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chapter 3

Chapter 3 discusses various educational theories including behaviorism, cognitive learning theories, social learning theories, and multiple intelligences. It highlights key theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky, emphasizing the importance of mental structures, social interactions, and the potential for cognitive development through mediated learning experiences. The chapter also touches on curriculum policies that promote active learning and skill progression.

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Shadrack Mashaba
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4 views

chapter 3

Chapter 3 discusses various educational theories including behaviorism, cognitive learning theories, social learning theories, and multiple intelligences. It highlights key theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky, emphasizing the importance of mental structures, social interactions, and the potential for cognitive development through mediated learning experiences. The chapter also touches on curriculum policies that promote active learning and skill progression.

Uploaded by

Shadrack Mashaba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 3 Teacher as educational theorist

Behaviourism

 The locus of learning is based on stimuli in the external teaching-learning


environment

 Involves learning that produces desired changes that are then reinforced
through a reward system or punishment

Cognitive learning theories

 Emphasis on acquisition and re-organization of mental structures.

 Advance organisers, analogues, metaphors.

Piaget

- Young children tend to order their action or thinking into systems or structures
called “schemes” which to internalize as a mental representation of objects
and events from experiences in the external world.
- Accommodation –occurs when they change their existing schemes because
something doesn’t fit e.g. when a child learns to distinguish the category cat
from that of dog and see the similarities and differences between the two.
- Assimilation –involves trying to understand something new by fitting it into
our existing schemes e.g. children see a dog for the first time will try to match
it to what they are already know such as doggie.

 Looks at different phases of development

1. Sensomotoric phase (0 – 24 mths) –Language development and level of


actions.

-Object permanence develops when they realize that an object exist even when
they cannot see it.

2. Pre-conceptual phase (2-3 yrs) –Intuitive stage as the children reach


conclusion based on vague impression and perceptual judgements.
- They cannot think logically and experience conflict between perception and
mental process.

- Thinking is still self-centered.

- E.g. May ask why the moon is following us when they are in a driving in a car.

3. Concrete operational phase (7-9)

-Children arrive at the threshold of logical thinking and become able to


compare, categories and reverse their thinking

-E.g. 5 +3 is the same 3+5

-Thinking is still linked to direct experience and intelligence become logical


depends on concrete activities.

They cannot think in abstract or hypotheses.

4. Formal operational phase (11+)

-The period where thinking become abstract

-Children can organize information in many different ways and engage in


hypothetical if then thinking

Explanation of terms such as assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium and


disequilibrium.

Social learning theories

 Emphasizes the importance of social interactions in the learning process (1).

 Vygotsky and Activity Theory- understand activity as the interaction


between people and the world via symbolic psychological tools such as
writing.

- People behave actively towards the different aspects of their world, thereby
changing these aspects and changing themselves in the process.

Vygotsky divide the two concepts

1. Spontaneous concepts –which means the emerge from the child


everyday experiences and are empirical and unsystematic.
2. Scientific concepts – are theoretical ideas that are systematic, logical
and rule-bound and these develop through structured activity in the
classroom.

- Promotes cognitive development which includes literature, art, history and


languages.

 Vygotsky: Zones of proximal development (below explained)

 When children work at their own level, we see the actual development level

 When they work in collaboration with an adult we see their potential


development.

 He therefore emphasizes mediation or scaffolding

 Scaffolding -describe the activities the teacher constructs to help learners to


learn.

 Mediated learning experience (MLE)- this gap by assigning the major role to
a human mediator ,such as a teacher.

Howard Gardner & Multiple intelligences

This theory argues that people have different strengths in different areas of
learning , and that teachers must not base their teaching only on the dominant
intelligences used in school , usually verbal/ linguistic (language) and logical/
mathematical (numbers), as some learners express themselves better through
other forms of intelligence

Reuven Feuerstein

Central aspects of Feuerstein theory and practice:

1. All learners can learn and irrespective of age or stage of development.


2. Human intelligence can be modified through mediated learning experience
(MLE).
3. Dynamic assessment is a central tool in measuring cognitive modifiability.
4. Cognitive development –instrumental enrichment

- He also believes that human cognitive structures can be modified and that all
individuals can change the way they think and learn at any age or stage.

Two ways of acquiring knowledge

1. Direct learning through interaction with the environment


2. By mediated learning experience (MLE) via interaction with a human
mediator.

Curriculum policy
The NCS, as well as the latest CAPS, are based on number of principles, three of
which resonate with what we have discussed in this chapter. Three principles are:

- Active and critical learning


- High knowledge and high skills
- Progression

Read page 69

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