Mano a Mano 3Phase II

Week Two Topic One

Learning Theory Current Perspectives

Drs. Ellen Marshall and Cathy McAuliffe.

This Week’s Agenda

• Topic Objectives

• Learning Theory• Current Perspectives• Comparison of Current and Historical

Perspectives

• A Further Look at Theory• Multiple Intelligences• Social-Emotional Development

Objectives

• Examine the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky• Compare constructivist theory with

behaviorist/positivist theory• Examine theory of multiple intelligences• Examine theory of social-emotional development

Jean Piaget

• Who• Swiss psychologist

• When• 1896 - 1980

• What• Constructivism

• Children create their understanding of the world as they play with objects and interact with people

When you read the next slide, pause for a moment…

• Get out a piece of paper and something to write with

• There are eight questions on the next slide; answer them briefly as best as you can

• Continue reading the slides• Go back to your notes…what did you get

“right?”• What did you have misunderstandings about?• What are some ideas that are new to you?

What do you know or remember about Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development?

• Sensorimotor Stage• What are the ages for this stage?• What are some of the characteristics and milestones?

• Preoperational Stage• What are the ages for this stage?• What are some of the characteristics and milestones?

• Concrete Operations Stage• What are the ages for this stage?• What are some of the characteristics and milestones?

• Formal Operations Stage• What are the ages for this stage?• What are some of the characteristics and milestones?

Sensorimotor Stage: 0 – 2

•Babies learn about the world by gathering information with all their senses

•Curiosity is inborn and innate

•Babies quickly learn concepts related to size, weight, shape, time, and space

•Object permanence is attained; this is a crucial milestone

•Children in this stage are explorers!

Preoperational Stage: 2 - 7

•Preschoolers begin to develop concepts more like adults, but these concepts are still incomplete

•Language undergoes rapid growth (which can fool some adults into thinking children this age understand more than they do…and can cause unneeded conflict)

•Symbolic behaviors emerge

•Thinking is characterized by centration, irreversibility, and inability to conserve

•Includes early toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, and early elementary school learners!

Concrete Operational Stage: 7 - 12

•Children are becoming conservers

•Can make a mental reversal

•Can handle abstract symbolic activities

•The term concrete is important!

•Seven is the age that children traditionally started school…and most religions have some sort of ceremony for children at this age…

•Some early elementary school learners will be in this stage, which means that a first or second grade will have a mix of children in the preoperational stage and the concrete stage

Formal Operational Stage: 12 – 15 and into adulthood

•Children learn to solve problems in a logical and systematic manner

•Begin to understand abstract concepts; can solve abstract problems

•The executive functions of the brain, however, do not “kick in” until the late teens or early 20s…which can result in risky behavior…

•This stage is not reached by everyone!

What is learning?

• The following slides focus on learning as a process of adaptation…Piaget saw learning as the way we adapt to our environment and the “things” in our environment, including other people…

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Learning as a Process of Adaptation

• Adaptation:• integrated process of assimilation and accommodation that

explains how learning is acquired• learning is an adaptation to our environment

• Schemes:• units of knowledge that children develop through the adaptation

process • Assimilation:

• taking in sensory data through experiences and incorporating into existing schemes (knowledge)

• Accommodation:• changing existing schemes to fit new sensory data or

information• a process of changing ways of thinking, behaving, and believing

to come into accord with reality. George S. MorrisonGeorge S. MorrisonFundamentals of Early Childhood EducationFundamentals of Early Childhood Education, Fourth Edition, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

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Learning as a Process of Adaptation continued

• Equilibrium:• the balance between assimilation and accommodation• as a child takes in new information that does not fit into existing

schemes, the child struggles to make sense of the information and accommodates in order to regain equilibrium

• children reject data they can neither assimilate nor accommodate

Piaget maintains that new learning experiencesmust be connected to previous experiences or thelearner will reject the new information. • Have you ever experienced this, either as a child or an

adult learner?

George S. MorrisonFundamentals of Early Childhood Education, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Read some more about Piaget

• http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsypiaget.html• Take a moment to read this short article about the

stages of cognitive development• Stop and analyze your classroom and your

teaching. • Are you using knowledge of stages of cognitive

development appropriately?

