Module 6: Reflection

The readings and videos on social learning theory and self-efficacy were interesting and inspiring.  I had mixed emotions throughout the readings, at times I was agree, happy, sad, and inspired.  Once again I saw William James throughout this Module.  He said, “I cannot but think that to apperceive your pupil as a little sensitive, impulsive, associative, and reactive organism, partly fated and partly free, will lead to a better intelligence of all his ways. Understand him, then, as such a subtle little piece of machinery. And if, in addition, you can also see him sub specie boni, and love him as well, you will be in the best possible position for becoming perfect teachers” (James, 1899, p. 95). 

In the article Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck she talks about the fixed-mindset and the growth-mindset.  She discusses what makes good teachers, coaches, and parents.  Throughout the article she gave wonderful examples and I could see those different examples in my life.  She is right when she says, “The great teachers believe in the growth of the intellect and talent, and they are fascinated with the process of learning” (Dweck, 2006, p. 188).  She talks about how great teachers and parents should set high standards, a nurturing atmosphere, and challenge their children to work hard.  It was the same for coaches and their players but she said the difference was their successes and failures are played out in front of crowds, published in the newspapers, and written into the record books.  As I read this article I looked back on the teachers I had and how my parent raised me.  Carol Dweck is right.  The teachers that were/are my favorite (some weren’t at the time) were the teachers that set high standards, had a nurturing atmosphere, and challenged me to work hard.  My parents did the same.   I loved what she said at the end of the article “As parents, teachers, and coaches, we are entrusted with people’s lives.  They are our responsibility and our legacy.  We now know that the growth mindset has a key role to play in helping us fulfill our mission and in helping them fulfill their potential” (Dweck, 2006, p. 204) 

Frank Pajares discusses how important it is for children to believe in themselves and gives teachers and parent’s examples of how they can help children believe.  Pajares himself relates what he is talking about to William James throughout the chapter called Self-Efficacy Beliefs During Adolescence:  Implications for Teachers and Parents.  As I read this chapter I discovered that I do a pretty good job helping the children I am around believe in themselves.  However, I also discovered there are several things I do that could actually be hindering them.  Pajares says, “When a young person encounters difficulty in an academic area or task in which a parent also encountered difficulty as a student, a loving parent will often attempt to soothe the child’s frustration with well-meaning statements such as, “Don’t feel bad. This runs in the family. I couldn’t spell to save my life.” Keep in mind that the message the youngster hears is that it is perfectly fine, even admirable, to be incompetent in spelling because the parent was. Too often, they may come to take pride in that incompetence and cease their efforts to improve. Parents must understand that if they were terrible spellers and their child is having difficulty with spelling, they must not commiserate. Instead, parents should challenge their child to improve her own spelling so that she can teach them a thing or two about spelling” (Pajares, 2006, p. 351).  I have found myself, on occasion, say to my niece “That’s ok I wasn’t able to do that at your age either.”  I didn’t realize that what I was doing could actually be worse than trying to make her feel better.  I am going to make a more conscious effort to stay clear of the warnings Pajares gives in this chapter.

Malcolm Gladwell explains the importance of hard work and attitude when it comes to success.  He also talks about how people do not have gifts they are given gifts.  He believes that circumstances and opportunities also play a role in an individual’s success. Gladwell states, “We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth…The world could be so much richer than the world we have settled for” (Gladwell, 2008, p. 268).  Why are we?  Can it be changed?

This was a great way to end the class!!  I truly enjoyed this Module and the information I received.  I plan to use it in the future not only for my children but the children I encounter.  I want the richer world Gladwell talks about in Outliers, which I plan to buy over the holidays. 

Thank you, to everyone for making my life richer!!!

References

Bandura, A. (2011). But what about that gigantic elephant in the room? In R. Arkin (Ed.), Most unappreciated : 50 prominent social psychologists talk about hidden gems (pp. 51-59). Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset:  The new psychology of success. NY: Random House.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers:  The story of success. NY: Little, Brown and Company.

