PIAGET + THEORY

What is the essence of Piaget's theory?

Simply stated, Piaget stresses concept development before speech. (whereas Vygotsky urges the use of speech to develop concepts) piaget describes four qualitively different periods or stages of intellectual growth, which we pass through.

Piaget’s "genetic epistemology" showed through a study of child development how concepts and cognitive capacities are developed in a person through human activity in the course of individual growth

The four development stages are described in Piaget's theory as:

Sensorimotor stage: from birth to age 2 years (children experience the world through movement and senses and learn object permanence)

Preoperational stage: from ages 2 to 7 (acquisition of motor skills and language)

Concrete operational stage: from ages 7 to 11 (children begin to think logically about concrete events)
Formal operational stage: after age 11 (development of abstract reasoning).

For further information -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget

According to Piaget these stages can not be skipped, although some researchers disagree with this. But Piaget does say that the time schedule for passing through the stages can be facilitated by experience. Piaget also notes that there is no guarantee that an individual will pass through all the stages. In most cases (not all) it takes formal instruction in high school and college to break into the highest stage.

For further information -> http://www.csun.edu/~vcoao0el/de361/de361s121_folder/img026.gif

VYGOTSKY + THEORY

What is the essence of Vygotsky's theory?

The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that SOCIAL INTERACTION plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.

Vygotsky (1978) states: "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals." (p57).

A second aspect of Vygotsky's theory is the idea that the potential for cognitive development depends upon the "ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT" (ZPD): a level of development attained when children engage in social behavior. Full development of the ZPD depends upon full social interaction. The range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone.

For further information -> http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html

Principles:

1. Cognitive development is limited to a certain range at any given age.

2. Full cognitive development requires social interaction.

GLASSER + MOTIVATORS

What does Glasser suggests motivates students to learn?

Choice Theory posits that behavior is central to our existence and is driven by five genetically driven needs:

Survival (food, clothing, shelter, breathing, personal safety and others)
Belonging/connecting/love
Power
Freedom
Fun

Choice Theory posits the existence of a "Quality World" in which, starting at birth and continuing throughout our lives, we place those things that we highly value: primarily the people who are important to us, things we prize, and systems of belief, i.e. religion, cultural values, etc.

Glasser also posits a "Comparing Place" in which we compare the world we experience with our Quality World. We behave to achieve as best we can a real world experience consonant with our Quality World.

Behavior ("Total Behavior" in Glasser's terms) is made up of these four components:

acting
thinking
feeling
physiology

Glasser suggests that we have considerable control or choice over the first two of these, and little ability to directly choose the latter two. As these four components are closely intertwined, the choices we make in our thinking and acting greatly affect our feeling and physiology.

HATTIE + MOTIVATORS TO LEARN

What motivates most people to learn according to Hattie?

For Professor John Hattie the main contributing factor to a students learning is the importance of FEEDBACK.

For further information -> http://www.acer.edu.au/workshops/documents/HattieSlides.pdf

Feedback - Hattie has made clear that ‘feedback' includes telling students what they have done well (positive reinforcement), and what they need to do to improve (corrective work, targets etc), but it also includes clarifying goals. This means that giving students assessment criteria for example would be included in ‘feedback'.

As well as feedback on the task Hattie believes that students can get feedback on the processes they have used to complete the task, and on their ability to self-regulate their own learning. All these have the capacity to increase achievement. Feedback on the ‘self' such as ‘well done you are good at this' is not helpful. The feedback must be informative rather than evaluative.

Hattie also stresses ‘effect sizes' are the best way of answering the question ‘what has the greatest influence on student learning?'.

For further information -> http://www.teacherstoolbox.co.uk/T_effect_sizes.html

Other important factors that Hattie stresses as motivators for student learning are:

DIRECT INSTRUCTION (clarity and precision in the teacher's instructions)

STUDENT'S PRIOR COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (student's prior learning and development)

INSTRUCTIONAL QUALITY (the teaching ability and quality of the teacher)

CHALLENGE GOALS (students being given challenging but at least partially achievable goals)

AFFECTIVE ATTRIBUTES OF STUDENTS (addressing the attitudes, beliefs and values of each child)