assignment7

Introduction

This paper contains two components. The first component contains lesson plan focusing on Piaget’s stages of cognitive development as well as the two worksheets that the educator is to use for this lesson. Also in component one is speaker notes for the educator to use in conjunction with the PowerPoint. These speaker notes are important as they contain critical thinking questions for each slide, where necessary. Each worksheet was developed in mind specifically to match the learning objectives of this course and the cognitive level of the students. The second component contains the justification of pedological approach. When teaching college students, a teacher can only want their students to be motivated enough to really learn the material. Each student learns in their own way. Constructivism in teaching can allow students to utilize critical thinking skills as well as creating motivated and independent learners (Abeysekera and Dawson, 2015). Having the ability to have open discussion in a college classroom fosters independent thinking as well as interaction between all students and educator. The educator is there to guide the conversation and help develop a higher-level thinking in the lesson. Constructivism will allow for that to happen in regard to this lesson.

COMPONENET 1

Lesson Plan

Topic: Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Purpose: Purpose of this lesson is to provide students with a deeper understanding of the 4 stages of cognitive development from Jean Piaget. This lesson includes a PowerPoint and 2 worksheets that will help the students delve deeper into these 4 stages of development.

Objectives:

1. Define Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development and the different cognitive changes that take place in each stage. The learner will be able to answer questions asked by the educator on the stages of cognitive development demonstrating understanding of the stages of cognitive development.

2. Differentiate between Piaget's sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages of cognitive development. The learner should be able to develop examples of each stage of Piaget’s stages of development and explain why each example goes with the chosen stage of development.

3. Demonstrate knowledge of Piaget’s stage of development by completion of table provided showing competency about Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

Materials Used: PowerPoint with speaker notes below and 2 Piaget based worksheets.

Bridge-In Beginning of Class (focus student’s attention): Ask students to define cognitive development? Have an open discussion about cognition and education for the first 5-10 minutes of class. Then utilize the PowerPoint and speaker notes are available for the educator teaching this lesson. Open discussion will be the major point in this lesson. The students should have a basic knowledge of Piaget prior to this lesson.

Input: After the bridge in use the PowerPoint to go through the major points of Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development. Below I have added speaker notes for each slide to help get the open discussion going for each slide. As well as some questions to ask the students throughout the PowerPoint.

Guided Practice (activities for the students): After the PowerPoint is done there are two provided worksheets for the students to complete. Choose one worksheet to make a group assignment and choose groups at random and the other worksheet to do individually. Once finished collect the worksheets to go over and make sure the students are grasping the concepts of Piaget’s stages of development.

Check for Understanding: Who was Jean Piaget? What aspects of the stages of cognitive development can be used in the classroom today? Which stage of cognitive development are you hoping to work with in your career and why? What can you take away from the stages of cognitive development for your potential career?

**Below are the attached speaker notes to be used with the PowerPoint.

Speaker Notes for attached PowerPoint:

Slide One: Title Slide

Slide Two: Learning Objectives

· Go over the learning objectives and ask students if they have questions pertaining to those objectives

· Before revealing the next slide ask students if they know who Piaget was and what he is famous for? Ask any additional questions you see fit.

Slide Three: Who was Jean Piaget?

· Making this an open discussion if students do have prior knowledge of Piaget (which they should from previous psychology courses) ask what are the 4 stages of cognitive development. Why do they think the stages are important in an educational setting?

Slide Four: Picture of the stages of cognitive development

· Ask the students what they perceive the picture to be

· Talking in an open way with the students about each stage through the picture

· Stage 1- the baby knows something is in the cup

· Stage 2- the child knows its water inside the cup

· Stage 3- the child thinking that volume of water in cup

· Stage 4- abstract thought happening

Slide Five, Six, Seven: Sensorimotor stage

· Read slide

· Object Permanence- understanding objects can be there even if they cannot be sensed in any way

· Give example of playing peek a boo

· Ask students for some examples of object permanence

· Ask students why they think object permanence is important

· Answer: helps babies start understanding the world around them

· Slide six shows the substages of sensorimotor

· Read slide

· Ask students for examples of some of the substages

· Ask students what they think would happen if a baby does not hit one of the milestones of the substages

· Slide seven is pictures of sensorimotor stage

Slide Eight, Nine, Ten: Preoperational Stage

· Read slide

· Ask students for some examples of:

· Centration

· Egocentrism

· Symbolic Representation

· Animism

· Slide Eight shows lack of understanding of concentration ask students to give thoughts on this

· Slide Nine: limitations of preoperational stage

· Read slide

· Refer back to picture of slide eight

· Ask students to give some examples of conservation in the preoperational stage and what the students in that stage’s answers might be

· Ask students how this stage can affect one’s teaching of this age

Slide Eleven: Concrete Operational

· Read slide

· Ask students how they would teach spatial reasoning to students in this stage?

