questions:

Who will your participants be?
How many participants will be involved in your study?
How will you use the research techniques discussed in section 5?
What data will result from your data collection procedures?
How will you analyse these data?

The study will be conducted in a close group of respondents where multiple number of techniques will be implemented to check the internal consistency of the findings developed in the research. The participants will consist of all the students in the class and will consist of 40 students in a single classroom. The different methods of learning will be implemented to measure the ability of the

Students to learn from different learning methods.

There will be 40 respondents in the study and they class will be chosen randomly so that bias in the research can be avoided. The 40 respondents will be chosen from a single class where the respondents will be provided the opportunity of participating of their own will. The study will select those that have agreed to participate and may use different participants from different classes, in case no full class in available for the study.

The study will use the inductive approach and exploratory research design so exploring the overall data. The main purpose of conducting the research is exploration and developing a flexible research design which will form the basis for future studies. The inductive approach will develop tentative hypothesis after exploration of the collected data and the study will aim to prove and establish new theories and paradigms based on this research.

The study will aim to develop both quantitative and qualitative data from the respondents where both data from surveys and interviews will be analysed. The data from the survey will be analysed using statistical techniques such as cross tabulation, regression, correlation and chi square. On the other, the data collected from the qualitative collection method will be analysed using coding. Open coding and axial coding are the two methods that will be used where initially open coding will be used to convert the raw data into meaningful data. Axial coding will be used to examine the patterns and theories within the answers of the respondents. The tentative hypothesis will be developed based on the direction provided by the respondents and finally the study will aim to provide basis for conducting further studies in this field and verifying the results through different methods.

How you will obtain fully informed consent;
How you will ensure anonymity, confidentiality and non-traceability;
How you will protect participants’ welfare;
How you will show sensitivity to difference;
How you will genuinely guarantee participants’ rights to withdraw from the research if they so wish;
How you understand the ethics of your own proposal in relation to Scott’s distinction between ‘covert’, ‘open democratic’ and ‘open autocratic’ research (Scott, 2011, p.137).

The study will develop consent form and information sheet that will be given to the respective authorities and participants. Initially consent will be taken from the higher authorities of the school to make sure that they are fully aware of the purpose and the methods to be used in the research. The consent form will also be sent to the participants to make sure that there are aware of the purpose and process and may back out if they are not up for the methods.

The study will follow the data protection act of 1998 where anonymity and confidentiality of the participants are key to the research. In this research, the data collected will not be shared or used for any purposes and the data set will be deleted after the study is complete.

The welfare of the participants will be protected by not harming the respondents and no abusive or discriminatory languages will be used in the study. Moreover, the respondents will not be pressurized to participate in the research. The participants will also be provided an option right before the procedure to exit the study and they even have the option to exit the survey at any point of time if the participant or the supervisor feels uncomfortable about it.