Lev Vygotsky
The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as Social Development Theory.
Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning."
Unlike Piaget's notion that childrens' development must necessarily precede their learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function" (1978, p. 90). In other words, social learning tends to precede (i.e. come before) development.
Vygotsky has developed a sociocultural approach to cognitive development. He developed his theories at around the same time as Jean Piaget was starting to develop his ideas (1920's and 30's), but he died at the age of 38 and so his theories are incomplete - although some of his writings are still being translated from Russian.
No single principle (such as Piaget's equilibration) can account for development. Individual development cannot be understood without reference to the social and cultural context within which it is embedded. Higher mental processes in the individual have their origin in social processes.
Vygotsky's theory differs from that of Piaget in a number of important ways:
1: Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture affecting/shaping cognitive development - this contradicts Piaget's view of universal stages and content of development. (Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the way that Piaget does).
(i) Hence Vygotsky assumes cognitive development varies across cultures, whereas Piaget states cognitive development is mostly universal across cultures.
2: Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis on social factors contributing to cognitive development (Piaget is criticized for underestimating this).
(i) Vygotsky states cognitive development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partners co-construct knowledge. In contrast Piaget maintains that cognitive development stems largely from independent explorations in which children construct knowledge of their own.
(ii) For Vygotsky, the environment in which children grow up will influence how they think and what they think about.
3: Vygotsky places more (and different) emphasis on the role of language in cognitive development (again Piaget is criticized for lack of emphasis on this). For Vygotsky, cognitive development results from an internalization of language.
According to Piaget, language depends on thought for its development (i.e. thought comes before language). For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age, producing verbal thought (inner speech).
4: According to Vygotsky adults are an important source of cognitive development. Adults transmit their culture's tools of intellectual adaptation that children internalize. In contrast Piaget emphasizes the importance of peers as peer interaction promotes social perspective taking.
Inc, B.D. (2015) The fountain magazine - issue - CONSTRUCTIVISM in Piaget and Vygotsky. Available at: http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/CONSTRUCTIVISM-in-Piaget-and-Vygotsky (Accessed: 17 November 2016).
Vygotskii, L.S. (1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Edited by Michael Cole, Vera John-Steiner, and Sylvia Scribner. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Thursday, 17 November 2016
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
The Social Learning Theory
A person's cognition, environment and behavior play important roles in learning new knowledge and skills. This lesson will focus on Albert Bandura's contributions to social learning and vicarious experiences.
Do you have a fear of snakes or perhaps other animals? Do you think that you could get over this fear by observing other people that had snake phobias? This is exactly the experiment that was conducted years ago to help the psychologist Albert Bandura understand the importance of behavioral models.
The psychologist Albert Bandura discovered the importance of behavioral models when he was working with patients with snake phobias. He found that the patients' observation of former patients handling snakes was an effective therapy. The patients in treatment abstracted the information that others who were like them handled snakes with no ill effects. These patients considered that information in reflecting on their own behavior. Bandura found that these observations were more effective in treating their phobias than persuasion and observing the psychologist handle the snakes.
Bandura's social learning theory stresses the importance of observational learning, imitation and modeling. His theory integrates a continuous interaction between behaviors, personal factors - including cognition - and the environment referred to as reciprocal causation model.
However, Bandura does not suggest that the three factors in the triadic model make equal contributions to behavior. The influence of behavior, environment and person depends on which factor is strongest at any particular moment.
In the model, B, or behavior, refers to things like complexity, duration, skill, etc. The E stands for environment, and it's comprised of the situation, roles, models and relationships. P, or person, is comprised mainly of cognition but also other personal factors such as self-efficacy, motives and personality.
Here's a classroom example to help make this point more clear. In the classroom as a teacher presents a lesson to the class, students reflect on what the teacher is saying. This is where the environment influences cognition, a personal factor. Students who don't understand a point raise their hands to ask a question. This is where personal factors influence behavior. So, the teacher reviews the point (behavior influences environment).
Bandura's most famous experiment was the 1961 Bobo Doll study. Briefly, he made a video in which an adult woman was shown being aggressive to a Bobo doll, hitting and shouting aggressive words.
The film was shown to groups of children. Afterwards, the children were allowed to play in the room with the same doll. The children began imitating the model by beating up the doll and using similar, aggressive words. The study was significant because it departed from behaviorism's insistences that all behavior is directed by reinforcement or rewards. The children received no encouragement or incentives to beat up the doll; they were simply imitating the behavior they had observed.
Through the Bobo doll experiment and others, Bandura grounded his understanding of a model's primary function, which is to transmit information to the observer. This function occurs in any of three ways:
Another example for strengthening or weakening behavior is when an observer's restraints against imitating a behavior are strengthened when the model is punished. For example, if a classmate violates a school rule and is punished, this will make the observer think twice before attempting to break the rule. In contrast, observers' restraints are weakened in one of two ways. One is lack of punishment for reprehensible behaviors. The other is the modeling of defensible violence, which adds legitimacy to the use of violence as a solution to a problem. Unfortunately, we see violence daily on TV and in media, which may lead to weaken the observer's behavioral restraints toward violent behavior.
The third influence of modeling is to demonstrate new patterns of behavior. Models are particularly important in the socialization of both children and adults. Language, social values and family customs, as well as educational, social and political practices, are modeled in countless situations. Examples for children of symbolic models that portray both socially appropriate behaviors and sensitivity to others are Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
Mediational Processes
SLT is often described as the ‘bridge’ between traditional learning theory (ie. behaviourism) and the cognitive approach. This is because it focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved in learning.
Unlike Skinner, Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work. These mental factors mediate (i.e. intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired.
Therefore, individuals do not automatically observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it. There is some thought prior to imitation and this consideration is called mediational processes. This occurs between observing the behaviour (stimulus) and imitating it or not (response)
There are four mediational processes proposed by Bandura:
Attention: The extent to which we are exposed/notice the behaviour. For a behaviour to be imitated it has to grab our attention. We observe many behaviours on a daily basis and many of these are not noteworthy. Attention is therefore extremely important in whether a behaviour has an influence in others imitating it.
Retention: How well the behaviour is remembered. The behaviour may be noticed, but is it not always remembered which obviously prevents imitation. It is important therefore that a memory of the behaviour is formed to be performed later by the observer.
Much of social learning is not immediate so this process is especially vital in those cases. Even if the behaviour is reproduced shortly after seeing it, there needs to be a memory to refer to.
Reproduction: This is the ability to perform the behavior that the model has just demonstrated. We see much behaviour on a daily basis that we would like to be able to imitate but that this not always possible. We are limited by our physical ability and for that reason, even if we wish to reproduce the behaviour, we cannot.
This influences our decisions whether to try and imitate it or not. Imagine the scenario of a 90-year-old-lady who struggles to walk watching Dancing on Ice. She may appreciate that the skill is a desirable one, but she will not attempt to imitate it because she physically cannot do it.
Motivation: The will to perform the behaviour. The rewards and punishment that follow a behaviour will be considered by the observer. If the perceived rewards outweighs the perceived costs (if there are any) then the behaviour will be more likely to be imitated by the observer. If the vicarious reinforcement is not seen to be important enough to the observer then they will not imitate the behaviour.
Instructor and Hurst, M. (2003) Albert Bandura: Social-cognitive theory and vicarious learning - video & lesson transcript. Available at: http://study.com/academy/lesson/albert-bandura-social-cognitive-theory-and-vicarious-learning.html (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
McLeod, S. (2011) Bandura - social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
Do you have a fear of snakes or perhaps other animals? Do you think that you could get over this fear by observing other people that had snake phobias? This is exactly the experiment that was conducted years ago to help the psychologist Albert Bandura understand the importance of behavioral models.
