Module 6 Reflections

Alfred Adler, the father of individual psychology, gave us the work which would one day serve as the basis for aspects of a parenting book I found extremely helpful. I read it as my wife was pregnant and keep revisiting it as my son reaches certain developmental milestones. Without getting too much into my personal history, I needed a model which would allow me to separate my own feelings and reactions regarding my child's behavior and filter them through a system which would provide discipline strategies in the healthiest way possible. The Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) model is one that adopts the Adlerian construct that each (human) child is an individual worthy of the full esteem and respect of adults (Dinkmeyer and McKay, 1982; Fisher, 2001).

 Through this methodology, I am (better) able to distinguish and recognize my son's behavior as a temporary condition as opposed to confusing what he has done relative to his worth as a human being. I therefore consistently reward good behavior, mainly by recognizing the desirable things he does while at the same time either ignoring bad behavior or providing consequences that match those bad behaviors. I never tell him he has been good or bad. He is a child and therefore inherently good and worthy. He may have done something that is not desirable or against the family rules. In these cases he has essentially made a choice which will garner appropriate consequences directly related to the action.

While discipline is not the focus of this week's readings, the commonality is that we help people become self-realized and competent by acknowledging their worth as capable human beings through engaging them in activities that are challenging, intriguing and rewarding and then acknowledging their successes in unmistakable and significant ways that serve as proof to them that they are worthy in the first place (Dweck, 2006). I would go on to say that as part of acknowledging their worth, we hold them accountable for their actions in ways that underscore that they have a choice in all things.

There are myriad examples of this. However, my favorite is an HBO documentary which takes place in Louisville and New York called The Music in Me: The Leopards Take Manhattan: The Little Band that Roared. It is the story of a  percussion group led by Louisville teacher Diane Downs who, through determination and practice, is invited to perform at an international Jazz convention. The takeaway in this story relative to the discussion at hand is that these elementary and middle school children are going way beyond the standard expectations of classroom learning and performance. In fact, they are members of what is ostensibly an after school club.

Listening to the student comments in the documentary made me realize that many days Ms. Downs is doing something which I think is relatively uncommon in a person's academic life; she is validating her students' worthiness by connecting with them on a very personal level and asking for a very high level of performance. The group of children in this video seem driven and fulfilled, even when the going gets rough.

Some of these Louisville Leopards have gone on to study music. However, I am confident all of them have created such deep meaning from this experience that they will link future learning to the moments shared through this experience the rest of their lives. It is as close to magic as I have seen in education.

The more practical aspects of this module as presented by Pajares (2006) give us some advice on engendering positive theories of self belief relative to social constraints. I found three very compelling constructs with regard to this postulate. 

Firstly, all students are capable of being both models and receptive to modeling. Moreover, the teacher is also a very influential model and must be ever aware of the verbal and nonverbal messages he or she sends every day. It seems that issues of group dynamics and modeling could be very complex. This is something that if I were a K-12 teacher I would want to investigate further.

Second, as I mentioned relative to my attempts at becoming a better parent, teachers must make a concerted effort to separate human dignity from human behavior. They must therefore praise effort and individual outcome relative to a starting point in lieu of ability. This is due to the fact that one's true ability may not be completely evident to the teacher, let alone the student and making presumptions about these things without serious attention may be tantamount to setting up students for failure.

Third, teachers have to teach students not only the subject matter at hand, they must also teach students how to accurately view themselves relative to the educational process. They should teach students how to be flexible in their self concepts relative to learning and performing challenging tasks. Students must learn how to recognize their feelings and emotions, deal with them in constructive ways and then sometimes put them aside in order focus on the work at hand. Teachers must highly fixate on fostering optimism and confidence by accentuating and recognizing their students' growing capacities and skill sets as they mature and potentiate their ability become more self-actualized.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House. [Excerpt]

Dinkmeyer, D., & McKay, G. D. (1983). The Parent's Handbook: Systematic Training for Effective Parenting. Circle Pines Minnesota: American Guidance Service.

Fisher, M. (2001). Alfred Adler Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm

Pajares, F. (2006). 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.

The Graduate School "A"

I would really like some feedback if anyone is reading. In reading Pajares, I am reminded of something. Please consider the following passage:

"The student accustomed to receiving As is likely to have her academic confidence bruised; the C-acquainted student is sure to have her confidence boosted.Context is not always everything, but it colors everything" (p 342).

I am not bragging when I say this, because Dr. Usher mentioned something to this effect in a post. Graduate students are supposed to be A students. University policy compels it. I have a 4.0 graduate GPA both here and  in my master's program, one of just a fraction to accomplish that.

This article brought up several thoughts, but most prominent in my mind is that there are different levels of A. In my graduate school experience, I believe there are three types.

The first is what I call a marginal A. It is really a B but a B has become socially unacceptable. You get this A when your work is competent, but not excellent. Giving a B might either demotivate the student or the professor is not interested in engaging substantively the reason for assigning a B and so it is the most expedient action to assign the A.

The second kind of A is acceptable. To earn an acceptable A means that you maintained satisfactory progress but added only a little to the class or to yourself as a result of metabolizing the material. This is the kind of A most faculty give. However, it also probably means that the professor will not remember you as a student in class a year or two down the road.

The last is the masterful A. This is the A that says you own the material. You have processed it, making deep connections. You have compartmentalized or discarded what is less useful and weaved what is important into your personal schemata. Masterful students make an impact on the class and leave the teacher with an impression, even if they do not agree with the student on philosophical points or if the student shows his or her novice.

Why we are so loathe to assign and accept less than an A grade was something of a mystery to me. However, Pajares says that it has a lot to do with how we see ourselves relative to our own personal self-beliefs and the environment in which we operate. Additionally, we live in a world where relative performance is of utmost concern. We have to rank individuals. I understand the need to do this in certain contexts, but in others it is perplexing.

Module 5 Reflection

The definition of a problem is itself problematic, as it presents several concepts whose very nature is ill-structured. For example, Merriam-Webster defines a problem as a question raised for inquiry, consideration or solution while the Oxford English Dictionary lists five main representations, each containing a different construct. Moreover, there are dozens of idiomatic expressions which include the use of the word. We need to be concerned with this concept because answering difficult questions; making sense of both familiar and unfamiliar propositions; solving puzzles, riddles and enigmatic statements (OED) is ostensibly the point of learning. Jerome Bruner (1996) said that learning entails understanding a culture’s shared symbology and above all, how to utilize its tool kit, the important human capital which allows one to participate in and derive personal benefit from his or her culture.

If we are to understand problem solving, we should understand the stratification of various problem types, as well as the processes one might engage in in order to be successful. Pretz, Naples and Sternberg (2003) explicate a seven point process by which three main goals are achieved. First, one must recognize that a problem exists. This may take various forms depending on how the situation unfolds or the problem is presented. Second, the problem is defined; the scope and goals are clearly understood. Third, the problem is represented such that mental information is amassed and organized relative to the problem itself, but also as it pertains to prior information or experiences held by the problem solver.

There is also the issue of well-structured versus ill-structured problems. This is of significance to me because in my world and work, having an understanding of problem solving relative to computers and technology is a critical skill. I can survive not knowing any specific software application or repair protocol as long as my general problem solving ability relative to these things is intact. Well-structured problems according to Pretz, Naples and Sternberg are clear and solvable by a prescribed algorithm. In contrast, ill-defined problems are not well understood, and may be constrained by preconceptions, as they are not able to be broken down into smaller subsets.

This topic relates to the rest of the readings because the ultimate goal in education is to teach students how to teach themselves, to inspire and make them responsible for their own learning by drawing upon intrinsic motivations which will hopefully keep the torch of knowledge and inquiry burning throughout their lives. At the very least, we hope to impart a generalizable skill set which will allow them to solve life’s problems with a modicum of effort. We know these interests and energies are not always constant. Noddings (2006) acknowledges that even high motivations may wane, at which times we must rely on habituation in order to sally forth. The real goal here is a self-awareness sufficient to inform students as to their own meta-cognition, or knowledge about the nature and purpose of knowledge.

