BRAIN-BASED LEARNING
DEFINITION
This learning theory is based on the structure and function of the brain. As long as the brain is not prohibited from fulfilling its normal processes, learning will occur.People often say that everyone can learn. Yet the reality is that everyone does learn.
Every person is born with a brain that functions as an immensely powerful processor. Traditional schooling, however, often inhibits learning by discouraging, ignoring, or punishing the brain's natural learning processes.The core principles of brain-based learning state that:
1. The brain is a parallel processor, meaning it can perform severalactivities at once, like tasting and smelling.
2. Learning engages the whole physiology.
3. The search for meaning is innate.
4. The search for meaning comes through patterning.
5. Emotions are critical to patterning.
6. The brain processes wholes and parts simultaneously.
7. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.
8. Learning involves both conscious and unconscious processes.
9. We have two types of memory: spatial and rote.
10. We understand best when facts are embedded in natural, spatialmemory.
11. Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.
12. Each brain is unique.
The three instructional techniques associated with brain-based learning are:
1. Orchestrated immersion--Creating learning environments that fully immerse students in an educational experience
2. Relaxed alertness-- Trying to eliminate fear in learners, while maintaining a highly challenging environment
3. Active processing--Allowing the learner to consolidate and internalize information by actively processing it
HOW BRAIN-BASED LEARNING IMPACTS EDUCATION
Curriculum-- Teachers must design learning around student interests and make learning contextual.Instroction--Educators let students learn in teams and use peripheral learning. Teachers structure learning around real problems, encouraging students to also learn in settings outside the classroom and the school building.Assessment--Since all students are learning, their assessment should allow them to understand their own learning styles and preferences. This. way, students monitor and enhance their own learning process.
WHAT BRAIN-BASED LEARNING SUGGESTS
How the brain works has a significant impact on what kinds of learning activities are most effective. Educators need to help students have appropriate experiences and capitalize on those experiences. As Renate Caine illustrates on p. 113 of her book Making Connections, three interactive elements are essential to this process:. Teachers must immerse learners in complex, interactive experiences that are both rich and real.
One excellent example is immersing students in a foreign culture to teach them a second language. Educators must take advantage of the brain's ability to parallel process..
Students must have a personally meaningful challenge. Such challenges stimulate a student's mind to the desired state of alertness./ . In order for a student fo gain insight about a problem, there must be intensive analysis of the different ways to approach it, and about learning in general. This is what's known as the "active processing of experience."
A few other tenets of brain-based learning include: . Feedback is best when it comes from reality, rather than from an authority figure. . People learn best when solving realistic problems. . The big picture can't be separated from the details.. Because every brain is different, educators should allow learners to customize their own environments.
. The best problem solvers are those that laugh!
Designers of educational tools must be artistic in their creation of brain-friendly environments. Instructors need to realize that the best way to learn is not through lecture, but by participation in realistic environments that let learners try new things safely.
RIGHT BRAIN-LEFT BRAIN THINKING
It is a theory of the structure and working of the brain that suggests that: a) different sides of the brain control different "modes" of thinking; and b) that we all have a preference for one or the other of these modes.Experimentation has demonstrated that the two different sides ("hemispheres") of the brain are responsible for different modes of thinking. In general, the division is:
LEFT BRAIN
RIGHT BRAIN
Logical
Random
Sequential
Intuitive
RationalHolistic
I Analyzes
Synthesizes
Objective
Subjective
Most individuals have a distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking; some are more "whole brained' and are equally adept at both modes. In general, schools tend to favor left-brain modes of thinking, while down playing right-brain modes. Left-brain subjects focus onlogical thinking, analysis and accuracy. Right-brained subjects focus on aesthetics, feeling, and creativity.
LEARNING STYLES
DEFINITION
This approach to learning emphasizes the fact that individuals perceive and process information in very different ways. The learning styles theory implies that how much individuals learn has more to do with whether the educational experience is geared toward their particular style of learning than whether or not they are "smart." In fact, educators should not ask, "Is this student smart?" but rather "How is this studentsmart?"
The concept of learning styles is rooted in the classification of psychological types. The learning styles theory is based on research demonstrating that, as the result of heredity, upbringing, and current environmental demands, different individuals have a tendency to both perceive and process information differently. The d!fferent ways of doing so are generally classified as:
1. Concrete and abstract perceivers--Concrete perceivers absorb information through direct experience, by doing,feeling. Abstract perceivers, however, take inanalysis, observation, and thinking.
2. Active and reflective processors--Active processors make sense of an experience by immediately using the new information. Reflective processors make sense of an experience by reflecting on and thinking about it.acting, sensing, and information throughTraditional schooling tends to favor abstract perceiving and reflective processing. Other kinds of learning aren't rewarded and reflected in curriculum, instruction, and assessment nearly as much.
HOW THE LEARNING STYLES THEORY IMPACTS EDUCATION.
Curriculum--Educators must place emphasis on intuition, feeling, sensing, and imagination, in addition to the traditional skills of analysis, reason and sequential problem solving.. Instroction-- Teachers should design their instruction methods to connect with all four learning styles, using various combinations of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation. Instructors can introduce a wide variety of experiential elements into the classroom, such as sound, music, visuals, movement, experience, and even talking.. Assessment-- Teachers should employ a variety of assessment techniques, focusing on the development of "whole brain" capacity and each of the different learning styles.
LEARNING STYLES ASSESSMENT(j~ cCIRead the word( s) in the left column and pick the description that best expresses how ,~ ayou usually handle each situation.
When you [Visual IAuitOry IKi,,stti andtil I H Ispell 100 you try to see the word? Sound out the word, or use a Write the word down to I . phonetic approach? find if it feels right? Talk ITaik sparingly, but dislike Enjoy listening, but are IGesture and use listening for too long? Do impatient to talk? Use words expressive movements? Iyou favor words such as such as hear, tune, and think? Use words such as feel, I, pict.e,airnCii? .. ,touch, and hold? isualize 100 you see vivid, detailed hink in sounds? Have few images, all Ipictures? involving movement? Concentrate Do you become distracted, Become distracted by sounds Become distracted by by untidiness or or noises? activity around YOU? , Jmovement? Meet someone Do you forget names, but Forget faces, but remember Remember best what you again remem ber faces? ; names? Remember what you did together? Remember where you talked about? met? M people Do you prefer direct, face- Prefer the telephone? Talk with them on business to-face, personal walking or participating
LEARNING MODALITIES
There are different learning modalities that can be easily recognized in your students. Knowing their learning modalities will help you plan your class in a more efficient way, and therefore grab the attention of all of your students at all times.
The most commonly found are:.
VISUAL: They are fast talkers, like visual aids, don't like to stay on the same subject for too long, like lots of content, are concerned about the professional look of materials, want to see everYthing written down, find it hard to remember verbal instructions, like to get an overall picture first, have an eye for detail and error, don't like to live with uncertainty, and have well developed skim-scan skills, among other things..
AUDITORY: rhese students are rhYthmic speakers, like class discussion, tend to be easily distracted from the subject of the lesson, will go off at a tangent never to return, respond to what you say to them by paraphrasing, don't see theneed for visual aid, are active listeners, talk to themselves, repeat instructions, have excellent recall of what was said, and suffer the inherent dangers of liking the sound of their own voice..
KINESTHETIC: Some of your students are: slow, methodical speakers, think before they speak, appear to lack spontaneity, like to make contact with people, prefer handouts to transparencies, like manipulative activities - cards, cuisenaire rods, etc.; favor hands-on demonstration of principles to be learnt, can't sit still,are movers and touchers, prefer to learn by doing, point to the page when reading, remember experience more than what was heard or seen, etc.u: C'O: c: 4:In the following pages, you will find some ways to find out an individual's learning .
NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING
LEARNING MODALITIES - BEHAVIOURAL INDICATORS
VISUAL+A fast talker.+Likes visual aids.+Doesn't like to stay on the same subject for too long.+Likes lots of content. +Concerned about professional look of material. +Wants to see everYthing written down.+Finds it hard to remember verbal instructions.+Likes to get an overall picture first.+Has an eye for detail and error. +Accuracy-oriented.+Doesn't like to live with uncertainty.+Voice quality - higher in the tonal range.+Finds visual input (diagrams, timelines) memorable.+May want to use the board/OHP I , to explain things.+Well developed skim/scan skills. " +A good speller.+Switches off during visual' support.+Vivid imagery colors their L 1.
AUDITORY+A rhythmic speaker. +Likes class discussion.+ Tends to be easily distracted from the subject of the lesson.+Will go off at a tangent never to return.+Responds to what you say to them by paraphrasing.+ Doesn't see the need for visual aids.+Oohs, ahs, OKs & Uh-huhs a lot.+An active listener.+ Talks to himself.+Repeats instructions. +Finds drills slow.+Highly talkative & may dominate fluency sessions. +Inherent dangers of liking the sounds of their own voice.+A phonetic speller.+Finds background music during a lesson distracting. +Never forgets a tune.
KINESTHETIC+-A slow methodical speaker. +- Thinks before they speak. +-Appears to lack spontaneity. +-Likes to make contact with Jeople.+-Prefers handouts transparencies.+-Likes to get hold of the llaterial.+-Likes manipulative activities :;ards, cuisenaire rods, etc. +-Favors hands-on fun.+-A good mime."More of a procedural & :;equentiallearner."Excellent recall of what was :;aid."Talks during writing activities. "Sub-vocalizes while reading, lence demonstration of)rinciples to be learnt."Tends to like milling & eamwork."Can't sit still."A mover & toucher."Prefers to learn by doing. "Gestures a lot."Points to the page when 'eading."Voice quality - low & strong. -Remembers experiences, nore than what was heard or ieen.-Intuitive but weak on details. -Tendency to fantasize.to
Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire 1. When teacher tells me the instructions, I understand better. 2. I prefer to learn by doing something in class. 3. I get more work done when I work with others. 4. I learn more when I study with a group. 5. In class, I learn best when I work with others. 6. I learn better by reading what is written on the board. 7. When someone tells me how to do something in class I learn it better. 8. When I do things in class, I learn better. 9. I remember things I've heard in class better than things I've read. 10. When I read instructions, I remember them better. 11. I learn more when I can make a model of something. 12. I understand better when I read instructions. 13. When I study alone, I remember things better. 14. I learn more when I make something for a class project. 15. I enjoy learning in class by doing experiments. 16. I learn better when I make drawings as I study. 17. I learn better when the teacher gives a lecture. 18. When I work alone, I learn better. 19. I understand things better when I participate in role-playing. 20. I learn better in class when I listen to someone. 21. I enjoy working on assignments with other classmates. 22. When I build something, I remember what I learned better. 23. I prefer to study with others. 24. I learn better by reading than by listening to someone. 25. I enjoy making something for a class project. 26. I learn best in class when I participate in related activities. 27. In class, I work better when I work alone. 28. I prefer working on projects by myself. 29. I learn more by reading textbooks than listening to lectures. 30. I prefer to work by myself.
INSTRUCTIONS
There are five questions for each learning style category in this questionnaire. The questions are grouped below according to each learning style. Each question you answer has a numerical value:Strongly Agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree=5=4 =3 =2=1
Fill in the blanks below with the numerical value of each answer. For example, if you answered Strongly Disagree for question 6 (a visual question) write a number 5 on the blank next to question 6 below:
VISUAL 6 = 5
When you have completed all the numerical values for Visual, add the numbers.Multiply the answer by two and write the total in the appropriate blank.Follow this procedure for each of the categories. When you have finished, look at the scale at the bottom of the page. It will help you determine your major learning preference( s), your minor preference( s) and those learning style( s) that are negligible.
001002
How to calculate the score: Score:3 points for each Usually.2 points for each Sometimes.1 point for each Almost never or never. 0 points for each Don't know.
Total Score: D
Key: 0-8 points: 9-13 points: 14-22 points: 23-37 points:
Not sure.Relaxed, focused on fluency and not accuracy. Balanced.AnalYtic, focused on accuracy.
Taken from: Learning to Learn English by Gail Ellis & Barbara Sinclair.
MULTIPLE INTElliGENCES
The traditional view of intelligence as a single ability is being replaced by the theory that intelligence is a complex and multiple concept. It is not a matter of being more or less intelligent along a single scale. It is a question of being intelligent in different ways.In each of us there are different areas of intelligence which are developed to differentdegrees. For example, a brilliant mathematician may be clumsy when it comes to physical activity like sport or dancing. An excellent writer may be hopeless at math. Great sport-people may have done badly in the traditionally academic subjects at school, but who can doubt theirtremendous physical intelligence? Some people excel in natural understanding of others. Thefilm 'Rain Man' showed an extreme case of a man who was considered mentally deficient and yet had the most amazing talent for mathematical calculations and could perform fantastic feats of memory.This has important implications for teachers. We can draw on the different strengths of . our students and encourage them to use all aspects of their intelligence in learning English.
THE SEVEN INTElliGENCES
Howard Gardener, Professor of Education at Harvard University, described seven intelligences. Like the individual learning styles, these match different kinds of classroom activity. The success of an activity in class depends on how much it appeals to the students. If it fits in with their learning style, or it matches their strongest intelligence, then students are more likely to respond to it positively.1. Physical intelligence: These learners like to deal with problems physically and are skilful when working with things. They enjoy sports, games and exercise and like to move around and touch things when learning. They remember best what they have done.2. Linguistic intelligence: These learners enjoy literature and learn from books and tapes. They like lectures and like to write things down. They are fluent, expressive speakers with a large vocabulary.3. Mathematical I Logical intelligence: These learners enjoy solving puzzles and problems and like logical explanations. They arrange tasks in an orderly sequence and approach their work in a logical way.4. Visual I Spatial intelligence: These learners are observant and have a good sense of direction. They enjoy looking at pictures, films and slides and understand charts and diagrams easily. They may have a good visual imagination.5. Musical intelligence: These learners have a keen ear for sounds and like music. They have a good sense of rhYthm and find it easy to learn tunes and songs.6. Inter-personal intelligence: These learners are sensitive to other people's feelings and interested in how others think. They are good mediators and enjoy working in groups. They are often on teams or join clubs and may have many friends.