The psychologist Albert Bandura discovered the importance of behavioral models when he was working with patients with snake phobias. He found that the patients' observation of former patients handling snakes was an effective therapy. The patients in treatment abstracted the information that others who were like them handled snakes with no ill effects. These patients considered that information in reflecting on their own behavior. Bandura found that these observations were more effective in treating their phobias than persuasion and observing the psychologist handle the snakes.
Bandura's social learning theory stresses the importance of observational learning, imitation and modeling. His theory integrates a continuous interaction between behaviors, personal factors - including cognition - and the environment referred to as reciprocal causation model.
However, Bandura does not suggest that the three factors in the triadic model make equal contributions to behavior. The influence of behavior, environment and person depends on which factor is strongest at any particular moment.
In the model, B, or behavior, refers to things like complexity, duration, skill, etc. The E stands for environment, and it's comprised of the situation, roles, models and relationships. P, or person, is comprised mainly of cognition but also other personal factors such as self-efficacy, motives and personality.
Here's a classroom example to help make this point more clear. In the classroom as a teacher presents a lesson to the class, students reflect on what the teacher is saying. This is where the environment influences cognition, a personal factor. Students who don't understand a point raise their hands to ask a question. This is where personal factors influence behavior. So, the teacher reviews the point (behavior influences environment).
Bandura's most famous experiment was the 1961 Bobo Doll study. Briefly, he made a video in which an adult woman was shown being aggressive to a Bobo doll, hitting and shouting aggressive words.
The film was shown to groups of children. Afterwards, the children were allowed to play in the room with the same doll. The children began imitating the model by beating up the doll and using similar, aggressive words. The study was significant because it departed from behaviorism's insistences that all behavior is directed by reinforcement or rewards. The children received no encouragement or incentives to beat up the doll; they were simply imitating the behavior they had observed.
Through the Bobo doll experiment and others, Bandura grounded his understanding of a model's primary function, which is to transmit information to the observer. This function occurs in any of three ways:
- Modeled behaviors serve as cues to initiate similar behaviors in others.
- They also serve to strengthen or weaken the learner's existing restraints against the performance of a modeled behavior.
- They're used to demonstrate new patterns of behavior.
Another example for strengthening or weakening behavior is when an observer's restraints against imitating a behavior are strengthened when the model is punished. For example, if a classmate violates a school rule and is punished, this will make the observer think twice before attempting to break the rule. In contrast, observers' restraints are weakened in one of two ways. One is lack of punishment for reprehensible behaviors. The other is the modeling of defensible violence, which adds legitimacy to the use of violence as a solution to a problem. Unfortunately, we see violence daily on TV and in media, which may lead to weaken the observer's behavioral restraints toward violent behavior.
The third influence of modeling is to demonstrate new patterns of behavior. Models are particularly important in the socialization of both children and adults. Language, social values and family customs, as well as educational, social and political practices, are modeled in countless situations. Examples for children of symbolic models that portray both socially appropriate behaviors and sensitivity to others are Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
Mediational Processes
SLT is often described as the ‘bridge’ between traditional learning theory (ie. behaviourism) and the cognitive approach. This is because it focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved in learning.
Unlike Skinner, Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work. These mental factors mediate (i.e. intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired.
Therefore, individuals do not automatically observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it. There is some thought prior to imitation and this consideration is called mediational processes. This occurs between observing the behaviour (stimulus) and imitating it or not (response)
There are four mediational processes proposed by Bandura:
Attention: The extent to which we are exposed/notice the behaviour. For a behaviour to be imitated it has to grab our attention. We observe many behaviours on a daily basis and many of these are not noteworthy. Attention is therefore extremely important in whether a behaviour has an influence in others imitating it.
Retention: How well the behaviour is remembered. The behaviour may be noticed, but is it not always remembered which obviously prevents imitation. It is important therefore that a memory of the behaviour is formed to be performed later by the observer.
Much of social learning is not immediate so this process is especially vital in those cases. Even if the behaviour is reproduced shortly after seeing it, there needs to be a memory to refer to.
Reproduction: This is the ability to perform the behavior that the model has just demonstrated. We see much behaviour on a daily basis that we would like to be able to imitate but that this not always possible. We are limited by our physical ability and for that reason, even if we wish to reproduce the behaviour, we cannot.
This influences our decisions whether to try and imitate it or not. Imagine the scenario of a 90-year-old-lady who struggles to walk watching Dancing on Ice. She may appreciate that the skill is a desirable one, but she will not attempt to imitate it because she physically cannot do it.
Motivation: The will to perform the behaviour. The rewards and punishment that follow a behaviour will be considered by the observer. If the perceived rewards outweighs the perceived costs (if there are any) then the behaviour will be more likely to be imitated by the observer. If the vicarious reinforcement is not seen to be important enough to the observer then they will not imitate the behaviour.
Instructor and Hurst, M. (2003) Albert Bandura: Social-cognitive theory and vicarious learning - video & lesson transcript. Available at: http://study.com/academy/lesson/albert-bandura-social-cognitive-theory-and-vicarious-learning.html (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
McLeod, S. (2011) Bandura - social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Bandura, A. Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through the imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582
The Montessori Method
Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori based on her extensive research with "phrenasthenic" or "special needs" children and characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and social development. Although a range of practices exists under the name "Montessori", the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the American Montessori Society (AMS) cite these elements as essential:
Teachers show respect for children when they help them do things and learn for themselves. When children have choices, they are able to develop the skills and abilities necessary for effective learning autonomy, and positive self-esteem.
The Absorbent Mind
Montessori believed that children educate themselves: “It may be said that we acquire knowledge by using our minds; but the child absorbs knowledge directly into his psychic life. Simply by continuing to live, the child learns to speak his native tongue" (Montessori, 1966). This is the concept of the absorbent mind.
Montessori wanted us to understand that children can’t help learning. Simply by living, children learn from their environment. Children are born to learn, and they are remarkable learning systems. Children learn because they are thinking beings. But what they learn depends greatly on their teachers, experiences, and environments.
Early childhood teachers are reemphasizing the idea that children are born learning and with constant readiness and ability to learn. We discuss these concepts further in Chapter .
Sensitive Periods
Montessori believed there are sensitive periods when children are more susceptible to certain behaviors and can learn specific skills more easily:
A sensitive period refers to a special sensibility which a creature acquires in its infantile state, while it is still in a process of evolution. It is a transient disposition and limited to the acquisition of a particular trait. Once this trait or characteristic has been acquired, the special sensibility disappears....(Montessori, 1966).
Although all children experience the same sensitive periods (e.g., a sensitive period for writing), the sequence and timing vary for each child. One role of the teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and provide the setting for optimum fulfillment.
The Prepared Environment
Montessori believed that children learn best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. The prepared environment makes learning materials and experiences available to children in an orderly format. Classrooms Montessori described are really what educators advocate when they talk about child-centered education and active learning. Freedom is the essential characteristic of the prepared environment. Since children within the environment are free to explore materials of their own choosing, they absorb what they find there. Maria Montessori was a master at creating environments for young children that enabled them to be independent, active, and learn.
Autoeducation
Montessori named the concept that children are capable of educating themselves autoeducation (also known as self-education). Children who are actively involved in a prepared environment and who exercise freedom of choice literally educate themselves. Montessori teachers prepare classrooms so that children educate themselves.
The Teacher’s Role
Montessori believed that “it is necessary for the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel her presence too much, so that she may be always ready to supply the desired help, but may never be the obstacle between the child and his experience" (Montessori, 1967).
The Montessori teacher demonstrates key behaviors to implement this child-centered approach:
- Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children ages 2½ or 3 to 6 years old are by far the most common
- Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
- Uninterrupted blocks of work time, ideally three hours
- A constructivist or "discovery" model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction
- Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators
- Freedom of movement within the classroom
- A trained Montessori teacher
Teachers show respect for children when they help them do things and learn for themselves. When children have choices, they are able to develop the skills and abilities necessary for effective learning autonomy, and positive self-esteem.
