Module I extrareading-The Active Role of Children in Learning

The Active Role of Children in LearningPiaget attempted to explain how children understand their world by adapting and interpreting the objects and the events they experience. He focused on the active role of children in development. Accordingly, Piaget reasoned that children are not merely passive recipients of information of their environment. Their thoughts are modified by the environment as they actively interpret new experiences and adapt them to what they already know.Strategies for problem solvingThe actions of children, such as choosing their favorite color, do not occur haphazardly or randomly. Piaget believed that children develop strategies and rules, which they use to solve problems. These strategies are called operations. The development of operations, in turn, leads to the development of mental structures, or schemata. Schemata are memories, thoughts, and understandings gained by the child through experience. For instance, Alice may have a schema for understanding birds. In Piaget’s developmental theory, Alice may have a schema for birds that consists of her pet parakeet. As Alice grows even older, her schema may change to “animal with feathers, some that fly and some that don’t.”Another common use of schemata in the classroom is for solving problems. Academically, a schema can be as elementary as a preschooler reaching for a ball or as complex as a secondary student conjugating verbs or solving algebraic equations.Striving for Equilibrium 平衡The development of schemata involves another important Piagetian concept, equilibrium, which Piaget maintained was very important to cognitive growth. Equilibrium is the process of maintaining balance or an understanding of the environment with current schemata.Most of us are comfortable with some order in our lives. We have general routines we follow to get up, get to work or school, have meals, study, and so forth. Although spontaneous and unique experiences are important in life, Piaget maintained that people, especially children, have an innate need to maintain a sense of order and predictability in their lives. Piaget labeled this need striving, or the drive for equilibrium.When the current schemata are inadequate, or unclear to the individual, disequilibrium occurs and some changes must be made in the schemata. Equilibrium is an evolving state because there is always a better equilibrium. You may encounter an unfamiliar word as you are reading this chapter and experience disequilibrium. You achieve equilibrium by finding the definition of the word, but the next day you may experience disequilibrium again when you hear the same word used in an entirely different context. Piaget indicated that disequilibrium results in motivation to learn and to acquire methods of handling disequilibrium.Adaptation Through Assimilation and AccommodationAchieving equilibrium is not always an easy task. It occurs through a process that Piaget referred to as adaptation. Adaptation consists of either changing a response to the environment or changing the schemata to reconcile the environment and one’s current schemata. Disequilibriumprompts people to adapt, and adaptation results in establishing a state of equilibrium. There are two types of adaptation, assimilation and accommodation.In a child, assimilation occurs when her current schemata influence her responses to new experiences. For example, Anna may have a schema for horses that consists of “large, four-legged animals,” but she doesn’t have one for elephants. When seeing an elephant for the first time, she assimilates this experience into her schema for horses and calls the elephant a “horse.”Accommodation alters schemata. If Anna develops a new schema for elephants, perhaps one for “large, four-legged animals with trunks,” accommodation takes place. While developing a schema for elephants, she may also change her schema for horses to “large, four-legged animals that do not have trunks.” The true test might come when Anna experiences a duckbill platypus for the first time.Piaget used the key concepts of operations, schemata, equilibrium, adaptation, assimilation, and accommodation to discuss how children move from one stage of cognitive development to the next. However, it is important to remember that other factors influence cognitive development, including social interaction, learning, and maturation.Social Interaction and Learning: Lev S. VygotskyVygotsky offered an expanded view of the role of social and cultural influences on the cognitive development of children. Although Vygotsky’s work has not had so much impact on education and psychology as Piaget’s, recently his work has been recognized and acclaimed. Although Vygotsky was influenced by Piaget’s work, he maintained that culture, social institutions, and customs were the dominant factors in a child’s cognitive development, especially in the area of thought and language. The process and complexity of adaptation among children, according to Vygotsky, is influenced dramatically such factors as the home environment, peer relationships, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, and their mastery of language.Vygotsky astutely emphasized cultural factors influencing cognitive development, suggesting that the social changes that affect children are indeed