German psychologist Wolfgang Kohler's study of apes on the island of Tenerife, which is documented in The Mentality of Apes(1925) presents the "dissenting opinion to the associative view of memory. (Furthermore), instead of allowing that the mind learned simple connections between ideas or associations between stimuli and responses, Kohler argued that his apes learned relations among stimuli and could modify their behaviour by perceiving stimuli in new ways." (Driscoll, Marcy P., Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Pearson Education Inc., 2004) In other words, the supporter of the Gestalt Theory believed that knowledge does not just come from experience, it also involves the knower actively imposing organization on sensory data (Driscoll).
The typical experiment conducted by Kohler involved him placing food just out of reach of apes in a cage. The apes would then try a number of solutions to obtain the bananas (usually sticks-tools- were what helped the apes). Kohler referred to this as insight, as the apes did not always behave in a regular, continuous fashion.
The modern learner also has this insight. Instead of using sticks to obtain bananas, though, they use computers to acquire knowledge. Furthermore, they will use these same tools to share their knowledge and understanding of concepts with their teacher, peers, and anyone else that is interested. These skills come naturally to young students, as this is what they have grown up with. That being said, there seems to be a naturally progression as to what the learner knows in, let's say grade 5, to what she knows in grade 8. It is the role of the teacher to determine what skills the grade 5 students have, and then work from there.
An effective way to gauge students' grasp of technology is a simple survey, which could be created on Surveymonkey or some other online server. Furthermore, a rubric of what students should know by grade x should be given to teachers so that certain skills are taught by a certain grade (with some variation based on the knowledge of the teacher). Once basic skills are taught, students will use their insight to solve future problems, and act accordingly.
Coming up next...Stepping Stones
Surveymonkey... heh heh heh. Perfect.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting perspective. I've long wondered about the natural progression of learning, and how much of it is tied to our expectations, the curricula students get from year to year, etc. Certainly Piaget and developmental psychologists would point out some elements of learning that do seem to be associated with the maturation process, but I wonder how many things we assume are part of psychological development are actually influenced more strongly by our environments.
I'm glad you picked up on my monkey reference. There are other survey sites as well, but this one just fit for this post.
ReplyDeleteIn speaking with a variety of educators, the environment plays a vital role in the learning process (availability of computers, cameras, etc.). It seems that schools that have technology, and teachers who know how to use it, generally are more productive, and less "play games when you get done" centred.
Thoughts anyone?
Speaking of environment and education, for more information on "Flipped Teaching" visit http://ryanbanow.blogspot.ca/
ReplyDeleteThis gives up more to think about with regard to how we think about education and learning.