The Absorbent Mind
Montessori believed that children educate themselves: “It may be said that we acquire knowledge by using our minds; but the child absorbs knowledge directly into his psychic life. Simply by continuing to live, the child learns to speak his native tongue" (Montessori, 1966). This is the concept of the absorbent mind.
Montessori wanted us to understand that children can’t help learning. Simply by living, children learn from their environment. Children are born to learn, and they are remarkable learning systems. Children learn because they are thinking beings. But what they learn depends greatly on their teachers, experiences, and environments.
Early childhood teachers are reemphasizing the idea that children are born learning and with constant readiness and ability to learn. We discuss these concepts further in Chapter .
Sensitive Periods
Montessori believed there are sensitive periods when children are more susceptible to certain behaviors and can learn specific skills more easily:
A sensitive period refers to a special sensibility which a creature acquires in its infantile state, while it is still in a process of evolution. It is a transient disposition and limited to the acquisition of a particular trait. Once this trait or characteristic has been acquired, the special sensibility disappears....(Montessori, 1966).
Although all children experience the same sensitive periods (e.g., a sensitive period for writing), the sequence and timing vary for each child. One role of the teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and provide the setting for optimum fulfillment.
The Prepared Environment
Montessori believed that children learn best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. The prepared environment makes learning materials and experiences available to children in an orderly format. Classrooms Montessori described are really what educators advocate when they talk about child-centered education and active learning. Freedom is the essential characteristic of the prepared environment. Since children within the environment are free to explore materials of their own choosing, they absorb what they find there. Maria Montessori was a master at creating environments for young children that enabled them to be independent, active, and learn.
Autoeducation
Montessori named the concept that children are capable of educating themselves autoeducation (also known as self-education). Children who are actively involved in a prepared environment and who exercise freedom of choice literally educate themselves. Montessori teachers prepare classrooms so that children educate themselves.
The Teacher’s Role
Montessori believed that “it is necessary for the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel her presence too much, so that she may be always ready to supply the desired help, but may never be the obstacle between the child and his experience" (Montessori, 1967).
The Montessori teacher demonstrates key behaviors to implement this child-centered approach:
- Make children the center of learning because, as Montessori said, “The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child” (Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook).
- Encourage children to learn by providing freedom for them in the prepared environment.
- Observe children so as to prepare the best possible environment, recognizing sensitive periods and diverting inappropriate behavior to meaningful tasks.
- Prepare the learning environment by ensuring that learning materials are provided in an orderly format and the materials provide for appropriate experiences for all the children.
- Respect each child and model ongoing respect for all children and their work.
- Introduce learning materials, demonstrate learning materials, and support children’s learning. The teacher introduces learning materials after observing each child.
Montessori, M., Italian, the, George, A.E. and Hunt, M.J.V. (1988) The Montessori method. New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Morrison, G.S. (2008) Early childhood education today (international edition). 11th edn. Indianapolis, IN, United States: Pearson Education (US).
Society, A.M. (2016) Introduction to Montessori method. Available at: https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
Research Boards
For our previous cop session we were asked to put together some research boards and show where our dissertation work is heading. One research board was for methodologies, the second one was for research and the third one was for where our practical is at the moment. The task was pretty clear, and since so far I have been documenting most of everything I am doing, all I really did was just copy paste contents of my blog, which made me feel that my organisational skills have improved, at least when it comes to documenting my work. I managed to include a survey I have recently conducted on parents, but the survey requires a bit more time to gather data as it is not enough people that have taken it so far, for the survey to be conclusive.
So here are my research boards-
So here are my research boards-
Monday, 7 November 2016
Dissertation structuring
Finally I put together the basic structure I am going to follow for my dissertation as well as formulate the working title for my subject:
What is the role of media within child development?
CHAPTER 1- This chapter will be about contextualising children's learning through a psychological approach, analysing and comparing different teaching methods and theories. Child development in psychology: Contextualizing child psychology (social constructionism, social cognitive theory, Montessori method and other theories); Psychological theories of child cognitive abilities and development (Piaget’s theory), What is the definition of development in psychology?
CHAPTER 2- The socnd chapter will be about media and its influence on child development: Critical analysis of children's animation. Learning from television programming (development of language and cognitive skills); Negative effects of learning with media. Compare animations for educational purposes and merchandising.
CHAPTER 3- Practical: animated response to research and animation testing on the specified age group audience (3-5 year olds); establishing that animation generates a more effective response of children than other teaching tools.
CONCLUSION- Discussion of conclusion, summary of conclusions.
COP individual turotial
Today I had a super beneficial individual tutorial with Annabeth and we ended up having an hour long discussion about educational methods and children's animation. The key points I took from it were:
Look up Albert Bandura and his social cognitive theory, from what i understood it is a theory about how people can learn through social interactions and gain cognitive skills through socialising.
Also Annabeth explained to me didactic teaching and it gave me some ideas of how I could pin the didactic teaching method against for example the social cognitive theory, social constructionism (Vigotsky) and the situational learning. We also discussed the Montessori method, how it engages children to learn what they feel like instead of having a strict teaching method, and how that could be relative to animation, as in Cbeebies has so much educational animation content children can actually learn through Montessori method by picking whatever they feel like learning about.
We also discussed about educational animations that are there to put the educational part first or to sell the merchandise, in this case I could compare Cbebbies and Milkshake, because the first one has less recognisable characters and the other one sells better so this could be one of the point where I discuss if making merchandise is better or worse- is it playing into the nag factor of children or does it get children more engaged to the content? this part seemed the most interesting to me so I will definitely try to include that into the dissertation. Another thing I was told to keep in acount is the generation of the screenagers which is a person in their teens or twenties who has an aptitude for computers and the Internet.
We also discussed the age group that my research is aimed at so for pre school learning I could analyse which cognitive psychology theory is appropriate for teaching through moving image.
Mumsnet might also be useful for gathering primary research as I could survey the parents and their opinions on educational animation and triangulate that date with interviews from teacher or people responsible for children's programming.
In the end we also discussed the flipped classroom theory and I mentioned how I discussed this theory and critiqued the didactic method as a result. Annbeth said that the flipped classroom method might be super appropriate for my focused age group and with this discussion we came up with the idea of applying the flipped classroom theory to animation and that would be how I could innovate children's programming.
In a nutshell, this tutorial was beyond beneficial, it gave me so much fuel for my dissertation. After this I feel so much more confident in my work and where it is going. Basically what I am going to do is look up all these thing we discussed during the tutorial and gather some more primary research.
Look up Albert Bandura and his social cognitive theory, from what i understood it is a theory about how people can learn through social interactions and gain cognitive skills through socialising.
Also Annabeth explained to me didactic teaching and it gave me some ideas of how I could pin the didactic teaching method against for example the social cognitive theory, social constructionism (Vigotsky) and the situational learning. We also discussed the Montessori method, how it engages children to learn what they feel like instead of having a strict teaching method, and how that could be relative to animation, as in Cbeebies has so much educational animation content children can actually learn through Montessori method by picking whatever they feel like learning about.
We also discussed about educational animations that are there to put the educational part first or to sell the merchandise, in this case I could compare Cbebbies and Milkshake, because the first one has less recognisable characters and the other one sells better so this could be one of the point where I discuss if making merchandise is better or worse- is it playing into the nag factor of children or does it get children more engaged to the content? this part seemed the most interesting to me so I will definitely try to include that into the dissertation. Another thing I was told to keep in acount is the generation of the screenagers which is a person in their teens or twenties who has an aptitude for computers and the Internet.
We also discussed the age group that my research is aimed at so for pre school learning I could analyse which cognitive psychology theory is appropriate for teaching through moving image.
