Piaget or Vygotsky?

Today in class we were asked the question, "Of the two theorists of cognitive development discussed, Piaget and Vygotsky, which do you find to resonate more with your personal inclinations and preferences for teaching? Why?". I began thinking about this question and thinking about my previous experiences with teaching skating and about what kind of teach I want to be, and I feel as though I side more with Vygotsky's theory, though I still do incorporate Piaget too. I believe you need to have a balance of both theories, both these theorists were very intelligent people and they both know what they are talking about. I believe I can benefit my students the most if I incorporate both theories. With Piaget I believe that all people do have schema's where we store information for later use. His methods of assimilation and accommodation are very effective methods of getting new information into our schema's. Assimilation is relating new information to information you already possess, and accommodation is when we change our schema to make room for the new information. To me these two definitions make sense. The part of Piaget's theory that I am not too fond of is his stages of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. These stages are too definite on their age groups; I believe that all children develop at different rates and putting an age to it seems to definite to me. When I look at Vygotsky's theory I can see myself adding some of his theory to my everyday classroom assignments and procedures. I also believe in developmental trajectory, children have to build on their knowledge in order to learn they have to take it step by step. When I am teaching my future students I am going to make sure I use apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is when the student is guided through learning by a teacher, coach or older peer. This seems very beneficial to me because I believe that in order to learn the student has to be taught by someone who is more knowledgeable than them. The teacher then can increase the difficulty of the students assignments to increase the students knowledge. This is known as scaffolding another of Vygotsky's theories. I will use this when I teach my future classes.

Response to Allison Cameron Video

In today's class we watched a short video that had a great effect on me. It made me think about the kind of teacher I want to be; what kind of difference I want to make in young peoples lives. First off I will give some back ground on what the short video was about...it has to do with students that attend a school that is kind of like a last resort because these students have problems staying in school and succeeding in school. One of the students they focused on is Barney, he is a 14 yr old boy that could not read and write. This all changed when one of his teachers Allison Cameron introduced exercise to their daily routine. Allison noticed drastic improvements in her students grade and in their concentration. This video really made me realize that I aspire to be an innovative teacher. One who can experiment and find positive outcomes. I want to be able to make an impact in a child's life; be that person they can think back on fondly. I want to make a difference.

Constructivism

In class today I found myself trying to absorb every single bit of information that was thrown my way, with it being the second educational psychology class I have ever sat in on I was bound and determined to catch everything. I was doing this perfectly fine until my professor mentioned constructivism. Constructivism is when a person gains knowledge threw interaction and hands on activity. This definition made me think about my last twelve years of figure skating. I thought about how I simply could not learn something by just being told how to do it; it seemed to go in one ear and out the other. It wasn't until I had the chance to try the new move or jump that I would finally grasp the concept. I realize now that I not only learned but taught with constructivism all the time, when I was teaching my young skaters the basics of skating. I would explain and demonstrate how to stop for example and then I would ask them to do it themselves. I feel this is one of the best ways of learning and using constructivism is one of the building blocks to being an effective teacher.