kim woods only Brain-Based Innovative Teaching and Learning Strategies

Guided Response: Review at least two of your classmates’ posts and evaluate the strategies they suggested.  Ask your classmates to clarify any confusing elements of their posting and point out any strategies you feel are weak.  Extend their thinking by making a suggestion for another strategy or how they can make their strategy stronger. Also, comment on their personal experience with mistake fear and explain how it might be similar/dissimilar to your experience.

Brain-Based Innovative Teaching and Learning

Danielle Kaiser

I experienced “mistake fear” pretty much all through my education.  A time that really sticks out in my mind was when I was in high school.  I was in my drama class, which took place in a small auditorium with a stage and the audience faced the stage.  It was probably the first week of the class and I had to take a quote and interpret it, by acting, in front of the class on stage alone.  I didn’t really know anyone yet and I had no idea what acting was all about.  I remember sitting in the audience with 20 or so students watching other students go up and do their interpretation of their quote and I felt sick to my stomach with fear.  My palms were sweaty and I couldn’t think straight.  My name was called to go up, I staggered up onto the stage and saw everyone staring at me.  I did my best and acted out a quick interpretation of my quote.  After I had to stand there alone while the teacher and other students gave me feedback on how to improve my act for when I had to do it again.  I have no idea now what my quote was or what anyone else acted out.  This was a horrible experience, I hated the class and was freaked out from that day forward to go up on stage.

I think allowing students to practice answers before reciting them in front of the class is a way to help them feel confident, or practice with a partner or small group.  A student should not feel scared in the classroom; we want them to feel safe.  I think using wrong answers to explain right answers is also a way to help the class learn why right answers are right while creating a positive example.  Students can learn from wrong answers and it can show all students how to build a right answer from a wrong one.  I also think talking about how wrong answers are not always wrong, they just might not be right in that particular situation.  Showing students that teachers make mistakes too, shows students that we are all human and no one is right all the time and that is okay.

Elsie Goycoolea

There has been wide spread debate over whether active participation in the class should be part of a student’s grading system. The requisite to participate in class may actually prompt students to ask questions without necessarily wanting an answer and can make other students anxious by feeling the pressure of speaking in class.

In class I never had the urge to ask questions and it wasn’t necessarily because I feared making a mistake but I still struggled to engage in related activities. I remember one time where as soon as we sat down in class our marketing teacher told us that we would be participating in an improvised exercise to improve our selling skills.  She had written down a number of random objects in a bag. One by one we would have to step up in front of the class, take a piece of paper and try to sell that object to the class.

I immediately started to tense up and become worried. I am not a strong talker nor I think I am good at selling. After a few students it was my turn. I had to sell a simple white eraser.

My fears mounted up on not knowing what the object would be, how would I sell it and what responses my peers and instructor would give to me. I was initially comparing my pitch to that of my peers.

Know I recognize that this wasn’t a competition and that the teacher wasn’t looking for a perfect pitch but it was intended to help us individually at whatever stage we were at that point in our growth. Willis and Mitchell (2014) state, “When students are able to recognize progress as a result of their incremental efforts along the route toward a final goal, they will increase their resistance to amygdala-blocking stressors, such as participation and mistake fear”. My goal for taking that class was to improve my selling skills rather than become a prized saleswoman.

Reducing fears and threats in the classroom not only comprehends establishing a safe community where students feel welcomed but also focus on addressing learning as an individual quest.

Notwithstanding, I think that the teacher could have planned better for the class by letting us know beforehand what we would be doing that day. Willis and Mitchell (2014) state, “Students who need more confidence or more activation of their prior knowledge to avoid the stress state when new information is introduced benefit from previewing or priming of the lesson in advance”. For this reason, I am attracted to online classes where I am able to get a feel for the course right from the start.

References

Willis, J., & Mitchell, G. (2014). The neuroscience of learning: Principles and applications for educators. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.