Educational Psychology Case Study
Author: K.Y.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Interesting comments from the backseat while Mini-me and Not me glance nervously at the dashboard (1).
Lights start to flash on the dashboard which was an unnecessary warning since the three could clearly see smoke bellowing from under the hood of the car and an earsplitting grinding noise accompanying it. A burnt rubber smell hits their nostrils while Mini-me sharply steers the car into the breakdown lane (2).
The three sit in shock before simultaneously scrambling out of the car to look under the hood. Interesting grabs the car manual from the glove compartment, but only frantically and aimlessly flips through the pages.
“Give me that,” Not me demands Interesting.
“Sorry,” Interesting replies chagrined, “I’ve never been helpful when under stress.” (3)
“Should we wave someone down for help?” Not me looks up from the manual with a hopeless look on her face, “ This manual is Greek to me. I wish I had a working model instead. We don’t even know what’s busted!”
Mini-me tries to look at the corresponding pictures while reading the material aloud to Not me, but neither one finds it very useful (4).
“Well, I don’t think we should just ask some random stranger for help. What about all of those stories of girls being helped by strange men and how it never ends well?” Mini-me protest.
“So, what do you suggest we do? Just sit in the car and take a nap while we hope for someone not crazy to come by and help us?” Not me snaps, “the chance of getting help from a crazy person is like being caught in an earthquake out here,” she gestures to the vast space that was surrounding them and their broken-down car (5 & 6&7).
“I’m hungry,” Mini-me complains as her stomach makes an audible growl (8).
***
1)This part of the story is suppose to indicate that good teaching requires a good hook in order to get the students interested in the topic (Sousa 2010). In a classroom I would do something like a hands-on demonstration in order to get the students wondering and discussing what they just saw and how it works as an introduction to the day’s topic.
2)It’s important for students to be able to use as many of their senses as possible while learning (Zull 2002). An example is allowing students to do labs as an addition to lectures since the students can see, hear, touch, smell, and possibly taste the science that they are learning about in lecture, making it more real to them.
3)Students have problems learning when they are under stress (Sousa 2010). In order to help students avoid this situation, I would space assignments and tests out as much as I can as well as give students a fairly good amount of warning of when assignments due dates are coming up.
4)Students have different ways of learning (Gardner 2004). Whether it’s visually (Mini-me), auditory (Not me), or kinesthetically (Interesting) students need to be taught in a variety of different ways in order for them to learn the material. In a classroom, I make a habit of saying what I’m about to write down on the board so that way the students are hearing the notes as well as seeing them. Also I think it would be beneficial for students to see things like graphs or pictures to understand the material better or do something kinesthetic like a lab where the students can manipulate the materials.
5)Teenagers have a tendency to have unbalanced thinking since their frontal cortex isn’t fully developed yet (Sousa 2010). This is important for teacher to understand when a student has done some rash action that doesn’t seem to make any sense. The teacher needs to understand that it might not necessarily be the teenager’s fault.
6)Sleep is important for both the teacher and students (Sousa 2010). Not only does this help the students and teacher be more relaxed and alert, but also it helps with being able to understand the material they went over the day before since our brains work over time and try to make further connections on what we learned the previous day. As a teacher, I could help both myself and the students out on this by giving them less homework and be more flexible on due dates.
7)A real-life application is helpful for students to be able to fully connect with the material that they are learning (Sousa 2010). For example, in order for students to connect with learning the states of matter, we could talk about the rare examples like dried ice and then we could even do some sort of experiment with the dried ice.
8)In order to have students learn the best way that they can, it’s important to satisfy the basic needs, like hunger, first (Maslow 1943). A teacher should look out for signs that a student isn’t learning because of a basic need depletion. If I noticed that a student wasn’t getting enough to eat, I would offer to pay for his/her school lunches. If it’s fear that they are suffering from, I would like to make my classroom a safe environment by having the students be respectful to each other and they would all feel comfortable telling me anything that’s troubling them.
***
Interesting looks at her watch and realizes it’s way past lunchtime.
“I remember seeing a restaurant about a few miles that-a-way,” Not me points back the way they had just come from (9).
“Great,” Mini-me mumbles as she slowly drags her feet in that direction.
“What about the car?” Interesting asks.
“Leave it. It’s not like anyone’s going to steal it,” the three look at the eerily empty road and agree.
After the long trudge that produced blistered feet and sunburnt noses, the restaurant looms ahead of them (10).
“Thank goodness,” Mini-me exclaims as she picks up her pace (11).
“Excuse me,” Interesting approaches the only diner in the restaurant, “we are having car problems and we were wondering if you could help us out,” she avoids the man’s eyes out of respect (12).
“What seems to be the problem?” the man grumbles. He seems to be upset that his meal is being interrupted.
“Well, first the engine light turned on, it was the engine light, right? Anyways, we also heard some grinding noises from under the hood and smoke started spurting up…” Mini-me explained (13).
“That’s not a very helpful explanation,” the man rudely replies.
“Maybe if you could look under the hood?” Not me suggests hopefully.
The man looks at his watch and lurches to his feet, “Sorry, ladies, but I have to get back to work immediately. I suggest that you get yourself a tow truck.”
“We can’t…” Interesting was going to say ‘afford one’ but before she could get the entire sentence out, the man had exited the restaurant.
