PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO
Jessie Ortiz
Education 340
Prof. Johnson
Fall 2010
JEAN PIAGET
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a biologist who originally studied molluscs (publishing twenty scientific papers on them by the time he was 21) but moved into the study of the development of children's understanding, through observing them and talking and listening to them while they worked on exercises he set. "Piaget's work on children's intellectual development owed much to his early studies of water snails" (Satterly, 1987:622)
His view of how children's minds work and develop has been extremely influential, particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation (simply growing up) in children's growing capacity to understand their world: they cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. His research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has damaged the detail of his own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall vision. He proposed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there are certain points at which it "takes off" and moves into completely new areas and capabilities. He saw these transitions as taking place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11 or 12 years old. This has been taken to mean that before these ages children are not able (no matter how bright) of understanding things in certain ways, and has been used as the basis for preparation of the school curriculum. Whether or not should be the case is a different matter.
Piaget's Key Ideas
Adaptation | What it says: adapting to the world through assimilation and accommodation |
The process by which a person takes material into their mind from the environment, which may mean changing the evidence of their senses to make it fit. | |
The difference made to one's mind or concepts by the process of assimilation. | |
Classification | The ability to group objects together on the basis of common features. |
Class Inclusion | The understanding more advanced than simple classification, that some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class. (E.g. there is a class of objects called dogs. There is also a class called animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of animals includes that of dogs) |
Conservation | The realization that objects or sets of objects stay the same even when they are changed about or made to look different. |
Decentration | The ability to move away from one system of classification to another one as appropriate. |
Egocentrism | The belief that you are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around you: the corresponding inability to see the world as someone else does and adapt to it. Not moral "selfishness", just an early stage of psychological development. |
Operation | The process of working something out in your head. Young children (in the sensor motor and pre-operational stages) have to act, and try things out in the real world, to work things out (like count on fingers): older children and adults can do more in their heads. |
Schema (or scheme) | The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, and/or actions, which go together. |
Stage | A period in a child's development in which he or she is capable of understanding some things but not others |
Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage | Characterized by |
Sensori-motor | Differentiates self from objects Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley) |
Pre-operational | Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of colour |
Concrete operational | Can think logically about objects and events Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size. |
Formal operational | Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems |
The accumulating evidence is that this scheme is too rigid: many children manage concrete operations earlier than he thought, and some people never attain formal operations (or at least are not called upon to use them).
Piaget's approach is central to the school of cognitive theory known as "cognitive constructivism": other scholars, known as "social constructivists", such as Vygotsky and Bruner, have laid more emphasis on the part played by language and other people in enabling children to learn. The lesson plan that I created is to assess the student’s arithmetic and geometric understanding of shapes and what part to they play in our everyday lives. Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will gather information, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral and written language. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the usual conventions of the English language to obtain, understand, apply, and put out information. This will be made simple when the students label geometric shapes.
Lesson Plan
Top of Form
Knowing your Shapes |
Bottom of Form
Goal: This lesson is designed to teach first grade children about five basic shapes- square, rectangle, triangle, circle and star. Objectives: Following instruction on the five basic shapes, the students will be able to recognize and name each shape with 100 percent accuracy. After doing a hands-on experiment with the different shapes, the students will be able to draw each shape to the best of their ability. After teaching on the individuality of each shape, the students will be able to name at least one important characteristic of each shape. Materials: Each child will receive these shapes made out of colored construction paper:
Plan: This is one of the first lessons the children will learn on shapes. This lesson focuses on five essential geometric shapes. The lesson will be centered on the names for the shapes, as well as each of their characteristics that makes them that shape. The information acquired in this lesson will give the children knowledge of other shapes as well as other important characteristics. The students have not discussed shapes in our class, but may have background knowledge from their home life in this area of study. "First, we will learn about circles. Circles are round. Can anyone give me an example of a circle object in your house? What about in our classroom? Circles do not have straight edges or corners. (I will then hang the large yellow circle on the chalkboard)
Assessment before Instructions I will ask the students if they know what shapes are and can they name any shapes. I will also ask them do they see different shapes around their homes or outside. I will give examples of my own. (Examples: lights on a traffic light, television sets, buildings, cups etc.) which will be about five minutes to see what prior knowledge they have about shapes. I will point to certain object in the classroom to see what they recognize about them, I will ask and answer certain question they may have. Then I will then say to the class the following: "Today we will be learning about 5 basic shapes- circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and stars. We see these different shapes every day, and it is very important for us to recognize these shapes. We will be counting the sides and corners of each shape. By doing this, we will be able to recognize the shape name Assessment During Instruction When I finish my short talk on shapes, I will then ask the class if they have any questions. I will answer and explain any questions or confusion, and then do a short activity with the class. Each child should have been given three small, laminated shapes of a yellow circle, blue square, red triangle, green rectangle, and purple star made of colored construction paper. I will then say the following: "Class, I am going to ask you questions about the shapes we learned about today. When you know what shape I am describing, please hold your shape up high in the air.
