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.

Module Response: Complex Cognitive Processes

There are many challenging topics in the Earth Science curriculum. This can become transparent when dealing with younger students (8th grade as apposed to 11th grade) trying to learn complex and abstract concepts. Having the ability to solve problems is skill needed to be successful. They have to relate topics and understand different prototypes correctly, while seeing if new ideas fit using exemplars.
One such topic that comes to mind is that of climates. It is a topic grounded in basic and pre-existing knowledge. It is also challenging for students. In Bruner’s Discovery learning this topic can be approached by providing basic questions and ideas as a jumping off point so students can find the fundamental idea even as a concept becomes increasingly abstract. How does weather and climate vary around the world? What causes these variations? How is the weather different near the poles and near the equator? Now how do these differences in climate relate to the model they created? By having only one continent what affect does this have on global climate? This would be a great way to start before creating the model that then is used to organize their climate types and lead to their discovery of the interrelated nature of each factor. An advanced organizer can be used to relate images associated with specific climates.
According to Ausubel's exposition teaching this topic needs to be introduced with a statement that organizes the information. A perfect example would be to start with a color coordinated map of the United States broken up into climate regions using symbols. Simple questions could be posed for each area relating to prior fundamental knowledge obtained from earlier grades. Most students know what a desert is, can relate images to deserts or that a tropical region is warm and rainy. Visuals could be used to represent key relationships cues with each type of climate such as a picture of a cactus for deserts or an ice berg for a polar region. What students may struggle with is the deeper understanding of the driving forces behind these conditions. Is it hot because of its latitude, global wind belts, ocean currents, latitude or altitude? In a science class this can be incorporated into a lab where students create an imaginary earth with one continent as apposed to the way they are familiar with. As they add each complex feature onto their simple model they will reinforce their prior knowledge with actual reasons for each specific climate type and ratio. The students will have to use problem solving skills as they are dealing with an imaginary planet, this will make them identify key principles and apply them to the new situation. They can graph temperature ranges, rain fall and other climate factors to add greater depth to reinforce each climate factor.

Metacognition and Self-Regulation

The idea of metacognition brings back memories of philosophy classes taken years ago. The notion of thinking about thinking is a key role in the practical world as well as simply having a theoretical basis. As discussed in the reading there are two types of learners, novice learners and expert learners. As students go through the educational system they should with experience become an expert. I find with my students most of the students (8th grade) are novices. They know they need to study and that substantial time is needed but in many cases do not have an effective plan to approach the studying. I personally wouldn’t say that I was truly and expert until my senior year in high school, upon learning these skills I immediately noticed a vast improvement in my performance in school. As Halter notes by taking time to thinking about learning and is able to adjust their behavior based on their results. The learners need clear and challenging goals that help them not just evaluate themselves but also to have a point to progress toward. This idea was stated by Woolfolk and Schunk in the reading.
I think that these ideas are both necessary and important in the development of success full students. While the goals need to be realistic and time management comes into play we all need to thing about not just thinking but learning in general.
There are many approaches to applying these ideas in the classroom. Often students learn best from other students. By utilizing technology students can have easy access to what their peers are doing and gain insight into their own behaviors and how to overcome obstacles in order to reach their goals. An example would be to set up a reflective Blog where students can voice their opinions on assignments, give advice on how they study etc. Another way to help guide students would be with teacher directed questions. These questions could be asked as part of a survey or simply in the form of an in-class discussion or debate on learning or a specific topic of some controversial basis that may spark interest. This will bring new insight for many and help to narrow the gap between expert and novice learners.
As educators the process of thought and learning about learning is a cornerstone for success. The sooner students can reflect on this process the better chance they have of meeting the ever increasing goals, in both the short and long term.

A New Semester!