· What tasks would they do to help them reach spatial reasoning?

Slide Twelve: Formal Operational

· Read slide

· Do you think that in this stage students are able to hold valid arguments in class ?

· How does egocentrism play a role in this stage?

· What would that look like in the education of students in this stage?

Slide Thirteen: Critical Thinking Questions

· Read the questions: Give students some time to think about it and ask for their answers.

· Reflect the answers of the students, asking what the answers would mean for their educational career and journey?

Worksheet #1

Name______________________________ Date________

Instructions: Fill in the table below with your own definition of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and your own examples of each stage. Please provide explanation of why the examples go with the chosen stages.

Worksheet #2

Name______________________________ Date:___________________

Instructions: Fill in the rectangles below with the differences of each stage and give examples.

( Sensorimotor Vs Concrete Operational )

( Preoperational vs Formal Operational )

COMPONENT 2

Prior Knowledge of The Students

The fascinating aspect of delivering appropriate education majors is through the use of pedagogical methods that enable the student to elaborately capture the desired knowledge. The word prior knowledge is an important factor in the process of knowledge provision since it serves the purpose of the knowledge that had been learned by the student. This prior knowledge is essential and ensures the student is equipped with some knowledge about the next topic before meeting the new information (Abeysekera and Dawson, 2015). Moreover, the prior knowledge offers a spectrum on which the student or the learning can improve on the text by the process of the activations of the prior knowledge before dealing with the text and the development of the pre-visit of the prior knowledge is a better training to enhance the learning of the student approaches.

In this particular lesson the prior knowledge of the students will have been a general psychology course and child psychology. Students who have completed these two courses should have heard of Piaget and his contributions to psychology. This would mean for the educator that the base for this lesson is a more advanced lesson in which Piaget’s stages of cognitive development can be a more in-depth lesson and include critical thinking questions. Another relevant characteristic of the students in this lesson is that they are education majors. Students who are education majors, hoping to work with learners of any age should learn about learners of all ages. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development show development from infancy to adulthood. Demographic is a factor that must be considered appropriately while developing instructional strategies for the learners. The demographic for this lesson will be mostly students ages 20-23 as well as some older adults mixed in the lesson but the one thing that they all have in common are that they want to work in the educational faction in some way. Being that college students come from all different backgrounds and walks of life will bring a great perspective to this constructivist approach to teaching the lesson. Finally, in the first slide of the PowerPoint the educator is tasked with trying to determine the prior knowledge of the students. For the simple fact that these students should have completed two prior psychology courses they should have knowledge of Piaget and his accomplishments.

The educator is instructed in the speaker notes of the PowerPoint to ask questions to the students before the PowerPoint really gets into the stages of cognitive development. For example, the educator is to ask about the stages and who Piaget was and what he accomplished. This is a way for the educator to gauge how much information was retained in prior courses and what information the students are able to build on. Evaluating the prior knowledge of the students will allow the educator to get an understanding of where the students are in the learning process in regard to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. The PowerPoint provided does take into account the many levels of students prior knowledge. In the PowerPoint there are many ways in which explain Piaget’s stages of cognitive development such as explanation of characteristics of each stage as well as in-depth critical thinking questions. These two characteristics of the PowerPoint should allow for the students to all learn based on their own prior knowledge of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

Constructivism Pedagogical

The pedagogical method that I would wish to employ during the lesson period is constructivism. From this pedagogy of constructivism whereby is pointed out on the notion that learning is an activity of the perception of the world based on the individual experiences and knowledge (Tainter, Wong, Cudemus-Deseda…et al., 2017). This pedagogical approach is more suitable in delivering the learning outcome to the student since it provides a wide range of learning deliveries. It permits the student with an effective approach to learning based on how the individual students interpret and create the meaning of the experiences. Noticeable, since the knowledge is constructed by the students or the learners and with each having different thoughts, perceptions and diverse sets of experiences, it introduces effectively and unique in learning the outcome of different learners in the classrooms (Abeysekera and Dawson, 2015). This learning process theory outline that the learner is mandated in the realization of creating new ideas and thoughts based on the experiences they undergo. These concepts they generate always come from the already acquired knowledge in the subject matters. This can be seen in the two worksheets that I created for this lesson. Worksheet one allows for learners to write about the different stages of Piaget’s cognitive development in their own words as well as come up with examples. The second worksheet allows learners to differentiate between the stages with examples. Each of the learners ensue their mental models in the urge to try to extract some meaningful learning outcome from their experiences that as well can be considered prior knowledge. These theories tend to explain the resolutions of the conflict between the ideas and reflect on the adjustment to the explanations that are concerned. Therefore, learning can be described as the simple process of modifying our mental process to sustain and maintain the newly acquired knowledge or experiences. Moreover, the learning theory is clearly and effectively used in ensuring students or learners are focused on the problem-solving approach as part of the learning process and outcomes. For a learner to be successful, a learner must seek significant base experiences and knowledge upon which they create and interpret ideas (Arnett, Chaplin and Brownlow, 2018). 

