Psychology in Education

Psychology MindMap TEL RETRO STYLE

Abstract:

 Q: How can I ensure all students are motivated to learn? What strategies can I use to engage and maintain student’s interest (with special attention to students from diverse/newcomer backgrounds)?

There has been an enormous expansion over the last decade, opening up higher education to groups of young students from non traditional socioeconomic backgrounds, international and mature students who would not have previously considered doing a Higher Education Course e.g. degree. Within these groups is a New Generation of Higher Education Newcomer, the first generation Irish student whose parents are Immigrants in Ireland who speak their native tongue in their Irish home, and both parents would not necessarily have completed Higher Education prior to coming to Ireland or have a knowledge of the Irish Higher Education System.

Literacy activities that occur prior to third level, parental education, and limited English proficiency play an important role in academic success when we look at risk factors contributing to higher education performance. Identifying specific challenges and bringing about supportive change for the first generation student (or FGS) will help them better culturally adapt and will enhance their college and learning experience. “Most parents alongside their children believe that a college degree is necessary to gain stable and meaningful work”. (Schneider and Stevenson 1999
).

The work of Dewey, Piaget, Vgotsky and Bruner is powerful research and presents solid research of human beings seeking meaningful interactions with the environment and the desire to construct knowledge for themselves and the world around them through these interactions. These theorists together have developed an approach to learning called constructivism. Throughout the paper we have looked at a number of theorists and their approaches to become better informed; Piaget, Bruner, Gardner, Maslow, Vygotsky and more. We delve into the tpes of learner and multiple intelligences, how identifying the type of learner can provide a meaningful environment for engaging the learner in a suitable approach suiting their independent learning need. A constructivist approach involves having the student engage in the entire process. (Possibly using a spiral curriculum as recommended by Bruner).

Following Gardner’s multiple intelligences we have considered the possible readiness and engagement tools we can consider to provide special education support to assist the diverse student in their evolution in particular with social supports as well as academic literacy etc. The active student approach will provide for a project based, problem solving, portfolio form of assessments in order to evaluate their natural learning process. Although the research on constructivism, cognitive approaches and theorists are plentiful, there is most definitely a requirement for further research into this area within the Irish Higher Education landscape and for documented recommendations and clear constructive recommendations to guide educators in the approach to student learning within the cognitive paradigm.

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Introduction:

Q: How can I ensure all students are motivated to learn? What strategies can I use to engage and maintain student’s interest (with special attention to students from diverse/newcomer backgrounds)?

My interest is in researching new active learning and engagement tools within the constructivist approach in order to motivate and enhance student engagement and learning supports for Diverse Newcomer students. I am eager to look at different learning theories to broaden by theory and knowledge into their motivation and learning styles with the purpose of identifying and providing special supports when required. Psychology of training and education deals with what an educator is trying to achieve and how to go about achieving the goals and outcomes. The methods we use as educators must serve a purpose in that we must understand why we are doing what we are doing, and if we are providing an environment inductive to a blended/active learning experience.

 Background:

As a young educator in the Higher Education field, with over ten years industry training and five years post primary level training, Within my limited HE experience, the most prominent change I have experienced is the level of diversity and how fast the classroom is changing culturally and ethnically, whereas in the past international students mainly from Asian and African continents came to study in western Higher Education Institutions, the Newcomer student today is the first generation undergraduate from a migrant family who is coming through the Irish Education system, unfamiliar to the parents, and who may be bilingual in their daily life, and undoubtedly have special needs with regard to student readiness for Third Level, social supports, who may have an excellent command of the English language but not grammatically or of higher education academic standards. This diversity raises concerns of teaching and education, and requires us as practitioners to readdress our pedagogical practice and look at emerging trends and methodologies in the area of motivating our students, engaging our students, growth needs and supporting students in their learning styles and self actualisation. 

My Personal Philosophy as an educator, I:

·         Am morally responsible to support this student, direct them to supportive specialists where necessary, blend my teaching methods to provide and engage the student through learning activities, while leading by example in highlighting diversity in a positive way.

·         Understand and respect every student’s individual and unique characteristic.

·         Understand every student is different and has a different way of learning

·         Regardless of student difference, each and every one in my lecture deserves to receive a equal education.

·         Need to know, respect, and incorporate diverse backgrounds

·         Encourage students to share their culture with others.

Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common.

