Ccld_Level_4

K4D806 Significant theoretical perspectives on:- A. CHILDREN AS LEARNERS:- -Programmed Learning - is a learning methodology or technique first proposed by the behaviourist B F Skinner. According to Skinner “The purpose of programmed learning is to manage human learning under controlled conditions. Programmed learning has 3 elements:- it delivers information in small bites, it is self paced and it provides immediate feedback, both positive and negative, to the learner”. Skinner based his ideas on the principle of operant conditioning, which theorized that learning takes place when a reinforcing stimulus is presented to reward a correct response. -Laissez faire approaches – (learning just happens) This model is based on the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau thought that children learned naturally like the opening of a flower bud, and were programmed to learn certain things at certain times. Rousseau's thinking was that children’s development would proceed anyway whether or not there was a significant influence from adults or the environment. -The advantages of his approach are – stages are identified when children are – sensitive to particular learning, child is encouraged to take the lead in learning, the development of development scales . -The role of the adult and interaction with the child follow a “leave it to nature” model with a limited role for the adult. Negative aspects are that adults might not intervene at appropriate times or offer sufficient stimulation, and children are seen as mostly passive -The organistation of the learning environment is expected to be well resourced with plenty of equipment and activities and allowing children to explore freely, however low adult intervention might miss learning opportunities. - Links to current research – current research especially concerning brain development, supports the view that the child has sensitive periods - Social Construtivism including schema – This model is based on the work of Piaget, Bruner and Vgotsky and is influential in current early years provision. The social constructivist model originated in the work of Kant and views children as ‘empty vessels’ (transmission model) and partly as pre-programmed (laissez faire approach) with an interaction between the two. The social constructivist model emphasises environmental, biological and cultural factors and sees the child as an active participant in their learning and development. Piaget was a constructivist whose work has been a major influence both on developmental psychology and on learning and education. Piaget's view was that from birth, a child actively selects and interprets information from its environment and has the ability to adapt and learn .His theory focused on intellectual development. Piaget saw the child as constantly constructing and reconstructing reality – achieving increased understanding by integrating simple concepts into more complex concepts at each stage of development. He argued that there was a natural sequence for the development of thought governed by what he termed ‘genetic epistemology’. It was not enough to teach ideas by simple reinforcement or praise – the child had to be at a particular stage of development to be able to learn new concepts. Piaget identified 4 stages in this process:- 1. Sensori motor - sensor-motor (birth to about 2yrs)- The child moves from basic reflexes and learns through its senses, gradually moving towards organising more complex physical action schemes such as hitting and grasping - Pre-operational (2 to 7yrs~) –The child begins to manipulate the environment and to represent objects by words, which support play with ideas. Logic rests on incomplete knowledge. - Concrete operational stage (7-11yrs) – Children become capable of more systematic logical thought and begin to grasp the abstract notions. They still need to relate their thinking to concrete objects and activities. - Formal-operational (12 onwards) – Piaget claimed that this stage was characterised by orderly thinking and mastery of logical thought. Children can manipulate abstract ideas, make hypotheses and see the implications of their thinking and that of others. Piaget had a great interest in intellectual development and his work has influenced how children are taught today. His overall conclusion was that children are not less intelligent than adults, they simply think in different ways. He also felt that there should be little intervention from adults. He suggested that children constructed or built up their thoughts according to their experiences through a schema – (a pattern of repeatable behaviour). Piaget felt that learning was an ongoing process and he believed that children adapt their schemas when they have new experiences. He used specific vocabulary to describe this learning - assimilation – taking in new information from the environment through the child’s existing patterns of action (sometimes called schemas) - accommodation- modifying existing patterns of actions to accommodate new information and knowledge - equilibration – balancing what they already know with new experience to make sense of the world. Schema – Piaget used the term schema to describe the mental representations that develop as children have new experiences and put new ideas and abilities together. Schemas are early ideas or concepts based on linked patterns of behaviour and are part of the child’s powerful drive to understand its experiences. Schemas include the idea or concept in the mind and the actions the child takes as a result of the idea. Often schemas occur in clusters. Children will develop their schemas for hours on end and in many ways. Common types of schema clusters are which have been identified by early years practitioners are - transporting – moving objects or collections from one place to another - orientation – looking at things from different angles. Children turn things upside down or hang upside down themselves - horizontal and vertical schemas – often shown in actions taken by the child such as climbing or stepping up and down or lying flat. They will also construct in this way using blocks or show the schema in drawings and collage. Bruner and Vgotsky build on Piaget's theory but stress the role of play, talking with adults and interacting with the social world. Piaget’s view of the child as a solitary learner is replaced by that of the child as social being. Vgotsky saw children as active organisers of their own lives but unlike Piaget he believed that social relationships