7. Intra-personal intelligence: These learners are independent and like to work quietly on their own. They may be dreamy and imaginative, and come up with original ideas. They think deeply and generally understand themselves well.
These different facets of intelligence are often linked to different professions someone with strong visual/spatial skills would make a good architect; a high level ofmathematical/logical skills would be required of a tax accountant or statistician. Often we can see a future career in our students - what we are seeing is their particular natural ability.Research has shown those analyzing learners' needs and preferences, and adapting the teaching to suit students' learning styles, is worth the effort, because learners become increasingly engaged in their learning. They spend more time during the lesson on their work,they behave better and they remember more.While individuals may have a preference to learn using their strongest intelligence, the most effective, most balanced way to learn is to try to involve all the intelligences. It is also important for learners' general intellectual development. There are some ideas bellow for applying the whole range of intelligences to learningEnglish:
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Friday, October 20, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Welcome
MODULE I - CLASS
Students will become familiar with the Piagetian theory of "Genetic Epistemiology" as well as with Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development.
They will compare and contrast the two.
HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN? (Brainstonn ss'. opinions) Part one:
PIAGET
. Presentation of Piaget's theories "Stages of Cognitive Development" . Solving of Piaget puzzle, in teams.
Summary of concepts.
Principles:
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or situations that engage learners and require adaptation (i.e., assimilation and accomodation).
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their currrent cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.
Part two:
4 Basic Principles Underlying The Vyg at ski an Framework
Children construct their knowledge
VYGOTSKY
. Presentation of concepts
(ZPD, Scaffolding)
Part three:
Development can not be separated
from its soci al context
Learning can lead development
Language plays a central roIe in mentaI development
FINAL CONCLUSIONS:
Comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky
Students will become familiar with the Piagetian theory of "Genetic Epistemiology" as well as with Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development.
They will compare and contrast the two.
HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN? (Brainstonn ss'. opinions) Part one:
PIAGET
. Presentation of Piaget's theories "Stages of Cognitive Development" . Solving of Piaget puzzle, in teams.
Summary of concepts.
Principles:
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or situations that engage learners and require adaptation (i.e., assimilation and accomodation).
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their currrent cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.
Part two:
4 Basic Principles Underlying The Vyg at ski an Framework
Children construct their knowledge
VYGOTSKY
. Presentation of concepts
(ZPD, Scaffolding)
Part three:
Development can not be separated
from its soci al context
Learning can lead development
Language plays a central roIe in mentaI development
FINAL CONCLUSIONS:
Comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky
Extra information- VYGOTSKY'S THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
VYGOTSKY'S THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, lived during the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and the expression and application of his ideas were restricted. His work was suppressed and only became widely available in the last thirty years.
The first Western translations of his writings were published in the 1970's, and only since then have his theories become influential. His theories are now a powerful force in developmental psychology.
Vygotsky proposed that intellectual development can be understood only in terms of the historical and cultural contexts children experience, and development depends on the sign systems that individuals grow up with (e.g., the culture's language). Whereas Piaget stressed biology as the determiner in stages of development, Vygotsky proposed that cognitive development is an outgrowth of social development through interaction with others. Like Piaget, however, Vygotsky believed that the acquisition of these sign systems occurs in an invariant sequence of steps that is the same for all children.
The most important contribution of Vygotsky's theory is an emphasis on the sociocultural nature of learning. According to Piaget, development precedes learning. In other words, specific cognitive structures need to develop before learning can take place. According to Vygotsky, learning precedes development.
An essential feature of learning is that it creates the zone of proximal development; that is, learning awakens a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the learner is interacting with people in his or her environment or in cooperation with peers. Once these processes are internalized, and the child can perform these processes without assistance, they become part of the child's developmental achievement.
Thus, learning is not development, but a necessary aspect of the process of development.
Vygotsky's theories have two major implications. One is the desirability of setting up cooperative learning arrangements among groups of students with differing levels of ability. Second, a Vygotskyan approach to instruction emphasized scaffolding, with students taking more and more responsibility for their own learning.
Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, lived during the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and the expression and application of his ideas were restricted. His work was suppressed and only became widely available in the last thirty years.
The first Western translations of his writings were published in the 1970's, and only since then have his theories become influential. His theories are now a powerful force in developmental psychology.
Vygotsky proposed that intellectual development can be understood only in terms of the historical and cultural contexts children experience, and development depends on the sign systems that individuals grow up with (e.g., the culture's language). Whereas Piaget stressed biology as the determiner in stages of development, Vygotsky proposed that cognitive development is an outgrowth of social development through interaction with others. Like Piaget, however, Vygotsky believed that the acquisition of these sign systems occurs in an invariant sequence of steps that is the same for all children.
The most important contribution of Vygotsky's theory is an emphasis on the sociocultural nature of learning. According to Piaget, development precedes learning. In other words, specific cognitive structures need to develop before learning can take place. According to Vygotsky, learning precedes development.
An essential feature of learning is that it creates the zone of proximal development; that is, learning awakens a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the learner is interacting with people in his or her environment or in cooperation with peers. Once these processes are internalized, and the child can perform these processes without assistance, they become part of the child's developmental achievement.
Thus, learning is not development, but a necessary aspect of the process of development.
Vygotsky's theories have two major implications. One is the desirability of setting up cooperative learning arrangements among groups of students with differing levels of ability. Second, a Vygotskyan approach to instruction emphasized scaffolding, with students taking more and more responsibility for their own learning.
Extra information- FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Pre-school students (ages 2 to 4): These students are in a sensitive period for language development. They absorb languages effortlessly and are adept imitators of speech sounds. Because they are very self-centered, they do not work well in groups, and they respond best to activities ad learning situations relating to their own interests and experiences. Although they have a short attention span, they have great patience for repetition of the same activity or game. Pre-schoolers respond well to concrete experiences and to large-motor involvement in language learning.
Kindergarten and Primary students (grades 1 and 2): Most of these children are still pre-operational, and they learn best with concrete experiences and immediate goals. They like to name objects, define words, and learn about things in their own world. Primary-age children learn through oral language; they are capable of developing good oral skills, pronunciation, and intonation when they have a good model. They learn well, especially beginning in first grade, through dramatic play and role play. Because of their short attention spans, they need to have a great variety of activities, but the teacher must keep in mind that children of this age tire easily. They require large-muscle activity, and they are still rather unskilled with small-muscle tasks. Teachers of primary students must give very structured and specific directions and build regular routines and patterns into the daily lesson plan.
Intermediate students (ages 8-10, grades 3 to 5): Children at this age are at a maximum of openness to people and situations different from their own experience. For these students, a global emphasis is extremely important, because it gives them an opportunity to work with information from all parts of the world: as intermediates develop the cognitive characteristics of the concrete operations stage, they begin to understand cause and effect. Students in intermediate grades can work well in groups. They can begin a more systematic approach to language learning, but they continue to need first-hand, concrete experiences as a starting point and continue to benefit from learning that is embedded in context.
Transescent students (ages 11-14, grades 6 to 8): During the middle and,
junior high school years, students are undergoing more dramatic developmental changes than experienced at any other time in life, and on widely differing timetables. The transescent must learn to deal with a variety of experiences: emerging sexuality in a changing and often unpredictable body; reaching a cognitive plateau for a time, and then finding new, adult intellectual tools; multiplying and rapidly shifting interests; a fluid and flexible self-concept; a need to rework interpersonal relationships with adults; turbulent emotions; extreme idealism; a need to assert independence; and a powerful peer group. A major goal of all schooling for children of this age is the encouragement of positive relationships and positive self-image. Transescent children need the opportunity for broad explorations, as well as introduction to the demands of academic disciplines.
Pre-school students (ages 2 to 4): These students are in a sensitive period for language development. They absorb languages effortlessly and are adept imitators of speech sounds. Because they are very self-centered, they do not work well in groups, and they respond best to activities ad learning situations relating to their own interests and experiences. Although they have a short attention span, they have great patience for repetition of the same activity or game. Pre-schoolers respond well to concrete experiences and to large-motor involvement in language learning.
Kindergarten and Primary students (grades 1 and 2): Most of these children are still pre-operational, and they learn best with concrete experiences and immediate goals. They like to name objects, define words, and learn about things in their own world. Primary-age children learn through oral language; they are capable of developing good oral skills, pronunciation, and intonation when they have a good model. They learn well, especially beginning in first grade, through dramatic play and role play. Because of their short attention spans, they need to have a great variety of activities, but the teacher must keep in mind that children of this age tire easily. They require large-muscle activity, and they are still rather unskilled with small-muscle tasks. Teachers of primary students must give very structured and specific directions and build regular routines and patterns into the daily lesson plan.
Intermediate students (ages 8-10, grades 3 to 5): Children at this age are at a maximum of openness to people and situations different from their own experience. For these students, a global emphasis is extremely important, because it gives them an opportunity to work with information from all parts of the world: as intermediates develop the cognitive characteristics of the concrete operations stage, they begin to understand cause and effect. Students in intermediate grades can work well in groups. They can begin a more systematic approach to language learning, but they continue to need first-hand, concrete experiences as a starting point and continue to benefit from learning that is embedded in context.
Transescent students (ages 11-14, grades 6 to 8): During the middle and,
junior high school years, students are undergoing more dramatic developmental changes than experienced at any other time in life, and on widely differing timetables. The transescent must learn to deal with a variety of experiences: emerging sexuality in a changing and often unpredictable body; reaching a cognitive plateau for a time, and then finding new, adult intellectual tools; multiplying and rapidly shifting interests; a fluid and flexible self-concept; a need to rework interpersonal relationships with adults; turbulent emotions; extreme idealism; a need to assert independence; and a powerful peer group. A major goal of all schooling for children of this age is the encouragement of positive relationships and positive self-image. Transescent children need the opportunity for broad explorations, as well as introduction to the demands of academic disciplines.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Module 1
LEARNING AND TEACHING
What is learning and what is teaching and how do they interact? Let's consider some traditional definitions. A search in contemporary dictionaries reveals that learning is "acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience, or instruction." A more specialized definition might read as follows: "Learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice" (Kimble and Garmezy 1963:133). Similarly, teaching, which is implied in the first definition of learning, may be defined as "showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand." How awkward these definitions are! Isn't it rather curious that professional lexicographers cannot devise more precise scientific definitions? More than perhaps anything else, such definitions reflect the difficulty of defining complex concepts like learning and teaching.
Breaking down the components of the definition of learning, we can extract certain
domains of research and inquiry:
1. Learning is acquisition or "getting.'"
2. Learning is retention of information or skill.
3. Retention implies storage systems, memory, and cognitive organization.
4. Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon events outside or
inside the organism.
5. Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6. Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
7. Learning is a change in behavior.
These concepts can also give way to a number of sub-fields within the discipline of psychology: acquisition processes, perception, memory (storage) systems, recall, conscious and subconscious learning styles and strategies, theories of forgetting, reinforcement, the role
of practice.
Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Nathan Cage (1964:269) noted that "to satisfy the practical demands of education, theories of learning must be 'stood on their head' so as to yield theories of teaching." Teaching is the guiding and facilitation of learning.
Your understanding of how the learner learns will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods, and classroom techniques.
In different historical eras and in different cultures, a variety of conceptions have been put forward concerning the nature of mind, of truth, of knowledge, of moral goodness, of aesthetic beauty, and of the purpose of life. These views carry implications for the purpose and nature of the educational process, the ends toward which one should educate, the means by which one can best achieve those ends, the degree of consistency between the ends and
the means, and the model, if any, that one has in mind when engaging in the educational process. The following represent some of the most influential models:
PLATONIC VIEW
The starting-point must be Plato, whose Republic, though not exclusively that, is the first and greatest work in the philosophy of education. In the Republic, Plato is concerned with educating people in such a way that a just society is the outcome. Many would find this an extraordinary overestimation of the powers of education, and indeed it would be were education conceived in terms acceptable to a liberal democracy and did not involve, as Plato advocates, a form of child-farming. Plato is not concerned with the liberal ideal of individuals pursuing their own tastes and interests. He rejects the family and private property, at least for
the rulers. For Plato, the good life is characterized rather by a general turning towards what is
good and true outside of us and independently of us. Although this external good has left its traces deep within us, it is hidden and needs to be recovered by a process of externally directed discipline and thought. Each individual is born destined to playa particular type of role in a society, which aims at the good, and will be happy when his own powers are so arranged as to enable him to fulfill this role. In such a society the rulers will p-ossess the wisdom to guide the rest in the light of the good and the true. In the good city there will be all the usual trades and crafts, and the majority of citizens should be trained to perform them, presumably learning reading, writing, counting, and the particular skills appropriate to their trade. But educators will notice that some youths are suited by temperament to guard and guide the city; those singled out need to be both brave and gentle. To produce soldiers of the right disposition, those selected will receive an education in music and gymnastics, based on the traditional classical Greek models.
The most selfless ana steadfast of the guardians are to be educated further to become rulers of the city. For this, they will need to become philosophers, lovers of wisdom, skilled in science and reasoning (or what Plato calls dialectic). Both rulers and soldiers are to be brought into what is in effect an armed camp within the city, and taken away from their parents. For the rest of their lives they will possess everYthing in common, including wives and children. The presumption is that the offspring of the initial guardians will share their qualities and form the next generation of guardians.
Within the camp no one will know who his or her parents are. There will also be no distinction between the sexes, women being selected as guardians as much as men, and educated in the same way. Future generations of guardians will be told that they have been bred for the city. Their philosophizing is not for their own satisfaction only, but is so that they can rule and instruct the rest.