References

Bruner, J. (1996) The Culture of Education, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Merriam-Webster Online. (no date). Problem. Retrieved November 29, 2011 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/problem.

Noddings, N. (2006). Critical lessons: What our schools should teach. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Oxford English Dictionary. (no date). Problem. Retrieved November 29, 2011 from http://www.oed.com.libproxy.eku.edu/view/Entry/151726?rskey=ypTCKE&result=1#eid.

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.

Module 5 - A metaphor for learning

I subscribe to an idea inspired by Keegan (1995). On page 272, he says that as we become adults, we leave the “mental homes we have furnished and made familiar.” Learning is a home both in function and metaphor. Our homes are individual; even tract homes over time acquire individuation. They contain furnishings of our own choosing and design, for even lack of choice still garners a discernable manifestation. There is a connectedness in every room, as it all serves a unified purpose. Each artifice therein bears relationships to every other thing, no matter how indirect.

Some homes may be lavishly decorated, some drab. Some are utilitarian and others airy and expansive. Craftsmanship plays a significant role in the long-term durability. Let us also not forget that routine maintenance is required lest the facilities deteriorate. However, the essential structure of the house, once erected, remains more or less intact even should the home become unoccupied for a time.

The last great similarity between these two practically dissimilar concepts is that the construction of either a quality home or education requires a great deal of resources and effort on the part of the owner.

Module 4: Information Processing - Validating Immutable Truths

For me, the genius of James resides not just in what he said, but his conviction and accuracy of what he said relative to the era in which he said it. There were few sophisticated quantitative methods and no real prior frameworks on which to hang one's theoretical hat. Moreover, he eschewed an over-reliance on science for teachers, telling them that there are many correct applications informed by the understanding of science:

"A science only lays down lines within which the rules of tlie art nrust fall, laws which the follower of the art must not transgress; but what particular thing he shall positively do withinthose lirles is left exclusively to his own genius. One genius will do hisis work well and succeed in one way, while another. succeeds as well quite differently; yet neither will transgress the lines" (p.8).

I believe this to be true of all of the seminal theorists with which we are acquainted. Yet how do such thinkers become validated? In the case of the myriad constructs which comprise the theories of information processing, innovations in technology produce a shared construct and cultural awareness. These advents allowed us a unified understanding through the conceptualization of metaphors. Last week, the Mayer (1996) article presented some common metaphors relative to the act of encoding, storing and retrieving information. As information technology has captured both the imagination and the lion's share of the American labor force, we have a concept that is widely understood and accepted to which we may compare ourselves. It is almost as if we have anthropomorphized computers as we make these comparisons relative to the information processing frameworks presented this week.

The information processing theory movement has given operational and quantitative credence to James, Thorndike, Skinner, and others. We can now point to studies in which we know the mind creates schematic, systematic linkages which demand a routinized operationalized methodology for delivering instruction (Kirschner, Sweller and Clark, 2006).

However, it also uncovers another immutable truth- The act of processing information, encoding these data into existing structures and then recalling it relatively far into the future, is a very complex process for which there are human consistencies and commonalities but not absolutes. In my opinion, this is the chief reason it is so important: It explains and validates the theory of James (who defies classification by embracing good pedagogy in light of associationist and constructivist purviews) and the orientation of behaviorists toward the stimulus-response model of learning. It then serves as a bridge to the now popular constructivist leanings by showing us that the business of memory and association and deep connections, at least the methods by which information is internalized, may be highly individualized and are not fully understood.

This leads us to the concept of storing memories for long durations. My own personal connections to the information deal with times in my life when I knew I knew something. I am talking about those touchstone moments where I have felt validated in my knowledge of a given topic or realized that I am better now than I used to be; I have grown.

Spanish was my first love and I tried for years to achieve what I considered a perfect fluency. Of course, there is no such thing for a non-native unless he or she has been taught at a very early age. In fact, when I think of fluency, I think of the word fluidity, which can be defined as a changeable quality within a given thing (Princeton Word Net). Perfect linguistic fluency is not static or set in non-native speakers unless they have constant exposure to the language.

I was in Guatemala during Christmas one year and we were going out to buy firecrackers. Firecrackers are about as Guatemalan on Christmas as "Jingle Bells" is American for us here at home. As we are getting ready to leave, I excitedly call out, "vamos, pues!" which simply means "well, let's go!" It was automatic. I had never said that before ever or had really even been in a context where I might say it. Yet the girlfriend of our host asked him what Spanish speaking country I was from. Though I have lost much of my automaticity with regard to the language, I know at one time I had arrived.

The process of storing information is complex, but we do know several truths that lie therein.

Firstly, the intentional long term storage of information for most is not had by simply deciding to remember.  Marsh and Butler (2011) present scores of works which point to specific practices which may facilitate information processing, Chiefly among these is the concept that performing memory tasks which require more mental effort will ensure that information is retained for longer periods:

"The main idea is that introducing difficulties during learning will result in superior long-term retention because the greatest gains in storage strength occur when retrieval strength is low." (p. 5)

Second, Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) validate James' concept of apperception and the association of ideas by presenting the concept of schema as it applies to cognitive load theory. Moreover, they posit that providing guidance during the instructional process will ensure better learning outcomes because teachers can provide ready linkages to concepts already held by students, thus decreasing mental taxation:

"...cognitive load theory suggests that the free exploration of a highly complex environment may generate a heavy working memory load that is detrimental to learning. This suggestion is particularly important in the case of novice learners, who lack proper schemas to integrate the new information with their prior knowledge" (p. 80).

Lastly, due to these easily accessible metaphors as presented by Mayer (1996), we see a number of effective evidence-based methods designed to assist students maximize the potential of their memories. We even go as far as seeing people compete in memory contests effectively using these methods, the origins of which began over a century ago.

We have in this module not only a bridge, but also perhaps an addition of lanes on the highway. For beginners in any field, it is necessary to show the differences between concepts. Placing like things in one pile and those which exemplify contrasting characteristics in yet another. However, what I think we are seeing is that the study of the brain shows that there can be harmony between constructivist and  associactionist views, not on a pure epistemological level, but rather as James posited within the purview of the art of teaching.

References

Fluidity (2011) wordnetweb.princeton.edu Retrieved November 22, 2011, from wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.

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

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. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/2010/KirschnerSwellerClark2006.pdf.


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. Retrieved November 19, 2011 from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/2010/MarshButler2011.pdf.

Mayer, R. E. (1996). Learners as information processors. Educational Psychologist, 31, 151-161. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/2010/MayerEP1996.pdf.

List some strategies based on the theory of desirable difficulties

This is not my official response to this week's module, just something I wanted to write in hopes someone with some ideas or knowledge might comment.

Page five of Marsh and Butler (2011) explains the theory of desirable difficulties (Bjork et al.). Simply stated, making your brain work harder to retrieve information in the short term may boost long term storage potential. The example described in the article is waiting a bit longer to recall flash card information rather than just a few seconds or so.

However, I wonder if this could be applied to other similar exercises. Obviously, we need to make different types of connections to information in order to enhance processing. but I wonder in what ways might we also make learning more challenging in the short term to produce better outcomes in the long term. What strategies has this course employed in order to exemplify this concept?

Minecraft in Education

I want to introduce the uninitiated to Minecraft, a sandbox style game in which you (the character) tries to survive by gathering resources (food, building supplies), constructing buildings and exploring a seemingly endless world, all the while avoiding natural hazards, nighttime zombies and other creatures whose sole mission is to destroy you.

What does this have to do with education. Well, there is quite a bit of scholarship about games in education. Here is one from Richard E. Mayer, a scholar we have seen in this class.

