The boy in the video displayed characteristics of the
concrete operational stage. The girl was in the formal stage. The boy could listen
and understand, but only as far as what made sense about what he knew about the
world. He refused to believe the hypothetical rule that a feather could break
glass. The girl, however, could think abstractly.
She could understand that, though in real life, a feather wouldn’t break
anything, in this situation, it hypothetically could.
Each of these children needs different kinds of teaching. The
boy needs concrete instruction. It is important to use physical and clear
examples. For the girl, more abstract and metaphorical language and questions
could be used. These techniques must differ in order for the students to learn.
While disequilibrium is good, teaching way above the students’ levels could
frustrate them in a way that is unhealthy.
The teacher needs to realize that these children will need to be taught in different ways because they are in different stages.
ReplyDeleteI really like your description of the two children's thinking and the real classroom techniques that could be used! It's great. I'm sure you could introduce disequilibrium in an appropriate way using each method--which shouldn't frustrate students but motivate them to figure out the situation or change their schema.
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