After reading about Piaget in Module 7, the concepts that stuck out to me most were the theory of constructivism, which says that you develop and learn by constructing knowledge. You can construct knowledge by actively selecting, organizing, and integrating information. There are two kinds of constructivism -- individual and social. Individual constructivism is when you learn things from experience rather than memorizing facts. Social constructivism is when you absorb knowledge from social interactions and your environment. I remember the example given in the book was a child who was particularly interested in riding bicycles worked with an adult to fix them.
Next, Module 7 talked about Vygotsky and his theory that learning occurs as a result of the combination of heredity and environment.
I thought it was interesting when the module said that development always precedes learning. At first, I was confused by this but then it explains that we need to develop into people who are ready and able to learn before we can actually start learning. However, I am still a little confused by this. Don't we start learning from the time we're born, just like we start developing from the time we're born? For example, a baby discovering that when it cries, its mother will come is an example of learning, not development.
Many young children learn how to search for information or design through
media tools (ipads, etc). What would Piaget say about this?
I think Piaget would consider this an excellent way to learn. Learning through technology is an example of both social and individual constructivism. It is social because children observe an adult using something like an ipad or play with the adult on the ipad. It is also individual because once a child understands the basics of how to use an ipad, he or she can continue to learn from it by actively pursuing educational games as opposed to just memorizing things.
I also thought the concept of development and learning were a little bit confusing. Both Piaget and Vygotsky saw the process of development and learning differently. While Piaget believed that development needed to occur for learning to occur so that based on the stage of development an individual is in the teacher would know what to teach and how much the student was able to learn. While Vygotsky thought that through learning an individual could reach higher levels of development. There are many ways to look at the processes of development and learning and when they occur.
ReplyDeleteI think that the example you gave can be explained. A baby develops its vocal chords and its 'ability' to cry before it cries. When it does cry and receives attention from its mother, it learns that crying will lead to its needs being met. I personally think of development more as physical or biological and learning a relation of experiences.
ReplyDeletePiaget's theory states that development precedes learning. This does not mean that we aren't doing both at the same time. It simply means that there is certain information that we are capable of learning in each developmental stage, and we must reach that stage, or develop, before being able to fully learn a concept that is specific for that stage. For example, in the pre-operational stage, we are egocentric. We know that what we see is there and permanent, but we don't understand that a person sitting on the other side of a figurine can't see the same objects as we do. In the concrete operational stage, we are developmentally able to understand that a person sitting on the other side can't see the same things as we can. We need to develop to that stage before we can learn that information.
ReplyDeleteYou use the word absorb when talking about social constructivism, but even in those interactions, people are constructing knowledge. Vygotsky would say that the meaning that's constructed begins in the outside (external to the mind) social world--like in physical interaction with another person or with practicing cultural activities, or using language.... and eventually it is internally constructed within the mind, or internalized. We do Vygotsky next week, but he still talks about this as a construction.
ReplyDeleteWell, remember that Piaget's theory is just one explanation of the world. Referencing your example, Piaget might call that learning, yes, but the baby is capable of learning in that way (sensory-motor) because of the development that's already occurred. You could say that his schema is being restructured once he learns that crying produces attention from mother--but the interaction he's thinking about is still rooted in sensory motor sorts of information (crying, sound, appearance of a person, etc). Hope that helps?