KET Videos. Great conversations:  Malcolm Gladwell. Interviewed February 15, 2009 by Daniel Pink. Retrieved from http://video.ket.org/video/1287433272

Pajares, F. (2005). Self-efficacy beliefs during adolescence:  Implications for teachers and parents. In F. Pajares & T. Urdan (Eds.), Adolescence and education, Vol. 5: Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 339-367). Greenwich, CT:  Information Age Publishing.

YouTube. (2010). Dr. Dweck on the mindsets of successful people. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=4byN4kGVy8E

You Tube. (2010). Carol Dweck:  Discovering the importance of mindset. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2jDVd-nCEYc

Module 5: Reflection

At the start of this module I felt I had a very good understand of metacognition, problem solving, self-regulation, and multitasking.  However, it wasn’t as good as I thought.  All of the material provided some interesting insight into things I didn’t know about these four components.  Each of these components plays a role in the learning process.

Metacogition is a person’s knowledge of his or her own thinking processes and strategies.  Noddings states, “Possibly no goal of education is more important or more neglected than self-understanding…In an important sense, this entire book is about self-understanding and an examination of how external and internal forces affect out lives.  We need to ask not only what we believe but why we believe it” (Noddings, 2006, p.10).  He also states that motivation, study habits, memory, and remaining sensitive to both the object of study and one’s own energy flow are important in the discussion of the student’s own learning. 

Problem Solving is the process of achieving desired goal for which there was initially no familiar solution.  Pretz, J. E., Naples, A. J., & Sternberg, R. J. states, “If our ultimate goal is to help people become better able to solve problems that confront them in their personal and professional lives and in the concerns of the world, we must be prepared to examine the fuzzy issues surrounding problem recognition, definition, and representation. Because most of life’s problems are not cleanly packaged with one correct path to solution, it is important that we take on the ill defined challenge of studying these early phases of problem solving in an effort to understand how problem solving can be enhanced in these initial stages” (Pretz, et al, 2003, p. 27).  In Dr. Usher’s power point it says that problem solving is the key process in the learning process.  So, it is extremely important to make students better problem solvers.   Dan Meyer, in his video, said Math books need a makeover.  He talked about how in our society and the way the math book is designed causes the students to become frustrated and impatient with problem solving.  Most people want the quick fix and problem solving cannot always be quick.

Self-regulation is the term self-regulated can be used to describe learning that is guided by metacognition, strategic action, and motivation to learn.  Kegan touches on self-regulation in the article In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life but he calls the student a self-directed learner.   He gives an example about an educator by the name of William Perry that created a class at Harvard to help adult students with the burden of reading the volume of material assigned in higher education curriculum.  Perry is not really working on better reading but on the students’ own dissatisfaction with the results of their reading.  Kegan states, “”They come to see ‘better reading’ is not a challenge to their intelligence,” Perry says, “but a challenge to their courage”’ (Kegan, 1994, p. 280)

Multitasking is the handling of more than one task at the same time by a single person.  Only one of the articles actually defended multitasking.  The rest of them echo what Rosen says in the article Myth of Multitasking.  Rosen states “When we talk about multitasking, we are really talking about attention: the art of paying attention, the ability to shift our attention, and, more broadly, to exercise judgment about what objects are worthy of our attention.”  Towards the end of the article Rosen relates multitasking to what James describes as the youthful mind.  I often wonder how different William James Talks to Teachers would be if he lived in this day and age.  I wonder what he would say.  One statement Rosen makes at the very end of the article that I feel is profound is, “When people do their work only in the ‘interstices of their mind-wandering,’ with crumbs of attention rationed out among many competing tasks, their culture may gain in information, but it will surely weaken in wisdom.”

Just a side note: In one of my class with Dr. Aglin, one of his assigned readings was a book called Hamlet’s BlackBerry.  It was an enjoyable read.  Powers really made you examine your life and your use of what he called multiple screens.  He discussed how staying on the multiple screens do not give you an opportunity for deep reflection.

References:

Hamilton, J. (2008). Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794

James, W. (1899/1962). Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.

Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Press. [Excerpt: Chapter 8]

Meyer, D.  (2010).  Dan Meyer: Math Class Needs a Makeover.  Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

Noddings, N. (2006). Critical lessons: What our schools should teach. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. [Excerpt: Intro and Chapter 1.] 