But let's dispense with the theory for a minute. I really want you all to look at what this guy is doing. He has called himself the Minecraft Teacher. He has taken a complex, immersive game that is unbelievably simple to play and showcases the many things he and others have taught by modestly modifying/customizing the software.


I invite you to take a look at his blog and ask me if you have any questions about the game.
http://minecraftteacher.net/
http://minecraftedu.com/

Module 3, Activity 3 Blog Post: Learning Styles

First I would like to briefly comment about what this module has done for me. I see it as more than just a bridge between the associationist world of Thorndike and Skinner and the constructivist methodologies of Piaget and Vygotsky. I see it as an operational set of definitions; we begin to quantify and measure the theories presented to us by those who came before with an understanding of the stimulus-response model and who subscribed to an epistemology which posits a more unified truth relative to a given domain of learning. Perhaps as we have approached constructivism, this firmer quantitative position has experienced a reprieve. Even so, the understanding of information processing has produced new metaphors and an indelible reliance on the quantitative practices of psychology in order to further our understanding of one of humanity's most complex processes.

--

I hear it at least a few times a week. Someone at my home institution will say he or she is a visual learner. Often this is a student, sometimes a staff or even a faculty member. I get what they are saying. These declarations indicate a couple of things. First, these people have an awareness that sensory information is important in the learning process. Second, these individuals are differentiating the role these senses play in their own lives. I believe some may be so fixated on the notion that sensory input is solely responsible for some types of learning that it blinds them to a more robust understanding of the subject.

Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer & Bjork reported the notion that the majority of students learn better via one of their senses than another has been ostensibly debunked. Based on my understanding of our readings this week with help from the theorists we have visited previously, humans are endowed with their sensory perception in order to survive. Therefore, barring any situations where outliers exist due to exceptional circumstances or depravity, our eyes, ears, nose, sense of taste and other faculties have evolved to serve us all similarly. Only rarely might one find an individual who is so advanced in one sensory domain that it obscures the utility and changes the way in which one

While it is understandable that people need an easy paradigm on which to rely, there is an inherent fallacy to this way of thinking.  If you buy into the notion that the information provided by one of our senses is somehow not as valid as that which is obtained from another, you might be invalidating what Pinker says is the mind's attempt to accurately depict the world.

"But just the world we know is a construct of our brain, that does not mean it is an arbitrary construct- A phantasm created by expectations or the social context" (Pinker, p. 199).

Pinker further explains that the characteristics of each of the senses and their vulnerabilities are not as arbitrary as many believe. The very way our brains process information is reliant upon these senses in specific and invariant ways.

The problem with a systematic approach to understanding information processing, in my opinion, precludes constructivist methodologies. Comparing the human brain to a computer may be loathsome to staunch constructivists. Of course Mayer (1996) presented two views of the information-processing metaphor. One in which constructivism and information processing could peaceably exist. Learners actively select and organize their experiences into their existing conceptualizations. The computing metaphor is simply a means of understanding and operationalization. Pashler et al. deconstruct the way in which we as a society have constructed this theory about learning styles. The main crux of their argument is that the brain relative to the processing and storage of information in memory uses all sensory information in order to function and carry out executive mental functions.

We might therefore conclude that although an individual may claim a preference relative to different learning styles, there is currently no evidence to suggest that instructional methods designed to appeal to one sense or another is particularly effective at increasing learning outcomes.


Here is a video which outlines much of what has been covered relative to this module.

Module 3 Activity 1: Perception Resources

Pretty early on in my transition to a training role at EKU, I heard about MERLOT.org, a repository of online learning resources, mostly consisting of links to free web based content, usually taking the form of either an informational or interactive web site.

There are many resources available here with regard to psychology and human perception. simply use the search bar at the top of the screen. You can perform searches on thousands of available online resources.

By searching for the term memory, I encountered a well-respected resource from McGill University in Quebec called The Brain From Top to Bottom.  This is an interactive direct instruction approach which presents information in a colorful style representing a wiki. However, the most impressive aspect of the site lies within each topic's collection of pages. At the top of the screen is a "Levels of Understanding" feature. You may select one of three difficulty levels and the site will change the wording and general presentation to suit different levels of discourse.

The McGill resource promotes learning because it succinctly presents information about psychological development through myriad topics at different learning levels which the individual learner can modify.

MERLOT is a great resource because it is a searchable index of thousands of learning modules/plans on many subjects. I love sites like this because they are great starting points when beginning to develop an instructional plan with activities.

Keep in mind that not all of the resources offered on MERLOT are as robust as the one I presented. Some are very solid lesson plans presented in the form of a printable document. I think at first some mistakenly thought such an online repository would contain everything one needed to teach a particular topic within a subject. I am sure most of my colleagues understand teaching involves more than what such a site may provide.

My Process for Processing Information: Why I use OneNote

This is not part of the assigned posts; this is just something I felt like writing.

I have examined a quote attributed to Einstein for most of my life: "Never memorize something you can look up."  As a teenager, I rebelled against the concept of homework; I would often do the work and then not turn it in on purpose, I made a lot of excuses and to my detriment was a poor student on purpose because it was one of the things I could directly control. So when I was introduced to this quote as a college undergraduate, I felt a sense of validation- Why do any busy work, right? I could simply look up the information I wanted to know.


Did Einstein really mean we didn't have to learn anything? This bravado which I exhibited before the advent of the mainstream Internet was silly then, but what about today?  If you buy into Mayer's description of the literalist view of the information processing metaphor, perhaps you see the world as one in which there is no need to know facts, especially in an information age where much rote information is accessible with a few clicks of the keyboard and a few short flourishes of the mouse.

I think the answer lies somewhere between literalist and constructivist viewpoints. My favorite Spanish professor always told his students that you have to know some facts to hang your had on in the midst of interpretation and construction of literary meanings. He was concerned with the historical context in which literary movements appear and interact with what has been written. But you also have to have it make sense to you when you are done internalizing these static atomistic units of information (p. 157).

Moreover, there is a noteworthy issue pertaining to information processing relative to learning. Bernard, Abrami, et al. (2009) report within the distance education milieu student interaction with course content can yield significant learning outcomes relative to other types of interaction such as student to teacher.

So the question for me might be more than, "What is a good tool or resource to help with information processing?" I ask myself "What tool or resource will help me connect and then reconnect to the content to which I aspire to attain a certain level of mastery?"

For me this tool is OneNote, a notetaking application from Microsoft which is bundled with many Office 2010 installation packages.  I have used it my entire graduate career to consolidate and interact with my class notes in preparation for qualifying examinations. Every month or so I import all of my notes from my classes into a particular section of a virtual notebook. At this time, every word is not searchable based on tags or keywords. Moreover, OneNote will import my smartpen handwritten notes. They are note as searchable because my penmanship is horrible, but I can hold them and tag certain passages with keywords so that I may easily find them later.

I will point to some instructional videos on OneNote, but my point is not to teach you how to use this program. Rather I want to underscore the need (at least for me) to engage in the continuous process of interacting with information. This means that as new information is discovered, it gets constantly added to older information, hopefully in ways that allow for a robust linkage and a better understanding by me.

Once this repository is mature, I can more confidently do as Einstein suggested. I can look back to my information store and find an answer to a question that I had. moreover, I have a greater facility with information stores outside of my own. Therefore I may be able to find the inklings of an answer of which I have never before been familiar.

I think this is a more high tech version of what good academics have done for centuries; collect a wealth of information be familiar with perhaps a very small subset of this knowledge and then be able to speak somewhat intelligently about a particular issue relative to your field given a little bit of time.

Whether you subscribe to one of the views of the information processing metaphor, a little of both, or neither, a personally-generated information repository of some sort is a worthy tool in your arsenal as a student.

