Constructivism

There are multiple technology-based technologies that claim to be constructivist in nature.Two examples are:

• Augmented Reality – This may involve multiple technologies that augments the real world with audio, images, animations, video, etc. Google Glass™ is an example.
• Virtual World/Virtual Reality – Learners enter a simulated ‘world’ via a computer (or some other technology) assuming a persona and interacting with others.  In this way learners are participating in a situated context that may be authentic and may provide consequences to actions. Second Life™ is probably the most well know ‘world’ used for educational purposes.

Do you see any examples of constructivism here? See this link about virtual reality games of the future... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yplHQhaVXU

Piaget, Vygotsky, & Bruner

PIAGET

Piaget’s theory is genetic epistemology.

His main concepts were the different stages of development; assimilation; accommodation; and equilibrium.

Implications on theory include sense making through age appropriate instruction

VYGOTSKY

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development /social origins of thinking.

His main concepts were internalization, zones of proximal development (ZPD), and inter-subjectivity.

Implications on instruction include meaning making, focusing on language, purposeful use of scaffolding.

Facets of Theory

- social interaction

- variations in development

Criticism

- all learning is not active

- brain development limitations

- motivation

BRUNER

Bruner’s theory was 3 modes of representing understanding. Main concepts.. development not contingent on age, inactive, iconic, symbolic.. Implications for Instruction include discovery, inquiry.

Facets of Theory

- structure of the disciplines (SoD)

- inductive thinking

- scaffolding

- discovery method

Criticism

- SoD - counter to discovery

- inefficient

- impractical

- resource intensive

Meaningful Learning & Schema Theory

Reception learning - can only take place with outside assistance

Discovery learning - more on an individual basis; requires the learner to discover information through problem solving; takes longer than reception learning

Behaviorism

Behaviorists say learning is an enduring change in observable behavior due to experience with the environmental stimuli.

Caveats:
- temporary changes due to illness, injury, or distress are not classified as learning
- maturation is not learning but it is a change
- over the years, the environment conditions people

Contributing theorists include Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike & Skinner

Shaping - occurs by changing the criterion behavior for reinforcement to become more and more like the final performance building on what the learner already knows

Chaining - breaking things up into smaller steps

Fading - stimulus must change

Classical conditioning

UCS - Unconditioned Stimulus
Object or event that causes an instinctive or reflexive unlearned physiological or emotional response; until you know what this is, you can't use classical conditioning

UCR - Unconditioned Response
The instinctive or reflexive physiological or emotional response caused by the unconditioned stimulus (ex: pain, anxiety)

CS - Conditioned Stimulus
An object or event that becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus, neutral at first. (ex: flashlight, nail, balloon, glass bottles, water)

CR - Conditioned Response

Operant Conditioning

2 conditions
1. Learner has to do something.
2. Reinforcer should occur only when a desired response has occurred.

Limitations of Behaviorism
- not humanistic / no free will
- ignores individual differences
- blank slate - what about epistemology
- does not take into account mental processes
- inability to explain complex behaviors such as acquiring a language and multi-dimensional tasks

What Kind of Teacher Are You?

I took an interesting assessment here -> www.teachingperspectives.com

Here are my thoughts on my results:

After taking the TPI, it generally showed that I did not have particularly strong beliefs about any of the five perspectives but my dominant perspective according to the results is Nurturing. Followed by this dominant perspective falls Transmission, which I would agree with. It showed that my Transmission score was the highest (a score of for Actions, followed by Apprenticeship (a score of 11),Development and Nurturing (both a score of 9), and finally, Social Reform (a score of 6). I was not surprised to see the Social Reform as the lowest score for Beliefs since when I took the assessment, I could clearly identify these questions and did not agree with most of these statements/questions. For my goals right now, I do not seek to spur any social reform, I just seek knowledge and am focused on results of research, which is something I need to work on. In criminology, often our results are not applied due to criminologists not being able to come to a consensus. Policy makers in turn, do not take research results that are debatable and make them policy. I am also more focused on pure research rather than applied research, but realize I need to focus on policy implications more.

I was also not surprised to see the Nurturing results which show my beliefs are higher than what I actually do. I don’t see much room for much emotions and feelings in a teaching environment so the results make sense for my particular situation, although I still want people to go about learning in their own way and be open to communication with me and open to learning new things. I was also not surprised to see the high score on Transmission since I personally feel that you need to be given information to learn. At least for myself, transmission would be important to me, so it makes sense that it appears my action is the highest here. 

 

Implications from this assessment are that I can clearly see that, even though I answered some questions as a hypothetical scenario, I tend to impose my personal beliefs on to others through my teaching. For example, the nurturing and societal change I spoke about above. 

As far as believing transmission is important, I have experienced this as a learner. I have had classes where the professor is so straight-forward that I do not have to read the text. Alternatively, I have heard feedback from other students in the class that stated the professor was horrible, which I did not understand since I felt like the information was spoon fed. Maybe those students needed more than just the transmission of information, I am not really sure, but I hope to learn more as the class progresses.

As an educator, I think of my husband. I learn things and tell my husband about them because it helps me remember and he (mostly) enjoys hearing things. I try to relay the information as easily as possible and ask him a lot of questions to make sure he understands everything. I engage him to talk. When I teach people things at work, I also do the exact same thing. I think if we can explain things simply, then we understand it well, and learners will also better understand.

 

 

The 3 Major Epistemological Traditions

1. objectivism - reality is independent from the knower
2. interpretivism - truth depends on the knower's frame of reference; changing one's frame of reference changes the "facts"
3. pragmatism -  falls in between objectivism and interpretivism, which are often viewed as polar opposites