1) Identify a specific learning goal and how you would incorporate two learning theories highlighted in Chapter 4 to achieve this goal.

Goal:
Students will learn about the custom of "Running of the Bulls" in Spain - what is it, how it started, why it is significant in the culture, what is there that is comparative in the culture of the United States

Information processing:
    The students will be provided with a brief description of "Running of the Bulls", then will do their own research to further their understanding of the subject. In doing their research, the students will be expected to process the information into their own words to demonstrate that they are not simply regurgitating what they have read in their research.

Constructivism:
    Once the students have completed and synthesized their research on "Running of the Bulls," they will use their prior knowledge of festivals, holidays and customs along with what they learned about this custom to develop their understanding of the meanings and importance of this Spanish custom, and to demonstrate their conclusions by comparing this custom to a practice in the United States that shows similar purposes, practices, and/or history.


2) Find a reference (other than the book) that describes Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. Then create a table or chart that compares and contrasts those events with the first principles described in chapter 7 and describe how you would apply each of the first principles to the goal you've developed from the first activity in this reflection.
Reference:
    http://ide.ed.psu.edu/idde/9events.htm

3) Develop a new goal or using the one you've already developed, briefly describe how you might use the whole-task approach, scaffolding, and mathemagenic methods to help students learn to perform a task.
Goal:
To be able to communicate effectively in Spanish, at a basic survival level.

This goal is the ultimate end of a beginning Spanish class. Traditionally, we would focus on vocabulary and verb conjugations, working our way up to basic sentence structure, primarily in the present tense. But, in a scaffolding/holistic design approach, it would make more sense to focus on practicing reading, speaking and listening skills with semi-random vocabulary and topics. This goal would best be attained by starting with simple dialogues and discussions that require minimal input from the learners and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks which the learners must perform in order to create the transfer of skills from one medium (listening) to another (speaking).

4) You have been hired to design a course for a topic in your area of specialization. Using Table 9.2 as a template, what would you incorporate into each subcategory to motivate learners?
Attention    Perceptual Arousal: I have several friends who are non-native speakers of Spanish who have offered several times to allow me to use videos of them to help my students learn Spanish. I could use some of their videos of themselves in authentic situations to get students excited about the possibility of making actual use of the language they are learning.

    Inquiry Arousal: I would allow the students to choose some of the topics of discussion, thereby making the topics more interesting to them. This is a technique I currently use, to some degree, in designing my lessons.

    Variability: In addition to using authentic videos and topics of student interest, I would also bring in experts in the topic of current discussion who can maintain a basic level of discussion of the topic in Spanish. Also, there are areas of research and discussion that would interest most students by their very nature of being out-of-the-ordinary to our students.


Relevance    Goal Orientation: These students need to be able to communicate for the purposes of future jobs and travel to areas where Spanish is the native language. So, we will focus the majority of our discussions/projects around those two purposes, with some casual chat units.

    Motive Matching: The entire course is about making choices: which words/phrases to use, who to speak to, when to speak and when to listen. The students need to start making these choices from the beginning and increasing their frequency of responsibility for their choices more as the course progresses.

    Familiartiy: Using reflection and videos of experiences from around our area, we will see just how commonly they could be using Spanish to either communicate or to understand those around them.

Confidence    Learning Requirements: As students become more and more familiar with speaking in Spanish, we will increase the frequency of and percentage of Spanish communication. By the end of the first-year course, the students and I will be communicating at least 90% of the time in Spanish.

    Success Opportunities: The more the students use their language skills in class, the more often they will find opportunities to use them outside of class. As they increase their use of their new language they will also increase the frequency of successful use of the language. The more successes they experience, the more their confidence will build.

    Personal Control: All students will be expected to seek opportunities to practice their language acquisition outside of the classroom and school. As they do so, they will realize that they are the ones who are growing in their abilities and that it is their own efforts which are producing that growth.

Satisfaction    Intrinsic Reinforcement: Guest speakers/lecturers who speak Spanish to the students and hold conversations with them in Spanish, as well as outside opportunities to put their skills to use will motivate students to want to continue their growth and development.

    Extrinsic Reinforcement: Besides grades, there will be opportunities for the top performing students to take field trips to multi-cultural festivals and restaurants where they will not only be able to enjoy themselves, but also will have further opportunities to further expand their language skills.

    Equity: Because speakers of Spanish are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about non-natives attempting to learn and speak their language, it will be easy to help the students foster a positive attitude about their learning. Every speaker who visits and every guest who sits in on the class will automatically want to praise the students for their efforts and their achievements.


5) Finally, after completing these activities, discuss the benefits of engaging in design research.
    In engaging in research on education design, we expand our understanding of not only the ideas and beliefs of those who have come before us, but also how people learn and what we still have to learn about education, learning and the process of designing instruction and learning programs. The more we learn about how we learn and how we can best teach, the better we will get at our jobs/professions.