click here to go to next slide psychology of learning 2: constructivism and technology this...

Click here to go to next slide

Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and Constructivism and

TechnologyTechnology

This presentation is designed to introduce you to some of the basic ideas associated with technology and learning from a constructivist perspective.

This lecture is backed up with more detailed information that has been placed at the course web-site:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/edskas/


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and TechnologyConstructivism and Technology

Thorndike and associationism (1898; 1912)

Pavlov and classical conditioning (1902)

Watson and behaviourism (1918)

Skinner and programmed learning (1954)

Piaget and constructivism

(1929)

Vygotsky and constructivism

(1930)

Computer-based instruction e.g. ILS (1960s - 2004)

Papert and LOGO (1980)

Computer Mediated Communication e.g. the

internet and e-mail (1990s)

Audio Visual Instruction: theories of realism (1950)

Comenius Orbus Pictus

(1658)

E-Learning and

Multi-media (1990s)


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and Piaget, Constructivism and Piaget,

reference: KA Spencer (1991) The Psychology of Educational Technology reference: KA Spencer (1991) The Psychology of Educational Technology and Instructional Media, Chapter 6, Liverpool: Manutius Pressand Instructional Media, Chapter 6, Liverpool: Manutius Press

Neisser (1976), in turn, identifies the developmentalstudies of Piaget as offering an alternative to earlierbehaviouristic models of human behaviour, claimingthat ‘human nature is too important to be left to thebehaviourists....’ (p.8). Central to Neisser’s position isthe concept of the schema, which has been developedextensively by Piaget.


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and PiagetConstructivism and Piaget

Although perceiving does not change theworld, it does change the perceiver. (Sodoes action, of course.) The schema undergoeswhat Piaget calls ‘accommodation,’and so does the perceiver. He hasbecome what he is by virtue of what he hasperceived (and done) in the past; he furthercreates and changes himself by whathe perceives and does in the present. ‘Existenceprecedes essence,’ as the existentialistssay. (Neisser, 1976, p.53)



Jonassen (1985) sees the present situation as a shiftfrom a behaviouristic, mechanistic psychology of humanbehaviour to that of an active, constructive psychology,with learners viewed as organized entities activelyconstructing their own reality. He sees Piaget’s theory ofcognitive development as being of major importance tothe new educational technologies, particularly Piaget’sdictum that knowing is a process of constructing systemsof transformations that model reality and that matureoperational thought is the product of:



successive constructions, and the principalfactor in this constructivism is an equilibrationachieved by autoregulations thatmake it possible to remedy momentaryincoherences, to resolve problems, and tosurmount crises or periods of imbalanceby a constant elaboration of fresh structures....(Piaget, 1971, p.40)



Click the image to start the movie



What is the next number in the series:

2, 4, ?




2, 4, ?, ?




2, 4, ?, ?, ? (does your theory fit?)




2, 4, ?, ?, ?, (equilibrium)


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism: Logico-mathematical Constructivism: Logico-mathematical

knowledgeknowledge



Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism: Physical and Logico-Constructivism: Physical and Logico-

mathematical knowledgemathematical knowledge

The concept of equilibration is a dynamic one, and itis therefore necessary to indicate what upsets the organismonce it has achieved equilibrium. The first dynamicfactor is maturation, the physiological growth of thegenetic organic structures. Maturation only opens upfuture possibilities in Piaget’s scheme, experience is alsonecessary to actualize the potential, experience derivedfrom commerce with the environment. These interactionswith the environment lead the child to construct twodifferent kinds of knowledge: physical and logico-mathematical.




Physical knowledge is associated with the results ofactions on objects: touching, lifting, throwing, hitting,smelling etc. To construct this knowledge the child musthave repeated active experiences in which he carries outmanipulations of objects. When constructing physicalknowledge the physical properties of the objects themselvescorrect or reinforce the child’s learning. Implicitin Piaget’s conception of the development of the child isthe idea that children acquire knowledge about the physicalproperties of objects by manipulating the objects andthat all other ways of coming to know objects arequalitatively inferior. Reading about or listening to someonetalk about an object cannot provide the quality ofphysical knowledge that can be acquired by active manipulation.




