Learn English by creating a story

The storybird is an another amazing tool which is one of the benefits of technology. It can be used either as a lesson material to present the language topic or as a classroom activity to make the students explore to using language structures and grammar points by practicing them.  If you would like to use it as material, it could be involved in any sessions of  the lesson. In the presentation part, the lesson topic can be introduced to the students by discussing the highlighted language points in the prepared story before. In the practical part, the students can work in small groups and practice the language points while reading the story or talking about it. As an activity, storybird might be involved in the production part of the lesson. It would be fun and enjoyable to create a story collaboratively about whatever the students want. By this way, students would have a chance to use the language both by speaking and writing. Most importantly, they would feel confident in using the language after completing the task.
As an example, I can share my experience in creating a story by using the storyboard. First, with my pair, we brainstormed on the issue which language topic should be included in the story. We decided on the teaching adjectives by common consent. Then, we choose the pictures among the great variety of images offered on the webpage of storybird. It gives an opportunity to use the image according to the development of the story. Then we completed the story in which a few adjectives we intended to teach were presented through the lines composed the story. You can look at it via the link above.
http://storybird.com/books/the-little-girls-story-3/?token=7w4z6x5hk6

Adjusting to new rommate

''Get one's dander up!''

Get one’s dander up!’’

More PowerPoint presentations from Meryem Polat

Introduction of CLT

This is one of the extraordinary tools which is necessary to use in language learning and teaching. After experienced to use it, I thought that I could teach a language point my nephews from the distant. And I asked them determine the subject which they aren't able to understand clearly and I would prepare a video to teach them with that point. It was an amazing experience to get learners teach something even distance. It was also the first practice for me to use this technology for my imaginary class. I am definitely sure about that it will work to get students' attention in the first part of the lesson when I use it in future as in my first trial in the class.

Poster for CLT classroom

I think that visualizing of  the knowledge helps to retain it in mind much longer than gaining it just by reading. It is necessarily important to gain knowledge by visually as well as reading or writing in order not to forget in a short time. Because of the fact that language learning definitely requires a good memory, in particular for improving vocabulary knowledge, the using of visuals can be counted as an essentials of language teaching. Therefore, it would be a perfect idea to start the lesson with the poster in order to provide learners with an opportunity to decode and encode the knowledge by the means of pictures or any other visuals.

Finally, here is my podcast,

Creating video for the lesson

PPT with the narration & VOKI

audio_literacy

More PowerPoint presentations from Meryem Polat

The two outstanding experiments which are created so as to indicate the other two ways for language teaching and learning.  These ways definitely serve language learning and also ease the learning process by providing the learners with an opportunity to assess themselves by hearing their voice and developing their listening skills which has a crucial role in language learning. It is more than PPT. I think that it should be certainly included in language learning, in particular, students can be asked to record their voice as an audio journal to reflect what they learnt  after class rather than writing them on a piece of paper. By this way, their pronunciation and accordingly speaking skills would be developed. 

Integrated skills

https://www.edmodo.com/post/184027818

It's an amazing example of using technology in language learning. It provides learners with not only improving listening skills, but also writing skills as they need to write while listening. Moreover, they can also improve their pronunciation skills because they will probably start to sing the song after completing the task. As long as there is an opportunity to connect the internet, it would be the best activity to teach a language by developing the four skills simultaneously.

