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Educational Philosophy
Educational Psychology is the academic field devoted to studying how the brain functions in regard to learning and how that knowledge applies to educational practices. Within the field of educational psychology, learning theories are frameworks for understanding how learning occurs. Different learning theories are not necessarily incompatible. Acceptance of a theory about the function of right/left brain hemispheres does not exclude acceptance of a different theory about the importance of meeting emotional needs in order for effective learning to occur.
I’d like to introduce two icons of educational psychology: Benjamin Bloom and Jean Piaget. Both have had a significant influence on the field of education. Here is an extremely brief summary of their ideas:
Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues classified cognitive learning activities into six categories of increasing complexity, known as...
"Bloom's Taxonomy"
Evaluation: make judgements based on specific criteria
Synthesis: use organizational structures to create something new
Analysis: understanding of organizational structures
Application: ability to apply learned concepts
Comprehension: understanding recalled information
Knowledge: recall of information
The most complex skills (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) are known as "higher order thinking skills". In his research, Bloom found that 95% of test questions only required students to think at the lowest level - recall of information.
Jean Piaget developed a highly influential model for how learning and mental processes develop in children. Piaget´s theory distinguishes four developmental stages:
Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2 yrs.): discovers environment through sensory input and develops motor skills to interact with environment; "object permanence" is awareness that objects still exist even when out of sight.
Pre-operational Stage (2 - 7 yrs.): development of language, memory, imagination; thinking is primarily non-logical and predominately egocentric; difficulty focusing on more than one variable.
Concrete Operational Stage (7 - 11 yrs.): begins development of organized, logical thought when related to concrete objects as opposed to abstract reasoning; mastery of concepts of conservation and reversibility.
Formal Operational Stage (11 - adult): develop conceptual reasoning and use of logic with abstract concepts; continues through adulthood.
Piaget´s third stage (concrete operational) becomes important to understand when working with elementary age children, as I will point out later.
Building with Mr. McGroovy´s Box Rivets™ provides an opportunity for children to exercise...
The term "organizational structures" is key to understanding how this is accomplished. The term "organizational structures" can be used to describe how related parts are arranged in a logical manner, such as the periodic table, systems of communication, or branches of government.
But remember Piaget? Children in the concrete operational stage struggle with abstraction, and perform best when presented with concrete objects (actual physical "things" they can touch or see). This is why the visual arts are so essential to elementary education.
When building with Mr. McGroovy´s Box Rivets™, the flaps, boxes, rivets, and joints are concrete elements, and how they fit together to become something new is the organizational structure.
What higher order thinking skills sound like when building with Box Rivets:
"That box should be bigger."
"If we changed this it would work."
"We could do this..."
"Let´s try to build a..."
"We need to make it like this..."
"This part is just like that."
"First we do this...then that."
For more information, try this Google search for learning theories.
Just remember...
Whoever makes the decisions does the learning.
Building with Mr. McGroovy´s Box Rivets™ is really, really fun for adults as well as kids. But try to be aware of who is doing the learning. When your child wants to do something you know won´t work, let them. He or she will need to use higher order thinking skills to problem solve. And you can help to emphasize that not every problem has to have one right answer.Mistakes make great learning opportunities.
