Unit 5: Tying things together...

Syllabus
Moodle
Random Link
Calendar
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Unit 7
Unit 8

Overview:

After spending some time reading and thinking about the three major perspectives in educational psychology, and having started off by reading a bit of history re-telling the story of how E.L. Thorndike, one of the first true educational psychologists (and yes, a devout behaviorist) believed schooling should be organized... and how his ideas took root more tenaciously than the ideas of John Dewey (a more humanistic pschologist who's ideas we will explore more seriously later). After reading the Thorndike won and Dewey lost piece from unit 1 you should have a clear picture of why schooling is shaped the way it is... but also have a vision for what it could be like had Dewey's ideas been picked up more widely.

From here, however, it is time to do some synthesis work. We'll do this by slogging our way through the Learning and Cognition reading... and this puppy is a bad, bad boy. This is a chapter from the Handbook of Educational Psychology written for nerds like me. It is absolutely the varsity reading... if you've been waiting for your chance to get in the game... here it is. Give the first few pages (at least) a thorough analysis as the chapter is structured around behaviorism, cognitive theories, and social or situative theories so you will recognize lots of the conversation. More importantly, however, this baby is an amazing review of major ideas. Take it slow... give it adequate time... and don't get immediately discouraged. If you can get through the whole chapter you are a star. If you can get through the first 5-6 pages... you are doing just fine. Good luck!

Readings:


Learning and Cognition

Discussion questions:

Consider these very simple questions as you read. Each of these question sets also appear in Moodle.

    1. What connections did you make in reading the bad boy on Learning and Cognition? I'm not going to ask what do you still not get... because people spend their careers learning about theses issues so you should still have things you are cloudy on... but I hope some additional things came into focus. What are those? If you do have questions... this forum will be the place to pose them. This is the only forum in unit 5 and you don't actually have to post anything here... use this forum if you need it or want to do so.

Supplemental materials:


And here's why 1990 was awesome

*This has nothing to do with anything!