10/15/14 Blog

Andrew Hogan

10/15

Ch 7 Blog

One concept that was interesting in this weeks readings was the idea of organizing knowledge, particularly the ideas of schemas and scripts. A schema, as the text tells us, is what we know about a specific thing when we organize it, and a script is a series of events that we follow in order, such as the steps associated with cooking dinner. I began to wonder how intimately these two ideas are connected. For example, do we form scripts as to how we interpret schemas? For example, does the “walk like a duck, talk like a duck,” mantra act as a script as to how we identify a duck? The whole concept seemed a little confusing to me.

A concept from the readings that I think will help me in my career as a teacher is the concept of problem based activities. Problem based activities are geared at solving real world problems, and as a history and politics teacher I like the idea of placing students into real scenarios, or having them debate current topics, in order to get students to see the complexities on both sides of current issues.

This section delved into the thinking process of students, and I think it will help me in my 

teaching because it gives me the chance to adjust my lesson plans to keep them adaptive and 

engaging towards students, particularly ones who have become jaded with school or just 

history.