ED535 Family Influence

FAMILY INFLUENCE

Based on the information in What Roles Do Parent Involvement, Family Background, and Culture Play in Student Motivation? (Usher & Kober, 2012), identify 2 or 3 critical ideas you believe are most important for teachers to understand and respond to in order to foster student learning in the classroom. Provide rationale for the choices you made.

Support your statements with evidence from the required studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.

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References

Usher, A., & Kober, N. (2012). What role do parent involvement, family background, and culture play in student motivation? Washington, DC: George Washington University Center for Education Policy.

Context, Culture, and Family

You have spent the last few weeks discussing the theories of learning—both historical and current trends in cognitive science—and considering how this might impact teaching practice.

Today’s educational climate seems to be in great flux. No one seems to agree on what will work best to promote learning. In part, this is not surprising because one’s views on education are colored by personal experiences—as are students’, parents’, teachers’, and the views of anyone with a stake in education.

You explored your perspective on your own experiences last week. That lens will inform how you view the material this week. Teachers are powerful forces in the classroom and the more cognizant you are of your beliefs, the more opportunity you have to assess their impact on your pedagogical choices.

James Bellanca (2001) reports that educators implement myriad educational reforms to improve student achievement: block schedules, smaller learning communities (schools within a school), continuous assessment, qualitative changes in report cards, sustained silent reading, reading across the curriculum, extended day programs, summer transition schools/programs, re-writing curriculum, and purchasing wholesale lots of new textbooks (p. 8). The list seems endless. Yet, significant populations of students continue to underachieve. How can this be? With the extraordinary focus on educational reform, why do these programs fail to demonstrate any substantial or long-term gains?

While teachers are clearly part of the puzzle, another aspect that must be factored in is influences outside of school—particularly the student’s family. Student motivation is heavily impacted by sources both in and out of school. Exploring this is critical to tackling learning from a comprehensive stance. The issues of context, culture, and family are further explored in EDGR 595, but this week you will look at a short introduction to some of these topics.

Now, as you wrap up the course and complete your final paper, you will synthesize that learning—that is, use the new information in a manner that works for you and for students. Will this learning transcend your own experience and truly have a long-term impact on your classroom? This week you will synthesize and apply your understanding of learning theory by articulating and defending your learning philosophy.

References

Bellanca, J. A., & Fogarty, R. J. (2001). Blueprints for achievement in the cooperative classroom (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Weekly Objectives

Through participation in the following activities, the candidate will:

Identify and explain the significance of cognitive science research in teaching and learning. (1d, 1e, 2j, 8j)
- Learning Theory Application
Identify the major theorists who contribute to the knowledge and application base of educational psychology and demonstrate understanding of the major tenets of their work. (1d, 1e, 2j, 8j)
- Learning Theory Application
Apply the concepts of cognitive processes (e.g. memorization, problem solving, etc.) to teaching and learning. (8j)
- Learning Theory Application
Explain how students bring assets for learning to the classroom that varies by individual student. (1e, 2j, 3n)
- Family Influence
- Learning Theory Application
Research and describe how a particular innovation in pedagogy and curriculum aligns with the theories of learning and development explored in the course. (1d, 8j)
- Learning Theory Application
- Planning for Your Capstone

Required Studies

The following materials are required studies for this week. Complete these studies at the beginning of the week, and save these materials for future use. Full references for these materials are listed in the Required Course Materials section of the syllabus.