Mabel Tang

CIL601
Chapter Presentation
 Chapters 8, 9, 10, & 11
Review important work of psychologists and theorists: Plato, Socrates, Thorndike,
Piaget, Vygotsky, Skinner, and Bandura.
Examine popular reading programs and theories from which theyve evolved.
View how inquiry approaches connect to teachings of reading: Dewey, Suchman, &
Thelen.
Understand Social Constructionism & Social Constructivism
 Focus on:
1) your beliefs about how children learn
2) how reading is taught in your own classroom or school setting

Reflect on the requirements you have to implement specific required curricula &
instructional programs.
Can you defend the practices you implement?
Can you justify changes to your instructional reading practice?
 Revisit cognitive and psychological contributions to the field of reading instruction
for ongoing learning.
Educators should be informed about theories that provide foundational structures
for instruction.
Our belief on how students learn determines the types of instructional activities we
choose.
 A set of guiding principles that seek to explain phenomena that is learning.
Is the heart of what drives our behaviors and practices.
Educators believing in a particular theory will guide his/her instruction.
Think About:
How the foundational theories of learning enhanced your
abilities to be a successful teacher.
 Educational framework is filled with theorists, psychologists, and researchers that
lay the foundation for educators to use with their practice in teaching.
Teacher is responsible for every childs success in learning to read. To achieve this,
teachers must understand that optimal learning takes place when there is an
intersection of foundational theory and everyday practice.
 All educators have one.
As students, educators develop a rudimentary philosophy based on the
philosophies of their teachers.
When student becomes the educator, their philosophy is reinforced by practical
experience.
Eventually, educator combines theoretical with practical and develops own
educational philosophy.
 Early literacy as hieroglyphics.
Greek philosophers believed that the mind is a muscle and as a muscle it should
be exercised to achieve maximum potential.
The more mind was used, the more intellectual one became.
Rote memorization was acceptable as long as new knowledge was gained.
However, Plato & Thorndike later expands the theory of the mind.
Associations and connections must be made for true learning.
 Learning is an associative cognitive experience.
It is never completed in isolation and is dependent on previous learning &
experiences.
Connect new words & knowledge to previous learning & experiences.
Traced back to Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill.
 Jean Piaget determined cognitive ability of children evolve in four distinct & unique
stages:
Sensorimotor Stage birth to age 2; child learns about self and surroundings by using
motor & reflexive actions through interactions; thinking is present minded.
Preoperational Stage early stages of talking through about age 7; child can think of
things not immediate or from the past; starts using symbols to represent objects; able to
physically examine world around them.
Concrete Operational Stage grade 1 to early adolescence; children begin to think
abstractly; can make rational judgments; may/may not need to physically examine the
world around to make judgements.
Formal Operational Stage adolescence; the person can make decisions effectively;
capable of deductive and hypothetical thinking/reasoning; is open to variety of ways to
learn.
 Teachers determine what students are ready to learn based on age of cognitive
development.
When students are unable to learn, teachers ask self:
Do they lack skills or associative knowledge?
Are they not of cognitive maturity to understand concept?

EXAMPLE:
Use of higher level thinking questions; reader-response activities with inferences &
conclusions.
 Lev Vygotsky took Piagets theory a step further
Learning is directly related to social interactions that occur within the learning
environment.
Active children engaged in learning = children being active in construction of
knowledge + children taught in social setting.
 Vygotskys most well-known and influential educational philosophy.
Is the gap between the childs level of actual development determined by
independent problem solving and his/her level of potential development
determined by problem solving supported by an adult or peer.
Used to push children from independent level of learning (comfort zone) to
potential level of learning; must be used with scaffolding for success to occur.
Lead to the concept of Scaffolding new learning introduced but supported.
Student moves from new information to internalized information, layers of support are
slowly removed, allowing the learning to be independent.
 Commonly used in learning strategies and teaching methodologies
EXAMPLES: readers/writers workshops, collaborative learning, literature circles,
writing across the curriculum, content area literacy strategies.
 Edward Thorndike began with placing a cat in a box and examining the length of
time it took for the cat to escape.
Law of Effect responses that are closely followed by satisfying consequences
become associated with the situation and are more like to recur when situation is
encountered. Later evolves to Operant Conditioning by B.F. Skinner.
Thorndike extended theory of associationism to connectionism.
Connectionism: connecting new ideas, knowledge, or learning to existing memory in the
cognitive storage.
 Published works are used within classrooms.
EXAMPLE: Thorndikes Word Book

Active Learning encourages students to become force of their learning by

interacting with peers and materials. Teacher facilitates while student drives
learning.
 B. F. Skinner uses Thorndikes and Piagets theory to propose own behavior theory.
Response must follow stimulus event in order to establish pattern of behavior.
EXAMPLE: Each time student pronounces word correctly, teacher responds with smile or
comment.
Paved way for behaviorists approach.
 Positive and Negative reinforcement
Behavior management plans, economy tokens, payments for performance, etc.
 Siegfried Englemann developed curriculum based off Skinners five obstacles of
learning work.
A systematic and scripted curriculum.
Teachers & students are directed what to say, when to say it, and students are shown
how to act while responding.
EXAMPLES: Distar , SRA (science research associates) reading mastery series.
 Developed by Albert Bandura using Plato & Aristotles associationism, Thorndikes
connectionism, law of effect, and active learning, Piaget & Vygotskys human
development theories, and Skinners operant conditioning.
Learning does not occur in isolation.
When social interaction is involved, learning is more effective.
Begins when children notice they are not alone and are within a community.
Usually used informally and by accident but can be formally used in classrooms.
 Social learning begins before students enter school.
EXAMPLE:
parent model techniques of reading when reading aloud.
Teacher models and teaches.
Student observes peers and learns.
 Classroom practices are based on philosophy and experiences of the teacher.
Teachers must continue to base their practices and instructional decisions on the
sound psychological and learning foundations provided by past theorists.