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Brittany Reece
Foundations of Learning
Lauren Barth-Cohen
12.06.2019
Personal Theory of Learning
Helping students learn can be a challenge. Helping students between the ages 15-18 years

old, learn and study religious concepts creates a new set of problems. As an Instructor in the

Seminary and Institute program, I am constantly looking of new ways to help my students learn.

In order to receive credit for taking Seminary, students must read the book of scripture we are

studying that year in Seminary. This is one of the biggest areas we see students lose credit.

Initial Learning Theory

For this project, I have developed a learning theory to help motivate students have greater

participation in studying their scriptures outside of class. I believe this can be done by helping

students increase in their study skills, behavior toward the scriptures, and in their understanding

of the scriptures.

Beginning with inputs, the group of students I will be working with have prior knowledge

of the scriptures. Many have been taught in their families about the importance of the scriptures

and are familiar with many of the stories and the difference books. Some already have skills in

annotating the verses and can explain why the scriptures are relevant to their life.

The means to helps students to increase study skills, understanding, and their behavior to

the scriptures will be done through instruction. Beginning in the classroom, I will be focusing on

how to help students better understand what is being said and how they can personally study the

scriptures. For students to desire to personally study from the scriptures, they first must

understand and see the relevance of the scriptures. There are multiple ways this will be done.
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First, students will be shown throughout classes that the scriptures can answer their questions.

Students will also be given self-discovery time to seek for their own answers in the scriptures.

This also includes a lesson on how to use the scripture tools already in their books to help them

find these answers. Another process to help students with their personal scripture study is to help

them learn how to study. Each day in class, I will introduce a new study tool and will model

throughout the lesson how the students can use it in their study. They will also be given time to

practice the skill in class and invitations to do it on their own. Students will also be accountable

for marking their daily reading. This will include reminders each day to mark their reading as

well as check ins to see how they are doing. Throughout the instruction, I will also be taking time

to meet with students individually and ask how their studying is going and what will help them

to improve.

Analysis of Theory

To begin, I wanted to first understand what motivates my students to attend seminary and

second to see how they were already doing with their scripture study. I wanted to see what

correlation I would find between the two. I believe that if students have the right motivation and

understand the importance of the scriptures in their own lives, they will have the desire to read

them more. Then to keep that desire growing and deepening, as their teacher, I need to continue

to give them the right tools that will help them understand the scriptures. Specific factors that

have guided me in forming this theory come from many of the trainings I have been in. We

practice as teachers how we can help all students find relevance in what we are studying to their

life and we practice teaching methods that help to engage and help the students understand better

gospel related subjects. Another factor that has influenced me is having worked with students
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before on this same subject. I have already tried different things to help them. Some have worked

and others have completely failed. I have formed this theory based off of those prior experiences

I began to design instruction around these two topics. My students need to know first the

‘what’ behind studying the scriptures. The ‘what’ meaning the importance of them and see the

relevance in their own life. I decide to plan a lesson that would help students learn these two

things. I started with an analogy. I held up an orange and asked who liked oranges. I then picked

a student and had them come to the front. I gave them the orange and told them to go ahead and

eat it. When they went to peel it, I stopped them and said, “Don’t peel it! Just eat it.” When they

hesitated, I asked why they didn’t want to just eat it. “Because the peel is gross!” Then I asked

them to demonstrate the steps to eat an orange. First peel it to get to the fruit, take apart the fruit,

and then eat. Then I related the 3 steps of eating an orange to how to study the scriptures. First

the peel. If the peel is gross, why is it even on the fruit? To protect the fruit. The first step to

studying the scriptures is to find the context and content around the ‘fruit’ of the scriptures. This

is the background information and content. I then demonstrated how to find it, and then I let

them practice. Next is to take apart the fruit. The fruit of the scriptures are principles and

doctrines. Principles are often found in cause and effect statements, If I do this, this will happen.

Doctrine is stated truth. I then demonstrated how to find principles and doctrines and then I let

them practice. The last step is eating the fruit. I related this to applying what we learn in the

scriptures. I again demonstrated how I could apply the principle or doctrine I found in the

scriptures and then I let them practice doing the same thing.

The next part of the lesson was for them to take a block of scripture and to go find the 3

parts. Each student drew 3 columns in their study journal and labeled them Context and Content,

Principles and Doctrines, and Application. I had them go back through the same process we had
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done as a class and see what they could learn and fill in their columns. I walked around the room

and helped those who struggled. After they were done, I had a few report to the class what

principle or doctrine they found and how it can apply to their life today.

