Psychological Foundations of Curriculum

1. Psychological Foundations of Curriculum Amy C. Tate Tiffany Goad Mike Gralish 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

2. Focusing Questions • In what ways do psychological foundations enable curriculum workers (teachers, supervisors, and curriculum developers) to perform their educational responsibilities? • How would you compare the three major theoretical schools of learning? • How has the view of multiple intelligences influenced the field of curriculum? How might this concept of intelligence influence the field in the future? • How does constructivism incorporate the most recent views of learning? • How should the concept of learning styles influence the thinking of those responsible for curriculum development and delivery? • How should an educator use the information about various types of thinking? • How would you define humanistic learning in schools? • In what ways can addressing emotional intelligence be justified in the curriculum? 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

3. What is Psychology? • Psychology is the scientific study of mental functions and behavior including: • perception, cognition, behavior, emotion, personality, and interpersonal relationships. • The major theories of learning have been classified into three groups: • Behaviorist theories: • Focuses on stimulus response and reinforcers; • Studies conditioning, modifying, or shaping behavior through reinforcement and rewards • Cognitive theories: • Focuses information processing in relation to the total environment • Studies developmental stages, understanding, multiple forms of intelligence, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. • Phenomenological and Humanistic theories: • Focuses on the whole child, their social, psychological, and cognitive development. • Studies focus on human needs, attitudes, feelings and self-awareness. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

4. Do the major theories agree? • Psychology theories provide insight into understanding the teaching and learning process: • What is learning? • Why do learners respond as they do to teachers efforts? • What impact does the school and culture have on students learning? • Psychology theories provide principles and direction for curriculum developer: • How should curriculum be organized to enhance learning? • What is the optimal level of student participation in learning the curriculums various contents? 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

5. Behaviorism Key Players: • Thorndike – Connectionism • Pavlov (and Watson) – Classical Conditioning • Skinner – Operant Conditioning • Bandura – Observable Learning and Modeling • Gagné – Hierarchical Learning 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

6. Edward Thorndike (1874 – 1949) Father of modern educational psychology & founder of behavioral psychology • Started his research with animals using stimulus-response (classic conditioning) and developed the idea of Connectionism. • 1928-Thordike conducted his first major study with adults. Connectionism • Defined learning as a connection or association of an increasing number of habits. (More complicated associations means higher levels of understanding.) • Three Laws of Learning "Photo of Edward Thorndike." [Online image] 1 February 2009. <http://http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/thorndike.html> 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

7. Three Laws of Learning • Law of Readiness • Often misinterpreted as educational readiness • Deals with attitudes and focus. “Why should I do this?” • If nervous system is ready, conduction is satisfying and lack of conduction is annoying. • Law of Exercise • Strength of connections is proportional to frequency, duration, and intensity of its occurrence. • Justifies drill, repetition and review. • Seen today in behavior modification and basic skill instruction. • Law of Effect • Responses that cause satisfaction strengthen connections and discomfort weakens connections. • Justifies use of rewards and punishments, especially Skinner’s operant model. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

8. Thorndike’s Influence • Thorndike and other followers believed that rote memorization does not necessarily strengthen connections. • There has to be some sort of meaning associated with it in order to be transferred to other situations. • Thorndike broke the traditional thinking about hierarchy of subject matter. • One subject was no more important to meaningful learning than another. • Until then, math and science were seen as more important to teaching structure. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

9. Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936) • Pavlov was the first to demonstrate Classical Conditioning. • He is best known for his experiment with salivating dogs. • Classical Conditioning • Eliciting an unconditioned response by using previously neutral stimuli. • Unconditioned stimuli create reflexes that are not “learned,” but are instinctual. • Neutral and unconditioned stimuli are introduced at the same time. Unconditioned stimuli are gradually removed, and the neutral stimuli elicit the same reflex. "Pavlov's Drooling Dogs." [Online image] 1 February 2009. <http://http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/pavlov/readmore.html> 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

