Learning+Model+Article

The two models that I found most applicable to my learning and teaching experience were the Keller's ARCS model and the Cone of Experience model. Keller's ARCS outlines the most important elements of student/learner motivation. Keller begins with Attention. A teacher must be able to engage and maintain a learner's attention throughout their lesson presentation. It is inevitable that attention will wander at some points during the class period, but the sign of a good teacher is one who is attuned to what is going on in their class room and is able to adjust their teaching methods to re-engage the learners attention. One way to maintain attention is to demonstrate the Relevance of what the students are learning to their own futures. Students will be much more willing to sit and listen to a teacher present a lesson when they feel that the lesson will help them attain their life goals in some way. By telling students that the material covered in an English class for example, will be important to know for the WASL exam which they must pass in order to graduation from highschool, the students will be much more willing to pay attention because the outcome of the lesson directly effects them. Another point presented by Keller is Confidence. Students want to be confident in the material they are being taught. When a student is confident, they are much more willing to speak up in class discussion and help ofther students who may not understand the material as well as they do. A confident student will do better on their grades and is much more eager to learn more of the material. Satisfaction is also key, according to Keller. With satisfaction a student knows that they have preformed to the best of their abilities and they know that the teacher and maybe their parents are proud of their achievements. A satisfied student will pay better attention in class and will respond to questions presented with thoughtful answers. So by combining Kellers four elements: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction we can achieve learner motivation. The second model that I found helpful was the Cone of Experience model. In this model, Dale outlines how students learn and how they best retain information. Only 5% of the material presented in lecture format is retained according to this model, so teachers should create their lesson plans with this in mind. It is not effective to lecture to the students for the entire class period, they will not retain very much information and your classroom will not achieve the high standards that it could. Reading only has a 10% retention rate for the students. This is better than straight lecture, and reading is necessary in the classroom, but could be combined with other activities in order to raise the information retention rate. Audio-visual has a 20% retention rate, so by combining a powerpoint presentation with vidoes, sound effects, soundtracks, etc, the students will retain more information and your lesson will be much more of a success. Demonstration pulls in about a 30% retention rate, so having students demonstrate what they have learned by incorporating a student created skit, video, song, poem, or other material gives them the oportunity to show what they know and have fun doing it. This combination of demonstration and audio-visual can dramatically increase the retention rate of the students. Splitting students into discussion groups is also extremely helpful in raising the retention rate up to 50%. By giving students a chance to voice their own opinions and beliefs about a text or lesson, they are given ownership and therefor remember more of the information. Practive by doing also can relate to the demonstration aspect of learning and increases the students ability to remember the information by 75%. Teaching others is the only method that scores higher with an 80% retention rate. By combining any of these methods, teachers can increase their students ability to remember the information that was presented to them and enable them to succeed in the classroom.