Wednesday, March 19, 2008



Module Response: Developmental Psychology


When students tackle abstract problems they should build on fundamental and basic ideas before tackling more abstract questions. Technology can be used to help explore abstract problems and build toward better understanding. As the knowledge of our brain, its functions and how leaning takes place it will lead to new ways to better foster creativity and understanding of abstract ideas. In the video on learning the brain the notion of mentioning stimuli that are unrelated can be used to foster increased creativity amongst students is a great example of using new understanding to foster greater education.

On the other hand according to Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective, learning doesn’t follow a progression simply based on traveling from on stage to the next but is dependent on cultural factors. Some of this can be applied easily within a classroom. If students work in collaborative groups (as mine do) students within a group can be at different stages of cultural development. Some members of the group will be more advanced based on their experiences. They can assist in guiding others to develop socially and grow individually. By mixing the groups accordingly, difficult problems can be solved. If the problem is still beyond the scope of the group they can use technology to research the problem, communicate, and reach out to others who are slightly more culturally developed and increase cultural exposure. This ability to communicate with the “world around them” is a great asset. This can be accomplished by using message boards, instant messaging, phone conferencing etc.


In the case of Piaget’s organization, students should be pushed toward some level of disequilibrium in order to test what they know to be true. This is accomplished by giving them information that does not fit there existing scheme. Why do objects fall? Most students know that they fall because of gravity, depending on age and development. But when asked what would fall faster a bowling ball or a feather, most students would choose the bowling ball. This is the teachers chance to create some measure of disequilibrium. According to Piaget this problem should be solved by reliance on pears at a similar stage of development. To further create confusion, students could be presented with this problem suing technology. They could be shown a vide clip of this actually taking place, where a scientist uses a vacuum and demonstrates that they fall at the same speed. The students would then be asked to solve this problem as a group, leading to concepts that have not yet been learned (wind resistance). The teacher is posing the problem with what is known and guiding the students toward greater development. In this case of the three types of knowledge students were engaged in an interpersonal nature though not culturally per say. It would be difficult to address this issue in many science lessons, but outside of school by using blogs, Pod Casts, instant messaging, video conferencing/communication, Skype and other technological means others with similar cultural backgrounds are a click away. To test this knowledge problems could be posed differently again forcing students to solve new problems such as why hang-gliders and parachutes work or even using this newly learned principle to design a glider.


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