“Well, we might as well get something to eat while were here. At least we can afford that,” Mini-me stares longingly at the pie behind the glass counter.
“What would you like to eat?” A waitress pops up after they have looked over the menu for some time.
“I don’t know! There’s too many choices,” Mini-me exclaims, exasperated (14).
***
9)Mental manipulation is important for a student to be able to use when learning (Sousa 2010). In a classroom, mental manipulation can be useful for a student to be able to visualize how organic molecules fit together and how they are shaped.
10)Exercise is important in learning (Sousa 2010). I could apply this to my classroom by allowing the students to go on mini field trips to get their blood pumping as well as having them learn things along the way.
11)Internal motivation is key (Pink 2008). Students should be able to build up an internal motivation about a subject in order to fully learn it. This can be done by the teacher making the subject interesting enough for the students to care about the topic on their own.
12)Interesting is Native American so it’s a cultural issue that is causing her to avoid eye contact out of respect for her elders (Sousa 2010). This information can help teachers understand that the students aren’t lying to the teacher but actually respecting them.
13)Short-term memory doesn’t last long (Sousa 2010). Having students just memorize information doesn’t help students fully understand the topic. Teachers need to have the students connect to the subject instead of just having them fill and spill the information.
14)Don’t give your students so many choices that they are overwhelmed (Shiv 2011). As a teacher, we should avoid overwhelming the students with choices like how they can do their projects. This just ends up making the students indecisive and confused.
***
“I’ll get the fries,” Not me replies.
“I’ll have the salad,” Interesting orders.
“I guess I’ll have… the steak with baked potatoes.”
“Well, this was a fine way to spend our vacation, isn’t it?” Not me complains as she shoves the fries into her mouth.
“So, how was your salad?” Mini-me asked Interesting after she had practically inhaled her steak and baked potato.
“Very disappointing. The lettuce was all wilted.
“And the fries?”
“Too salty,” Not me whines.
Mini-me was praising herself for picking the more expensive and apparently better quality meal (15), when a new character makes an appearance.
She could barely hear Interesting in the background complaining to Not me about a professor and how boring it was to listen to him lecture on and on day after day (16). The hunky man that had just walked in looked like a promising volunteer to get their junk of a car back on the road.
Mini-me nudged Not me and nodded to the new arrival, “What do you think? Should we try asking him for help?”
“Amazing how your fear of crazy men instantly went away,” Not me teased.
“Who wants to ask him?” Interesting asks nervously.
“Well, someone better ask otherwise we’re going to be stuck at this restaurant until they kick us out,” Mini-me commented (17).
“Fine, I’ll ask,” Not me volunteers happily (18).
After asking the man for his help, he drives them back out to their car and lifts the hood.
He nods his head almost immediately, “Luckily, it’s a simple fix. You see this right here?” All three girls lean in to get a closer look at what he’s pointing at (19 & 20), “you just have to take this plug right here and push it back in,” he shoves the plug into its place while Mini-me rushes back to the driver’s seat prepping for a test run.
A chorus of cheers is emitted in response to the roar of the car starting up without any warning lights or plume of smoke (21).
“Why did that work?” Mini-me asks. The man kindly explains the specific mechanics.
After thanking their rescuer, the three girls pile back into the car.
“I’m wiped. It’s a good thing we’re going on vacation!” Mini-me exclaims, followed by laughter (22).
***
15)Shiv believes that people think that if they pay a higher price for something that they are getting a product with better quality (Shiv 2011). This could be used in a classroom by telling that the students that their textbooks and lab equipment are brand new and how much the school budget had to fork over in order to pay for it.
16)Only lecturing is a poor way of teaching (American Radiowork 2011). A teacher can avoid this by breaking up the lectures with interaction with the students by having clicker questions or having them do a think, pair, share activity.
17)In order to get some action out of people, you have to appeal to both the Rider and the Elephant (Heath 2010). In a classroom, demonstrations are good to get kids passionate and excited about the material they are about to learn as well as logically explain to them why something works the way that it does.
18)Make a happy commitment to a solution (Shiv 2011). It’s important to have students make a happy commitment on what they are going to do, say, for a project, instead of floundering around until the due date comes and they have no idea what they are doing so they pump out a crummy first draft and hand it in. It’s also important for the teacher to be happy with his/her decision otherwise they are going to be a little wishy-washy on their teaching and not be as confident in their topic.
19)People can always learn something new (Sousa 2010). This is important to know especially when a teacher has a student that complains that he/she will never learn the material that you are teaching. It also helps when the topic is really important/relevant to them since it gives them a good reason to know the material instead of just feeling pressured to cram the material for a test and then forget it again.
20)Brains can compensate (Doidge 2007). This is important for students to know that the brain is constantly elastic and that it is possible for them to start to love a subject that they hate and vise versa and that they should have an open mind when they are studying different subjects. The teacher can help with this by making the subject as enjoyable as possible.
21)In order to change the behavior, you must change the person’s situation (Heath 2010). This is very important for teachers to help out with if a student is getting frustrated and refuses to learn new material. It might actually be the teacher’s fault that the material is not getting through, not the student’s.
22)Self-control is an exhaustible resource (Heath 2010). It’s important for teachers to understand that when a student is apparently acting lazy, it might actually be that they are just exhausted from the amount of work that you are giving them and you are unintentionally overwhelming them. It’s good to check in and make sure that you aren’t wearing your students out.