and interaction with another person were needed for humans to develop intellectually. Piaget's theory was that children moved through the stages when they had learnt something and then moved on to the next stage/level. He believed that they had to attain this learning independently - although there are always 'ifs and buts' and he did acknowledge that a child's environment would greatly influence/affect a child's learning. He believed that children learnt best in what they were interested in, and he called this learning schema. So if a child liked filling up a pram or tractor trailer with boxes or bricks and pushed it around from one place to another, the schema was known as transporting/ation, always wrapping things up i.e. dolls in blankets, stones in paper etc is known as enveloping(wrapping up). He also stated that you must not get fixed ideas of a child's learning being solely through a certain type of schema – as they move from stage to stage as they learn, so they can change from one schema to another; they could like transporting for a year or a day, then move onto another schema and so on. How schemas affect practice - If a child is deeply embedded in a schema then of course it affects your practice. If the child wishes to spend the day sitting on a truck lining cars up and is deeply engrossed and learning, then why would you stop him and insist he does what you have planned' We need to meet his needs, his schema, so it affects first our knowledge of them, but also then our planning and our implementation, and our ability to go with his schema with confidence rather than insisting he meets ours. this also often means we need to deal with the staff who are less confident, and also the parents. Schemas - A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are forms of knowledge -acquisition that help us to interpret and understand the world. In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas. For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters a very large dog. The child will take in this new information, modifying the previously existing schema to include this new inform - Scaffold Learning Scaffolding Theory was first introduced in the late 1950s by Jerome Bruner, a cognitive psychologist. He used the term to describe young children's oral language acquisition. Helped by their parents when they first start learning to speak, young children are provided with instinctive structures to learn a language. Bed-time stories and read-alouds are classic examples (Daniels, 1994). Wood, Bruner, and Ross’ (1976) idea of scaffolding also parallels Vygotsky’s work. Though the term was never used by Vygotsky, interactional support and the process by which adults mediate a child’s attempts to take on new learning has come to be termed “scaffolding.” Scaffolding represents the helpful interactions between adult and child that enable the child to do something beyond his or her independent efforts. A scaffold is a temporary framework that is put up for support and access to meaning and taken away as needed when the child secures control of success with a task. The concept of scaffolding is closely related to the ZPD, (Zone of Proximal Development) although Vygotsky himself never mentioned the term; instead, scaffolding was developed by other sociocultural theorists applying Vygotsky's ZPD to educational contexts. Scaffolding is a process through which a teacher or more competent peer gives aid to the student in her/his ZPD as necessary, and tapers off this aid as it becomes unnecessary, much as a scaffold is removed from a building during construction. • The term "scaffolding learning" was coined in the 1970s by the U.S. psychologist Jerome Bruner, after observing the largely instinctive efforts parents make to support young children in learning to speak. He noted tactics such as repetition, the asking of questions and the modeling of phrases for the child to complete. Bruner's work built upon that of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky,. • Vgotsky believed that the social environment that children lived in, and the experiences that children had, were very important . He saw children as apprentices who learn through being with others. Vgotsky also developed a theory called the "Zone of Proximal Development," which he described as the gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with the help of someone more skilled or experienced, who could be another adult or child. • Zone of proximal development - an area of learning containing tasks too difficult for a child to master alone, but which could be managed with the guidance of someone more skilled. • Scaffolding theory is most strongly associated with development of language skills. For Vygotsky, speaking is the moment at which thought "emerges" or completes. So, in a process of "emergent" writing, the teacher first acts as the child's scribe, taking down what the child says. Later, teacher and child share the composition process and, finally, the child tackles writing tasks independently. The teacher's role changes over time, from recording the child's speech, to giving direct instruction, to prompts, corrections and encouragement, and, finally, to observation. • The dialogue and interaction that characterize scaffolding can help develop the social skills of young children. This can be done through imaginative role-play, structured to give children opportunities to cooperate with their peers, for example by playing at shops • The most important point about scaffolding is that it is temporary. Elements of the scaffolding will be withdrawn by the instructor as the learner gains the knowledge, experience and skills to complete a task unaided. In Vygotsky's words, "What the child is able to do in collaboration today he will be able to do independently tomorrow." • Vgotsky talked about ‘scaffolding’ which he saw as a way of enabling children to find their way to the top of a problem. Adults create a scaffold by maintaining interest, giving support and pointing out information • The motion of proximal development emphaises the importance of what has been called scaffolding. This relies on careful observation of what the children can do and planning a curriculum which challenges their current capability. • Vgotsky’s concept of differing zones of proximal development led to important new techniques for diagnosing children's learning needs and the development of teaching techniques to meet them. • How this relates to practice :- The idea of matching tasks to children's current competence to scaffold their learning comes directly from his work. His theories changed the way educators think about children’s interactions with others, and led to peer tutoring approaches. Learning Styles A Learning style is the manner in which each of us best comes to understand and implement new information. As all people differ, so does their natural inclination to learn. In general there are three types of learning styles:- Visual Learners: learn through seeing... . These learners need to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson. They tend to prefer sitting at the front of the classroom to avoid visual obstructions (e.g. people's heads). They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays including: diagrams, illustrated text books, overhead transparencies, videos, flipcharts, use of interactive whiteboards and hand-outs. During a lesson or classroom discussion, visual learners often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information Teacher modelling at the beginning of the three-part lesson is particularly suitable for these children. The quality of display, AVAs, printed material etc is obviously going to have an effect on the quality of learning of visual learners. Visual Learners: use visual materials such as pictures, charts, maps, graphs, etc. need to have a clear view of the teachers when they are speaking so you can see their body language and facial expression use colour to highlight important points in text take notes or ask the teacher to provide handouts illustrate their ideas as a picture or brainstorming bubble before writing them down write a story and illustrate it use multi-media (e.g. computers, videos, and filmstrips) study in a quiet place away from verbal disturbances read illustrated books visualise information as a picture to aid memorisation Auditory Learners: learn through listening... They learn best through verbal lessons, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. Auditory learners interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. These learners often benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder. Shared reading, shared writing, teacher modelling, paired reading etc will have a marked effect on the efficiency of pupils who might be deemed auditory learners. Auditory learners: Participate in class discussions/debates make speeches and presentations use a tape recorder during lectures instead of taking notes read text out aloud create musical jingles to aid memorisation create mnemonics to aid memorisation discuss their ideas verbally dictate to someone while they write down their thoughts use verbal analogies, and story telling to demonstrate their point of view. Kinaesthetic Learners: learn through , moving, doing and touching... Kinaesthetic pupils learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration. This would appear to be true of a number of boys and maybe partly responsible for lack of concentration and “switch off”. Building different activities into lessons will be of real benefit to these pupils, as is the structure of the three-part lesson, which may overcome some of the problems associated with doing the same activity for long periods. Kinaesthetic learners: take frequent study breaks move around to learn new things (e.g. read while on an exercise bike, mould a piece of clay to learn a new concept) work at a standing position use bright colours to highlight reading material dress up their work space with posters listen to music while they study skim through reading material to get a rough idea what it is about before settling down to read it in detail. No one person uses one style exclusively, but they do have preferred learning styles. It is therefore important to attempt to cater for all styles during lessons to enable the most efficient learning to take place. B. LANGUAGE THEORIES – There are several theories which consider how we learn to communicate. Some are based on the idea that language is instinctive, and some theories are based on the idea that children learn to communicate because they have been exposed to language. All agree that there is a strong link between language and cognitive development. Chomsky- Noam Chomsky stated that children are born with an innate knowledge of language when they are born and learning of their native language is at high speed when hearing it from others. This links to children over-regularising and putting grammar into utterences when they are not needed. Chomsky is one of the most famous theorists on child language acquisition, but because his theories were based on his own intuitions about English and not actually studied on real children, many theorists find flaws within his theories and statements Chomsky created the LAD- language acquisition device 1. Baby already knows about linguistic rules, as they are born with an innate knowledge of language. 2. The baby hears examples of his/ her native language 3. The linguistic rules help the baby make estimations and presumptions about the language it is hearing. 4. From these estimations and presumption the baby works out grammatical sets of rules. As more language is heard the grammar becomes more and more like adults. Skinner- Skinner bases his theory of children acquiring language through behaviourism. Skinner states that all behaviour is conditioned e.g. punished or rewarded until it becomes natural and automatic. Babies imitate their parents/carers and are either reprimanded or praised according to their accuracy. This is Skinner going against Chomsky, as he believes biology plays almost no part in the way children learn language. Piaget- Piaget's theories on children learning language is mainly focused around "cognitive development," meaning language is controlled by the development of thinking. If a baby can use sentences involving phrases such as, "more than", "less than" it is obvious that the concepts of "more than" must have been grasped, before the child uses the phrase in an utterance. Bruner- As a way of responding to Chomsky's LAD(language acquisition device) learning system. Bruner theorised the language acquisition support system (LASS) Bruner states through LASS that parents often use books and images to develop their child’s naming abilities and their ability to get involved in conversation. (LASS) 1- Gaining attention- drawing the babies attention to a picture 2- Query- asking the baby to identify the picture 3- Label- telling the baby what the object is 4- Feedback- responding to the babies utterances