After the lesson was over, I asked student to explain what they thought the difference

between reading the scriptures and studying them is. Here are some of their responses. Student 1:

“Reading = nothing out of it. Studying = search for guidance.”, Student 2: “Reading: following

along with the words. Studying: understanding and pondering the words.”, Student 3: “Studying

is to comprehend and learn from what you are reading.”, Student 4: “Studying is understanding

what you read.”, “ When you study, you ponder and apply.” From those specific students, I

asked them from 1-100% how well do you feel like you comprehend what you are studying.

Student 1: 100%, Student 2: 85%, Student 4: 80% Student 5: 90%. At the end, I had each student

set a goal for how they could do these same study steps at home. Many set a reminder in their

phones, others wrote a reminder note, and some took a picture of their columns or the orange.

Another teaching opportunity I did was to help my students see the relevance of the

scriptures to their life. Using the Poll Everywhere online application, I had each student text in a

question they had about life, the Gospel, or the scriptures. Then I showed them tools that are

available to them when looking for answers to their questions. Then we practiced. As a class we

would pick one question and they would work in teams to find different resources that would

help answer the question. I gave them 3 minutes and then invited anyone to share what they

found. After we had discussed and answered the question, I then gave them personal study time

to go find answers to their questions.

To continue to help students use these tools, each day I focused on teaching another tool

they could use. I would build my lesson plan around it and help them learn how to find
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definitions, how to annotate, find and use different resources, and so on. Each day these tools

built upon the last one. I began to see students going to these resources on their own when they

didn’t understand something. Other times, when a student had a question, I would ask them what

tool they could use to find the answer to their question. Then as a class, we would go through

and help them find the answer.

As part of the routine to begin class, I ask each student to fill out their Reading Tracking

Sheet. I also ask them to check with their partner to see if they filled theirs out. Daily reminders

to do this help students to track and see how they are doing and then we set goals for how we can

do better and be more consistent.

Data Collection Methods

For my data collection, I had 3 check ins with the students. The first was to gage the

baseline for where my students were already at in their scripture study. I asked 2 questions. First

was to know why they are taking seminary. The second question was how much they already

read their scriptures in a typical week. My second check in was to see what how students went

about studying the scriptures and their level of confidence in doing so. The questions I asked

were, 1. How long is your typical scripture study? 2. What reminds you to study your scriptures

each day? 3. On average, how many days do you read a week? 4. In one sentence, what is the

difference between reading and studying the scriptures, 5. On a scale from 0-100% how well do

you comprehend the scriptures? 6. What motivates you to study the scriptures? The last check in

was similar to the first one. I asked where they were currently reading at and how often they

were reading a week. To collect the actual data, I created a PowerPoint slide that contained the

questions I wanted them to answer. I then gave out 3x5 note cards and had them fill out their

answers. This way I was able to get a lot of data from all different types of students.
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Description of Participants

Average Weekly Scripture Reading

60

50

40

30

20

10

The group of students I worked with are high school students between the ages of 15-18

from the Herriman and Riverton area. There were 144 participants. I asked each student to filled

out a pre-assessment answering questions focusing on what their motivation is to read and how

their scripture study was already going. The pre-assessment helped me to first understand why

each student is taking Seminary. Responses ranged from wanting to graduate from Seminary,

parents made them, know that it is good for them, it helps them have a better day, and wanting to

learn more about the scriptures. The second part helped me to see a baseline for how they were

already doing. The following chart shows the results. I was surprised to see many were already

striving for daily scripture reading. Seeing this helped me to change my initial theory to continue

to help motivate those who were already working at daily reading the scriptures. This wasn’t a

simple behaviorist idea of read your scriptures and receive credit. I want my students to go

deeper. Instead of just reading the scriptures, I wanted to start teaching them to study the

scriptures. I believe in any learning all learners must learn how to study. This is where I began

my instruction.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Days
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Description of Analysis

Comparing Pre instruction and Post instruction Results

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Pre Column1

After all the instruction and reminders, the following table shows the results. As I have

gone through the different results and looked to see what students improved, it is interesting to

me to see some who were low to begin improved, but the opposite also happened. Those who

had been reading consistently went down. I think there are many factors that have made these

results. First, the time of year the Pre-assessment was given was at the beginning of the school

year when students are still excited about learning and don’t feel the stress of the school year yet.

The Post-assessment was given a week before Thanksgiving Break. The weather was getting

colder and the students were under a lot more stress with their different classes. I also don’t feel

like these results really show much change. I believe a more accurate reading to see if the

classroom instruction is working or not would be to continue throughout the semester and to

have more check ins. This would help to see the shift of individual students better.
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The positive results I did see where more students to be around the 4-7 days a week.

