How People Learn 6 & 7

1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Designing the learning environment has a great deal to do with how our students learn. What we are asking our students to do in class and how they perform those actions and activities all tie in with what we have been learning. Writing, speaking, thinking, problem solving, reasoning skills are all cognitive processes that students are doing and the environment in which we allow these things to take place have a huge impact on how our students learn. By finding a true balance of all of these approaches, we are fostering a cognitive playground!
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
There really isn’t anything that I am not clear on after reading these two chapters. I enjoyed the examples that were presented in chapter 7. I would like to have had more of the classroom examples geared toward the elementary level, especially in science. After reading this information, I am wondering why the learning community continues to gravitate toward testing as the sole measure of how our students are progressing. Legislators should be reading material like this on a regular basis.
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?
I would like to apply a little more of each of the learning environments presented in these chapters. I would love to present more questions to my students that would offer them the opportunity to create more of their own learning adventures. I am once again inspired to venture down the road where my students are driving the curriculum versus the curriculum driving the students.