Activity 3.4

After reading through the O’Donnell article this Simpsons’ episode does seem to show some examples of constructivism; students participate in whole class discussions as well as working with pairs of students. According to O’Donnell, the classroom environment aligns most closely with Moshman’s endogenous constructivism. The teacher was more of a “coordinator” and provides the objects (books, laboratory equipment, etc.) in the environment for students to explore and manipulate. One way in which the environment was not an example of constructivism was that not all students were taught at their level or their ZPD.

Activity 3.3

One of the tenets of Vygotsky’s theory is the importance of language in learning. As Dr. Usher made clear in her PPT, Vygotsky thought that “once language develops, cognition is language.” James, too, elucidates the importance of language in learning stating, “In all these later studies, verbal material is the vehicle by which the mind thinks… after adolescence has begun, ‘words, words, words’ must constitute a large part… of what the human being has to learn” (James, 1983, p. 73). A solid example demonstrating this is from a Memory and Thinking course I took in undergrad in which we discussed how memories are much more vivid after individuals have developed language. This is largely hypothesized to be explained by the development of language which becomes one of the main routes individuals think and experience things. So, although language is very important in the process of cognition it does not necessarily mean that one cannot occur without the other.

(Pages 72 and 73 of James’ text clearly had a wealth of application information for me (: )

Activity 3.2

“There is a native tendency to assimilate certain kinds of conception at one age, and other kinds of conception at a later age. During the first seven or eight years of childhood the mind is most interested in the sensible properties of material things “(James, 1983, p. 72)

“It is not till adolescence is reached that the mind grows able to take in the more abstract aspects of experience, the hidden similarities and distinction between things, and especially their casual sequences…Later still, not till adolescence is well advanced, does the mind awaken to a systematic interest in abstract human relations… to sociological ideas and to metaphysical abstractions” (James, 1983, p. 73)

While reading the assigned chapters this week, these two excerpts really leapt out at me as tying into Piaget’s developmental periods of cognitive development. Like Piaget, James lays out important developmental stages that a teacher should try to teach to.  While Piaget points towards teaching at developmental levels based on what a student is capable of understanding, James indicates that having a subject “thrust upon him so prematurely that disgust” would be created (James, 1983, p. 73). I took this to point more towards using a student’s primitive interests and then associating other material with that at appropriate developmental time periods, as James discussed in a previous chapter.

Activity 3.1

According to Piaget's cognitive constructivist theory, learning occurs when individuals experience disequilibrium or a kind of cognitive uncomfortable feeling caused by new or unfamiliar concepts/information. Individuals must then go through the process of equilibration to return to equilibrium or a kind of cognitive harmony. Individuals can actively adapt to this new information by either including it in a current category (schema) or by creating a new category (schema). When an individual includes this information in a current category this is known as assimilation. When an individual must create a new category this is known as accomodation.


Questions: I find it interesting that I've learned about Piaget MANY times and haven't ever heard the terms equilibrium, disequilibrium, or equilibration. I wonder why in the past I've never really learned about it?

Activity 2.5

I took an IAT on race, on sexuality, and one on weight. I have some issues with the way the one on sexuality was created but I really thought the IAT on race was really interesting. For the IAT on race, I was first told a story about an apocalypse and then shown pictures of people who were my friends and allies who were also black. After this, I was given the IAT. I thought perhaps that I'd have to recognize these people later because I've read research that says you are able to recognize individuals of your own race better so I really studied them. Clearly, this was a priming activity and I wondered how strong of an effect it had on my results. While completing the IAT on weight I considered how the effects would be different for plain negative words like “angry” versus words that are frequently associated with being overweight like “lazy.”

I believe, as James states, that “the more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more of our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work” (James, 1983, p. 34). If we are able to turn over some of our thinking to habit it frees our mind to add on to those bases and continue to learn and think about more difficult and complex things. Gladwell discusses how though this implicit learning can be negative “sometimes we’re better off if our mind makes the decision for us.” Most importantly, these associations that we make throughout our life might dictate our behavior Gladwell, James, and the video with Alan Alda all let us know that just because the learning might be outside of consciousness does not mean it is outside of our control. Therefore, our future behavior is changeable and within our ability to modify.

Activity 2.4

Is There a Place for Reinforcement in Education?

When reading these two authors’ philosophies of behavior applied to our everyday lives I saw incongruences and some overlap. Clearly Pryor takes the more traditional behavioral approach of operant and classical conditioning. She takes the view that if positive reinforcement is applied correctly (timely and with an actually reinforcing stimulus) most behaviors can be modified (excluding severe problems in humans and animals). Kohn on the other hand takes the view that reinforcement (praise) is over used and harmful. Motivation should not be something manipulated from a parent/teacher but fostered and encouraged to come from within the child. One overlap I found interesting is Kohn’s point of manipulating children and one of Pryor’s last points that rewarding “someone else in hope of gain to oneself doesn’t work; it backfires on the simplest level” (Pryor, 2002, p. 163). This statement does appear to agree with Kohn.

Though I find my own philosophy aligning more closely with Pryor I have seen children who suffer from some of the effects of praise that Kohn points out. For example, I worked with a student to improve his mathematics skills and in particular his counting. We did many activities together but to take data I always had my student count as far as he could at the end of our sessions. When we first started working on a new concept he would take a very long time to begin and once he started would frequently look up at me with a look of apprehension, hesitant to answer. However, I have also seen the benefits of positive reinforcement for a student who rarely receives it from anyone. Like Pryor with this student, I have learned that “training can provide a lot of illumination-not only to the subject but about the subject” (Pryor, 2002, p. 157). Most importantly, for this student implementing some type of positive reinforcement (in his case a token economy) demonstrated both to the student and his teacher that the student was able to modify his behavior and that behavioral strategies were effective, something that was really good for the teacher to learn.

Ultimately, I believe that positive reinforcement and verbal praise have a place within schools and parenting. However, I also agree that it is largely administered incorrectly. Over and over again we have learned that praise should be specific to the individual. Also, though Kohn feels that Dweck’s research is support for his argument I still personally believe it supports the type of praise we should give students helping to encourage motivation within the student to persevere.

As a side note: Did anybody else wonder what an “Education expert” was? 

Activity 2.3

The main point of Skinner's article was that education is currently dysfunctional. According to Skinner it is neither the teacher nor the student's fault but instead that society is rejecting behaviorism within the schools. Skinner indicates that he feels that American education's problems could be solved by what I took as two main ways (though he listed more) through allowing a student to learn at his/her own pace and therefore fixing the problem of motivation and bad behavior within the schools.

I do believe Skinner would be ashamed of American education today. I know within School Psychology individualized education is something we are really striving for; however, it is not currently the norm within schools. I believe a lot of what Skinner said was dysfunctional about schools continues to be dysfunctional. For example, he brought up the fact that many college professors who teach teachers how to teach are not effective teachers themselves. It continues to be this insidious cycle. I also know that within schools computers are being implemented more for progress monitoring and the like but they are still not sources of instruction.

I think, based on the article, that Skinner would definitely support the School of One approach. "Teaching machines" are being employed, students are taught at their own pace, and everyone seems to be much more motivated.

Finally, I think Skinner makes it quite clear in the video clip that freewill does not exist, that it is a fad of this century, and an imagined internal state. Therefore, it has no base in learning.

This is a gif from Dr. Who that popped into my mind while reading about the type of education Skinner envisioned.

http://imgflip.com/i/20qmy