• Is there something you should or could be doing differently?

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ONE MORE TIME!!!Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor(birth to 2 years)

• Preoperational(2-7 years)

• Concrete operations(7-12 years)

• Formal operations(12-15 years)

George S. MorrisonGeorge S. MorrisonFundamentals of Early Childhood EducationFundamentals of Early Childhood Education, Fourth Edition, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Lev Vygotsky

• Who• Soviet developmental psychologist

• When• 1896 - 1934

• What• Also a constructivist

• Believed that interaction with adults and older children was essential for optimal psychological development

Lev Vygotsky

• Vygotsky was a contemporary of Piaget

• It’s interesting to think about how Piaget and Vygotsky might have influenced each other if they had communicated with each other!

Lev Vygotsky

• Recognized both developmental and environmental influences

• Mental tools – signs

• Speech

• Writing

• Numbering

• After the age of 2, cultural influences are critical

• Zone of proximal development

• Scaffolding

Read some more about Lev Vygotsky

• http://www.funderstanding.com/content/vygotsky-and-social-cognition

• Take a moment to read this short article about the Vygotsky’s ideas

• Stop and analyze your classroom and your teaching. • Are you using these ideas appropriately in your

classroom?

• Is there something you should or could be doing differently?

Piaget and Vygotsky

• The theories of Piaget and Vygotsky helped us to think about learning in new ways

• The following slides contrast the old way of looking at learning with the “new” way of looking at learning…

Who?

• Former• Pavolv

• Watson

• Skinner

• Current• Piaget

• Vygotsky

• And others…

What?

• Current• Paradigm shift

• Multiple realities

• The goal is to communicate to try to understand our varied understandings of experiences

• Former• Traditional education for most

of us

• There is one reality

• The goal is to strive for complete and correct understanding

What Else?

• Current• Learning is an active

experience

• Physical activity is crucial for learning

• Individual experience is significant

• Meaning cannot exist independently of the person experiencing the world

•Former•Learning is a passive experience•Physical activity is not required to learn•Individual experience is insignificant•Meaning exists apart from experience

Which Means That…

• Former• The expert knows the truth and

can impart the truth!

• Knowledge can be given to another

Current

• A leader facilitates

• Knowledge is constructed individually, but within a social context

Let’s move on to another theory of learning

• Most intelligence theorists have asked “How smart are you?”

• Dr. Howard Gardner asks, “How are you smart?”

• What does the difference between this two questions imply for each of us?

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Multiple Intelligences Theory

Linguistic Intelligence

Logical-mathematical Intelligence

Spatial Intelligence

Musical Intelligence

Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence

Interpersonal Intelligence

Intrapersonal Intelligence

Naturalistic Intelligence

Existentialist*

George S. MorrisonFundamentals of Early Childhood Education, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

* Dr. Gardner has has not yet included this intelligence in his theory, because he has not yet found a place in the brain that clearly “houses” this intelligence

Multiple Intelligences

• http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

• Read this article (it’s a bit longer than the previous links in this power point presentation!)

• How does (or should) the idea of multiple intelligences impact your teaching?

Another theorist…

• Now let’s look at a theory of social-emotional development…

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Erikson’s First Four Stages of Psychosocial Development

Stage I: Basic Trust vs. Mistrust(birth to 18 months)

Stage II: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

(18 months to 3 years)

Stage III: Initiative vs. Guilt(3 years to 5 years)

Stage IV: Industry vs. Inferiority(the elementary school years)

There are four more stages…this is a fascinating way of looking at the entire life span! Each stage depends on the previous one…

George S. MorrisonFundamentals of Early Childhood Education, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Social-Emotional Development

• http://www.pccua.edu/keough/erikson%27s_stages_of_development.htm

• Read this short article to get more information about each stage that Erikson described

Finally!

• Last week we asked you to explore this website:

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html

• Now we want you to start thinking about your classroom, the environmental rating scales, and constructivism

• Read the following link and review your copy of the ECRS-R or SACER-R

• https://secure.ccie.com/library/5019112.pdf