From the Pre-assessment, 108 students averaged 4-7 days a week. In the Post-assessment, 114

students averaged 4-7 days a week. Also there were less students from the 0-3 days a week.

From the Pre-assessment 36 and from Post-assessment 30. There was a slight improvement. I

also was able to see more students understand and use different tools to increase their knowledge

of the scriptures and subjects taught.

Some differences from my initial learning theory was the shift from 48 students reading

everyday to 41. Even though that isn’t a huge shift, I had thought more would have developed

the habit and study more.

Comparing Theories

There are many different theories I built my instruction on. To begin, Behaviorism. Even

though I don’t agree with many aspects of Behaviorism, when I need fast results, it works.

Starting with the 3 check ins, I recorder their initial response to reading the scriptures. From the

reading in chapter 3, I wanted to help the students strengthen their response to reading their

scriptures each day. To help them strengthen it, I used the law of use and disuse. Each student set

reminders, either and alarm on their phone or a sticky note they could place somewhere they

would see it. The hope was that as they were stimulated by the reminder, they would begin to

build a routine. Other points I used with Behaviorism was reinforcement. Part of my check ins

with students was to see how they were doing and then to reinforce good behavior and to help

them correct others. One aspect of Behaviorism that I didn’t do was rewards. I have tried in the

past to give rewards to those who actively work at reading. The result being that the same

students do it and the others don’t.

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The next theory I built on was Cognitive Information Processing. Helping students learn

to successfully study the scriptures and to find doctrines and principles helped them process the

information that was taught in the scripture block. Also, with each lesson, I try to bring in

sensory memory to help it be more meaningful and relevant. After we have found and

understood the Doctrines and Principles, I ask how they have already seen the consequences that

come from doing it. These are building upon prior experiences.

Using Bandura’s scaffolding principles, students were given time to practice different

study habits. I used this when doing the orange study lesson. When I first showed them and then

let them practice, I had a lot of scaffolding for them to follow. But as they got better and more

comfortable with the concepts, I was able to use specific words and they would be able to

preform the task. This also show the automaticity of these task becoming habits. Also showing

students other resources to help answer questions gave more scaffolding. Tying in with that is

Bruners’ learning by discovery. Having the students ask questions and then going into the

resources to find answers helped them to discover the answers and hopefully build a pattern to

help them throughout their lives find answers. There is also an aspect to constructivism to this as

well.

Metacognition also played a role in helping students think about how they study. When I

asked them what it means to study, they had to think about how they have practiced thinking

about the scriptures. Through the instruction, I wanted to help them have a clearer understanding

of how to study. By training them and asking questions about what different verses mean, they

developed better study skills. Also we worked on making specific goals by defining the task as

studying the scriptures, having the goal of doing it daily, and making study plans, including

where they would study at, when they would study each day, and what they would be studying.
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Another influencer to my learning theory was Dweak. Motivation played a big role in

helping students. At the check ins, I practiced giving the right kind of praise to students. I wanted

to encourage them to keep going in studying. Another aspect was moving more students from

being extrinsically motivated to intrinsically motivated. Many students said they were taking

seminary because their parents had made them or because they knew they should or they wanted

to graduate. I wanted to help them to change from this motivation to seeing how the scriptures

can influence their lives.

One other theory I focused on was Constructivist. As we discussed abstract concepts, I

wanted the students to construct what that would mean for them. I asked questions like, ‘how do

Herriman high school students do this today?’ or ‘Who do you know who…’ Also working with

students who struggled finding all the pieces to studying the scriptures, I would give them

enough help that they would be able to find the next piece and be successful. This also went with

Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Some students need more help then others.

Some theories that didn’t work with my learning theory was Lave’s apprenticeship and

the full Zone of Proximal Development. With apprenticeship, in the setting we were in, there

wasn’t an environment of learning from one person. I wanted to teach different methods and not

just one because there are so many that work. Also, I have mixed classroom ages from 15-18.

Working with students in specific zones, doesn’t work either. There are moments that I can

accommodate specific students, but often in these settings, you teach to the middle group.

Conclusion

Through this project, I have learned that this must be a consistent effort that both

stimulates the students and builds relevance. As students better comprehend and feel the

importance of the scriptures, they are able to have a more meaningful study of them. Moving
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forward, I want to continue to have check ins. I want to also have different types of check ins so

that I am able to get different types of data from them. I want to see if this will help those who

slip throughout the semester and also to see if this would help those who are struggling. Another

question I want to investigate is how scaffolding I could remove and see if my classes as a whole

can continue to build and learn. I don’t believe there will ever be a perfect learning theory that

would cause each student to read 7 days a week and to perfectly understand it, but I believe as a

teacher if I continue to help them through these different ways, that improvements will be made.