Simply to recount Plato's proposals may seem to have little philosophical point. There are, though, certain themes which have recurred in educational thinking since Plato's time: the idea that education and individual lives are ideally for the sake of the state, not for the sake of the individual alone; the idea that education is as much about the building of character as of intelligence in our sense (which is the case even with the rulers' philosophizing, which is all directed towards a type of static wisdom which is coterminous with moral goodness); and the idea that education is capable of transforming individual minds and characters so as to produce acceptance of a revolutionary communistic project.
Plato's doubtless exaggerated assessment of the power of education nevertheless leads him to write scathingly .and brilliantly of forms of education of which he disapproves. He writes of the schoolmaster in a democratic society who 'fears and flatters his pupils' and the pupils who consequenfly despise him, of old men who, ridiculously, condescend to the young, 'imitating their juniors in order to avoid the appearance of being sour or despotic'.
For Plato, although education is communistic, it cannot be democratic or, in the modern sense, childcentered. Even though within us there are the seeds or traces of wisdom, wisdom eludes the grasp of the young, who are wayward and blind and who have to be trained over many years to have the right dispositions and thoughts. Education, then, cannot proceed on the basis o the current interests of the young. The philosophers, indeed, have a duty, which is painful for them, of descending into the cave metaphorically occupied by the unenlightened, so as to
instruct and rule them. And wisdom is fixed and one. So a pluralistic approach to the value of education is rejected.
Like much else in philosophy, the philosophy of education continually rehearses Platonic themes: authoritarian or child-centered? Dictatorial or pluralistic? Collectivistic or individualistic? And there is also continual worrying at the relationship between what is already inside the child and what is to be received from without. Of course, strange
transmogrifications have happened on the way. The train of thought now known as liberal education, as reflected in the writings of Michael Oakeshott, say, would agree with Plato in rejecting child-centered ness, but disagree with him on the fixity of knowledge and on the nature of the state. It would agree with Plato on the importance of learning what has been
discovered, but disagree with him on the closure of traditions of thought. And while it would give some thought to the importance of moral education, it would tend to view education in far more intellectualist terms than Plato, claiming that intellectual disciplines and their content are
worth learning for themselves, irrespective of any moral improvement they bring.
THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
What do you do when you hear a bell ring?
A teacher told this story on himself. When most teachers hear a bell one of the first things they do is walk out into the hallway to be a monitor. Right? Just keep a watchful eye on the students. Well, this guy had acquired such a habit that when he was at home and the doorbell rang he'd walk into a nearby hallway and "monitor" his family. For him it was simply such a strong habit that he'd produce the right behavior (going into the hall to monitor) at the wrong place (his own home).
In this chapter we will look at Classical Conditioning, perhaps the oldest model of change
there is. It has several interesting applications to the classroom, ones you may not have thought about. Let's look at the components of this model.
COMPONENTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
The easiest place to start is with a little example. Consider a hungry dog that sees a bowl of food. Something like this might happen:
.
Food ---> Salivation
The dog is hungry, the dog sees the food, and the dog salivates. This is a natural sequence of events, an unconscious, uncontrolled, and unlearned relationship. See the food, and then salivate.
Now, because we are humans who have an insatiable curiosity, we experiment. When we present the food to the hungry dog (and before the dog salivates), we ring a bell. Thus,
. Bell
. with
. Food ---> Salivation
We repeat this action (food and bell given simultaneously) at several meals. Every time
the dog sees the food, the dog also hears the bell. Ding-dong, Alpo.
Now, because we are humans who like to play tricks on our pets, we do another experiment. We ring the bell (Ding-dong), but we don't show any food. What does the dog do? Right,
. Bell ---> Salivate
The bell elicits the same response the sight of the food gets. Over repeated trials, the dog has learned to associate the bell with the food and now the bell has the power to produce the same response as the food. (And, of course, after you've tricked your dog into drooling and acting even more stupidly than usual, you must give it a special treat.)
This is the essence of Classical Conditioning. It really is that simple. You start with two
things that are already connected with each other (food and salivation). Then you add a third
thing (bell) for several trials. Eventually, this third thing may become so strongly associated
that it has the power to produce the old behavior.
Now, where do we get the term "Conditioning" from all this? Let me draw up the diagrams
with the official terminology.
.Food ;---> Salivation
. Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response
"Unconditioned" simply means that the stimulus and the response are naturally connected. They just came that way, hard-wired together like a horse and carriage and love and marriage, as the song goes. "Unconditioned" means that this connection was already present before we got there and started messing around with the dog or the child or the spouse.
"Stimulus" simply means the thing that starts it while "response" means the thing that ends
it. A stimulus elicits and a response is elicited. (This is circular reasoning, true, but hang in there.) Another diagram:
. Conditioning Stimulus
. Bell . with
. Food > Salivation
. Unconditioned Stimulus > Unconditioned Response
We already know that "Unconditioned" means unlearned, untaught, preexisting, alreadypresent-before-we-got-there. "Conditioning" just means the opposite. It means that we are trying to associate, connect, bond, and link something new with the old relationship. And we want this new thing to elicit (rather than be elicited) so it will be a stimulus and not a response. Finally, after many trials we hope for:
.Bell > Salivation
. Conditioned Stimulus ---> Conditioned Response
Let's review these concepts.
1. Unconditioned Stimulus: a thing that can already elicit a response.
2. Unconditioned Response: a thing that is already elicited by a stimulus.
3. Unconditioned Relationship: an existing stimulus-response connection.
4. Conditioning Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver the same time we give the old
stimulus.
5. Conditioned Relationship: the new stimulus-response relationship we created by
associating a new stimulus with an old response.
There are two key part~. First, we start with an existing relationship, Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditiqned Response. Second, we pair a new thing (Conditioning Stimulus) with the existing relationship, until the new thing has the power to elicit the old response.
A LITTLE HISTORY AND A COMPARISON
The example we used here is from the first studies on classical conditioning as described by Ivan Pavlov, the famous Russian physiologist. Pavlov discovered these important relationships around the turn of the century in his work with dogs (really). He created the first learning theory which precedes the learning theory most teachers know quite well, reinforcement theory. We will look at reinforcement theory in a separate chapter, but for now I do want to make a point.
The point is this: Classical conditioning says nothing about rewards and punishments
which are key terms in reinforcement theory. Consider our basic example:
. Conditioning Stimulus
. BELL
. with
. Food > Salivation
. Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response
There is nothing in here about rewards or punishments, no terminology like that, not even an implication like that. Classical conditioning is built on creating relationships by association over trials. Some people confuse Classical Conditioning with Reinforcement Theory. To keep them separated, just look for the presence of rewards and punishments.
EVERYDAY CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
This type of influence is extremely common. If you have pets and you feed them with canned food, what happens when you hit the can opener? Sure, the animals come running even if you are opening a can of green beans. They have associated the sound of the opener with their food.
Classical conditioning works with people, too. Go to K-Mart and watch what happens
when the blue light turns on. Cost-conscious shoppers will make a beeline to that table
because they associate a good sale with the blue light. (And the research proves that people are more likely to buy the sale item under the blue light even if the item isn't a good value.)
And classical conditioning works with advertising. For example, many beer ads prominently feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The young women (Unconditioned Stimulus) naturally elicit a favorable, mildly aroused feeling (Unconditioned Response) in most men. The beer is simply associated with this effect. The same thing applies with the jingles and music that accompany many advertisements.
Perhaps the strongest application of classical conditioning involves emotion. Common experience and careful research both confirm that human emotion conditions very rapidly and easily. Particularly when the emotion is intensely felt or negative in direction, it will condition quickly.
For example, when I was in college I was robbed at gunpoint by a young man who gave me The Choice ("Your money or your life. ") It was an unexpected and frightening experience. This event occurred just about dusk and for a long time thereafter, I often experienced moments of dread in the late afternoons, particularly when I was just walking around the city. Even though I was quite safe, the lengthening shadows of the day were so strongly associated with the fear I experienced in the robbery, that I could not but help feel the
emotion all over.
Clearly, classical conditioning is a pervasive form of influence in our world. This is true
because it is a natural feature of all humans and it is relatively simple and easy to accomplish.
BEHAVIORISM
Behaviorism in general and Skinner in particular have exerted considerable influence on Western, and especially American, education through developments that range from the invention of programmed instruction (or the so called "teaching machine") to the widespread emphasis on behavioral objectives in educational programs. The philosophy of Behaviorism compels one to examine carefully the issue of control in education. Skinner wants to use scientific control to bring about a society in which it will be easy to be good and to bring about an educational process through which it will be easy to be excellent. There is no alternative
to control, in his view. It is simply a matter of who is to control. One does not grant the child "freedom" merely by leaving him alone. To refuse to use scientific control to shape human behavior is, for the Behaviorist, a failure in responsibility.
Let's take a closer look at Skinner's life and theories.
B. F. (Burrhus Frederic) Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. As a youth,
he showed talent for music and writing, as well as mechanical aptitude. He attended Hamilton College as English major, with the goal of becoming a professional writer. After graduation, Skinner, discouraged over his literary prospects, became interested in behaviorist psychology after reading the works of John Watson and Ivan Pavlov. He entered Harvard University as a graduate student in psychology in 1928 and received his degree three years later. Skinner remained at Harvard through 1936, by which time he was a junior fellow of the prestigious
Society of Fellows. While at Harvard, he laid the foundation for a new system of behavioral analysis through his research in the field of animal learning, utilizing unique experimental equipment of his own design.
His most successful and well-known apparatus, known as the Skinner Box, was a cage in which a laboratory rat could, by pressing on a bar, activate a mechanism that would drop a food pellet into the cage. Another device recorded each press of the bar, producing a permanent record of experimental results without the presence of a tester. Skinner analyzed
the rats' bar-pressing behavior by varying his patterns of reinforcement (feeding) to learn their responses to different schedules (including random ones). Using this box to study how rats "operated on" their environment led Skinner to formulate the principle of operant conditioning -- applicable to a wide range of both human and animal behavior -- through which an experimenter can gradually shape the behavior of a subject by manipulating its responses through reinforcement or lack of it. In contrast to Pavlovian, or response, conditioning, which depends on an outside stimulus, Skinner's operant conditioning depends on the subject's responses themselves. Skinner introduced the concept of operant conditioning to the public in his first book, The Behavior of Organisms (1938).
Between 1936 and 1948 Skinner held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Indiana, after which he returned permanently to Harvard. His ideas eventually became so influential that the American Psychological Association created a separate division of studies related to them (Division 25: "The Experimental Analysis of "Behavior"), and four journals of behaviorist research were established. In the 1940s Skinner
began training animals to perform complex activities by first teaching those chains of simpler ones. He was quite successful in training laboratory animals to perform apparently remarkable and complex activities. One example of this involved pigeons that learned to play table tennis.
Skinner's observation of the effectiveness of incremental training of animals led him to formulate the principles of programmed instruction for human students, in which the concept of reward, or reinforcement, is fundamental, and complex subjects such as mathematics are broken down into simple components presented in order of increasing difficulty. Presented with a set of relatively simple questions, students receive immediate reinforcement -- and thus
incentive to continue -- by being told that their answers were correct. The programmed learning movement became highly influential in the United States and abroad. Although this
technique eventually came under criticism by educators advocating more holistic methods of instruction, it remains a valuable teaching tool. Courses and course materials based on it have been developed for many subjects, and at levels of difficulty ranging from kindergarten through graduate school.
Skinner's work was also influential in the clinical treatment of mental and emotional
disorders. In the late 1940s he began to develop the behavior modification method, in which subjects receive a series of small rewards for desired behavior. Considered a useful technique for psychologists and psychiatrists with deeply disturbed patients, behavior modification has also been widely used by the general population in overcoming obesity, shyness, speech defects, addiction to smoking, and other problems. Extending his ideas to the realm of philosophy, Skin'ner concluded that all behavior was the result of either positive or negative reinforcement, and thus the existence of free will was merely an illusion. To explore the social ramifications of his behaviorist principles, he wrote the novel Walden Two (1948), which depicted a utopian society in which all reinforcement was positive. While
detractors of this controversial work regarded its vision' of social control through strict positive reinforcement as totalitarian, the 1967 founding of the Twin Oaks Community in Virginia was
inspired by Skinner's ideas. Skinner elaborated further on his ideas about positive social control in his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), which critiques the notion of human autonomy, arguing that many actions ascribed to free will are performed due to necessity.
Skinner has been listed in The 100 Most Important People in the World, and in a 1! survey he was identified as the best-known scientist in the United States. Skinner's 01 books include Science and Human Behavior (1953) and Verbal Behavior (1957).
EXISTENTIALIST VIEW
Because of the diversity of positions associated with existentialism, the term is impossible to define precisely; however, certain themes common to virtually all existentialist writers can be identified.
The term itself suggests one major theme: the stress on concrete individual existence that is, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice:
. Moral Individualism-that the highest good for the individual is to find his or her own unique vocation; that one must choose one's own way without the aid of universal, objective standards; that no objective, rational basis can be found for moral decisions.
. Subjectivity-that personal experience and acting on one's own convictions are essential in arriving at the truth; that the perspective of the individual should be emphasized; that one should be suspicious of systematic reasoning; that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason or science.
. Choice and Commitment-that humanity's primary distinction is the freedom to choose; that choice is central to human existence, and is inescapable; that freedom of choice entails commitment and responsibility; that individuals must accept the risk and responsibility of their choices.
. Dread and Anxiety-that fear and general feelings of apprehension, or
dread, are part of the human experience; that anxiety (German Angst) results from the individual's confrontation with the impossibility of finding ultimate justification for the choices one makes; that one should recognize and acknowledge these feelings of dread and anxiety.
As a distinct philosophical and literary movement, 20th century existentialism had its roots in the 19th century romantic revolt against reason and science in favor of passionate involvement in life.
Kierkegaard generally regarded as the founder of modern existentialism, reacted against the systematic absolute idealism of Hegel and rejected his rational understanding of humanity and history.
Kierkegaard stressed, instead, the ambiguity and absurdity of the human situation.
