Every revolutionary thought, is only so because it challenges the very foundations of our belief systems in a specific subject area. In the world of science, Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) explains that scientific revolutions come only after "long periods of tradition-bound, normal science, for frameworks must be lived with and explored before they can be broken".
As a general rule, these paradigms are a set of assumptions that are successful in explaining some aspect of the world. As such they need to be somehow provable or testable. For instance, someone may claim that aliens exist, but until there is something concrete that can be used to prove or disprove it, we cannot use it as an assumption to work with/from.
A good example of a paradigm shift however, is the belief that the earth is flat. This was a reasonable conclusion to come to at the time & the belief became so accepted, that it was very rarely questioned. In fact to this day - a whole 5 centuries after the idea of a round Earth was introduced - there are still people adamant that the earth is flat:
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm
A paradigm is therefore not always shared by everyone, but it reflects the most commonly accepted views.
(photo: www.zorbathegeek.net)Constructivist Education:
Up until recently, the main model for education, was based on behaviourist paradigms. The main aim was for the students to acquire information - with only a slow development of knowledge over time. This kind of education was centered around the teacher giving out information, to help build skills and values, while the students were to passively take it in.
Nowadays however, education works more from a constructivist point of view.
Following are some of the thinkers/psychologists, whose observations formed the main paradigms for constructivist education.
Nowadays however, education works more from a constructivist point of view.
Following are some of the thinkers/psychologists, whose observations formed the main paradigms for constructivist education.
Jean Piaget, 1896 - 1980:
"Children construct their own knowledge"
"Children think & learn differently from adults"
"Children go through different stages of cognitive development"
Piaget's 4 stages of Cognitive Development:
- Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years) - The mental structures are mainly concerned with the mastery of concrete objects.
- Preoperational (2 years to 7 years) - The mastery of symbols takes place.
- Concrete operational (7 years to 11 years) - Children learn mastery of classes, relations, and numbers and how to reason.
- Formal operational (abstract thinking) (11 years and up) - The last stage deals with the mastery of thought.
Lev Vygotsky, 1896 - 1934:
Vygotsky & daughter (photo: perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/dossiers/vygotsky.jpg)
Vygotsky & daughter (photo: perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/"Children learn through social interaction"
ZPD: The Zone of Proximal Development. This is based on the idea that children can do and understand much more with adult guidance, than they can on their own (through bringing attention to certain ideas & objects, talking/sharing while playing, reading stories, asking questions etc). "In a wide range of ways, adults mediate the world for children and make it possible for them to get access to it."
Consciousness develops as a result of socialization. Young children's acting out & talking (out loud) of everyday events, later becomes their inner speech.
This "inner speech" continues to play an important role in regulating and controlling behaviour. Development can be seen as internalization through social interaction.
Jerome S. Bruner, 1915 - :
ZPD: The Zone of Proximal Development. This is based on the idea that children can do and understand much more with adult guidance, than they can on their own (through bringing attention to certain ideas & objects, talking/sharing while playing, reading stories, asking questions etc). "In a wide range of ways, adults mediate the world for children and make it possible for them to get access to it."
Consciousness develops as a result of socialization. Young children's acting out & talking (out loud) of everyday events, later becomes their inner speech.
This "inner speech" continues to play an important role in regulating and controlling behaviour. Development can be seen as internalization through social interaction.
Jerome S. Bruner, 1915 - :
- suggest that a learner (even of a very young age) is capable of learning any material so long as the instruction is organized appropriately
- learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models) provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to "go beyond the information given".
- encourage students to discover principles by themselves
Principles:
1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).
