critique

    Reflection (1)

This chapter discovers techniques of helping students learn intensely from prose and is mainly concerned with instructional techniques that can make text more comprehensible. I have learned from this chapter a lot especially here the promoting means learning from prose including adjunct questioning, signaling and advance organizers. The basic query resolved in this chapter is, How to improve textbook lesson with the help of three major techniques i.e. cognitive theory of instruction, adjunct question, signaling, and advance organizer?

            Cognitive theory can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of information theory. In teaching them is considered a form of information process. In fact, the human cognitive activities identified with the processes occurring in the computers with which we cannot agree. The second group of representatives of the cognitive approach to the teaching process remains within psychology and seeks to describe the process using basic mental functions: perception, memory, thinking, etc. Currently, the cognitive approach to learning is still no coherent theory of learning, but at the same time contains a number of important results. In his studies, he also draws attention to the relationship of knowledge and skills. Describing the process of mastering the subject, he identifies three processes that, in his opinion, occurs almost simultaneously; a) the acquisition of new information, and b) the transformation of existing knowledge: their expansion, adaptation to new challenges, etc., and c) the validation of the methods used to the task." Instructional techniques make up the structure of the method, representing a step-unit operation that performs teacher and student, realizing one or another method of teaching law.

            There is a great variety of instructional techniques used in the classroom right. Among them are traditional techniques (for an explanation, reasoning, characterization, narration, description, a variety of techniques for working with educational text, etc.) and more recently becoming popular interactive techniques. Approach to teaching as an activity also requires consideration of a fundamentally different relation of knowledge, skills. Knowledge should not be opposed skills, and considered as a component part. Knowledge can neither be learned nor kept out of student actions. So, quality of learning determined by the variety and nature of activities in which knowledge can show its proper function.

            To answer the question: how to create a project (problem)-oriented learning environment in the domain of knowledge (for example, teaching physics) in modern conditions. It is assumed that the solution of problems in physics with an emphasis on project work synergistically students ensures the unity of social and natural science content in engineering education. The latter is necessary in connection with the transition to a two-tier education system engineers.

    Reflection (2)

The author has laid down the theories of cognitive development in the chapter. The most widely accepted and established theory of cognitive development is of Jean Piaget’s theory called “Genetic Epistemology”. Jean Piaget in his theory has classified knowledge into three types: -a) Physical knowledge carrying physical attributes of an object, b) Logical mathematical knowledge which is the abstract knowledge based on object actions and c) Social knowledge that is the knowledge made by the people and is culture specific.

A child gathers all these knowledge during an invariant sequence of four stages which reflects the qualitative differences in child cognitive abilities. Each stage includes the cognitive structure and abilities of the preceding stage and they form the foundation in the later stage. This makes each stage more adaptive and adequate then the preceding one. The stages in the order of appearance are: a) Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs.), b) Preoperational (2-7 years.), c) Concrete operational (7-11 years.) and d) Formal operational (11 years. onwards)

Piaget has stated three processes responsible for children progression from one stage to another. These processes of assimilation, accommodation and equilibration are critical for the development. As per Piaget, in the process of assimilation, children and adults tend to apply any mental structure that is available to assimilate a new event and they actively seek to use a newly acquire structure. In the process of accommodation, existing schemes or operations are modified to account for a new experience. The process of assimilation and accommodation influences each other. Equilibration is however a master developmental process encompassing both assimilation and accommodation. Within each stage, anomalies of experience create a state of disequilibrium which is resolved only by more adaptive and sophisticated thought and this is called the stage of equilibration.

The theory of genetic epistemology has been criticized on the grounds that the children learn more in a stage than as thought by Piaget. Further, all cultures do not reach formal operations sequence of the stages is invariant as is envisaged in the theory. The process of reasoning has also been criticized on the ground that it is domain specific and is not always consistent within a stage.

More recent theories have provided alternative information processing approaches but based on few Piagetian suppositions. They presume that the children’s knowledge is most likely represented by some sorts of sematic networks and memory connections as adults’ knowledge. Information processing theorists have demonstrated that learning plays significant role in development. Expertise implies a process of building rich conceptual structures –mental models that restructure with experience.

  Reflection

After viewing the previous chapter by Driscoll (2005), concerning the situated cognition and how the nature of knowledge is approached, this week’s chapter is concerned with cognitive knowledge and development. In this chapter, the author is addressing several questioned concerning the cognitive knowledge and how children learn. Driscoll (2005), wanted to come to the conclusion of whether children learn in a different manner than adults do and how this process of learning differs from one another? The definition of cognitive development by Driscoll (2005), is “the transformation of the child’s undifferentiated, unspecialized cognitive abilities into the adult’s conceptual competence and problem-solving skill” (p. 189). In this development, Driscoll (2005), was trying to figure out how children develop their thinking skills and cognitive knowledge. This argument led to the genetic epistemology view of Jean Piaget’s. According to Driscoll (2005), Piaget had a view about knowledge that involved interpretivism and suggested a compromising between nativism and empiricism. This view was called as both interactionism and constructivism. Piaget believed that a child will acquire knowledge by actively reacting to their surrounding environment. There are three kinds of acquired knowledge according to Piaget for children and these kinds are physical, logical-mathematical and social knowledge (Driscoll, 2005). The first kind is physical knowledge, and it is concerned with objects in the world in which children can gain knowledge through interacting with their physical surroundings. The second kind of knowledge a logical-mathematical one. This kind is mainly concerned with abstract knowledge in which children construct thoughts for the sake of knowledge development. The third kind is social knowledge. This kind of knowledge is gained through interactions with other people within the social group. Moreover, Driscoll (2005), discusses the stages of development by Piaget in which development of knowledge is established. These stages are divided by the ages of children in which the first stage called sensorimotor, and it is concerned with children up to the age of 2 years old. The second stage is the preoperational for children from the age of 2 up to the age of 7 years old. The third stage is the concrete operational for children from the age 7 up to the age of 11 years old. The fourth stage is formal operational which is concerned with any age after 11 years old. All these stages are set by Piaget and the development of cognitive thinking takes place gradually for each stage to come. As a result of these four stages of development, Piaget considers three processes of development in which children use to reach the required knowledge. These three processes are assimilation, accommodation and equilibration (Driscoll, 2005). Each process is important for the development of cognitive knowledge. The Piaget’s genetic epistemology view has some good points considering different ages of learners and the shifting of development in each group, but this view has been criticized as well for failing to take into consideration some other points found in children’s way of learning. One of these points is mentioned by Driscoll (2005), in which children might learn more in one stage rather than develop gradually. Later on in this chapter, Driscoll (2005), explores different view than Piaget’s concerning the development of cognitive thinking. In an attempt to further explore Piaget’s view, Klahr and Wallace focused on building a model that considered only a quantitative development approach. The theory of Piaget did a great job in shedding the light on the different mechanisms found within each child cognition development. Unlike the information-processing theorists, Piaget did serve this purpose of development greatly in his theory and proofed to be of high value when it comes to cognitive and knowledge development in a child life.