However, with the constructivism theory of learning, one aspect that should be noted is that the learning process outcomes are unpredictable since the learners are creating their knowledge. There are some of the examples and applications that constructivism theory is well explained. They included brainstorming, group work, problem-based learning, case studies, research projects, and simulations. In this particular lesson, the educator is using brain storming and group work to help the learner acquire the new knowledge about the lesson. While using the pedagogical method of constructivism one must check and evaluate the strategies that are used. This includes the level of the learner in question, the thought demand, and the desired outcomes.

Utilizing the constructivism method of teaching, the students can develop an open discussion to help them with some real-life examples of the material. Constructivism style teaching turns the lesson into an active participant lesson rather than having students become passive during the lesson (Rajala, Kumpulainen, Hilppo… et al., 2016). The PowerPoint provided allows for the educator to use an open discussion forum to talk with learners about the stages of development rather than taking at the learners. I have also provided speaker notes and questions for the educator to ask the learners in each slide so that it generates some open discussions. The PowerPoint lesson in conjunction with the worksheets should allow for learners to reach a higher-level learning on Bloom’s taxonomy. The educator will also have wiggle room in the lesson to spark conversation based on their learners. Using one worksheet to be done individually and the other to be done in random groups picked by the educator. Group work is important because it allows for the students to learn from their peer’s perspective.

Justifications of Constructivism Approach

The justification of the constructivism learning approach is greatly important as it entails the learning process whereby the learners attain and make their conclusion through the creative help of the teachers or the facilitators. Cannella and Reiff (1994) examined that using a constructivism approach in teaching, especially in teachings of future educators can have a profound impact on the way they will teach their own learners. This lesson utilizes the constructivism method in hopes to get the learners to think outside of their box. Having this lesson on Piaget’s stages of cognitive development be taught as more of an open forum to speak freely about the topic at hand can allow for students to look at their own thinking’s differently based on what they hear from their peers on the same topic. Mensah (2015) examined how constructivism type lessons in college classrooms were perceived. The resulting study showed that opportunities to have smaller group work and discussions led the students to have a deeper level understanding of the material at hand. The instructor stated that collaborated work showed higher level type learning which results in better test scores (Mensah, 2015). Being in a college classroom one can see that the students come from all different backgrounds and experiences. To have an open discussion can allow for those students to use their background and experience as examples leading the other students to develop different examples of the same material. Furthermore, it has been justified by the research done by Bufkin and Bryde (1996) showed that adult learners had benefited greatly by the constructivist type learning through active participation in a lesson.

These are some of the strategies that could be employed to ensure that effective instruction takes place in the student’s zone of proximal development. First and foremost the teacher or the instructor must ensure and identify whatever the student already knows or have experienced. With the identifications of this prior knowledge and concepts, the teacher might build on the set of skills when the new concept is needed to introduce new concepts. In this lesson, the educator will know that general psychology and child psychology was a prerequisite to get this more advanced psychology course, leading the instructor to have a base of the learners general knowledge. The next step is that the teacher or the instructor must be able to build on the prior knowledge through the process of scaffolding; the process of the scaffold shall assist learners to move from the already knowledge they possessed to what they should be able to acquire by the end of the lesson. When a teacher needs to develop or plan lessons, they should mind in keeping scaffolding procedure by ensuring the integrating guided practices in their instruction plans. Furthermore, teachers can also assist learners in connecting their new learning experience to the prior knowledge acquired. For instance, if the mathematics teacher has just taught learners how to memorize and mastering divide decimals, the instructor again can relate the concept to the multiplying decimals (Tainter et al., 2017). Regarding the knowledge acquired in this lesson, the worksheets provided will truly allow for scaffolding to take place. The worksheets are meant to build upon the PowerPoint lesson in the beginning of the class. This building block type lesson, first the PowerPoint then the two worksheets are meant to build on the knowledge acquired in those earlier psychology course as well as develop new deeper knowledge of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

Some activities initiate disequilibrium in the student critical thinking in the classroom. They include the aspect of engaging the learners by putting them to predict the probable outcome of the questions and explain and therefore share their reasoning point of view. Advocating for the group discussion so that it facilitates the learners to improvise explanations that predict the outcomes and the actual outcomes to strengthens the links between the concepts and develop the student's reasoning ability and perfect on it on an individual basis. This can be shown in the lesson by the worksheets made. The learners will look at the stages of cognitive development and develop their own examples. Also using one worksheet of the educator’s choice the learners will work in groups to come up with collaborative examples of the stages of development.