Microsoft Getting Started Guide
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote-help/getting-started-with-onenote-2010-HA010370233.aspx


Visual Quick Start Guide
http://atrc.colostate.edu/Data/Sites/1/documents/Quickstarts/Microsoft_One_Note_Quick_Start_Guide.pdf

References

Bernard, R.M., Abrami, P.C., Borokhovski, E., Wade C.A., Tamim, R.M., Surkes, M.A., & Bethel, E.C. (2009). A meta-analysis of three types of transaction treatments in distance education. Review of Educational Research, 79(3), 1243-1289.

Mayer, R. E. (1996). Learners as information processors. Educational Psychologist, 31, 151-161.

The last page of Mayer was the most important

I have read several of Mayer's articles. I will post citations to them when I get a moment. I just have to get off my chest that while this article was a good read (as are all those I have read), the last page is the most important one, and is only loosely related to the proposition of the paper. I almost want to say that what he wrote there was so important that it invalidates the need to discuss information processing as it serves to bridge what he calls associationism to constructivism.

In other words, if in the future we base our construction of metaphors and theories upon what is politically popular or philosophically ready rather on empirical evidence, we abolish measurement and thereby exile science.

This is the most important issue. As a potential leader, you have to know where you stand on this issue.

Furthermore, I need to read one of his references with regard to education's fourth metaphor (Steffer & Gale 1995).

Really excited about this module

This is information I know very little about. I understand John Sweller's work on cognitive load theory, which I now understand was preceded by and has linkages to the work of the theorists we have read these last few weeks.

Sweller's research base, as I understand it, heavily involves issues of information processing as well as these other concepts (apperception, Piaget's equilibrium/assimilation/accommodation, etc.) What I hope to see is how information processing ties into some of these more modern perspectives on learning. 

Module 2: Group Activity #2: Reflection

As I reflect on this particular exercise, I am reflecting on my graduate school experience relative to education as a whole. I believe that within these varied and conflicting theories and frameworks, a truth emerges. It is the truth of William James. I believe Dr. Usher selected James because his early insights prime students for the theories and theorists that follow.

James presents behaviorist inklings as he talks to teachers about native and acquired reactions, training oneself with regard to habit, and even at the beginning where he likens the child to a much simpler organism. However, as James defines and discusses apperception and the association of ideas, we can see constructivist concepts emerge.

These are powerful concepts. However, the most powerful concept for me right now as I begin to assimilate these notions and make them my own is that behaviorism and constructivism may peaceably coexist. There are synergies and delineations which allow a teacher to understand what is happening to students in the classroom under the lenses of any and sometimes all of these constructs.

In the first chapter, James tells is that myriad practices may be derived and correctly applied relative to the science of psychology:

"A science only lays down lines within which the rules of the art must fall, laws which the follower of the art must not transgress; but what particular thing he shall do poitively within those lines is left exclusively to his own genius. One genius will do his work well and succeed in one way, while another succeeds as well quite differently; yet neither will transgress the lines."

Module 2: Group Activity #2

Group post composed by Amanda Butz, Carly Germann, and Chris Daniel

The instructional video that we reviewed can be found at the following link: http://timssvideo.com/45. It depicts a class of 8th graders who were learning about polygons. The instructor went over what polygons are, discussed the concepts of equilateral polygons and equiangular polygons, and showed how to find the sum of the interior angles of certain polygons.


In this video, there were several concepts that stem from the theory of behaviorism. The instructor had a deck of cards with each students' assigned number. He randomly pulled a number for each question that he asked, and that student had to come to the board and answer. This acted as a motivator or reinforcement to keep the students alert and ready to answer any question.


Another Skinnerian aspect of this instructional video was the method of asking questions, which acted as stimulus and response. The teacher posed a question (the stimulus) and the students provided an answer (the response). The teacher then gave immediate reinforcement by saying whether or not the answer was correct, and provided praise such as "Very good." This reinforced the students that they were succeeding, or provided the necessary feedback for how to achieve the correct answer.


The teacher used several Piagetian concepts in this video. First, he started off the lesson by allowing the students to draw any shape that they wanted to show their understanding of a polygon. He also asked them several times throughout the video to explain how they arrived at their answer. This ability for the students to explain how they constructed meaning is crucial for Piaget.


Another method that he used was to make the students discover their answers themselves rather than just providing the answer for them. For example, he did not just tell them that the sum of the interior angles of a four-sided figure was 360 degrees, instead he showed them how to break the figure down into shapes they knew how to manage. This allowed them to construct their own meaning about the problem.


Vygotskian concepts were also present in this video. He made sure to address the social nature of learning by asking the students to turn to their neighbor and discuss the problem at hand. Since culture is such an important factor for learning according to Vygotsky, addressing this in the classroom would further enhance development; the interaction between mentor and mentee allows for learning at a pace greater than what the mentee could accomplish alone.


Scaffolding as a Vygotskian concept underscores the frequent need for more involvement on the part of the mentor as new concepts are introduced. As learners become more familiar with new material, less involvement is necessary, thus the pedagogical scaffold is slowly removed. This allows learners to take ownership of the process of assimilating concepts in a more independent manner. An example of scaffolding in the video was when the teacher showed how to solve a problem with a four-sided figure. He then asked the students to solve the same problem with a five-sided figure. They probably would not have been able to solve the second problem on their own, but the example he provided allowed them to make the connection independently.

Module 2: Group Activity #1

Group post by Amanda Butz, Carly Germann, and Chris Daniel.

The constructivist theories and concepts as presented by Piaget, Vygotsky and others are fairly easy to understand, but more challenging to put into practice. It is therefore helpful to see specific examples of how one allows students to make meaning when confronted with new information relative to a given learning outcome. For this reason, we present several videos which illustrate key constructivist concepts.

These videos show two examples of a constructivist-based classroom. In the first video, we see how one might approach teaching elementary school students double column subtraction:

Constructivist Math Instruction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cx5HDOCwqE&feature=youtu.be

It is important to note a few interesting differentiations between the classroom method presented in the above video compared to other instructional methods.

The teacher has encouraged the students to immediately indicate their answer if called on and also if they agree with the answer provided by the one student who the teacher selected to provide the answer.
Students are encouraged, even expected to discuss and/or defend this answer in an open forum format.
At no time does the teacher provide the correct answer, and remains an open conduit for any student to explain his or her explanation as to how her or she arrived at an answer.

In the second video (divided into three sections), the teacher purposefully refrains from describing to her students the instructional goal of sorting objects (by size, color and shape) so that they may construct their own meaning with regard to these concepts. Please note the following practices the teacher presented in this video:

Constructivist lessons on colors, sizes and shapes:

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR9LqmT0k-U
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKtqDLNG6Y&feature=related
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDCOsDiemQM&feature=related

The teacher did not name the manipulables in these exercises. Rather, she merely called them objects.
The teacher created a yes/no chart by which she would list student suggestions as to the agreed upon activities with regard to the lesson.
As the students were in the process of sorting items into trays of "big" and "small" items, the teacher elicited the responses of students as to their thinking process as they categorized the objects.

Both of these videos exemplify some key constructivist concepts. Firstly, it is the teachers job to create experiences in which children should think for and spontaneously question and then correct themselves if it is necessary to do so. The process of arriving at an answer, comparing that to the answers of their peers and then re-evaluating the original answer according to constructivist views is tantamount to learning and possibly intellectual development.

Based on our discussion of constructivism and the videos we watched, we pose the following questions to the class:

With regard to the first mathematics video, the intractive process and "rules of order" for this class appeared to run seamlessly. However, we understand that they were practicing this method 6 months prior to taping. How might this really work in the classroom?

Relative to our nation's political landscape and the expectations of the citizenry with regard to learning, can constructivist methods harmonize with those based upon the practices of direct instruction and the standardized testing of which we all have become very accustomed?