He believed it was the individual's responsibility to live a totally committed life, a 'personally valid' way of life; that this commitment could only be understood by the individual who made it; and that the individual must always be prepared to defy the norms of society for the sake of this commitment.
Nietzsche influenced 20th century existentialism through his criticism of traditional metaphysical and moral assumptions; through his espousal of tragic pessimism; and through his notion of the life-affirming individual will that opposes itself to moral conformity.
Nietzsche proclaimed the "death of God" and went on to reject the entire Judeo
Christian moral tradition in favor of a heroic pagan ideal.
Kierkegaard, on the other hand, advocated a radically individualistic Christian
faith.
HEIDEGGER AND SARTRE
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), German philosopher, developed the 20th century
notion of existential phenomenology.
Heidegger's original treatment of such themes as human finitude, death,
nothingness, and authenticity led to his association with existentialism.
He began his career as an assistant to Edmund Husserl, the founder of
phenomenology, and was also influenced by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
Although influenced by Husserl, Heidegger rejected his attempt to put
philosophy on a conclusive rationalistic basis.
He argued, instead, th.at humanity finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent
world, and that human beings can never hope to understand why they are here.
He believed that each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of one's life.
In his most important and influential work, Being and Time (1927), Heidegger formulated what he considered the essential philosophical questions: What is it "to be," and what kind of "being" do human beings have?
Heidegger's theory of 'being and time' may be summarized as follows:
. Individuals are thrown into a world that they have not made, but which
consists of potentially useful things, including cultural as well as natural
objects.
. Because these objects come to humanity from the past, and are used in the present for the sake of future goals, Heidegger posited a fundamental relation between the mode of being of objects and humanity, and of the structure of time.
. The individual, he claimed, is always in danger of being submerged in the world of objects and everyday routine, and the conventional, shallow behavior of the crowd.
. Ultimately, a feeling of dread (Angst) brings the individual to a
confrontation with death and the ultimate meaninglessness of life.
. But only in this confrontation can an authentic sense of "Being" and of
freedom be attained.
After 1930, Heidegger expanded his thoughts on Being, including new ideas,
which were later expressed in such works as An Introduction to Metaphysics (1953):
. He felt that modern technological 'society had fostered a purely
manipulative attitude, which had deprived Being, and human life, of
meaning-a condition he called nihilism.
. Humanity had forgotten its true vocation, and needed to recover the
deeper understanding of Being to be receptive to new understandings of
human existence.
Although his work had a crucial influence on the French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, Heidegger eventually repudiated the existentialist interpretations of his work.
Because of his early public support of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party, Heidegger's professional activities were restricted after World War II and controversy followed him until his retirement in 1959.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), philosopher, dramatist, novelist, and political
journalist, and the leading exponent of French existentialism.
Sartre gave the term existentialism general currency by using it for his own philosophy and by becoming the leading figure of a distinct movement in France that became internationally influential after World War II.
His philosophic work combined the phenomenology of Husserl, the metaphysics
of Hegel and Heidegger, and the social theory of Marx into a single view.
Sartre's philosophy was explicitly atheistic and pessimistic; he declared that
human beings require a rational basis for their lives but are unable to achieve one, and thus human life, he concluded, is a "futile passion."
Sartre nevertheless insisted that his existentialism is a form of humanism, and
he strongly emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility.
In his early philosophic work, Being and Nothingness (1943), Sartre conceived humans as beings who create their own world by rebelling against authority and by accepting personal responsibility for their actions, unaided by society, traditional morality, or religious faith.
His theory of existential psychoanalysis asserted the inescapable responsibility of all individuals for their own decisions and made the recognition of one's absolute freedom of choice the necessary condition for authentic human existence.
His plays and novels also expressed the belief that freedom and acceptance of personal responsibility are the main values in life, and that individuals must rely on their creative powers rather than on social or religious authority.
In his later philosophic work, Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960), Sartre's emphasis shifted from existentialist freedom and subjectivity to Marxist social determinism; here he tried to reconcile existentialist concepts with a Marxist analysis of society and history.
Sartre argued that the influence of modern society over the individual is so great as to produce serialization, by which he meant loss of self. Individual power and freedom, he claimed, can only be regained through group revolutionary action.
Sartre's philosophical views, which he related to life, literature, psychology, and political action, stimulated so much popular interest that existentialism became a worldwide movement.
PIAGET
A major contribution has been the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget and his followers, who are convinced that children advance through rather regular stages of intellectual development. The first two periods - sensor motor intelligence (from birth till two) as well as representative intelligence (from two to seven or eight) - relate to the field of early childhood. In the first stage (sensor motor) the child learns to use his muscles and senses to deal with external objects and events while his language begins to form. He also begins to deal with things and know that they exist even if they are beyond his sight and touch. He also starts to "symbolize" (represent things by word and gesture). In the second stage the child experiences the greatest language growth; words and other symbols become a way to represent both the outside and inner feelings. At this time "magical explanations" make sense
to him. He begins to gain a sense of symmetry. His adjustments depend on learning by trial
and error, and he manages things by intuition. He begins to integrate symbolization and elementary types of relationships, such as logical and mathematical relationships (grouping, sizes, quantities, and qualities) and spatial and temporal relationships. Piaget's theory laid the groundwork for recognizing the importance of cognitive learning processes and concept formation in the young child. Piaget also stressed the importance of an environment conducive to learning the necessary skills.
Piaget's theory identifies four developmental stages and the processes by which children progress through them. The four stages are:
1. Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 years old) -- The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it , works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects: remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence).
2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) -- The child is not yet able to conceptualize
abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.
3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11) -- As physical experience accumulates, the
child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her
physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage.
For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with
objects.
4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15) -- By this point, the child's cognitive
structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning.
Piaget outlined several principles for building cognitive structures. During all development stages, the child experiences his or her environment using whatever mental maps he or she has constructed so far. If the experience is a repeated one, it fits easily or is assimilated into the child's cognitive structure so that he or she maintains mental "equilibrium." If the experience is different or new, the child loses equilibrium, and alters his or her cognitive structure to accommodate the new conditions. This way, the child erects more and more adequate cognitive structures.
HOW PIAGET'S THEORY IMPACTS LEARNING
. Curriculum -- Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum
that enhances their students' logical and conceptual growth.
. Instruction -- Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences--or interactions with the surrounding environment--play in student learning. For example, instructors have to take into account the role that fundamental
concepts, such as the permanence of objects, play in establishing cognitive structures.
CONSTRUCTIVISM
DEFINITION
Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.
The history of constructivism appears closely integrated with the evolution of educational psychology - both developmental and social learning theories. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was perhaps the first in Western civilization to explore learning and knowledge structures with a model that viewed children as the "builders of
their intellectual structures" (Papert, 1980). Unknown to Western civilization until years later, a contemporary of Piaget's was also taking new views on the nature of learning. Soviet psychologist Lev Semanovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) developed "dialectic theory," a social learning perspective that describes how children learn through interaction and dialogues with socializing agents (such as peers, teachers, parents, etc.).
Constructivist learning has emerged as a prominent approach to teaching
during this past decade. The work of Dewey, Montessori, Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky, among others, provides historical precedents for constructivist learning theory.
There are several guiding principles of constructivism:
1. Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning.
2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts.
3. In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models.
4. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the "right" answers and regurgitate someone else's meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.
HOW CONSTRUCTIVISM IMPACTS LEARNING
. Curriculum -- Constructivism calls for the elimination of a standardized curriculum. Instead, it promotes using curricula customized to the students' prior knowledge. Also, it emphasizes
hands-on problem solving.
. Instruction -- Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students.
. Assessment -- Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students playa larger role in judging their own progress.
TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING VIEWS
Jack Mezirow, author of Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning and Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative and Emancipatory Learning, suggests, in his theory of transformative learning, that individuals can be transformed through a process of critical reflection.
Influences on the theory include Paulo Friere and constructivist thought.
Paulo Friere describes the process of conscientization, by which adults "achieve a deepening awareness of both the sociocultural reality which shapes their lives and... their capacity to transform that reality through action upon it". Constructivism is the assumption that meaning exists within ourselves rather than in external forms.
Catalysts for transformative learning are "disorienting dilemmas", situations which do not fit one's preconceived notions. These dilemmas prompt critical reflection and the development of new ways of interpreting experiences. In this way, "transformative learning involves reflectively transforming the beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and emotional reactions that constitute our meaning schemes."
According to Mezirow, the role of the educator is to:
. help the learner focus on and examine the assumptions that underlie their
beliefs, feelings and actions
. assess the consequences of these assumptions
. identify and explore alternative sets of assumptions
. test the validity of assumptions through effective participation in reflective
dialog.
Transformative learning involves:
. becoming more reflective and critical
. being more open to the perspectives of others
. being less defensive and more accepting of new ideas
Mezirow states that transformative educators "may help others, and perhaps
we, move toward a fuller and more dependable understanding of the meaning of our mutual experience."
METACOGNITION
The concept of metacognition entered the field of cognitive psychology with John Flavell. For Flavell metacognition includes knowledge and regulation of cognition. Knowledge about cognition consists of: 1) person variables, or knowledge about one's self, and others' thinking; 2) task variables, or knowledge that different types of tasks exert different types of cognitive demands, and; 3) strategy variables, or knowledge about cognitive and metacognitive strategies for enhancing learning and performance.
Ann Brown also distinguished between knowledge about cognition, and
regulation of cognition. Knowledge about cognition can be "stable, stable but fallible, or late developing", remaining relatively consistent within individuals. Regulation, on the other hand, can be "relatively unstable, rarely stable, and age independent", changing rapidly from situation to situation. Brown's distinction suggests that self-regulation is more context than age dependent; one may show self-regulatory behavior in one situation but not another and a child may show selfregulatory behavior where an adult does not. Regulation may also be affected by patterns of arousal (anxiety, fear, interest) and self-concept (self-esteem, self
efficacy). Rarely stable refers to the general inaccessibility of regulatory processes to consciousness. Brown states that "conscious access to routines available to the system is the highest form of mature human intelligence", which suggests that highly developed metacognitive skill, or the ability to bring automated skills into consciousness, is characteristic of high intelligence. By developing self-awareness, one is effectively developing one's intelligence.
PRIVATE SPEECH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF METACOGNITION
Brenda Manning and her associates studied the development of selfregulatory skills in children based on Lev Vygostky's (1934/1987) notion of private speech as a precursor to self-regulatory behavior, defined as externalized thought.
Manning categorized private speech into four levels. Level 1, the lowest level, was associated with task-irrelevant private speech such as affective expression (emotion or feelings), or off-task commenting or questioning. Level 2 was associated with task-relevant private speech that did not facilitate task completion, such as giving up or complaining about the task. Level 3 was associated with taskrelevant private speech of a facilitative nature that described content, process, or structure, and was used as a strategy to focus attention (Le. cognitive focus). Level
4 was associated with "higher level" facilitative private speech such as correcting, coping, or reinforcing (Le. metacognitive focus). Manning and her associates studied groups of kindergarten children, investigating relationships between private speech and autonomy, academic achievement, and creativity. Autonomous children, or those who were able to work with little guidance or assistance, scored lower on Levels 1 to 3 and higher on Level 4 than non-autonomous children.
Academically advanced children used less Level 1 and 2, and more Level 3 and 4 private speech than less academically advanced children. Creative children used less Level 1 and more Level 4 private speech than less creative children. In each case autonomous, academically advanced, and creative children used less nonfacilitative private speech and more metacognitive private speech. Notably the
autonomous children used less lower-level facilitative private speech (Level 3), unpredicted by the research hypotheses. Manning suggests that these children may have already internalized (automated) Level 3 cognitive self-guiding processes.
Much of the work that followed Vygotsky suggested that private speech disappears or is replaced by internalized speech in middle childhood. Recent evidence suggests however that private speech persists beyond childhood into at least adolescence, and is suppressed by social pressure to internalize one's thoughts; thinking aloud in a classroom is frowned upon. In a study that
manipulated the social stigma associated with thinking aloud, confederate high school students used private speech during the last 20 minutes of a 3D-minute test
taking session, and observed a subject for changes in private speech when the confederate began speaking quietly. Private speech during the initial quiet period
was negatively correlated with test scores. This is consistent with earlier research that theorizes that in the beginning private speech is an advantage but as children grow older it becomes a disadvantage and is used only in difficult problem-solving situations where internalized strategies are not available. In this study the amount of private speech increased between the quiet period and talking period, supporting the idea that private speech may be socially suppressed by teenage years. During the talking period those who talked the most scored lowest and highest, suggesting private speech can hinder or improve performance depending on the circumstances. A positive relationship between private speech during the
talking period and test scores was found, and a case from either end of the performance score revealed that the lower-scoring students' private speech was
focused on negative statements about self or the task, while the higher-scoring students were thought to forgo the social rules in favor of what they recognized as a useful strategy.
THE AUTOMATION PROCESSES OF COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE
Kevin Crowley and his associates have demonstrated the relationship between automation of cognitive processes and the emergence of metacognitive thinking. They found that kindergarten children were most likely to think "metacognitively" when a lower-level cognitive skill became automated. They suggest that strategies become "Associative Mechanisms", which operate without conscious effort, and allow children to devote more mental processing space to the metacognitive and creative aspects of learning.
Strategies eventually generalize by forming "goal sketches", which are the result of metacognitive mechanisms decaying from conscious access over time. Goal sketches are generalized strategies not particular to any task, but useful across many, and used automatically based on recognition of general task characteristics. Such a general strategy might include working backwards. This strategy is often acquired early as children learn that working backwards through a
maze is usually quicker than starting at the beginning. Such a strategy might generalize into another, such as retracing one's steps to a lost item. Later, as children become expert readers, it may manifest as a strategy of looking at the end of a chapter to gather its gist, or looking at the review questions before reading. Another such strategy could be attending to errors. If the initial letter-to-sound mapping in early readers does not become fully automated, it is possible this may result in reduced metacognitive activity in reading tasks where phonological ability is tested. Thus, metacomprehension, metamemory, and metalinguistic abilities may be hindered because extra processing space is required to process phonological input.