 Research and Literature:

I am drawing from a variety of papers and online resources that look at cognitive development, learning styles and Multiple Intelligence in order to develop a more engaging and knowledgeable active learning environment for students from diverse backgrounds. The theorists pertaining to this field of cognitive development, motivation and constructivism approaches are Jean Piaget, Bruner, Gage, Dewey, Freud, Vygotsky, Maslow and Rogers. I propose that this research will provide me with tools including the ability to develop a strong strategy that will assist me in classroom management, to identify different learning styles, best practice for developing environmental interactions that develop the student, aid self discovery and best practices in the classroom. I look to find how, as professional Educators, we can overcome special education challenges in order to support Newcomer and diverse students in their self-evolution and reach acceptable levels of achievement.

 “What is needed to transform these students is for faculty, administrators, and counsellors to fully engage in the validation of students and to recognise that not all students can be expected to learn or to get involved in institutional life in the same way. Diversity in nature is strength. So is diversity among college students. The challenge is how to harness that strength, and how to unleash the creativity and exuberance for learning that is present in all students who feel free to learn, free to be who they are, and validated for what they know and believe”,(Laura L Rendon 1994).[1]

 

Laura Rendon refers to a changing landscape in Higher Education in the US as far back as 1994. In 2014, Ireland’s Higher Education student is quite different to the Traditional Higher Education Student Elite of the past. For Ireland, there has been an enormous expansion over the last decade, opening up higher education to groups of young students from nontraditional socioeconomic backgrounds, international and mature students who would not have previously considered doing a Higher Education Course e.g. degree.

 

‘The merit of such (inclusive ) schools is not only that they are capable of providing quality education to all children; their establishment is a crucial step in helping to change discriminatory attitudes, in creating welcoming communities and in developing an inclusive society. A change in social perspective is imperative…’,(Unesco) (Salamanca Statement, Unesco, P 6-7)[2].

Students have always been diverse in the sense that each student has a unique pattern and motivation to learn, however, forms of diversity are becoming more numerous since 2000 i.e. the extent of diversity, and the diverse classroom of students from diverse language backgrounds, who are more diverse in age and education needs. The increases in diversity are not limited to language or disability, due to recent economic change there has been a dramatic broadening of the age range of individuals entering Higher Education as “students’. The maturity in age and life experience of often translates to them having life experience that enhance and motivate the learning of new skills for up skilling and knowledge, however they may not have been in the academic environment for more than a decade.

 

The educator is met with the typical ‘academic’ student who is motivated, knowledgeable and actively learning even while sitting quietly in the lecture, and then the ‘non-academic’ student who is unsure of their goals, doing subjects that don’t really interest them, and passively in the class, requiring the course for the job opportunity upon graduation.  In order to support and engage both types of student, we require some knowledge of how students learn, are motivated, and approaches used in best practice. The emphasis in todays HE landscape is a strong move towards a more student-centred approach to teaching and learning, shifting the focus from teacher to the learner.  

 Theorists:

·         Behavioural psychology also known as behaviourism, a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning. Advocated by famous psychologists such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, behavioural theories dominated psychology during the early half of the twentieth century. Behaviourism can perhaps be best summed up by the following quote from the famous psychologist John B. Watson:

"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 race of his ancestors."[3]--John Watson, Behaviourism, 1930.

 Staunch behaviourists believe that any person could potentially be trained to perform any task, regardless of things like genetic background, personality traits, and internal thoughts and that all it takes is the right conditioning. There are two types: Classical and Operant Conditioning. There are a number of important theorists and psychologists who left an indelible mark on behaviorism, including Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike, John B. Watson, and Clark Hull. Many critics argue that behaviourism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior and that behavioural theories do not account for free will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts, and feelings.

 Cognitive theories of psychology are focused on internal states, such as motivation, problem solving, decision-making, thinking, and attention. Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person's thought processes. It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world around us. The most frontline thinker was Jean Piaget, who proposed an idea that seems obvious now, but helped revolutionise how we think about child development[4]

Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896. Based upon his observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it." Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children.

Cognitive development involves changes in cognitive process and abilities.

 A Quick Summary of Cognitive Development (*the full summary is in the appendices).

• The Sensorimotor Stage
• The Preoperational Stage.
• The Concrete Operational Stage.
• The Formal Operational Stage.

Piaget suggested that there is a qualitative change in how children think as they gradually progress through these four stages. A child at age 7 doesn't just have more information about the world than he did at age 2; there is a fundamental change in how he/she thinks about the world.

