Module 4 responses

Q1. Piaget’s cognitive constructivist theory contributed stages of development in learning. These stages show a progression from concrete to formal operations. His theory also introduced the learner (individual) as a key component that affects learning in addition to the environment.

1. Key questions

a. In his theory, is the learner a more important factor than the environment?

b. Is the learner distinctly different than the environment? How can one tell?

c. How does Piaget use the term logical…too freely? Are some pieces of knowledge constructed in ways that are not logical?

d. How is that individuals are born without mind?

e. How does a student with disabilities fit into this model?

Q2. In Piaget’s stages of development, a learner is actively constructing knowledge in dynamic process, building “differentiated and comprehensive cognitive structures” (slide 16 of 98). In the same way James discusses how the learner forms relationships between ideas, and the mind forms conceptions based on these relationships (James, 1969, p. 69). James goes on to state that the process of education is about gaining ideas, with “the best educated mind which has the largest stock of them, ready to meet the largest possible variety of the emergencies of life” (James, 1969, pp. 69-70). In terms of specific order, James discussed how teachers should be aware of the proper order of thinking: from concrete, object-relations learning, typically in childhood to abstract learning in adolescence (James, 1969, p. 73).

Q3. The authors of the article would probably refer to one of their cautions, “Do not believe that the opposite of “one-right-answer” reductionism is “anything-goes” construcvism” (Airasian & Walsh, 1997, p. 448). In the Simpsons episode, the teacher does not provide appropriate standards or criteria for learning. The teacher says that the only rule for students is to make up their own rules. In this case, there was little emphasis on fact and checks for understanding. In the end this proved problematic, when Bart blew up the lab. In a certain way is based on constructivism but it is a bad application of it. Although students constructed their own meaning, their prior knowledge was never questioned, nor was the knowledge acquired while in the classroom.

Constructivism would be very difficult to apply purely in the classroom setting. Each learner proceeds at their own pace and balancing the influence of a teacher (or other parts of the environment) and the learner could become cumbersome and eventually impractical.