Vocabulary Profiling

TASK1: Unknown words that we might encounter while reading are the main disturbance in knowing the meaning of content. Actually, it isn't wrong to say that these words can sometimes be the main reason of not getting the meaning. However, if they are being guessed properly, the meaning of the content can be understandable. What if we are not able to guess their meaning, in this case, the content is most probably be misconceived. From this point of view, the conclusion can be drawn is the fact that in order to understand the text clearly, we have to either know the content or guess the unknown words properly form the content. I think there can be a high probability in failing to guess the meaning of unknown words, particularly, in literal text. According to me, the students very often encounter with unknown words as they are reading, but they often deal with them not by guessing, but looking at dictionary. It also happens to me very often, and I chose the latter technique rather than guessing. TASK2: On one aspect, knowing the most commonly used words is a must to teach English well as they allow teachers to speak fluency. If teachers speak fluency, they are able to conduct the lesson mush more understandable as they would express themselves well. However, on the another aspect, teaching something should not depends only on the vocabulary knowledge, there are many important points except knowing many words in teaching language such as knowing teaching strategies, methods,even learners' personalities. I always agree with the natural learning way and disagree with the memorization type of learning. In order to teach vocabulary, it is necessary to provide students with activities in which they have an opportunity to use the words which are taught. As I mentioned above, I strongly believe that learning naturally is more effective than the traditional way which can refers to explicit learning. 21st learners should be encouraged to discover and produce knowledge in order to make the knowledge permanent. Otherwise, they forget easily whatever they learn. Because of the fact that, the knowledge should be taught students implicitly by implementing it with activities, rather than explicitly. We can say that dictionaries help students learn vocabulary to some extend, but they need more. Dictionaries is actually, useful for mere checking the meaning of the words, not for learning the words. Therefore, the word lists may help in learning vocabulary, but provide effectiveness. For instance, if I didn't know the meaning of one word, it doesn't matter how often I look at the dictionaries for it, I would forget it each time. TASK3: It is obviously clear that a native speaker would score better result in such a test. Because he expose to the language much more time than a non-native speaker. Nevertheless, it is also important to note that in order to make good decisions about the usefulness of a word, it is important to know how common the word is used in English. In my opinion, it would be good for teachers to develop their sense of word frequency because it is important in making decision about which vocabulary gets students' attention and suits to their level. As a result of this, the most attention should be given on the words used common in order to develop students' fluency in using languaGE. Using Lextutor's Vocabulary Profiler: TASK1: By identifying the words regarding their functions and by finding the linguistic equivalents of their, we fairly see the vocabulary profile.

''DDL'' Task-3

The use of concordance as a tool in Data-Driven Learning provides students with a great opportunity to look at the word collocations from broader perspective in the text as they are reading it. It allows to find the key-words and their collocations in context. Moreover, it suggests lexicon-grammatical information about those words. It is an amazing tool to explore the collocates of the key words in context, which helps students enhance their understandings and knowledge about key words and also context.

DDL(Data-Driven Learning)

According to Palmer, ''learning is a process of discovery'', which might actually give an explanation of the DDL as it requires constructing knowledge by hypothesizing, experimenting and observing it. Because of the fact that it might not be easy to follow the Data-Driven Learning Principles in face-to-face classroom. The main reason for that there must be provided students with such a learning environment in which they are able to discovery and exploit the knowledge with the exploratory tasks and activities rather than traditional ''drill-kill'' exercises. Therefore, in traditional cl assess, there probably would be such problems that lack of exploratory tools, no internet connection, insufficient technological materials, and so forth. As a result of these, the targeted teaching topic might not be achieved. In the light of the description of the DDL, I think that students should definitely be guided with group work activities as in the constructivism approach. Students should be encouraged to work together and discovery the knowledge in order to deal with the tasks. In my opinion, the usage of the computer and internet is the cornerstone of DDL, as it is based on the exploration and construction of the knowledge. In order to provide students with authentic materials and integrate them into the exploratory tasks and activities, we need to integrate with technology and media as they supply a great variety of materials to enhance learning.