 The impact Piaget has on us as Educators: “a number of instructional strategies have been derived from Piaget's work. These strategies include providing a supportive environment, utilising social interactions and peer teaching, and helping students see fallacies and inconsistencies in their thinking”,[5] (Driscoll, 1994). While there are few strict Piaget Practitioners around today, most people can appreciate Piaget's influence and legacy. His work generated interest in child development and had an enormous impact on the future of education and developmental psychology. Piaget described himself as a genetic epistemologist. He believed the Individual adapts to his or her environment by way of the interaction. Social knowledge can only be gained through interaction with others.

 Following on from this Bruner in the early 1960’s went on to look at the outcome of cognitive development is thinking. The intelligent mind creates from experience "generic coding systems that permit one to go beyond the data to new and possibly fruitful predictions" [6](Bruner, 1957, p. 234).

Bruner Integrated Piaget’s cognitive approaches into educational psychology. Bruner was an advocate of discovery learning. Teachers create a problem solving environment and this allows students to question, explore and experiment. Bruner states that the goal of the teacher is to structure the subject in a way that the student can easily understand. He was interested in the structure of material and the cognitive abilities of a person. Bruner looked at the influence of culture on education. Bruner would likely agree with Vygotsky that language serves to mediate between environmental stimuli and the individual's response. The aim of education should be to create autonomous learners (i.e., learning to learn).

In his research on the cognitive development of children (1966), Jerome Bruner proposed three modes of representation; Enactive representation (action-based), Iconic representation (image-based), and Symbolic representation (language-based). In 1960 Bruner's text, The Process of Education was published. The main aspect of Bruner's text was that students are active learners who construct their own knowledge. In the limited readings I have found on Newcomers, or first generations students in Ireland, active learning techniques, promoting active students and engaging group activities such as jigsaw are mentioned as forms of recommended teaching technique to evoke student learning-activity-and engagement. The concept of discovery learning by Bruner implies that students construct their own knowledge for themselves (we know this also as constructivist approach). 

The role of the teacher should not be to teach information by transmitting the learning, but instead to facilitate the learning process. This means that a good teacher will design lessons that help students to discover the areas between the bits of information. Here we find important aspects from the theory in teaching to a diverse student group/classroom. Although Bruner proposes stages of cognitive development, he doesn’t see them as representing different separate modes of thought at different points of development (like Piaget). Instead, he sees a gradual development of cognitive skills and techniques into more integrated “adult” cognitive techniques. Also around looking at methods of teaching and students individual stages of learning, I can’t help but look at how Bruner was so ahead of his time in that Bruner views symbolic representation as crucial for cognitive development and since language is our primary means of symbolising the world, he attaches great importance to language in determining cognitive development.

 

Lev Vykotsky in his work uses social interaction as the framework for all learning and development. To him, “the development of the mind is the interweaving of biological development of the human body and the appropriation of the cultural/ideal/material heritage which exists in the present to coordinate people with each other and the physical world”, Cole and Wertsch, 1996, p.2. [7](Class Pre Reading: Connecting Cognitive Development and Constructivism, Stacey T Lutz, and William G.Huitt). Vygotsky’s view is that human beings create cultures through the use of tools and symbols. Culture(i.e. society) is the driving force behind cognitive development.

Driscoll,2000 discusses this point as being the point in time where we see the departure from theories that lean on cognitive development proceeds in order to prepare a person for society in a meaningful way, instead cognitive development is the conversion of social functions into mental functions. The concept in Vygotsky’s theory (1978) that each person has an individual range of potential for learning that is referred to as the zone of proximal development. His interest was in how a person mediates or modifies the stimulus situation as part of learning.

 

Humanistic psychology theories began to grow in popularity during the 1950s. While earlier the theories often focused on abnormal behavior and psychological problems, humanist theories instead emphasised the basic goodness of human beings. Some of the major humanist theorists include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

Humanistic psychology was born in opposition to psychoanalysis and behaviourism.

Humanistic psychology, is characterised by a broader understanding of the human being and an expanded vision of psychological practice. Maslow called it the "Third Force", which came to oppose the first and second force or in other words psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Maslow accepted the ideas of Freud - the founder of psychoanalysis and the beliefs of behaviorism although he saw these two models of psychology as inadequate and incomplete.

