The Brain and Learning, Information Processing Theory, and Problem-Solving Methods During the Learning Process

For this week’s second assignment I read two very enlightening journal articles.

The first article is entitled "Cognitive Science and Teacher Education" by Carol A. Lyons and Marlin L. Languis. Unfortunately this article is a bit out dated but I still found it to be fairly informative. In the article the authors discuss methods of teaching perspective teacher to identify learning styles and patterns in order to better serve their future students. Lyons and Languis propose that undergraduate students in education programs follow a five step plan that would, ultimately, enable them to categorize their students learning patterns and customize a plan that suites them best.

The second article is entitled "An Investigation of Decision Making Styles and the Five-Factor Personality Traits With Respect ToAttachment Styles" by M.Engin Deniz. Unlike the previous article this one focuses more on the behavior of individuals as it relates to their decision making skills. Deniz investigates how we develop our identity, self-esteem, problem-solving skills and personality. There are four "attachment pattern" personality types that individual fall under. The four patterns are fearful, dismissing, preoccupied and secure; the secure personality being someone with high self-esteem and confidence in others, the fearful personality being someone at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. According to the author an individual’s self-confidence is closely related to his/her decision making skills and therefore individuals who display secure personality traits would be better at problem solving.

Helpful Instructional Design Blogs

http://www1.astd.org/Blog/

The above link is to the website for the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). This website is a great resource for someone who has interest in workplace development and training. This group was started in 1943 and is a great place to go for aspiring instructional designers.

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/

The above link is to the blog of Cathy Moore and the motto in her blog is "Let's save the world from boring elearning!" Cathy's blog focuses on the development of challenging and innovative eLearning materials.

http://theelearningcoach.com/

The above link is to a website where “the eLearning coach” Connie Malamed shares her experience as a consultant and former graduate student in instructional design.