With regard to the second video which depicted the students' construction of concepts related to colors, shapes and sizes, do you think actual learning is transpiring here? How might a teacher make this assessment? What if in the face of this more open model a student or group of students arrives at a construct which lies in disagreement of the intended learning outcome?

Question 5: Old Fashioned Play and Vygotsky

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

Social constructivist theory according to Vygotsky suggests that learners actively construct knowledge by interacting with others, including more knowledgeable individuals.

The important linkage between the NPR story and Chapter six of Vygotsky is that Vygotsky posits that learning affects development:

"From this point of view, learning is not development; however, properly organized learning results in mental development and sets in motion a variety of developmental processes that would be impossible apart from learning. Thus, learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human, psychological functions" (p. 90).

Also note that this includes the informal, seemingly structureless learning which occurs long before elementary school:

"But even when, in the period of her first questions, a child assimilates the names of objects in her environment, she is learning. Indeed, can it be doubted that children learn speech from adults; or that, through asking questions and giving answers, children acquire a variety of information; or that, through imitating adults and through being instructed about how to act, children develop an entire repository of skills? Learning and development are interrelated from the child's very first day of life" (p. 84).

The internal speech of which Howard Chudacoff and others speak is explainable relative to Vygotsky's social constructivist framework.

Additionally, I would like to add something with regard to the zone of proximal development, the concept that learning is enhanced when teachers target the area between what students can learn on their own and what they can achieve with assistance. I like to think of Vygotsky's "experienced other" not only as teachers and other mentors, but also peers. Moreover, I believe that we may also include the affective domain as we think about social constructivism, as these attitudes and attributes which influence emotions and behaviors may also be observed and learned.

Constructivism Questions 1-4

Q1: What are the principal contributions of Piaget's cognitive constructivist theory?

Piaget was a progenitor of construcivist philosophy. He posited that knowledge is constructed subjectively by the individual via active means. In the child, he believed that developmental advances occurred independently of the acquisition of knowledge. Therefore, the child's level of intellectual development restricted the levels of learning he or she would be able to achieve.

Piaget developed a clinical investigation model which was far more qualitative in nature than the standard American research practices of the time. This meticulous observation and questioning model is still derided by some to this day. However, the information gleaned as a result of this process caused scholars to closely examine using quantitative analyses alone.

Piaget saw language as a marker of development, not a function which produced intellectual growth.

Piaget developed the concept of schemata, a symbolic representation of ideas in relationship to other closely related ideas. This framework allows us to understand how learning might occur relative to pre-existing concepts in the mind and how the individual might either alter his or her understanding of reality or reject such modification such that the external stimulus would change relative to the current state of his or her construction.

Q2: What are the linkages between Piaget and James?

Both scholars were very concerned with and described a specific structure to child development with regard to learning. Moreover, the structure of both positions is predicated upon development characteristics of individuals at a certain age. In other words, teachers should be aware of these life stages in order to introduce stimuli which will encourage the interest and engagement of their students. Toward that end, I highlight some of the precepts presented by both James and Piaget.

1) Both scholars posit that learning is an active process, invoking mental faculties for the purpose of sensor-motor activities so that the individual may better understand his or her environment. Consider these quotes:

"But the brain, so far as we understand it, is given us for practical behavior. Every current that runs into it from skin or eye or ear runs out again into muscles, glands, or viscera, and helps to adapt the animal to the environment from which the current came. It therefore generalizes and simplifies our view to treat the brain life and the mental life as having one fundamental kind of purpose" (James, p.)

 James understood something that Piaget would write about for much of his career; intelligence, or the fluid capacity to learn is based upon activity and interaction for the purposes of adapting to one's environment (Lefrançois, 2005 p. 29.)

2) The acquisition of new knowledge requires that the individual link new concepts to currently held concepts in a way that creates meaning.

James called this process apperception:

"Every impression that comes in from without, be it a sentence which we hear, an object of vision, or an effluvium which assails our nose, no sooner enters our consciousness than it is drafted off in some determinate direction or other, making connection with the other materials already there, and finally producing what we call our reaction" (James, p. ) 

Piaget introduced the concept of adaptation. Simply stated, in order for an individual to adapt to his or her environment, he or she should reach a state of equilbrium relative to the knowledge currently possessed. In order for this to happen, when presented with new information, the individual either accomodates the concept, and thereby uncomfortably expands his or her range of understanding or assimilates the concept into his or her current understanding.

3) Both James and Piaget understood that certain behaviors are emblematic of development stages and that learning does not duly further development.

James used the tern native reactions to describe the developmental underpinnings of pedagogy:

The teacher's earliest appeals, therefore, must be through objects shown or acts performed or described. Theoretic curiosity, curiosity about the rational relations between things, can hardly be said to awake at all until adolescence is reached.

Piaget also concerned himself with a child's development. His Stage Theory presented abilities corresponding to  the general age of the child and by the learning that occurs (Lefrançois p. 243-244).

References

Lefrançois, G. R. (2005). Theories of human learning: What the old woman said(5th ed.). Thomson


Q3: What would authors Duckworth and Airasian and Walsh have to say about the learning environment in which Bart was placed?

From my understanding of the readings to date, there are problems with both extremes of the interplay between cognitivism and constructivism. There is an overreliance on an IQ test relative to the types of behavior we consistently see out of Bart. These issues should have been addressed long before such a test was administered. In the fourth grade I remember taking such a test. We were a subset of the entire fourth grade, about ten to twenty percent of the class as I recall. We were told that if we performed well on this exam we would be able to take special classes. When it came time to form this gifted class, I remember feeling very sad that I was not selected. In fact, for me it was one of the catalyzing factors which demotivated me and where I began to intentionally underperform.

Airasian and Walsh  warn us that learning necessitates the use of assessment measures; constructivism is not a "free-for-all" where the teacher does not have to set instructional goals:

"Implicit in any form of classroom instruction guided by any theory of learning is the need for standards and criteria of judgement" (1997, p. 448).

In tandem with goals is present the need for specific and articulable assessment measures by which we can know if goals were met. Additionally, these also serve the student as he or she attempts to operate within the  parameters given by the teacher.

In partial contrast to Airasian and Walsh, Duckworth's view of constructivism is much more traditional. As there is more theory present in this work than cogent presentation of a practical framework, she supports the use of an open environment where the onus of learning lies chiefly with the student. Duckworth states that schools must be willing to accept students' ideas and provide a setting where these ideas might easily come to fruition and actuation; schools should facilitate inquiry by expecting and encouraging the unexpected. I believe Bart might feel right at home in a school such as the one proposed by Duckworth (1996).

Q4: Explain the principal contributions of Vygotsky and compare his constructivist philosophy to that of Piaget

Lev Vygotsky's work culminated in a volume compiled and edited by Cole, John-Steiner, Scribner and Souberman (1978) some four decades after his death. The title Mind in Society  itself serves as a summation of Vygotsky's principle thesis; Humans make meaning in order to serve society and derive significant developmental benefit as they are assisted by more knowledgeable individuals therein:

"In experimental investigations of the development of thinking in school children, it has been assumed that processes such as deduction and understanding, evolution of notions about the world, interpretation of physical causality, and mastery of logical forms of thought and abstract logic all occur by themselves, without any influence from school learning" (p. 79-80).

This thinking diverges from the scholarship of Piaget, who is not concerned  with matters of the social process in learning and developmental stages. Piaget argued that children gain knowledge of social strata with regard to learning from their own individual constructions.

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) simply stated says that learners will achieve best learning outcomes when material is targeted in a range between where they can learn on their own and where they are able to learn with the assistance of a more knowledgeable individual. This brings to light the concept of scaffolding. Just as when building a house, a more structured and assisted learning method is implemented. Then as students become more adept at a given concept, the support structure is gradually removed which allows students to learn on their own.