Powers, W. (2010).  Hamlet’s BlackBerry: building a good life in a digital age.  New York: Harper.

Pretz, J. E., Naples, A. J., & Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Recognizing, defining, and representing problems. In J. E. Davidson & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The psychology of problem solving (pp. 1-30). New York: Cambridge University Press.

RosenThe New Atlantis, 64, 105-110.

Silverman, D. (2010). In Defense of Multitasking. Harvard Business Review, Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/silverman/2010/06/in-defense-of-multitasking.html

Usher, E. (2011). Learning and Problem-Solving

Module 5: Metaphor for Learning

As I was trying to come up with a perfect metaphor for learning I started thinking about things that I have heard,  my favorite hobbies, and research I have done.  I narrowed it down to cooking and sewing.  I decided to go with sewing a quilt.  I don’t know if it is a perfect metaphor but it definitely works for me.

Quilting as a metaphor for learning:

Learning as the process of stitching and weaving together different patches and pieces into something new.  The quilt starts with many different pieces or patches of fabric.  Each of these pieces or patches of fabric are stitched together with many threads.    As the pieces or patches are stitched together the quilt begins to grow into what is consider the top layer of the quilt.  The top layer is then stitched to the padding layer and the backing to firmly bind the three layers together.

Not one home made quilt is the same.  They are completely different just like every person learns in a different ways, have different experiences, and think completely different.    The individual pieces of fabric are like pieces of information or knowledge.  The threads are the connection or association we make with the previous knowledge or information.  The top layer is our growing body of information or knowledge.  The padding is our deep understanding of that information or knowledge.  The backing is our native reactions or our stream of consciousness.

I look at my quilt (learning) as one that continues to grow or at least as long as I am on this earth.

Module 4: Information Processing

It is amazing to me how much of what James said, in his talks to teachers back in 1899, can been seen throughout this module.  As I read and watched the videos this week I found it interesting that we still know very little about how the brain works and still have much to discover about memory and how we process information.  James says, “to remember one must think and connect.” 


James states, “The teacher ought always to impress the class through as many sensible channels as he can. Talk and write and draw on blackboard, permit the pupils to talk, and make them write and draw, exhibit pictures, plans, and curves, have your diagrams colored differently in the different parts, etc.; and out of the whole variety of impressions the individual child will find the most lasting ones for himself” (James, 1899, p. 68).  In the article Brain-Friendly Techniques for Improving Memory, King-Friedrish discusses exactly what James is talking about.  She says, “New learning must be connected to what students already know”(King-Friedrish, 2001, p. 76).  Throughout the article she discusses how teachers need to help students develop personal relevance, make sure it makes sense, elaborate on key concepts, and give students several retrieval cues.  King-Friedrish uses Ms. Fuglie as an example because she developed a variety of learning experiences to help students deepen their understanding of latitude and longitude.  In King-Friedrish statement, “Classroom teachers face the challenge of making the encoding of the information and skills that we are attempting to teach students as elaborate and deep as possible” (King-Friedrish, 2001, p. 77).  She is right; with all of the information teachers are required to get through in a single year, how can they possibly make everything as elaborate and deep as Ms Fuglie did on just latitude and longitude?  I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be better for our schools to require less in a single year.  I know for me I would rather have a deep understanding of one thing instead of a shallow understand of many different things.  It is like the old saying “A jack of all trades, master of none.”


Marsh and Bulter described three cognitive theories, which are: desirable difficulties, meaning extraction, and transfer-appropriate processing.  They used those theories to evaluate the following strategies: that guide the initial learning of material, that guide post-studying processing, the use of adjunct questions during reading, summarization exercises, and the use of imagery.  Throughout this article you can find similarities to Vygotsky’s, Piaget’s, and James’ theories.  I found this article interesting but the most interesting part was about highlighting.  Marsh and Bulter state, “highlighting (or underlining) as typically implemented is not a strong study strategy, even though it is a popular one…In addition, highlighting in this way represents a desirable difficulty because of the effort required to identify the key sentences in a given paragraph” (Marsh & Butler, in press, p. 14).  I have highlighted for years but like they say it is very difficult to find that one key sentence in a paragraph.  I have often found myself wanting to highlight the whole paragraph because all of it seemed important. 