''ASSURE'' model

As I was covering the ASSURE model, I raised such a question on my own that whether this model would indeed be used with all its steps by demonstrating in practice or is it really necessary to embed this model in the lesson plan in order to improve the effectiveness of the lesson? When I thought my past experiences as a student learning English, I don't think that any teachers conducted the language lessons by taking this model into consideration. The reason for this may be the lack of technological instruments in the classroom setting. In other words, ASSURE model is based on the integration technology, so it requires using a variety of technology and media as an instructional material. When I was in the preparatory school, there weren't various types of technological materials. Only CD-player, video and projector were involved in the teaching materials, which I was already familiar with them in high school. Therefore, I was thinking that these are considered as standard materials selected for teaching a foreign language until meeting with Mr. Neufeld in undergraduate program. I had many experiences in using technology and media for the purpose of both teaching and learning English since I have taken the courses from him. As we weren't integrated with the technology and media in preparatory school, at least two steps-setting strategies and utilize technology were missing according to the ASSURE model. If it needs to identify the steps in the ASSURE model, it isn't wrong to say that only three steps were obviously included in the lessons. First, the step ''analyze learners'' was certain as we all had similar proficiency level-upper and ours aim was to achieve proficiency exam rather to acquire the language just because we were trained for this aim. Therefore, the instructor would prepare the classroom activities by paying regard to the aim, our competency, knowledge and skills not to use language skills appropriately, but to teach the language components. Second step ''state standards and objectives'' would be determined and specified, for instance, if the lesson topic was about reading skills, we were expected to able to skimming and scanning to get the main idea from the text. For the third step ''the require learner participation'', just one instructor would provide activities that allow us to practice the new knowledge or skills and to give feedback on our efforts before formally assessed us. The most important conclusion can be drawn from my experiences that if the aim in language learning had been not to achieve the proficiency exam, but to acquire the language, I would most probably have developed all language skills, especially speaking just as the case in high school. In addition, in order to facilitate language learning, it is an indisputable fact that the integration technology and media are an essential part of the language classroom.

Psychoogical Perspective on The Learning

As all we know from the previous knowledge of Educational Psychology, psychological factors have a strong impact on the learning process and this issue should be taken into consideration seriously as well as the other factors such as using a variety of materials, presenting various activities, and even providing students with technology and media integration in the course of the lesson. Today's students known also as 21st century learners desire to learn from multiple formats rather than books. This requires using multiple sources gathered through technological resources. Because of the fact that teachers need to engage them in multitasking and help them view information in a broad and a networked format so that they develop their competency skills like media and technology. In order to fulfil this necessity, teachers not only need to use technology effectively in their teaching, but also need to guide students in using technological tools to enhance their learning. Along with these requirements, there is one more essential thing for effective teaching and learning, which should be given enough attention is ''psychological situation'' of the students in their learning environment. It is important to keep Maslow's hierarchy of needs in mind in order to determine learner needs and their expectations. In the circumstances in which students' basic needs-hunger, lighting, noise, and so forth are not provided, students would be less able to mentally engage in meaningful learning activities and they most probably will fail to gather the knowledge which is presented. In order to make this subject more clear, I want to analyze an instructional situation in one of my courses-Advanced writing and research skills and to identify it from the psychological perspective on learning. In the second week of the course, the instructor was assigned us with finding fifty sources for our research topic without giving sufficient information about how we can search to find such an amount of source and gather information to write a research proposal. This makes almost us feel helpless and think of failing in gathering the sources, even one thinks to withdraw the course. However, in the following week, she provided us with the necessary information on this suject. As one of the major goals of teachers, she helped us improve our inquiry approaches by giving suggestions and address of some educational internet sites, in addition, she guided us how we can access the related information to our research. It resulted on one hand in facilitating and developing our meadia and technology competencies, on the other hand in increasing our understanding about how we use and apply these skills to gather essential knowledge regarding with our research topic. Because this course is conducted through such technological tools as power point projector, and internet, it may not sufficiently provides us with the technology integration but the instructor supports us individually to engage with technology and media. I think it is not enough, but because of the conditions in learning environment which is offered doesn't yield so much things.