In Maslow's view there were a number of common assumptions that serve to unify humanistic psychologists. These include the assumption that human beings have an essential inner nature, and in part unique to each person. This inner nature can be studied scientifically. It can be either neutral and pre-moral or good, but never intrinsically evil. This inner nature has to be encouraged and not suppressed or denied. Encouragement will result in psychological health and productivity, while suppression leads to psychological sickness.

 

Carl Rogers also contributed significantly to the early development of humanistic psychology. He provided the central clinical framework for the humanistic therapies. He managed to bring a fresh perspective to clinical practice, which during his time was heavily influenced by psychoanalysis. “Humanistic psychology has a significant impact on therapy, education, healthcare and other areas. It succeeded in removing some of the stigma related to therapy. Humanistic psychology made therapy more accessible for healthy individuals who seek ways to explore their abilities and potential.”[8] Donald Moss. Greenwood Press, 1999.

 Motivation: Psychology and research in learning can improve educational practice greatly such as motivation in teaching and learning. Researchers have developed a number of different theories to explain motivation. Each individual theory tends to be rather limited in scope. Motivation is “an internal state, that arouses, directs and maintains behaviour”[9], Woolfock, Winnie & Perry, 2012. The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social, emotional or cognitive in nature. In education psychology, psychologists have made two distinctions; Intrinsic Motivation (IM) and Extrinsic Motivation (EM).

 Intrinsic Motivation is when the student is interested in the subject, activity and/task. For example they study computer science for the intellectual pleasure of problem solving. Psychology and Sociology area  are subjects which may not be studied in the past but because of curiosity or career plans, the students see the areas as important = intrinsic interest. “A goal-orientated behaviour”, [10]Gage and Berliner, 1998.

“A student who is intrinsically motivated undertakes an activity for it’s own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment (achievement) it evokes”, [11]Lepper, 1998.

 Extrinsic Motivation is when the student will perform the task or cover the module because of the value attached to what the outcome brings, either something positive (a cert or award), or something negative ( punishment , failure). Under these conditions, the quality of learning is low. The student because they are not personally interested in the task will adopt a light surface approach which is a form of extrinsic, including a fear of failure.[12]

There are 5 views, approaches of motivation: Behavioural, Humanistic, Cognitive, Social and Sociocultural all of which have a source of motivation, important influences and key theorists.

 

1.    Behavioural deals with reinforcers, rewards, incentives and punishments.

2.    Humanistic deals with needs for self fulfillment, self esteem, and self determination.

3.    Cognitive deals with beliefs, attributions for success & failure and expectations.

4.    Social cognitive deal with goals, self efficacy, expectations and intentions.

5.    Sociocultural deals with activities within groups, engaged participation in learning communities, maintaining identity through participation in activities in groups.

 Needs: What do we want? Need? Desire?

The needs theory was developed by Maslow. The Theory of Human Motivation in 1943, and then Motivation and Personality in 1956.  Maslows’ theory presents several levels of needs starting with the most basic physiological needs required for survival, from there, safety and security needs, social needs (friendship and family), Esteem (or psychological needs) like self esteem, confidence to the final level of self actualisation (wholeness, richness, completion, problem solving, creativity). If we translate this to our HE students, we find students need sleep, rest, food, energy, shelter, clothing, health, support from friends/family, self confidence, esteem, freedom to express themselves and their interests etc.

 

Another important theory of needs is The Self Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan), a framework for the study of human motivation and personality. An intrinsic motivation that comes from within the individual, as well as how social and cultural factors, influence or undermine a person’s sense of volition, well being and performance. The Self Determination theory outlines that all humans are influenced by 3 fundamental needs: Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness. Needs theories and motivation theories have important implications for education, work environments, sports organisations,   health, medicine, parenting, virtual, media environments and close relationships. What this means is that the needs theories have important functions is helping us as educators motivate students as well as cover specific functions for areas such as special education, supporting strengths as well as weaknesses.[13]

Using Multiple Intelligence and Learning styles as a tool for motivation and successful teaching: By understanding our learners styles, and at early stages identify multiple intelligence, we can potentially provide activities and assessment strategies focused on each of the groups intelligence strength. Multiple intelligence refers to a theory that states in more ways than one our thinking is unique. The way we learn is dynamic.

 

Dr Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences to document the fact that human beings have different intellectual strengths and these strengths are very important in how children learn, how people represent things in their mind and how people use that to show what they have understood. Elaborating in his pluralistic view of intelligence, Gardner concluded that there are many independent intelligences. If we all had one kind of mind there would be only one kind of intelligence. In that case we could teach everyone the same thing the same way.