Mumsnet might also be useful for gathering primary research as I could survey the parents and their opinions on educational animation and triangulate that date with interviews from teacher or people responsible for children's programming.
In the end we also discussed the flipped classroom theory and I mentioned how I discussed this theory and critiqued the didactic method as a result. Annbeth said that the flipped classroom method might be super appropriate for my focused age group and with this discussion we came up with the idea of applying the flipped classroom theory to animation and that would be how I could innovate children's programming.
In a nutshell, this tutorial was beyond beneficial, it gave me so much fuel for my dissertation. After this I feel so much more confident in my work and where it is going. Basically what I am going to do is look up all these thing we discussed during the tutorial and gather some more primary research.
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
Resolving the Research Project lecture notes
This lecture is on what expectations we have to meet and what rules we have to follow and (break if we choose so).
Academic Conventions are an institutional framework for our work. It's aimed to standardise and aspire academic honesty. It's about being transparent on how we used our research. Citing and reference is not just ticking off boxes.
We are expected to be able to:
Demonstrate a critical knowledge of animation. Not just an understanding of factual information, but rather assess practical validity of some methods against others, as well as spotting patterns.
It's really good to have a chapter where we write about the practical side because it demonstrates reflective learning.
We are expected to demonstrate a deep learning and engagement with the topic.
We are expected to be able to:
Demonstrate a critical knowledge of animation. Not just an understanding of factual information, but rather assess practical validity of some methods against others, as well as spotting patterns.
It's really good to have a chapter where we write about the practical side because it demonstrates reflective learning.
We are expected to demonstrate a deep learning and engagement with the topic.
Surface approach :
A deep approach :
How to evidence deep learning :
Don't assume that the work we submit talks for itself.
Master the vocabulary of the discipline. It helps evidence deep understanding of the subject.
Everything should be based on solid evidence and logical analysing.
Aim for precision. Don't use unnecessary words or waffle.
Use words like "may" "might" "could" "potentially" it shows consideration of other opinions.
Using the same word shows a limited vocabulary.
Avoid conversational terms.
Don't assume that the work we submit talks for itself.
Master the vocabulary of the discipline. It helps evidence deep understanding of the subject.
Everything should be based on solid evidence and logical analysing.
Aim for precision. Don't use unnecessary words or waffle.
Use words like "may" "might" "could" "potentially" it shows consideration of other opinions.
Using the same word shows a limited vocabulary.
Avoid conversational terms.
Writing in first person is not acceptable. Many tutors prefer impersonal language to be used in assignments. Limit the first person with "it has been considered"
This is the basic structure :
Preliminaries - title, acknowledgments, content, list of illustrations
Preliminaries - title, acknowledgments, content, list of illustrations
Introduction - the abstract, statement of problem, methodological approach
Main Body- review of the literature, logically developed argument, chapters, case studies
Conclusion
Extras
1.5 spacing, 12pt text, quotes longer than three lines should be separated. 12th January, 4pm submission!!!! So no time for procrastination, stay positive!!
Having a process that you can work through helps to get unstuck.
Quoting: "quote" (surname, year:page) if there are no pages write (surname year: n.p.)
Bibliography should be alphabeticised by surename and separated out into types of research.
Illustrations:
Surename, name. (date) name, source.
Having a process that you can work through helps to get unstuck.
Quoting: "quote" (surname, year:page) if there are no pages write (surname year: n.p.)
Bibliography should be alphabeticised by surename and separated out into types of research.
Illustrations:
Surename, name. (date) name, source.
Monday, 31 October 2016
Group tutorials: practical artefact presentation
This morning during our group tutorials we showed what we've been up to in regards to cop practical. So far I have put together a few mood boards and couple of sketches, I have decided that I want to do The Little Prince because it is a great piece of literature and as for the purpose of my test that the practical animation is for I need some content that would engage children on a more difficult level so I could see how they comprehend the story when it is read out to them in comparison to animated story. Also I need to keep in mind that it ideally it would engage adults as well because as i have established earlier parents engagement into the viewing of animation could make it more effective for children. So is as for the character design, based on what I have learned from Piaget's theory of children's cognitive development research is that I need to keep it simple and symbolic, because children are less engaged to content that they can't understand.
And here are some ideas for character design I have so far:
I was asked whether I would do the animation testing on one group of children and or a few. I did reach out to a pre school back in Lithuania however due to logistics it will be too difficult to arrange so I am currently looking around for pre schools willing to help around me. Also I have a very limited time frame so I would need to finish this animation within a month so I would have time to test it and include it in the dissertation.
Thursday, 27 October 2016
Writing Excersise: Social Constructionism
French philosopher Michel Foucault challenges the perception that power is wielded by people or groups by way of ‘episodic’ or ‘sovereign’ acts of domination, instead he sees it as dispersed and pervasive. Foucault is most notable for recognizing that power is not just a negative repressive sociological occurrence that forces us to do things against our wishes, but can also be used as a necessary, productive and positive tool within society "We must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it ‘excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘abstracts’, it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’. In fact power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production" (Foucault, M. 1987). Foucault's work reveals how deeply discipline is embedded into society and how the children are brought up to it. The focauldian framework places power as a major source of social discipline and conformity as well as pointing out a new kind of ‘disciplinary power’ that could be observed in the administrative systems and social institutions, for example prisons, schools and mental hospitals. Their systems of surveillance and assessment no longer required force or violence, as people learned to discipline themselves and behave in expected ways. This where Foucault's prominant conseption of Social Contructionism takes place. Social Constructionism is a popular theory within sociological studies about the concepts of truth and reality. It is based on the notion that different environments and social experiences shape every individuals perception of what is true and what is real in a unique way. This theory is often criticized as an affront to truth but Focault has been hugely influential in pointing to the ways that norms can be so deeply embedded into society that it might even be beyond our perception – causing us to discipline ourselves without any willful coercion from others. "if now I am interested . . . in the way in which the subject constitutes himself in an active fashion, by the practices of the self, these practices are nevertheless not something that the individual invents by himself. They are patterns that he finds in his culture and which are proposed, suggested and imposed on him by his culture, his
society and his social group" (Foucault, M. 1987) Social Constructionism clashes with science as it argues against any notions of human nature being fixed. Ian Hacking, a Canadian philosopher who specializes in the History of Science presents this debate in his book The Social Construction of What? While there isn't much of a case put forth, he does a good job of elaborating how social construction works and along side highlighting the valid points of both sides, question of what, precisely, is being constructed. Once a scientific question is well-posed, realists are right to insist there are determinate answers independent of what anyone thinks. But constructionists are right to point out that contingent personal, social, and cultural factors influence what questions are asked, as well as the standards and methods used to evaluate the answers to the questions. Thus, Hacking concludes that although the "content" of science is realist enough to warrant the term, the "form" of science is not.
With Foucault and many aligned works, there’s this sense of expose, that in seeing something as construction, its in-authenticity is more apparent, in fact, some might say that this is the problem with the entire concept. Once you think of the process of social creation as a “construction”, participation in what you would imagine as social creation, will be in-genuine, because you are going to have a more manipulative sensibility about what you are doing. However, in my opinion, acknowledging that something is constructed does not necessarily make it fake. Do people really not want to celebrate Christmas anymore once they understand that the way we tend to celebrate it is pretty much a late 19th century creation rather than the way the Christians have always done things, or for that matter not enjoy pictures of Santa Claus once they know he was designed by Coke? People do not have to be Christian to enjoy celebrating Christmas. Rituals and traditions are what we make of them and I think modern society is able to embrace the choices that offers without necessarily feeling robbed of authenticity as a result.
Bibliography:
MacNaughton, G., Naughton, G.M. and McNaughton, G. (2005) Doing Foucault in early childhood studies: Applying post-structural ideas. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.
