Piaget

1. Piaget The father of constructivism and conceptual change theory

2. Is the mind really like a computer?

3. Quotes from college student exams & papers:(taken from Non Campus Mentis by Anders Henriksson) • “Old Testament profits include Moses, Amy, and Confucius” • “Martin Luther Junior’s famous ‘If I had a hammer’ speech” • “Joan of Arc was famous as Noah’s wife” • “The airplane was invented and first flown by the Marx brothers” • “The Boston Tea Party was held at Pearl Harbor” • “Judyism had one big God named ‘Yahoo’”

4. Constructivism • When ever we take in new information, we interpret, distort, elaborate, and impose meaning on it. • We never encode information in a pure, unaltered form.

5. Constructivism • When we recall information, we often distort, elaborate, and transform it. • There is no pure, unaltered memory recall. • We can even construct memories of things that never happened - and believe they’re true!

6. Piaget - The Father of Constructivism • Children are active and motivated learners. • Through their action, they construct schemas. • A set of perceptions, ideas, and/or actions, that we construct and use to understand and respond to the world. • Ex. “Fast food joint”schema.

7. What were some of the unique schemas that the kids had? • Where might these schemas have come from?

8. Piaget • These schemas affect how we make sense of the world and learn new things. • Learning is not so much a process of acquiring new knowledge, but of reconstructing our existing schemas. • Assimilation - fitting new info into existing schemas, often by distorting, transforming, and imposing meaning on the information. • Accommodation - modifying, transforming, and reconstructing existing schemas.

9. Piaget • A disturbed mind is a good thing! • Disequilibrium - your schemas don’t match up with the world (cognitive dissonance). • (Hopefully!) this lead to a restructuring (accommodation) of your schemas. • Which then leads to equilibrium again. • This process is known as equilibration. And Piaget believed equilibration is what makes you smart - it leads to the development of more complex levels of thought (e.g., critical thinking, abstract thinking). Equilibration Demo

10. Did we see examples of assimilation with the kids? • What about equilibration? Did they ever express disequilibrium and accommodate their schemas?

11. We cannot receive knowledge -- only construct it. A teacher cannot give knowledge -- only foster its development. Behaviorism gave us the scientific revolution in psychology, Information Processing gave us the cognitive revolution. Now Piaget gives us the Constructivist revolution.

12. Implications • Peer Puzzle Activity • What are the implications of students having schemas different from yours?

13. Metaphors for Constructivism • Painting with watercolors. • Growing a garden. • Change in an ecosystem.

14. Duckworth Article Discussion Questions • What type of learning does Duckworth value? Why? • What type of instructional model does she seem to value? Why? • How does her view of learning and instruction relate to Piaget?

15. Problem-based Learning • Instead of presenting content, present a problem that students can explore. • Carefully design the problem so that solving it will lead students to engage with the content you want them to learn. • MAKE SURE THEY WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT FORTH AND TEST THEIR IDEAS. • Provide appropriate guidance and scaffolding (this is getting into social constructivism)

16. Conceptual Change • What is a misconception? • What misconception do students in the article have about heat? • What misconceptions do students have in the video? • What misconceptions did the kids who visited our class have? • Where do misconceptions come from? • Where might the heat, phases of the moon, reflected light, and other misconceptions come from? • Why do individuals hold onto misconceptions? • Why do some students in the article and video hold onto their misconceptions?

17. Reasons for holding on to misconceptions • Pride; don’t like to be wrong • Mistrust source of new idea. • Stick to what makes SENSE! • New idea doesn’t make sense. • Comfort. Change is uncomfortable. • Risky • Takes work! We’re lazy. • Lack of motivation. Who cares? • Hard-core ideas vs. protective belt ideas • Language

18. Reasons for holding on to misconceptions • Uncomfortable to be in a state of not knowing. • Believe it’s true! Stubborn about being wrong. • Our beliefs are connected. Changing one belief may cause Chaos. • Prior belief MAKES SENSE. • New idea might NOT make sense. • Change takes work. We’re lazy. • Might question the source of the new idea. • Source of the prior idea may be powerful • Hard-core vs. protective belt beliefs • Prior idea has time on its side.

19. Reasons for holding on to misconceptions • Richer network in brain. • New idea is just some abstract thing out there. • It MAKES SENSE! • Habit • Tied to particular experience/situation. • Part of personality, values, identity • Hard core beliefs vs. protective belt beliefs • Discount evidence, opinions, ideas that are different • Reluctant to change. Change is uncomfortable. • Change takes time (time for change in network) • Pride; stubborn. We like to be right! • Change is hard. We’re lazy. • Prior belief may be socially embedded.

20. Conceptual Change • In the video, the girl often first gives a correct explanation. But when pressed, her bizarre misconceptions come out. What is going on? • How do misconceptions relate to Piaget’s ideas (schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration)? Demo

21. Conditions needed for conceptual change: • Dissatisfaction with existing idea • New idea must make sense • New idea must be plausible • New idea must appear fruitful

22. Implications • Given that • We construct schemas based on our experience (Piaget), • we learn and make sense of the world according to our existing schemas (Piaget), • and we resist changing our existing schemas (conceptual change theory), • what are the implications of people having different experiences? • How can this knowledge help us understand what goes on in the world?

23. Implications • Conceptual change theory states that we resist changing our existing ideas. • I recently saw a program about two teenage age singers who were being raised to believe in white supremacist ideas. • Is there anything you could do to try to change their beliefs? What could you try?

24. Teaching for Conceptual Change • What advice do they give in the video about dealing with misconceptions? • How does the teacher in the article teach for conceptual change?

25. Conceptual Change Instructional Model 1. Identify misconceptions. 2. Convince students that existing beliefs are inadequate. • Challenge beliefs • Direct confrontation: “The seasons are not caused by the earth getting closer to the sun!” • Critical questioning: “How can it be winter in New Zealand when it is summer in the United States?” (better option) • Engage students in inquiry experiences where they can test their ideas and receive disconfirming evidence.[note: this is problem-based learning]

26. Conceptual Change Instructional Model 3. Motivate students to learn correct explanations. • Show them the usefulness of the correct explanations • In other words, help students have a meaningful, transformative experiences with the correct explanations.

27. Designing an Inquiry Experience • Choose a topic in your subject area. • What problem could you present to your students that relates to this topic? • How will you provide students with the opportunity to put forth and test their ideas? • How will the students engage in the processes of assimilation and accommodation?

28. Relationship between experience and learning Prior Experience Schemes Exploratory experience Accommodation of schemas cognitive development