With regard to language, Vygotsky held the belief that language was derived from the social environment and greatly advanced the child's developmental capacity whereas Piaget maintained that spoken language is merely a symbolic function which signals one's development (Wadsworth, 1996).

Personal Problem: I am an iterative writer

I just wanted at least Dr. Usher to know that I am an iterative writer. Perhaps this is another way of saying I am a lazy writer. I have been blogging since 1999 before blogging applications were commonplace and so before I ever considered graduate school I have a writing process such that I publish a document and then go back and read it. I do this at least 10-15 times before there is a lull in the editing. I will try not to do this, but it is a habit  that dies pretty harshly. At the very least I will try to have the last edit done by the due date.

Does anyone else do this?

Module 1: Behaviorism

A dichotomy exists within the brain. We would do well to understand this duality. The automatic mind defined by Bargh and Chartrand (1999) is one which reacts to and operates within an environmental framework defined by myriad and complicated successions of stimuli. This is contrasted against our volitional mind, consisting of conscious actions and aspects with which we are more familiar. It seems to operate at odds with this automaticity. At the very least, I think I am conflicted by the interplay between these two functionalities.

I cannot enumerate the times I have sat down and willed myself to lose weight, start a pattern of studying,  stop watching so much television and so many other things only to fail and fall back into old patterns. It is clear that will is not enough and that other forces are at play with regard to human behavior, at least my own. If will were enough, I feel as though I would be far more accomplished in life and simply be a more evolved human being.

I am not sure if we are all simply products of our environments and reinforcement histories. I believe the quote Dr. Usher tenders at the end of her PowerPoint is probably closer to the "truth" with regard to how humans behave:

“I like to be human because in my unfinishedness I know that I am conditioned. Yet conscious of such conditioning, I know that I can go beyond it, which is the essential difference between conditioned and determined existence.”
Paulo Freire,
Pedagogy of Freedom, p. 54

As a way of expanding on the summation offered by Dr. Usher, I present a quote of my own, which is a summation of some of Aristotle's thoughts on the matter:

"...we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit:"
(Durant, 1968, p. 98)

I think it is important here to interject something James wrote when referring to will. Here is a sentence which may shed some light on the subject of will versus automatic action:

"So you see that volition, in the narrower sense, takes place only when there are a number of conflicting systems of ideas, and depends on our having a complex field of consciousness."

James declares that volition only occurs after the natural and more ready interactions in the brain short each other out and the brain is forced to make a choice.

I believe that I am largely a product of my environment, but ultimately I may decide to choose another path, to set myself upon a different enforcement schedule, to ultimately assert my will. In my opinion, human behavior and even humanity may not be so pigeonholed by a single philosophy. However, our past history is often a very good indicator of what we might accomplish or what we might be capable of in the future. The caveat here is that we have the power to change. The proviso is that changing this automatic brain is not an easy accomplishment.

When I think of these things, it causes me to reflect back on my horrible undergraduate career and my comparatively stellar performance in graduate school. In the admissions process, we make a determination of fitness based on past performance. I was fully admitted, but there were some questions raised by my advisor. Getting in to UK's program was by comparison a breeze because I could show a habitual pattern of success. In other words, it is easier to perpetuate existing good behavior patterns as well as demonstrate this to others than it is to begin new habits or to try to convince others that one is capable of such action without such a history.

This is something noteworthy with regard to education and how teachers might show children the right path. It is a concept that transcends the curriculum. People are capable of change at any time and that there are practices (thinking back to James' chapter on the laws of habit) which can assist students make changes in their automatic behaviors at a formative stage rather than waiting until patterns are already established.

Another concept I came across in some ancillary readings is the concept of inner locus of control. Personality psychologist Julian Rotter did work in the 1950s and 60s with regard to how much control does a person feel like one has over his or her own life. Those who feel more in charge of their lives tend to be more motivated and content with their lives (Urbana-Champaign, 2011). According to this article, Rotter's work bridged the gap between behaviorism and cognitive psychology, which is the more accepted philosophies and theories with regard to most types of mental health counseling today.

So why, then, should we consider behaviorism with regard to education? I believe it is because appealing to these natural forces is a more efficient way to impart certain types of information through certain pedagogical practices and that forming good habits early is far easier than extinguishing previously undesirable patterns of behavior. It must be noted that Skinner was unrelenting in his assertions that behaviorism and operant conditioning were pervaded every facet of our being. For that reason, his philosophy was labeled radical behaviorism.

In the article assigned in the readings (1984) and in his book The Technology of Teaching (1968), Skinner derides the current state of classrooms as an aversive educational environment, one where students are weighted with sanctions and negative enforcement, made anxious and uncomfortable by not being able to work at their own pace and not receiving quick feedback for their work.

Skinner proposed a system of learning designed to leverage the automatic mind's desire for stimulus and processing of response years before the first personal computer came to market. He posited that there are ways to structure information so that students could review more information in the time allotted by working at their own individual pace with the help of teachers as learning assistants rather than pacemakers for an entire class.

Ultimately, we know that this automatic mind exists and that for certain types of education (such as special education) and certain educational outcomes (such as well structured domains of knowledge), there are specific types of tools for which modification of behavior are the best fit. Yet they can serve the educator at critical times regardless of the pedagogical methods required when we need to consider how to motivate and stimulate our students.

References

Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 4, 462-479


Durant, Will (1926). The story of philosophy: the lives and opinions of the greater philosophers. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from http://books.google.com/books?id=ZUnhlEiAlcMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

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


Skinner, B. F. (1968). The Technology of Teaching. New York: Meredith Corporation.

Urbana-Champaign, U. o. I. a. (2011). Locus of Control Retrieved November 1, 2011, from http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Locus_of_control

Module 1: IAT

I did things in reverse order, listening to the excerpt of Blink first, watching the Dateline video and then taking the IAT.

I grew up in a background where it was OK and sometimes even expected to have negative feelings about those who are different than I was. Until I was an adult I never really challenged these assertions by my parents. I cannot make excuses for this any more than I can change the past. This was simply the way it was.

Without getting into a somewhat involved story of how things changed and why they changed, I will just say that I moved away, met some really great people who were not at all like me and who accepted me and I lived in a house with them. I learned a lot from these people, especially how to accept myself. I think the root of hatefulness is self-loathing or lack of self-awareness or acceptance.

All these things aside, there is still an "automaticity" in thought of which Blink speaks with regard to preference of one race or another. Part of this, in my opinion, deals with the fact that we are generally more comfortable in groups of people with whom we are more familiar. I never had a black friend until I was in college, so it makes a certain amount of sense that I might be more comfortable around those of my own ethnicity. What doesn't make much sense to me is why even as a little I was so interested in foreign languages and cultures, but I digress.

The other aspect which trains these automatic tendencies is the mass media. I believe we either see more instances of young black men depicted negatively that other races or those instances for some reason stick out in our minds. So it is not much of a stretch for me to think that possibly, at least with this particular group, that I may harbor some sort of subconscious dislike, as depicted in Blink. However, I never really knew what to do about it. The book suggests that we must actively pursue opportunities to interact with diverse groups in order to become more comfortable with them and habituate these tendencies such that we are not as preferential to our own previous groupings.

As someone who serves a university community, I know that I have good intentions and that in terms of my official interactions I try to treat everyone fairly. However, I cannot exactly know what I am doing on an automatic level. The director of our diversity office is someone I have been helping recently with some technical issues. I plan on asking him his opinion about some of these issues.

The IAT I took was an ongoing study related to the acceptance of fat people versus those perceived to be thin. I am a guy who could stand to lose about 50 pounds. I am aware that society has some pretty high expectations for weight, especially among women. Moreover, my IAT results said that I have a strong preference for think people.