10. Pavlov’s Dogs • Pavlov’s experiment with salivating dogs best demonstrated the principle of Classical Conditioning. • Dogs were trained to salivate at the sound of a bell. • Dogs naturally salivated with food. (Unconditioned response) • A bell (neutral stimuli) was rung every time the dogs were fed over a period of time creating the association/connection of the bell with food. • After time, the dogs salivated at the sound of the bell alone. • Pavlov’s Dogs Game 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

11. James Watson • Watson took Pavlov’s findings to another level. • Emphasized that learning was observable or measurable, not cognitive. • Believed the key to learning was in conditioning a child from an early age based on Pavlov’s methods. • Nurture vs. Nature • Watson’s theories strengthened the argument for the influence of experiences as opposed to genetics. vs. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

12. B. F. Skinner (1904 – 1990) • B.F. Skinner was one of the most influential American psychologists. • He began his research with rats at Harvard and pigeons during WWII. • His work led to the development of the Theory of Operant Conditioning. • The idea that behavior is determined or influenced by its consequence. • Respondent vs. Operant behavior • Respondent behavior is the elicited response tied to a definite stimulus. • Operant behavior is the emitted response seemingly unrelated to any specific stimuli. Joyce Dopkeen-New York Times. "B.F. Skinner." [Online image] 1 February 2009. <http://http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/92/110192-004-AC182B61.jpg>. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

13. Operant Conditioning • Types of reinforcers (stimuli) • Primary – stimuli fulfilling basic human drives such as food and water. • Secondary – personally important, such as approval of friends or teachers, winning money, awards, or recognition. • Secondary reinforcers can become primary. Due to the wide range of secondary reinforcers, Skinner referred to them as generalized. • Operant behavior will “extinguish” without reinforcement. • Positive reinforcer – presenting a reinforcing stimulus. • Negative reinforcement – removing/withdrawing a stimulus or reinforcer but it is not punishment. • Punishment – presenting harmful stimuli (rejected by Skinner because he felt it interfered with learning) • “Reinforcers always strengthen behavior.” “Punishment is used to suppress behavior.” (B.F. Skinner, “A Brief Survey of Operant Behavior” www.bfskinner.org) 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

14. Operant Conditioning • Desired operant behaviors must be reinforced in a timely manner. Delay of reinforcement hinders performance. • By selecting which behavior to reinforce, we can direct the learning process in the classroom. • Learners can acquire new operants. • As behavior is shaped, new and more complex concepts can be introduced and desired behavior again reinforced. “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten” B.F. Skinner "Skinner Box." [Online image] 1 February 2009. <http://http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/skinner%20box.jpg>. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

15. Albert Bandura • Bandura contributed to the understanding of learning through observation and modeling. • He showed that aggressive behavior can be learned from watching adults fighting, violent cartoons or even violent video games. Passive behavior can also be learned from watching adults with subdued • Repeated demonstration and modeling is used by coaches in various sports, military endeavors, and is also used in the classroom setting to model and practice desired behaviors. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

16. Robert Gagné (1916 – 2002) • Gagné’s Hierarchy of Learning notes the transition from behaviorism to cognitive psychology. • The Hierarchy of Learning is an arrangement of 8 behaviors ranging from simple to complex. • The first 5 behaviors are Behaviorist, the next 2 are both behaviorist and cognitive and the last (highest form) is cognitive. • The hierarchy suggests a “bottom-up” approach to learning where general principles/concepts must be learned before advanced learning can take place. • He also describes 5 observable and measurable learning outcomes "Photo of Robert Gagne." [Online image] 1 February 2009. <http://http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/gagnesevents/index.htm>. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

17. Gagné’s Hierarchy of Learning Behavioral Behavioral Behavioral Behavioral 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

18. Gagné’s Hierarchy of Learning (Cont.) Behavioral Behavioral - Cognitive Behavioral - Cognitive Cognitive – higher order 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

