Foundations of Education (831)

Unit 3: Psychological Foundations of Education

Dr. Zaheer Ahmad
Course Coordinator
Objectives of the Course
• explain the important features of foundations of
education;
• specify the role of educational thinker in education;
• appreciate the philosophical, psychological, foundations
of education;
• discuss the modes of education;
• discuss historical development of education in Pakistan;
• evaluate the issues and problems of education.
Objectives of the Unit
• Define learning
• Differentiate between learning and maturation
• Demonstrate the ability to provide learning
environment according to specific individual
differences
• Explain the role of psychology in instructional
strategy
Focus
• In the previous two units we focused on the
needs, requirements and aims of the society i.e.
what type of students a state or the country want
to produce.
Focus
• In this unit, we focus on the needs,
requirements, interest of the students what they
need from us (teacher, administrator, system) to
achieve those objectives that we expect of
him/her. Without making the teaching learning
process effective, it is not possible to shape the
students as per his potential and needs of the
society.
Terms to be Focus
• Learning
• Maturation
• Growth
• Development
• Individual differences
• Special children
▫ Gifted and talented
▫ (a) Physically handicapped
▫ (b) Blind
▫ (c) Hearing Impaired children
▫ (d) Mentally retarded
• Learning and development theories
• Instructional strategies
Learning
• Learning can be defined as relatively permanent
change in behaviour which occurs as a result of
practice or experience.
Learning
• Learning is a process in which the person
(student, parent, yourself) interacts with the
effective environment to produce a stable change
in the behaviour.
▫ Person
▫ Interaction
▫ Environment and
▫ Behaviour change
Worell ans Stilwell have listed characteristics of
behaviour as:
• Behaviour of Learning
• Behaviour is predictable
• Behaviour may be overt or covert
• Behaviour may be learned
• Behaviour appropriate or inappropriate
• Behaviour may be unlearned
Maturation
• Maturation refers to the changes that occur
maturely and spontaneously and are to a large
extent, genetically programmed. Such changes
are not usually affected by the environment but
exception may be there, as maturation may be
adversely affected by severe malmaturation or
illness.
Human development is broken into number
of aspects:
• Physical Development It deals with changes in
body
• Cognitive Development It refers to changes
the way a person think
• Personal Development It is used for changes in
individual personality
• Social Development It refers to changes in the
way a person deals with others
Learning and Maturation Characteristics
1. Training in any particular activity before neural
mechanism have reached a certain state of readiness
is futile.
2. Exercise of newly developing function is inherent in
the process of growth, and if ample opportunity is
afforded at the proper time, specific achievements can
be advanced beyond the stage normally expected.
3. Development follows the same pattern like crawling,
standing, walking, holding a chair etc. Time for
maturation can vary.
Learning and Maturation Characteristics
4. Sports, regression, frustrations and inhibitions are an
integral part of organize growth, and there is reason to
believe that they also function in the development of
complex behaviour activities.
5. Maturation and learning are not different processes,
merely different aspects of fundamental process of
growth.
6. Evidence that a child is ready for a particular educational
subject is to be found in certain behaviour signals, or
behaviour syndromes, which reflect the maturity of neural
mechanisms. (Thompson, 1962, pp. 115-116)
Individual Differences
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Achievement
• Intelligence / cognition
• Motivation
• Aptitude
• Attitude
• Self-efficacy
• Interest
• Socio-economic status
• Differences in different stages and types of development
• Diagnostic assessment
 Share your experience how would you
handle individual differences in your classes
 How do you teach that low achievers have
the compatible learning/ equitable chances
of learning with others?
 Which method you use that low achievers
also have the opportunity to defeat high
achievers in the class and enjoy success?
 Note: Answers must be practical and you
have to demonstrate it here in the class.
• Brainstorming Activity
Growth and Development
• Growth:
▫ Denotes the physical changes in the body such as
height and weight
• Development:
▫ Changes in the functions or performance as a
result of growth.
Example: Development in language, development in
thinking, development in problem solving or logical
reasoning, or moral development
 Learning Theories
• Classical conditioning
▫ Classical conditioning is learning through
association. Stated simply, two unrelated stimuli
are paired to produce a new (learned) response.
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered this
pattern while experimenting with dogs. In
classical conditioning, we produce the same
response from an artificial stimulus instead of a
natural stimulus by the process of conditioning.
Behaviorism
• Psychologist John Watson, based on Pavlov’s experiments,
initially proposed the model of classical conditioning as an
explanation of human behavior. He got a bit carried away
with his theory, however, when he rather famously wrote
in his 1924 book,
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my
own specified world to bring them up in and I'll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select – doctor,
lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-
man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations and the race of his
ancestors.
Operant conditioning
▫ By the late 1930s, B.F. Skinner had expanded Watson’s
ideas, developing the theory of operant conditioning.
▫ Operant conditioning is learning that occurs through
rewards and punishments in response to a particular
behavior. Basically, behavior that is followed or
accompanied by something pleasant is likely to be repeated,
and behavior followed or accompanied by something
unpleasant is unlikely to be repeated.
▫ Skinner’s term for rewards and punishments associated with
a particular behavior is reinforcement. Behavior that is
reinforced by something positive is strengthened and likely
to be repeated. Behavior that is not reinforced by something
positive (or is punished in some way) is weakened, and not
likely to be repeated.
Stages of Physical Development
• Prenatal
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Puberty
• Adolescence
• Adulthood
Stages of Cognitive Development by Jean
Piaget
• Sensori-motor stage (0-2 years)
• Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)
• Formal operational stage (11 and onward)
Moral Development Levels by Kohlberg
• Moral reasoning and moral behaviour levels:
▫ Pre-conventional morality (0-4 years)
(stage 1 and 2)
▫ Conventional morality (4.1-10 years)
(stage 3 and 4)
▫ Post-conventional morality (10.1-onward)
(stage 5 and 6)
Stages of Psycho-social Theory by Erikson
Special Children/ Students
• Gifted and talented
• Physically handicapped
• Blind
• Hearing impaired children
• Mentally retarded children
Best Instructional Strategy for Most
Purposes
• Cooperative Learning
▫ Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy in
which students work actively and purposefully
together in small heterogeneous groups to
maximize their own and their teammates learning.
It is different from traditional group work due to
its five components:
Five Components of Cooperative Learning
• Positive Interdependence
• Individual accountability
• Verbal interaction
• Social skills
• Group processing
Models of Cooperative Learning
• Learning together
• Students’ Teams Achievement Division (STAD)
• Teams, Games, Tournaments
• Jigsaw
• Group Investigation
Advantages of Cooperative Learning
• Highest achievement/ score of your students
• Development of Pro social behavior/Social Skills
• Cognitive development
• Leadership
• Interest/ likeness for subject, teacher and school
• Motivation to learn and achieve
• Better preparation for exams
• Reducing exam anxiety
• Working in teams
• For enhancing teachers respect/ popularity
• Increased teacher rating
• Sports man Spirit/ Team spirit
 Pre-requisite for
Cooperative Learning
• Developing balanced teams
45 Students converted into
Balanced CL Teams
Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 Team 5 Team 6 Team 7 Team 8 Team 9
Group Forming Activity
• These are the scores of 15 students. Please use
them to develop 3 balanced teams of cooperative
learning having 5 members in each team.
▫ 90 95 80
▫ 35 85 70
▫ 75 100 60
▫ 65 100 40
▫ 100 Zero 20