A Piagetian-Based Programme for Learning “Elements and Symbols”

Piaget's learning theory on cognitive development has had considerable impact on science education (Piaget, 1964; Inhelder and Piaget, 1958; Craig, 1972). The theory classifies cognitive learning into four successive stages: (a) sensory-motor, (b) pre-operational, (c) operational, and (d) formal. Various programmes and instructional strategies have been developed based on the theory (Batt, 1980; Karplus, 1977; Renner and Stafford, 1979; Ryan, et al., 1980; Herron, 1978; Good et al; 1978). An application of this theory for teaching and learning scientific concepts is the Piagetian learning cycle (Karplus, 1977) which is of growing interest among science educators. This article intends to introduce briefly the learning cycle in general and suggest a learning cycle for teaching a topic in chemistry: “Elements and Symbols”.     

Beyond access: special education in America

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to examine the parallels between many aspects of conductive education and the conceptual framework of Feuerstein's theory of mediated learning. Conductive education is not a treatment administered to remedy some pathology, as is the case with many therapies, but rather a system of education aimed at developing the whole individual. How this process is achieved may be enlightened by reference to Feuerstein's model of mediated learning experience (MLE). Two key aspects of Feuerstein's theory are examined: first, structural cognitive modifiability (SCM), which maintains that every individual's cognitive structures are capable of modifiability, despite barriers of retardation ‐ very much in line with modern neuroscience and its model of the brain as a plastic and adaptable system; and secondly, mediation (MLE), which is the process whereby a more initiated individual acts as a mediator between culture and child and thereby directs the child into preparing an adequate response. A detailed examination with exemplars is then undertaken into the mediation of many different aspects of development, including the three essential mediation processes of intentionality and reciprocity, transcendence and meaning. Finally, the implications of Feuerstein's theory for models of research and evaluation are considered, particularly the need for more qualitative and interactional approaches which maintain ecological validity.     

Learning disabilities: A piagetian perspective

Research findings in learning disabilities based on Piaget's theory were reviewed. Superimposing the findings of research on Piagetian stages of cognitive development, it appears that during the sensorimotor stage the diagnosis of learning disabilities is difficult. The research findings suggest that there is a delay in cognitive development of learning-disabled children during elementary school years, which corresponds to preoperational, concrete operational, and transition to formal operational stages. From a genetic epistemological perspective, research evidence supports a “developmental lag” approach to learning disabilities. Implications for assessment, curriculum planning, and education are discussed.     

The influence of content organization on student's cognitive structure in thermodynamics

Two different approaches to the content of thermodynamics were used in an introductory college physics course: one was the traditional organization found in most textbooks on the subject, the other was based on the learning theory of David Ausubel. The influence of these different content organizations on the student's cognitive structure was investigated using a word association test which was analysed through hierarchical clustering analysis. Research findings suggest that the approach based on Ausubel's theory influences the student's cognitive structure in such a way that their conceptual hierarchies are more coherent with the basic laws and the conceptual structure of the subject matter.     

From conceptual development to science education: a psychological point of view

A theoretical framework based on cognitive/developmental research is described. It is argued that science learning is a gradual process during which initial conceptual structures based on children's interpretations of everyday experience are continuously enriched and restructured. Conceptual change also involves increased metaconceptual awareness, cognitive flexibility, and theoretical coherence. Some of the implications of this research for the development of science curricula and for instruction are discussed. It is also argued that while cognitive/developmental research can provide us with important information about the process of learning science, it does not provide much information about the external, environmental variables that can facilitate cognitive performance and conceptual change. What is needed in the future is the development of a theory of learning that bridges science education and cognitive/developmental research. Such a theory should specify the mechanisms that can take an individual from one level of cognitive performance to the next and relate them to situational and cultural factors.     

Piagetian structuralism and learning: Reflections on two decades of educational application

In light of salient measurement and evaluation issues a content analysis approach was chosen to assess the value and problem of applying Piagetian theory to early childhood education. Focal changes in implementation were analyzed with emphasis upon the so-called unique contributions of the theory to teaching goals, beliefs, understandings, and practices. Structuralism was compared favorably with learning theory in providing a conceptual basis for educational application. The inherently dialectical nature of Piaget's views of knowledge presents an intuitively appealing albeit conceptually and methodologically abstract approach to educational innovation. It was concluded that applying Piagetian theory to education, in agreement with these special developmental dynamics, involves an interactively changing theory and data base as teachers and children develop over time.     

