Psychology of Teaching and Learning

Brian G. Smith, Ph.D.

Lesson 1 - Piaget's Learning Model

 

You may also check your understanding of the material on the Ablongman web site. Click on the Publisher Help Site button.

The assessments in this course are patterned after the Praxis II, Principles of Learning and Teaching tests required for licensure

Case Study - Lesson 1

Case studies are a very important part of this course of study. You may run through these scenarios an unlimited number of times. If you make errors, you will be referred to the appropriate area of the book, or an appropriate website.  The questions will be narrative, constructed responses to the issues in the study.   Upon submission of your answers, each of the narrative responses will have professionally written feedback of an ideal answer.  Carefully compare this to your answer to determine correctness There is a score associated with each case study but that score will not be recorded.  You will be given credit for participation.

 

Quiz - Lesson 1

You will have to take a quiz for each of the lessons. You have two opportunities to take each quiz.  The highest score will be recorded in the grade book.   Each of the quizzes will be multiple choice & true/false, open-book, open-notes.  Upon submitting each quiz, your quiz score as well as any items answered incorrectly will be available.

     

Homework and Quizzes are on Desire 2 Learn. Click on the Desire 2 Learn link, log in, select the Homework/Quizzes icon and choose the appropriate homework or quiz.

 

     

Grand Round Application - Lesson 1

Each lesson of this course will also require you to continue to work on the Grand Round project in this course.  Click on the assignment link below to go to the document that outlines the assignment for this lesson.  As you complete each lesson's Grand Round assignment, you will be completing that portion of the final project.  Each lesson will provide specific directions for how to turn in that portion of the Grand Round project.

 

Learning Profile Topic - Lesson 1

Each lesson in this course will have a Special Education topic  associated with it.  Click on the link below to go to the content of the topic.  Each of the Special Education topics was specifically chosen to complement the psychology topic.  There will be Special Education items on each lesson's quiz. 

Presentation of Theoretical Construct

Readings: Chapter 2

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Lecture Outline:

Piaget's Learning Model is one of the more profound models for learning that has yet been proposed.  Look carefully at the diagram given below.  Please note how the function of adaptation to the demands of a new environment work in this model.

Four Important Points

  1. For Piaget learning is cyclical.  People cannot help but encounter new situations in the everyday course of life.  Barring any physical abnormalities, injuries, or disease,  people have existing bases of knowledge that they operate from.  Assimilation is virtually always the first effort in this learning process.  You try what you know before inventing any new methods.  The same cyclical point can be made for accommodations as well.  There are some learners who simply wear out a problem.  In clinical terms, they just make accommodation after accommodation until they solve the situation.

  2. One of the most profound parts of this learning model is the the emphasis on the discomfort as motivation.  No one sets out to feel uncomfortable.  In fact, generally speaking, people will do just about anything to avoid discomfort or to alleviate an already uncomfortable situation.  This is often referred to with such terms as "motivating anxiety" and "cognitive dissonance."  Piaget sees this slightly painful element as a necessary part of the learning process.  Very few people would go to the trouble of changing their knowledge base if they didn't need to do so.  It is central to the job of every good teacher then expect a certain level of discomfort during lessons.

  3. Another point to make with this model for learning is the rather obvious one for "accommodation."  The learner is striving reach a certain balance and will generally make trial and error efforts at making appropriate changes in hopes of being successful.  Some of the very good students will ask the teacher what they should do.  Some will not.  They sit stewing at their desks, frowning at their book, notes, lab project, or problem, and get a bit angry.  A master teacher sees that last mentioned frowning student and understands that this is a teachable moment.  The master teacher makes a suggestion as to the change that the student needs to make.  Very gently, they say something like, "Don't do it that way.  Do it this way."  A sudden world of discovery opens up to the learner.

  4. Lastly, there is a very fine line that teachers walk between success and failure.  How do teachers know when they are challenging students and not frustrating students.  This model takes the feeling of learner discomfort as an absolutely unavoidable part of the learning process, but the risk is that the discomfort is too great for the learner and they give up trying.  Surrender.  Retreat.  Concede.  This is such a defining point for learning.  If your lesson is too hard, the student will give in.  On the other hand, if your lesson is too easy, the student will get bored, loose respect for the course.  Students complain all the time, sometimes vehemently.  That doesn't mean that they are frustrated, on the contrary, it means that they are still trying.  Students are frustrated when they stop complaining, when they disengage the material, drop their pen on the desk top, sit back and say "forget this stuff."

Lecture links: