"Mental Representations " and "Schemas."

As a teacher, I have to learn to adapt to a classroom culture. The classroom is a culture in itself. I myself am a teaching tool to my students. Repetitious learning is a practice that each student faced daily in the classroom from the time they begin a school environment. Behaviors such as basic reflexes, students are aware that these behaviors have to be developed and worked on in order to accept new knowledge, of what is being taught to them. The other two stages I am about to discuss about are mainly used at an elementary level and they are the Preoperational Period and the Concrete Operational Period. In the stage of Preoperational Period, students are much more aware of their surroundings to symbolize objects with mental images. For example, if a child/student is given two objects, both look identical with the same size and shape and one of those object shape changes to another, the child/student will say that the object whose shape changes is no longer the same size. This just shows that the child/student haven’t relate to reasoning to what is real. Unlike the Preoperational Period, the Concrete Operational Period, a child/student is able to deal with what is real. Such as the example given earlier about the object with same size and shape, in this stage they are able to apply reasoning. As a teacher in training, I will be face with students who might interpret mental images, according to their cultures. Like I said before, I myself is a teaching tool, I will have to model certain behaviors to my students, who in turn will have to predict from my actions, by implementing their beliefs, values, and attitudes and allow transformation from my model behavior. Facing diversity in the classroom, I will have to allow my students to adapt to schemes which mold their beliefs to accepting knowledge and process it. Some cultures raise a child differently from the time they are out of the womb to an adolescent on their values and beliefs. In the classroom their mental images, which was taught to them can be conflicting, because they have to take what was taught to them and model to their own beliefs and values. I hope as a teacher, with my experiences, I will be able to represent models that will not block my students from transforming to learning new ideas and concepts of a classroom culture.