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Are Students Really Ready to Learn What They are Being Taught?

Are Students Really Ready to Learn What They are Being Taught?. A research study based on the cognitive development stages of Jean Piaget By Carry Hansen. Objectives. At the end of this presentation you will be able to: Explain critical biographical points of Jean Piaget

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Are Students Really Ready to Learn What They are Being Taught?

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  1. Are Students Really Ready to Learn What They are Being Taught? A research study based on the cognitive development stages of Jean Piaget By Carry Hansen

  2. Objectives • At the end of this presentation you will be able to: • Explain critical biographical points of Jean Piaget • Define and explain critical theoretical concepts relevant to the research study including key terms • Articulate the research questions that drive the study • Understand the procedure of the research study • Summarize the findings and implications • Generate new questions for additional research

  3. Jean Piaget 1896-1980 • Born in Switzerland • Began as a Biologist • 1st published at age 10- Albino Sparrows • Researched Mollusks in high school • At age 21, received a Doctorate in Natural Studies • Conflict Changed Gears • Realized that his religious and philosophical ideas did not have scientific reasoning as their foundation • Tried to bridge philosophy and science • “genetic epistemology” – questions concerning the origin of knowledge and began research in child psychology

  4. Piaget’s Research • Influenced by his point in time • 1920’s standardized testing movement • Testing soldiers for military placement • Influenced by others • Binet Lab in Paris • IQ testing of children – became very interested in the wrong answer patterns of children because very different from adults wrong answers– WHY? • Rousseau Institute of Geneva • Interviewed 7-12 year olds and found that before age 7, children have a qualitative difference in their responses • Married, had children, continued children’s cognitive development questioning • Spent numerous years developing his theory, and later refining his theory in response to critism

  5. Piaget’s Theory • Integrated stage theory • Developmentalist, not maturationist • The developmental change is not genetic in basis • Development is increasingly comprehensive • Children constantly investigate, make sense of their environment and construct new “schema” • Invariant and universal • Although each child has their own rate • Age norms • 2/3rds nurture, 1/3 nature • All organisms have a biologic tendency, but it is interaction with the environment that drives the ongoing development of cognition (understanding)

  6. Key Concepts • Organization • An organisms biologic tendency to organize (inherited) • Schema • Non-tangible cognitive structures that are constantly adapting due to new experiences and manipulations of the world around us • Assimilation • Using the current schema to interpret the world • Accommodation • Using the world experiences to change a schema • Disequilibrium • When the schema does not fit the situation at hand, causing adaptation to occur

  7. Stages of Piaget’s Theory • Sensorimotor (0-2) • First explorations, without purpose and then with purpose • Object permanence marks the transition to the next stage • Preoperational (2-7) • Symbolic activity begins, language • Cognition becomes more efficient but still limited • Egocentric, animism, centration (one dimensional), irreversibility, transductive reasoning • Conservation tasks marks the transition to the next stage

  8. Stages of Piaget’s Theory • Concrete Operational • Logical thinking can occur IF a tangible experience occurs • Hypothetical and Abstract situations are not understood • Reversibility begins without manipulation • Cylinder Task marks the transition to the next stage • Formal Operational • Logical thinking occurs hypothetically and abstractly • Individual has accommodated schema to be able to accurately make predictions about the world

  9. What is Conservation? • A cognitive development that cannot occur • Happens spontaneously by a child • Occurs in a certain sequence through various tasks: • Liquid/Number • Weight/substance • Volume • Length • Surfaces • Wholes after spatial arrangements • 3 reasons: identity, compensation, inversion • The ability to determine what stays the same and what changes in an abject after aesthetic change

  10. Stages-Dimensions of thinking • Preoperational (2-7) • Illogical responses • do not address common reasons (dimensions) of an object • An object floats because it is a ball • Concrete (7-11) • Semi logical response, logic may appear after child can try the task (analysis afterwards) • Addresses one dimension (property) of the object • May make conflicting statements and cannot decide which is correct • An object floats because it is very large, but that means it should be heavy so it sinks, but it floats because…

  11. Stages-Dimensions of thinking • Formal Operational (11- adulthood) • Response based on logic • Addresses multi-dimensions of an object and the relationship between those dimensions • Hypothetical situations addressed with logic • Abstract abilities • An object floats even though it is very heavy because it is very large. I think that object will sink even though it is small because it is very heavy for its size.

  12. Where does education fit in? • Well, it doesn’t? • You cannot teach conservation tasks • Knowledge cannot precede readiness • The purpose of this study is to investigate if children are cognitively at the stage that is required of them by the curriculum. It is thought that if children show high level of performance on specified Piagetian conservation tasks it will positively impact their ability to calculate density and explain in their own language what it means for one object to be more or less dense than another, as required by the 6th grade science curriculum.

  13. Questions that drive the study: • 1. Why are students struggling in science initially as they enter middle school, and why do they continue to struggle? Are educators trying to build a foundation of basic science concepts that students are not ready to complete on their own cognitive level? • 2. Does the completion of specified Piagetian tasks allow a child to have entered the early formal operational period of thought, required for middle school science tasks such as the concept and calculation of density? • 3. Are there significant patterns of differences between ages? • 4. Do the ages in which a student can complete Piagetian tasks of conservation match the ages that Piaget originally identified, or have these ages changed?