Four Major Perspectives on Learning and Their Impact on Teaching Decisions

The developments in the area of SLA have been presented simultaneously with the developments in the technology. In other words, the reformed theories in this area have been proposed according to the improvements of the technology. Firstly, behaviorism known as reinforcement theory has been developed relies on solely observable behavior and is more comfortable with explaining sample learning tasks. On the other hand, cognitivists have a broader perspective on language learning than held by behaviorists. This theory aims at creating a mental model of how learners receive, process and manipulate information. It is mostly concerned with the process of thinking, problem solving and making decisions of the learners. Therefore, it wouldn't be wrong to say, this approach to instruction is a more metacognitive approach to teaching the 21st century learners. Afterwards, constructivism has been developed as a movement extending beyond the ideas of cognitivism with the technological developments. This approach targets to make the learners much more creative and engage them in meaningful experiences as the essence of experiential learning, that is, learning by doing. It exactly fits with learning abilities 21st century learners' need. Finally, social psychologists emphasize cooperation rather than competition to improve and facilitate learning. This approach addresses interdependent collaborative abilities, which is an essential requirement for the 21st century learners to use these abilities as part of their learning. From my learning experiences in both high school and preparatory school, it may be said that there were any classroom activities or learning strategies required to implement the last two theories above in the language learning process. I mean, I have never been an independent learner who creates own interpretations of the world of information. Instructors, at that time, would apply teacher-centered techniques, so they have never provided us an opportunity with shifting from passive transfer of information to active problem solving and discovery. Although I was a 21st century learner in preparatory school, I haven't been trained with the theories that provide many opportunities in language learning because of the technological developments. My language training much more depends on the behavirosm rather than the other theories. For example, I was in high school, the teacher would make a compliment on our papers by writing a short note such as ''good, very good, or excellent'' as a reinforcement. It indeed worked on developing my writing skills. Because, I would always want to see the note ''excellent'', so I would try to write better than previous one. I was in preparatory school, we were given such a kind of assignment that helped us develop our such skills as problem solving and making decision. For instance, I remember that the instructor assigned us with the preparing a presentation which was a group work and its topic was free. This assignment fostered us think cognitively and learn cooperatively. What I have learned from these experiences is that teachers need to develop an eclectic attitude in order to be much more effective in their classrooms. I believe that there is no single method in the area of SLA, because of the fact that all methods, theories or strategies should be used as long as they fit the learners' need. As a prospective teacher, I think that my instruction will be based on communicative strategies which provide learners with not only learning language but also using it.

Is email really dead (dying?)

In America, teenage use of email is on the decline. It appears that they prefer to use IM (ınstant messaging) or social media to communicate with each other.
Notice that almost 40% of teenagers do not even know how to use email!

To be equipped with all ''Literacy Skills''

Considering a foreign language learning, after the last week class, I realized that I had no literacy skills except from the general literacy- the ability of comprehending or decoding information to use and create new information-when I was in secondary school. At that time, the learning environment did not require acquiring knowledge and literacy skills, but reading.  A course book and a blackboard were commonly used as teaching materials. Therefore, I started high school with only ''general literacy''. I always think the only reason for that is my language teacher. He didn't care about whether we were learning English or not. On the contrary, he was interested what points we take from the exams even he predicted that. When I started high school, my point of view toward learning a foreign language was totally changed in a positive way. I was really interested in learning English and my teacher was completely different from the previous one. Thanks to him, I have learned English with all skills, in addition, I have acquired another literacy skills, such as media, cyberleaning, visual, audio, and so forth. Because of that, I have already prepared for the demands of academia when I started University. However, there were still few literacy skills which I needed to develop to tackle with the demands of the University. One of them was computer literacy. The first year at University, I had a computer course, so I had an opportunity to learn how to recognize and find solutions to hardware and software problems. The other literacy skills I had to improve was cyperlearning literacy requiring to use of a variety of technology tools to connect with people and resources beyond the boundaries of a normal classroom setting. By taking account from many educational media sites, like edmodo, blogger, and so on for the courses that are conducted by Mr. Neufeld, I have become competent in using technology tools.
After all, I think that I still need to develop ''computer literacy'' which is my weakest. Nowadays, it should be  definitely considered to be competent in all of literacies by teachers. As a prosperity teacher, I am planning to upgrade my literacy skills and knowledge as frequently as it needs. It must be accepted that technology is a prominent part of the teaching and learning in today's world.

One of my course embedded into instructional technology

''Advanced writing and Research skills'' is one of my courses which often requires using digital materials, especially digital divide. As its name suggests that it totally relates to do research to find lots of sources from the internet for our research project. Therefore, we need to use instructional technology to complete it. Moreover, it provides us with critical thinking skills to plan and conduct our research project, as well as we can make the decisions on the topic of the research by using appropriate digital tools and resources.
In terms of the ''media used'', in the classes, the course book and texts handled by instructor are used. Another medium commonly used is the visuals (PowerPoint slides) to present the instruction. We have an opportunity to see summarized information rather than read all. I think that this course is mostly based on searching on the internet and using a wide variety of media to manage the research process.