So a new semester has begun and what can I say, even though it’s taking some time to get back into the technology swing of things I think it’s going to be a hoot of a semester. It’s amazing how quickly this year is flying by. One thing that I have thought of over the break is how I’m going to take this technology and use it to reach my students. I have started to use new tools, and improve my technology applications. This has got me thinking about the discussion last week on technology and evolution VS revolution. After mulling it over I think its much more of an evolution where technology is giving us new ideas to reach our students but the basic structure of having a teacher and students and the general structure doesn’t have to change in its entirety to evolve into a more effective and engaging environment. Ok that’s the big thought for the day =)

Cognitive Views of Learning: Electronic Textbooks

There are many shortcomings and benefits to electronic text books but their benefits largely depend on their usability. If they are user friendly and easy to navigate it is more engaging for students and will encourage them to rely on it as a part of their learning, studying and referencing routine.

The layout of the book as far as page numbers and diagrams should mimic the actual hard cover book. This is increasingly important if an in class hard cover version is used. Also when pages are assigned students will be on the same page as any students who are unable to use an electronic text book.

Scrolling can often be difficult so it would be easier if students can click by arrow from one page to the next, or simply type in the pages of interest. Images should be easy to expand so that students can take full advantage of having them in electronic form. It would be helpful to have a page when the book opens to direct student to different areas of the text such as, glossary, chapter index etc. Additional resources such as virtual field trips should be easy to associate with chapters, and linked with in the appropriate chapter and section so students can reinforce what was learned. If they are linked with the chapters, or placed in the beginning of the chapter students are saved the trouble of correlating them with the proper chapter. There can be links to useful resources outside of the text book to provide students with a multitude of perspectives. Animations can also be added when appropriate. Science specific words that are present in the glossary should be in bold and can be linked for easy access with the definition. Students often just skip these words without taking the time to look them up and this would be a helpful addition.

One of the major problems with linking to outside sits such as NOAA for oceanographic information is that the sites are often changed which would make the links inactive and hence limit the function of the text book.

There are some shortcomings associated with electronic text books even if well layered and designed. Some texts rely on internet connectivity to access online resources and in many cases the textbook itself. Some students who either don’t have computers or have computers with dated software may have limited access or become frustrated when the software doesn’t work properly. While these are limiting factors, compared to the possibilities electronic texts are a wonderful addition to any classroom.

Workshop Refection :)

If I was going to construct a Power Point I would take note of a number of things discussed tonights workshop on visual aspects of presentations, web pages etc. How begin sentences, the color contrast on the page, try and limit unwanted distractions, using columns, the size of my text, the font (serif) etc. I think when it comes to the text, less can be more. It is important to get your points across without diluting them with unnecessary information.
If comparing different aged dinosaurs etc. I would’t place more than two pictures on one slide as it might become distracting. I think I would start the presentation with something to capture the class’s attention, a movie clip or animation. Then give some basic information followed by slides where they can just compare features by making observations. Depending on the images a dark background or a light background would be used to help the pictures stand out and emphasis text. These are just a few things that would help make the presentation easy to follow and an effective learning tool.

Constructivism

It is important to give students real-world experience and problem solving skills. In the classroom, real-world problems are often avoided because they can have various outcomes which at times can surface the difficulties of the creative learning process. As a firm believer in hands on learning a field trip would be a great way to attack learning from a constructivist stance. It would be possible to provide students with a free environment that would foster creative learning. They could be placed into groups to optimize differences in experience and culture within the group. Each group would then be given a set of minimum requirements and areas of focus but the problems would be open ended problems based on the features they are to observe. Let’s suppose that students are constructing a photo essay they could use it. An example of this would be to have students take photos of geologic features such as glacial evidence related to Long Island. It would be helpful to provide students with clear objectives for students to focus on. Scaffolding could be used by giving them step by step instructions leading up to their presentation of the ideas and build a bridge to new ideas among other student groups.
Another method to approach the same problem would be to give students real-world locations to photograph and describe without telling them exactly what they are looking for. In conjunction with Vygotsky, this would allow the students to interact with the world and construct the meaning of what they are looking at. They could then relate this to the history of the area and how it has been changed. To help the learners interact with the world around them to construct their own meaning of the world. Different students could compose questions based on photos or virtual field trips, which could be posed to other students. This would insert new questioning into the class and dictate new direction.