In the article Secrets of a Mind-Gamer by Joshua Foer it talks about how mental athletes are able to retain large amounts of unrelated information rapidly through creating lavish mental images and storing them in elaborate imaginary structures.  Throughout the article Foer is also telling about his journey in becoming the U.S. record holder in speed cards.  “There can be no improvement of the general or elementary faculty of memory; there can only be improvement of our memory for special systems of associated things; and this latter improvement is due to the way in which the things in question are woven into association with each other in the mind. Intricately or profoundly woven, they are held: disconnected, they tend to drop out just in proportion as the native brain retentiveness is poor” (James, 1899, p. 61).  This statement by James is similar to Foer’s discussion about Rhetorica ad Herennium and how it advises creating memorable images for your palaces: the funnier, lewder and more bizarre, the better. “When we see in everyday life things that are petty, ordinary and banal, we generally fail to remember them. . . . But if we see or hear something exceptionally base, dishonorable, extraordinary, great, unbelievable or laughable, that we are likely to remember for a long time.” (Foer, 2011). Even though I found this article interesting and plan on trying some of these methods I felt it was similar to cramming.


Kirschner, Sweller and Clark discussed how there doesn’t seem to be any research that supports minimal guidance during instruction.  They go on to say that not only is unguided instruction normally less effective but in some cases it has a negative effect.  They discuss how the advantage of guidance begins to recede only when learners have sufficiently high prior knowledge to provide internal guidance.  However, like I have said many times before I think that every learner is different and I believe that teachers should have more that just one approach to teaching student.


In my skimming what we had to do under video 3 I didn’t catch we only had to watch one from the list of videos.  However, I am really glad I did watch all the videos because they were really interesting.  I can’t pick a favorite but I will say the ones I enjoyed the most were: "Daniel Tammet: Different Ways of Knowing," "How Does Your Memory Work?” and "The Mind's Storehouse."  It just amazes me how much we know about the brain and how it work but also amazes me how little we truly know.  I don’t believe we will ever truly know everything about the brain.  I think we may come close one day.  On the other hand, I believe there will always be the people like Daniel Tammet, Jill Price, and Steven Wiltshire that will boggle the mind. 

Reference:

Foer, J. (2011, February). Secrets of a mind-gamer:  How I trained my brain and became a world-class memory athlete. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/20/magazine/mind-secrets.html?hp.

King-Friedrichs, J. (2001). Brain-friendly techniques for improving memory.  Educational Leadership, 59(3), 76-69.

Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41, 75-86.

Marsh, E. J., & Butler, A. C. (in press). Memory in educational settings. In D. Reisberg (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of cognitive psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Module 3: Activity 3

Learning Styles are the different ways in which people learn.  There are several different styles, which include visual (spatial), aural (auditory-musical), verbal (linguistic), physical (kinesthetic), logical (mathematical), social (interpersonal), and solitary (intrapersonal).  Until, I read the article Learning Styles by Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork my hypothesis was the most common hypothesis they discussed.  They said, “The most common – but not the only – hypothesis about the instructional relevance of learning styles is the meshing hypothesis, according to which instruction is best provided in a format that matches the preferences of the learner (e.g., for a ‘‘visual learner,’’ emphasizing visual presentation of information).” (Pahler, 2009, pg. 105)  I believed since everyone was different and we all learn in different ways that best instruction for us was the instruction that went along with our particular learning style. 

However, Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork conducted an in-depth examination of several different studies that dealt with learning-styles-based instruction.  They only found a few fragmentary and unconvincing pieces of evidence that met the standards.  They concluded that the literature failed to provide adequate support for applying learning-style assessment in school settings.  They even found several studies that contradicted the learning-styles hypothesis. 

While I was looking for resources I came across this video that I found very interesting.  Even though they did a very through review of several studies and they have proof, I still have a hard time believing that tailoring instruction to each individual student is not a benefit.  How would they explain this school?   I also thought to myself that I would really enjoy going to that school and felt I should share this with the class. 