As far as I suppose, during the course, almost all ''literacies'' are being reinforced. First of all, we will be capable of comprehending and decoding information to use and create new information. Text based resources are used in order to communicate information and develop text literacy. Throughout the writing of the research findings, we will be competent in solving any problem relating to the computer software. And finally, to interpret and create visual messages accurately from visual media we need to reinforce visual literacy.


The most important thing which I have learned from the beginning of the university is that technology is a necessity, not a fancy. Therefore, to know how to use the internet or any digital tools used in the classroom is more important than the other requirements for teaching and learning effectively. I think that students should be trained on the use of computer or any technology based tools used for their learning in quite early age, rather than starting at university. So, it should not be just only language teachers' responsibility to make sure the students develop digital literacy, but the authorities should be responsible for that problem. They, for instance, should provide students in each primary or secondary school with a computer laboratory and internet connection, and also students should be trained by using instructional technology.

Are you a user or owner?

If I created a new thing, I would license my work by using the copyleft principle of Creative Commons. On the other hand, when I want to use a work which belongs to someone, I wouldn't use it without permission or compensation it deserves. Copyright refers to the legal rights to an original work. Technology, particularly the internet, marks the accession of digital materials much easier. Therefore, we should use all these materials in a professional and ethical manner.
However, there may be a lot of work which is for nonprofit educational purposes rather than a commercial nature. In this case, using a copyrighted work for an educational objective can be more likely considered as ''fair use'' than using it for commercial gain.

A must have medium for education in today's world

Many of today's classrooms have been relatively changed from the traditional way to the technology based learning. Teachers, no longer, teach new things by means of a new ways by using digital tools to support and enhance the learning process. It can be frankly said that technology extends the learning environments beyond the classroom walls by connecting learners with others: other learners, experts, and so on.
The benefits of technology in teaching and learning are proved by the researches conducted over the years, so authorities agree on using technology to facilitate and improve students' learning. Therefore, teachers cannot be away from integrating technology and media in their classroom settings any more. They need to continuously improve their professional practice and be an effective user of the digital tools and resources in professional community.
From that point of view above, the necessity of technology is indisputable in not only language teaching, but also in any study area. However, if we have a look at the education in Turkey, it is hardly to say that technology is used commonly in every school. Even, it is used so rarely that teachers are not capable of using digital tools in their classrooms, in fact, they have not knowledge about them. Along with the development of the technology in today, they have had to keep up with the technology and started to integrate it into the teaching materials. http://warlight.tripod.com/KONIG.html This link gives more information about the language learning in Turkey.
 I would describe the use of technology in language learning in Turkey as an ''infant'' since it is used freshly minted. So, it needs to develop and increase the frequency of its usage. I think that every school should have a language laboratory equipped with computer and internet connection. It is essential to make the language acquisition possible with all skills, as it provides students with an intensive learning and teaching process. Therefore, what is achieved through the language learning reform can be promoted by using the technology in the future.

The best job I have ever done!

Today, it was our (oğuzhan and I) turn to give a lesson about the topic that was given previously-Language and Learning. First, I was worried about how I can narrow it as it is a broad subject. Later, I had managed to organize it by dividing into three major subtopics. I think our presentation was good, because we achieved to get our peers' attention during the 50minutes lesson. We had also two guests, one of them was our instructor of the other course which we take and the other guest was one of our peers from the other courses. Although, I had such an  experience in giving the lesson in my other courses, it was very different and also it was the best among the others. I felt very good and confident during the lesson as we could engage the everybody in the lesson with the activities. Moreover, to see that everybody understood the each point which I talked about made me feel  that I achieved my goal.
I  always think that ''how a teacher can gain all students' attention and engage them in the lesson?'' I am wondering about it because in my opinion it must be the main goal of the teaching. I remember that when I was in high school, I was not really interested in some lessons as they weren't getting my attention. Today, I understood that not the lesson that couldn't get my attention, but the teacher. I have decided to research on that issue in more depth to learn much more ways I can manage the classroom successfully as in today. I believe that by this way I will become an effective teacher...
http://712educators.about.com/od/discipline/tp/disciplinetips.htm
The link above gives some good  tips in managing classroom successfully. This is the first step of my research about that issue.