Constructivism is all about tapping into and triggering a learner’s innate curiosity about the world around them (Tainter et al., 2017). Having the ability to use constructivism type teaching in this lesson can help the learners through being able to look at Piaget’s stages of cognitive development in a new way. Sure an educator can just go on for 60 minutes of a lesson talking about the stages of cognitive development, but the students are not going to really understand those stages. Having the learners engage in this open discussion, individual work and group work will not only allow for students to let the information sink in but can allow for this higher-level learning to be achieved.

Learning tasks Appropriate for the Cognitive-Developmental Stage of the Students

Cognitive strategies are a vital type of learning approaches that students surpass to be successful in learning outcomes. The learning tasks in this lesson in comprises the aspect of organizing new language, repetition, summarizing meaning, using imagery for memorizations, guessing the meaning from context.

An instructor or a teacher should be able to grow student to be persons who can be successful both in class and outside of the classroom equally. As this is a very integral as the teaching of the curriculum. Teachers should come up with a mechanism in choosing languages and the class activities that are geared towards making a classroom to be a culture-based problem solver. The teacher must be determined in modeling the students in a manner that they think concerning a particular goal and manage their mental processes appropriately ( Sękowski, 2017). This entire process is presumed and known as metacognition, and the research studies showcase that metacognitive skills assist the learners to become a better problem solver.

In this particular lesson, the two worksheets involve defining the stages, differentiating between the stages or coming up with one’s own examples of the stages. In turn the students should all be able to abstractly think about the PowerPoint and use their own experiences to come up with examples of the stages of cognitive development. Cognitively the students all should be in the formal operational stage of cognitive development meaning they all have the ability to develop abstract thoughts and put those thoughts into action (Piaget, 1976). The educator will have a little wiggle room in this lesson in that they can choose to let the students work in random groups for one of the worksheets. Allowing the students to work in groups for one of the worksheets will allow students to be able to see perspective from other’s experiences. Having that ability can allow for one’s mind to expand in a way that they did not think about before. Finally the ability to utilize the PowerPoint for the educator can foster this open discussion that college classrooms need in order to be successful. Bufkin and Bryde (1996) examined how open discussions not only elevate the conversation in college classrooms but in the end the classrooms that had open discussion rather than the educator talking at them, showed an increase in test scores. Finally in order to make sure the students are grasping the concepts of this lesson; the educator will collect the two worksheets at the end of lesson. The educator can go over these worksheets to make sure that the students are understanding the concepts of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. This will allow the educator to make sure the new knowledge has transferred over for the students.

Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence

Sternberg’s theory of intelligence focuses on intelligent behavior. Three types of intelligence according to Sternberg are practical, creative and analytical. Analytical abilities have to do with comparing and analyzing information (Sękowski, 2017). Creative abilities are all about discovery and practical abilities tie all things together allowing students to apply what they have learned (Sękowski, 2017). Teaching should be a delicate balance of creative, analytical and practical thinking (Sternberg and Clinkenbeard, 1995). Looking at the PowerPoint and two worksheets that are provided for the educator, all three of Sternberg’s triarchy of intelligence is applied in this case. First, looking at creative abilities, the worksheets involve the students to come up with creating and discovering new examples of the stages of cognitive development. Also within the critical thinking question, there is a creative type question in which the students are to imagine their own classroom. Next, analytical abilities are utilized when the students are to differentiate the stages of cognitive development. Sternberg and Clinkenbeard (1995) stated that analytical thinking and critical thinking go hand in hand. That can be seen utilized in the PowerPoint provided. The educator is tasked with asking critical thinking questions in the PowerPoint and at the end of the PowerPoint. Finally tying in all the information in a practical way from the PowerPoint is the only reason that the students are able to complete both worksheets. Utilizing these three areas of intelligences as based on Sternberg’s theory will allow for students to show their intelligence as well as what their own strengths and weakness are in regard to this lesson.

Conclusion

Piaget examined that the way in which one accommodates new information is to restructure the old information known to a higher level of learning (Piaget, 1976). Constructivism and teaching college students go hand in hand for the simple fact that it has been studied before that adults learn better in an open forum discussion (Bufkin and Bryde, 1996). Using this approach to the lesson on Piaget’s stages of cognitive development will help the students critical think about the stages by using their own experiences. The ability to have open discussion among college students fosters the independent critical thinking that is necessary at this level of learning. Having the educator be able to interact with the students in an open discussion forum allows the students to take the reins and really find different perspectives in the material. Finally, using a constructivism approach when teaching future educator has a profound impact on the way they go on to teach their own students.

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