Hacking, I. (1999) The social construction of what? Harvard University Press,
Olssen, M. (1999) Michel Foucault: Materialism and education. BERGIN & GARVEY
Westport, Connecticut London
society and his social group" (Foucault, M. 1987) Social Constructionism clashes with science as it argues against any notions of human nature being fixed. Ian Hacking, a Canadian philosopher who specializes in the History of Science presents this debate in his book The Social Construction of What? While there isn't much of a case put forth, he does a good job of elaborating how social construction works and along side highlighting the valid points of both sides, question of what, precisely, is being constructed. Once a scientific question is well-posed, realists are right to insist there are determinate answers independent of what anyone thinks. But constructionists are right to point out that contingent personal, social, and cultural factors influence what questions are asked, as well as the standards and methods used to evaluate the answers to the questions. Thus, Hacking concludes that although the "content" of science is realist enough to warrant the term, the "form" of science is not.
With Foucault and many aligned works, there’s this sense of expose, that in seeing something as construction, its in-authenticity is more apparent, in fact, some might say that this is the problem with the entire concept. Once you think of the process of social creation as a “construction”, participation in what you would imagine as social creation, will be in-genuine, because you are going to have a more manipulative sensibility about what you are doing. However, in my opinion, acknowledging that something is constructed does not necessarily make it fake. Do people really not want to celebrate Christmas anymore once they understand that the way we tend to celebrate it is pretty much a late 19th century creation rather than the way the Christians have always done things, or for that matter not enjoy pictures of Santa Claus once they know he was designed by Coke? People do not have to be Christian to enjoy celebrating Christmas. Rituals and traditions are what we make of them and I think modern society is able to embrace the choices that offers without necessarily feeling robbed of authenticity as a result.
Bibliography:
MacNaughton, G., Naughton, G.M. and McNaughton, G. (2005) Doing Foucault in early childhood studies: Applying post-structural ideas. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.
Hacking, I. (1999) The social construction of what? Harvard University Press,
Olssen, M. (1999) Michel Foucault: Materialism and education. BERGIN & GARVEY
Westport, Connecticut London
Dissertation Research: Social Constructionism
Social constructionism or the social construction of reality (also social concept) is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality. The theory centers on the notions that human beings rationalize their experience by creating models of the social world and share and reify these models through language.
Basically, social constructionism means that our realities are shaped through our experiences and our interactions with others.
For example: Margaret's dishwasher is broken. While at lunch with friends, she's complaining about her situation. Margaret's dishwasher is a top model, and the part to fix it must be special ordered. Margaret will have to hand wash her dishes for the next week or two.
Abby is one of the friends listening to Margaret's story. She is trying to be friendly, but Abby has never had a dishwasher. Abby has lived in other countries where dishwashers are rare. She currently lives in a small apartment. Abby's family has always hand washed their dishes. Abby likes Margaret, but she thinks Margaret sounds like a spoiled brat.
Margaret and Abby have different realities. Margaret believes her dishwasher is a necessity, where Abby views it as a luxury. Their differences are a result of social constructionism. This sociological theory examines the development of jointly constructed understandings. By 'jointly constructed,' we mean that one person's understanding shapes another person's understanding. Understandings aren't developed separately within a person. Instead, a person develops understandings by using experiences and interactions with other people. This makes each person's reality unique.
Thomas theorem:
"If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
(W.I. Thomas and D.S. Thomas (1928) The child in America: Behavior problems and programs,New York: Knopf)
In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are affected by subjective perceptions of situations. Whether there even is an objectively correct interpretation is not important for the purposes of helping guide individuals' behavior.
An example of this might be how a person who firmly believes in the existence of and power of supernatural forces, i.e. voodoo or witchcraft, is much more likely to suffer from illnesses or injuries that they believe could be brought about by practitioners of those arts.
. From the methodological perspective, it provides a prime example of the basic if presumably obvious precept that it is one thing to establish a phenomenon (i.e.,show that something is empirically the case) and quite another to explain it.
Basically, social constructionism means that our realities are shaped through our experiences and our interactions with others.
For example: Margaret's dishwasher is broken. While at lunch with friends, she's complaining about her situation. Margaret's dishwasher is a top model, and the part to fix it must be special ordered. Margaret will have to hand wash her dishes for the next week or two.
Abby is one of the friends listening to Margaret's story. She is trying to be friendly, but Abby has never had a dishwasher. Abby has lived in other countries where dishwashers are rare. She currently lives in a small apartment. Abby's family has always hand washed their dishes. Abby likes Margaret, but she thinks Margaret sounds like a spoiled brat.
Margaret and Abby have different realities. Margaret believes her dishwasher is a necessity, where Abby views it as a luxury. Their differences are a result of social constructionism. This sociological theory examines the development of jointly constructed understandings. By 'jointly constructed,' we mean that one person's understanding shapes another person's understanding. Understandings aren't developed separately within a person. Instead, a person develops understandings by using experiences and interactions with other people. This makes each person's reality unique.
Thomas theorem:
"If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
(W.I. Thomas and D.S. Thomas (1928) The child in America: Behavior problems and programs,New York: Knopf)
In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are affected by subjective perceptions of situations. Whether there even is an objectively correct interpretation is not important for the purposes of helping guide individuals' behavior.
An example of this might be how a person who firmly believes in the existence of and power of supernatural forces, i.e. voodoo or witchcraft, is much more likely to suffer from illnesses or injuries that they believe could be brought about by practitioners of those arts.
. From the methodological perspective, it provides a prime example of the basic if presumably obvious precept that it is one thing to establish a phenomenon (i.e.,show that something is empirically the case) and quite another to explain it.
Monday, 24 October 2016
Dissertation Research: Piaget's theory of cognitive development and the preoperational stage
Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was employed at the Binet Institute in the 1920s, where his job was to develop French versions of questions on English intelligence tests.
He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers to the questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children.
Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.
iaget (1936) described his work as genetic epistemology (i.e. the origins of thinking). Genetics is the scientific study of where things come from (their origins). Epistemology is concerned with the basic categories of thinking, that is to say, the framework or structural properties of intelligence.
What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children could count, spell or solve problems as a way of grading their I.Q. What he was more interested in was the way in which fundamental concepts like the very idea of number, time, quantity, causality, justice and so on emerged.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.
The preoperational stage is the second stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This stage begins around age two as children start to talks and last until approximately age seven. During this stage, children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols. However, Piaget noted that they do not yet understand concrete logic.
Characteristics of the Preoperatonal stage:
The preoperational stage occurs roughly between the ages two and seven. Language development is one of the hallmarks of this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people, which he termed egocentrism.
During the preoperational stage, children also become increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child is able to use an object to represent something else, such as pretending a broom is a horse. Role playing also becomes important during the preoperational stage. Children often play the roles of "mommy", "daddy", "doctor", and many other characters.
Egocentrism:
Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children.
One of the famous techniques to demonstrate egocentrism involved using a three-dimensional display of a mountain scene. Often referred to as the "Three Mountain Task," children are asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed.
Most children are able to do this with little difficulty.
Next, children are asked to select a picture showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint.
Invariably, children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene. According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on another person's perspective.
Conservation
Another well-known experiment involves demonstrating a child's understanding of conservation. In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears fuller.
Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on the conservation of number, length, mass, weight, volume, and quantity. He found that few children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the age of five.
Piaget's Thoughts on the Preoperational Stage
As you might have noticed, much of Piaget's focus at this stage of development focused on what children could not yet do. The concepts of egocentrism and conservation are both centered on abilities that children have not yet developed; they lack the understanding that things look different to other people and that objects can change in appearance while still maintaining the same properties.
However, not everyone agrees with Piaget's assessment of children's abilities. Researcher Martin Hughes, for example, argued that the reason that children failed at the three mountains task was simply because they did not understand it. In an experiment that involved utilizing dolls, Hughes demonstrated that children as young as age four were able to understand situations from multiple points of view, suggesting that children become less egocentric at an earlier age than Piaget believed.