This is a little more difficult for me to accept in one sense. I believe that I treat everyone fairly and render excellent customer service to anyone who asks me. I realize the IAT is chiefly speaking to how my brain responds. It bothers me to think that I may not have treated someone fairly on any basis, but especially this one because I am fat. I guess I want to hear about more experiences here. Do you think that having a strong preference to one group means that you are not treating the other group fairly?

How does this fit into the educational milieu? I can think of a few implications and am borrowing from the questions posed in activity five:

Firstly, education is about learning to work with and learn from others. The tools of society is partly comprised of developing a skill set which will make one a willing worker within  a global marketplace. it is important that we set the stage early on as being one of diversity, fairness and cooperation.

Second, Learning in part is definitely a matter of building a common reference of associations. We want children to draw from experiences which capitalize on basic native reactions and cultivate a more robust curiosity from the presentation of new information. Behaviorism and automatic responses are the catalyst which begin students on the path to higher levels of discourse. Students, therefore, must be conditioned to accept these linkages. Early grades in my mind serve the important objective of acclimating the student to the schooling process. Simply being part of a classroom and following directions ensures smoother classroom operation in the years to come.

The quote I select from James makes me think of my son. I want to make sure that he treats everyone with respect and judge them according to their character and not with regard to how they look. I therefore need to be a good example such that he might imitate my behavior:

We become conscious of what we ourselves are by imitating others—the consciousness of what the others are precedes—the sense of self grows by the sense of pattern. The entire accumulated wealth of mankind—languages, arts, institutions, and sciences—is passed on from one generation to another by what Baldwin has called social heredity, each generation simply imitating the last.

B.F. Skinner Video: Programmed Instruction via Teaching Machines

Skinner called the application of operant conditioning in the educational environment programmed instruction. Skinner did not invent the teaching machine, but he certainly promoted it and improved upon it (Bjork, 1999; Skinner, 1995). I think it is important to see how this germ of a concept is applicable today. It might be hard to understand how Skinner saw how operant conditioning fits in until you see this video or read about programmed instruction.

References

Bjork, D. W. (1999). B.F. Skinner: A Life. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Skinner, B. F. (1995). The Behavior of Organisms at Fifty. In J. T. Todd & E. K. Morris (Eds.), Modern Perspectives on B.F. Skinner and Contemporary Behaviorism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Non-useful Classical Conditioning Video

Although unethical and possibly illegal, this video demonstrates concepts posited by Pavlov, Watson and Thorndike.

Chapter 13 - The Acquisition of Ideas

James explains how the transition between concrete and abstract activities and thinking might occur and that there is a generally accepted order in which information can be presented such that a child will make use of it to acquire more abstract and complex ideas.

From this position he makes a couple of assertions which are very useful for which I present the following statement:

"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 distinctions between things, and especially their causal sequences. Rational knowledge of such things as mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, and biology, is now possible; and the acquisition of conceptions of this order form the next phase of education. Later still, not till adolescence is well advanced, does the mind awaken to a systematic interest in abstract human relations—moral relations, properly so called,—to sociological ideas and to metaphysical abstractions" (p. 73).

1. Younger children are more attuned to acquire information which has some concrete basis or deals with specific articulable tasks and is also generally accepted to be more attractive to the child.
2. We have to be very careful when explaining abstract concepts to children of a certain age, as their minds are still in a more literal phase and they are more apt to interpret what you explain in varied ways.

I see these things every day in my son. It is so much fun to see how children literally interpret abstract words and concepts into their literal world. This underscores an important point: Many children are neither interested nor able to metabolize abstract concepts or those at higher levels of discourse until they have explored their physical world and concepts that exist therein.

Can you list examples from your own experiences where children have had difficulty understanding abstract or advanced topics? Can you name other scholars who have plugged into this position? What practical advice would you offer teachers with regard to this talk?

Chapter 15 - The Will

As a crescendo to the previous fourteen chapters, James explains the significance of the will within the educational context. He explains the dual definition of will; it describes both the capacity for impulse and action, as well as to describe actions which are deliberately executed in the face of multiple possibilities. A conscious thought eventually results in some sort of motor action in the body. However, one thought might override another, thus delaying this motor action. In fact, it is the interplay between the thought which might result in motor action and those successively held oppositional thoughts which is one of the main points of the chapter:

James defines the resultant voluntary action as "a compounding of our impulsions with our inhibitions" (p. 87). Out of this reactive contest emerges his definitions of will; one in which impulses will triumph and the other in which inhibitions will predominate. 

"So you see that volition, in the narrower sense, takes place only when there are a number of conflicting systems of ideas, and depends on our having a complex field of consciousness. The interesting thing to note is the extreme delicacy of the inhibitive machinery. A strong and urgent motor idea in the focus may be neutralized and made inoperative by the presence of the very faintest contradictory idea in the margin" (p. 85-86).

James admits that understanding this psychological tenet and the application of theory might be tricky. However, he reviews his previous words on the concept of education as a conditioning the habits of students as a means of shaping their will. In contrast to quoting John Wesley (p. 89), James admonishes us to consider that the educative process need not be a contest of wills, rather a gentle shaping of habits in order to allow the individual the self-governed ability to encourage desirable behaviors and displace the mental roots of potentially undesirable ones.

In fact, the real crux of this chapter and maybe the whole book takes place where James outlines what he calls "the general or abstract duty of teachers." It is to supply students with a deep reservoir of information (ideas) on which they may link more abstract and involved concepts, while at the same time diminishing their naturalistic immature impulses, but without stifling their passion for learning and "vigorous action" (p. 89).

How did you perceive the book? What lessons will you take from its pages? I think one useful exercise might be to construct an "instructional playbook" from this work. In other words, what are five to ten instructional maxims you could put into an outline or a rubric to let yourself know you had appercepted James' ideas?

Chapter 14 - Apperception

Meriam Webster's online dictionary (merriam-webster.com) lists two definitions for apperception:

1: introspective self-consciousness
2: mental perception; especially : the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience

James begins by criticizing an advertisement of Blank's Psychology, a publication which claims to explain the meaning of apperception and will do so for what I am sure in his day was a hefty price. He is critical because although the concept is simple and the implications powerful, the real utility lies with understanding how the mind works in the face of this concept:

"In admitting a new body of experience, we instinctively seek to disturb as little as possible our pre-existing stock of ideas" (p. 78).

This "law of economy" implies that it is not enough simply to know that the mind takes in new information and links it to existing data. We need to know that the mind is orderly and tries to maintain a sense of integrity in the face of new introductions and linkages to information because it is less taxing on the brain.

This powerful concept made me think about my own educational experiences. Oftentimes when I reject  stnew information, I believe it may have been directly related to my inability to make room for new concepts due to my current understanding of the subject, misconceptions that I had from prior instruction or attitudinal positions based on my ignorance of other perspectives.

In my opinion, these concepts are universally applicable to both young and older learners. The "old fogyism" (p.78) of which James speaks is something definitely applicable to me as I pursue this doctoral degree.

Are there subject areas for which providing obvious and direct linkages more beneficial to you? -

References

Apperception. (2011). merriam-webster.com. Retrieved October 24, 2011, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apperception

Chapter 12 - Memory

James begins by attempting to shed light on definitional memory of which most of us are aware and the operational aspect of what he calls associationist psychology, which is an attempt to understand the association of ideas within a specific context. More specifically, James posits that in order for a thought or concept to become resident in one's mind, it must be introduced in some fashion and it must become tied to some pre-existing thoughts.

James shares two other important important concepts. First is the notion that memories are tied together as multiple systems in the brain.

"We have, then, not so much a faculty of memory as many faculties of memory. We have as many as we have systems of objects habitually thought of in connection with each other. A given object is held in the memory by the associates it has acquired within its own system exclusively. Learning the facts of another system will in no wise help it to stay in the mind, for the simple reason that it has no 'cues' within that other system" (p. 62 ).