Multiple Intelligences Thrive in Smartville

References

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2009). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105-119.

Module 3: Activity 1

Edutopia Webinar - How the Brain Learns Best: Strategies to Make Learning Stick

Dr. Judy Willis is a middle school teacher, neurologist, and authority on learning-centered brain research and classroom strategies derived from this research.  She discusses what information gets into students’ brains, where it goes, and what teachers can do to make sure it gets to the right places.  She encourages productive responses to learning: reflective, not reactive.  She also gives strategies on how to increase students’ ability to learn and retain new skills and information.  She discusses how stress doesn’t allow information to get past the Reticular Activating System (for us the sensory registers) and gives strategies to decrease stress.  Throughout the video she touches on several different aspects that we have learned through the readings and power points.    She also discusses ways to make the classroom personal and interesting to the students.  This video is pretty long but if you have the time it is a great video for teachers to watch and below are the resources she gives during the webinar. 

William James said a teacher "must start with the native tendencies, and enlarge the pupil's entire passive and active experience. He must ply him with new objects and stimuli, and make him taste the fruits of his behavior, so that now that whole context of remembered experience is what shall determine his conduct when he gets the stimulus, and not the bare immediate impression" (James, 1899, pp. 31-32).  I believe Dr. Judy Willis would completely agree with him.

Sites

Set Daily Puzzles

http://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle_frame.htm

Neuroscience for Kids

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/son.html

Dr. Judy Willis website

http://RADTeach.com

Continued Discussion
http://edutopia.org/webinar-discussion-april-2009

The Edutopia website also has several recourse about the brain and learning that I found very interest.

http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-brain-research

Module 2: Constructivism (Group Work)

These are the group activities.


Activity 6
Activity 7


Personal Reflection:
After this exercise I realized that my favorite teachers were the ones that used several different techniques from each of the different learning theories.  Those teachers used rewards, punishments, reinforces, didn’t just give the students the answer, let the student teach one another, and guided the students in the right direction.  I believe that is why they were my favorite teachers and I learned the most from them.  When it comes to seeing theory in practice I wouldn’t say I could pick them out without trouble but I would definitely say it is much easier now than before.  Theories, without doubt are useful lenses to examine what is goes on in the classroom.  Every student is completely different and they learn in completely different ways.  So, it seems like to me that it would make sense to examine classrooms through as many different lenses as we possibly can.

Module 2: Constructivism

Q1: Explain in your own words the principal contributions of Piaget's cognitive constructivist theory as a theory of learning. Make a list of questions you still have.

Emphasis on qualitatively different ways of thinking:  Piaget talks about how children have development stages and certain cognitive abilities, which can’t and shouldn’t be rushed.  He also talks about how each child’s developmental rate is different.  He felt in schools these should be taken into consideration.

   

Order, Sequence, and Logic of Instruction Crucial for Successful Assimilation/Accommodation: He felt students academic materials should go in a logical order so they could create new structures easily on the existing structures.

Power of Affect, Exploration, Discovery, Choice, Curiosity, and Interest to Improve Learning: He felt teachers should guide the students to discovery rather than tell them the answer.  He didn’t feel students should do anything they want but they should will what they do.  In other words like he said “they should act rather than be acted upon.”

Emphasis on Finding Meaning Through Knowledge Construction:

An effective teacher helps students discover meaning by letting them construct their own knowledge structures rather than impose those structures on them. This requires granting a student intellectual autonomy, emphasizing mutual respect, and recognizing that knowledge itself is socially constructed. An effective teacher is a “guide” rather than “a sage on the stage.”

Disequilibrium as the Source of Motivation.  He believes that individuals seek cognitive equilibrium.  So, when sensory information and reality come into conflict, individuals cannot maintain equilibrium, called disequilibrium.  Since individuals want equilibrium they are motivated to go through equilibration.  Equilibration is done through assimilation and accommodation.