  14. Why these questions to begin with? • PISA testing results • In the lower half of all participating countries since 2000, with the exception of reading in 2009, at 14th out of 34 countries • That was the U.S.’s BEST performance • Increased Standardized Testing, yet lower performances • Predicted that 80% of students would not earn a passing mark on standardized tests in 2014 • Curriculum Standards requiring early use of abstract thought and “hurrying” children to catch up to the world

  15. Hypothesis • The curriculum of the American school system is not adequately preparing students for success because it does not teach to the level in which students are ready to learn. The curriculum is not based on the level of the student, but instead is based on where the level of the student is being hurried to perform at causing the student to be focused on attaining “right” and “correct” answers, instead of building cognition. Through the use of Piagetian Conservation Tasks, a student’s “readiness” for abstract concepts and application of knowledge can be determined.

  16. What I did: • A Variety of Tasks • Task 1- Conservation of weight • Task 2- Cylinder Task and Analysis • Task 3- Conservation of weight without conservation of volume • Task 4 • 1- Floating vs. Sinking Foil- predictions and analysis • 2- Golf Ball vs. Ping Pong Ball- predictions and analysis • 3- Define Density • 4- calculate Density • 5- what do numbers mean?

  17. How Responses were recorded:

  18. How Data was Assigned numerical value:

  19. What I found:

  20. What I found:

  21. What I found:

  22. What I found:

  23. Correlations: Prediction Analysis Overall Avg

  24. Correlations Prediction of Foil Analysis of Foil Prediction of balls Analysis of balls

  25. Correlations

  26. Correlations

  27. Correlations:

  28. Correlations:

  29. What I found Out: • Students are performing on a mid-concrete level at best • Prediction levels were poor (formal stage), analysis after partaking in the task was at a higher level (concrete) • Use of vocabulary without understanding of vocabulary • Students showed progression towards formal thought with grade and age • Later than Piaget suggested • 6th graders performing at a solid concrete level, 8th graders between concrete and formal

  30. What this means: • Curriculum is demanding formal operational level…but the students are not ready • Hypothesis, abstract methods, abstract concepts • Density is based on two dimensions • Curriculum is focused on right vs. wrong answers, not getting to the answer • PISA performance will continue to be low because students are not accommodating schema • Lack of tangible interaction, manipulation to create schemas capable of leading to formal operational thought, increases technology which is abstract will continue to compound disconnect • Hurrying and not building foundations

  31. Hypothesis True or False? • TRUE! • Students are not ready to handle the demands of the curriculum in the way that it is presented • Data from the research supported that most students are still operating at or near a concrete level: • 5th = 0.81 very early concrete • 6th = 1.07 concrete • 7th = 1.45 between concrete and formal operational • 8th = 1.08 concrete • 11th =0.99 concrete • Adult = 1.59 transitioning to formal • Students are ready for the analysis of actions! • Students are capable- just not yet • Can present the concepts, but teachers need to give experiences and present abstract concepts in tangible ways and offer time for discussion and discovery • Take pressure off of the “right” answer

  32. References • Armario, Christine. “Wake Up Call : US Students Trail Global Leaders”. MSNBC, The Associated Press, December 7, 2010. Web. June 23, 2012. <www.msnbc.msn.com> • Berger, Carl. “A Piagetian Like Task Considering the Double Variables of Mass and Volume by Preservice and Inservice Elementary School Science Teachers.” University of Michigan, presented and the National Association of Research in Science Teaching. Web: www.personal.umich.edu/cberger/marbles_water.html, 6/11/12 • Blake, Anthony and Anton Lawson and Floyd Norland. “Piagetian Tasks Clarified: The use of Metal Cylinders.” The American Biology Teacher April 194: 209-211. • Crain, William. Theories of Development Concepts and Applications, 4th edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 2000. • Inhelder, Barbel and Jean Piaget. The Growth of Logical Thinking:From Childhood to Adolescence. United States: Basic Books, Inc., 1958. Or France: Presses Universitairies de France • Inhelder, Barbel and Jean Piaget. The Psychology of the Child. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1969. • “Is the use of Standardized Tests Improving Education in America.” ProCon.org, 14 Sept, 2011. Web. 23 • June 2012. <http://Standardizedtests.procon.org> • Lefton, Lester. Interactive Psychology Online. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. • OECD Statistics (PISA results, 2003, 2006, 2009). “OECD Statistics (GDP, Unemployment, • Education, Income…).” Oecd, Dec. 2004, 2007, 2010. Web. 23 June 2012.< http://stats.oec.org> • “Piagetian Tasks Conservation of Number, Mass and Weight”. Introduction of Early Childhood Studies. • Ohlone College, 2007. Web. 12 June 2012. <www2.ohlone.edu/people> • “Piaget’s Theory of Conservation: When One Cup of Water is Less Than One Cup of Water.” Science Buddies. Science Buddies, 10 Nov. 2009. Web. 8 June 2012. <www.sciencebuddies.org/science- fair-projects/Project_ideas?HumBeh_p049.shtml> • Zwiers, Jeff. Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12: A Toolkit of Classroom Activities. Newark: International Reading Association, Inc. 2010.

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