As educators we can encourage a certain teaching style to engage learners of the various intelligences , I have noted them in brackets to follow. There are 9 intelligences: Musical (knowledge through song,audio); Spatial(Draw, Design, construct, cutting), Naturalist(use 5 senses, work placement outdoors such as botanist/biologist), Linguistic, kinaesthetic(roleplay,games,movement),Intrapersonal(write,reflect,deconstruct arguments/debates), Interpersonal(group work), Logical/mathematical(puzzle solving, games), and Existentialistic(imagination, cosmic, stories of great souls, religious mythology). Gardner’s theory provides a broad and comprehensive view of human abilities.  He defines intelligence as a set of abilities hidden talents and mental skills to solve problems.

Learner Types:

• 1.    Kineasthetic: Learners learn best by doing things such as including physical activity – these students do well in a hands on environment.
• 2.    Auditory Learner: learn best when they can listen to the information they are studying- most do well in a lecture based classroom.
• 3.    Visual Learners: learn by seeing; Put the information on front of them rather than listening or project work.

In conclusion , it is important to be open to a variety of recommendations within the contructivist approach. Attending to readiness and social internaction, requiring students to go beyond content and information provided ti discover the knowledge and fill in their gaps through exploration is leaning towards Bruner (1987,1990). We can accomplish this by looking at spiral curriculum with new concepts introduced and tie them into previous learning rather them being separate. It provides for a more quality based rather than quantity based number of concepts being covered, more active engagement in inquiry, and deeper learning taking place. Educators must activate previous experiences, knowledge, and learning strategies in order to effectively present new information in a context that students can readily process. Student readiness is an important factor in learning, I would suggest trying to observe how a student works independently and then attempting to teach the student a new concept in order to ascertain the students “zone of proximal development”.

Each of the major theorists have their own set of recommendations for incorporating a constructive approach to learning in the classroom. The common denominator is that the development of meaning in the teaching/learning is more important than the acquisition of a large set of knowledge or skills that are easily forgotten. Remaining informed on emerging trends in a variety of pedagogical themes and providing an active learning environment in accordance with constructivist approaches highlighted. Further list of recommendations in 

Appendix 2: E.G.

·         Each pupil finds their strongest intelligence- group by M.I. type. This influences how they receive tutorials, online supports, assignments using Gardner’s theory.

·         As educators we must look to develop a strategy that matches learning experience to a student’s level of readiness, provide for social interaction during the learning process. 

·         The flipped classroom model, what used to be thought of as “homework” is now done in class. Conversely, what used to be considered the “traditional in-class lecture” is now being viewed outside the classroom, often in the form of a recorded video lecture. 

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Further references/Bibliography:

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• ·         [1] Rendon, L., 1994. Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model of learning and student development. Innovative Higher Education, 19(1), pp. 33-51
• ·         [2] Unesco, n.d. Salamanca Statement p.g. 6-7, s.l.: s.n.
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• ·         [3] Skinner, B. F. (1985), Cognitive science and behaviourism. British Journal of Psychology, 76: 291–301. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1985.tb01953.

• [4] Kendra Cherry, About.com Psychology. Also: Greenwood, J. D. (1999), Understanding the “cognitive revolution” in psychology. J. Hist. Behav. Sci., 35: 1–22. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6696(199924)35:1<1::AID-JHBS1>3.0.CO;2-4
• [5] Driscoll, 1994. http://metablog.borntothink.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/1932-Bartlett-Schema-Theory.pdf
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• [6] Bruner, 1957, p.234 taken from http://evaeducation.weebly.com/uploads/1/9/6/9/19692577/bruner.pdf
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• [7] Cole and Wertsch, 1996, p.2. [7](Class Pre Reading: Connecting Cognitive Development and Constructivism, Stacey T Lutz, and William G.Huitt)
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• [8] Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology: A Historical and Biographical Sourcebook; Donald Moss.
• Greenwood Press, 1999. //www.questia.com/read/54838508/humanistic-and-transpersonal-psychology-a-historical.
• [9] Woolfolk, Winnie, & Perry, 2012, p.337.
• [10] Gage and Berliner, 1998 (class reading notes)
• [11] Lepper, 1998 (class reading notes)
• [12] (Biggs 1987a)
• [13] Simply Psychology; google.com/+SimplypsychologyOrg