Chapter 6 Case Study

Case 1: Mr. West wants his students to truly understand Civil War battles. He engages the help of a local Historical Re-enactment Society and assigns each of his students to the Union or Confederate side. His students join the re-enactors from 7:00am-7:00pm for a full day of activities which include a long march (complete with rudimentary battle gear), setting up camp, cooking over campfires, scouting territory, and engaging in a historically representative battle.

1. After participating in this activity, what do you think the students will remember? How might those memories differ from those students would have if they only read about the Civil War in their textbook?

Since the students actually performed the march itself instead of just reading about it they will remember how they felt when they were re-enacting. The students are more likely to pay attention to what was going on because they were actually doing the activity and thus they would remember more than if they had just read about it in the textbook. If they had just read it maybe they wouldn’t have paid much attention thus it wouldn’t have gone into the long term memory.

2. How does Mr. West’s use of a Civil War re-enactment engage students’ emotions? What is the relationship between emotions and learning?

Because Mr. West had the students doing the march they were putting themselves into the situation and felt what the people during that time felt and had to live through the situation. They were tired and physically drained and sad probably for the people who had to march. When the students were in this state they related their life to what these people went through. Thus making it more meaningful and turned it into meaningful learning. It was also procedural learning and helped them learn by doing.

3. Based on the principles of dual-coding theory, what activities would be effective for Mr. West to use as a follow-up to the re-enactment?

Mr. West could have had the students take pictures while they were on the re-enactment. After they were done he could have them make a presentation of what they went through with their pictures and having them describe their experiences relating it to what happened during the civil war.

Case 2: Mr. Dunkin and Mr. Richards, teachers at the same school, are debating in the teacher’s lounge about who provides the best type of organization for the students’ learning. Mr. Dunkin lectures and assigns reading and chapter problems Mondays through Thursdays. On Fridays he gives a short answer exam. In Mr. Richards’ class the students never know what will take place on any given day until they arrive in class and look at a detailed outline of the hour’s activities on the chalkboard. His class engages in mix of role-plays, lecture, videos, group projects and demonstrations. Mr. Richards occasionally gives surprise quizzes and his unit tests can include true/false, multiple choice, short answer, or essay.

4. Who do you think provides better instruction for his students? Support your answer from an information processing perspective.

According to the information processing perspective it all depends on the learner thus you can’t say which has better instruction. First, people are selective about what they process and learn thus the students decide on what they will take in no matter what is going on around them. Second, learners will construct the meaning not the environment so no matter what is going on they will interpret things on their own. Next, students learn from what they already know so no matter how it is presented they will relate it to other things. Students also learn according to their maturation and thus will learn according to how mature they are not on what is going on in the class. And lastly, if the students are paying attention and actively trying to understand they will. Thus according to this perspective, it doesn’t matter which way they teach, it is up to the learners.

5. How would you expect the students’ learning outcomes to differ depending on which teacher they had?

I think if students had Mr. Dunkin they may be a little bored with the way he teaches. If he just does the same thing over and over his students may be bored thus their attention may not be there. However, if we can get the students attention then they will more likely have the information go into their working memory. Once it is there they will be able to get it into their long term memory and do well on their tests and learn more. Therefore, if they are in Mr. Richard’s class they may be more apt to pay attention because he is changing thing up and making it more exciting. Thus learning things in different ways they will learn better because they are more likely to pay attention.