Sources:
McLeod, S. ( published 2009, updated 2015) “Jean Piaget” Simply Psychology , http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html (accessed 24.10.2016)
Cherry K. (June 6, 2016) “Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development: Major Characteristics and Events of the Preoperational Stage” Very Well, https://www.verywell.com/preoperational-stage-of-cognitive-development-2795461 (accessed 2.10.2016)
He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers to the questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children.
Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.
iaget (1936) described his work as genetic epistemology (i.e. the origins of thinking). Genetics is the scientific study of where things come from (their origins). Epistemology is concerned with the basic categories of thinking, that is to say, the framework or structural properties of intelligence.
What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children could count, spell or solve problems as a way of grading their I.Q. What he was more interested in was the way in which fundamental concepts like the very idea of number, time, quantity, causality, justice and so on emerged.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.
Preoperational stage
The preoperational stage is the second stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This stage begins around age two as children start to talks and last until approximately age seven. During this stage, children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols. However, Piaget noted that they do not yet understand concrete logic.
Characteristics of the Preoperatonal stage:
The preoperational stage occurs roughly between the ages two and seven. Language development is one of the hallmarks of this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people, which he termed egocentrism.
During the preoperational stage, children also become increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child is able to use an object to represent something else, such as pretending a broom is a horse. Role playing also becomes important during the preoperational stage. Children often play the roles of "mommy", "daddy", "doctor", and many other characters.
Egocentrism:
Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children.
One of the famous techniques to demonstrate egocentrism involved using a three-dimensional display of a mountain scene. Often referred to as the "Three Mountain Task," children are asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed.
Most children are able to do this with little difficulty.
Next, children are asked to select a picture showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint.
Invariably, children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene. According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on another person's perspective.
Conservation
Another well-known experiment involves demonstrating a child's understanding of conservation. In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears fuller.
Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on the conservation of number, length, mass, weight, volume, and quantity. He found that few children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the age of five.
Piaget's Thoughts on the Preoperational Stage
As you might have noticed, much of Piaget's focus at this stage of development focused on what children could not yet do. The concepts of egocentrism and conservation are both centered on abilities that children have not yet developed; they lack the understanding that things look different to other people and that objects can change in appearance while still maintaining the same properties.
However, not everyone agrees with Piaget's assessment of children's abilities. Researcher Martin Hughes, for example, argued that the reason that children failed at the three mountains task was simply because they did not understand it. In an experiment that involved utilizing dolls, Hughes demonstrated that children as young as age four were able to understand situations from multiple points of view, suggesting that children become less egocentric at an earlier age than Piaget believed.
Sources:
McLeod, S. ( published 2009, updated 2015) “Jean Piaget” Simply Psychology , http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html (accessed 24.10.2016)
Cherry K. (June 6, 2016) “Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development: Major Characteristics and Events of the Preoperational Stage” Very Well, https://www.verywell.com/preoperational-stage-of-cognitive-development-2795461 (accessed 2.10.2016)
Dissertation Research: Early Childhood
In psychology the term, early childhood is usually defined as the time period from the age of two until the age of six or seven years. In this phase there is significant synaptic growth and myelination of neural fibers in the brain, especially within the frontal lobes. For example, between the ages 2 and 6, the brain increases from 70% of its adult weight to 90%. The growth of the brain is followed by a surge in cognitive abilities. Around the age of five, children start speaking properly and master their hand to eye coordination.
It is optimal that an environment is provided that encourages physical development and allows the children to explore and try out new things. The physical development in children follows a pattern. The large muscles develop before the small muscles, the large muscles are used for walking and running and other physical activities, these are known as gross motor skills. Small muscles are used for fine motor skills such as picking up objects, writing, drawing, throwing and catching.
Cognitive Growth and Development
Called the preoperational stage by Jean Piaget, this is the stage during which the child repeatedly asks "Why?", and is used to build relationships with the child. The child can't yet perform the abstract thinking operations. The child has to be able to see what is being talked about, because they do not understand the concepts of logic, betrayal, contemplation, etc. This means that they think literally: if a child is told that they have to go to bed because "night is falling", they will ask how can the night (literally) fall from the sky. They also see the human characteristics in every object, e.g. the table "is bad" if they accidentally hit it with their foot and it hurts. They also exhibit egocentrism; not to be confused with egoism; that being said, they do not comprehend that the other person has beliefs and the children at this age think that what they think, everybody thinks. There is also a matter of perceptive centration, which causes the children to primarily see what is visually most prominent on someone/something, e.g. if a man has long hair, the child will think he's a woman.
Social-emotional growth and development
This includes children understanding a sense of 'self', relationships with others and sociability. The emotional development includes expressions, attachment and personality. Children manifest fear of dark and monsters and around the age of three notice whether they are a boy or a girl and start acting that way. Boys are usually more aggressive, whilst girls are more caring. However, aggression is manifested in two different ways: boys are more physically aggressive, while the girls are more socially aggressive (name-calling and ignoring). In this stage the individual differences become more prominent.
It is optimal that an environment is provided that encourages physical development and allows the children to explore and try out new things. The physical development in children follows a pattern. The large muscles develop before the small muscles, the large muscles are used for walking and running and other physical activities, these are known as gross motor skills. Small muscles are used for fine motor skills such as picking up objects, writing, drawing, throwing and catching.
Cognitive Growth and Development
Called the preoperational stage by Jean Piaget, this is the stage during which the child repeatedly asks "Why?", and is used to build relationships with the child. The child can't yet perform the abstract thinking operations. The child has to be able to see what is being talked about, because they do not understand the concepts of logic, betrayal, contemplation, etc. This means that they think literally: if a child is told that they have to go to bed because "night is falling", they will ask how can the night (literally) fall from the sky. They also see the human characteristics in every object, e.g. the table "is bad" if they accidentally hit it with their foot and it hurts. They also exhibit egocentrism; not to be confused with egoism; that being said, they do not comprehend that the other person has beliefs and the children at this age think that what they think, everybody thinks. There is also a matter of perceptive centration, which causes the children to primarily see what is visually most prominent on someone/something, e.g. if a man has long hair, the child will think he's a woman.
Social-emotional growth and development
This includes children understanding a sense of 'self', relationships with others and sociability. The emotional development includes expressions, attachment and personality. Children manifest fear of dark and monsters and around the age of three notice whether they are a boy or a girl and start acting that way. Boys are usually more aggressive, whilst girls are more caring. However, aggression is manifested in two different ways: boys are more physically aggressive, while the girls are more socially aggressive (name-calling and ignoring). In this stage the individual differences become more prominent.
Thursday, 20 October 2016
Final Project Proposal
Defining your Proposal
What is your Working Title for your Project?
What is the Role of Animation Within the Development of Children?
Concisely, what are you planning on creating practically as a response to this proposal?
For my practical part I will create an educational animation piece aimed towards a particular age group of children (3-5 years old) in order to study their response to visual piece of information in comparison to other platforms (reading, listening)
SUBJECTS OF CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH ALREADY UNDERTAKEN
What was your subject research and practical output at Level 5?
My research subject was whether education kills creativity and an animated short as visual response.
AIM AND/OR OBJECTIVES OF YOUR PROPOSED COP3 PROJECT
What research needs to be undertaken into the general and specific contexts of your practice?
My aim would be to innovate educational animation, I would achieve this by researching various pedagogical methods, hopefully by interviewing practitioners within the educational system; comparing other educational tools to animation and analysing children's response to animation;
What approaches will you take and what processes, methods, materials and tools are to be involved in research into your practice?
My practice would require me to reach out to schools and/or teachers, reading books on pedagogy, media and child development, analysing various TV programmes aimed towards children it might also require me to take part in conferences or expositions if I come across any that are relevant to my subject.