James relates to us that not every person is a master of every faculty. For example, some individuals are better at math and science reasoning, while others possess a facility for recalling historical dates. Toward that end, he introduces the concept of the mnemonic devices for facilitating ways of thinking. However, he admits that this can become a tedious exercise which subverts what to me the main point of this talk; Rote memorization is not the best way by which to evaluate a student. Students have individual strengths and weaknesses. It is a more effective strategy to build upon prior knowledge and to consider the level of discourse at which a student may participate in a given area relative to their strengths in other subjects.

This fits in perfectly with what Sweller (1988) says about instructional activities relative to the stated objectives of learning. When teachers have students perform tasks far removed from the desired learning goal, it unduly taxes the brain. To marry the concepts of these two works, it seems that the establishment of direct associations that might be universally understood will best help students internalize and retain information.

Can you recall an instance in which a teacher presented information which made a lasting impression on you?

References

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science,
12, 257-285.

Chapter 11 - Attention

To further explicate points made in chapters nine and ten, James describes what he calls the attentive process, underscoring that even in situations where one is interested in a subject, attention waxes and wanes. Moreover, in order for a subject to remain interesting for students, it must exhibit some degree of change while it is examined. If the subject matter is static or dull, then the teacher must present it in dynamic ways. Moreover, James admits that some teachers simply possess an innate ability to make static things more interesting and that this gift cannot be neither precisely described nor perfectly taught.

This particular topic is something that I have discussed in previous EDC classes. I am not sure yet where I stand on the issue except to say I know there are born teachers out there who never would have had to take a single education class. When you have the ability to connect with students, gain their trust and garner their attention, the delivery of instruction might almost become ancillary. Yet I know we study instruction relative to a set of stated goals based on discovered needs because for those of us who do not perfectly connect to learners, there are helpful strategies to assist us.

James makes one of the most useful suggestions toward the end of the chapter.

"Do not, then, for the mere sake of discipline, command attention from your pupils in thundering tones. Do not too often beg it from them as a favor, nor claim it as a right, nor try habitually to excite it by preaching the importance of the subject. Sometimes, indeed, you must do these things; but, the more you have to do them, the less skillful teacher you will show yourself to be. Elicit interest from within, by the warmth with which you care for the topic yourself, and by following the laws I have laid down" (p. 56).

There must be a component of disposition and personality inherent to most good teaching. This feels true to my own experience. What do you think? Can someone master instructional techniques and still be a lousy teacher? Can someone be a fantastic communicator and teach effectively without using prescribed methods?

Chapter 10 - Interest

In the previous chapters, James said a lot about how to understand the workings of a learner's (particularly a child's) mind. As I reflect on these with regard to chapter ten, the most salient points have been the following:

• There are learner characteristics and behaviors pertaining to the less educated (or trained) mind 
• More experienced learners exhibit other attributes and behaviors. 

Of these, James often calls the former native and the latter acquired reactions. This is important because with so many things in life we must consider our target audience in order to be effective in serving them.

In chapter nine, James explains the concept of idea association; how ideas emanate from and are linked to previous ideas in successive waves of thought. He is setting the stage, in my opinion, for one of the more useful chapters so far.

In order to understand how to apply this chapter to practical situations, we have to understand this notion of native versus acquired reactions and extrapolate it to the concept of attracting a student's interest. Consider the following passage:

"Since some objects are natively interesting and in others interest is artificially acquired, the teacher must know which the natively interesting ones are; for, as we shall see immediately, other objects can artificially acquire an interest only through first becoming associated with some of these natively interesting things" (p. 46).

This is a powerfully true statement for anyone familiar with children. He mentions that young children are not at all interested in abstract concepts, and are immediately interested in living, moving and interactive things; things which are unique and perhaps just a little (or maybe a lot) dangerous. Moreover, James wrote that in order to garner interest in an object of which children have no native interest, one must link it to something interesting.

What items do you find get children's interest right away? Are there items which hold their attention longer than others?

Chapter 9 - The Association of Ideas

The second time I read this chapter I thought to myself, "James is talking about schema." The notion of schema as it ebbed and flowed inside my mind touched off several different thoughts. For example, I began thinking of this big Excel spreadsheet related to items in my household. Then my mind recalled a schema analogy using a hotel I heard the first time I became acquainted with John Sweller: Thinking of the word hotel conjures up myriad images; the front desk, the pool, room service, the exercise room. Each of these elements contain various sub-components until we may be thinking of something completely different that the original object of thought.

How did I arrive at such a place? James tries to shed light on this phenomenon in presenting his construct of idea association. In so doing, he presents a law of contiguity and a law of similarity, the basic premise of which is that one's stream of consciousness has a structure; ideas though sometimes tangential, are related and relatable to prior thoughts.

Based on my understanding of the text, the practical application of this information is incumbent on understanding two main concepts. First, James shares an anecdote about anticipating a possible windfall from a deceased relative's bequest:

"The words 'I, the heir,' immediately make an electric connection with the marginal thought of the will; that, in turn, makes my heart beat with anticipation of my possible legacy"

I believe James is trying to underscore the fact that steps can be taken to encourage or stimulate students by using tactics to stimulate them through use of prior experiences via associated ideas. Using words, pictures, sounds or other stimuli to invoke associations which would yield enthusiastic responses and gain students' attention might be a powerful motivating force pedagogically.

Second, James presents the concepts that chains of ideas which point to similar linkages in thinking might yield more predictable results than those which may cause a more chaotic or misdirected change in the stream of consciousness; humans often tend to look at the pattern as a whole when the ideas therein are more directly linked in a compatible manner.

One thing I like about this book, and especially in this chapter is that this is not a practical step-by-step guide for classroom teaching. However, he is giving theoretical concepts and just as he said in the first chapter, suggesting there are several ways one might implement them.

Can you give some specific classroom examples where these laws have born out in the words or actions of students? What changes might you make to your teaching in order to incorporate these ideas?

Chapter 8 - The Laws of Habit

In a chapter which is abundantly relevant to almost everyone, James explains the concept of habit as he sheds particular light on how habits are formed and maintained, the use of habituating positive actions, and presents a five maxims by which teachers my guide and lead by encouraging good habits in ourselves (p.34-37).

1. Launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible
2. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life
3. Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain
4. Don't preach too much to your pupils or abound in good talk in the abstract
5. Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.

Firstly, James suggests that when attempting to adopt a new habit, one should  make as great an effort as possible to manifest it within yourself. He suggests dedicating yourself fully by immersion in a supportive environment which will set you up for success with the highest chance of positive outcomes.

Second, James supports the first maxim by stating that until this habit is fully ensconced in your daily life to allow no exceptions or deviations in your practices or environmental factors to occur.

As James presents his third maxim, I believe he posits that a person should take every possible opportunity to reinforce or practice this habit as situations present themselves in everyday life. In previous entries, I mentioned  what I know of the linkages between B.F. Skinner and James. I believe while Skinner may claim that the environment may play more of a role in the shaping of human behavior, he has certainly said that in order to change behavior, you must change the environment. I do not know how much Skinner wrote about an individual's ability to control this in him or herself. However, I don't think that Skinner would disagree with this position on general terms.

Another fantastic piece of advice in my opinion that over 30 can use in dealing with younger folks is to allow natural occurrences to demonstrate proper behaviors or courses of action. I think a lot of people call these teachable moments. As I look back, I think my most influential memories are comprised of them.

Lastly, to borrow from conventional colloquialism, James tells us to practice, practice, practice! Do a thing for its own sake and because it is the type of thing you want to be doing. Moreover, there may come a time when having mastery of this particular habit may really make a difference in your life.

So far this is my favorite chapter because it proves the utility in reading seminal works that are still relevant and will perdure as long as humanity.

What habit have you successfully integrated into yourself despite the difficulties involved? What habits have you helped encourage in others and how was that intervention received?