important when considering their cognitive functioning. Alice maybe modify her schema for birds, or Anna hers of an elephant, but this learning process can be altered dramatically by Alice or any child experiencing the trauma of a parental divorce, rejection by parents or peers, or sometimes just the process of moving to another home and/or school environment.Student Proximal DevelopmentThe instructional process Vygotsky stressed emphasized teacher cooperation, teachers supporting their students, and the language development of students. According to Vygotsky, students have a zone of proximal development. He defined this zone as the degree or amount students can and have learned on their own compared with what they have the potential to learn with assistance from an adult or teacher --- “the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development asdetermined through problem solving under adult guidance and under the direction of more capable peers”. A fourth-grade student may be proficient in the basics of math but also has the capability of mastering logarithms, percentages, and fractions with the help of his or her teacher.According to Vygotsky, “What the child can do in cooperation today he can do alone tomorrow.”Therefore, good instruction marches ahead of development and leads it; “instruction must be oriented toward the future, not the past”.However, the classroom applications of Vygotsky’s concepts are limited by lack of definition and detail. How much assistance, for example, should a teacher or adult provide students to process in their zone of proximal development? Does the environment impact both independent student learning and teacher-facilitated learning? These questions can be partially answered by the rate of development of individual students.MaturationA child’s ability to learn and socially interact, regardless of assistance or help from adults, peers, or teachers, is tempered by the child’s rate of maturation. Maturation in children is defined as physiological changes that result from heredity and minimal nutrition but that do not appear to require learning or exercise. Maturation is also defined as a gradual, orderly unfolding or developing of human behavior as a result of heredity.A Case StudyMs. Frye’s 11th-grade Advanced Social Studies class was having a heated discussion on the Middle East. Pam was arguing that the Western world had no business in the area, Ali was trying to convey the importance of religion to the people of the Middle East, and Jamal was disagreeing with everybody. Finally, Richard announced, “Hey, if we need the oil we should go and take it. We are the biggest and strongest. We outnumber them 10 to 1….” Several of the students moaned, and Pam was livid in disagreeing.Ms. Frye tolerated the chaos briefly then called the class to order. She had been waiting for this opportunity because a recent teacher workshop on “enhancing the cognitive functioning of students”had provided her with some good ideas. “O.K., our discussion has raised several interesting points and quite a bit of disagreement. I think it is now time for a quiz covering the Middle East topic,”she continued. Groans again eluded from the class, “We are going to do something a bit different. It is a take-home quiz, and you have one week to finish it. ”QuizAdvanced Social Studies, 11th Grade, Ms. FryeThe following is an except from the April 1990 issue of World Development Forum.1.If our world were a village of 1,000 people, what would its ethnic and religious compositionbe?2.In the village would be 564 Asians, 210 Europeans, 86 Africans, 80 South Americans, and 60North Americans.3.There would be 300 Christians (183 Catholics, 84 Protestants, 33 Orthodox), 175 Muslilms,128 Hindus, 55 Buddhists, 47 Animists, and 210 atheist or people without and religion.4.Of these people, 60 would control half the total income, 500 would be hungry, 600 would livein shantytowns, and 700 would be illiterate.Based on this information, you are to write a paper (about five pages) that advises the United Nations on alternatives for improving race relations throughout the world.Please use the following guidelines.1.Identify, collect, and present resource material (I suggest the library) that supports yourposition.2.You are encouraged to recommend strategies that are unique and creative.3.Think about your task of persuading UN representatives to accept your viewpoint. Rememberthat the UN is made up of world representatives representing all nations of the world.Critical ThinkingTake a moment to analyze the events that occurred in Ms. Frye’s classroom. Express your interpretation of these events by responding to the following questions:1.What evidence can you offer that suggests that this group of students is or is not matureenough to benefit from this type of activity?2.Did Ms. Frye’s quiz enhance the cognitive functioning of her students, and does thecontroversial nature of the issues increase such a possibility?3.Was Ms. Frye’s stopping the class at the peak of the discussion justifiable?4.The information sought on Ms. Frye’s quiz would undoubtedly contrast sharply with many ofthese students’ previous beliefs. How does the use of this test relate to Piaget’s theory about disequilibrium?5.What social issues are raised from activities such as the discussion held in Ms. Frye’s class?。