What preparation or investigation do you need to undertake for your creative practice to take place?
My practice would require a great amount of analysing successful children's programs, research towards the television's role within the development of children, studying children's response to animation in comparison to other learning tools, interviewing practicing teacher about animation's role within the educational syste
What research do you need to undertake regarding who your creativity is for?
My practical would be aimed towards the age group of 3-5 year old children and I would use it as part of my research to establish the role of animation within child development and how children respond to animated piece of information, for that I need to find out what the children of this specific age group find stimulating and captivating as well as how they could benefit from the animation by learning something from it. This might demand some research into the psychology of children.
Perceived problems or difficulties
The problems that I can foresee so far are getting permission to test my animation on a group of children, basically setting up the whole showcase of the practical part of the dissertation; finding teachers willing to be interviewed; the time frame I would have for creating the practical piece would be very limited as I would need to test it out on the audience before the christmas holiday if I want to showcase it in a school environment and include the results into my dissertation.
SOURCES
PRIMARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Description & Location - List at least 3
Interviewing a practicing pre school teacher,
Practical animation showcase to pre-schoolers and an analysis to their response
Analysing children's both educational and entertainment animation ("Sesame Street","Dora the Explorer","Blues Clues", etc.)
SECONDARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION
List at least 10 ( in Havard Reference format )
Strasburger, V.C., Wilson, B.J., and Jordan, A.B. (2008)"Children, adolescents, and the media - 2nd edition"Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Spencer, C., Blades, M., (2006)"Children and their environments learning using and designing spaces" Cambridge University Press
Willis., P., (1975) "Learning to labour how working class kids get working class jobs" Columbia University Press
Mulvey, L., Sexton J., (2007) "Experimental British television" Manchester, Manchester University Press
Lowe, R., Schnotz, W., (2008) "Learning with Animation: Research Implications for Design" Cambridge University Press
Calvert, S., J., (1988) "Television production feature effects on children's comprehension of time"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Ablex Publishing Corporation
Gatto, T., (1991) "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education" U.S.A., New Society Publishers
Wall, S., Litjens, I., Taguma, M., (2010)"Pedagogy in early childhood education and care (ECEC): an international comparative study of approaches and policies" Department for Education
Fortner,C., K., Jenkins, J.,M., (2016) "Kindergarten redshirting: Motivations and spillovers using census-level data" Early Childhood Research Quarterly vol 38, Elsvier publishing
Rogers, S., (2010) "Rethinking Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education: Concepts, Contexts and Cultures",Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd
What is your Working Title for your Project?
What is the Role of Animation Within the Development of Children?
Concisely, what are you planning on creating practically as a response to this proposal?
For my practical part I will create an educational animation piece aimed towards a particular age group of children (3-5 years old) in order to study their response to visual piece of information in comparison to other platforms (reading, listening)
SUBJECTS OF CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH ALREADY UNDERTAKEN
What was your subject research and practical output at Level 5?
My research subject was whether education kills creativity and an animated short as visual response.
AIM AND/OR OBJECTIVES OF YOUR PROPOSED COP3 PROJECT
What research needs to be undertaken into the general and specific contexts of your practice?
My aim would be to innovate educational animation, I would achieve this by researching various pedagogical methods, hopefully by interviewing practitioners within the educational system; comparing other educational tools to animation and analysing children's response to animation;
What approaches will you take and what processes, methods, materials and tools are to be involved in research into your practice?
My practice would require me to reach out to schools and/or teachers, reading books on pedagogy, media and child development, analysing various TV programmes aimed towards children it might also require me to take part in conferences or expositions if I come across any that are relevant to my subject.
What preparation or investigation do you need to undertake for your creative practice to take place?
My practice would require a great amount of analysing successful children's programs, research towards the television's role within the development of children, studying children's response to animation in comparison to other learning tools, interviewing practicing teacher about animation's role within the educational syste
What research do you need to undertake regarding who your creativity is for?
My practical would be aimed towards the age group of 3-5 year old children and I would use it as part of my research to establish the role of animation within child development and how children respond to animated piece of information, for that I need to find out what the children of this specific age group find stimulating and captivating as well as how they could benefit from the animation by learning something from it. This might demand some research into the psychology of children.
Perceived problems or difficulties
The problems that I can foresee so far are getting permission to test my animation on a group of children, basically setting up the whole showcase of the practical part of the dissertation; finding teachers willing to be interviewed; the time frame I would have for creating the practical piece would be very limited as I would need to test it out on the audience before the christmas holiday if I want to showcase it in a school environment and include the results into my dissertation.
SOURCES
PRIMARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Description & Location - List at least 3
Interviewing a practicing pre school teacher,
Practical animation showcase to pre-schoolers and an analysis to their response
Analysing children's both educational and entertainment animation ("Sesame Street","Dora the Explorer","Blues Clues", etc.)
SECONDARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION
List at least 10 ( in Havard Reference format )
Strasburger, V.C., Wilson, B.J., and Jordan, A.B. (2008)"Children, adolescents, and the media - 2nd edition"Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Spencer, C., Blades, M., (2006)"Children and their environments learning using and designing spaces" Cambridge University Press
Willis., P., (1975) "Learning to labour how working class kids get working class jobs" Columbia University Press
Mulvey, L., Sexton J., (2007) "Experimental British television" Manchester, Manchester University Press
Lowe, R., Schnotz, W., (2008) "Learning with Animation: Research Implications for Design" Cambridge University Press
Calvert, S., J., (1988) "Television production feature effects on children's comprehension of time"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Ablex Publishing Corporation
Gatto, T., (1991) "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education" U.S.A., New Society Publishers
Wall, S., Litjens, I., Taguma, M., (2010)"Pedagogy in early childhood education and care (ECEC): an international comparative study of approaches and policies" Department for Education
Fortner,C., K., Jenkins, J.,M., (2016) "Kindergarten redshirting: Motivations and spillovers using census-level data" Early Childhood Research Quarterly vol 38, Elsvier publishing
Rogers, S., (2010) "Rethinking Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education: Concepts, Contexts and Cultures",Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd
Monday, 17 October 2016
Group tutorial
During our group tutorial we went through where everybody was with their cop3 and see how we could benefit from each others feedback since all of us in the group are working on applied animation.
Since our last tutorial, as advised I have restricted myself to the age group of 3-5 year old children since it is most significant for developmental milestones.
Skills such as naming colours, showing affection, and hopping on one foot are called developmental milestones. Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age. Children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, behave, and move (like crawling, walking, or jumping). As children grow into early childhood, their world begins to open up. They will become more independent and begin to focus more on adults and children outside of the family. They will want to explore and ask about the things around them even more. Their interactions with family and those around them will help to shape their personality and their own ways of thinking and moving. During this stage, children should be able to ride a tricycle, use safety scissors, notice a difference between girls and boys, help to dress and undress themselves, play with other children, recall part of a story, and sing a song.
I also did some research on child development with the use of media. To be specific I found a really good book on it:
Since our last tutorial, as advised I have restricted myself to the age group of 3-5 year old children since it is most significant for developmental milestones.
Skills such as naming colours, showing affection, and hopping on one foot are called developmental milestones. Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age. Children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, behave, and move (like crawling, walking, or jumping). As children grow into early childhood, their world begins to open up. They will become more independent and begin to focus more on adults and children outside of the family. They will want to explore and ask about the things around them even more. Their interactions with family and those around them will help to shape their personality and their own ways of thinking and moving. During this stage, children should be able to ride a tricycle, use safety scissors, notice a difference between girls and boys, help to dress and undress themselves, play with other children, recall part of a story, and sing a song.
