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