概念隐喻理论视野下的大学英语词汇教学——以湖南第一师范学院音体美专业学生为研究对象

隐喻不仅是一种修辞手段,而且是人类认识抽象事物的重要认知工具。概念隐喻理论的运用对大学英语词汇的教学有相当大的帮助。隐喻概念在扩大英语词汇量、理解短语搭配、掌握一词多义以及促进词汇学习系统化等方面具有积极作用,音体美专业学生大学英语词汇教学中应遵循英语语言的本质特征,将概念隐喻分析与大学英语教学实际有效地结合起来,这是提高该专业学生大学英语词汇教学的质量的有效途径。     

Role of the epistemic subject in Piaget's genetic epistemology and its importance for science education

According to Piaget, a fundamental epistemological distinction must be made between the psychological and the epistemic subject. The epistemic subject is studied by the genetic epistemologist who charts development through a “common universal rationality, which develops,” whereas the psychological subject is studied by the developmental/cognitive psychologist by focusing on accidental contingencies surrounding particular people and their individual differences. The epistemic subject as compared to the psychological subject is an idealized abstraction, viz., that set of underlying epistemic structures common to everyone at the same level of development. The objective of this study is to investigate the degree to which investigators in science education conceptualize the difference between the epistemic and the psychological subjects. It is argued that just as the ideal gas law (based on the theoretical formulation of Maxwell and Boltzmann) provides a “general model” to which the real gases approximate under different experimental conditions, so we can consider (by abduction) the epistemic subject to be an “ideal knower” to which the real (psychological) subjects approximate to varying degrees. The difference between the epistemic and the psychological subjects, however, cannot be used as an “epistemological shield” in defense of Piagetian theory. Any test of the Piagetian theory must involve psychological or real subjects. Empirical testability, however, need not be equated to being scientific. An analogy is drawn between Galileo's idealization, which led to the discovery of the law of free-fall, and Piaget's epistemic subject. Research conducted in science education shows that at least for some critics the wide variations in the age at which individuals acquire the different Piagetian stages is crucial for rejecting the theory. It is argued that the real issue is not the “proportion of heterogeneity” but the understanding that Piaget, by neglecting individual differences, attempts to build a general model applicable across types of situations/subjects. The distinction between the epistemic and the psychological subjects is important not for defending Piaget's theory (which has serious theoretical flaws) but to understand epistemic transitions, for example, the one between Piaget's epistemic subject and Pascual-Leone's metasubject. It is concluded that failure to understand the distinction between the epistemic and the psychological subjects would lead to misconstruing the significance of our research findings and, what is more serious, to a lack of a historical perspective.     

Education for Work: A Review Essay of Historical,Cross‐Cultural,and Disciplinary Perspectives on Vocational Education

In this review essay, K. Peter Kuchinke uses three recent publications to consider the question of how to educate young people for work and career. Historically, this question has been central to vocational education, and it is receiving renewed attention in the context of concerns over the ability of schools to provide adequate preparation for occupational roles and career success in a rapidly changing economic landscape. Philip Gonon's Quest for Modern Vocational Education provides a historical account of Georg Kerschensteiner's vision of the role of work as a central subject matter for all students. His approach served as the foundation for the dual system in present‐day Germany. Nancy Hoffman's Schooling in the Workplace contrasts the U.S. system of career preparation for non‐college‐bound students with that of five other OECD nations where workforce and academic preparation are more strongly connected to learning in the workplace. Christopher Winch's Dimensions of Expertise, finally, offers a conceptual analysis of central ideas of vocational knowledge and underscores the important role of learning in the context of practice. The three texts offer historical, comparative, and philosophical analyses of the complex task of preparation for work and challenge education scholars to move the subject matter into the center of contemporary educational theory.     

Is Piaget's epistemic subject dead?

Niaz (1990) presents arguments in favor of the retention of Piaget's epistemic subject as a theoretical construct to guide research and practice in science education and psychology. The intent of this article is to point out the weaknesses of those arguments and to suggest that the weight of evidence argues against the existence of the logical thinker postulated by Piaget. Therefore, contrary to Niaz's conclusion that the acceptance of Piaget's epistemic subject will facilitate the development of cognitive theories with greater explanatory power, the conclusion is reached that Piaget's epistemic subject is dead and that continued acceptance of this aspect of Piagetian theory would be counterproductive.     

An approach to assessing and facilitating causal language in adults with learning disabilities based on Piagetian theory

Salient characteristics associated with Piagetian cognitive stages served as the basis for developing a linguistic taxonomy of causal semantic relations. Causal statements from adults with learning disabilities and normally achieving adults were analyzed and organized within this taxonomy. A relationship between Piagetian cognitive stages and verbal expressions of causality was identified. Based on this relationship, principles of Piagetian cognitive theory were used to design assessment and intervention plans for adults with learning disabilities.     

