The Importance of Different Opinions in Learning

As an aspiring high school science and math teacher, I want to understand how students can learn in the best ways possible. The use of positive and negative reinforcements may bolster the students' desire to learn more effectively because of incentives. By knowing two types of learning, latent learning and observational learning, I will recognize that one one style of teaching is not enough, so I will also consider other externalities that can influence the way students learn. Students deserve to be taught with purpose and good intentions from good, down-to-earth role models. These two types of learning will help me understand how students learn and give them incentives to put forth effort.

Latent learning is a motivational type of learning in which people strive for desirable outcomes when there are incentives available to them. For instance, students may learn the materials, but they do not usually demonstrate what they had learned "until reinforcement for demonstration such as a good grade is rewarded" (Griggs, 2012, p. 160) which is crucial for me to apply in my future career as an educator. In another case, college students may start to study and take school more seriously after they fail a lot of exams and are put on academic probation. As an aspiring educator, I want to encourage my students to study by offering them generous extra credit homework assignments as positive reinforcements, and by using real life applications that may intrigue students to learn more about the subject in greater depths. At the end of the day, my goal is to encourage students to have the mentality that what I teach has far more real-life applications than just a homework assignment or tests; latent learning is effective when there are reinforcements.

In observational learning, students learn by observing others and imitating behaviors of others, particularly of their role models. According to recent research by Giacomo Rizzolatti (1990), mirror neurons provide neural basis for people to learn through observations, allowing them to perform actions that they have observed (American Psychological Association). By taking advantage of this biological component in our neural system, I strive to be like my mother, a former primary school teach in South Korea, who used her talents in voluntarily teaching math to students who lived in public housing units in California. I observed my mother, all my life, making math really fun and easy to learn; therefore I mirror her enthusiasm of teaching other people. I am demonstrating observational learning of my mother by aspiring to be a teacher like her. With this contribution, I want to turn people's lives around by becoming an educator with a knowledge in pharmaceutics, so other students may model the efforts that I went through. Observational learning, however, can also be exhibited in a negative way as shown by Albert Bandura's Bobo Doll experiment in that "children exposed to the aggressive model acted more aggressively toward the doll than children with no model" which shows that a bad role model can be detrimental to how students may behave in this manner (Griggs, 2012, p. 160-161). Because of the phenomenon of observation learning, having good role models, especially in schools, is beneficial for students.

By understanding both latent and observational learning as an aspiring teacher, I can become a successful educator. Without these understanding, there is no way that I can positively influence students. Latent learning is effective in that students study with a particular goal because they need incentives to know why they need to study in the first place. Also, students are also observational learners to their role models, so I need to be an great role model in which they can take after my good traits.