Robert Gagne's Conditions of Learning

20 March 2013

It was one of the enjoyable lessons- Conditions of Learning. It was conducted in the open air-the school's garden. After we covered the topic in the first two hours, we went out to the garden for the practical part of the lesson. We applied to making Turkish coffee in the Gagne's stages of instruction. It was a really nice instruction, everything was fine except the weather. It was a bit cold:)))

To make a difference instruction, there are some factors should be regarded:
To identify five distinct domains or variety of learning outcomes that represent the range of human accomplishments, such as verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies and so on, to determine requirements for instruction that support learning and to guide for designing instruction.
What are the conditions of learning?
External conditions which are stimulus from the environment and internal conditions which are the learner's internal states like his/her feelings, thought and emotion.
According to Gagne, there are 9 phases of learning. In order to give an effective lesson, these phases should be followed.
-In the preparation stage for learning, gaining attention, identifying the instructional objectives and retrieval information take place.
-In acquisition and performance stage, selecting perception of stimulus features, responding and reinforcement are important.
-In the final stage, transfer of learning, cueing retrieval and generalizability is getting involved.

Sophisticated Lesson

One of the enjoyable lessons was conducted last week. Three groups in the classroom were given an opportunity to give a lesson. Next week, the rest of the class will perform on giving an instruction. One of the groups is  my friend and I. We are going to cover the topic ''Language and Learning''. It is very important to give students such a chance so that they gain experience. Moreover, it contributes to gaining knowledge as preparing and conducting the lesson requires doing research and doing some activities as a real teacher. In addition to prepare a lesson plan is an inseparable part of the perform in an effective lesson. A teacher also has to know the principles of the teaching such as which method should be applied, which steps should be followed, what kind of activities should be provided to make the topic clear, and so on.
If it is needed to be evaluated the last week performances, I can say that all of them don't reflect the features of the effective lesson which I have talked about a few of them above. In other words, the performers were not able to convey the important points of the subject. They could have given the lesson in a more effective way, for instance, they might have added more activities into their lesson. In spite of the poor performed lessons, to become experienced in teaching is a good side of such a tryout instruction. Nevertheless I congratulate my colleagues because of their teaching performances.

Constructivism Learning Theory

Last week the topic we have covered is ''Constructivism'', one of the learning approaches. After doing a little research, I have found some basic assumptions and features of the constructivism learning theory which completely correspond with the class experiment. In the experiment. In the classroom activity, we were asked to search in the given topic by means of the web and then take note to highlight the key points and summary the topic, lastly we made a short presentation to explain our topics to each other. These activities reflect two of the key concepts of constructivism learning theory :
Assimilation; to learn by assimilating new idea to the experienced one.
Accomodation; to learn by constructing new structure and by reframing the expectations with the outcomes.
The other basic principles of the theory are : knowledge is consrtucted by learner, social learning is prefered, students are actively engaged in learning process-physically,mentally,verbally, motivation is a key component in learning, the more we know-the more we can learn and learning is contextual.
I have never experienced in this learning theory. When I was in highschool, traditional method is often used in  teaching process. Constructivism learning theory is very different approach toward traditional learning. Instead of telling, the teacher should begin asking, instead of answering questions, the teacher in this case must make the student comes to the conclusion on their own.
I have attached a video, which explains the theory in an effective manner,  I am sure you will enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa59prZC5gA

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE

It is the first time that I have experienced online instruction with a group of people, even for the multıple-chat. It is very interesting and I have noticed the benefits of the technology one more time. The subject of the instruction is Gardner's multıple intelligences test. First we have made the test and then we have seen our percentages of all types of intelligence in a line chart. According to the MI model of Gardner's, at least five types of intelligence should be embedded in the instruction, as these types may differ from person to person and also the learning process can be maintained effectively by referring to different types of  intelligence.

