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Session 4
Psychology and Curriculum
• Define in your group the following
– What is Psychology
– Why do Curriculum Specialist consider it when
developing a curriculum?
Educational Psychology
• Educational Psychology is concerned with how
people learn
• Issues such as :
– Motivation
– Memory
– Development
– Cognition
Educational Psychology
• IT is also concerned with include
– What can teachers do to maximize learning
– How should the curriculum be organized
– What experiences help students learn the best
Educational Psychology
• Educational Psychology can be organized into
several major categories
– Behaviorism– Phenomenological and humanistic theories which
consider the whole child
– Cognitive- Information processing model
Activity
• Each group will take a division of psychology and
answer the following questions
• Develop a two to three statement description of
this philosophy
• Who were the leaders in this field
• What are the major tenets of this division of
psychology
• What are its impact for learning
• What are the considerations for developing
curriculum
• Clubs- Behaviorist
• Spades- Phenomenological and humanistic
theories
• Diamonds- Cognitive, Problem Solving,
• Hearts-Developmentalist, language
development
Behaviorism
• Lets hear from the group
Comments
Behaviorist an the Curriculum
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Rely on:
Very prescriptive-Step by step layout
Structured
Relied heavily upon in Special education
Many critics of this type of learning
Examples- DISTAR, SQ3R, Some computer
programs
Report From the Spades Group
• Spades- Phenomenological and humanistic
theories
Comments
Report back from
• Developmentalist, language development
Comments
• At the center of the Cognitive Theorist is the
debate over nurture versus Nature,
• How much does environment play into
intelligence and how much is it genetic?
Feedback From
• Diamonds- Cognitive, Problem Solving,
Lets look at Some Problems
• What factors do you need to consider when
building a curriculum?
Problem solving
• A person needs to know what information
they need to store. Many times information is
given tat is unnecessary. The elevator story, 5
people get on- how many stops
– the shopping story, five eggs cost, 2 gallons cost ,
how many items?
Problem Solving Strategies
• Combine algorithms -when two or more
simple rules are used to solve a problem(
sometimes used in geometric problems)
• Hill climbing-when individuals make any move
that brings them closer to a goal
Problem Solving Strategies
• Hill climbing example
– You have 24 coins, twenty-three have the same
weight. Your task is to find the one heaver coin,
you have a balance scale that will tell what is the
heaviest between sets of coins. How many
weighings will you need?
Problem Solving Strategies
• The problem could be solved in as many as 12
weightings, but in as few as three
• Each step takes you closer to an answer and
guarantees a correct answer-hill climbing
Problem Solving Strategies
• A zoo keeper must transport three lions and three giraffes
across a river. She has a barge that can only hold herself and
two other animals, so she will have to make several trips and
leave some animals unattended some of the time. However,
whenever she leaves a group of animals, the giraffes must out
number the lions; otherwise the lions will gang up on one of
the giraffes and kill it. How can the zookeeper transport all six
animals across the river
Hill Climbing
• The lions and the Giraffes is an example of
when a hill climbing would not work
• To solve this you need to go backwards
sometimes to reach the end
Problem Solving Strategies
• Means-end Analysis
• When you break a problem down into two or
more sub goals the work on each goals
separately
– Here is an example
• Two sets of neighbors argue over whose barbeque is
bigger one is 3.5 feet by 5 feet the other is 1.5 meter by
1 meter
Problem Solving Strategies
• First goal
– Convert one barbeque from meters to feet
• Second goal
– Calculate the area or each barbeque
• Third goal
– Compare barbeques
Problem Solving Strategies
• Working Backwards
– Begin at the problems goal and work backwards
one step at a time to try and solve the problem.
– Use this approach to solve the next problem
Problem Solving Strategies
• There are 21 pennies on the table. Two players ,
Mary and Susan take turns removing pennies from
the table. In a given turn, a player must remove
either one, two, or three pennies. The player who
removes the last penny wins the game and keeps all
21 pennies. Mary begins by taking two pennies.
What strategy can Susan use to ensure she wins the
game.
Problem Solving Strategies
• Drawing Analogies
– Analogies often help students visualize an answer
( 399)
Problem Solving Strategies
• The number of quarters is seven
times the number of dimes he
has. The value of the dimes
exceeds the value of the
quarters by two dollars and
fifty cents. How many of each
coin does he have.
Others
• Bandura –
– Developed a theory about learning through
modeling – Social learning theory
• Robert Gagne developed a hierarchy of
learning– His theory was a transition between Behaviorism
and Cognitive psychology.
Activity
• In your groups, what are some behaviors that
can be learned through modeling? Develop a
list of ten.