In children with LD (Learning Disabilities), the automation of lower-level basic
skills may be delayed or deficient, thus emergence of goal sketches or automated generalized strategies may also be delayed or deficient. This is consistent with findings that suggest internalization of private speech is delayed in children with a reading disability; insufficiently automated phonological processes delay suppression of externalized private speech. It is not clear whether the inability to develop or initiate generalized strategies is a domain-general phenomenon or specific to the domain of the disability. It may be that such skills are developed but
are not accessible when the domain of the disability is being challenged. That is,
when a child with a reading disability is reading, the strain on processing space prevents the emergence of metacognitive behaviors, while on tasks that do not require reading, metacognitive behavior can emerge.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF METACOGNITION
John Borkowski and his associates have distinguished between types of
strategy knowledge. This knowledge includes what a particular strategy would achieve, what tasks match its use, the range of its usefulness, the benefits of regularly using it, how much effort would be required to use it, and how enjoyable or laborious it would be. Borkowski brings together the components of other models of metacognition (e.g. Flavell and Brown) and provides us with a more
comprehensive model, which encompasses cognitive, metacognitive, and affective factors, within a developmental framework.
As children are faced with impasses, they experience success and failure and they receive feedback which, occurring frequently develops into ingrained attributions of success and failure. These attributions govern self-esteem, selfefficacy, and the effects they have on successful strategy learning and their transfer to other content areas. Borkowski reviewed a number of studies which point to the importance of attribution training for students with LD. A more recent study also indicates the importance of individuals' attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of their performance. This latter study suggests, however, that domain-specific attitudes and beliefs will govern metacognitive behavior within those particular domains. So in addition to domain-generalized metacognitive deficits as might occur for a person with a reading disability, they are likely affected by both cognitive and psychosocial factors as well as aptitude.
DOMAIN GENERAL VERSUS DOMAIN SPECIFIC METACOGNITIVE SKILLS
Frank Veenman and his group looked at task and domain variables in addressing generality versus domain-specificity of metacognitive skills in novices. They adopted what they called a "Working Method" approach. Individuals' working methods (metacognitive skills) can vary in quality. Expertise is the height of quality, with optimized knowledge and automaticity, and a developed repertoire of selfregulatory skills in the domain of expertise. Such quality is the result of repeated practice, accumulation of related knowledge, and general level of intelligence. Veenman used think-aloud protocols in problem-solving simulations and coded them for orientation activities, systematical orderliness, accuracy, evaluation, and elaborative activities, together defining a working method. In opposition to the suggestion by Daniela Lucangeli and her group that metacognitive skills are affected by domain-specific attitudes, results from Veenman's work reveal
consistent differences in the quality of working method in favor of higher
functioning individuals, and suggests that metacognitive functioning is a general skill that spans across content domains.
Like working method, self-estimates are also shown to be positively related across content domains. Scores on the General Monitoring Strategies Checklist (GMSC), which measures accuracy of confidence judgments, appear to be affected by general metacognitive knowledge. Results on the GMSC show that those with access to more metacognitive knowledge tend to be more accurate in their confidence judgments, while those with less access to metacognitive knowledge tend to be less confident in their self judgments, and tend to underestimate their abilities (see measurement below). These results add support
for the presence of domain-general metacognitive processes.
METACOGNITION, INTElliGENCE, AND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
Robert Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence includes what he calls metacomponents, or those features of intelligence that allow individuals to manage their cognitive resources. Sternberg's model also consists of performance (encoding, decoding, mapping, application, and justification) and knowledge acquisition components (selective encoding, selective combination, and selective comparison). These components represent automated cognitive and selective processes used in learning, respectively. Sternberg considers metacomponents to
be a key feature of intelligence. Skills such as identifying the nature of a problem, planning, and monitoring, identified in the Triarchic model, are consistent with
those characteristics associated with metacognition suggested by Flavell, Brown, and Borkowski. The emphasis placed on metacomponents in Sternberg's theory is in their association with adaptive behavior. These adaptive behaviors are considered to be functional strategies, or those that act on performance and knowledge-acquisition components. Adaptive behavior goes beyond the
knowledge and cognitive abilities measured by current intelligence tests, and represent the ability to use these aptitudes to adapt to, select, or shape one's environment.
Since metacomponents represent an integral part of intelligence that characterizes adaptive behavior, its measurement in those with LD could play an important role in developing a profile of those with a reading disability. If we follow the argument that IQ does not distinguish between those with or without a reading disability, then the same should be true for metacognitive ability. On the other hand, if the phonological nature of metacognitive behavior is affected by a deficit in the phonological core, then those with a reading disability should show depressed metacognitive behavior. One would normally predict that as we move away from tasks which tap the phonological core processes, differences should appear in the
cognitive profiles of those with a reading disability of higher and lower intelligence. In the case of metacognitive behaviors, however, it could be that those with a
reading disability of higher and lower intelligence should show similar patterns of metacognitive behavior in the domain of reading, given metacognition's phonological nature. It might also be the case that high aptitude in other nonphonological processes present in those of greater intelligence compensates for or adapts to a phonological deficit. This has been suggested of orthographic ability in
those with a reading disability, who seem to be more proficient at visual strategies than normal readers. These issues have strong implications for how we think about intelligence and how it is related to reading disability.
Tqe relationship between metacognitive knowledge and behavior, and learning disabilities remains vague. While some suggest metacognition is a general skill, others suggest it is domain-specific. A review of the literature suggests that both general and specific metacognitive abilities exist. Their development and
functioning are affected by a wide range of factors. For those with a reading disability, metacognitive deficits appear to be specific to reading tasks for those of higher intelligence, and generalized for those of lower intelligence. Thinking or
processing capacity may playa role in metacognitive behavior. When reading, insufficiently automated phonological skills result in more processing space required to decode print, thus using up processing space that could be devoted to higher-level learning skills such as comprehension, critical thinking, and creativity.
Such assumptions suggest that a good way to remedy this strain on processing
exemplified by the ability to recognize objects or people or places. The name of the object, etc., is usually associated with it by the teacher and is used as a means of verifying that recognition has taken place, but the verbal element is not an essential part of the learning process.
Verbal (symbolic) information (including language such as logic, math). This category includes knowledge of a factual nature that has been gained by means of a symbolic language: statement of facts, description of events, specification of a car part by means of a code number, etc.
Fact systems (or schemata). This category includes the more complex interrelated factual knowledge that one acquires. The symbols of Morse code, and the conventions of geography maps and international road signs are examples of fact systems.
PROCEDURES: knowing how to proceed in specific situations.
Chains (simple step-by-step procedures). This category includes the type of learning described exhaustively by Skinner in his work on the training of rats and pigeons. The training procedures of 'shaping of behavior' which he describes are of particular relevance to this category. Note that Skinner was concerned with the study of behavior rather than of knowledge. Our contention here is that an organism, whether a rat or human being, that exhibits the ability to perform a procedure, and carry out all the steps in the correct sequence whenever it is called upon to do so, has stored certain information regarding the steps and their
sequence. Thus we are quite justified in talking about the 'knowledge' of a procedure. The performance of this procedure may, in practice, involve more than
the knowledge of the steps; it may also involve specific skills necessary for its performance. The separation of these two aspects is considered a valuable aspect of the model we are purposing.
Discriminations (distinguishing similar information). This category equates to the 'multiple discrimination' type of learning referred to by Skinner, Gilbert, Gagne, and many other writers. Whereas a chain is built up of a series of
stimulus-response associations, joined 'end on', a multiple discrimination is built
,.
up of a set of associations 'in parallel'.
Whereas picking up and speaking into a telephone is a simple chain, the decisions on how to connect the phone call to the correct extension depend on. the presence of a stored multiple discrimination (a set of associations linking the correct extension number to the correct person/department). This example illustrates why we are justified in labeling such discriminations as knowledge.
Algorithms. Most procedures are not simple chains or discriminations, but a combination of step-by-step actions, leading to decision points, where some discrimination has to be performed. It has become common to use the mathematical term 'algorithm' to describe any procedure, however complex, that is nevertheless fully definable by a pattern of chains and discriminations. An algorithm is a 'recipe' for the execution of a procedure. It is thus a form of knowledge that may be communicated.
CONCEPTUAL INFORMATION
CONCEPTS: Names and classes of items or ideas that can be exemplified.
Concrete concepts and primary concepts. This category includes concepts which are classes of real objects or situations, etc. Thus 'red' is a concrete (or primary) concept as it is a word which defines a particular class of real objects (objects which are red in color). A child can "earn this concept by direct experience of a variety of red objects and other objects which are not red. The word 'red' is a useful learning aid (in order to check that the concept is being
learned), but it is not essential to the learning process. Such ideas as 'higher', 'bigger', 'same', 'different', 'first', 'last' are also primary concepts, because they too can be developed entirely through direct experience, without the need of language.
Defined concepts (secondary concepts). This category includes concepts which are classes of other concepts. These cannot be learned without the use of
a suitable language.'" Whereas one can demonstrate one's possession of a concept 'red' or 'bigger' by pointing at the appropriate real objects, one cannot do this to demonstrate one's understanding of 'color' or 'size'. The examples that make up the class described by these words are themselves concepts. Every real object has a color and a size.
One needs language, and a previous mastery of simple concepts, in order to communicate to the learner the meaning of 'color'. 'Red' is a color, and so are 'blue' and 'green'. By quoting such examples of colors, one can communicate the concept of 'color'. But if the learner does not have the concepts of 'red' and 'blue'
the sentences we use to communicate the concept of color will be meaningless to him.
Concept systems (schemata). This category includes sets of related concepts which, it is hypothesized, the learner stores in his memory in such a way that the relation between concepts. As well as the concepts themselves, are remembered and can be recalled. The concept 'physical properties', together with the properties themselves, may be thought of as a system of interrelated concepts. Thus such physical properties as mass, weight, density or size may be stored in such a way that the interrelationships between them are also remembered, or alternatively they may be stored as separate concepts. In the
former case, the observation that one object floats while the other sinks would lead (apart from the direct conclusion that one is more dense than water and the other is less dense) to other, correct, conclusions about the relative masses of the objects in relation to their apparent volume. In the latter case, it is less likely that such secondary conclusions would be made correctly.
PRINCIPLES: rules that guide action or explain change.
Principles of nature (rules that govern the behavior of our environment). This category includes all principles or laws that we can see to be in operation in the world around us, either by direct observation or by inference from the effects. A rule is a statement of a relationship that exists between two or more concepts or
phenomena. For example, the statement 'metal expands when heated' is a rule or principle of nature. It is an explicit statement of an interrelationship which exists between the concepts 'metal', 'heat' and 'expansion': 'if it is a metal and if it is heated then it expands'. The 'if/then' type of rule is the most common form.
Principles of action (rules which govern the principle-holder's behavior). This rather clumsy expression is intended to include the knowledge that one acquires regarding appropriate actions or reactions in specific situations, whether they be
real-life or purely reflective (conceptual) situations. Thus such rules as: 'if I identify a problem situation I should also examine the wider system to establish whether the problem is "real" or whether it is a symptom of a more general problem' is a rule that one may use to guide one's actions in a problem-solving situation. These are the type of principles that Ploya (1945) refers to as heuristics
for problem-solving.
Rule-systems (theories and strategies). Just as discrete facts combine to form fact systems, or as discrete but related concepts combine to form concept systems (or schemata), so discrete but related rules combine to form rule systems. As an example, heuristic strategies for geometrical problem-solving are a combination of specific knowledge of geometry (in my classification, the individual geometry theorems are rules or principles of nature) and knowledge of
how to search for solutions to math problems (in my classification, general heuristics, or principles of action). The result is a set of highly specific problemsolving strategies, suitable for a given class of problems. Similarly the
combination of certain observed principles of physics, together with the
application of certain general principles of thought (scientific inference, etc.), might lead to the formulation of a new, highly specific theory or hypothesis.
Adapted from Romiszowski, 1984.
What is learning and what is teaching and how do they interact? Let's consider some traditional definitions. A search in contemporary dictionaries reveals that learning is "acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience, or instruction." A more specialized definition might read as follows: "Learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice" (Kimble and Garmezy 1963:133). Similarly, teaching, which is implied in the first definition of learning, may be defined as "showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand." How awkward these definitions are! Isn't it rather curious that professional lexicographers cannot devise more precise scientific definitions? More than perhaps anything else, such definitions reflect the difficulty of defining complex concepts like learning and teaching.
Breaking down the components of the definition of learning, we can extract certain
domains of research and inquiry:
1. Learning is acquisition or "getting.'"
2. Learning is retention of information or skill.
3. Retention implies storage systems, memory, and cognitive organization.
4. Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon events outside or
inside the organism.
5. Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6. Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
7. Learning is a change in behavior.
These concepts can also give way to a number of sub-fields within the discipline of psychology: acquisition processes, perception, memory (storage) systems, recall, conscious and subconscious learning styles and strategies, theories of forgetting, reinforcement, the role
of practice.
Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Nathan Cage (1964:269) noted that "to satisfy the practical demands of education, theories of learning must be 'stood on their head' so as to yield theories of teaching." Teaching is the guiding and facilitation of learning.
Your understanding of how the learner learns will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods, and classroom techniques.
