November 15, 2007 (Notes)

(This is our note for November 15, 2007)

Collaborative Learning is a form of constructivism (ex., Wiki)

JEAN PIAGET

Jean Piaget is a Swiss constructivist who formulated the stages of cognitive development. He wrote in French and collected so much data that he himself could not see the pattern. We later used his data.

He looked at:
Physical knowledge (exists in the environment, something that we can see),
Mathematical-logical knowledge (cannot see, reasoning)
Social knowledge (culturally determined)

Assimilation:
-- You already have a schema and you bring in the new information
-- always sucking something when put in the mouth
Accommodation:
-- You have to change your knowledge because it does not fit with your schema (happens when you travel to a place with a different culture).
-- Kids have a “sucking” schema. When you give them a spoon, they cannot “suck.” They have to accommodate by learning something new.

SEAMORE PAVLOV

1930’s: Seamore Pavlov said that children need to learn through experience (ex., playing). At that time people thought that kids should be taught computer programming because it has intuitive values. However, he thought that it is silly to teach kids computer programming.

Logo, an artificial language, was developed for constructive learning.

VIDEO

Jean Piaget says that baby have an innate ability to learn since birth. His theory assumes we have the desire to learn through our environment. Young kids show a lot of awareness (really?).

Example of Driving A Car
You have a schema: Video Games, Bicycling, or through observation.
You don’t have a schema for a stick shift. Hence, you develop a sense of non-equilibrium. You have to accommodate to learn how to use the unknown factor—stick shift. After you have learned how to drive, you are on your way back to the state of
equilibrium! The state of equilibrium creates a desire to learn more from the world!


Sensory Motor (action stage: sucking, touching)
-- at the end of the stage they will realize that symbols can be used to represent objects
-- profoundly egocentric because they don’t know that they are separate from their surrounding
Pre-Operational
-- children are still egocentric
-- cannot think of more than one features at the same time
-- is influenced by what they see
-- conservation: something remains the same even though it has been transformed into something else with a different appearance.
Concrete Operational (General Symbolic Function means knowing how to use symbols)
-- age 7-11
-- egocentrism decrease dramatically
-- can do subtraction
-- conservation is obtained
-- object must be present in order to think
¬Formal Operational
-- highest level of thinking
-- abstract thoughts

GROUP WORK
FACT ONLY BE MEMORIZED. To create a “use question,” say “show me an example”. To create a “find question,” say “conduct a research.”

1.) Fact-based question. At what stage kids acquire the conservation of numbers? Pre-Operational (2-7 years old)

2.) Concept-based question. Why participation is central to Piaget’s theory? We need to be able to constructive our own knowledge.

3.) Fact-based question. At stage 3 what a child will be able to do?

FINAL PROJECT DISCUSSION

Select the format (print, video, website, PowerPoint). Content should come from Itec 800, not from somewhere else. Summarize different learning theories (talk about reinforcement). Synthesize. Come up with your own learning theory. Demonstrate highest level of understanding of material. Provide examples.

Or develop curriculum material based on the learning theory that you have understood.

She’ll make up a forum for you to propose what your project will be.

Two people can work on one project!


End of Class.