Then I will go around and observe what the students are doing and which students understood the lesson and which students are having difficulty with the lesson and what I can do help all the students understand what they have just learn and apply what they have learned. Assessment after Instructions During the preoperational stage, children also become increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child is able to use an object to represent something else, such as pretending a broom is a horse. Role playing also becomes important during the preoperational stage. Children often play the roles of "mommy," "daddy," "doctor," and many others. Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children. One of the famous techniques egocentrism involved using a three-dimensional display of a mountain scene. Children are asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed. Most children are able to do this with little difficulty. Next, children are asked to select a picture showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint. Invariably, children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene. According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on another person's viewpoint (which is called Egocentrism). Another one of piaget’s experiment involves demonstrating a child's understanding of conservation. In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup, or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears fuller. So by doing the lesson plan on shapes I try to help the students understand object and shapes and how they are connected and how we see and use these objects on a daily basis. Because students at this age classified objects to them objects are classified in simple ways, especially by important features. Applying his new facts of language, the child begins to use symbols to represent objects. So this lesson plan helps them get a better understanding and apply their recently found knowledge. At the end of the lesson plan all students will be given a test to see how much they have learned and to see if the students will be able to accurately construct and label the geometric shapes. The assessment that I choose is performance assessment. Performance assessment, also known as alternative or authentic assessment, is a form of testing that requires students to perform a task. For example, a student may be asked to explain historical events, create scientific hypotheses, solve math problems, speak in a foreign language, or conduct research on an assigned topic. Experienced raters either teachers or other trained staff then judge the quality of the student's work based on an agreed-upon set of criteria. This new form of assessment is most widely used to directly assess writing ability based on text produced by students under test instructions. I use performance assessment because performance assessments, used in concert with more traditional forms of assessment, are intended to give a more complete picture of student achievement. Performance assessments are intended to judge student abilities to use specific knowledge and research skills. Most performance assessments require the student to manipulate equipment to solve a problem or make an analysis. Performance assessments tell a variety of problem solving approaches, thus providing insight into a student's level of conceptual and procedural knowledge. Performance Assessment also provides us with information about how a child understands and applies knowledge. The next type of assessment is Formative assessment. Formative assessments are assessments that provide information needed to adjust teaching and learning while it is happening. Formative assessment have different types, it has teacher observation, conversations, classroom discussions, learning profiles, portfolios and teacher-child interviews While the students are doing the shapes I will be walking around and observing the students and helping them while learning is taking place. Name: Date: Class: CLASS TEST MATCH THE SHAPE AND EXPLAIN HOW MANY SIDES EACH SHAPE HAS.
The students, who did not reach the objective, will be given pictures of each geometric shape labeled and asked to find and record objects throughout their house that are geometric shapes. The students, who reached the objective, will be asked to choose any two geometric shapes and make them into three-dimensional figures. Modification of my lesson plan for students with Disability v Learning disabled student in writing, will be given extra time to complete the lesson. v The visually handicapped student will be given the focal points of the lesson and text materials on an audiocassette one week in advance. v The students, who learn on a tactile level, will be given handouts highlighting the focal points of the lesson.
Rubric
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