Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
HMEF5043
Educational Psychology
HMEF5043
EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Prof Dr John Arul Phillips
References 265
WELCOME TO HMEF5043
All the concepts, principles and theories of learning are examined in relation to
their application in the classroom. Students are encouraged to discuss the
implications of the various theories on teaching and learning at all levels of
education. The final part of the course deals with finding ways of translating the
theories discussed into teaching methods that will enhance learning.
Course Topics
To enable you to achieve the FOUR objectives of the course, HMEF5043 is
divided into 10 topics. Specific learning outcomes are stated at the start of each
topic indicating what you should be able to achieve after completing the topic.
To help you read and understand the individual topics, numerous realistic
examples support all definitions, concepts and theories. Diagrams and text are
combined into a visually appealing, easy-to-read module. Throughout the course
content, diagrams, illustrations, tables and charts are used to reinforce important
points and simplify the more complex concepts. The module has adopted the
following features in each topic:
INTRODUCTION
Lists the headings and subheadings of each topic to provide an overview of the
contents of the topic and prepare you for the major concepts to be studied and
learned.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
This is a listing of what you should be able to do after successful
completion of a topic. In other words, whether you are be able to explain,
compare, evaluate, distinguish, list, describe, relate and so forth. You
should use these indicators to guide your study. When you have finished
a topic, you must go back and check whether you have achieved the
learning outcomes or be able to do what is required of you. If you make a
habit of doing this, you will improve your chances of understanding the
contents of the course.
SELF-CHECK
ACTIVITY
The main ideas of each topic are listed in brief sentences to provide a review of
the content. You should ensure that you understand every statement listed. If
you do not, go back to the topic and find out what you do not know.
Key Terms discussed in the topic are placed at end of each topic to make you
aware of the main ideas. If you are unable to explain these terms, you should go
back to the topic to clarify.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
At the end of each topic a list of questions is presented that are best solved
through group interaction and discussion. You can answer the questions
yourself. But, you are encouraged to work with your course-mates and discuss
online and during the seminar sessions.
At the end of each topic a list of articles and topics of books is provided that is
directly related to the contents of the topic. As far as possible the articles and
books suggested for further reading will be available in OUMÊs Digital Library
which you can access and OUMÊs Library. Also, relevant internet resources are
made available to enhance your understanding of selected curriculum concepts
and principles as applied in real-world situations.
Facilitator
Your facilitator will mark your assignments and provide assistance to you during
the course. Do not hesitate to discuss during the tutorial session or online if:
You do not understand any part of the course content or the assigned
readings
You have difficulty with the self-tests and activities
You have a question or problem with the assignments.
(a) The most important step is to read the contents of this Course Guide
thoroughly.
(b) Organise a study schedule. Note the time you are expected to spend on
each topic the date for submission of assignments as well as seminar
and examination dates. These are stated in your Course Assessment
Guide. Put all this information in one place, such as your diary or a wall
calendar. Whatever method you choose to use, you should decide on
and jot down your own dates for working on each topic. You have some
flexibility as there are 10 topics spread over a period of 14 weeks.
(c) Once you have created your own study schedule, make every effort to
„stick to it‰. The main reason students are unable to cope is that they
get behind in their coursework.
3. When you have completed the topic, review the learning outcomes to
confirm that you have achieved them and are able to do what is required.
4. If you are confident, you can proceed to the next topic. Proceed topic by
topic through the course and try to pace your study so that you keep
yourself on schedule.
5. After completing all topics, review the course and prepare yourself for
the final examination. Check that you have achieved all topic learning
outcomes and the course objectives (listed in this Course Guide).
FINAL REMARKS
Once again, welcome to the course. To maximise your gain from this course, you
should try at all times to relate what you are studying to the real life. Look at the
environment in your institution and ask yourself whether the ideas discussed,
apply. Most of the ideas, concepts and principles you learn in this course have
practical applications. It is important to realise that much of what we do in
education and training has to be based on sound theoretical foundations. The
contents of this course provide the principles and theories explaining human
learning whether it be in a school, college, university or training organisation.
We wish you success with the course and hope that you will find it interesting,
useful and relevant in your development as a professional. We hope you will
enjoy your experience with OUM and we would like to end with a saying by
Confucius ă „Education without thinking is labour lost‰ .
INTRODUCTION
This guide explains the basis on which you will be assessed in this course during
the semester. It contains details of the facilitator-marked assignments, final
examination and participation required for the course.
One element in the assessment strategy of the course is that, all students should
have the same information as facilitators about the answers to be assessed.
Therefore, this guide also contains the marking criteria that facilitators will use in
assessing your work.
Please read through the whole guide at the beginning of the course.
ACADEMIC WRITING
(a) Plagiarism
(c) Referencing
All sources that you cite in your paper should be listed in the Reference
section at the end of your paper. HereÊs how you should do your Reference.
ASSESSMENT
Please refer to myVLE.
INTRODUCTION
This topic traces the origin of psychology as a discipline. You will learn how
psychology, which has its roots in philosophy, plays an important role in
explaining how humans learn, think and behave. Even though psychology is
among the youngest disciplines in the social sciences, it has contributed much
towards understanding human behaviour. However, there is so much we do
not know about ourselves and perhaps never will. There is so much variability in
our behaviour, depending on our culture, social position, political orientation,
upbringing and more recently, our genetic makeup.
Yes, it is truly remarkable that we have survived all these years. The humorous
description by Lefrancois is something to think about. How has the physically
inferior human being survived? He has survived because of his God-given
capacity to think. This capacity to think has enabled the human being to
overcome his many deficiencies. For example, the human who is not naturally
endowed with weapons invented spears, bows and arrows to hunt animals for
food. As the human eyesight is inferior compared to other species, he invented
the telescope. Humans are less strong than many other species and invented the
pulley and lever to lift heavy things. The capacity to think has enhanced our
ability to survive, which simply means learning to cope with the world.
Bruner (1964, 1966) sees human survival as a process of amplifying capacities and
reducing inadequacies. Humans began with amplification of motor capabilities
with the invention of simple machines (wheel, pulley) followed by amplification
of sensory capacities with the invention of telescopes, radio and television and
culminating in the amplification of intellectual capacities with the invention of
theories. Humans used their intellectual capacities to propose concepts,
principles, theories and laws to explain and understand various phenomena in
(i) The first is the term scientific which means the study uses a scientific
method. The scientific method proposed by Dewey (1920) comprises
the following steps:
A statement of the problem and identification of the hypothesis, to
be tested;
The design of the study and employment of data collection
techniques, to answer the research question or hypothesis;
The collection and analysis of data; and
Report of the findings and decision whether to accept or reject the
hypothesis.
(ii) The second term is behaviour which relates to whatever activity (by a
human or animal) that can be observed, measured and recorded.
Behaviour is also observed to occur when individuals speak or write
something. For example, the act of recording oneÊs fear or attitude is a
manifestation of behaviour.
(iii) The third term is mental processes which includes all processes
involved in thinking, memorising, learning, attitudes, emotions
and so forth. This has become the focus of many psychologists but
the problem is these processes cannot be observed and are difficult
to record and measure accurately. [This is an issue which will be
discussed later in the topic].
Figure 1.1: The scientific method used by the scientist and the psychologist
SELF-CHECK 1.1
The experiment was flawed but the king deserved credit for his idea that
thoughts and language forms the mind and his ambition to test such an
idea. While the experiment failed to support the kingÊs hypothesis,
Morton Hunt (1993) suggested that it did illustrate perhaps the first
evidence in written history that as long as 2,700 years ago there was at
least one individual who had the „highly original notion‰ that mental
processes could be systematically investigated and studied.
He believed that reality did not lie in concrete objects but was
represented in abstract form in our minds. In other words, when
we see a chair, the real chair exists in our minds. Plato reasoned
that the head is the seat of the mind.
He said the mind and body interacted with one another but were
essentially different. The mind was superior to the body. Truth
was found in our thoughts (via introspection) and not through our
senses (via observation).
(iii) Aristotle (384ă322 B.C.), who was PlatoÊs student, disagreed with him
on many points. He argued that the mind and body were not separate
and instead were one and the same.
There seems to be consensus among these early philosophers that the mind
and body relationship in important in determining human behaviour. Most
psychologists today agree that the concept of mind and body have merit.
But, what was more important was to provide empirical evidence to
confirm the relationship between mind and body.
He was known for coining the famous phrase „Cogito ergo sum‰
(I think therefore I am).
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
10 TOPIC 1 WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
SELF-CHECK 1.2
(ii) Psychoanalysis
Another early theory in psychology was developed by Austrian
physician Sigmund Freud (1856ă1939). Originally trained as a
neurologist, Freud became interested in how psychological factors
might have contributed to some of his patientsÊ problems. He
became convinced that many of his patientsÊ symptoms had mental
rather than physical explanations. In particular, he believed early
experiences such as conflicts and traumas had caused great distress
for his patients as children and that the memory of them was
extremely threatening and therefore the patients were unable to
consciously recall these events.
(iii) Behaviourism
A very different approach to psychology emerged in the early 1900s.
Several scholars contributed to the development and growth of this
approach but one of them, the American John B. Watson (1878ă1958)
was typically credited as the father of behaviourism. Behaviourism
is a theoretical perspective based on the premise that scientific
psychology should study only observable behaviour. In 1913, he
published an article which became known as The Behaviourist
Manifesto. In it, he argued that psychology should altogether abandon
the study of consciousness (mental processes) and attend only to
directly observable and therefore, verifiable, behaviour [We will
discuss this further in Topic 2: Behavioural Learning Theories].
(iv) Cognitivism
The 1960s saw the rejection of behaviourism and the emergence
of the cognitive revolution. The movement was composed of
psychologists who challenged the prevailing behaviourist model of
human functioning and insisted that focus should shift towards
studying interior mental processes. Using the computer as an analogy,
researchers provided important clues and directions in understanding
the human brain ă how it perceived, stored and organised information
and how information was used to make decisions and solve problems.
SELF-CHECK 1.3
A more complete and accurate picture of human behaviour and mental processes
is better understood by integrating these various perspectives. That being said, it
remains true that individual psychologists tend to specialise in and emphasise
a particular theoretical perspective. As it considers the mental, attitudinal,
motivational and behavioural characteristics of individuals, psychology has
many subdivisions and areas of specialisation and is a more complex field than
many realise. The major branches within psychology are shown in Table 1.1.
(a) Experiments
The experimental method is used by psychologists inside the laboratory
as well as outside. Experiments take place in laboratories because the
researcher is able to carefully control conditions and take measurements
accurately, using various kinds of instruments such as computers.
However, it is not essential for all psychological problems to be brought
into the laboratory for study. To show the effects of certain treatments and
procedures in real-life settings, experiments are conducted outside the
laboratory.
(c) Survey
Some problems that are difficult to study by direct observation may be
studied through the use of survey questionnaires or interviews. What is a
survey? Survey research involves selecting a small or large population and
studying samples chosen from that population to discover the relative
incidence, distribution and interrelations of sociological and psychological
variables. It is a method of obtaining information about a population from a
sample of individuals. Surveys can provide a quick, inexpensive and
accurate means of obtaining information from a large group of people. If
you want to know about the opinions, attitudes and perceptions of
respondents, survey is an appropriate method of collecting data. Besides,
surveys can also be used to explain the relationship and differences
between variables. The term sample survey is often used because a sample
which is representative of the target population is used. The survey method
(i) What they know (E.g. Who was the first Prime Minister of Malaysia?)
(ii) What they believe (E.g. Should students be given the freedom to
express themselves?)
(iii) What they expect (E.g. Do you expect to become a famous person?)
(iv) What they feel (E.g. Do you feel your father was fair?)
(v) What they have done (E.g. How often do you use the computer in a
week?)
(vi) What they plan (E.g. Do you intend to continue studying or start
working?)
Case histories may also be based on a longitudinal study. This type of study
follows an individual or group of individuals over an extended period with
observations made at intervals. The advantage of a longitudinal study is
that it does not depend on the memories of those interviewed at a later
date.
SELF-CHECK 1.4
An educator who does not have in-depth understanding of psychology will not
appear convincing in explaining the underlying principles for his or her actions
in the classroom. At the end of the day, most of what we do in education is to
ensure that the learner has learned. Learning is the core business of education
and obviously, the educator has to know how humans learn. Regardless of
whether you are an administrator, curriculum developer, counsellor or discipline
teacher, your main task is to ensure that all your actions lead to the enhancement
of student learning.
Teacher as a Theorist
You may be a teacher in a primary or secondary school. You may be an instructor
or lecturer in a tertiary organisation. You may be a trainer in a business or
industrial organisation. Essentially, you are an educator and a professional. A
professionalÊs work is based on a set of principles, theories and laws. Hence,
educators need to be enhanced with theories related to the psychology of
learning (see Figure 1.4).
Perhaps, you will realise that some of your beliefs about student learning are
confirmed while others may be myths. For example, you may assume that low
achievers are not intelligent when in fact they just lack skills in learning from text
materials. Some of our common sense beliefs about student learning may not be
accurate in light of what we know about theory and research, governing human
learning. For example, we may think that it is all right to stream students
according to ability, when in fact it can prove destructive when low achievers are
grouped together for the rest of their schooling years.
As you proceed through this course, many of your personal beliefs and theories
about the teaching-learning process may find support while others may be
proven less accurate. This awareness will help you to develop a more accurate
guide for your professional development (Tan, Parson, Hinson & Sardo-Brown,
2001).
Teacher as a Practitioner-Researcher
You would be concerned if you were being treated by a doctor who is not aware
of the latest research in medicine. Imagine the consequences if the doctor
prescribes a pharmaceutical product which has recently been banned in the
United States. Similarly, as a teacher, you are expected by your students and
society to be well-informed about developments in human learning and their
application in the classroom.
The materials in this course provide practical ideas which may be used to
enhance teaching or training. The scientific information you acquire about
human learning can be applied in specific ways to improve teaching. You may
have been a teacher for many years and it is likely that you may approach your
profession differently after having been exposed to the concepts, principles and
theories of human learning. Some of this scientific information you may already
be familiar with, while others may be new to you. With this store of information,
you may feel encouraged to analyse your present practice, particularly its
strengths and weaknesses.
The principles, suggestions and examples are intended to help you think about
how you can apply psychology to teaching. The rich source of ideas may
encourage you to re-examine your teaching methods and find ways and means of
improving what you do in the classroom. Hopefully, the information provided
will encourage you to see the classroom and education in general differently. It is
possible that you may have been preoccupied with some aspects of teaching and
have ignored other facets of instruction.
Effective teachers are reflective teachers. Reflective teachers know what they are
doing and why they choose to do it. They also review the effectiveness of what
they have done. Some teachers may be motivated to try out some of the
strategies. To systematically try out the strategies in the classroom, the method of
action research is suggested. This is a systematic method of data collection by the
teacher. For example, you can use action research to investigate the effectiveness
of a particular method of teaching mathematics.
SELF-CHECK 1.5
(c) Learning is acquiring facts, skills and methods that are retained and used
when necessary.
You will notice that the first three statements imply that learning is the
acquisition of a body of knowledge or content. It is like going to the supermarket,
buying knowledge and making it your property. This has been referred to as the
product of learning. The remaining statements define learning as something the
learner does with the information. This is referred to as the process of learning.
(v) Howard Gardner: People learn and understand the world through at
least seven ways ă verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, logical-
mathematical, body-kinaesthetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal and
intrapersonal.
(vi) Jean Piaget: Learning occurs through the process of assimilation and
accommodation with oneÊs schemas and constantly seeking
equilibrium between these processes.
ACTIVITY 1.1
The mind is constantly changing and it is pointless to look for the building
blocks of experience. Functionalism suggests that focus should be on how
and why an organism does something.
Behaviourism Philosophy
Cognitive revolution Practitioner-researcher
Correlational method Psychoanalysis
Experimental method Psychology
Functionalism Structuralism
Learning Survey
Mind and Body Teacher as theorist
Observation method
Ibn Sina. Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education. XXIII, 1 &
2. vol. 93. 53ă69. Retrieved from
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/avicenne.pdf
Teacher Research. Sharon Parsons, San Jose State University. Retrieved from
http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/
INTRODUCTION
Topic 2 examines behavioural theories of learning, their origins and proponents.
It was proposed by J. B. Watson who was inspired by the works of Ivan Pavlov.
Behaviourism dominated psychology until the 1950s. It emphasised the need for
scientific study of learning, focusing on behaviours which were observable. The
main proponents of behaviourism were Watson, Thorndike and Skinner, who
essentially worked with animals and applied their theories in explaining human
behaviour. Behaviourism has had a significant impact on teaching and learning
in schools as well as training organisations and continues to do so.
Figure 2.1: Dog with tube inserted in its cheek. When the dog salivates, the saliva is
collected in the test tube and its quantity is recorded on the rotating drum
Source: Garrett H. H. (1951). Great Experiments in Psychology. New York: Appleton-
Century-Crofts
They just came that way, hardwired into the brain of the organism.
„Unconditioned‰ means that this connection was already present in the
dog before Pavlov began his experiments. For example, when you see
someone eating something sour such as pickled fruit, you tend to swallow
your saliva. Thus, an unconditioned stimulus (pickled fruit) elicited an
unconditioned response (swallowing your saliva).
This action (food and bell ringing) was done at several meals. Every time
the dog saw the food, it also heard the bell. „Unconditioned‰ means
unlearned, untaught and pre-existing. „Conditioning‰ means just the
opposite. Pavlov was trying to associate, connect, bond or link something
new with the old relationship. He wanted this new thing (the bell) to elicit
the same response.
The bell elicited the same response as the sight of the food. Over repeated
trials, the dog learned to associate the bell with the food. The bell had the
power to produce the same response as the food. In other words, the dog
was conditioned to salivate when it heard the bell.
Conclusion
This is the essence of classical conditioning. You start with two things which are
already connected with each other (food and salivation). Then, you pair a third
thing (bell) with the conditioned stimulus (food) over several trials. Eventually,
this third thing may become so strongly associated that it acquires the power to
produce the old behaviour. The organism is therefore conditioned to respond to
the third thing or stimulus.
Pavlov also found that when the tone of the bell was closer to the sound of the
original bell, the dog salivated. When the tone of the bell was very different from
the sound of the original bell, the dog salivated less frequently. In other words,
the dog was capable of discrimination and able to differentiate among the
different tones. The dog responded to one stimulus but not to another stimulus.
However, when Pavlov continued ringing the bell and after many trials, it
was not followed by food, the dog gradually did not salivate. In other words,
extinction took place and the dog did not salivate after sometime when it realised
that food was not forthcoming.
(a) The smell of fresh bread baking makes my mouth water. This is probably
the result of classical conditioning. In the past, the smell of fresh bread
immediately preceded putting a piece in my mouth, which causes salivation.
Through the mechanism of classical conditioning, the smell itself comes to
elicit salivation.
(b) After a bad car accident last year, Jeffri would cringe and break into a
sweat at the sound of squealing brakes. This is classical conditioning. The
cringing, which is an unconditioned response to pain or fear, was produced
by the accident and its accompanying pain. That accident was probably
preceded by the sound of squealing brakes, which became a conditioned
stimulus for the conditioned response of cringing.
(d) Classical conditioning works with advertising. For example, many product
advertisements prominently feature attractive young women. The young
women (unconditioned stimulus) naturally elicit a favourable, mildly
aroused feeling (unconditioned response) in most men.
ACTIVITY 2.1
2.3 BEHAVIOURISM
Behaviourism originated from the works of John B. Watson (1878ă1958), an
American psychologist. He strongly believed that psychology should not be
concerned with the mind or mental processes. Instead, psychology should be
concerned only with behaviour. Watson was inspired by PavlovÊs work on
classical conditioning. He rejected introspection, stating it as unreliable and
unscientific. To be scientific, psychology needed to be a subject matter that was
stable enough to be reliably measured and that subject matter was behaviour.
According to him, behaviour is what we see and therefore behaviour is what we
study. Studying something we cannot see using the method of introspection
(self-examination) should be discarded. According to Watson,
The behaviouristÊs main point was that behaviour should be studied because it
could be dealt with directly. Mental events should be ignored because they could
not be dealt with directly. The central tenet of behaviourism is that thoughts,
feelings and intentions, all mental processes, do not determine what we do. Our
behaviour is the product of our conditioning. Behaviourism had a profound
effect on learning theory and continued to dominate educational practice until
the 1950s.
Before Conditioning
White Rat
No Fear
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
Unconditioned Response (UR)
During Conditioning
White Rat
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
Albert cries and avoids touching
Loud Noise Unconditioned Response (UR)
Conditioning Stimulus (CS)
After Conditioning
It was also shown that AlbertÊs fear spread to a variety of other objects such as a
rabbit, fur coat and even a Santa Claus mask. In other words, any object that was
furry brought fear to the infant. The experiment by Watson showed that our
emotional reactions can be rearranged through classical conditioning.
SELF-CHECK 2.1
(c) Extinction
Suzy associated Ms Lim with the yelling of „Keep quiet!‰ which had
startled her. However, if the stimulus (the yelling of „Keep quiet!‰) is not
applied and the response (crying) is not generated for some time, the
probability of the conditioned behaviour may decline. The response could
then gradually become extinct.
The cat would claw all over the box, in an impulsive struggle to get out of the
confinement. In the process, it would press the pedal and the door would open.
The cat would get out and eat the food. The same cat was put in the box over and
over again. Thorndike noted the time it took the cat to solve the problem as a
function of the number of trials or opportunities. The time it took to solve the
problem systematically decreased as the number of trials increased. In other
words, the more opportunities the cat had, the faster it solved the problem. The
cat had made a connection between the proper response and the food it received
(Stimulus-Response or S-R connection). Based on his experiments, Thorndike
concluded that learning is incremental. In other words, learning occurs in very
small systematic steps rather than in huge jumps.
(b) Complex ideas should be broken down into pre-requisite concepts. Positive
reinforcement should be applied as these concepts are learned so that they
can be applied to more complex, higher-level learning activities.
(iv) Transfer from one school task to a highly similar task (near transfer),
and from one school subject to a non-school setting (far transfer),
could be facilitated by teaching knowledge and skills in school
subjects that have elements identical to activities encountered in the
initial context.
SELF-CHECK 2.2
Skinner made his reputation by testing WatsonÊs and PavlovÊs theories in the
laboratory. He rejected the notion that organisms were passive and had no
control over their actions. He developed the theory of operant conditioning,
SkinnerÊs Experiments
To demonstrate operant conditioning in the laboratory, a hungry rat was placed
in a box like the one shown in Figure 2.4, which was called „SkinnerÊs Box‰.
Inside the box was a bar connected to a pellet (food) dispenser. Left alone in the
box, the rat moved about exploring. At some point in the exploration, it pressed
the bar and a small food pellet was released. The rat ate the pellet and soon
pressed the bar again. The food reinforced bar-pressing and the rate of pressing
increased dramatically.
What happens if the rat is not given any more food pellets? To find out, Skinner
disconnected the food dispenser. When the rat pressed the bar, no food was
released. The rate of bar-pressing was less frequent and finally, it diminished.
This means the operant response underwent extinction with non-reinforcement,
just as in classical conditioning.
Next, Skinner connected back the pellet dispenser. Pressing the bar again
provided the rat with food pellets. The behaviour of bar-pushing „popped‰ right
back. In fact, the rat took lesser time to press the bar compared to the first time it
was put in the box. So, the rat has learned that if it pressed the bar, food would
be released.
Skinner varied the experiment by linking the release of food pellets with light.
For example, the food would only be presented when the bar was pressed while
the light was switched on but not when it was switched off. Guess what
happened. The rat only pressed the bar when the light was on. The light served
as a discriminative stimulus that controlled response. The rat was able to
discriminate between pressing the bar with the light and pressing the bar
without light.
Based on this experiment, Skinner introduced the word „operant‰. It meant that
the behaviour „operates‰ on the environment ă the ratÊs pressing of the bar
produces or enables access to the food pellets. In classical conditioning, the
animal is passive; it merely waits for stimuli. In operant conditioning, the animal
is active; its own behaviour brings on important consequences or results. Thus,
operant conditioning increases the likelihood of a response by following its
occurrence with a reinforcer.
Examples:
(a) Amy completes her homework so that she can watch her favourite
television programme. There is high probability that she will always
complete her homework (behaviour) so that she can watch television
(reinforcer).
(b) Factory workers who are efficient are given bonuses. There is a high
probability that factory workers will strive to be more efficient (behaviour)
so that they will be given bonuses (reinforcer).
Examples:
(a) A mother lifts (behaviour) her crying baby because she cannot bear to hear
her child cry (reinforcer).
(b) When you enter a car, you put on the safety belt (behaviour) because you
want the sound of the buzzer (reinforcer) to stop.
Examples:
(a) Farid refuses to help his mother wash the dishes and he is not allowed to
play football.
(b) Any student who makes noise in class will have recess time reduced.
SELF-CHECK 2.3
Then Bala interrupts the class. Mrs Ragu stops the class, tells Bala he is a
naughty boy who broke Rule 15 and sends him to the principalÊs office. Ouch!
That hurt. Mrs Ragu is convinced that when Bala comes back to class, he will
not interrupt the class. He surely will want to avoid the punishment. Well,
guess what happens. Bala comes back to class and continues interrupting the
lesson. Mrs Ragu whacks him and Bala keeps on interrupting the class. Mrs
Ragu is confused and when she returns to the teacherÊs lounge, she complains
about the reinforcement theory.
ACTIVITY 2.2
(a) Fixed Ratio (FR): According to this schedule, reinforcement occurs after a
fixed number of responses (behaviour). The ratio 5:1 means that after every
five times the response (behaviour) is exhibited, it is reinforced (rewarded)
once. For example, say the rat presses the bar three times, it gets a goodie;
or five times or 20 times. It is like the „piece rate‰ method in the clothing
industry. You get paid according to the number of shirts you produce.
(b) Variable Ratio (VR): This schedule is similar to fixed ratio. The difference is
that the ratio is not fixed but is variable. In other words, the ratio is changed
according to the responses. For example, you may start by reinforcing every
three times the response (behaviour) is exhibited, then every five times the
response (behaviour) is exhibited and so on.
(d) Variable Interval (VI): This schedule is similar to the fixed interval. The
difference is that the interval is not fixed but is variable. In other words, the
interval may be changed according to the responses. For example, you may
start with reinforcing every 20 seconds the response (behaviour) is exhibited,
then every 30 seconds the response (behaviour) is exhibited and so on.
ACTIVITY 2.3
(a) When students are dealing with factual material, do your best to give
feedback frequently, specifically and quickly.
(iii) Meet with students in small groups so that you can give each student
more individual feedback.
(b) When older students are dealing with complex and meaningful material,
delayed feedback may be more appropriate.
(i) Hand back and discuss all examination papers even though the
students might have sat for the examination two weeks ago.
(iii) After receiving assignments, you could tell your students the
following: „If you realise after you complete your work that you have
made a mistake, make note of it and mention how you would correct
it if you were to do the assignment again. Then, we can see if your
evaluation is similar to mine‰.
(c) Use several kinds of reinforcers so that each retains its effectiveness.
(i) When a student gives a correct answer, makes a good point in class
discussion or does something helpful, say things like: „Good‰, „ThatÊs
right‰, „Terrific‰, „Great‰. „Very interesting point‰, „I hadnÊt thought
of that‰ or „That was big help‰.
(ii) Walk over to stand near and smile encouragingly at a student who
seems to be working industriously.
(i) When students first try a new skill or type of learning, praise almost
any genuine attempt, even though it may be inaccurate. Then, as they
become more skilful, reserve your praise only for correct and accurate
answers.
(i) Announce to students that if they complete the task, they will be
rewarded with something they like to do. e.g. read a book of their
choice, work on an art or craft project or work on homework for
another class.
(iii) Withhold reinforcement and call attention to the rewards which will
follow the completion of a task. If this does not work, consider the
possibility of taking away a privilege or resorting to punishment.
(i) State clearly what is to be learned i.e. the terminal behaviour (e.g. to
be able to compare X and Y).
(ii) Break down the facts, concepts and principles and arrange them in a
sequence designed to lead the student to the desired end result.
(iii) These series of small linear steps or frames are written to maximise
the likelihood that students will supply the correct answer for each
frame. When students do supply the correct answer for one step or
frame, they are reinforced by discovering they are right and
motivated to move on to the next.
ACTIVITY 2.4
Discuss.
ACTIVITY 2.5
Read the following situations and state whether they are examples of
classical or operant conditioning.
2. When my son spends a week without arguing with his sister, he gets to
choose which favourite activity he wants to engage in on Friday night.
4. When I first start teaching about a concept, I praise any answer that
is close to the right answer.
5. Each morning when I switch on the radio, my dogs bark and I give
them a slice of bread each. After a while, every time I switch on the
radio in the morning, my dogs bark
The law of readiness states that when an organism is ready to act, it will do
so. When it is not ready to act, forcing it to act will be annoying.
The law of effect states that the strength of a connection between a stimulus
and a response is influenced by the consequence of a response.
INTRODUCTION
In Topic 2, we discussed behaviourist explanations of human learning focusing
on classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this chapter, we will focus
on the cognitive theories explaining human learning as proposed by Gestalt
psychologists, Piaget, Bandura and Ausubel. Each of these theories may be
similar but they also explain an important aspect of thinking and learning among
humans. These theories have important applications in classroom practices for all
levels of education.
Based on their findings that people tend to organise what they perceive, they
proposed The Law of Pragnanz which states that, when an organism sees or
experiences something that is disorganised in the physical environment, the
organism will impose order on what it sees or experiences. Based on this basic
premise, many principles were proposed to explain how we perceive the physical
environment and these became known as „the Gestalt principles of perceptual
organisation‰. We will discuss only three of these principles.
You may have seen the figures shown above. How do you think people would
respond when presented with these figures? The majority of people who see
Figure 3.1a would say that it is an „E‰ even though the figure is incomplete. The
Principle of Closure states that we have a tendency to complete incomplete
experiences. Humans have the habit of filling in the gaps perceptually and
responding to the figure as if it was the complete letter „E‰. For Figure 3.1b, most
people tended to perceive three pairs of lines rather than six separate lines. Items
that are close together are grouped together. This is called the Principle of Proximity
which states that, we tend to organise elements close together as units or groups.
When you look at something you never see, just the thing you look at; rather, you
see it in relation to its surroundings. When you read this page, you distinguish
the words from the white background. In this case, you have distinguished
between the figure or shape of words (foreground) and the white space
surrounding it (called the background). Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin (1921)
was the first to systematically investigate this phenomenon. He found that it was
possible to see any well-marked area of the visual field as the figure, leaving the
rest as the background. In Figure 3.1c, if you consider the „faces‰ (dark part) as
the foreground and the „vase‰ (light part) as the background, you see the two
faces. If vice versa, you see the „vase‰ as the foreground and the two „faces‰ as
the background. In some instances, the figure and the background may fluctuate.
SELF-CHECK 3.1
1. Define cognition.
2. What is the phi phenomenon?
3. What did Gestalt psychologists mean when they said, „The whole is
different from the sum of its parts‰?
ACTIVITY 3.1
Identify which Gestalt Laws explain how we perceive these logos. Give
reasons.
Experiment 1:
In this experiment, a chimpanzee named Grande was placed in an enclosure
surrounded by wooden boxes. Initially, the animal jumped to reach the banana
but was unsuccessful. Later, Grande dragged the boxes under the bananas and
stacked the boxes on top of one another (see Figure 3.2). Using the boxes as a
step- ladder, the animal got to the bananas.
Figure 3.2: Grande using the boxes to reach the banana from The Mentality of
Apes, 1925. W. Kohler. London: Routledge & Kegan. p. 152
Experiment 2:
KohlerÊs chimpanzees were able to not only use tools but also build tools. For
example, he observed chimps breaking off branches from a tree to make a „rake.‰
One of the smartest chimpanzees, Sultan, was given a very difficult problem.
Kohler placed a bunch of bananas outside SultanÊs cage and two bamboo sticks
inside the cage. However, neither of the sticks was long enough to reach the
bananas. Sultan pushed the thinner stick into the hollow of the thicker one, and
created a stick long enough to pull in the bananas (see Figure 3.3). Kohler
believed that these chimps showed insight ă acting as if they „saw‰ the solution
before carrying out the actions. The essence of a successful problem-solving
behaviour is being able to see the overall structure of the problem. Two
directions are involved: getting a wholly consistent picture and seeing what the
structure of the whole requires for the parts. Insightful learning usually has four
characteristics:
(a) Schema
Piaget believed that the mind was made up of a schema, just like the body
that has a stomach that was responsible for digestion or a kidney that was
responsible for removing waste from the blood. Schemas are mental or
cognitive structures, which enable a person to adapt and organise the
environment. They are like a cabinet with many files and each file
represents a schema. When a child is born, it has a few general schemas and
as the child grows, he or she gains more schemas and these schemas
become more refined.
Figure 3.4 illustrates a childÊs encounter with an experience for which the
child does not have a schema. The child looks at the cow and says „Hello
Doggy‰. Why do you think this happened? The child seeing the object
(cow), sifted through his collection of schemas, until he found one that
seemed appropriate. To the child, the object (cow) has all the characteristics
of a dog ă it fits in his dog schema ă so the child concludes that the object is
a dog. The child has integrated the object (cow) into his dog schema. You
would have seen this often happening among young children and parents
make a desperate attempt to correct the child.
(b) Assimilation
Assimilation is the cognitive process by which a person integrates new
information or experience into existing or readily available schema. This is
the process of fitting new information into existing cognitive structures.
Assimilation occurs all the time because humans are always processing
various kinds of information and experiences. The existing or readily
available schema is like a balloon that gets bigger and bigger with the
See Figure 3.5 which shows a child confronting three different round
shapes. Because the person has an existing schema of round shapes, the
three round shapes, even though different, are assimilated or fitted into the
„round shape‰ schema, which already exists. There is a quantitative change
as the single schema gets bigger and bigger to absorb or assimilate the new
information.
(c) Accommodation
When confronted with new information or experience, the individual tries to
assimilate it into an existing schema as mentioned earlier. Sometimes it is not
possible because there is no ready-made schema. In such a situation, the
person has two options. The person could create a new schema into which
new information or experience can be placed. Alternatively, the person could
modify an existing schema so that the new information or experience can fit
into it. Both of these are forms of accommodation. Thus, accommodation is
the creation of new schema or the modification of old schema. Both of these
actions result in a change in or development or creation of schema.
See Figure 3.6 which shows a child confronting three different round
shapes. Because the child does not have an existing schema of „round
shapes‰, three new schemas are created. There is a qualitative change as
more schemas are created.
(d) Equilibrium
Imagine what would happen if a person only assimilates and never
accommodates or only accommodates and never assimilates? The result
would be disastrous. Hence, there needs to be a balance between the two
processes. Equilibrium is a balance between assimilation and accommodation.
Disequilibrium is an imbalance between assimilation and accommodation.
When disequilibrium occurs, the learner seeks equilibrium, that is, to further
assimilate or accommodate. For example, a learner who encounters new
information tries to assimilate the information into an existing schema. If he or
she is successful, equilibrium is achieved. However if the learner cannot
assimilate the new information, he or she attempts to accommodate by
modifying a schema or creating a new one. If the new information can be
accommodated, equilibrium is reached. According to Piaget, learning
proceeds in this way from birth through adulthood.
SELF-CHECK 3.2
1. What is a schema?
2. State the difference between assimilation and accommodation.
3. What is equilibrium?
ACTIVITY 3.2
1. What do you think will happen if a person only assimilates or only
accommodates?
2. Explain why a child who sees a baby, calls it a doll.
Piaget did not direct his research towards education and teaching, but his theory
of how children acquired knowledge and developed intellectually, clearly
provided much that was relevant to teaching and learning. The learning
environment (especially in kindergarten and primary school) should help
children acquire knowledge by performing actions. In other words, the learning
environment should be action-based. For example, children should have physical
contact with concepts such as trees, grass, cats, chickens and so forth. Just
showing children pictures of trees and reading about trees is inadequate.
(b) Use teaching strategies that make children aware of conflicts and
inconsistencies in their thinking: i.e. children must experience
disequilibrium or an imbalance between their current schemas and new
information to be assimilated, in order for them to move towards
equilibrium and new levels of intellectual growth.
(iii) Diagnose what children already know and how they think. Content is
not introduced until the child is cognitively ready to understand it, or
has the relevant schema to assimilate or accommodate the new
information.
SELF-CHECK 3.3
He was most interested in the theories proposed by Dollard and Miller in their
book Social Learning and Imitation, published in 1941. They suggested that
children could learn when they were reinforced at a time when their behaviour
matched that of another person. For example, a boy might be praised by his
mother when imitating some form of desirable behaviour he had seen displayed
by his older sister. Bandura and Richard Walters agreed with Miller and Dollard
that learning was much more than trial and error and on the significance of
imitation. In their book Social Learning Theory and Personality Development
(1963), Bandura and Walters argued that merely observing another person might
be sufficient to lead to a learned response. They pointed out that reinforcement
was not always necessary.
In his book, Social Learning Theory (1977), Bandura laid out the essential
principles of social learning which originated from a series of classic experiments
carried out in the 1960s. Bandura argued that children learned to act aggressively
when they modelled their behaviour after violent acts of adults. He believed that
aggression must be explained from three aspects: first, how aggressive patterns
of behaviour are developed; second, what provokes people to behave aggressively;
and third, what determines whether they are going to continue to resort to an
aggressive behaviour pattern on future occasions.
(a) The child observes an adult beating a Bobo doll with a mallet.
(b) When presented with an identical Bobo doll, the child picks up the mallet and
proceeds to beat the doll.
(a) Attention
Attention is the first component of observational learning. Individuals
cannot learn much by observation unless they perceive and attend to the
significant features of the modelled behaviour. For example, children must
attend to what the aggressor model is doing and saying in order to
reproduce the modelÊs behaviour. In the Bobo doll experiment, the children
witnessed the Bobo doll being verbally and/or physically abused by live
and filmed models.
(b) Retention
Retention is the next component. In order to reproduce the modelled
behaviour, individuals must encode the information into long-term memory.
Therefore, the information will be retrieved. For example, the actions and
words of the model performed would have to be retained and later retrieved.
In the Bobo doll experiment, the children imitated the aggression they
witnessed. They aggressively hit the Bobo doll because it was encoded and
stored in their memory. The process of retention had occurred.
(c) Reproduction
Motor reproduction is another process in observational learning. The
observer must be able to reproduce the modelÊs behaviour. The observer
must learn and possess the physical capabilities of the modelled behaviour.
For example, a person who observes a monkey swinging from tree to tree
may wish to do the same but does not have the motor capabilities to do so.
Once a behaviour is learned through attention and retention, the observer
must possess the physical capabilities to produce the act. The children had
the physical capability to hit and smack the doll.
ACTIVITY 3.3
Violence on TV
There have been many debates over whether or not violence on
television causes aggressive behaviour in children. Some studies have
indicated that television leads to aggressive behaviour while others
suggest that it does not. For instance, psychologists have found that
some cartoons are very violent and cause children to imitate aggressive
behaviour. However, the general public believes that children view
cartoons as funny and humorous. It is the parentsÊ responsibility to
inform their children that the cartoons are not real.
In Ojibwa tribes, young boys follow their fathers hunting as soon as they are
physically able. For the first few years; they simply observe ă again there is no
direct teaching. When a boy is old enough, he would fashion his own weapons
and set traps as he had seen his father do. If he has a sister, she would learn how
to prepare hides and meat, how to make clothing and how to do the many other
things she had seen her mother do.
SELF-CHECK 3.4
When a student is punished for breaking a school rule, other children are
watching the event and because of the principle of modelling, every child is
influenced. Each of them has learned about breaking school rules, simply
through observation. They have learned that if they break school rules, they will
get into trouble.
These structured experiences or memories that are firmly stored are termed as
„cognitive structure‰ consists of more or less, organised and stable concepts (or
ideas) in a learnerÊs brain or cortex. The nature of the organisation is assumed to
be hierarchical, with the most inclusive (general) concept at the apex and the
increasingly specific concepts towards the base.
(b) Instruction should proceed from the most general and inclusive towards
details of specific instances. The most general ideas of a subject should be
presented first and then, progressively differentiated in terms of detail and
specificity.
(d) Teachers should not fall into the trap of asking students to learn material
that is inherently meaningless for them because they do not have the
required background information.
(e) Advance organisers are concepts and ideas that are given to the learner
prior to material actually to be learned.
(ii) They should be selected on the basis of their suitability for explaining,
integrating and interrelating the new material.
(i) Chapter titles and section headings in a text to indicate to the reader
what the succeeding content is.
(ii) Introductory paragraphs to remind the learner of certain ideas that are
important in terms of their relationship to the new material.
SELF-CHECK 3.5
The mental processes involved in the act of knowing are called cognitive
processes and these include perceiving, attention, reasoning, judging, problem
solving, self-monitoring, remembering, understanding and so forth.
The degree to which individuals observe and imitate a modelÊs behaviour can
be explained in terms of four component processes: attention, retention
reproduction and reinforcement.
Wertheimer, M. (1924). Gestalt theory. Society for Gestalt theory and its
application. Retrieved from http://gestalttheory.net/archive/wert1.html
INTRODUCTION
In Topic 3, we discussed the cognitive theories of Gestalt psychologists, Piaget,
Bandura and Ausubel. In this topic, we continue with our discussion on cognitive
theories, focusing on the Information Processing Model. Using the computer
as an analogy, psychologists have proposed a multi-store approach to human
memory consisting of sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory.
The model provides a convenient approach to studying how humans encode,
process, store and retrieve information. The implications of the I-P model in
teaching and learning is explored.
(c) The individual is viewed as active and constructive rather than a passive
recipient of information. Humans are not blank slates upon which
information is written on, as assumed by behaviourists. We actively
participate in acquiring and using knowledge. We actively construct a view
of reality, select information that we want to attend to and commit to
memory. Hence, to understand human cognition, the psychologist has to
study how we think, remember, understand and produce language.
Cognition is defined as the act or process of knowing in the broadest sense and
more specifically, as an intellectual process by which knowledge is gained
through the five senses (WebsterÊs Dictionary). Scholars who focus on cognition
are called cognitive psychologists. Cognitive psychologists strongly believe that
behaviourism is too limited in explaining human learning. It presents a
reductionist view of learning. In other words, it reduces learning to merely
providing a stimulus and focusing on an observable behaviour. This is too
simplistic a notion of human learning. Cognitive psychologists strongly advocate
that mental processes and how they are structured, should be investigated. They
are interested in unravelling what is going on in the black box (see Figure 4.1). It
is assumed that between the stimulus and response, there are various stages of
processing, each requiring a certain amount of time and many different
processes. To be able to understand the internal mechanism of human thoughts
and the processes of knowing, researchers make inferences by observing the
behaviours exhibited. In other words, what is going inside the mind of learners is
studied objectively from the outside of the mind.
Figure 4.1: The cognitive approach focuses on the mental processes in the black box
SELF-CHECK 4.1
First encounter with the durian and the five senses goes into action.
The properties of the sensory memory may lead teachers to believe that students
in class are paying attention to what they are saying. Refer to the example below.
In a history class, Peng Soon is looking out of the window and appears to be
daydreaming.
Teacher: ⁄and Dato Maharajalela saw J. W.W. Birch bathing in the river
and killed him⁄Peng Soon! What did I just say?
The teacher was sure that Peng Soon was daydreaming and she was right.
However, she had only probed his sensory memory (where attention is located)
and not his working memory. Peng Soon, upon hearing his name, simply
recalled the jumble of words that were still resonating in his sensory memory
and read them off. He could play it back but that does not mean he was paying
attention.
(a) Mental Set: This refers to a deliberate plan to focus on something, such as;
reading this page, listening to the radio or sending an SMS to your friend.
It is a conscious decision to make. Often we hear of people saying that
they can do two or three things at the same time. Actually, it is almost
impossible to attend satisfactorily to more than one such mental activity.
For example, while you are reading this chapter, you may be listening to
your radio. If you are fully attending to the meaning of the words on this
page, you are actually not attending to the music. You may, at different
points, switch between reading or attending to the page and listening or
attending to the music. Now you realise how important attention is to
learning.
(b) Physical Properties of the Information: Physical properties can be the voice
of the presenter or the images presented. For example, if the teacher or
speaker has a flat monotonous voice, it will be hard for students to pay
attention. Cartoons, diagrams and colourful pictures encourage students to
pay attention.
These three conditions have important implications for teaching and learning.
They illustrate the decision made by learner as to what is important. Sometimes
it may be necessary for teachers to make known to students what is important
and what they should pay attention to. Only when learners attend to the
information, will it be processed in the short-term or working memory. The
teacher has to grab the attention of students. Good speakers are able to grab the
attention of the audience. Can you recall a speaker who was able to hold your
attention? What were the qualities of his or her presentation that was able to
capture your attention?
Biggs and Moore (1993) suggested the following ways in which teachers
could grab the attention of their students:
SELF-CHECK 4.2
What is meant by automatic? For the new driver, he or she has to remember to
change gears, remember road signs, remember to push the right pedal (brakes
and accelerator), apply the brakes in an emergency. But, for the experienced
driver all these activities are automatic and he or she does not have to decide
what to do in working memory. He or she can sing, listen to the radio or hold a
conversation, but is able to press the brakes in an emergency. Similarly, when
you read this page, you do not have to decode the letters, „l-e-t-t-e-r-s‰ because it
is automatic for you. To a young reader, it is not automatic and the child will
have to spend his or her working memory identifying each of the letters.
Rehearsal
Besides having limited capacity, information in working memory if not attended
to, will be forgotten within 18 seconds. To keep information „active‰ in STM, you
must do something to it. We keep information active by rehearsing. We usually
perform two types of rehearsing:
SELF-CHECK 4.3
1. What are some features of working memory?
2. Explain „chunking‰.
3. How is information kept alive in working memory?
4.6 STORAGE
The German scholar Herman Ebbinghaus, was the first to investigate the
characteristics of long-term memory in 1879. Using himself as a subject, he was
one of the first to demonstrate that learning and memory could be studied
experimentally, using nonsense syllables. He memorised a list of 800 nonsense
words and then tried to recall them. The results are shown in Figure 4.4. This is
often called the „forgetting curve‰. The graph shows that, forgetting was rapid in
the first hour when recall fell by 40%. However, then it flattened out to about
25% and by about 30 days, only 10 to 15% of the nonsense words are recalled. In
other words, people forget 90% of what they learn in a class, within 30 days. This
is confirmed by those who followed him.
ACTIVITY 4.1
(b) Semantic Memory is knowledge of general concepts that are not specific to
a particular time or place. It is the meaning of words referring to rules,
formulas, concepts, principles, generalisations and so forth. For example,
„respiration‰, „treaty‰, „delta‰, „triangle‰ are all examples of information
stored in semantic memory.
Since the 1960s, a number of theories have been proposed to explain the structure
of long-term memory. Though they may differ, they all attempt to specify how,
long-term memory is structured or organised and the processes which operate on
this structure to enable memory storage and retrieval or recall. How do we store
all the information we have accumulated in our lifetime? There is no physical
evidence in the brain with regards to where information is stored. However we
know it is there because we can recall what happened to us 10 years ago or what
we learned five years ago. This has puzzled psychologists for decades and many
theories have been proposed as to how we store and organise all our experiences.
We will limit our discussion to the so-called network theories. These theories
assume the structure of long-term memory consists of large sets of nodes
interconnected by relations. So each node which represents a concept, is
connected by a network of relations attached to it. It should be kept in mind that
each mode is a concept and not a word.
For example, the sentence „A CAT IS AN ANIMAL AND A CAT HAS FUR‰ is
represented as a network in long-term memory as shown in Figure 4.6. The
concepts CAT and ANIMAL represented by two nodes, are connected by an IS
AN relation. The concepts CAT and FUR are connected by a HAS relation. The
directions of the arrows are important. Why? A CAT is an animal, but an
ANIMAL is not necessarily a CAT. Similarly, a CAT has FUR, but FUR does not
have a CAT. If you read in the opposite direction of the arrow, the meaning is
changed.
Collins and Quillian (1969) pointed that out when a person searches for long-
term memory, it involves moving from one node to another, which takes time. To
prove this, they conducted a series of experiments. They argued that if people
search memory similar to the TLC, then people show different reaction time (RT)
when they are asked to verify sentences at different levels. In particular, RT
should increase as the number of nodes required to reach an intersection
increases. The following three sentences were presented in the light of the
structure in Figure 4.7. The reaction time (RT) for each of the three sentences is
shown in Figure 4.8.
The results showed that people verified sentence S1 faster than S2, since fewer
relations were traversed before an intersection was found in the case of S1.
Similarly, S2 took less time to verify than S3. Generally, reaction time increases
systematically as the number of levels increases.
SELF-CHECK 4.4
(a) Organisation
For example, you meet various professionals ă doctors, teachers, journalists
and accountants at a meeting. When you later try to recall their names, you
would do better if you organised your recall by profession: Who were the
doctors I met? Who were the teachers? And so forth. A list of names or
words is far easier to recall when you sort the words into categories and
then recall the words on a category-by-category basis. Organisation
improves retrieval, presumably by making memory search more efficient.
When the two groups of subjects were tested later, subjects who were
presented with the words in random order, recalled 19% of the words.
Subjects who were presented the hierarchical organisation, recalled 65% of
the words. This study leaves little doubt that retrieval is best when the
material or information is organised.
They first found a high-level category like „metals‰ and from that category
they then searched a low-level category, like „common metals‰ and then
they searched that low-level category for specific words such as aluminium,
copper, lead and so on.
(b) Context
It is easier to retrieve a particular event if you are in the same context in
which that event occurred. For example, it is likely that your ability to
retrieve the names of your classmates in secondary school would improve
if you were to walk through the corridors of your school. Similarly, your
ability to retrieve an emotional moment if you were back in the place where
the incident occurred, would be better than if you were somewhere else.
Perhaps it is for this reason that when we visit a place we once lived, we
are sometimes overcome with so many memories about our earlier life.
Thus, the context in which an event was encoded is itself one of the most
powerful retrieval cues possible.
SELF-CHECK 4.5
ACTIVITY 4.2
Do you remember your first day in school? Do you remember the first time you
drove a car? Do you remember a particular traumatic event in your life? How is
this possible? This has led to the suggestion that we never really lose our
memories ă forgotten memories are still there but are too weak to be revived. The
results as reported by Penfield (1959) are consistent with this notion. As part of a
neurological procedure, Penfield electrically stimulated portions of patientsÊ
brains surgery for the treatment of epilepsy. He then asked them to report what
they experienced. [Note that the patients were conscious during the surgery but
the simulation technique was painless]. Penfield found that when certain parts of
brain were stimulated, patients reported vivid memories of events from their
early childhood, events they said they had not thought of for decades.
PenfieldÊs findings were provocative, but they must be interpreted with caution.
For one thing, it is difficult to verify whether the patientsÊ reports were of events
they actually experienced years before or whether they were events that the
patients unconsciously constructed at the time of electrical stimulation. It is hard
to know whether the patientsÊ memory reports were accurate, since going back in
time to check whether the events reported actually occurred was nearly
impossible.
In Experiment I, subjects in the experiment group and the control group learned
a list of words (A-B). Later, subjects in the experimental group learned a new list
of words (A-C) while the control group took a break. Later, both groups were
given a test to recall the A-B list of words. The results showed that the control
group recalled significantly fewer words than the experimental group. This
suggested that retroactive interference occurred in which materials learned after
(A-C) the to-be-remembered material (A-B) interfered with memory for the to-be-
remembered material.
In Experiment II, subjects in the experiment group learned a list of words (A-B)
while the control group took a break. Later, subjects in both the experimental
group and control group learned a new list of words (A-C). Later, both groups
were given a test to recall the A-C list of words. The results showed that the
control group recalled significantly fewer words than the experimental group.
This suggest that proactive interference occurred in which materials learned
before (A-B) the to-be-remembered materials (A-C) interfered with memory for
the to-be-remembered materials. These experiments demonstrated that old
materials interfered with memory for newly learned materials (proactive
interference) and new materials interfered with memory for previously learned
materials (retroactive interference).
Brown and McNeil (1966) made a systematic study of this phenomenon. They
read a list of word definitions such as, „A navigational instrument used to
determine the direction of the sun, moon and stars at sea‰, to college students,
asking the students to state the word defined. Whenever any student reported
being in the TOT state, the researchers tried to determine just how much the
person knew about the sought-after word.
They found that people in this state often could report the beginning letter of the
word in question, the number of syllables and the stressed syllable. Also, people
reported being in the TOT state were usually able to recognise the information
they are attempting to retrieve when it is presented to them. Notice that the TOT
phenomenon suggests that, we are able to judge that we know some material,
even though we cannot report it. It reveals that many people suffer from retrieval
difficulties and not because of a lack of knowledge. The information is there
somewhere but they are having difficulty retrieving it.
ACTIVITY 4.3
The next time you encounter a TOT state in yourself or someone else,
see if the person in this agonising condition reports similar findings to
those of Brown and McNeil.
SELF-CHECK 4.6
What are the characteristics of a good retrieval cue? Tulving and Thomas (1973)
proposed the encoding-specificity principle which states that operations
performed on what information is stored determines its retrieval. In other words,
the retrieval cue associated with the information that is stored, will act as
retrieval cue in recalling the information. To provide evidence for this principle,
the researchers presented subjects with a list of words in capital letters (e.g.
SNOW). Subjects were then told to commit these words to memory since they
would be later tested on them.
(a) One group of subjects were given the words in capital letters accompanied
with other words printed in lowercase letters which acted as „strong cues‰
(e.g. hot-COLD). Subjects were told that they do not need to remember the
lowercase words.
(b) Another group of subjects were given words accompanied with other
words printed in lowercase letters which acted as „weak cues‰ (e.g. blow-
COLD). Subjects were told that they do not need to remember the
lowercase words.
Subjects were then tested for the recall of the words in order to determine how
effective the strong and weak cues were as retrieval or recall cues. They found
that subjects given strong cues recalled 85% of words compared to 76% words
recalled by subjects given weak cues. Tulving and Thomas called this as the
encoding specificity principle, in which the probability of recalling an item at test
depends on the similarity of its encoding at test and its original encoding at
study. The problem, however, is that for the most important material, we cannot
predict all of the contexts in which we will need it. Therefore, the richer the
connections to many potential retrieval cues, the more likely that you will be able
to produce the material when you need it.
SELF-CHECK 4.7
(i) There were many omissions of details (such as the names of the
towns), resulting in increasingly condensed versions of the story.
(ii) There was a tendency to change the original words into more modern
words (e.g. „my relatives‰ to „my folks‰ and „the warriors‰ to „the
party‰)
(iii) There were additions to the original story when subjects tried to recall
the story. These additions were an attempt to make the story more
coherent than the original story. They were trying to make sense of
the story, reflecting what Bartlett termed „an effort after meaning‰.
Inferences can also affect memory for visual scenes as illustrated by the
following experiment by Loftus and Loftus (1975). Subjects were shown a
film of a traffic accident and soon after, asked questions about their
memory of the accident. One question about the speed of the vehicles was
asked in two different ways (see Figure 4.12).
Group 1: „How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each
other?‰
Group 2: „How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?‰
Group 1 subjects inferred that the accident was a very destructive one, even
more destructive than they actually remembered. Group 2 subjects did not
do this and inferred that the accident was less severe. A week later, the
subjects were asked, „Did you see any broken glass?‰ There was no broken
glass in the film of the accident. There was a tendency for more subjects in
Group 1, who had been asked the „smashed‰ question to say mistakenly,
that there was glass compared to subjects in Group 2 who were asked the
„hit‰ question. Subjects who were asked the „smashed‰ question, inferred
that the severity of the accident would most likely lead to broken glass even
though there was no glass. Such results have important implications for
eyewitness testimony.
(b) Stereotypes
Another means by which we fill in or construct memories is through the
use of social stereotypes. A stereotype is a packet of knowledge about the
personality or physical attributes that we assume to be true of a whole class
of people. We may, for example, have a stereotype of the typical Japanese
as hardworking, meticulous and serious or the typical Italian as artistic,
carefree and a food connoisseur. These descriptions rarely apply to many
people in the class and can often be misleading guides for social
interaction. What effect has stereotypes on memory? I presented a class of
100 undergraduates with this description:
When presented with the information about Rosie, the undergraduates had
stereotyped her. They combined the information presented with that in
their stereotype, resulting in a distorted opinion of the person.
SELF-CHECK 4.8
One of the central issues that cognitive psychologists are interested in is mental
structure. According to the schema theory, the knowledge we have stored in
memory is organised as a set of schemata or mental representations, each of
which incorporates all the knowledge of a given type of object or event that we
have acquired from past experiences.
There are two information resources: the incoming from the outside world and
information already stored in memory. The analysis of the sensory information
coming in from the outside is known as bottom-up processing or data-driven
processing because it relies on the data received via the senses. The information,
already stored in the memory in the form of prior knowledge, influences our
expectations and helps us to interpret the current input. This influence of prior
knowledge is known as top-down or conceptual-driven processing. Schemas
operate in a top-down direction to help us interpret the bottom-up flow of
information from the world. Rumelhart and Norman (1983) listed five
characteristics of schema:
(c) A schema has slots, which may be filled with fixed, compulsory values or
with variable, optional values.
SELF-CHECK 4.9
Implications:
(i) The more attention is effectively directed towards what is learned (i.e.
towards critical concepts and areas), the higher the probability of
learning.
(b) During learning, learners act on information in ways that make it more
meaningful.
Implications:
(i) Both teacher and students should use examples, images, elaborations
and connections to prior knowledge to increase meaningfulness of
information.
Implications:
(iv) Help students to impose structure on what they learn and thus make
it more memorable, such as the use of information mapping or
advance organiser.
Implication:
(e) Transfer of learning to new contexts is not automatic but results from
exposure to multiple applications.
Implications:
(f) Learning is facilitated when learners are aware of their learning strategies
and monitor their use.
Implications:
(i) The teacher should help students learn how to translate these
strategies into action at appropriate points in their learning.
(iii) Discuss with learners their learning approaches and get peers to
observe the thinking processes of other students.
ACTIVITY 4.4
Long-term memory has an unlimited capacity and it has been said that all
you have learned and experienced in your lifetime is stored in long-term
memory.
Ferguson, T. (n. d.). Memory and consciousness. Utah State University. Retrieved
from
http://www.usu.edu/psycho101/lectures/chp9memory/memory.html
Psychology. http://ibs.derby.ac.uk/~gary/Mpa/Memory2-handout.html
INTRODUCTION
This topic discusses two important concepts in explaining human learning:
constructivism and metacognition. Constructivism has its roots in 18th century
philosophy. It provides an alternative view of explaining how humans learn. As
the name suggests, it focuses on learners constructing knowledge based on their
prior knowledge and experience. Reality is not in the objects observed or events
experienced but reality is constructed by persons. Metacognition is the ability to
think about oneÊs own thinking. Metacognitive ability is closely related to learning.
The teacher has an important role to enhance the metacognitive ability of learners.
(b) Dewey (1916): Education depends on action. Knowledge and ideas emerge
only from a situation in which learners had to draw them out of
experiences that had meaning and importance to them. These situations
had to occur in a social context, such as a classroom, where students joined
in manipulating materials and, thus, creating a community of learners who
build their knowledge together.
(c) Piaget (1930): The growth of human thought occurs through the
construction of knowledge through assimilation and accommodation.
Knowledge is not something that individuals gain from the outside rather,
it is something that they gain through their own active experiences, their
own acting in the world, physically or mentally to make sense of it.
(f) Cunningham and Duffy (1996): They stated that learning is an active
process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge. Instructions
should be directed towards supporting that construction of knowledge
rather than communicating or transmitting knowledge.
The main principle of constructivism is that a person interprets events, objects and
perspectives from his or her experiences, mental structures and beliefs. People
construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, by experiencing
things and reflecting on those experiences. For example, when we encounter
something new, we have to reconcile or settle it with our previous ideas and
experiences, maybe change what we believe, or maybe discard the new information
as irrelevant [Refer to the concepts of assimilation and accommodation proposed
by Piaget which we discussed in Topic 3]. Thus, based on this principle,
knowledge is constructed and not merely reproduced. The knowledge constructed
is personal and individualistic. In other words, we as humans, actively construct
knowledge and knowing. This is an adaptive process in which we make sense of
the world on the basis of our experiences, goals, curiosities and beliefs (Cole, 1992).
Snake Encounter!!!
What is your initial reaction when you
encounter a snake? For most people, the
initial reaction is fear and to run away, even
though they have not seen a snake in real
life. For the slightly braver ones, they might
come back with a stick or spade to kill the
snake. Why do we fear snakes? Why do we
have the urge to kill them?
We have constructed the concept of fear of snakes based on our prior knowledge
of snakes. This prior knowledge could have been built from what we saw on TV,
the movies or stories we have heard about snakes. The concept of fear is not in
the snake but created by us, based on our belief that snakes are evil and cold-
blooded killers, capable of dealing a quick death in a single venomous strike.
ACTIVITY 5.1
„Even if we teach very well, students may not learn unless they have
constructed their own knowledge‰
In Figure 5.1, the teacher is talking about Francis Light and the opening of
Penang. The learner is constructing his own meaning or conception of the
information presented about Penang. Most probably, the teacher is not aware of
the learnerÊs own construction of meaning. If we accept the constructivist theory
of learning, teachers have to accept that there is no such thing as knowledge „out
there‰ that is independent of the learner but only knowledge that learners
construct for themselves as they learn. This may be very much different from
what teachers usually do in the classroom. The constructivist position requires
that teachers provide learners with the opportunity to interact with the
information presented and allow them to construct their own meaning or
interpretation of the information. However, the teacher cannot assume that all
learners have the same background knowledge or experiences on which to build
new knowledge. In such situations, the teacher has to design instructions in such
a way as to make the missing connections for learners. In other words, the
teacher facilitates the constructive learning process.
Figure 5.1: The teacher presenting information and the learner constructing his own
conception of the information
SELF-CHECK 5.1
1. What is constructivism?
2. How is constructivism different from behaviourism?
The ZPD is not a permanent state but is the next step towards learners being able
to do something on their own. The key is to „stretch‰ learners to know their ZPD
so that teachers and other adults can lead them towards realising their potential.
He observed that when children were tested on tasks on their own, they rarely
did as well as when they were working in collaboration with an adult. Hence, for
him, the development of language and articulation of ideas was central to
learning and development.
SELF-CHECK 5.2
Scaffolding Activities
(a) Motivate learners to be interested in the task
(b) Simplify the task to make it more manageable and achievable
(c) Keep students on task by focusing on the goals and the path to choose
(d) Indicate the differences between learnerÊs work and the desired standard
(e) Reduce confusion, frustration and risk by providing clear instructions
towards meeting expectations
(f) Model the skills required
Source: Adapted from Bransford J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (2000);
McKenzie, J. (2000).
The teacher should act as a scaffold, providing the support necessary for learners
to proceed towards the next stage or level and independently complete the task
(see Figure 5.4). To effectively scaffold a student, a teacher should stay one step
ahead of the student, always challenging him or her to reach beyond his or her
current ability level. The challenge for the teacher, then, is to find the optimal
balance between supporting the student and pushing the student to act
independently. The role of the teacher is not teaching students how to perform a
task, but to refine their thinking through engagement and enhancing their
performance. The teacher continually adjusts the level and amount of help in
response to the learnerÊs level of performance. The purpose of scaffolding is to
instil the skills necessary for independent learning in the future. To effectively
scaffold students within their ZPDs, a teacher could also model the behaviours
needed. For example:
(a) The teacher could model a particular skill that students are weak in
(c) Students practise the skill until it is mastered by all in the classroom.
SELF-CHECK 5.3
1. How do you scaffold instruction?
2. What are some benefits of scaffolding instruction?
3. Is scaffolding the same as giving tuition? Explain.
(b) It should be understood that people learn to learn as they learn. In other
words, we learn by constructing meaning which in turn, influences further
learning. For example, if we learn about the climate of different countries,
we are simultaneously learning the meaning of climate. Each meaning we
construct makes us better able to give meaning to other information which
can fit a similar pattern.
(c) Learning involves language. In other words, the language that we use
influences our learning. Language and learning are inextricably intertwined.
It is not surprising that many people talk to themselves as they learn.
(e) Learning is contextual. We do not learn facts and theories in isolation, but
rather we learn in relationship to what we know, what we believe, our
prejudices and our fears.
(i) Encourage students to engage in dialogue, both with the teacher and
one another. Classrooms discourage dialogue and teachers often
monopolise the talking and teaching becomes a lecture.
(ii) Draw students out especially those who are shy or inarticulate.
(iii) Students generate and test their hypotheses by manipulating raw data,
primary sources and physical materials. For example, community
resources provide opportunities for students to collect and classify
primary material.
(iv) Students are viewed as thinkers with emerging theories about the
world.
SELF-CHECK 5.4
ACTIVITY 5.2
We have all been in a classroom where the teacher asks question and
studentsÊ hands fly up excitedly because they feel they know the
answer. The teacher then looks around the room and chooses a student.
He answers, and the teacher says, „No‰. The teacher then calls on
another student who answers and the teacher says, „Close but not
quite‰. The teacher then proceeds to a third student who answers and
then the teacher replies, „Yes, that is the right answer!‰ The teacher has
conveyed many messages by conducting the classroom in this manner.
The student now knows that there is one answer to each of the teacherÊs
question and that they have to find that one right answer. Another
thing is that students now know that they put themselves at risk if they
raise their hand, unless they are certain that they have the right answer.
(a) Is this an example of a constructivist classroom?
(b) If this was a constructivist classroom, how would it be different?
(ii) There is the idea that there is a fixed world of knowledge that the
student must know. Information is divided into parts which are built
into a whole concept.
(iii) Teachers serve as a pipeline and seek to transfer their thoughts and
meanings to the passive student. There is little room for student-
initiated questions, independent thoughts or interaction between
students.
(ii) Next, present some information or data that does not fit with their
existing understanding.
(iv) The role of the teacher is to move from group to group, asking
probing questions that aid students in coming to an understanding of
the concept or principle being studied. The teacher is both a resource
person and a facilitator.
(v) After sufficient time for experimentation, the small groups share their
ideas and conclusions with the rest of the class. The idea is to come to
a consensus about what they have learned. Concepts and principles
emerge from the discussions and they suggest how the concepts and
skills may be applied to new situations.
ACTIVITY 5.3
5.8 METACOGNITION
What is metacognition? At first, the words may sound sophisticated, complex or
even intimidating. Actually, we all engage in metacognitive activities every day.
Metacognition enables us to be successful learners and has also been associated
with intelligence (Borkowski, Carr, & Pressley, 1987; Sternberg, 1984). It is often
referred to simply as thinking about thinking. Cognition refers to thinking while
metacognition is the ability to look at your thinking. It is like getting out of your
head and looking at the way you think (see Figure 5.8). Metacognition refers to
higher order thinking which involves active control over the cognitive processes
engaged in learning.
For example, you dislike a certain person and have been telling your friends
what a horrible person he is. One fine day, you sit back and reflect on your
thoughts. You ask yourself why you dislike that person. You realise that you
formed an opinion of that person based on what a friend told you. You start
asking yourself whether your friend was fair in his assessment of that person you
dislike and whether he had a motive for demeaning him. You are actually
engaging in metacognition. You are questioning the way you think. You are
thinking about your thinking.
There is still much debate over exactly what is metacognition, resulting in several
terms used to describe the same phenomena such as self-regulation, executive
control and metamemory. The term „metacognition‰ is most often associated
with John Flavell (1976) who stated that „Metacognition refers to oneÊs
knowledge concerning oneÊs own cognitive processes or anything related to
them‰. For example, I am engaging in metacognition if I notice that I am having
trouble learning A than B; if it strikes me that I should double-check C before
accepting it as fact‰ (p. 232).
(b) Knowledge of task variables refers to knowledge about the nature of the
task as well as the type of processing demands required. For example, you
know that it will take you more time to read and comprehend a science text
than it would for you to read and comprehend a novel.
For example, after reading a paragraph in a text about e-commerce, a learner may
question herself about the concepts discussed in the paragraph (see Figure 5.10).
Her cognitive goal is to understand the text. Self-questioning is a common
metacognitive comprehension monitoring strategy. If she finds that she cannot
answer her own questions or that she does not understand the material
discussed, she must then determine what needs to be done to ensure that she
meets the cognitive goal of understanding the text. She may decide to go back
and re-read the paragraph with the goal of being able to answer the questions she
had generated. If, after re-reading through the text she can now answer the
questions, she may determine that she understands the material. Thus, the
metacognitive strategy of self-questioning is used to ensure that the cognitive
goal of comprehension is met.
Figure 5.10: Learner is aware and doing something to overcome her lack of
understanding of e-commerce
Metacognitive and cognitive strategies may overlap. For example, questioning could
be regarded as either a cognitive or a metacognitive strategy, depending on the
purpose of using such a strategy. If you use self-questioning while reading as a
means of obtaining knowledge, it is a cognitive strategy. If you are using self-
questioning as a way of monitoring what you have read, it is a metacognitive
strategy. Cognitive and metacognitive strategies are closely intertwined and are
dependent upon each other.
Some learners may know about their cognitive strengths or weaknesses and the
nature of the task without actively utilising this information to oversee learning
or regulate their learning. Until they do something about it, they have not used
their metacognitive strategies. For example, a student may plan how to approach
a mathematics exam: „I know that I (person variable) have difficulty with word
problems (task variable), so I will answer the computational problems first and
save the word problems for last (strategy variable)‰. When implemented, the
student monitors to determine whether the strategy used led to the desired goal.
If it did not, then the student will take steps to find out what went wrong and
attempt to remedy the situation. This is a complete metacognitive activity.
Knowledge is considered to be metacognitive if it is actively used in a strategic
manner to ensure that a goal is met.
SELF-CHECK 5.5
What is the main difference between a cognitive strategy and a
metacognitive strategy? Give specific examples.
(i) You begin by asking yourself what your goal is: „To get an ÂAÊ in next
weekÊs examination‰.
(ii) You identify what you already know about the first six chapters of the
textbook that is to be tested.
(iv) You consider the task requirements: the examination will consist of
four essay questions and the time allotted is two hours.
(v) You plan the study time required to revise the six chapters.
(vi) You plan to create graphic organisers for each of the chapters to show
relationships between concepts and principles.
(ii) If you do not understand and are unable to recall some sections of the
material, you will re-read and perhaps redraw the graphic organisers
to enhance understanding.
(iii) You remind yourself and control your thoughts not to wander away
from the task at hand. Concentrate! Focus on the task!
Expert Learners:
Are purposeful and attention-directed;
Practise self-questioning when studying;
Have a highly developed knowledge base which
can be accessed more readily;
Have superior general strategies for problem
solving;
Design new strategies for processing information
when old strategies prove inadequate;
Are able to extract the main ideas more efficiently
Use prediction and inferencing skills when studying; and
Are selective when processing information.
(i) If a student realises that she does not know very much about a
particular topic, she might pay more attention to the topic while
reading and use different strategies to make sure she understands the
topic being studied.
(ii) If a student is aware that she has difficulties in certain tests (e.g.,
mathematics versus history tests), she can then prepare for an
upcoming mathematics test in an appropriate manner.
Students who lack knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses will
be less likely to adapt to different situations and regulate their own
learning.
(i) If a student reads a text and thinks he understands it, but in reality
does not, he will then be less likely to go back and re-read or review
the text to make sure he understood it.
SELF-CHECK 5.6
(i) General strategies for thinking and problem solving can be taught in
English, mathematics, science, geography, history, economics, art,
music and even physical education courses.
(ii) Science teachers can teach general scientific methods and procedures,
but learning will likely be more effective when it is tied to specific
science content, not taught in the abstract.
ACTIVITY 5.4
You would expect university students to have well established
metacognitive ability. In their study among university students, Hofer,
Yu, & Pintrich (1998) and McKeachie, & Lin (1987), were surprised at the
number of students who came to college having very little metacognitive
knowledge, knowledge about different strategies, different cognitive
tasks and, particularly, accurate knowledge about themselves.
Given the fact that students who go on to college are more likely to be
better students in general, suggests that there is a need to explicitly teach
metacognitive knowledge in primary and secondary schools.
(a) Do you agree with the above finding about university or secondary
school students?
(b) Were you an efficient learner while you were in secondary school or
university? Do you wish you were a more efficient learner?
In many respects, this is no different from what teachers do to assess the level of
content knowledge their students bring to their classrooms. They start a
discussion, ask some questions, listen to the answers and talk with students.
Based on interaction, they can quickly estimate the depth of students' prior
knowledge. This type of informal assessment can be used to help students gain
both content knowledge (whether it be factual, conceptual, or procedural) and
metacognitive knowledge.
Another technique that can be used is self-assessment. Students are given the
opportunity to assess their own strengths and weaknesses. Pintrich & Schunk
(2002) suggest that this should be done privately. Students meet individually
with their teachers to discuss their perceptions of their own strengths and
weaknesses and teachers can provide them with feedback about these
perceptions.
Constructivism is not a new concept and its roots can be traced to the work of
18th century philosopher, Giambattista Vico.
Knowledge is not something that individuals gain from the outside, rather it
is something that they gain through their own active experiences.
The constructivist position requires that teachers provide learners with the
opportunity to interact with the information presented and allow them to
construct their own meaning or interpretation of the information.
INTRODUCTION
In the last topic, we discussed constructivism and metacognition. In this chapter,
we will focus more specifically on the development of critical and creative
thinking in the classroom. Each day, we are called upon to solve problems and
make decisions that involve us as individuals and others in society. In solving
problems and making decisions, critical and creative thinking have become
important tools.
Increasingly, the need to develop the critical and creative thinking of students is
being more given importance. With rapid changes in society, critical and creative
thinking skills have become an essential pre-requisite for all Malaysians, in order
to remain competitive in a global environment.
(1987, p. 28)
It has been suggested that the distinction between an educated and uneducated
person will not only be in the amount of knowledge possessed but more
importantly, in the ability to think and use such knowledge. All too often, schools
overemphasise the mastery of content to the exclusion of thinking about the
content. Thinking has not been given due consideration, partly because of certain
perceptions which educators have about thinking (see Figure 6.1). First, there is
the perception among some educators that the development of thinking skills
should be confined to academically superior learners because they „can think‰.
Teaching thinking to academically weak learners would be futile and even
frustrating because they will have difficulty taking part in such activities. This
belief may arise from the belief that thinking is a mental activity, too arduous for
the academically weak.
The third perception is related to examinations. Few would deny that schooling
is extremely examination-oriented because the success of a learner is determined
by how he or she performs in public examinations. Also, a school is judged
by the number of passes and the number of AÊs obtained by its learners.
Unfortunately, examinations tend to test the acquisition of facts, or more
precisely, how well students are able to remember and recall facts. Few questions
demand higher order thinking. Given this situation, educators are rather
reluctant to venture into teaching for higher order outcomes because they are
tested minimally in examinations.
Finally, is the concern by some educators that teaching thinking will entail
preparation and production of materials, which will add to the already heavy
workload of teachers. However, to allay the fears of educators, it should be
emphasised that teaching thinking will increase workload only minimally. What
is required of educators is a re-examination of current approaches in presenting
content and how thinking skills might be infused during teaching [We will
discuss the infusion approach in more detail later].
SELF-CHECK 6.1
(h) Nickerson, Perkins and Smith (1985) looked upon thinking as a collection
of skills or mental operations used by inidividuals.
The good thinker is reflective and deliberative while the poor thinker is
impulsive and gives up prematurely. While the good thinker believes in the
value of rationality, the poor thinker overvalues intuition and believes that
thinking would not help. The good thinker is open to multiple suggestions and
considers alternatives, while the poor thinker prefers to deal with limited
possibilities and is reluctant to seek alternatives. The good thinker uses evidence
that challenges favoured possibilities, while the poor thinker tends to ignore
evidence that challenges favoured possibilities.
SELF-CHECK 6.2
1. What is thinking?
2. List some attributes of good thinkers.
For example, if a learner had to vote for a member of parliament, he or she might
consider the pros and cons of each candidate. This is a decision-making task. But
if the learner is having a weight problem, then he or she might find out what is
causing the problem. Is it over-eating, the kinds of food eaten or lack of exercise?
This is a problem-solving task. Both problem solving and decision making
require the employment of critical and creative thinking. There is hardly any task
in a learnerÊs life that does not involve critical and creative thinking (macro-
thinking skills). For example, deciding which car or motorcycle to buy requires
comparison and evaluation, which are subskills of critical thinking. Attempting
to come up with an unusual design for multimedia presentation requires creative
thinking.
Both critical and creative thinking are served by various subskills, such as
detection of bias, prediction, evaluation, inferencing and so forth (micro-thinking
skills). Improving the acquisition and usage of these subskills by learners will
help them to be better critical and creative thinkers and in turn, improve their
problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
SELF-CHECK 6.3
(a) Knowledge of the field or subject in which the thinking is being done;
(e) The ability to relate ideas, things and events such as chronological,
process, comparative, analogical and causal relationships.
(a) Definition
Each of the skill or abilities listed has a definition, a set of generic
procedures and a statement of conditions when it is to be used. For
example, to „infer‰ means to go beyond the explicit information given. i.e.
to read between the lines (text implicit) and to read beyond the lines
(schema implicit).
(a) Thinks rationally ă Rational comes from the word „ration‰ which means
„balance‰. Students who reason critically are able to examine their
experiences, evaluate and weigh differing opinions and ideas before
making a decision. The student is also able to determine the validity of
information.
Being creative is not about writing great poems (like Omar Khayyam, Usman
Awang, Rabindranath Tagore or John Keats), or producing great paintings (like
Leonardo da Vinci or Latiff Mohidin), or musical compositions (like Mozart, Ravi
Shankar or P. Ramlee). Traditional notions of creativity tend to emphasise the
production of something novel in the fine arts. One only needs to watch children
to realise how curious they are in investigating the world around them and how
adept they are, at finding answers to problems that arise from their curiosity. It is
this natural ability in children to produce creative answers, creative methods and
creative uses of materials, which needs to be nurtured. Unfortunately, childrenÊs
curiosity tends to be stifled when parents and teachers insist that children
conform to tradition and straight-jacket them into behaving in ways that do not
foster creativity. Soon, children realise that it is less and less meaningful to
express themselves or to investigate their world. Just think how many children,
who had the potential to be creative, had to so-called „toe the line‰ drawn by
well-meaning adults and in the process, lost their creative spirit.
ACTIVITY 6.1
Think of as many different uses as you can, for each of the following
everyday objects: a brick, a blanket, a spoon, a paper clip, a CD
ACTIVITY 6.2
(a) At the preparation stage, the individual who is confronted with a problem
identifies what is to be done and ways to solve the problem. It is here that
information is gathered and ideas are manipulated and tried out to find the
one that fits or feels right.
(b) If the individual comes to what seems like a dead end or mental block and
cannot find the solution, he or she should put the problem aside. This is
called the incubation stage. By temporarily leaving the problem, the mind
„unfreezes‰ itself of being glued to a particular pattern of thinking. It also
gives the mind time to recall relevant information from memory, which was
earlier not available for the solution of the problem.
(c) After this stage, the chances are that the solution will become apparent at
the illumination stage. This has been described as the „AHA‰ phenomenon;
the flashlike, unexpected or sudden insight as to the solution of the problem
(or Eureka! for some). Recognition of the insight is usually followed by a
positive emotional reaction in the individual such as joy, a sense of
accomplishment and the desire to share the discovery with others, such as
parents and teachers.
(d) The verification stage is where the individual checks to determine if the
solution to the problem is viable and widely applicable. At times, it might
be necessary to verify whether the solution is cost-effective, not time
consuming and so forth.
Another variant of the creative process is provided by Parnes, Noller and Biondi
in 1977, which viewed the process as involving the Three S ă sensitivity, synergy
and serendipity (see Figure 6.11).
(a) Sensitivity is when one uses all the senses (touch, smell, taste, sight and
hearing) to investigate the world. It has been suggested that „highly
creative people experience the physical world with greater intensity than
the rest of us‰ Halpern, 1984, p. 319). Sensitivity also relates to the ability to
not only solve problems but also find them.
(b) Synergy is the bringing together of seemingly disparate parts into a useful
and functioning whole. In other words, diverse and different bits of
information and ideas are synthesised or brought together to form and
work as a new entity.
SELF-CHECK 6.4
It should also be realised that besides the listed traits, creative persons also
exhibit certain not so desirable behaviours such as stubbornness, discontentment,
fault finding and even rudeness. However, it depends on how these behaviours
are manifested. For example, stubbornness may be a positive trait when the
person perseveres in carrying out a new idea and does not give up easily.
Basically, there are two groups of barriers ă internal or external. Barriers imposed
by the individual himself or herself are grouped as internal obstacles. For
example, the fear of failure prevents some people from even trying anything.
Barriers imposed by society, the home or school are grouped as external
obstacles. For example, parents or teachers who are autocratic may discourage
the questioning attitude in students. However, between the two groups of
barriers, overcoming internal barriers imposed by oneself is perhaps more
important. Once a person is able to liberate his or her mindset, creative thinking
is possible because the influence of external barriers may be greatly reduced.
then they will not even try because they are so worried about failing. As the
saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Students scolded for
making mistakes may be reluctant to venture into the unknown.
Similarly, the fear of negative criticism can cause learners to shy away from
coming up with anything new or radical and in the process, may kill the
creative talent of many students and their valuable ideas. Generally,
students are brought up to take the safe course and not to take risks. While
it is agreed that caution is important in helping students avoid life-
threatening situations, in other situations, innovative ideas would not
evolve if students are concerned with only playing safe. Creative thinking
requires some element of risk-taking. If not, many of the great innovations,
discoveries and inventions throughout history would not have taken place.
Some students have a low tolerance for ambiguity. In other words, they are
not ready to accept situations which are not clear-cut or ambiguous; i.e.
neither here nor there. For them, problems and issues are either right or
wrong. But, in the real world, situations are seldom black or white. In fact,
they are more often grey and fuzzy. Students who are unable to tolerate
ambiguity, tend to rush in and solve problems as either right or wrong,
without bothering to consider different viewpoints. The solution seems to
be more important than the problem. Students also become frustrated,
when having tried repeatedly, the solution is not immediately apparent.
This may be due to a failure to incubate when insufficient time is given to
the mind to relax. Incubation relaxes the mind when the student puts aside
the problem for a moment ,which may lead to the discovery of a solution.
ACTIVITY 6.3
Children are unable to show defiance subtly (an art, adults have so cleverly
perfected!) and hence, their behaviour is looked upon as undesirable.
Understanding creativity in children requires patience and acceptance which will
encourage them to develop their creativity further. There is some evidence to
suggest that the parents of less creative children tend to be strict and allow less
autonomy compared to the parents of more creative children, who give more
autonomy (Khatena, 1989).
Mayesky (1995) listed eight main ways educators and parents can nurture
creative expression in children (see Figure 6.14). Change seems to be the order of
the day. Children who are brought up to accept change as a way of life will be
less anxious about change. Children should be made aware that a problem may
have many different possible answers and some problems may not have ready-
made answers. The school system tends to reinforce the „one-right answer‰
syndrome, whereby children are brought up to believe that there is only one
right answer to many things in life. Granted that in some areas of knowledge
(such as mathematics) there is more likely to be just one right answer, in other
areas of knowledge, there may be more than one possible answer.
Thinking has not been given due consideration, partly due to certain
perceptions educators have about thinking.
While most people would agree that schools should aim for the development
of thinking among students, there is less agreement on what is meant by
thinking.
̶ Solution of a problem;
̶ Manifested in behaviour; and
̶ Reflected in attitude.
Both internal and external barriers prevent a person from being more
creative.
INTRODUCTION
We often hear people say that humans are basically the same. However in the
next instance, we hear people say that no two persons are the same. Take the case
of a science teacher with 40 students in the classroom. Are the 40 students each
different in terms of ability to understand science concepts? Do the 40 students
have different attitudes towards science? What contributes to the differences in
abilities among the students we teach?
In this topic, we will discuss the issue of individual differences among students
in the classroom. Understanding individual differences is important in enabling
educators to organise and deliver appropriate instructions to cater to the needs of
learners.
(a) Why do some students find it difficult to learn whereas others find it
easy?
(b) Why are some students better equipped to learn some skills but not
others?
(c) Why canÊt all students learn all skills equally well?
Psychologists have identified two main factors that may explain individual
differences ă the learning traits that a student brings when confronted with a
learning task and the thinking and learning skills that are activated as demanded
by the task (Jonassen and Grabowksi, 1993). See Figure 7.1.
(a) Learning Traits refer to aptitudes for learning, willingness to learn, styles of
learning, preferences for learning and the prior knowledge of students.
These traits have an impact on the learning process and determine how
well an individual is able to learn.
(b) Learning Tasks determine the thinking and learning skills demanded. For
example, if a task requires a learner to go beyond the information given in
the text, than the student will have to make or draw inferences.
In this topic, we will focus on three kinds of learning traits that explain
individual differences in learning, namely, learning styles, personality and prior
knowledge (see Figure 7.2).
(a) Learning style relates to the preferences for different types of learning and
instructional activities. These styles are generally measured by self-report
techniques (paper and pencil tests) that ask individuals how they prefer to
learn. For example, „Do you prefer to learn alone or in groups?‰ The
learning style of Student A may be different from that of Student B, which
may explain the differences in the way the two individuals learn.
(c) Prior knowledge refers to what the learner already knows and how what is
known, is organised. Besides the facts and concepts of a particular body of
knowledge, it also includes the skills and learning abilities that individuals
previously acquired.
SELF-CHECK 7.1
know that they are the weakest group of students. Unconsciously, there seems to
be an in-built match between the learning style of the majority of students and
the teaching methods used.
Imagine you have just arrived in a foreign country where you cannot speak
nor read the language used. You are at the airport and your contact person is
not there to meet you. To make matters worse, one of your bags is missing. ItÊs
2 a.m. and there are few airport staff and those who are present, donÊt speak
English. What will you do? Your response to this situation will depend largely
on the Êcognitive stylesÊ you happen to bring to bear. Cognitive style is your
general disposition towards processing new information or challenges in a
particular way. For instance, if you are „ambiguity tolerant‰, you will not get
easily flustered by your unfortunate circumstances. If you are „reflective‰,
you will exercise patience. If you are „field independent‰, you will be able to
focus on the relevant details and not be distracted by unnecessary details.
The way we learn things in general and the particular approach we adopt when
dealing with problems, is said to depend on a somewhat mysterious link
between personality and cognition; this link is referred to as cognitive style.
When cognitive style is applied to an educational setting, it is generally referred
to as „learning style‰ which is made up of the cognitive, affective (feelings &
emotions) and physiological traits, that are relatively stable indicators of how
learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment (Keefe,
1979). Educators have always been reminded to adjust teaching methods toward
the learning styles of learners, but little has been achieved. How is learning style
related to learning? In theory, there exist as many learning styles as there are
learners but we will examine three well-known explanations of learning style and
how they are related to learning. They are: Field Independence and Field
Dependence and KolbÊs Learning Style.
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
TOPIC 7 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING 171
FI students will make an effort to generate new ideas or create new models
in an attempt to understand the given information. FD students however,
tend not to generate new ideas and accept the ideas given. FI students are
internally directed and are more individualistic, aloof and reserved. On the
other hand, FD students who are externally directed, need friendship, prefer
to work in groups and are more sensitive towards others. FD students focus
more on factual information while FI students tend to extract the concepts.
Case Study:
Differences between FI and FD Learners in a Science Lesson
Rather than being given the general rule which governs a phenomenon,
students are presented with the particulars.
EXAMPLE: What happens when you hold a piece of metal over a flame?
Why do some metals bend and not others? The student finds the reasons and
pretty soon gets to the general rule that certain types of metal are more
responsive to heat than others.
SELF-CHECK 7.2
(i) Divergers are more likely to excel at learning tasks such as:
Gathering information in novel ways
Open-ended assignments
Individualised learning
Making sense of situations that are ambiguous
Sensitive to values and feelings
(iii) Assimilators are more likely to excel at learning tasks such as:
Organising information
Testing theories and ideas
Designing experiments
Analysing quantitative data
(v) Convergers are more likely to excel at learning tasks such as:
Creating new ways of thinking and doing
Experimenting with new ideas
Choosing the best solution
Setting goals
Making decisions
(vii) Accommodators are more likely to excel at learning tasks such as:
Those that lack structure
Committing to objectives
Seeking and exploring opportunities
Influencing and leading others
Being personally involved and dealing with people
In this topic, we have only discussed two classifications of learning styles i.e.
Field-Dependence and Field-Independence and KolbÊs learning styles. There are
other classifications of learning styles that you may want to explore. Among
them are Dunn & Dunn Learning Styles conceived by R. Dunn and K. Dunn;
Grasha-Reichmann Learning Styles by A. Grasha and S. Reichmann; Gregorc
Learning Styles by A. Gregorc; and HillÊs Cognitive Style Mapping conceived by
Joseph Hill.
SELF-CHECK 7.3
(a) Reductionists are individuals who are scientific, impersonal, precise, value-
free, realistic, controlled and sceptical.
(c) Gnostics are individuals who are artistic, personal, value-based, non-
rational, involved, biased and have personal knowledge.
The personality types proposed by the Greek philosophers, John Digman and
Allan Miller are merely indicators that are descriptive of different types of
individuals. These differences affect how individuals perceive themselves and
the world. Research has shown that different personality types react differently
to different types of learning and different instructional techniques. For the
purposes of this topic, THREE selected characteristics of personality are
discussed in terms of their direct influence on learning. They are anxiety, locus of
control and achievement motivation.
(a) Anxiety
Anxiety is an emotional state that is characterised by
feelings of tension, apprehension and nervousness
(Spielberger, 1972). This emotional state can cause
negative effects, such as disrupting learning. Anxiety is
manifested in sweating hands, increased heart rate,
high blood pressure, distress and even anger. Anxiety
also has a positive side in that it enhances interest and
excitement. It can help a person deal with a tense
situation, such as encouraging a student to study
harder for an examination. Among the earliest research
on anxiety was conducted by Sarason (1959, 1961) who presented evidence
that, when anxiety becomes excessive, it has a detrimental effect on test-
taking and learning. Anxiety is best described as a continuum from high
anxiety to low anxiety (see Table 7.2).
ACTIVITY 7.1
Rate your answers from 1 to 5, add them up and check your score below.
Internal External
Self Others
Open-minded Dogmatic
Goal-driven Fear of failure
Self-assured Anxious
Negative self-image Positive self-image
Persistent Frustrated
Reflective Impulsive
Risk takers Cautious
Organised Distracted
Verbal Visual/kinaesthetic
Analytical Global
ACTIVITY 7.2
(c) Extroversion-Introversion
The classification of people as extroverts or introverts has been extensively
researched and the results seem to be quite consistent. As the words imply,
extroversion describes people whose thinking and behaviour are directed
outward or to the surrounding environment while introversion, describes
people whose thinking and behaviour are directed inward or to oneself. As
a personality trait, level of introversion and extroversion is relatively
constant, although some studies have indicated that the environment
may influence thinking and behaviour. An individual may be extremely
introverted, but in an exceptional case, show extroverted behaviour.
However, there are certain characteristics that are prevalent.
Extroverts Introverts
Look to the outside world Look inward
Sociable and friendly Quiet and aloof
Desire excitement and take chances Contemplative and reflective
Impulsive Non-impulsive and plan ahead
Energetic and enthusiastic Prone to fatigue
Easily distracted Less distracted
Dislike complicated procedures Concentrate longer on tasks
Task-oriented Conceptually oriented
Influenced by public opinion Influenced by personal values
Skilled at short-term retention Skilled at long-term retention
Tolerant of frustration Intolerant of frustration
Good at physical activities Prefer to read more
ACTIVITY 7.3
desire to excel and surpass others. It is the determination to be the best and
focus on winning. The person who is high on achievement motivation, will
make an attempt to overcome obstacles and enjoys competition (Murray,
1938).
Table 7.5: Characteristic Differences between Motive to Achieving Success and Motive
to Avoiding Failure
Heckhausen (1967) found that students with high achievement motivation were
able to sustain interest in a task, even when interrupted or extended over a long
period. Sid and Lindgren (1982) found that achievement motivation scores were
positively correlated with grade point average among both male and female
undergraduates. Similarly, Gjesme (1983) found that academic performance
(i) Students with the Motive to Achieve Success are more likely to excel at
learning tasks that:
Are very important;
Require their attention;
Are long-term;
Require independent thoughts and action;
Allow them to assume leadership roles that capitalise on their desire to
control;
Encourage more independent study;
Provide for active experimentation;
Use discovery learning;
Provide lessons in large chunks; and
Use feedback as diagnostic information, especially success feedback.
However, donÊt panic! It is not the end. Psychologists have extended the
definition of prior knowledge more broadly to include the total existence of
knowledge and prior achievement that you bring to the learning environment,
which can and will be activated when you read the material in this learning
package. In other words, your experiences (in your place of work and the home)
and the knowledge you have gained from various sources (books, magazines,
newspapers, TV, radio, movies, discussion with friends, colleagues, family
members and so forth) may be directly or indirectly related to the content you are
studying in this course. However, there is evidence to suggest that, instead of
helping you understand new information, prior knowledge (old information) can
prevent the acquisition of new knowledge by forming a barrier or preconceived
ideas, which must be overcome before learning can take place.
The existence of prior knowledge will likely enhance any learning task but will
be most helpful for:
(a) Problem solving and transfer of learning;
(b) Comprehension of material to be learned;
(c) Retention and recall of material;
(d) Reasoning ability;
(e) Integration of knowledge;
(i) Knowledge: Learning at the knowledge level involves only the recall
of facts, terminology and methodology. The learner is required to
merely recall and state without interpreting or elaborating.
(iv) Rule: Rules are the statement of relationships between two or more
concepts. Most often, they indicate cause-effect relationships. Using
rules implies that learners apply those statements in a new situation.
(v) Higher Order Rule: Higher order rules are more general statements of
relationships, usually referred to as principles. The use of higher order
rules is similar to problem solving. It requires the learner to select,
interpret and apply appropriate rules.
Piaget developed a method for studying children that permitted the investigator
to be both flexible and relatively precise. The technique is known as the clinical
method. It is an interview approach, where the researcher has a clear idea of the
questions to ask and how to phrase the questions, but where many of the
questions are determined by the childÊs answers. Hence, it provides for the
possibility that the child will give unexpected answers and that further
questioning will lead to new discoveries about cognition or thinking.
Experiment:
You can try this experiment with a child. Show a brightly
coloured object (such as a ball) to an eight-month-old child. Let
him hold the ball. Then, hide the ball under a piece of cloth. It is
likely that the child will not even look for the object. However,
by about the age of one, that child will search for the object,
especially if he saw it being hidden.
As the child reaches the age of two, he realises that he can organise the
information about the surrounding world. For example, he understands the
concept of cause and effect. For example, letÊs say the child gets a toy which
makes sounds or moves when its string is pulled. This will encourage the
child to repeat the task of pulling the string. By the age of one, the child has
already realised that things continue to exist, even when they are no longer
present when he looks for them. The child has achieved object permanence.
This experiment shows that the child can reason logically and organise
thoughts. However, the child can only think about actual physical objects
but cannot handle abstract reasoning. The concreteness of the thought
processes at this stage means that the child is able to deal mostly with
objects he can see or feel in some way, which explains why he said the tall
tube contained more water.
[If you have difficulty with this⁄⁄..!] The ability of the child to respond
correctly to such a task will indicate whether the child is capable of formal
operational thinking. The child is able to consider many possibilities for a
given condition. The child is able to think abstractly and can solve complex
and hypothetical problems involving abstract operations. Formal operational
thinkers can recognise and identify a problem. They can state several
alternative hypotheses, execute procedures to collect information about the
problems to be studied and test the hypotheses.
Table 7.6: Summary of the Four Stages and Characteristic Cognitive Abilities
Psychologists have identified two main factors that may explain individual
differences, namely, the learning traits that a student brings when confronted
with a learning task and the thinking and learning skills that are activated as
demanded by the task.
Thinking and learning skills refer to the mental skills employed as demanded
by a task.
Kolb defined learning styles as oneÊs preferred methods for perceiving and
processing information. He identified four types of learning styles: divergers,
assimilators, convergers and accommodators.
The types of learning or learning tasks that are required in schools and other
educational settings, have been conveniently described in terms of
taxonomies of learning.
Applying what we know: StudentsÊ learning styles. Dennis Mills. Retrieved from
http://www.csrnet.org/csrnet/articles/student-learning-styles.html
INTRODUCTION
A large proportion of the information that a student obtains about a particular
subject area is through reading. Successful learning relies heavily on the
studentsÊ ability to comprehend the meaning of already written text and to create
new texts, containing their own meaning (such as making notes or writing).
Students have to read textbooks on various disciplines such as history, science,
mathematics, moral education, Islamic studies, technical subjects and so forth.
Are there specific reading strategies for each subject area? Do all students have
the same reading ability? Is reading ability related to academic performance?
Kirby (1988) graphically represented the reading process as shown in Figure 8.1.
Features and letters include the loops, lines and curves that make the letters
themselves. For example, learning to distinguish visually among various lettersÊ
shapes, such as „b‰ versus „p‰ versus „d‰.
(a) Sounds are associated with the letters and combinations of letters, which
involves learning the rules for converting visual letters into sounds. For
example, „c‰ sounds like „k‰ in cat and like „s‰ in city. Words are encoded
visually and phonemically. For example, learning to decode whole words,
both visually („cap‰ versus „cup‰) and through pronunciation („ship‰
versus „sheep‰).
(b) Chunks are combinations of words in meaningful phrases which give a unit
of sense. For example, a sentence may comprise 11 words but only three
chunks ă „/ The two men / entered the room / and found a corpse/‰.
(c) Ideas are represented as a statement of meaning at the sentence level. For
the first time, the meaning is not a direct association of what is on the page
but an abstraction formed in the mind of the reader.
(d) Main Ideas are statements usually at the paragraph level comprising of the
gist, constructed from all the ideas in the passage.
(e) Theme, which is inferred, goes beyond the main idea and is often not stated
explicitly.
Because these decoding skills are so complex and varied, they are not mastered
easily by any child and some children never manage to master them. Therefore,
educators have developed a variety of teaching methods to try to optimise the
acquisition of decoding. Two contrasting strategies, which have generated
considerable research interest, are known respectively as phonics and look-say
methods. The phonics method teaches the child to dissect words into letters or
sound units before blending the sound together in pronouncing a word. e.g. „b‰
„a‰ = ba; „t‰ „u‰ = tu; batu. The look-say method takes the whole word as a unit
and teaches the child to read it, without any previous breakdown into
component sounds. Controversy has raged for decades over which of these two
methods is more effective. Research has also not been conclusive as to which
method is superior. Taking sides on this issue is not helpful either, because both
are important.
Novice readers cannot think about meaning until they can phonically analyse
words. Only then can they focus on what is important: the ideas, main ideas and
themes. If decoding skills are slow and uncertain, words slip from working
memory before the relationship with other words can be understood. Slow
reading inevitably leads to poor comprehension. Poor readers have „double
trouble‰. Poor decoding leads to poor comprehension. This problem could
persist even in secondary school.
Comprehension starts where decoding ends, from „words‰ up, the general
„idea‰ of what the text is about. Readers who focus on the words, phrases and
sentences used by the author (processing the words, chunks and ideas) are said
to adopt a surface approach to the text and are likely to miss the main ideas and
theme. Readers who are interested in what the author means, focus on larger and
more abstract units such as main ideas and themes. They are said to adopt a deep
approach to the text.
ACTIVITY 8.1
Less skilful readers lack metacognitive skills. Skilled readers use the following
highly effective strategies, which are automatic to them:
(c) Searching the context for useful clues such as pictures, familiar words or
redundant phrases to boost comprehension of difficult parts of the text, and
(d) Formulating hypotheses about where the most important information in the
text would be located so they could either skim read, reread or memorise
with optimal efficiency, depending on the constraints of the task.
(i) Pre-reading ă „Plan your reading trip‰ [How is planning to read like
planning a holiday? Would you read in a different way if you wanted
to learn a lot of details or just the general idea?].
(iii) Identifying the Main Idea ă „Be a detective. Track down the main
idea‰. [Dead end: Go back and reread the parts you didnÊt understand]
ACTIVITY 8.2
Underlining and highlighting are effective ways to prepare for studying for
the following reasons:
(i) First, the process of underlining forces the reader to sift through what
is read, to identify important information. This sifting or sorting helps
the reader keep in mind what he or she is doing.
(iii) Third, underlining forces the reader to weigh and evaluate what is
being read. In other words, the reader must think about and react to
what is being read in order to decide whether to underline or
highlight.
Take notes on facts and you will retain the facts; summarise main ideas and
you will remember the main ideas. What is a good summary? A good
summary presents the theme of the text. One of the greatest difference
between good and poor summary writers lies, in the inability to distinguish
between what is important from what is less important (Hidi & Anderson,
1986). Good summary writers are able to extract the theme of the text which
is conveyed, into a set of statements. For example, one topic sentence might
replace a paragraph. The final summary is thus written at a higher, more
abstract level than the original. Hidi & Anderson (1986) identified three
stages in the development of summarising skills.
(iii) The efficiency stage, in which the significant sentences are restructured
and transformed into new, higher order generative sentences that
effectively subsume all the important information in the text, thus
giving high depth and high content. The ability to write good topic
sentences is, however, a problem even at tertiary level and may not be
within the ability of young children, prior to adolescence. Effective
notes should accomplish three things:
Third, the notes should show the relative importance of ideas and
reflect the organisation of the material.
(iii) practice with feedback (ample opportunity is given for practice with
immediate feedback); and
One technique that is adopted, is to tell students that they will not be
allowed to look at the materials when making the notes. This will force
them to think of higher level meanings when they read the material and not
the details. If the text is made available, readers tend to scan inefficiently,
rather than search actively for the structure of the text. Getting readers to
summarise from memory encourages them to adopt a deep approach
because it forces them to read actively first, organising details into
appropriate main ideas.
ACTIVITY 8.3
There are four types of context clues that are useful in determining the
meaning of words in factual material. These types of clues are:
Examples:
A chemical reaction is an interaction involving different atoms, in
which chemical bonds are formed, broken or both.
Examples:
Psychological disturbances are sometimes traceable to a particular
trauma in childhood. For example, the death of a parent may produce
long-range psychological effects.
Example:
The Chief Minister was very dogmatic about government policies
while the Assistant Chief Minister was more lenient and flexible in his
interpretations.
Some of the questions now before us, are empirical issues that require
evidence directly bearing on the question.
From the way „empirical‰ is used in the sentence, the reader knows
that an empirical issue is one that requires direct evidence and from
that information, the reader can infer or reason that „empirical‰ has
something to do with proof or supporting facts.
Example:
The police officer was exonerated by the police review panel of any
possible misconduct or involvement in a case of police bribery.
(v) Like horses, human beings have a variety of gaits; they amble, stride,
jog and sprint.
(a) S- Survey
Try to become familiar with the organisation and general content of the
material you are to read. For example, you could:
(iv) Notice any maps, graphs, tables, diagrams and read the last
paragraph or summary
After you have surveyed the material, you should know generally what it is
about and how it is organised.
(b) Q ă Question
Try to form questions that you can answer as you read. The easiest way to
do this is to turn each heading and sub-heading into a question.
(c) R ă Read
Read the material, section by section. As you read, look for the answer to
the question you formed from the headings and sub-headings of that
section.
(d) R ă Recite
After you finish each section ă Stop. Check to see if you can answer your
question for the section. If you cannot, look back and find the answer. Then
check your recall again. Be sure to complete this step after you read each
section.
(e) R ă Review
When you have finished the whole reading assignment, go back to each
heading; recall your questions and try to answer. If you cannot recall the
answers, be sure to look back and find the answers. Then test yourself
again.
Barron (1969) and many psychologists have proposed that students may
approach text more effectively by placing new material in their cognitive
structure, when they are provided with an advance organiser that takes the
form of a structured overview. In other words, rather than make
connections orally, it is more effective if teachers provide some written
advance organisers. The advance organiser can take many forms: structured
overviews, cartoons, stories, pictures, drawings, newspaper cuttings,
quotations, speeches, poems, learning objectives, summaries and so forth.
An advance organiser is intended to prime the reader into organising new
information into appropriate cognitive structures.
(iv) Does the author of the passage assume that the readers will be able to
make the correct inferences and ultimately apply, what has been
learned in other situations?
Applied Comprehension (see Figure 8.4). This has also been termed as
„Reading the lines, Reading between the lines and Reading beyond the
lines‰.
(i) Reading the lines at the literal level, involves understanding what the
author actually said. It involves decoding words and determining
their meanings in context. Readers may identify statements at this
level without actually understanding what they mean.
(ii) Reading between the lines at the interpretive level, requires readers to
ask the question, „What did the author actually mean?‰ Readers must
be able to interpret the literal statements and see relationships
between them.
(iii) Reading beyond the lines at the application level, carries the student
beyond the text being read, by taking the results of the literal and
interpretive levels and applying them to other experiences in the
readerÊs cognitive structure so that a new idea, unique to the reader,
emerges.
Literal Understanding
Read Topic 15 on Weathering and state whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE.
(a) The alternate freezing and thawing of water, pushes rocks apart.
(b) When rocks are wetted and dried repeatedly, they begin to decompose.
(c) Oxidation is a form of weathering.
Interpretive Understanding
Read Topic 15 on Weathering and state whether the following statements are an
accurate interpretation of the contents of the Topic. When you interpret, you try to
combine parts of the information in the text to generate an idea.
(a) For weathering to take place, there should be the presence of water.
(b) Weathering is more intense in tropical countries.
Applied Understanding
Read Topic 15 on Weathering. To apply what you read, you must combine what you
have read with your own ideas and experiences, which are personal to you. Applied
Understanding is the „personal meaning‰ you bring to the Topic.
(a) Water is the greatest agent for change on earth.
(b) Gravity is the force that drives water to move material.
(c) Erosion and deposition could level the land, eventually.
ACTIVITY 8.4
The first few years of schooling are occupied with learning to read and the
rest of the studentÊs life is spent reading to learn.
The phonics method teaches a child to dissect words into letter or sound
units, before blending the sound together in pronouncing a word.
The look-say method takes the whole word as a unit and teaches a child to
read it without any previous breakdown into component sounds.
Students need to become familiar with the techniques for effectively studying
and learning textbook material.
One of the greatest differences between good and poor summary writers lies
in the ability to distinguish between what is important from what is less
important.
The SQ3R system has been advocated as a method for helping students read
their textbooks.
Metacognitive strategies for helping poor readers in the content areas. Retrieved
from John Arul Phillips: http://www.learningdomain.com/MetaRead.htm
INTRODUCTION
This topic discusses the role of emotion and in particular, motivation in
influencing learning. There is increasing evidence to suggest that affective
aspects play an equally significant role in determining learning. We often lament
that students are not interested in what we are teaching in schools and wonder
what can be done. Motivating students to learn is a challenge for most educators.
This topic examines in detail the concept of motivation, the different explanations
of motivation, factors determining motivation and ways to motivate students to
learn.
Let us look at the classroom and examine instances where emotions might play
an important role in influencing learning. Take the case of a student whose past
experiences have been filled with poor grades, failure and low self-esteem, which
will inevitably have a major impact on his or her current ability to learn.
Emotions related to competence, self-assurance, fear, frustration and so forth
play a role in how a student approaches learning. Educators have to recognise
that students come to our classrooms with varying emotions and predispositions
about being a student.
Besides emotions related to their learning abilities, how students interact with
others is also highly emotive. Positive interactions greatly enhance opportunities
for learning while negative responses can virtually shut down learning for the
(a) Take care how you respond to your learners. Check your own
emotions. When you find yourself irritated at a „stupid‰ question,
disappointed in a learner's lack of understanding, or furious with off-
topic remarks in the classroom, stop. Wait and react after some time to
decrease the likelihood of negatively affecting the learning process.
(b) Show your enthusiasm for the content and for learning. It is
contagious. Give learners reasons to care about the topic by showing
that you do. Encourage their understanding by helping them
personally create meaning from class material. Point out successes and
give them goals to achieve in their learning. Such actions provide
emotional and social support for their learning.
(d) Do not hesitate to express your own emotions. You might say, „I was
really impressed⁄,‰ „I am confused⁄,‰ „I was surprised⁄‰ or „I am
happy⁄‰
(e) What is the individual thinking and feeling while engaged in an activity?
Is the student enjoying listening to the poem, feeling competent or
worrying about an upcoming test?
ACTIVITY 9.1
1. Give three reasons why you are pursuing this graduate degree.
2. What do you expect to do after graduation?
3. How are your interests related to your graduate studies?
4. How are your abilities related to your graduate studies?
Without both these elements ă the activity being valued and the outcome being
probable ă people will not perform. Why should they? This is what the
Expectancy-Value Theory suggests (see Figure 9.1). This means that motivation is
the product of two main forces ă the individualÊs expectation of reaching a goal
and the value of that goal to him or her. „If I try hard, can I succeed?‰ and „If I
succeed, will the outcome be valuable or rewarding to me?‰ Motivation is a
product of these two forces because if either factor is zero, then, there is no
motivation. For example, if I believe I have a good chance of making the football
team (high expectation) and if making the team is very important to me (high
value), then my motivation should be strong. But if either factor is zero
(Expectation = I believe I do not have a chance of making the team, or Value = I
couldnÊt care less about playing basketball), then my motivation will be zero, too
(Tollefson, 2000).
In addition, Jacqueline Eccles and Allan Wigfield (1992) add the element of cost
to the expectancy x value equation. Values have to be considered in relation to
the cost of pursuing them. How much energy will be required? What could I be
doing instead? What are the risks if I fail? Will I look stupid? So the teacherÊs task
becomes two fold:
(a) Help students see the value of what they are doing; and
(b) Give them a reasonable expectation of success in achieving it.
(a) the motive to achieve success; in particular, the ego enhancement that
success brings;
(b) the motive to avoid failure, which involves the fear of losing face.
SELF-CHECK 9.1
(a) Self-Efficacy
How students see their chances of success depends to a large extent on how
they see themselves. Self-concept is how individuals see themselves. It
includes how they see themselves physically, socially, academically and so
forth. Academic self-concept is how students view their own abilities and
skills in handling academic tasks. Often, we hear academically weak
students admit openly and are resigned to the fact that they are „stupid‰
since they have been in the worst class throughout secondary school!
(i) How well they have done that task in the past;
(iii) How their teachers and even other students think they will perform;
and
(b) Attribution
A different kind of belief about the self refers to the causes, individuals
attribute to their previous successes or failure. How they attribute their
success or failures will have an encouraging or discouraging effect. It will
also determine whether the individual will want to be further involved or
just give up. For example, certain graduate students in education will not
attempt to pursue a course in statistics because of their poor performance in
mathematics some 15 years ago.
The results for the stable-unstable dimension are less clear. For example, if I
believe that my ability to learn in some domain is generally high, then
stability is a positive factor; but if I believe that my ability is low, then
stability is a negative factor. How students perceive their competency and
how they judge the amount of control they have over the learning process,
influences how they perform in school.
I want to share two illustrations from the classroom. Both examples are published
research studies that were conducted with elementary school children in their
classrooms with their teachers. Thus, these examples are not laboratory studies of
influence, but rather are real-life events. This makes their outcomes useful and
interesting for us. The first study concerns getting kids to clean up the classroom. The
second, involves improving mathematics performance and self-esteem.
Littering. A constant battle with younger children is to get them to clean up after
themselves. Especially in the classroom where there are 20 or 30 children, neatness
really makes a difference. How can you get children to be neater?
Our first example made children neater with the Attribution Theory. They set the
children up so that the children performed a desired behaviour, then were provoked to
think about why they did that behaviour. And, of course, the situation was set up so
that the children would make an internal attribution (“I did it because I’m that kind of
child”). Here’s what happened.
First, the researchers established a baseline for littering. They visited the fifth grade
class just before recess and handed out little candies wrapped in plastic. After the
children went to the playground, the researchers counted the number of candy
wrappers that were on the floor or in the waste can. And there were many more
wrappers on the floor than in the can, of course.
Now, the study. Its simplicity is going to surprise you. Over the next two weeks, people
visited this classroom. For example, the principal stopped in for a little chat and on her
way out she said, “My, this is a neat classroom. You must be very neat students who
care about how their room looks.” And one morning, the class arrived to find a note
on the blackboard from the custodian which said, “This is the neatest class in school.
You must be very neat and clean students.” Finally, the teacher would make similar
kinds of comments throughout the two week training period (“Neat room, neat kids”).
That’s all the researchers did.
Then they came back for a second visit again just before recess. And again they
handed out little wrapped candies. This time, when they counted whether the
wrappers went to the floor or in the waste can, they found that a lot more wrappers
where they belonged: in the garbage. There was a very big change in the littering and
cleaning up behaviour of the children.
Let's review this simple study and make sure we understand what happened. First, we
use candy wrappers before and after, as an objective measure of littering. Second, we
have a variety of sources observing the classroom and offering explanations ("neat
room, neat kids").We also realise the things that were not going on. None of the
sources modelled the correct behaviour, so the children were not copying a source
with observational learning. None of the sources provided consequences of
reinforcement, nor were rewards or punishments given for specific acts of behaviour.
None of the sources provided "arguments" about why children should be clean and
not litter. All the sources did was, provide attributions.
(A little side note: The researchers also tried another treatment along with the
attribution training. They called it the "Persuasion Treatment." With a different
classroom, all the various sources essentially gave the typical adult, lectures about
cleanliness and neatness. They said all the things good teachers say about littering. It
had no effect on the candy wrapper test. Children, huh? Back to the main point.)
The analysis the researchers made is this. When the children heard, "neat room, neat
kids," they had to think about what had happened. In essence, they had to answer the
question, "Explain why the room is neat?" And their answer was simple. "The room is
neat because we don't litter. We're the kind of people who pick up after ourselves." In
other words, the children made internal attributions. And if you believe that you are the
kind of person who is neat and does not litter, what happens when you have a candy
wrapper? That's right, you throw it away into the waste can.
Here are the details of the second study. First, the researchers used before and after
measures of mathematics achievement and self-esteem with second grade students.
Second, the researchers developed simple, little scripts for each student. All the
teacher had to do, was to read the folder provided for each student, then say or write
the appropriate statement. Thus, this study was highly automated. Each teacher
simply followed the instructions in a pre-planned, scripted way. Third, the researchers
had three different kinds of treatment. The children either got the attribution training,
‘persuasion’ training or ‘reinforcement’ training. The study lasted eight days.
ACTIVITY 9.1
Source: Keller, J. M., (1983). Development and Use of the ARCS Model
of Motivational Design (Report No. IR 014 039). Enschede, Netherlands:
Twente Univ. of Technology. ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 313 001
(i) Choice
Provide explicit choices among alternatives to enhance intrinsic
motivation. For example, when giving assignments, the teacher can
allow the students to focus on their areas of interest. Students will
choose assignments close to their personal interest.
(ii) Challenge
Provide tasks that are not too easy or too difficult but just beyond the
skill level of the students. If the task is too easy, boredom may creep
in; if it is too difficult, the students may feel helpless and give up or
will not try.
(iii) Control
Students should be involved in the process of decision making,
choosing team members and organising content. Students must be
self regulated, independent and responsible.
(iv) Collaboration
Students show deeper engagement and persistence if they work
together. They inspire each other and they improve performance by
heeding peer comments.
(vi) Consequences
Students enjoy having their work and learning environment
appreciated and recognised by others.
Source: J. Turner and S. Paris (1995). How literacy tasks influence childrenÊs
motivation for literacy. The Reading Teacher. 48(8). 662ă763
(i) Explain
Some recent research shows that many students do poorly on
assignments or in participation because they do not understand what
to do or why they should do it. Teachers should spend extra time
explaining why we teach what we do and why the topic, approach or
activity is important, interesting and worthwhile. In the process, some
of the teacherÊs enthusiasm will be transmitted to the students, who
will then be more likely to become interested. Similarly, teachers
(ii) Reward
Students, who do not yet have powerful intrinsic motivation to learn,
can be helped by extrinsic motivators in the form of rewards. Rather
than criticising unwanted behaviour or answers, reward correct
behaviour and answers. Remember that adults and children alike,
continue or repeat behaviour that is rewarded. The rewards can (and
should) be small and configured to the level of the students. Small
children can be given a balloon, a piece of gum, or a set of crayons.
Even at the college level, many professors at various colleges have
given books, lunches, certificates, exemptions from final exams, verbal
praise and so on for good performance. Even something as apparently
childish as a „Good Job!‰ stamp or sticker can encourage students to
perform at higher levels. And the important point is that, extrinsic
motivators can, over a brief period of time, produce intrinsic
motivation. Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishment and
recognition; rewards for good work produce these good feelings.
(iii) Care
Students respond with interest and motivation to teachers who
appear to be human and caring. Teachers can help produce these
feelings by sharing parts of themselves with students, especially little
stories of problems and mistakes they made, either as children or even
recently. Such personalising of the student-teacher relationship helps
students see teachers as approachable human beings and not as aloof
authority figures. Young people are quite insecure and secretly
welcome the admission by adults, that insecurity and errors are
common to everyone. Students will attend to an adult who appears to
be a „real person‰, who had problems as a youth (or more recently)
and survived them. It is also a good idea to be approachable
personally. Show that you care about your students by asking about
their concerns and goals. What do they plan to do in the future? What
things do they like? Such a teacher will be trusted and respected more
than one who is all business.
Source: Robert Harris March 2, 1991. Some Ideas for Motivating Students.
VirtualSalt. Retrieved from http://www.virtualsalt.com/motivate.htm
ACTIVITY 9.3
The two major issues when discussing „expecting success‰ are studentsÊ
beliefs in their own efficacy and to what they attribute their success and
failure to.
Attribution Theory: Our beliefs about the causes of our successes and failures,
influence our future motivation.
Learned Helplessness: When students believe that they have no control over
unpleasant things that happen to them.
Grabmeier, J. (n. d.). Intrinsic motivation doesnÊt exist, researcher says. Retrieved
from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/inmotiv.htm
INTRODUCTION
In Topics 1 to 9 we examined how humans learn, focusing on the different
explanations of how students acquire, process, store and recall information. In
this topic, we examine different teaching models or approaches that aim to
enhance student learning. There are many teaching methods available but the
extent to which they have been adopted in the classroom is still not clear. Is it
because educators are not aware of these methods or is it because of conditions in
the classroom that do not permit the use of different teaching approaches? The
didactic presentation continues to dominate much of teaching and educators
argue that other methods are not easily used because of conditions in the
classroom and the overemphasis on examinations.
EXPOSITORY INQUIRY
APPROACH APPROACH
ROP PBL
Where would you put teaching in Malaysian schools on this continuum? To what
extent would you say that teaching in most schools and across most subject areas
tends to be more „teacher-centred‰? Is teaching in our schools the same as when
we were in schools? Perhaps it has become so exciting and interesting to the
extent that students just cannot wait to go to school! Let us examine in more
detail the two extremes of the continuum: The Expository Approach and the
Inquiry Approach.
ACTIVITY 10.1
It has often been said that the two institutions that have not changed in
the last 100 years is the institution of religion (mosque, church, temple)
and of course, the school.
(a) Compare teaching methods in school today with teaching
methods when you were in school.
(b) Are they the same or different?
(c) What do you mean if they are the same?
(d) What do you mean if they are different?
Students are questioned to check that they understand before they apply it
in the practice phase. Can they recall the attributes of the concept that the
teacher explained? Can they recall the number and list of steps in the skill
they have just been shown?
(d) Phase 4: Guided Practice ă Students practise on their own while the teacher
is still in the environment. This activity is often called seatwork. Guided
practice enables the teacher to make an assessment of the studentsÊ abilities
to perform the learning tasks by assessing the amount and type of errors
the students are making. The teacher circulates and monitors studentsÊ
work and provides feedback where necessary. Students are told how they
are performing and may repeat the lessons if there are errors.
(e) Phase 5: Independent Practice ă This phase begins when students have
achieved an accuracy level of 85% to 90% in the guided practice. The
purpose of independent practice is to reinforce the new learning to ensure
retention as well as develop fluency. Students practise on their own without
assistance and with delayed feedback. This can be done in class or at home.
The teacherÊs role is to review studentsÊ work after completion, to assess if it
is accurate.
(v) Capacity of the inquiry to help students meet the skills, processes and
affective objectives of the syllabus.
At times, it will be essential for the teacher to intervene and help students to
refine or redevelop some particular aspects of the inquiry. Students in this
phase are to use various critical-thinking operations and data-gathering
procedures as defined in the objectives. The teacherÊs role in this phase is to
act as facilitator, with a major contribution in sustaining the inquiry. This is
particularly true while students are being taught the procedures associated
with the inquiry. Teachers may reduce their intervention when students
are proficient. The teacher should be involved in sustaining the inquiry by:
The greatest challenge to those who advocate inquiry teaching is the threat
to the traditional and dominant role of the teacher in the classroom. The
philosophy of inquiry implies that the teacher views the learner as a
thinking, acting and responsible person. Students are capable of learning
how to learn; they have within their repertoire, the ability as well as the
motivation to question, to find out about and seek knowledge; they are
persons and therefore learners in their own right.
ACTIVITY 10.2
1. List the main differences between the expository approach and the
inquiry approach.
2. Which approach is dominant in the Malaysian classroom?
3. Why is this approach dominant?
Role playing can be used for students of most ages. The complexity of the
role situations must be minimised in using the method with children. But if
we keep it simple for their limited attention spans, role playing can be used
even in teaching pre-schoolers.
(c) Simulations
The word „simulation‰ comes from the Latin word simulare which means
to produce a convincing re-creation of real-life event or set of conditions.
Simulations have been used as a tool for teaching in many areas and
disciplines. The idea behind using simulations as pedagogical tools relies
on the idea that experience is the best teacher. If access to such experience
in real-time is impossible, an artificial environment may be, if not ideal, at
least sufficient. Simulations are useful in preparing students to cope with
future roles, providing practice in a safe environment with minimal risk
and testing as well as challenging studentsÊ technical and decision-making
skills in realistic situations.
(ii) Non-linear: There are multiple, perhaps infinite, paths that a user
could initiate. The simulation reacts to the userÊs input, rather than
following a pre-programmed agenda.
It allows students to access a process as many times as they like, at their own
speed and at their own convenience, without worrying about limiting issues,
such as conflicting timetables or cost of materials. In addition, simulations
are particularly good at developing many critical skills (for example,
hypothesis testing) that can be difficult to acquire using traditional methods.
Simulations make it possible for students to participate in and learn from
situations that might otherwise be problematic due to various considerations.
ACTIVITY 10.3
ă everyone can do it. It is not about who one is, it is about what one does.
Psychologists call the activities associated with idea generation „loose
associative thinking‰ processes. Associative thinking is not linear or
sequential. It is jumpy. To invent new connections, the maintenance of
uncertainty is important for a time. „Closure is a killer; it strangles
associative thinking, in favour of arriving at an answer‰.
The inquiry approach involves the following phases: selecting the topic,
audience and purpose; identifying questions, issues or problems; conducting
the inquiry and concluding the inquiry.
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Winston, INC: NJ.
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Hunt, M. (1993). The story of psychology. New York: Random House. Myers,
D. G. (2004). Psychology: Seventh edition in modules. New York: Worth
Publishers.
Krathwohl, D., Bloom, B., & Masia, B., (1956). Taxonomy of educational
objectives. Handbook II: Affective domain. David McKay, New York.
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits
on our capacity for processing information. Psychological review, 63, 81ă97.
[Available online from Classics in the history of psychology.]
Miller, & Dollard. (1941). Social learning and imitation. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Shank, R. C., & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals and understanding.
Hillsdale, NJ: Elbarum.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). In search of the human mind (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, Texas:
Harcourt Brace.
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Psychology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
OR
Thank you.