Author Archives: jdsinterestingideas

Spotlight Blog Post 1

--Original published at JD's Blog

Over the past few years, the importance of learning styles has been greatly debated. From their significance, all the way to their existence. Some say there are a multitude of different learning styles. Some examples include visual, learning by watching and observation. Kinesthetic takes place when a student learns through touch and conducting physical activity pertaining to the subject. Auditory, also known as aural, learners depend mainly on a teacher going over subject matter via oration. Sound is their most keen sense and is their main method used to acquire knowledge. The last one, which is a little different than the others is logical learning. It refers to the ability to use reason when learning. Specifically, problem solving and thinking in order. Teachers can utilize a combination of all these techniques to provide quality lessons to all students. This idea was discussed in a world-renowned journal discussing learning styles and used to plan out worldwide curriculums talked about. By dividing the techniques, they use over the curse of the lesson and trying to present the same information in a scattered version of each technique, teachers can possibly maximize the amount of information retained by a majority of their classroom’s population. (Rani et al, 2012). The study Patterns in Authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia: A Taxonomy of Learning Styles discussed integrating these styles together into the educational system has been tested. The adaptation of learning styles and attempting to “formulate standards for adaptive educational hypermedia. (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project.” (Gorrell et al, 2011). Based off of information from multiple studies, the patterns designed set up a “fine-grain” approach to the development of instructional strategies to take the strong suits of a particular learning style and combine them with the others to drive the positive retention of knowledge by students.

Theories and ideas that are against this idea are as “Multiple-intelligences theory” (Silver et al, 1997). This theory explores the idea of how cultures and disciplines are able to shape human prospective. It rejects the dominant ideologies of split intelligence and centers on learning content and products. It focuses on blending learning styles and MI theories to help minimize each versions limitation and enhance their strengths. (Silver et al, 1997). Another idea that has been explored focuses on understanding of self-regulated learning rather than everyone learning the same information. It discusses that mixing all of the different techniques can end up causing problems by leading to more confusion than obtained information. This international journal used data from a multitude of studies conducted discussing this idea. The studies came to the conclusion that pushing the boundaries of all the senses can potentially result in a sensory overload leading to a state of confusion and loss of the original sense primarily used. (Boekarts, 2016).

I feel that integrating the systems together will help student learn better. Teachers can see what systems work the best and focus more on them. By providing the classroom with a mixed style of teaching the lessons will not get repetitive and keep the students interested. When students are interested and energized they learn better. This will result in students obtaining more information as a whole and learning how they work the best to later apply those techniques later in life.

Works Cited

Boekarts, Monique. “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic revision of

Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” International Journal of Education Research, doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

Gorrell, Michael, et al. “E-Books on EBSCOhost: Combining NetLibrary E-Books withthe EBSCOhost Platform.” Information Standards Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 2, 2011, p. 31., doi:10.3789/isqv23n2.2011.07.

Rani, Payal, and S C Shukla. “Graphic technology. Variable content replacement.” LearningStyles in Education, doi:10.3403/30339967u.

Silver, Harvey, et al. “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” ERIC, 1997, doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Impression Post 2

--Original published at JD's Blog

A happy and healthy child produces a happy and healthy adult. One of the most important factors in children’s life are their parents. You have your tiger moms, the mothers who seem to take total control over their child pushing them to their outermost limits and taking nothing below straight A’s as acceptable. They control their child’s life. Some force their child to play sports and music even if they don’t want to. If their little star has any free time it is almost always spent studding. Then there is the polar opposite. The Jellyfish Dad. This guy is very laid back and seems to let their kid get away with anything anywhere and anyhow. They become a friend of their children rather than a parent in some cases. The third option is the helicopter parent. They must know everything their child is doing at all times. It may even seem like they have trackers set up for their trackers. Out of these three options I do not think any of them could truly produce a child that is totally happy, healthy and will become a productive member of society. I think it takes a healthy combination of the tree to produce the best scenario. However, if I had to choose I would go with a tiger mom. Tiger moms train their kids to accept nothing but the best and do their best on everything. They are always on their children to be a better version of themselves and teach them many life lessons. Although the child might not be happy all of the time, they will definitely learn how to be a productive member of society.

I feel that parents should teach their kids to accept nothing but the best of themselves and to always push harder every time they do something. It is good to learn at an early stage that the real world doesn’t always accept mediocre work and excuses like some parents do. However, the child should also be allowed some quality free time and the ability to do things they actually enjoy. This will help them stay happy and healthy. When it comes to surveillance I get it. One of a parent’s greatest treasures is their child, hopefully. Parents have a right to know where their kids are and what they are doing. That being said, they should teach their kid about trust and loyalty gaining some for themselves in the process. Trust is a key factor in any relationship especially with kids. Overall a parent who has the ability to turn into any of these stereotypes, but knows when to use each one, is the ideal way a parent should raise their child.

First Impression Post 1

--Original published at JD's Blog

My first impression post this week will discuss the popular show known as Mythbusters. The topic I choose to critique was a small clip titled, “Do Beer Googles Really Exist?” In this segment, the Mythbusters tested to see if alcohol has the ability to mess with a person’s mind. In doing so it would cause them to think other people looked prettier than they would if they saw them while sober. They devised an experiment where the show’s hosts rated people while sober, then rated similar people after catching a buzz and finally ran the same test a third time after consuming a mass amount of alcohol. Overall, I thought the experiment was well planned. All of the hosts drank a similar amount of alcohol and rated groups of people that were deemed similar to one another. However, I think this part of the experiment might be a flaw as well, because every person’s body responds to alcohol differently resulting in mixed levels of “drunkenness.” Another flaw I saw dealt with the people that were rated. They used a different group of people each time. This could potentially present a problem because every person looks different and might be received differently by the human mind. For example, during the second run of the test the girl on the show dropped her total points by almost half while the guys both went up. I think they should have used the same group of people throughout. Therefore, if the hosts thought the people were better looking, after each level of intoxication, they would’ve given the group a higher rating. I agreed with their results, they don’t exist, because alcohol affects everyone in a different way only sometimes resulting in, “Beer Googles.”

Introductory Post

--Original published at JD's Blog

Hello, my name is John Sterbens, but everyone calls me J.D. I am a first year Biology Pre-Vet major from Long Island, New York. I am Minoring in Cognitive Science and Communications. I’ve worked with animals my whole life and one day hope to become a Zoological Veterinarian. I choose to take this class because I think that psychology is really interesting. I love learning about how the mind works. I have also been told by many people, a background in psychology is very helpful as a vet, when it comes to an animal’s owner or caretaker. I do not have much of a background in psychology except for a few articles and videos I have seen. When I think of the word “psychology” I think of studies concerning how the mind works and why it reacts certain ways to specific stimuli. The three topics I am most interested in learning about this semester are memory, mechanics of sleep and personality theory. I think memories are fascinating and look forward to learning how they work. I am intrigued by the mechanics of sleep because I wrote my FYS research paper on how slow classical music helps a person fall asleep. I don’t know anything about personality theory, but it sounds really cool. All of the topics look interesting, but if I had to choose three I didn’t like, I would go with what is addiction, stereotypes and discrimination and mood disorders and anxiety. All of these topics seem fun, but these three simply don’t seem as interesting in my opinion. However, I don’t know anything about them yet so that could easily change. One question I would love answered by the end of this class is how the study of psychology came about and why it started? I look forward to meeting everyone.