I love this quote: “A STUDENT WHO ACHIEVES KNOWLEDGE THROUGH FREE INVESTIGATION AND SPONTANEOUS EFFORT  WILL BE ABLE  TO RETAIN THAT KNOWLEDGE AND WILL HAVE ACQUIRED A METHODOLOGY THAT CAN SERVE FOR A LIFETIME”

Q2: Make a connection between Piaget's stages of development and what James argued the teacher should know about cognitive development. 

Piaget believed there are four stages of development, which are sensorimotor (birth to 2), preoperational (2 to 7), concrete operations (7 to 11), and formal operations (11+).  As you can see Piaget felt children went through certain levels of understanding at a particular point in their life.  I believe James also felt this way.  In his talk What The Native Reactions Are he says “In children we observe a ripening of impulses and interests in a certain determinate order.  Creeping, walking, climbing, imitating vocal sounds, constructing, drawing, calculating, possess the child in succession; and in some children the possession, while it lasts, may be of a semi-frantic and exclusive sort.” (James, 1899, p.31)  Once again, in his talk The Acquisition of Ideas James says “In all this process of acquiring conceptions, a certain instinctive order is followed.  There is a native tendency to assimilate certain kinds of conception at one age, and other kinds of conception at a later age.” (James, 1899, p.73) 

Even though this video is only a small portion of some of the question Piaget asked it is very easy to see the different development stages of the children.  In Three Cognitive Theories: Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky, Coleridge has given us a nice collection those question on pages 244 to 254.

Reference:

Coleridge, S.T. (2005). Three cognitive theories: Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky

James, W. (1899/1962). Talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of life's ideals. New York: Dover.

Q3: What would authors Duckworth and Airasian and Walsh have to say about the learning environment in which Bart was placed?  Is this an example of constructivism? What are your own thoughts about constructivism as a theory of learning so far?

Airasian & Walsh (1997) stated “Constructivists claim that they emphasize autonomy as opposed to obedience, construction as opposed to instruction, and interest as opposed to reinforcement.” (pg. 446) By this statement it would seem that they would really like this learning environment and say it is an example of constructivism.  However they also stated  “Students construct their own knowledge and interpretations no matter what instructional approach is implemented and no matter what name is given to it.  What teacher has not taught a didactic, rote-oriented topic or concept only to find that the students constructed a variety of very different meanings from those anticipated by the teacher?  Thus no single teaching method ought to be used exclusively.” (pg. 447)  This statement says students can construct knowledge with any instructional approach.  So, by their statement Brat could have been constructing knowledge at the other school as well. 

Duckworth (1996) states, “Intelligence cannot develop without matter to think about. Making new connections depends on knowing enough about something in the first place to provide a basis for thinking of other things to do--of other questions to ask-that demand more complex connections in order to make sense. The more ideas about something people already have at their disposal, the more new ideas occur and the more they can coordinate to build up still more complicated schemes.”  This statement leads me to believe for the other kids this is a great learning environment.  However for Bart it isn’t because he didn’t know enough previous knowledge to make new connections to what he was learning.

Yes, I believe this is a form of constructivism because the students were able to construct their own knowledge with guidance from the teacher.   She was not looking for what she considered to be the correct answer and was allowing them to discover the correct answer for themselves.  An example of that is when she asked Bart “You do know what happens when you mix acids and bases right?”   Then he turned the class green.

I didn’t realize that I didn’t truly and fully understand constructivism until this module.  I would say that I agree with constructivism a lot more than I did.  I definitely agree that students shouldn’t be given the answers, that they should guide the students through their learning, and allow the students to teach one another.  However I don’t know if I completely agree with ZDP, that we are blank slates, or that there shouldn’t be rewards and reinforcements.   I believe in order to be a good teacher you need to have a little bit of it all.

Reference:

Airasian, P. W., & Walsh, M. E., (1997). Constructivist cautions. Phi Delta Kappan, 78, 444-449.

Duckworth, E. (1996). "The Having of Wonderful Ideas" and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning.

Q4: Explain in your own words the principal contributions of Vygotsky's cognitive constructivist theory as a theory of learning and compare and contrast the work of Piaget and Vygotksy. Make a list of questions you still have and discuss them with your group mates. Send me an email if you need more clarification.

