AshLee Library
Belle is the Disney princess who I feel I identify with the most. Someone who is kind but speaks her mind boldly, confident but relatively humble, patient but also quite stubborn, intelligent but wishes for more.
I enjoy reading and the more I read, the better I get. I do have a GoodReads profile that has a mix of everything organized by Want to Read, Currently Reading, and Read.
Annotated Bibliography
Acosta, K. (2022, January 28). Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Forbes Health. https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development/.
centres/stem/publications/pmej/pome17/handal.htm.
- Acosta (2022) writes about the professional perspectives of board-certified psychiatrists Je Ajayi, M.D. and Alex Dimitriu, M.D., laying out the background and foundation of Jean Piaget’s studies on child cognitive development. They reiterate that Piaget focused on the mental processes and perspectives rather than on the specific information learned. There are disagreements that the stages do not follow the chronological progression Piaget suggests because of external factors, such as culture and society’s influence on a child’s learning environment. Understanding these stages can support a child through new experiences and situations.
- Boaler discusses how mindsets impact student and adult perspective on mathematics accessibility. The book also explores how changing one's perspective can unlock one's true potential to be successful and confident in mathematics.
- Knowledge theories date back to Aristotle and Plato, who represent two opposing sides of acquiring knowledge. Aristotle argues knowledge comes from our senses’ interaction with the environment, while Plato insists it comes from rational reasoning. The main theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are analyzed through responding to the following questions: 1) How does learning occur? 2) Which factors influence learning? 3) What is the role of memory? 4) How does transfer occur? 5) What types of learning are best explained by this theory? 6) What basic assumptions/principles of this theory are relevant to instructional design? and 7) How should instruction be structured to facilitate learning? (Ertmer & Newby, 2008). This organizational structure made connections between the theories easier to identify and follow and ultimately revealed that there are glimpses of each theory in all theories, but different components of learning are more stressed in one versus another.
centres/stem/publications/pmej/pome17/handal.htm.
- Handal (n.d.) writes how the philosophical viewpoints of foundationalism and quasi-empiricism mirror pedagogical theories of behaviorism and socio-constructivism. The foundationalist movement follows logic, symbolism, and intuition but the quasi-empirical approach considers mathematics as constructed through realistic and imperfect societal constructs. Behaviorism highlights traditional rote-memorization to transfer knowledge in a teacher-centered setting while socio-constructivism focuses on the experience of exploring and engaging in schema to adapt and construct new ideas. Mathematics teachers should consider how their perception of mathematics has a bias towards behaviorism.
- Harapnuik et al. discusses the connection between choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning (COVA) established by creating significant learning environments (CSLE). The comparsion between the traditional learning environment and innovative learning environment helps the reader identify their current environment and the potential it has when introducing COVA and CSLE.
- This book is something I recommend to any teacher who wants to streamline a lot of the small tasks we have as educators. There are multiple structures and procedures introduced, along with teacher highlights and resources to implement and adapt the frameworks to meet one's needs.
- Horn et al. analyzes the different types of blending learning environments. With a variety of case studies and examples, educational stakeholders can identify where their environment is and where it could go.
- Lessani et al. (2018) describe how the different learning theories, including behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, influence mathematics education and how students learn. There is consensus that behaviorist models dominate most classroom environments, but the cognitivist approach incorporates more in-depth problem solving, following a series of steps: understanding the problem, determining a plan to solve the problem, executing the plan, and then reflecting on how well the plan solved the problem (Lessani et al., 2017). Observing teachers with various years of experience revealed all theories are represented, but when students are within environments that are not behaviorist, they reported less anxiety in examinations. This counters the misconception that implementing higher-order thinking tasks takes away from standardized testing preparation but in reality, it enhances a student’s experience to adapt to new challenges and problems.
- McLeod’s (2022) psychology article organizes Piaget’s four stages of child development into specific goals: object permanence in the sensorimotor stage, symbolic thought in the preoperational stage, logical thought in the concrete operational stage, and scientific reasoning in the formal operational stage. Differences in cultures and gender norms are also considered, particularly how stereotypes can play into perception. Nature versus nurture is also discussed, but the active participation a child has in their environment and adapting existing schemas to solve new problems gives motivation to keep learning. Classroom activities that include hypothesis testing, abstract thinking, problem solving, discussion and debate, and questioning and feedback develop the cognitive skills over time (McLeod, 2022).
- Michela (2022) focuses on the dual memory model between working (short-term) memory and long-term memory and how it is embedded in cognitivism. Perception and executive processes in working memory link to the encoding of long-term memory. Understanding working memory as four elements (mental attention and resources, verbal and audio information, visual and spatial information, and integration of information from previous experiences) .
- This paper summarizes Ojose’s (2008) presentation at the 2005 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics about how Piaget’s cognitive development theory identifies four distinct stages of children’s cerebral progression: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. These various stages connect to the mathematical progression students should experience in the academic settings, including quantities of objects relating to numbers, engaging in manipulations of objects to represent manipulation of numbers, classifying numbers in a variety of ways, and applying originally abstract numbers to hypothetical situations. While Piaget places the stages chronologically with age ranges of development, it is realistic to consider that in any given classroom, students could be at different stages and teachers should consider how to reach students by adjusting teaching strategies.
- Piaget (1964) identifies the difference between development and learning. Development focuses on the biological growth, but learning is activated by external situations and does not occur naturally without the stimulation. However, Piaget argues that development supports learning. Piaget says, “to know an object is to act on it” and have the ability to understand changes to the object, rather than creating the mental picture. He provides a number of analogies and examples to illustrate his identified stages.
- Schunk (2012) defines learning and describes what it looks like as we see it happen in the classroom through experience and assessments. Before visiting the learning theories of behaviorism, social cognitive theory, information processing theory, constructivism, and cognitive learning processes, the science behind the brain and how it impacts memory, learning, and emotions is introduced. Piaget’s stages are analyzed in detail, including how authentic learning happens when children experience small amounts of conflict. These conflicts disrupt equilibrium, requiring a child to assimilate or accommodate their schema to meet the new experience. This reinforces that the unfamiliar and uncomfortable are necessary to build learning.
- The title encompasses the book's theme. Different aspects of mathematics, including exploration, beauty, and community, are described and analyzed, bringing in various perspectives to engage the reader to learn to love mathematics beyond the traditional classroom.
- Dr. Penny Thompson (2019) introduces a variety of learning theories, including behavior, cognitive, and social theories of learning, as well as attribution and self-determination theories and how they connect to the instructional design in incorporating educational technology. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development are summarized and then expanded by introducing Atkinson and Schiffrin’s Information Process Theory, Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory, and Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. These connected perspectives solidify the benefits of a blended learning classroom by accentuating authentic learning experiences necessary for students to actively learn through engaging with how they think about what they are learning.
- As one of the first books I read when I knew I was going to be a teacher, this book has a number of tips and suggestions for how to effectively run a classroom.