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Tschappat Portfolio-Dev Frame

This document discusses the importance of differentiation and hands-on learning in developing students. It describes a lesson where kindergarten students explored outdoors to collect materials and build bird nests, working collaboratively to problem solve. The document emphasizes that students learn in diverse ways and teachers must allow for exploration, discovery, and developing confidence through hands-on lessons to support all learning styles.

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55 views4 pages

Tschappat Portfolio-Dev Frame

This document discusses the importance of differentiation and hands-on learning in developing students. It describes a lesson where kindergarten students explored outdoors to collect materials and build bird nests, working collaboratively to problem solve. The document emphasizes that students learn in diverse ways and teachers must allow for exploration, discovery, and developing confidence through hands-on lessons to support all learning styles.

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api-518796795
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TSCHAPPAT MASTERS PORTFOLIO 1

Development

There is no “one size fits all” teaching method that will fit the developmental

needs of every student in a classroom. Every child is unique and learning styles are

diverse. In order to get to know students, a teacher must spend time observing

what their needs are developmentally. Maria Montessori believed that observing

children, without preconceived ideas, helps develop materials that the children need

and were interested in. When children are able to do things for themselves there is

an increase in their self-belief, self-confidence and esteem that they may carry on

throughout their life. “Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can

succeed” (Maria Montessori, 2020).

In this lesson kindergarten students were able to engage in hands on

learning that activated prior knowledge, curiosity, and creativity. Starting the lesson

outdoors, the students were able to explore the world around them-connecting

learning to the natural world, building and expanding their knowledge base all while

collecting material to make bird nests. Working in partners allowed the students to

discover, question, and solve challenges the faced together. The steps of problem-

solving are the key to a child’s learning. When our students have the cognitive

foundation to learn how to learn, they can discover what else is “out there” in our

world…” (Garner, 2008, p. 38). Children need to explore, to manipulate, to

experiment, to question, and to search out answers for themselves. In this lesson

students were encouraged to “think like a scientist” and also to “think like a bird”.

Exploring outdoors allowed the students to make “in our world discoveries” about

bird survival and habitat. This lesson is also designed to be adaptable to student’s
TSCHAPPAT MASTERS PORTFOLIO 2

different learning styles. Learning style theory and models stem from the belief that

people learn differently and will learn more effectively when the circumstances of

learning match their particular approaches to learning. “Further, learning style

theory suggests that while some individuals may have very strong preferences for

some approaches to learning, virtually all people can and do learn in more than one

way. The idea is to help individuals find those approaches that work best for them

and to use those approaches to facilitate their success” (Sousa, 2011, p.138).

Exploration and discovery are cornerstones for successful learning and allow

for developmental differentiation. Students come to the classroom with an

incredibly diverse set of experiences and they adapt their own thinking—both in

process and in form—in response to the kinds of input they’ve been exposed to. The

National Research Council’s (NRC) review (Pellegrino, Hilton, & National Research

Council, 2012), indicates that the kind of learning supporting these higher-order

thinking and performance skills is best developed through inquiry and investigation,

application of knowledge to new situations and problems, production of ideas and

solutions, and collaborative problem-solving. These tasks, in turn, require strong

self-regulation, executive functioning, and metacognitive skills; resourcefulness,

perseverance, and resilience in the face of obstacles and uncertainty; the ability to

learn independently; and curiosity, inventiveness, and creativity. By allowing for

differentiation in my lesson and letting the students work through challenges they

faced finding materials and constructing a nest helped to build confidence.

Classroom research has shown “the value of a learning-teaching

environment where children play and learn together in creative, investigative and


TSCHAPPAT MASTERS PORTFOLIO 3

problem-solving ways, where they can take ownership of and responsibility for

their own learning and where their emotional and imaginative needs are met,”

(Broadhead, 2006). It is important that teachers present students with materials

and situations that allow them to discover new learning and then have confidence in

a child’s ability to learn on his or her own. Piaget (1972) states that, “to understand

is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, and such conditions must be complied

with if in the future individuals are to be formed who are capable of production and

creativity and not simply repetition" (p.20). By allowing students to go through the

process of questioning, discovery, reflection, I help them develop into life-long

learners, and provide each child with the confidence to fulfill their own potential.
TSCHAPPAT MASTERS PORTFOLIO 4

References:

Broadhead, P. (2006). Developing an understanding of young children’s learning

through play:

the place of observation, interaction, and reflection. British Educational

Research Journal, 32:2,191-207. Retrieved from JSTOR:

https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920600568976

Garner, B.K. (2008). When students seem stalled: The missing link for too many kids

who don’t “get it?” cognitive structures. Educational Leadership 65(6), 32-38.

Maria Montessori Theory Principles (2020, June 15). Bringing Montessori Education

(0-3) To Your Home Retrieved from

http://www.dailymontessori.com/montessori-theory/

National Research Council (NRC). (2012). Education for life and work: Developing

transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st

century. J.W. Pellegrino & M.L. Hilton (Eds.), Washington, DC: The National

Academies Press. 

Piaget, J. (1972). To understand is to invent. New York: The Viking Press, Inc.

Sousa, David A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience supports the

learner-friendly classroom (p. 138). Solution Tree Press. Kindle Edition.

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