In different historical eras and in different cultures, a variety of conceptions have been put forward concerning the nature of mind, of truth, of knowledge, of moral goodness, of aesthetic beauty, and of the purpose of life. These views carry implications for the purpose and nature of the educational process, the ends toward which one should educate, the means by which one can best achieve those ends, the degree of consistency between the ends and
the means, and the model, if any, that one has in mind when engaging in the educational process. The following represent some of the most influential models:
PLATONIC VIEW
The starting-point must be Plato, whose Republic, though not exclusively that, is the first and greatest work in the philosophy of education. In the Republic, Plato is concerned with educating people in such a way that a just society is the outcome. Many would find this an extraordinary overestimation of the powers of education, and indeed it would be were education conceived in terms acceptable to a liberal democracy and did not involve, as Plato advocates, a form of child-farming. Plato is not concerned with the liberal ideal of individuals pursuing their own tastes and interests. He rejects the family and private property, at least for
the rulers. For Plato, the good life is characterized rather by a general turning towards what is
good and true outside of us and independently of us. Although this external good has left its traces deep within us, it is hidden and needs to be recovered by a process of externally directed discipline and thought. Each individual is born destined to playa particular type of role in a society, which aims at the good, and will be happy when his own powers are so arranged as to enable him to fulfill this role. In such a society the rulers will p-ossess the wisdom to guide the rest in the light of the good and the true. In the good city there will be all the usual trades and crafts, and the majority of citizens should be trained to perform them, presumably learning reading, writing, counting, and the particular skills appropriate to their trade. But educators will notice that some youths are suited by temperament to guard and guide the city; those singled out need to be both brave and gentle. To produce soldiers of the right disposition, those selected will receive an education in music and gymnastics, based on the traditional classical Greek models.
The most selfless ana steadfast of the guardians are to be educated further to become rulers of the city. For this, they will need to become philosophers, lovers of wisdom, skilled in science and reasoning (or what Plato calls dialectic). Both rulers and soldiers are to be brought into what is in effect an armed camp within the city, and taken away from their parents. For the rest of their lives they will possess everYthing in common, including wives and children. The presumption is that the offspring of the initial guardians will share their qualities and form the next generation of guardians.
Within the camp no one will know who his or her parents are. There will also be no distinction between the sexes, women being selected as guardians as much as men, and educated in the same way. Future generations of guardians will be told that they have been bred for the city. Their philosophizing is not for their own satisfaction only, but is so that they can rule and instruct the rest.
Simply to recount Plato's proposals may seem to have little philosophical point. There are, though, certain themes which have recurred in educational thinking since Plato's time: the idea that education and individual lives are ideally for the sake of the state, not for the sake of the individual alone; the idea that education is as much about the building of character as of intelligence in our sense (which is the case even with the rulers' philosophizing, which is all directed towards a type of static wisdom which is coterminous with moral goodness); and the idea that education is capable of transforming individual minds and characters so as to produce acceptance of a revolutionary communistic project.
Plato's doubtless exaggerated assessment of the power of education nevertheless leads him to write scathingly .and brilliantly of forms of education of which he disapproves. He writes of the schoolmaster in a democratic society who 'fears and flatters his pupils' and the pupils who consequenfly despise him, of old men who, ridiculously, condescend to the young, 'imitating their juniors in order to avoid the appearance of being sour or despotic'.
For Plato, although education is communistic, it cannot be democratic or, in the modern sense, childcentered. Even though within us there are the seeds or traces of wisdom, wisdom eludes the grasp of the young, who are wayward and blind and who have to be trained over many years to have the right dispositions and thoughts. Education, then, cannot proceed on the basis o the current interests of the young. The philosophers, indeed, have a duty, which is painful for them, of descending into the cave metaphorically occupied by the unenlightened, so as to
instruct and rule them. And wisdom is fixed and one. So a pluralistic approach to the value of education is rejected.
Like much else in philosophy, the philosophy of education continually rehearses Platonic themes: authoritarian or child-centered? Dictatorial or pluralistic? Collectivistic or individualistic? And there is also continual worrying at the relationship between what is already inside the child and what is to be received from without. Of course, strange
transmogrifications have happened on the way. The train of thought now known as liberal education, as reflected in the writings of Michael Oakeshott, say, would agree with Plato in rejecting child-centered ness, but disagree with him on the fixity of knowledge and on the nature of the state. It would agree with Plato on the importance of learning what has been
discovered, but disagree with him on the closure of traditions of thought. And while it would give some thought to the importance of moral education, it would tend to view education in far more intellectualist terms than Plato, claiming that intellectual disciplines and their content are
worth learning for themselves, irrespective of any moral improvement they bring.
THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
What do you do when you hear a bell ring?
A teacher told this story on himself. When most teachers hear a bell one of the first things they do is walk out into the hallway to be a monitor. Right? Just keep a watchful eye on the students. Well, this guy had acquired such a habit that when he was at home and the doorbell rang he'd walk into a nearby hallway and "monitor" his family. For him it was simply such a strong habit that he'd produce the right behavior (going into the hall to monitor) at the wrong place (his own home).
In this chapter we will look at Classical Conditioning, perhaps the oldest model of change
there is. It has several interesting applications to the classroom, ones you may not have thought about. Let's look at the components of this model.
COMPONENTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
The easiest place to start is with a little example. Consider a hungry dog that sees a bowl of food. Something like this might happen:
.
Food ---> Salivation
The dog is hungry, the dog sees the food, and the dog salivates. This is a natural sequence of events, an unconscious, uncontrolled, and unlearned relationship. See the food, and then salivate.
Now, because we are humans who have an insatiable curiosity, we experiment. When we present the food to the hungry dog (and before the dog salivates), we ring a bell. Thus,
. Bell
. with
. Food ---> Salivation
We repeat this action (food and bell given simultaneously) at several meals. Every time
the dog sees the food, the dog also hears the bell. Ding-dong, Alpo.
Now, because we are humans who like to play tricks on our pets, we do another experiment. We ring the bell (Ding-dong), but we don't show any food. What does the dog do? Right,
. Bell ---> Salivate
The bell elicits the same response the sight of the food gets. Over repeated trials, the dog has learned to associate the bell with the food and now the bell has the power to produce the same response as the food. (And, of course, after you've tricked your dog into drooling and acting even more stupidly than usual, you must give it a special treat.)
This is the essence of Classical Conditioning. It really is that simple. You start with two
things that are already connected with each other (food and salivation). Then you add a third
thing (bell) for several trials. Eventually, this third thing may become so strongly associated
that it has the power to produce the old behavior.
Now, where do we get the term "Conditioning" from all this? Let me draw up the diagrams
with the official terminology.
.Food ;---> Salivation
. Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response
"Unconditioned" simply means that the stimulus and the response are naturally connected. They just came that way, hard-wired together like a horse and carriage and love and marriage, as the song goes. "Unconditioned" means that this connection was already present before we got there and started messing around with the dog or the child or the spouse.
"Stimulus" simply means the thing that starts it while "response" means the thing that ends
it. A stimulus elicits and a response is elicited. (This is circular reasoning, true, but hang in there.) Another diagram:
. Conditioning Stimulus
. Bell . with
. Food > Salivation
. Unconditioned Stimulus > Unconditioned Response
We already know that "Unconditioned" means unlearned, untaught, preexisting, alreadypresent-before-we-got-there. "Conditioning" just means the opposite. It means that we are trying to associate, connect, bond, and link something new with the old relationship. And we want this new thing to elicit (rather than be elicited) so it will be a stimulus and not a response. Finally, after many trials we hope for:
.Bell > Salivation
. Conditioned Stimulus ---> Conditioned Response
Let's review these concepts.
1. Unconditioned Stimulus: a thing that can already elicit a response.
2. Unconditioned Response: a thing that is already elicited by a stimulus.
3. Unconditioned Relationship: an existing stimulus-response connection.
4. Conditioning Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver the same time we give the old
stimulus.
5. Conditioned Relationship: the new stimulus-response relationship we created by
associating a new stimulus with an old response.
There are two key part~. First, we start with an existing relationship, Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditiqned Response. Second, we pair a new thing (Conditioning Stimulus) with the existing relationship, until the new thing has the power to elicit the old response.
A LITTLE HISTORY AND A COMPARISON
The example we used here is from the first studies on classical conditioning as described by Ivan Pavlov, the famous Russian physiologist. Pavlov discovered these important relationships around the turn of the century in his work with dogs (really). He created the first learning theory which precedes the learning theory most teachers know quite well, reinforcement theory. We will look at reinforcement theory in a separate chapter, but for now I do want to make a point.
The point is this: Classical conditioning says nothing about rewards and punishments
which are key terms in reinforcement theory. Consider our basic example:
. Conditioning Stimulus
. BELL
. with
. Food > Salivation
. Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response
There is nothing in here about rewards or punishments, no terminology like that, not even an implication like that. Classical conditioning is built on creating relationships by association over trials. Some people confuse Classical Conditioning with Reinforcement Theory. To keep them separated, just look for the presence of rewards and punishments.
EVERYDAY CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
This type of influence is extremely common. If you have pets and you feed them with canned food, what happens when you hit the can opener? Sure, the animals come running even if you are opening a can of green beans. They have associated the sound of the opener with their food.
Classical conditioning works with people, too. Go to K-Mart and watch what happens
when the blue light turns on. Cost-conscious shoppers will make a beeline to that table
because they associate a good sale with the blue light. (And the research proves that people are more likely to buy the sale item under the blue light even if the item isn't a good value.)
And classical conditioning works with advertising. For example, many beer ads prominently feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The young women (Unconditioned Stimulus) naturally elicit a favorable, mildly aroused feeling (Unconditioned Response) in most men. The beer is simply associated with this effect. The same thing applies with the jingles and music that accompany many advertisements.
Perhaps the strongest application of classical conditioning involves emotion. Common experience and careful research both confirm that human emotion conditions very rapidly and easily. Particularly when the emotion is intensely felt or negative in direction, it will condition quickly.
For example, when I was in college I was robbed at gunpoint by a young man who gave me The Choice ("Your money or your life. ") It was an unexpected and frightening experience. This event occurred just about dusk and for a long time thereafter, I often experienced moments of dread in the late afternoons, particularly when I was just walking around the city. Even though I was quite safe, the lengthening shadows of the day were so strongly associated with the fear I experienced in the robbery, that I could not but help feel the
emotion all over.
Clearly, classical conditioning is a pervasive form of influence in our world. This is true
because it is a natural feature of all humans and it is relatively simple and easy to accomplish.
BEHAVIORISM
Behaviorism in general and Skinner in particular have exerted considerable influence on Western, and especially American, education through developments that range from the invention of programmed instruction (or the so called "teaching machine") to the widespread emphasis on behavioral objectives in educational programs. The philosophy of Behaviorism compels one to examine carefully the issue of control in education. Skinner wants to use scientific control to bring about a society in which it will be easy to be good and to bring about an educational process through which it will be easy to be excellent. There is no alternative
to control, in his view. It is simply a matter of who is to control. One does not grant the child "freedom" merely by leaving him alone. To refuse to use scientific control to shape human behavior is, for the Behaviorist, a failure in responsibility.
Let's take a closer look at Skinner's life and theories.
B. F. (Burrhus Frederic) Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. As a youth,
he showed talent for music and writing, as well as mechanical aptitude. He attended Hamilton College as English major, with the goal of becoming a professional writer. After graduation, Skinner, discouraged over his literary prospects, became interested in behaviorist psychology after reading the works of John Watson and Ivan Pavlov. He entered Harvard University as a graduate student in psychology in 1928 and received his degree three years later. Skinner remained at Harvard through 1936, by which time he was a junior fellow of the prestigious
Society of Fellows. While at Harvard, he laid the foundation for a new system of behavioral analysis through his research in the field of animal learning, utilizing unique experimental equipment of his own design.
His most successful and well-known apparatus, known as the Skinner Box, was a cage in which a laboratory rat could, by pressing on a bar, activate a mechanism that would drop a food pellet into the cage. Another device recorded each press of the bar, producing a permanent record of experimental results without the presence of a tester. Skinner analyzed
the rats' bar-pressing behavior by varying his patterns of reinforcement (feeding) to learn their responses to different schedules (including random ones). Using this box to study how rats "operated on" their environment led Skinner to formulate the principle of operant conditioning -- applicable to a wide range of both human and animal behavior -- through which an experimenter can gradually shape the behavior of a subject by manipulating its responses through reinforcement or lack of it. In contrast to Pavlovian, or response, conditioning, which depends on an outside stimulus, Skinner's operant conditioning depends on the subject's responses themselves. Skinner introduced the concept of operant conditioning to the public in his first book, The Behavior of Organisms (1938).
Between 1936 and 1948 Skinner held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Indiana, after which he returned permanently to Harvard. His ideas eventually became so influential that the American Psychological Association created a separate division of studies related to them (Division 25: "The Experimental Analysis of "Behavior"), and four journals of behaviorist research were established. In the 1940s Skinner
began training animals to perform complex activities by first teaching those chains of simpler ones. He was quite successful in training laboratory animals to perform apparently remarkable and complex activities. One example of this involved pigeons that learned to play table tennis.
Skinner's observation of the effectiveness of incremental training of animals led him to formulate the principles of programmed instruction for human students, in which the concept of reward, or reinforcement, is fundamental, and complex subjects such as mathematics are broken down into simple components presented in order of increasing difficulty. Presented with a set of relatively simple questions, students receive immediate reinforcement -- and thus
incentive to continue -- by being told that their answers were correct. The programmed learning movement became highly influential in the United States and abroad. Although this
technique eventually came under criticism by educators advocating more holistic methods of instruction, it remains a valuable teaching tool. Courses and course materials based on it have been developed for many subjects, and at levels of difficulty ranging from kindergarten through graduate school.
Skinner's work was also influential in the clinical treatment of mental and emotional
disorders. In the late 1940s he began to develop the behavior modification method, in which subjects receive a series of small rewards for desired behavior. Considered a useful technique for psychologists and psychiatrists with deeply disturbed patients, behavior modification has also been widely used by the general population in overcoming obesity, shyness, speech defects, addiction to smoking, and other problems. Extending his ideas to the realm of philosophy, Skin'ner concluded that all behavior was the result of either positive or negative reinforcement, and thus the existence of free will was merely an illusion. To explore the social ramifications of his behaviorist principles, he wrote the novel Walden Two (1948), which depicted a utopian society in which all reinforcement was positive. While
detractors of this controversial work regarded its vision' of social control through strict positive reinforcement as totalitarian, the 1967 founding of the Twin Oaks Community in Virginia was
inspired by Skinner's ideas. Skinner elaborated further on his ideas about positive social control in his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), which critiques the notion of human autonomy, arguing that many actions ascribed to free will are performed due to necessity.
