Chapter #2

Chapter two was very in-depth on many topics.  I found two sections to be the most prominent in the chapter.  First I though the three main styles of learning the book covered were very interesting.  Of the three I only found one to be truly effective, and that was Cognitive Experimentalism.  I thought Romanticism and Behaviorism both seemed outdated.  It surprised me that they were two of the three main teaching philosophies discussed despite being outdated.  I think this shows how many teachers still use these methods, despite research showing that students learn better with a method like Cognitive Experimentalism.  I am not saying teachers should forget about the methods mentioned in the other techniques, but they should only be used situationally.  I thought the pyramid that displayed the different types of activities and how students learn from them was very interesting.  Lecture was very low on the list, yet many teachers use that method often.

The second point I found interesting was the tips they gave on all the subtleties of the classroom.  The advice on field trips, bulletin boards, and everything else I thought was extremely useful to a new teacher.  I found it very helpful reading all of those tips.  As teachers sometimes it is easy to overlook all the planning that goes into everything we have to do, but all of those topics are things we have to consider.  I really liked this chapter and thought it was very helpful in terms of all the details of a classroom after chapter one covered the basics.