ZPD and obuchenie:  Vygotsky talked about how ZPD is the distance between the child’s actual development level and their level of potential development.  He believed that what a child can do with assistance today they will be able to do it by themselves tomorrow.  Obuchenie is an interchangeable term for both teachers and students activities, which is reciprocal in nature.

Role of the teacher as teacher-student:  Vygotsky felt teachers should guide the students as the approach problems, encourage them to work in groups, and support the students as the tackle challenges.  However he also felt students should teach one another, which makes everyone responsible for cognitive growth and learning.

Critical role played by language: Vygotsky believed language was not merely an expression of the knowledge a child acquires.  He felt language was essential in communication and forming thought.  He also believed once language develops then cognition is language.

Importance and influence of historical, social, and cultural factors: Vygotsky believed historical, social, and cultural factors influenced individuals and that learning could not be understood independently from those factors.  He felt social interaction was fundamentally involved in the development of cognition.

Compare: Even though there are many differences between Piaget and Vygotsky there are some similarities.  As Wadswoth (1996) states they both saw knowledge as an adaptation and as individual construction.  They also believed learning and development was self-regulated but social interaction was important.  Both believe guided or assisted learning was significant during the learning process. Wadswoth (1996) also makes note of how they both saw the developing/learning child as active and how developing/learning was not automatic.

Contrast:Piaget believed cognitive development is primarily a function of individual construction.  He also believed children construct knowledge through their actions on the world.  When it came to learning, Piaget thought the individual construction was stage dependent, self-directed/self-initiated, experimentation, independent mastery, and exploration/discovery.  Piaget felt development and learning were independent from one another but development was a prerequisite for learning.  Piaget believed cognition is critical and cognition mediates language.  He also believed that egocentric speech disappears as social speech develops.

While, Vygotsky believed cognitive development is primarily a function of socio-cultural interaction.  He also believed understanding is social in origin.  When it came to learning Vygotsky thought social interaction was instruction dependent, assisted learning (ZPD), scaffolding, and cognitive self-instruction guided by inner speech.  Vygotsky felt learning results in development.  Vygotsky believed language is critical and once language develops that cognition is language.  He also believed egocentric speech becomes thought that is self-regulating.  

Reference:

Wadsworth, B.J. (1996). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development. New York: Longman Publishers USA

Q5: What connections do you see between this segment and the chapter you read by Lev Vygotsky?

The article Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills reinforces some of what Vygotsky spoke about in Mind in Society.   The article told that it was in 1955 when play changed.  It talked about how people today think of play as playing with toys but before the mid 19^th century people thought of it as an activity.  Now, instead of children spending time in make believe they are supplied with toys for specific play and predetermined scripts.  The example the article gives is instead of playing pirate with a stick they play Star Wars with actual toy light sabers.  Which would disappoint Vygotsky who said, “Children can imitate a variety of actions that go well beyond the limits of their own capabilities.  Using imitation, children are capable of doing much more in collective activity or under the guidance of adults.” (Vygotsky, 1978, pg.88)  The article continued to talk about how this change in play, they believe, has changed kids’ cognitive and emotional development.  They also believe time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop executive function and private speech.  Vygotsky also believe it was important.  In Three Cognitive Theories by Coleridge he said that Vygotsky believed “Without language, the child’s intelligence remains a purely practical, purely natural capacity similar to that of animals such as apes.” (pg. 261)  He also says “Our self-talk is what tells us that we are alive and conscious.  It allows us to observe and direct our thinking and, by the same token, our behavior.  Inner speech is what makes all higher mental functioning possible.” (pgs. 261-262)  I wonder what he would have said if he lived long enough to see play change?

Reference:

Coleridge, S.T. (2005). Three Cognitive Theories: Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky


NPR Morning Edition. (February 21, 2008). Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society:  The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.  MA:  Harvard University Press.

Module 1: Behaviorism

My understanding of behaviorism is that everything that a human does is their behavior.  Their behavior is influenced by their experiences and environment, but it can be altered through conditioning. 

