Early childhood education and preschools have received strong theoretical stimuli from developmental psychology and educational theories. Here are ...
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory
The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner has determined that intelligence is a pluralistic phenomenon, rather than a static structure with a single type of intelligence. Gardner defines intelligence as:
In his cross-cultural exploration of the ways in which people are intelligent, he has identified distinct types of intelligences: Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Musical, Visual/Spatial, Body/Kinaesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Naturalistic.
Each person possesses all eight intelligences and each can be developed to an adequate extent. This means that each child will have his own unique set of intellectual strengths and weaknesses. These sets determine each student’s “learning style”. The underlying framework for the use of MI in the classroom is being aware of these different learning modes and ways in which they exhibit intelligence.
Although the intelligences are anatomically separated from each other, Gardner claims that the eight intelligences very rarely operate independently. Rather, the intelligences are used concurrently and typically complement each other as individuals develop skills or solve problems.
This needs to be evident in lesson planning as the teacher strives to address multiple aspects in the presentation of a particular concept. For example, when teaching geometric shapes (logical-mathematical) the teacher can demonstrate and talk about the different shapes (linguistic), show and allow the children to feel wooden shapes or form shapes with their bodies (bodily-kinaesthetic), children can work in groups (interpersonal) to find these shapes in the environment and share their findings with the class, do a paper and pencil task to identify shapes (intrapersonal) and / or make three-dimensional shapes from straws and clay or from toothpicks and marshmallows (spatial and bodily-kinaesthetic) and write a riddle (linguistic) for others to guess the shape's name or put the riddle into the form of a rap or song (musical). In this way the concept is represented in a variety of ways which allows for individual differences and provides greater opportunity for learning and success.
As children do not learn in the same way, they cannot be assessed in a uniform fashion. Therefore, it is important that a teacher create an "intelligence profiles" for each student. Knowing how each student learns will allow the teacher to properly assess the child's progress. This individualized evaluation practice will allow a teacher to make more informed decisions on what to teach and how to present information.
For further reading:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=251
http://kindernature.storycounty.com/display.aspx?DocID=2005429115
Bruner’s Discovery Learning
In 1960, Bruner published The Process of Education. This was a landmark book which led to much experimentation and a broad range of educational programs in the 1960's. Howard Gardner and other young researchers worked under Bruner and were much-influenced by his work. Bruner was one of the founding fathers of constructivist theory. Bruner's theoretical framework is based on the theme that learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon existing knowledge. Learning is an active process.
Discovery learning is an inquiry-based, constructivist learning theory that takes place in problem solving situations where the learner draws on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned. Students interact with the world by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies, or performing experiments. As a result, students may be more more likely to remember concepts and knowledge discovered on their own.
Bruner introduced the ideas of "readiness for learning" and “spiral curriculum”. Bruner believed that any subject could be taught at any stage of development in a way that fit the child's cognitive abilities. Spiral curriculum refers to the idea of revisiting basic ideas over and over, building upon them and elaborating to the level of full understanding and mastery.
Bruner argued that aspects of cognitive performance are facilitated by language. He stressed the importance of the social setting in the acquisition of language.
Bruner emphasized four characteristics of effective instruction which emerged from his theoretical constructs.
1. Personalized: instruction should relate to learners' predisposition, and facilitate interest toward learning,
2. Content Structure: content should be structured so it can be most easily grasped by the learner
3. Sequencing: sequencing is an important aspect for presentation of material
4. Reinforcement: rewards and reinforcements should be selected and paced appropriately.
Proponents of this theory believe that discovery learning has many advantages, including:
For further reading:
http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/constructivism/bruner.html
http://academics.rmu.edu/~tomei/ed711psy/c_bruner.htm
http://www.educationatlas.com/an-explanation-of-discovery-learning-.html
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Development
Vygotsky was a developmental psychologist known for his sociocultural perspective. Core principles underlying his theory have had complemented the constructivist framework: Children construct their own knowledge, development cannot be separated from its social context, learning can lead to development and language plays a central role in mental development.
Sociocultural theory suggests that social interaction leads to continuous step-by-step changes in children's thought and behaviour that can vary greatly from culture to culture. Basically Vygotsky's theory suggests that development depends on interaction with people and the tools that the culture provides to help form their own view of the world. There are three ways a cultural tool can be passed from one individual to another. The first one is imitative learning, where one person tries to imitate or copy another. The second way is by instructed learning which involves remembering the instructions of the teacher and then using these instructions to self-regulate. The final way that cultural tools are passed to others is through collaborative learning, which involves a group of peers who strive to understand each other and work together to learn a specific skill.
The second element in the sociocultural theory is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky believed that any pedagogy creates learning processes that lead to development and this sequence results in zones of proximal development. It's the concept that a child accomplishes a task that he/she cannot do alone, with the help from a more skilled person. Vygotsky also described the ZPD as the difference between the actual development level as determined by individual problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or collaboration with more knowledgeable peers. The result of this process is children become more socialized in the dominant culture and it induces cognitive development.
In order for the ZPD to be such a success, it must contain two features. The first is called subjectivity. This term describes the process of two individuals begin a task with different understanding and eventually arrive at a shared understanding. The second feature is scaffolding, which refers to a change in the social support over the course of a teaching session. If scaffolding is successful, a child's mastery level of performance can change, which means that it can increase a child's performance on a particular task.
For further reading:
http://vygotsky.afraid.org/
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/vygotske.pdf
http://www.answers.com/topic/developmental-theory-vygotskian-theory
Cummins Perspective on Second Language Learning:
Cummins is a Canadian Professor of Education at University of Ontario. Best known for his work on language competence and especially in the field of immersion bilingual education, where children are immersed in a foreign language in a natural way as children are immersed in the acquisition of their mother language.
Cummins makes the distinction between two differing kinds of language proficiency. First one is Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills; these are the "surface" skills of listening and speaking which are typically acquired quickly by many students; particularly by those from language backgrounds similar to English who spend a lot of their school time interacting with native speakers.
The second one is Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency, and, as the name suggests, is the basis for a child’s ability to cope with the academic demands placed upon her in the various subjects. Cummins states that while many children develop native speaker fluency within two years of immersion in the target language, it takes between 5-7 years for a child to be working on a level with native speakers as far as academic language is concerned.
Cummins draws the distinction between additive bilingualism in which the first language continues to be developed and the first culture to be valued while the second language is added; and subtractive bilingualism in which the second language is added at the expense of the first language and culture, which diminish as a consequence. Cummins (1994) quotes research which suggests students working in an additive bilingual environment succeed to a greater extent than those whose first language and culture are devalued by their schools and by the wider society.
For further reading:
http://iteachilearn.org/cummins/index.htm
http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm
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