Logico-mathematical knowledge is derived fromacting upon objects, but does not come from the objectsthemselves, it is constructed from the child’s actions onthe objects. Logical relationships are constructed in thechild’s mind, such as higher, lower, faster. Mathematicalrelationships also are not implicit in objects but areconstructed by the observing or counting child. Numberand number-related concepts are logico-mathematicaltypes of knowledge, but number is not a quality orcharacteristic of an object, it is an invention of each child.


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and BehaviourismConstructivism and Behaviourism



Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and programmed learningConstructivism and programmed learning

Programmed Methods

Piaget’s views of the figurative, rote-learning aspectof education are developed more fully in his criticisms ofbehaviouristic psychology, particularly as applied as aneducational psychology. Piaget has this to say aboutbehaviourism:

This empty box conception of the organism,as it has been called, thus deliberatelythumbs its nose at all kind of mental life,human or animal, and confines itself solelyto behaviour in its most material aspects,ignoring any possible search forexplanations in order to concentrate exclusivelyon the broad laws revealed byscrupulously detailed experimentation.



Programmed Methods

And since the empty box conception ofthe organism renders so many preliminaryconsiderations of the internal factors ofhuman learning unnecessary, it was sufficientto be familiar with the general lawsof learning and with the subject matter ofthe branches of knowledge to be taught, inorder to construct programs at least equalin content to the body of knowledge commonlyacquired.The experiment was tried and proved atotal success. And it goes without saying,if we confine ourselves to the usual methodsof teaching by means of verbal transmissionand receptive processes, that it could not fail to succeed. (Piaget, 1971, p.76-77)



Piaget does have some good words for Skinner’smachines because they ‘provide evidence of good psychologyin that they make use exclusively of positivereinforcement and dispense totally with negative sanctionsor punishments.’ Further, he is not saddened by thefact that school teachers can be replaced by machinesbecause this demonstrates the mechanical nature oftraditional teaching methods, which merely require therepetition of what has been transmitted. The machinesmay even demonstrate the failure of traditional methodsto accomplish their rather limited aims.


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and LOGOConstructivism and LOGO

PAPERT AND LOGOPiagetian theory continues to exert an influence onteaching and the most recent form this has taken is thecomputer language LOGO developed by Seymour Papert,who describes in his book ‘Mindstorms’ (1980) themotivation which led to its creation:

I take from Jean Piaget a model of childrenas builders of their own intellectual structures.Children seem innately gifted learners,acquiring long before they go to schoola vast quantity of knowledge by a processI call Piagetian learning or learning withoutbeing taught. (Papert, 1980, p.7)


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and LOGOConstructivism and LOGO

However, he does differ in some ways from Piaget, and takes maths as an example of a case where Piaget would explain the slower development of a particular concept by its greater complexity or formality; Papert sees the relative cultural impoverishment in those materials that would make the concept simple and concrete, as the major element. In the case of mathematics this leads to mathophobia! Papert argues that since it is easier to learn French in France, then it should be easier to learn maths in mathsland. LOGO has been developed to provide a mathsland where children encounter and solve fundamental mathematical problems while achieving simple goals like drawing a house or snail.


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Constructivism and Technology: Papert and LOGOConstructivism and Technology: Papert and LOGO



Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Kulik, 1994: Meta-analytic studies of Kulik, 1994: Meta-analytic studies of findings on Computer-based learningfindings on Computer-based learning


Psychology of Learning 2:Psychology of Learning 2: Kulik, 1994: Meta-analytic studies of Kulik, 1994: Meta-analytic studies of findings on Computer-based learningfindings on Computer-based learning


Psychology of Learning 2: Psychology of Learning 2: Kulik, 1994: Meta-analytic studies of Kulik, 1994: Meta-analytic studies of findings on Computer-based learningfindings on Computer-based learning


Useful audio-visual Useful audio-visual materials:materials:

VT 854: Piaget’s Constructivism and Elementary Mathematics Education

VT 847: Piaget’s developmental theory – an overview

VT 848: Vygotsky’s developmental theory – an introduction

click here to go to next slide psychology of learning 2: constructivism and technology this...

Documents

slide psychology of

s slide

movie slide

programmed learning

piaget jonassen

constructive psychology

piaget calls accommodation

technology thorndike