Theoretical Foundations

Theoretical Foundations

            While in High School, I volunteered in the Autism Unit for two years and there I decided to become an Intervention Specialist because of their teacher, Jill Radler.  She believed each one of her students think and learn in different a way.  She used cognitivist perspective theory, which creates systematic design to address student’s needs and individualize instructional events.  Since her students are special needs, she needs to teach them at certain levels and at a level they can be taught.  When we were teaching the students a history lesson, one student had to be taught with pictures and needed help cutting and pasting them.  Another student could do the project on her own, but she needed someone to tell her how to do it.  Each student is in the same grade level, but they each need to be taught in a different way and the cognitivist theory is the best use for this classroom.  I will use this theory in my classroom because I believe every student has a different way of learning and we need to teach them in a way that they can understand the material.  Cognitivist’s such as Jerome Bruner and David Ausubel, believed this was the best method because it refers to how one thinks and their patterns of thinking.  This is a good way of teaching special needs children because their level of thinking is so much different from other children.