Development In Education

Question 1

Piaget’s application to education

Answer 1

Readiness
Learning by discovery
Teachers role
Individual learning

Question 2

Readiness in education

Answer 2

the child needs to be at the right age and biologically “ready” for the activity being set.

for example, you cannot teach a preoperational child abstract maths concepts

Question 3

Learning by discovery in education

Answer 3

Children need to discover things for themselves and play an active role in their education rather than passively receiving information

for example, they will not learn very well by memorising a lot of information.

Question 4

Teachers role in education

Answer 4

To provide an environment for the discovery to happen, providing challenge so schema adapt to assimilate and accommodate new info

for example, the teacher should plan activities to challenge current schemas causing assimilation and accommodation to occur.

Question 5

Individual learning in education

Answer 5

Although all children go through the same stages, in the same order ,some children develop faster than others, so teacher’s must plan for individual students and not the class as a whole.

for example, small group activities would be more appropriate.

Question 6

Ideal task for sensorimotor to learn with

Answer 6

Application to learning - provide opportunities to
experiment
Example of an activity – allow to play with toys that make noises

Question 7

Ideal task for pre-operational to learn with

Answer 7

Application to learning – focus on doing things
Example of an activity – role play and dress up to reduce egocentrism.

Question 8

Ideal task for concrete operational to learn with

Answer 8

Application to learning children need concrete
materials to aid learning.
Example of an activity abacus to improve numerical skills

Question 9

Ideal task for formal operational to learn with

Answer 9

Application to learning – scientific activity will help develop an understanding of logic.
Example of an activity – discussions of an ideal world.

Question 10

State one strength of Piaget’s cognitive stages of development for application in education

Answer 10

One strength of Piaget’s theory is the enormous effect it has had on primary education in the UK.
The Plowden Report was published in 1967 to review primary education in the UK and make recommendations on changes that were needed. The report drew heavily on Piaget’s theory and recommended new child-centred, active approaches to primary school education in the UK.

This child-centred approach was very different to traditional
teacher-centred, rote learning educational practices of the time.
This demonstrates the value of Piaget’s theory for education.

Question 11

State 2 weaknesses of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development in the application into education

Answer 11

One weakness is that Piaget’s stage-based approach suggests that practice should not improve performance if a child is not ‘ready’ – but not all research supports this.
If ‘readiness’ is so important, practice shouldn’t matter. However, Bryant and Trabasso (1971) showed that pre-operational children could do some logical tasks if they were given practice. The
researchers argued that memory skills were needed for some tasks and it was a lack of these skills that prevented young children from
carrying out logical thinking.
However, when children practiced solving simple comparisons and slowly built up to more complex tasks, they could manage, showing practice was more important than ‘readiness’.

One weakness is that Piaget’s emphasis on discovery learning may not always be the best approach.
Bennett (1976) compared traditional teaching methods with Piaget’s discovery learning and found children taught using more formal methods did better at subjects such as reading, maths and
English.
This suggests some aspects of learning are best taught through direct instruction rather than active learning.

Question 12

State the three learning styles

Answer 12

Verbalisers
Visualisers
Kinaesthetic

Question 13

Describe Verbalisers

Answer 13

A preference of processing information through words and sounds. Involves listening to, reading,
repeating and writing information Tend towards auditory processing

Revision and learning
strategies, Listen to a podcast, Discuss the topic, Write a song/rap, Read the material out loud over and over

Question 14

Describe visualisers

Answer 14

A preference of processing information in terms of image, pictures, diagrams Tend towards visual processing.

Revision and learning strategies, Mindmaps, Graphs and charts for information, Watching videos, Turning information into a story that can be visualised (memory palace)

Question 15

Describe kinaesthetic learners

Answer 15

Kinaesthetic means ‘touch’. A preference of processing information through completing the task themselves, ‘hands on’ learning

Making a model or carrying out an experiment

Question 16

State a strength of learning styles

Answer 16

One strength is that traditional teaching methods may have focused too much on verbals Most agree that a mixed approach is best and the learning styles theory draws attention to different methods so teachers and learners can use more varied methods
This means understanding different styles has been beneficial

Question 17

State 2 weaknesses of learning styles

Answer 17

One limitation is a lack of research to support learning styles improve performance
Pashler reviewed articles on the topic and concluded
• Most support for the theory was not based on experimental evidence
• The research that did use sound methodology did not find support for matching teaching to learning styles improves performance Massa and Mayer found no evidence to support using different methods for verbalisers/visualiser
This questions the value of using learning styles to improve performance

Another Limitation is there are too many learning styles Coffield found 71 different theories with a range of different styles. This makes the concept unworkable in practice – it would be difficult to
discover the correct style and match the right strategies to it – especially as there is no evidence it improves performance
This suggests learning styles is not a very useful concept

Question 18

What was willinghams theory

Answer 18

Disagreed with learning styles approach to teaching
• Using learning styles is not always the best approach to teaching
• Teachers should use a task that matches the content, not the learner eg language verbally and maps visually

Students should learn to use styles that are not their preferred one so when info is presented in different ways they can still process it
• If they struggle, they need opportunity to practice
• Teaching only in the preferred style will not improve learning
• Teaching should be based research evidence

Question 19

Describe 2 strengths of Willignhams theory

Answer 19

One strength of Willingham’s theory is it is supported by scientific research evidence
He based his ideas on methodologically sound research such as Lepper (praise), Tulving (cued recall) so all his recommendations are based on respected scientific research
This means that we can trust his theory

Another strength of this theory is that it is specifically focused on applications to learning
He aimed to base his theory on research which has specific application to teaching and learning. His theory offers an evidence based alternative to the learning styles approach to teaching (which he criticised)
This is important because his theory has real world value which is the aim of psychology.

Question 20

State one weakness of Willinghams theory

Answer 20

One weakness of this theory are Willingham’s claims about how learning disorders (eg dyslexia) could be diagnosed
He believed people with learning disorders have specific brain wave patterns and this pattern could be used for diagnosis. His critics argue it is unlikely to identify the exact pattern and LDs likely have multiple causes so diagnosis based on one source would be wrong people with the pattern might not have the disorder and vice versa
This means his ideas about diagnosing based on brain differences is unlikely and possibly misleading