When I was a child I was required to say “Yes Mama or Sir,” “No Mama or Sir,” “Please,” “Thank You,” etc.  If I did say them there would usually be a reward or if I didn’t there would always be punishment.  For example, whenever I asked for something if I didn’t say please I wasn’t going to get it or at least until I did say please.  It was the same for thank you, if I didn’t say thank you to my mom or dad then they would take away whatever they gave me.  I learned quickly because I enjoyed the rewards much more than the punishments.  Another example is whenever my family went into a store.   It almost always started with, “When we go in here we are not going to have any whining or crying, are we?” “No, Mama or Sir.”  If my brother or I didn’t answer my mom or dad would wait until we both answered before we would go inside.  Now once inside if we didn’t whine or cry we would sometimes be able to pick out a toy, but if we did whine or cry we usually left the store and were not able to get anything the next time, even if we didn’t whine or cry.  So my parents conditioned our behavior through punishment and rewards. 

It is hard for me to believe, at least at the beginning stages of life, that we are able to learn what is expected of us without the use of rewards and punishment.  I am unsure if I feel this way because I was raised on punishments and rewards or if we truly are unable to learn without them.   I believe that rewards are good but I think we need to be careful in how we use them and sometimes they can actually work against us.  In the article The Rewards of Learning, Chance believes rewards are good but even he believes we need to be cautious when using them.  He gives some guidelines to follow when using rewards on page 120-121, which I found very interesting. They are as follows: 1. Use the weakest reward required to strengthen a behavior;  2. When possible, avoid using rewards as incentives; 3. Reward at a high rate in the early stages of learning, and reduce the frequency of rewards as learning progress; 4. Reward only the behavior you want repeated; 5. Remember that what is an effective reward for one student may not work well for another. 6. Reward success is within the student’s grasp; and 7. Bring attention to the rewards (both intrinsic and extrinsic) that are available for behavior from sources other than the teacher. 

I don’t know about anyone else but I am a people watcher.  I like, no matter where I am, to watch people.  I like to watch their mannerisms, the way they sit, stand, walk, talk, eat, discipline, etc.  I find it interesting.  I even find myself at times making up stories about them.  Next time you are sitting or waiting anywhere just for a moment, start watching the people around you.  I believe you too will find it remarkable.  One thing that never ceases to amaze me is when out of nowhere you hear someone says, “Mom” and almost every woman within hearing range turns to look.  I am talking about older women, young girls, women with kids, women without kids, some men, and even myself will turn to look at the child or young adult.  I am unsure if we are condition to look at the person because they are yelling or because they said “Mom.”  Which one do you think?

In the article The Shame of American Education Skinner said, “When students move through well-constructed programs at their own pace, the so-called problem of motivation is automatically solved.” (Skinner, 1984, pg. 951) Also, after watching the video about School of One I feel this could be a great way to teach students.  In my brothers case this would have been wonderful.  He learned at a faster pace than most children.  It wasn’t until middle school that my brother lost his motivation to be in class or learn.  He didn’t see any point in being there because he understood what the teacher said the first time.  He didn’t need them to spend a week teaching him.  Unfortunately, instead of getting put into advanced classes he got in with the wrong crowd.  By the time he got into 10^th grade he started skipping school.  He would wait until there was a few months left in school and he would make up all his work in those few months.  What frustrated me even more is he would get no lower than a B.  It wasn’t until his senior year that two of his teachers would not allow him to make up the work.  They told him he had missed too much school and would have to take their classes over but this time he was able to work at his own pace.  He had both of the classes done in 3 months, which was suppose to take him an entire year.  I sometimes wonder what he would have done and where he would have been if he were able to move at his own pace in school.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to say, “Yes that is it.  That right there is the only way we can teach children.”  I strongly believe that everyone is different and we learn in completely different ways.  To say there is only one way, for me, it is like you are saying everyone must have blonde hair, blue eyes, and olive colored skin.  Well, that is not possible.  So, how can we expect or believe children only learn in one particular way? 

References:

Chance, P. (1992). The rewards of learning.  Phi Delta Kappan, 74, 200-207.

School of One. Retrieved on 10-31-11 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTrI6nj5xU

Skinner, B. F. (1984). The Shame of American Education.  American Psychologist, 39, 947-954.