Skinner has been listed in The 100 Most Important People in the World, and in a 1! survey he was identified as the best-known scientist in the United States. Skinner's 01 books include Science and Human Behavior (1953) and Verbal Behavior (1957).
EXISTENTIALIST VIEW
Because of the diversity of positions associated with existentialism, the term is impossible to define precisely; however, certain themes common to virtually all existentialist writers can be identified.
The term itself suggests one major theme: the stress on concrete individual existence that is, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice:
. Moral Individualism-that the highest good for the individual is to find his or her own unique vocation; that one must choose one's own way without the aid of universal, objective standards; that no objective, rational basis can be found for moral decisions.
. Subjectivity-that personal experience and acting on one's own convictions are essential in arriving at the truth; that the perspective of the individual should be emphasized; that one should be suspicious of systematic reasoning; that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason or science.
. Choice and Commitment-that humanity's primary distinction is the freedom to choose; that choice is central to human existence, and is inescapable; that freedom of choice entails commitment and responsibility; that individuals must accept the risk and responsibility of their choices.
. Dread and Anxiety-that fear and general feelings of apprehension, or
dread, are part of the human experience; that anxiety (German Angst) results from the individual's confrontation with the impossibility of finding ultimate justification for the choices one makes; that one should recognize and acknowledge these feelings of dread and anxiety.
As a distinct philosophical and literary movement, 20th century existentialism had its roots in the 19th century romantic revolt against reason and science in favor of passionate involvement in life.
Kierkegaard generally regarded as the founder of modern existentialism, reacted against the systematic absolute idealism of Hegel and rejected his rational understanding of humanity and history.
Kierkegaard stressed, instead, the ambiguity and absurdity of the human situation.
He believed it was the individual's responsibility to live a totally committed life, a 'personally valid' way of life; that this commitment could only be understood by the individual who made it; and that the individual must always be prepared to defy the norms of society for the sake of this commitment.
Nietzsche influenced 20th century existentialism through his criticism of traditional metaphysical and moral assumptions; through his espousal of tragic pessimism; and through his notion of the life-affirming individual will that opposes itself to moral conformity.
Nietzsche proclaimed the "death of God" and went on to reject the entire Judeo
Christian moral tradition in favor of a heroic pagan ideal.
Kierkegaard, on the other hand, advocated a radically individualistic Christian
faith.
HEIDEGGER AND SARTRE
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), German philosopher, developed the 20th century
notion of existential phenomenology.
Heidegger's original treatment of such themes as human finitude, death,
nothingness, and authenticity led to his association with existentialism.
He began his career as an assistant to Edmund Husserl, the founder of
phenomenology, and was also influenced by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
Although influenced by Husserl, Heidegger rejected his attempt to put
philosophy on a conclusive rationalistic basis.
He argued, instead, th.at humanity finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent
world, and that human beings can never hope to understand why they are here.
He believed that each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of one's life.
In his most important and influential work, Being and Time (1927), Heidegger formulated what he considered the essential philosophical questions: What is it "to be," and what kind of "being" do human beings have?
Heidegger's theory of 'being and time' may be summarized as follows:
. Individuals are thrown into a world that they have not made, but which
consists of potentially useful things, including cultural as well as natural
objects.
. Because these objects come to humanity from the past, and are used in the present for the sake of future goals, Heidegger posited a fundamental relation between the mode of being of objects and humanity, and of the structure of time.
. The individual, he claimed, is always in danger of being submerged in the world of objects and everyday routine, and the conventional, shallow behavior of the crowd.
. Ultimately, a feeling of dread (Angst) brings the individual to a
confrontation with death and the ultimate meaninglessness of life.
. But only in this confrontation can an authentic sense of "Being" and of
freedom be attained.
After 1930, Heidegger expanded his thoughts on Being, including new ideas,
which were later expressed in such works as An Introduction to Metaphysics (1953):
. He felt that modern technological 'society had fostered a purely
manipulative attitude, which had deprived Being, and human life, of
meaning-a condition he called nihilism.
. Humanity had forgotten its true vocation, and needed to recover the
deeper understanding of Being to be receptive to new understandings of
human existence.
Although his work had a crucial influence on the French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, Heidegger eventually repudiated the existentialist interpretations of his work.
Because of his early public support of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party, Heidegger's professional activities were restricted after World War II and controversy followed him until his retirement in 1959.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), philosopher, dramatist, novelist, and political
journalist, and the leading exponent of French existentialism.
Sartre gave the term existentialism general currency by using it for his own philosophy and by becoming the leading figure of a distinct movement in France that became internationally influential after World War II.
His philosophic work combined the phenomenology of Husserl, the metaphysics
of Hegel and Heidegger, and the social theory of Marx into a single view.
Sartre's philosophy was explicitly atheistic and pessimistic; he declared that
human beings require a rational basis for their lives but are unable to achieve one, and thus human life, he concluded, is a "futile passion."
Sartre nevertheless insisted that his existentialism is a form of humanism, and
he strongly emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility.
In his early philosophic work, Being and Nothingness (1943), Sartre conceived humans as beings who create their own world by rebelling against authority and by accepting personal responsibility for their actions, unaided by society, traditional morality, or religious faith.
His theory of existential psychoanalysis asserted the inescapable responsibility of all individuals for their own decisions and made the recognition of one's absolute freedom of choice the necessary condition for authentic human existence.
His plays and novels also expressed the belief that freedom and acceptance of personal responsibility are the main values in life, and that individuals must rely on their creative powers rather than on social or religious authority.
In his later philosophic work, Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960), Sartre's emphasis shifted from existentialist freedom and subjectivity to Marxist social determinism; here he tried to reconcile existentialist concepts with a Marxist analysis of society and history.
Sartre argued that the influence of modern society over the individual is so great as to produce serialization, by which he meant loss of self. Individual power and freedom, he claimed, can only be regained through group revolutionary action.
Sartre's philosophical views, which he related to life, literature, psychology, and political action, stimulated so much popular interest that existentialism became a worldwide movement.
PIAGET
A major contribution has been the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget and his followers, who are convinced that children advance through rather regular stages of intellectual development. The first two periods - sensor motor intelligence (from birth till two) as well as representative intelligence (from two to seven or eight) - relate to the field of early childhood. In the first stage (sensor motor) the child learns to use his muscles and senses to deal with external objects and events while his language begins to form. He also begins to deal with things and know that they exist even if they are beyond his sight and touch. He also starts to "symbolize" (represent things by word and gesture). In the second stage the child experiences the greatest language growth; words and other symbols become a way to represent both the outside and inner feelings. At this time "magical explanations" make sense
to him. He begins to gain a sense of symmetry. His adjustments depend on learning by trial
and error, and he manages things by intuition. He begins to integrate symbolization and elementary types of relationships, such as logical and mathematical relationships (grouping, sizes, quantities, and qualities) and spatial and temporal relationships. Piaget's theory laid the groundwork for recognizing the importance of cognitive learning processes and concept formation in the young child. Piaget also stressed the importance of an environment conducive to learning the necessary skills.
Piaget's theory identifies four developmental stages and the processes by which children progress through them. The four stages are:
1. Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 years old) -- The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it , works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects: remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence).
2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) -- The child is not yet able to conceptualize
abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.
3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11) -- As physical experience accumulates, the
child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her
physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage.
For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with
objects.
4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15) -- By this point, the child's cognitive
structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning.
Piaget outlined several principles for building cognitive structures. During all development stages, the child experiences his or her environment using whatever mental maps he or she has constructed so far. If the experience is a repeated one, it fits easily or is assimilated into the child's cognitive structure so that he or she maintains mental "equilibrium." If the experience is different or new, the child loses equilibrium, and alters his or her cognitive structure to accommodate the new conditions. This way, the child erects more and more adequate cognitive structures.
HOW PIAGET'S THEORY IMPACTS LEARNING
. Curriculum -- Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum
that enhances their students' logical and conceptual growth.
. Instruction -- Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences--or interactions with the surrounding environment--play in student learning. For example, instructors have to take into account the role that fundamental
concepts, such as the permanence of objects, play in establishing cognitive structures.
CONSTRUCTIVISM
DEFINITION
Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.
The history of constructivism appears closely integrated with the evolution of educational psychology - both developmental and social learning theories. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was perhaps the first in Western civilization to explore learning and knowledge structures with a model that viewed children as the "builders of
their intellectual structures" (Papert, 1980). Unknown to Western civilization until years later, a contemporary of Piaget's was also taking new views on the nature of learning. Soviet psychologist Lev Semanovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) developed "dialectic theory," a social learning perspective that describes how children learn through interaction and dialogues with socializing agents (such as peers, teachers, parents, etc.).
Constructivist learning has emerged as a prominent approach to teaching
during this past decade. The work of Dewey, Montessori, Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky, among others, provides historical precedents for constructivist learning theory.
There are several guiding principles of constructivism:
1. Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning.
2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts.
3. In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models.
4. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the "right" answers and regurgitate someone else's meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.
HOW CONSTRUCTIVISM IMPACTS LEARNING
. Curriculum -- Constructivism calls for the elimination of a standardized curriculum. Instead, it promotes using curricula customized to the students' prior knowledge. Also, it emphasizes
hands-on problem solving.
. Instruction -- Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students.
. Assessment -- Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students playa larger role in judging their own progress.
TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING VIEWS
Jack Mezirow, author of Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning and Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative and Emancipatory Learning, suggests, in his theory of transformative learning, that individuals can be transformed through a process of critical reflection.
Influences on the theory include Paulo Friere and constructivist thought.
Paulo Friere describes the process of conscientization, by which adults "achieve a deepening awareness of both the sociocultural reality which shapes their lives and... their capacity to transform that reality through action upon it". Constructivism is the assumption that meaning exists within ourselves rather than in external forms.
Catalysts for transformative learning are "disorienting dilemmas", situations which do not fit one's preconceived notions. These dilemmas prompt critical reflection and the development of new ways of interpreting experiences. In this way, "transformative learning involves reflectively transforming the beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and emotional reactions that constitute our meaning schemes."
According to Mezirow, the role of the educator is to:
. help the learner focus on and examine the assumptions that underlie their
beliefs, feelings and actions
. assess the consequences of these assumptions
. identify and explore alternative sets of assumptions
. test the validity of assumptions through effective participation in reflective
dialog.
Transformative learning involves:
. becoming more reflective and critical
. being more open to the perspectives of others
. being less defensive and more accepting of new ideas
Mezirow states that transformative educators "may help others, and perhaps
we, move toward a fuller and more dependable understanding of the meaning of our mutual experience."
METACOGNITION
The concept of metacognition entered the field of cognitive psychology with John Flavell. For Flavell metacognition includes knowledge and regulation of cognition. Knowledge about cognition consists of: 1) person variables, or knowledge about one's self, and others' thinking; 2) task variables, or knowledge that different types of tasks exert different types of cognitive demands, and; 3) strategy variables, or knowledge about cognitive and metacognitive strategies for enhancing learning and performance.
Ann Brown also distinguished between knowledge about cognition, and
regulation of cognition. Knowledge about cognition can be "stable, stable but fallible, or late developing", remaining relatively consistent within individuals. Regulation, on the other hand, can be "relatively unstable, rarely stable, and age independent", changing rapidly from situation to situation. Brown's distinction suggests that self-regulation is more context than age dependent; one may show self-regulatory behavior in one situation but not another and a child may show selfregulatory behavior where an adult does not. Regulation may also be affected by patterns of arousal (anxiety, fear, interest) and self-concept (self-esteem, self
efficacy). Rarely stable refers to the general inaccessibility of regulatory processes to consciousness. Brown states that "conscious access to routines available to the system is the highest form of mature human intelligence", which suggests that highly developed metacognitive skill, or the ability to bring automated skills into consciousness, is characteristic of high intelligence. By developing self-awareness, one is effectively developing one's intelligence.
PRIVATE SPEECH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF METACOGNITION
Brenda Manning and her associates studied the development of selfregulatory skills in children based on Lev Vygostky's (1934/1987) notion of private speech as a precursor to self-regulatory behavior, defined as externalized thought.
Manning categorized private speech into four levels. Level 1, the lowest level, was associated with task-irrelevant private speech such as affective expression (emotion or feelings), or off-task commenting or questioning. Level 2 was associated with task-relevant private speech that did not facilitate task completion, such as giving up or complaining about the task. Level 3 was associated with taskrelevant private speech of a facilitative nature that described content, process, or structure, and was used as a strategy to focus attention (Le. cognitive focus). Level
4 was associated with "higher level" facilitative private speech such as correcting, coping, or reinforcing (Le. metacognitive focus). Manning and her associates studied groups of kindergarten children, investigating relationships between private speech and autonomy, academic achievement, and creativity. Autonomous children, or those who were able to work with little guidance or assistance, scored lower on Levels 1 to 3 and higher on Level 4 than non-autonomous children.
Academically advanced children used less Level 1 and 2, and more Level 3 and 4 private speech than less academically advanced children. Creative children used less Level 1 and more Level 4 private speech than less creative children. In each case autonomous, academically advanced, and creative children used less nonfacilitative private speech and more metacognitive private speech. Notably the
autonomous children used less lower-level facilitative private speech (Level 3), unpredicted by the research hypotheses. Manning suggests that these children may have already internalized (automated) Level 3 cognitive self-guiding processes.