The learning hierarchy, which takes into account certain courses given in the school and ignores the others, is used in education system of all countries, so it disregards the significance of the MI. That is the authority doesn't pay enough attention to the students' ability in all fields of study. For example, math is one of the fields which is paid more attention than the music or sport. I have a story which is directly related with learning hierarchy. When I was in high school, even though I was very interested in English, I was forced to study only math as it is important for the University entrance exam. 

The director of the school constituted a special class by aiming to succeed at high success for the school. I was in that class and our class was given a special foreign language education-English. One day, our first class was math, but our English teacher came to the school with a native speaker on that day and wanted us to speaking practice with his guest in the first two class hours, as his guest needed to leave from the school after lunch time. Then, he asked for a request to take the first class hours from math teacher, but she didn't accept with the excuse that we hadn't need to English for University entrance exam, we needed to Math. After they debated on this issue, director of the school came and convinced Math. teacher, so it was a great experience for us in speaking practice.

THE WORKING PROCESS OF THE BRAIN

One of the major topics of Cognitivism, which is one of the approach of learning, is the working process of the brain. The computer model is considered as a key metaphor to explain this approach clearly. Basically, the working system of brain is very similar with the computer: input,links between the inputs and activation of the links. In order to maintain the learning process effectively, a teacher definently needs to know some essential stages in the working process of the brain such as sensation, perception, attention, encoding and memory. These are directly related with the gaining knowledge. Therefore,  it is urgently required to be aware of this subject while planning the instructional objectives and in particular materials.
Thanks to the course in which I have learnt ''Cognitivism Approach'' and the workshop I attented a few weeks ago, I had have a chance to see an importance of knowing the brain system for an instruction. This is one of the initials which I have encountered in my school life. Because the gaining knowledge requires to take  account all of brain functions, instruction should be given by focusing on at least five different intelligence types. To do this, the use of various instructional materials is necessary. However, in traditional learning method, which I experienced through my education life, always the same method and its principles were used for the instruction. Because of this, practical implications of cognitivism- in particular attention makes the information memorable-weren't took into consideration. I hadn't been taught by any different method apart from the memorization.
Education is not a subject to be taken lightly. So, it is necessary to use a variety of instructional mateials to able to storage of information in long term memory by means of konwing the working process of the brain and to change the point of views toward the education.

Reflection of ''Behaviourism''

In this week, the subject of the lecture is ''Behaviourism Approach to The Learning''. It has been instructed in an amusing way which includes both an instructional video-TED and an episode of one of the TV series. In contrast to the traditional way, teaching by this way makes the learning easy as it is observable. I had already learned and known this topic from the course which I took previously. However, I had difficulty in understanding, especially specific points of the topic such as unconditional-conditional responses and stimuluses. Since I always messed up differences between them, I had to make an effort  to able to figure out the subject. In addition, I confused with the mean of negative and positive reinforcements. Through the technique which was applied in the lecture, all these points were so clear that I had no problem in understanding as in the past. I don't think that I would have any problem with these points any more. As it can be understood from Behaviourism Approach, which focuses on observable learning events as demonstrated by stimulus and response relationship, learning always involves a change in behaviour, just like as in my behaviour toward this  subject.

There may be many teaching methods and techniques, but the most important point is to define and apply a suitable technique among them to the instruction. In order to teach effectively and accomplish the goal which is to make the students understand clearly, it is crucial to determine the right method in the right time.

Reflection of ''Instructional Objectives''

After we had covered this topic, I realized that one of the important points in preparing the subject for class is to determine instructional objectives. It can be said that planning instructional objectives is the corner stone of teaching action. The functions of the well-defined instructional goals and objectives can be seen after the class as they provide better instruction, more efficient learning results and student-oriented instruction. We had been taught these indications as a practical instruction. We were asked to determine instructional goals and objectives as an exercise. We were  seperated into the groups and each group presented their study. One of the group presented their study by performing in action. It was an amusing and an enjoyable performance. We all appreciated these performance. Moreover, the most important thing was that I observed and even experienced what makes the instruction better understandable and clear.