• Stopped 1-31-11
• Students are better readers when their parents are
readers
• Students solve math problems when they see others
solve the problems
• Are more likely to resist temptation from a stranger
when they see it modeled by a peer
• Can deal with fear after they see someone else model
fearless behavior
• Are more likely to be intolerant of racism when they
see other around them are intolerant of racist
statements
• Are more likely to violate traditional gender
stereotypes when they see others break the
traditional rules
Aggression
• Research has demonstrated that- Children
that have been modeled aggressive behavior
demonstrate it more than those who have not
seen it. Conversely, children that are modeled
non-aggressive behaviors are less aggressive
than children who have had no modeling
Morality
• Many studies have been conducted in which
children have made more positive moral
decision when this behavior was modeled to
them. Such behaviors as generosity, resistance
to temptation are some examples of this.
The Four Process for Learning Using
Modeling
• Attention
• To learn a behavior, you must pay attention to
the model ( common sense)
• Retention
– (More common sense) you must remember what
you observed- How many times have you heard a
funny joke and not been able to tell it later?
The Four Process for Learning Using
Modeling
• Motor reproduction
• You must be able to replicate the behavior
that was demonstrated
• How many have watched Tiger woods swing
but can’t replicate it
• As teachers we may need to task analyze
teach motoric action ????
The Four Process for Learning Using
Modeling
• Motivation
• Obviously, the observer must want to replicate
the behavior or modeling will not work.
Characteristics of Effective Modeling
• Model is competent
• Model has prestige and power
• Model behaves in stereotypical ways-Boys
copy men models better than women and girls
copy women models better.
• Models behavior is relevant to the observer
Concept Learning
• Feature list is similar to the prototype theory
• But focuses on learning by the following:
– What are the relevant features, both defining and
correlation
– The probability that these features will present
itself in a positive instance
– The relationship between the features- what are
the rules for combination
Concept Learning
• Robert Gagne developed a theory of learning
that included eight types of learning, four
basic types and four more complex forms of
learning
Gagne
basic learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Chaining- it is a series of S-R interactions (
stimulus Response. Mostly physical motoric
learning.
• Verbal associations-like chaining with verbal
responses
Gagne’s
Higher level learning
• Discrimination learning- a child learns to
distinguish the letter “b” form other letters
and say the sound “bee”
• Concept learning
– Has two types of concepts abstract and defined
concepts, this type of learning involves learning
defined concepts only. Only learning physical
concepts
Gagne’s
Higher order learning skills
• Rule learning rules allow people to respond
effectively to a wide range of stimuli
• They involve two or more concepts
• These concepts are learned through
statements expressing rules
Gagne’s
Higher order learning skills
• Higher order rules
• When people can combine two or more rules
to solve problems. We will discuss problem
solving later
• Here is how some college students interpreted
Gagne’s theory on learning
Maria Montessori
• Another major influence in the cognitive field
• First job to teach children from and insane
Asylum
– She was successful and concluded that any of their
problems were not medical, but poor education
• Believed in activity, but unlike the behaviorist
and Dewey who thought that the Motoric part of
activity was important, she felt that the visual
and auditory sense (all senses) were the reason
children learn during activity
Maria Montessori
• Students learn by activity, although very
structured
• Also pointed out that children of lower SES
communities were disadvantaged because
they lacked stimulation in the home
Birth Order
• IN families with multiple children. There is
usually a three point difference in IQ from the
first to second child, and second to third…
• Usually not genetic, it is the expectations
placed on this child
• Second and third children usually are more
creative and have more diverse interest
Multiple Intelligences
• Garner developed a ( or expanded) theory on
the idea that there are several dimensions
that comprise intelligence
• Originally there were six
• Now there are eight and there is work saying a
ninth is coming out
Multiple Intelligences
• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
("number/reasoning smart")
• Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
• Musical intelligence ("music smart")
• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
Learning Styles
• Somewhat like the concept of multiple
intelligences, Learning styles promotes and
idea that people have different avenues that
they are able to learn better through
• Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Tactile( physical)
• Other models
• Debate if you teach through these or teach
against these to develop them
Constructivism
• The learner generates meaning for concepts,
They Construct the learning
• As they construct the learning the
automatically make links to what is existing in
their mind
• Learning is optimized when they are aware
that they are learning
Different types of thinking
• Critical Thinking
– Problem solving- we already explored
• Creative Thinking- They puzzle school
– Often their needs are not addressed in the
curriculum, certainly they are not planned for
• Intuitive thinking- coming to an answer with
little or no awareness of how
Different types of thinking
• Reflective Thinking
– Is a model of problem solving based on the
scientific method
– Perceive the difficulty, identify the problem,
formulate an hypothesis, accept or reject the
hypothesis, formulate conclusion and evaluate
• Discovery learning- from Jerome Bruner,
similar to constructivism, where students
discover relationships between concepts