Week 8 cognitive development and language

1. I see how disequilibrium is not necessarily a good thing but it does motivate students, and i see how assimilation and accomodation play a role in it. I know from experience, that when i do not know how to do something that is not familiar to me, because i have no background knowledge of it, it takes me a while to figure it out, but i am determined to get it, so i i accomodate for that knowledge.

2. I see how the Zone of Proximal development applies in instruction. It is important that we know the level that students are in independantly, but it is important to know how much we can challenge them without confusing or frustrating them. It is important that with teacher, or peer help they can accomplish more.

3. I agree with Vygotsky on the role of language in logical thinking. I disagree with Piaget who says thinking comes before language. I agree that they are intertwined. I think that we naturally think, but in order to make sense of our thinking we need to have language to attach to our thinking. I can't say i'm thinking about a tree, if i did not have the langauge to know that a tree is called a tree.

4. I think that encouraging studnents to be active learners is an important instructional principle. I do think there are other ways they learn, but actively learning i think helps students remember more to store in thier long term memories. I know from experience that when i am learning to make a new food dish,i have to not just read the recipe, but practice it. I use the background knowledge that i have from cooking and link that to the new recipe. The next time i cook that meal, i know how to cook it, and if it wasnt good the first time i made it, i can tweak it.