Constructivism

1. Today we talked about constructivism which is the theory that children learn best when they construct their own answers. By using prior knowledge and discovery activities, children are introduced to an idea or concept and through exploration will define and discover what that concept really means.
2. This is a highly debated topic because sometimes students do not construct correct principles. When they are let free to discover, they will often have reconstruction errors or create misconceptions. There is also the argument that in subjects like math that if they do not "discover" correctly, then in higher math when the come across equations they will not understand how to use them.
3. I think that with everything else, constructivism should be used along with other things. It's like saying that carrots are good for you so all you should eat are carrots. We all know what happens when we eat to many carrots. Therefore, constructivism should be used as one method of teaching, but not the only method.

New Study Strategy

The study habit I committed to try this week was to make meaningful connections with the material. That is one thing that I could definitely do better because everything we are learning is for our benefit. If we are not constantly thinking "how can I use this in my classroom?" then it is useless for us to be in the class. I think that sometimes as students we just get into the habit of learning the material to get through the test. Especially now in higher education, when were are studying things for our specific profession we need to connect with the material and apply it to ourselves.
That is why I chose this strategy to try this week. I am going to be honest, I forgot that I had made that commitment until just now when I was looking up our blog topic, but I am glad I did so I can use that technique in my studies for the rest of the weekend.

Jill Stamm

1. Jill Stamm is a Professor at ASU who has been doing research on the nurture side of brain development. She has written a series of books about the importance of people contact with babies. She says that T.V. and all the programs like "Little Einsteins" are not as important as time with your child.
2. This will bring parents back to the fundamentals of child raising. Like Dr. Stamm said, that the things like eye contact and attention are vital to young infants. In her words, she said "babies don't need things, they need people." We have to remember that we can not ignore our children and expect that a television will make up for the attention that we are not giving them.
3. This is especially important for teachers to understand. That we can not expect that our students will receive the learning and attention they need from reading a text book or watching a video. They need personal interaction from the teacher. They need to feel cared for and loved in order for their brain to develop and retain what they learn in the classroom.

Emotional Development and Cognitive Psychology

1. Today we talked about the importance of emotional development and began to discuss the complexities of the brain. We talked about specific areas of the brain and how information is stored and transmitted and some of the basic assumptions that we make about cognitivism like that we are selective about what they process and the importance of prior knowledge and beliefs.
2. I feel like the more we learn about the brain the more we are able to utilize our own capacities. I also think it is helping us understand how to repair brain damage. We discussed a lot about how people have recovered from severe brain damage and how the brain has adapted. The more we know, the more we are able to help.
3. It is so fascinating how much we are learning and how much there still is to learn about the brain! It is effecting the way that we teach and the way that we helping children remember information and develop in every area. It will be important to stay current on research on the brain because you never know what scientists will discover next!

Social and Moral Development

Today we talked about social and moral development. We talked (and learned how to memorize) Erikson's Eight stages of psychosocial development which I thought was very accurate. We talked about the implications of this new knowledge and how much school can influence a child's psychosocial development. We also discussed Kohlberg's stages of moral development and the criticisms of his studies. I can't believe he only observed girls! that is so odd to me.
It is good to know the different stages because now we know what to look for and how we can help them move along in their development. We are responsible for helping them in their development, and social and moral development are just as important as intellectual development.
Now we know what to look for and how we can encourage appropriate behavior. We of course are the principle models for these kids, but we can also relate these developmental issues with cognitive development and more fully understand what is going on in their heads.

Piagetian Tests

I did my piagetian tests on my three year old niece, my 5 year old nephew and my 9 year old niece. I video taped the tests as well, but we couldn't figure out how to get the video downloaded onto the computer (stupid technology...). The results were as anticipated. My three year old niece gave all the anticipated answers, but when I poured the water from a smaller glass into a larger glass, she said it was the smaller glass that had more water (I think because it looked fuller).
With my 5 year old nephew, he was trying to out smart me. At first he said the two balls of play-doh were different, but then I rounded them out more and he said that NOW they had the same amount. Also, when I put out the pennies in two rows, at first he said they did not have the same amount. I asked him why and he said "because of this one" and he pointed to the one coin that was tails up. After, I flipped it over, he said they had the same amount. Finally, when I poured the water from a smaller glass into the taller, skinnier glass, he said that that one had more water. What was funny is when he watched his little sister's video and saw that she had said the other glass, he laughed and said "she got that one wrong!"
Other interesting things that came up were when my nephew asked "what does 'amount' mean?" It made me wonder if Leah (the three year old) really understood the questions, or if Noah was just in the question stage where he asks about everything he can. But over all it was a fun experiment, especially for my sister to see what exactly is going on in her kids brains and why they do some of the things they do.