19. Robert Gagné (Cont.) • Five Learning Outcomes (observable and measurable) • Intellectual Skills • “knowing how” to organize and use verbal and mathematical symbols, concepts and rules to solve a problem. • Information • “knowing what” – knowledge and facts • Cognitive Strategies • “learning strategies” needed to process information • Motor skills • Ability to coordinate movements • Attitudes. • Feelings and emotions developed from positive and negative experiences. • Mental operations needed for each outcome differ. • Gagné’s Instructional Events lead into cognitive psychology. 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

20. Cognitive Psychology 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

21. Background • Replaced behaviorism as dominant philosophy in 1960’s • 1. Criticisms of Behaviorism: • Did not explain: • language learning • why people respond differently to the same stimulus • reinforcement can reduce motivation *Have you observed this effect? • 2. Popularity of newly discovered theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in the 50’s and 60’s 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

22. Beginning Mental Model 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

23. Working Mental Model • Bandura- bridge/transition • learning is social by observation, modeling, imitation Behavior Environment Spectrum Behaviorism Cognitive Psychology Pavlov Skinner Bandura Vygotsky Piaget 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

24. Basic Characteristics • Focus on how individuals process information • Emphasis on memory (storage, retrieval, types) • Chunking can aide working memory, which is limited • Successful learners transfer information to long term memory - “infinite” in capacity http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/m/r/mrs331/cognitivism.htm 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

25. Behaviorism vs. Cognitive 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

26. Maria Montessori(1870 - 1952) • Rationale for including her: • Authors do not place her with progressive child- centered approaches-lack of “free play” vs. freedom within structure • Opposed behaviorist focus on only “doing” but focused also on looking and listening • Focus on how sensory stimulation from the environment shapes thinking 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

27. Montessori’s Legacy • What she did: • Psychiatric Clinic at the University of Rome- taught “difficult” children to read at a normal level • 1906 asked to start a progressive school for slum children of Italy- Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) • Why she was important: • Pioneer of child advocacy- for exceptional children, low SES children • *Discuss Tyler & Taba’s Traditional vs. Progressive study (1920- 30%HS) • *Modern Irony- expense of Montessori school 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

28. Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980 • Swiss psychologist (Pestalozzi) • America noticed in the 50’s and 60’s • Text reminds us that his theories are not fact, and should be taken as “suggestive” • Influenced: Tyler, Taba, Bruner, Kohlburg • and MANY MORE!!! • Tyler- various assessment • Taba-Too many facts, not enough connections • Bruner-stages like Piaget, but are revisited to develop in complexity • Kohlburg- moral stages 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

29. Piaget- Cognitive development stages *How would you describe abstract reasoning? 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

30. Piaget • Like Gagne , stages described as hierarchal • Learning involves: • assimilation(filing info in an existing schema) • accommodation(changing schemata to fit new info) • Schema theory explains: • importance of accessing prior knowledge • why cognitive dissonance strategies work 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

31. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) • Russian psychologist • The West published in 1962 • theory of sociocultural development • Culture requires skilled tool use (language, art, counting systems) • The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): distance between a student’s performance with help and performance independently. • learning occurred in this zone • *Q-Is the idea of scaffolding one of building on existing knowledge or providing assistance in the ZPD? 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

32. Piaget vs. Vygotsky * Discuss examples: Toilet learning, attention span 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

33. Constructivism • Some include this as a separate theory, other include it inside of cognitive theories • What is learning? • Individual must construct own knowledge- make meaning • Learner must reshape words- mimicking is not enough. • Learners must make knowledge personally relevant 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation

34. Constructivism • How does learning take place? • New information is linked to prior knowledge, so mental representations are subjective for each learner • Learning is optimal when there is awareness of the process- metacognition • “A common misunderstanding regarding constructivism is that instructors should never tell students anything directly but, instead, should always allow them to construct knowledge for themselves. This is actually confusing a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of knowing. Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the learner’s previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught. Thus, even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge.” • Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2009, January). Constructivism at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved January 24th, 2009 from http://www.learning-theories.com/constructivism.html 5305 Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation