Module Response: Developmental Psychology

When students approach abstract concepts at different stages of their academic career, they often use rote memory because it has proven to be a successful method in the past and perhaps it’s the auto-pilot response. There are different schools of thoughts regarding developmental psychology in relation to students’ approach to new and abstract concepts.

According to Piaget’s theory of schema organization, all human beings develop by passing through “natural” stages – the mastery of one stage bring the individual to begin the next stage, etc. Students formulate various schemas throughout their early developmental stages and as they mature, they encounter situations that don’t fit their existing schema. Therefore, one strategy that a teacher might use to trigger learning is to present students with scenarios or examples that challenge their existing knowledge and/or system of approach to solve a problem. For instance, if students know that all birds can fly, then the teacher will give examples of birds that cannot fly; or if students know that a Supreme Court decision is final, then teachers will give examples of Supreme Court decision being overturned by later decisions, etc. In both situations, the teacher threw the kid out of balance – in Piaget’s terms, teachers’ job is to create disequilibrium in order to bring about active advancement in learning. Piaget also believe in using peers of similar developmental level to find a way to fix the disequilibrium created by the teacher – either by assimilation or by accommodation. Students will hopefully bring the new concept/example into existing schemas or work on changing the existing schemas to include the new concept/example. Overall, the role of the teacher is to point out the “conflicts and inconsistencies” in the students’ thinking and give enough guidance to encourage advancement of cognitive development.

According to Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective of learning, student’s cognitive development does not follow a universal “natural” progression of stages. Instead, Vygotsky believes that the interaction with the cultural environment surrounding an individual determines cognitive development. A teacher has a more important role in Vygotsky’s theory because teachers will need to be models for students to imitate and advance. An useful strategy would involve the teacher giving students a problem that is a little beyond what the student is capable of solving but does not seem to be impossible (in another words, a problem in which the solution is difficult but feasible). The student is then surrounded by individuals with higher abilities and through the mere interactions and scaffolding provided by these advanced individuals, students will learn the new and abstract concepts. This theory is very much dependant on the student’s interaction with the environment and people, such as teachers, parents, siblings, etc. However, many circumstances often keep parents and/or teachers from giving each child the individual attention and help needed for proper development. Therefore, technology can help to provide some of the missing interaction time of a student’s life. For example, if the parents/guardians of a student is not available after school to help him/her with homework, the student can use communication tools such as Skype or Instant Message to communicate with mentors, tutors, teachers or relatives.