What a special class for me!

Dai Ying

I really appreciate this trip of NCMA which changed my mind of

going to the museum, learning, and most importantly, teaching.
Honestly, I seldom went to museum. In my mind, there are only a
lot of silent art works there. I do not like the museum! Why
should I go to the museum? I have no idea about the relationship
between the museum and teaching.
While, the following art has changed me first!

What can you teach from this art in chemistry, physics, and
history?
When I thought in this way, many ideas were coming up. While,
before asked this question, I even not realized its presence.
No matter when the arts were made or the reason they were
made, we can learn from them at different aspects and also
applied them to different subjects. They are not still the silent,
boring arts. However, they make us imagine and create. This is
not only the way that we can teach; it is also the way students
can learn. We can learn a lot in the museum, we also can go to
the farm, go to the lake, and go to the factory. We can learn and
teach everywhere.
Just like John Dewey said that, as a teacher, is the way in which
that subject may become a part of experience; what there is in

the childs present that is usable with reference to it; how such
elements are to be used; how his own- knowledge of the subjectmatter may assist in interpreting the childs needs and doings,
and determine the medium in which the child should be placed in
order that his growth may be properly directed.
About the theory and theorist, we focus on Piaget. He was a
Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his
epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive
development and epistemological view are together called
genetic
epistemology. I am interested the
four
development stages described in Piagets theory.
1. Sensorimotor stage:
Children from birth to age two, they learn and experience
through movement and their five senses. There are six
substrates in this stage that refer to schema. According to
schema, we realize that all learning depends on prior knowledge
and context. When we are teaching we should know how to
connect the knowledge with the background and interests of
students.
2. Preoperational stage:
When children begin to learn to speak at ages two and lasts up
until the age of seven. Children do not yet understand concrete
logic and cannot mentally manipulate information. They have
trouble seeing things from different points of view. The play of
them is symbolic play and manipulating symbols. So it is a better
way to teach children by using symbols to represent physical
models of the world around them.
3. Concrete operational stage:
Children from seven to eleven years old, they can conserve and
think but they are limited to what they can physically
manipulate. They think by using their hand. Take the fire
for example, children may told many times that do not touch the
fire, do not play with fire. While, children still have the curiosity
to play with the fire. They may realize that until they touched it,
and felt hurt. So children in this stage they should experience by
themselves. According to John Dewey, the relation of theory and

practice, the child not simply doing things, but getting also the
idea of what he does; some application in experience and has
some effect upon life.
4. Formal Operational Stage (11- 16 and onwards)
Children from 11- 16 and onwards, they are in formal operational
stage. Children develop abstract thought and can easily conserve
and think logically in their mind. Children are now able to think
abstractly and utilize metacognition. Along with this, the children
in the formal operational stage display more skills oriented
towards problem solving, often in multiple steps.
Take playing chess as an example. Maybe everyone has played
chess before, when you are playing chess, you may think many
steps ahead that you will go and even which steps your players
will go. Students think by using their minds!
While, not every student will achieve at the fourth stage when
they are 12 years old. Both children in third stage and in fourth
stage, they may in the same grade level.
So, we should think about how this theory applies to the
classroom.
Here is ----Differential Instruction:
Differential Instruction is a framework or philosophy for effective
teaching that involves providing different student with different
avenues to learning; and developing teaching materials and
assessment measures so that all students with a classroom can
learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability. Classrooms
are filled with students who have different needs, backgrounds,
interests and abilities. Or we can say there are students in the
third stage and students in fourth stage. We should tail the
instructions to meet individual meets and provide ways for every
student, to engage them to be succeeded. It is a classroom that
all students can be successful, teachers set different
expectations for task completion for students based upon their
individual needs.
When I think of myself in this course, I am the one may be in
lower level. My English is not well and I know a little about
pedagogy. Just supposed that teacher taught only in one level,
maybe I am not eager to follow up the teacher and learn little.
However, different backgrounds vary, different projects were

designed for us. Different students are interested in different

parts. We can express ourselves in different ways. We also can
learn a lot from our partners and groups. What is the most
important, I will rethink what I should do in my class in the future,
especially for students in different levels, and students like me in
this course.
Finally, I love this course when I first saw this sentence Would you
want to be a student in your classroom? Thank you for Candy Beal, thank you
for my partner Chirs and thank you for myself!