Amanda Baker is motivated by motivation.
The new assistant professor in mastering sciences and educational psychology in Iowa State University’s School of Education studies how pupils embark on practices that challenge the way they think. Her research in motivation adds insight on the differing degrees of engagement among today’s students.
“Teachers’ success in making use of cooperative and active learning strategies often relies on students’ willingness to get,” Baker said.
Marlene Strathe, School of Education director, said Baker’s expertise gives future teachers an important grounding in how engaged learning consist of shared experiences.
“The theoretical interests driving Baker’s current work add some construction of information along at the societal level, cooperative learning, and learning through experience and reflection,” she said. “Her expertise provides teacher candidates having a rich foundation assembling upon throughout their programs of study.”
Knowledge is power
While earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology in the Pitt University, Baker realized she were going to target work that tackles real-world issues and students’ transformative experiences. That desire fueled her interests when she began her graduate studies.
“My question visiting graduate school was, ‘How do beliefs, values, socialization, and social interactions inside the classroom impact who we’ve been and our experiences?'” she said.
Baker’s doctoral dissertation delved into students’ beliefs about knowledge and ways in which those beliefs relate to their engagement in classroom settings. She said seeing knowledge as concrete or flexible shapes a student’s view on education.
“When you’re teaching, you need to think not only about how you will learned, wait, how your students learn,” she said. “It’s somewhat of a mental leap, so in my courses I aim to challenge the manner in which students think and the assumptions that they can hold.”
Education that evolves
As Baker challenges these assumptions, she’s careful to frame her questions in positive ways and use what her numerous studies have taught her.
“I see psychology additionally, the study of motivation inside learning sciences to be able to assist us to understand behaviors or patterns of engagement to help make education more accessible,” she said. “Can we know why some students engage and the like don’t? Might it be something during the immediate environment that may change, or is there an intervention that produce it better? Can it be a design of socialization, the location where the student is resulting along with specific beliefs or values which are not conducive to getting yourself into this environment?”
Baker declared as she tackles these questions, reason and evidence stand in the centre of her research.
“The nature of education along with its role in society is beginning to change,” she said. “We need website visitors to use reason and evidence to tackle the massive problems we’re facing. We want individuals who can take part in difficult conversations. That forces us, then, to inquire the way we prepare students in time.”
A look at application
In a 2017 study published inside the journal “Contemporary Educational Psychology,” Baker found that students were most engaged in cooperative activities when teachers used ways to declare that students had power over their discussion. She said it is very important that students understand it’s OK to talk with each other, and not just talk with their teacher.
“It’s important to understand that students speaking to their peers exposes these phones new perspectives in a manner that could be a little more safe than when a teacher is challenging thats a student thinks,” Baker said.
Baker works on the variety of examples to support students move beyond their prior experiences. Examples include her own experiences with elementary and secondary students in tutoring and volunteering roles, and examples borrowed from other educators. Different examples help students see learning is complex and challenging.
“We ought to teach in many ways that’s meaningful, and that communicates to students that they can think critically or may use the feeling they’re getting in their classes to behave meaningful,” Baker said.
Iowa State gives future teachers early examples to shape their learning, Baker said.
“At Iowa State, pre-service teachers are inspired to enter into classrooms early to,” she said. “It provides them with so many more examples to work with. It helps them go into the state of mind when you consider such as a teacher.”