Much of the work that followed Vygotsky suggested that private speech disappears or is replaced by internalized speech in middle childhood. Recent evidence suggests however that private speech persists beyond childhood into at least adolescence, and is suppressed by social pressure to internalize one's thoughts; thinking aloud in a classroom is frowned upon. In a study that
manipulated the social stigma associated with thinking aloud, confederate high school students used private speech during the last 20 minutes of a 3D-minute test
taking session, and observed a subject for changes in private speech when the confederate began speaking quietly. Private speech during the initial quiet period
was negatively correlated with test scores. This is consistent with earlier research that theorizes that in the beginning private speech is an advantage but as children grow older it becomes a disadvantage and is used only in difficult problem-solving situations where internalized strategies are not available. In this study the amount of private speech increased between the quiet period and talking period, supporting the idea that private speech may be socially suppressed by teenage years. During the talking period those who talked the most scored lowest and highest, suggesting private speech can hinder or improve performance depending on the circumstances. A positive relationship between private speech during the
talking period and test scores was found, and a case from either end of the performance score revealed that the lower-scoring students' private speech was
focused on negative statements about self or the task, while the higher-scoring students were thought to forgo the social rules in favor of what they recognized as a useful strategy.
THE AUTOMATION PROCESSES OF COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE
Kevin Crowley and his associates have demonstrated the relationship between automation of cognitive processes and the emergence of metacognitive thinking. They found that kindergarten children were most likely to think "metacognitively" when a lower-level cognitive skill became automated. They suggest that strategies become "Associative Mechanisms", which operate without conscious effort, and allow children to devote more mental processing space to the metacognitive and creative aspects of learning.
Strategies eventually generalize by forming "goal sketches", which are the result of metacognitive mechanisms decaying from conscious access over time. Goal sketches are generalized strategies not particular to any task, but useful across many, and used automatically based on recognition of general task characteristics. Such a general strategy might include working backwards. This strategy is often acquired early as children learn that working backwards through a
maze is usually quicker than starting at the beginning. Such a strategy might generalize into another, such as retracing one's steps to a lost item. Later, as children become expert readers, it may manifest as a strategy of looking at the end of a chapter to gather its gist, or looking at the review questions before reading. Another such strategy could be attending to errors. If the initial letter-to-sound mapping in early readers does not become fully automated, it is possible this may result in reduced metacognitive activity in reading tasks where phonological ability is tested. Thus, metacomprehension, metamemory, and metalinguistic abilities may be hindered because extra processing space is required to process phonological input.
In children with LD (Learning Disabilities), the automation of lower-level basic
skills may be delayed or deficient, thus emergence of goal sketches or automated generalized strategies may also be delayed or deficient. This is consistent with findings that suggest internalization of private speech is delayed in children with a reading disability; insufficiently automated phonological processes delay suppression of externalized private speech. It is not clear whether the inability to develop or initiate generalized strategies is a domain-general phenomenon or specific to the domain of the disability. It may be that such skills are developed but
are not accessible when the domain of the disability is being challenged. That is,
when a child with a reading disability is reading, the strain on processing space prevents the emergence of metacognitive behaviors, while on tasks that do not require reading, metacognitive behavior can emerge.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF METACOGNITION
John Borkowski and his associates have distinguished between types of
strategy knowledge. This knowledge includes what a particular strategy would achieve, what tasks match its use, the range of its usefulness, the benefits of regularly using it, how much effort would be required to use it, and how enjoyable or laborious it would be. Borkowski brings together the components of other models of metacognition (e.g. Flavell and Brown) and provides us with a more
comprehensive model, which encompasses cognitive, metacognitive, and affective factors, within a developmental framework.
As children are faced with impasses, they experience success and failure and they receive feedback which, occurring frequently develops into ingrained attributions of success and failure. These attributions govern self-esteem, selfefficacy, and the effects they have on successful strategy learning and their transfer to other content areas. Borkowski reviewed a number of studies which point to the importance of attribution training for students with LD. A more recent study also indicates the importance of individuals' attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of their performance. This latter study suggests, however, that domain-specific attitudes and beliefs will govern metacognitive behavior within those particular domains. So in addition to domain-generalized metacognitive deficits as might occur for a person with a reading disability, they are likely affected by both cognitive and psychosocial factors as well as aptitude.
DOMAIN GENERAL VERSUS DOMAIN SPECIFIC METACOGNITIVE SKILLS
Frank Veenman and his group looked at task and domain variables in addressing generality versus domain-specificity of metacognitive skills in novices. They adopted what they called a "Working Method" approach. Individuals' working methods (metacognitive skills) can vary in quality. Expertise is the height of quality, with optimized knowledge and automaticity, and a developed repertoire of selfregulatory skills in the domain of expertise. Such quality is the result of repeated practice, accumulation of related knowledge, and general level of intelligence. Veenman used think-aloud protocols in problem-solving simulations and coded them for orientation activities, systematical orderliness, accuracy, evaluation, and elaborative activities, together defining a working method. In opposition to the suggestion by Daniela Lucangeli and her group that metacognitive skills are affected by domain-specific attitudes, results from Veenman's work reveal
consistent differences in the quality of working method in favor of higher
functioning individuals, and suggests that metacognitive functioning is a general skill that spans across content domains.
Like working method, self-estimates are also shown to be positively related across content domains. Scores on the General Monitoring Strategies Checklist (GMSC), which measures accuracy of confidence judgments, appear to be affected by general metacognitive knowledge. Results on the GMSC show that those with access to more metacognitive knowledge tend to be more accurate in their confidence judgments, while those with less access to metacognitive knowledge tend to be less confident in their self judgments, and tend to underestimate their abilities (see measurement below). These results add support
for the presence of domain-general metacognitive processes.
METACOGNITION, INTElliGENCE, AND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
Robert Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence includes what he calls metacomponents, or those features of intelligence that allow individuals to manage their cognitive resources. Sternberg's model also consists of performance (encoding, decoding, mapping, application, and justification) and knowledge acquisition components (selective encoding, selective combination, and selective comparison). These components represent automated cognitive and selective processes used in learning, respectively. Sternberg considers metacomponents to
be a key feature of intelligence. Skills such as identifying the nature of a problem, planning, and monitoring, identified in the Triarchic model, are consistent with
those characteristics associated with metacognition suggested by Flavell, Brown, and Borkowski. The emphasis placed on metacomponents in Sternberg's theory is in their association with adaptive behavior. These adaptive behaviors are considered to be functional strategies, or those that act on performance and knowledge-acquisition components. Adaptive behavior goes beyond the
knowledge and cognitive abilities measured by current intelligence tests, and represent the ability to use these aptitudes to adapt to, select, or shape one's environment.
Since metacomponents represent an integral part of intelligence that characterizes adaptive behavior, its measurement in those with LD could play an important role in developing a profile of those with a reading disability. If we follow the argument that IQ does not distinguish between those with or without a reading disability, then the same should be true for metacognitive ability. On the other hand, if the phonological nature of metacognitive behavior is affected by a deficit in the phonological core, then those with a reading disability should show depressed metacognitive behavior. One would normally predict that as we move away from tasks which tap the phonological core processes, differences should appear in the
cognitive profiles of those with a reading disability of higher and lower intelligence. In the case of metacognitive behaviors, however, it could be that those with a
reading disability of higher and lower intelligence should show similar patterns of metacognitive behavior in the domain of reading, given metacognition's phonological nature. It might also be the case that high aptitude in other nonphonological processes present in those of greater intelligence compensates for or adapts to a phonological deficit. This has been suggested of orthographic ability in
those with a reading disability, who seem to be more proficient at visual strategies than normal readers. These issues have strong implications for how we think about intelligence and how it is related to reading disability.
Tqe relationship between metacognitive knowledge and behavior, and learning disabilities remains vague. While some suggest metacognition is a general skill, others suggest it is domain-specific. A review of the literature suggests that both general and specific metacognitive abilities exist. Their development and
functioning are affected by a wide range of factors. For those with a reading disability, metacognitive deficits appear to be specific to reading tasks for those of higher intelligence, and generalized for those of lower intelligence. Thinking or
processing capacity may playa role in metacognitive behavior. When reading, insufficiently automated phonological skills result in more processing space required to decode print, thus using up processing space that could be devoted to higher-level learning skills such as comprehension, critical thinking, and creativity.
Such assumptions suggest that a good way to remedy this strain on processing
exemplified by the ability to recognize objects or people or places. The name of the object, etc., is usually associated with it by the teacher and is used as a means of verifying that recognition has taken place, but the verbal element is not an essential part of the learning process.
Verbal (symbolic) information (including language such as logic, math). This category includes knowledge of a factual nature that has been gained by means of a symbolic language: statement of facts, description of events, specification of a car part by means of a code number, etc.
Fact systems (or schemata). This category includes the more complex interrelated factual knowledge that one acquires. The symbols of Morse code, and the conventions of geography maps and international road signs are examples of fact systems.
PROCEDURES: knowing how to proceed in specific situations.
Chains (simple step-by-step procedures). This category includes the type of learning described exhaustively by Skinner in his work on the training of rats and pigeons. The training procedures of 'shaping of behavior' which he describes are of particular relevance to this category. Note that Skinner was concerned with the study of behavior rather than of knowledge. Our contention here is that an organism, whether a rat or human being, that exhibits the ability to perform a procedure, and carry out all the steps in the correct sequence whenever it is called upon to do so, has stored certain information regarding the steps and their
sequence. Thus we are quite justified in talking about the 'knowledge' of a procedure. The performance of this procedure may, in practice, involve more than
the knowledge of the steps; it may also involve specific skills necessary for its performance. The separation of these two aspects is considered a valuable aspect of the model we are purposing.
Discriminations (distinguishing similar information). This category equates to the 'multiple discrimination' type of learning referred to by Skinner, Gilbert, Gagne, and many other writers. Whereas a chain is built up of a series of
stimulus-response associations, joined 'end on', a multiple discrimination is built
,.
up of a set of associations 'in parallel'.
Whereas picking up and speaking into a telephone is a simple chain, the decisions on how to connect the phone call to the correct extension depend on. the presence of a stored multiple discrimination (a set of associations linking the correct extension number to the correct person/department). This example illustrates why we are justified in labeling such discriminations as knowledge.
Algorithms. Most procedures are not simple chains or discriminations, but a combination of step-by-step actions, leading to decision points, where some discrimination has to be performed. It has become common to use the mathematical term 'algorithm' to describe any procedure, however complex, that is nevertheless fully definable by a pattern of chains and discriminations. An algorithm is a 'recipe' for the execution of a procedure. It is thus a form of knowledge that may be communicated.
CONCEPTUAL INFORMATION
CONCEPTS: Names and classes of items or ideas that can be exemplified.
Concrete concepts and primary concepts. This category includes concepts which are classes of real objects or situations, etc. Thus 'red' is a concrete (or primary) concept as it is a word which defines a particular class of real objects (objects which are red in color). A child can "earn this concept by direct experience of a variety of red objects and other objects which are not red. The word 'red' is a useful learning aid (in order to check that the concept is being
learned), but it is not essential to the learning process. Such ideas as 'higher', 'bigger', 'same', 'different', 'first', 'last' are also primary concepts, because they too can be developed entirely through direct experience, without the need of language.
Defined concepts (secondary concepts). This category includes concepts which are classes of other concepts. These cannot be learned without the use of
a suitable language.'" Whereas one can demonstrate one's possession of a concept 'red' or 'bigger' by pointing at the appropriate real objects, one cannot do this to demonstrate one's understanding of 'color' or 'size'. The examples that make up the class described by these words are themselves concepts. Every real object has a color and a size.
One needs language, and a previous mastery of simple concepts, in order to communicate to the learner the meaning of 'color'. 'Red' is a color, and so are 'blue' and 'green'. By quoting such examples of colors, one can communicate the concept of 'color'. But if the learner does not have the concepts of 'red' and 'blue'
the sentences we use to communicate the concept of color will be meaningless to him.
Concept systems (schemata). This category includes sets of related concepts which, it is hypothesized, the learner stores in his memory in such a way that the relation between concepts. As well as the concepts themselves, are remembered and can be recalled. The concept 'physical properties', together with the properties themselves, may be thought of as a system of interrelated concepts. Thus such physical properties as mass, weight, density or size may be stored in such a way that the interrelationships between them are also remembered, or alternatively they may be stored as separate concepts. In the
former case, the observation that one object floats while the other sinks would lead (apart from the direct conclusion that one is more dense than water and the other is less dense) to other, correct, conclusions about the relative masses of the objects in relation to their apparent volume. In the latter case, it is less likely that such secondary conclusions would be made correctly.
PRINCIPLES: rules that guide action or explain change.
Principles of nature (rules that govern the behavior of our environment). This category includes all principles or laws that we can see to be in operation in the world around us, either by direct observation or by inference from the effects. A rule is a statement of a relationship that exists between two or more concepts or
phenomena. For example, the statement 'metal expands when heated' is a rule or principle of nature. It is an explicit statement of an interrelationship which exists between the concepts 'metal', 'heat' and 'expansion': 'if it is a metal and if it is heated then it expands'. The 'if/then' type of rule is the most common form.
Principles of action (rules which govern the principle-holder's behavior). This rather clumsy expression is intended to include the knowledge that one acquires regarding appropriate actions or reactions in specific situations, whether they be
real-life or purely reflective (conceptual) situations. Thus such rules as: 'if I identify a problem situation I should also examine the wider system to establish whether the problem is "real" or whether it is a symptom of a more general problem' is a rule that one may use to guide one's actions in a problem-solving situation. These are the type of principles that Ploya (1945) refers to as heuristics
for problem-solving.
Rule-systems (theories and strategies). Just as discrete facts combine to form fact systems, or as discrete but related concepts combine to form concept systems (or schemata), so discrete but related rules combine to form rule systems. As an example, heuristic strategies for geometrical problem-solving are a combination of specific knowledge of geometry (in my classification, the individual geometry theorems are rules or principles of nature) and knowledge of
how to search for solutions to math problems (in my classification, general heuristics, or principles of action). The result is a set of highly specific problemsolving strategies, suitable for a given class of problems. Similarly the
combination of certain observed principles of physics, together with the
application of certain general principles of thought (scientific inference, etc.), might lead to the formulation of a new, highly specific theory or hypothesis.
Adapted from Romiszowski, 1984.
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