Unpacking a Liturgical Framing of Desire for the Purposes of Educational Research

Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholders share the same desires for teaching and learning—desires reflecting a liberal paradigm that stresses individualism, control, and efficiency. But there are other desires, and additional empirical research informed by a Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning could enrich this discourse. In my view, such research could benefit from a framework of desire compatible with the theory's central assumptions of learning as socially situated in cultural practices, teleological, and transformational. To this purpose, I offer a liturgical framing of desire put forth by James K. A. Smith, which treats humans as essentially desiring beings and defines desire as a potent force formed through participation in communal practices that orient practitioners' hearts (eros) toward particular futures (telos). I show how this framing satisfies key features of sociocultural theory and highlight two examples of how desire has been qualitatively examined and where the framing might enrich further examinations of education settings.     

The Christian Family as Mediator

The publication in 2011 of This is Our Faith (TIOF), the Catholic Church in Scotland's syllabus for religious education in Catholic schools, is a significant contribution to wider debates on the appropriate conceptual framework for religious education. Recent teaching of the Holy See has suggested that religious education in Catholic schools should adopt a scholastic shape and serve as a complement to catechesis. In TIOF, pedagogy, assessment issues and the relationship between cognitive and affective approaches to learning are merged in the context of a distinct faith tradition. TIOF's adoption of a catechetical vision of religious education shows how local churches can adapt Catholic teaching to their own circumstances.     

Learning to teach: Knowledge development in classroom management

How does knowledge acquisition contribute to the process of learning to teach? To answer this question, qualitative and quantitative data were collected to investigate the development of teacher candidate knowledge about classroom management within an elementary teacher education program. Specifically, concept maps and interviews revealed patterns of cognitive change over a two-quarter sequence of courses. Analysis of concept maps showed turbulent and idiosyncratic change influenced by program experiences, with an apparent decline in cognitive organization. In interviews candidates deemphasized program influences, focusing instead on clinical experiences as the impetus of cognitive change. These findings—the turbulent apparent decline in cognitive structure and the primacy of field experiences—are explained in terms of Anderson's ACT1 learning theory. Implications for future research in teacher's conceptual development are discussed.     

Theorizing Language Teacher Identity: Three Perspectives and Beyond

Language teacher identity is an emerging subject of interest in research on language teacher education and teacher development. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which teacher identity is theorized. The present article explores ways of theorizing language teacher identity by presenting three data-based studies of teacher identity and juxtaposing the three different theoretical frameworks that they use: Tajfel's (1978) social identity theory, Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of situated learning, and Simon's (1995) concept of the image-text. It is seen that each theoretical perspective allows us to investigate different substantive and theoretical aspects of language teacher identity and that there are strong conceptual resonances among the different approaches. While in isolation each theory has its limitations, an openness to multiple theoretical approaches allows a richer and more useful understanding of the processes and contexts of teacher identity.     

Crossing divides: The legacy of Graham Nuthall

Graham Nuthall's work cuts across methodological and conceptual divides that have worked against the development of a theory of learning and teaching that is at once predictive and practical. The micro-genetic approach to research on learning in classrooms that he developed with Adrienne Alton-Lee successfully transcends the unhelpful dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative methods. Crossing the borders between the individual focus of cognitive psychology and the central role of social activity of sociocultural theory, he has suggested a synthesis that is both grounded in social context and predictive of individual learning. His theoretical contribution can become still more useful by extending it to the larger realities of students’ lives outside of the classroom by relating it to dynamic notions of culture and identity.     

Teaching Criminological Theory: Using a Piaget Platform to Support Higher Level Learning

This paper proposes that higher level learning of criminological theory can be accomplished by having students express a theory creatively through an art form (i.e. a drawing, a dance, a poem, or role play). This type of constructivist assignment would empower undergraduate students to be theory co-creators and allow them to be actively engaged in building knowledge off of a Piagetian platform. While Piaget’s theory was formulated to explain the cognitive development in children, neuroscience has revealed its potential for expanding cognitive capacity in adults. When students are presented with a novel task requiring fuller focus, such as being required to build new knowledge onto existing schema in a uniquely creative way, deeper levels of learning are more likely to occur and be retained.     

The use of schema theory in the design of instructional materials: A physics example

What are the implications of cognitive science for the design of instructional materials given its central concern with meaningful learning? This question was addressed during an attempt to improve the quality of learning in an introductory non-calculus college physics course where a major intellectual problem that many students face is the development of a coherent view of the information provided to them. The absence of a conceptual framework may contribute to the rapid loss of information often observed among many students shortly after their taking a test. Lack of a conceptual framework also may account for the frequent use of trial-and-error approaches to using formulae. This report cites the use of schema theory for the development of a generative schema or a set of schemas that could be used by students to integrate all of the physics content, and for the design of a means for representing and teaching the schema(s) in a set of instructional materials.