The Beautiful Classroom

Description            The readings this week focused on behaviorist theories of learning, including those of Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner.  Experience as a key ingredient in the learning process was evaluated in detail. Analysis Slavin (2015) uses two definitions of learning that both involve the individual’s experiences as a catalyst for a changed mindset, worldview, and/or behavior (p.100).  The first scientist that Slavin discusses is Ivan Pavlov, a Russian researcher from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Pavlov used dogs and their salivation to test his theories that reactions could be trained, as well as naturally occurring.  He used unconditioned stimuli, such as meat, to produce an unconditioned reaction, salivating, in the dogs.  No training was needed, hence the term, “unconditioned.”  Pavlov then paired a “neutral” stimuli, one that produces no reaction in the dog, such as a bell ringing, with the uncondition...

Description This week revolved around constructionist learning theory, particularly the theories of Jean Piaget, Leo Vygotsky, and Urie Bronfenbrenner and their implications for the classroom environment.  Analysis Jean Piaget held that each student sits in a desk with a pre-constructed schema based on the mental age, life experiences, and school skills that they “use to find out about and act in the world” (Slavin, 31). As a child ages physically, the brain grows and thinking matures. There is an opportunity for development when the child experiences disequilibrium, or “an imbalance between what is understood and what is encountered” (Slavin, 32). At the point of disequilibrium, the child seeks to find equilibrium, through adaptation. Adaptation can take two forms – assimilation or accommodation. Assimilation is where the child connects the new information within his contemporary schemas, while accommodation describes when the child must transform his previously...