I also did some research on child development with the use of media. To be specific I found a really good book on it:
Strasburger, V.C., Wilson, B.J., and Jordan, A.B. (2008) Children, Adolescents, and the media- 2nd edition, Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Here is a few notes I took from it:
First of all media can act as "incidental language teacher". Research (Rice, 1984-1990) have established that television programs have the potential to encourage children to understand and use new words, however it is still debatable whether it helps with grammar or equation solving skills.
Watching Dora the Explorer, Blues Clues, Arthur, Clifford and Dragon Tales resulted in greater vocabularies and higher expressive language scores; however Teletubbies was related to fewer vocabulary words and smaller expressive language score; Sesame Street was related only to smaller expressive language scores, Barney was related to fewer vocabulary words and more expressive language. The outcome showed that the more interactive the show the more it encourages children to use vocabulary, and the simpler the language the more it children learn expressive language instead of broadening their vocabulary.
Second of all, Anderson Cooper throughout his research with Sesame Street, Gullah Gullah Island and Blues Clues has provided convincing evidence that children are active and engaged viewers. In one study Anderson has replaced the Sesame Street soundtrack with Greek. They found that children pay less attention when they couldn't understand the content. They came to this conclusion that when the child is not engaged in the television program if they determine that the content is nonsensical.
And Third of all I h ave learned that children are more engaged in the television program when a parent is involved in the viewing. Even if the parent is not saying anything just watching with the child, the child feels more engaged. This is why some child programmes try to involve adults as well by involving jokes or at least minor content for adults. However it is hard to engage parents without disengaging the children because of the huge age gap and therefore relevant topics.
The feedback that I got from it was to look into games and see if they could be relevant, however I am not so sure about broadening my research field because I have tried to narrow it down already because at the start it was too broad and i figured it would get me nowhere.
Another thing I was told to consider was the trans-media aspect of educational animation, how the narrative or characters would translate to games, books, applications and other.
Also I got some good feedback on considering different strategies for educational animation such as Pixar. I argued that Pixar's animation is more entertainment than education, however the counter- argument was that maybe it is a clever strategy of education, after all children do take some educational value from Pixar's movies such as mental health (Inside Out) or growing up (Toy Story).
This made me think that it might just be a great strategy to take a more entertaining approach.
In a nutshell a very beneficial group tutorial!
Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Methodologies & Critical Analysis
We are not only expected to understand it but we have to evidence both critical analysis and methodologies in our dissertations. The research project has to undertake an individual approach to research and it has to be logical, systematic and testable. Being critical is a part of the methodology, good critical analysis is necessary to create a cognitive methodology, basically methodology and critical analysis has to be synthesised.
Methodology is one of the learning outcomes so we need to evidence it, also develope it. Although all research projects have a methodology even if it's ill though out. Basically it's a system or a way off "finding out stuff". The word methodology is scietistic but it's meaning is pretty streight forward. Like for example: hypothesis - testing - observations - conclusion.
Use the word METHODOLOGY!! And point out where it's being used.
Also it is necessary to consider other methodologies and weight the pros and cons, choose the most logical one, therefore being critical and defend your choice.
"Methods are tools, methodologies are discussion of these tools"
The introduction of the dissertation has to be about the question and seriously defending the methodologies. It can have the research process broken down and given separate attention. It can establish a core quote or writer that has driven the research and why.
Epistemology is thinking about the ways of thinking, so using epistemology is difficult but awarded with points because it demonstrates a high level of critical analysis.
Being critical is being able to separate and choose, or coming with a hypothesis and trying to disprove it, being objective and introducing logical reasoning to your research.
Criticality is also about thinking about the artists and where they are from, to help understand where their work is coming from, contextualising it.
Think about where am I coming from?
How is my choice of topic influenced by my emotions, aspiration, context? Serious self criticality.
CONTEXTUALISE EVERYTHING!! It might be influenced by some perspectives- Marxist, sociological, fundamentalist.
Use triangulation - cross contextualising!
Methodology is one of the learning outcomes so we need to evidence it, also develope it. Although all research projects have a methodology even if it's ill though out. Basically it's a system or a way off "finding out stuff". The word methodology is scietistic but it's meaning is pretty streight forward. Like for example: hypothesis - testing - observations - conclusion.
Use the word METHODOLOGY!! And point out where it's being used.
Also it is necessary to consider other methodologies and weight the pros and cons, choose the most logical one, therefore being critical and defend your choice.
"Methods are tools, methodologies are discussion of these tools"
The introduction of the dissertation has to be about the question and seriously defending the methodologies. It can have the research process broken down and given separate attention. It can establish a core quote or writer that has driven the research and why.
Epistemology is thinking about the ways of thinking, so using epistemology is difficult but awarded with points because it demonstrates a high level of critical analysis.
Being critical is being able to separate and choose, or coming with a hypothesis and trying to disprove it, being objective and introducing logical reasoning to your research.
Criticality is also about thinking about the artists and where they are from, to help understand where their work is coming from, contextualising it.
Think about where am I coming from?
How is my choice of topic influenced by my emotions, aspiration, context? Serious self criticality.
CONTEXTUALISE EVERYTHING!! It might be influenced by some perspectives- Marxist, sociological, fundamentalist.
Use triangulation - cross contextualising!
Monday, 3 October 2016
Presentation on cop3 writing
Today we were presenting our initial ideas, concept work and such for the first tutorial this year. Basically throughout this summer I decided I want to build from what I wrote about last year, but this time I would be focusing on specifically educational animation.
Basically I want to build my dissertation from
what I have learned last year, for a couple of reasons:
1)
Adventure time, regular show, the Simpsons, all the mainstream animation series
that are really successful seem to be very diverse with its target audience,
raging from children to adults. I personally think that it is harder to target children than adults, so ultimately if
you can do the first one then you can definitely do the second one
2)
Ultimately, I would like to pursue a career a major studio like Cartoon
Network, which is primarily aimed towards children
3) I
personally have went through 6 years of art school and I feel like I have been
institutionalised rather than prepared for a life outside of school. I took me
a lot to understand that my intelligence, maturity or creativity cannot be
measured in standardised testing, at one point, last year I realised that my
whole life I thought a good grade will secure you a good job and that made me
really dependant on schools. Now I think it is a really wrong way think about
education, because life is not as linear as schools make it look like, it is
more organic and I should not be so scared of making mistakes.
4) My
goal with this dissertation would be to research educational animation and see
how it could be innovated and see how animation could be used as
pedagogical tool more effectively.
So the subjects I want to look into would be:
•Pedagogy
•Animated
tutorials (pros/cons)
•How
children absorb information, what they respond to
•How
animations is used as an educational tool and how it could be improved (is it
underdeveloped?)
•How
children respond to animation
As part of my research, I was thinking of establishing that children respond to animation more than any other storytelling platform, this idea would be the core of my dissertation. The idea of the study is to approach a group of children with different stories delivered in different formats reading, listening and watching (animation) and see if children indeed respond to the animated story the most. If not, then I would try and figure out why?I am aware that different types of personalities and learning capabilities would be at play, as some people have kinetic memory, some have visual and others have auditory. This is another thing I would like to research.The feedback that I got was that need to pin down what children's age group I want to focus on and see how television aims to very specific age groups. Another thing I was advised on was to not worry so much about schools but to think about how animation could be used in schools. Also I was told that the cbbc's team in Manchester is very approachable and they work alongside educators to produce animation for children.
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
CoP Practice: Animating
Once the backgrounds were sorted it was just a matter of drawing up the foregrounds and putting in motion tweens for everything. Not much to talk about the animating part to be honest. The foreground objects I have made blurry to give more attention to the backgrounds which I worked on A LOT!
Once I have animated everything it was just a matter of dragging the timeline around to synch it with the music. Originally I have made the second to last scene and the last as one. But when I showed it to Mike he suggested to separate them so as to clarify what the products were and then making the one child look like it just came off the production line. So as I applied that the animation seemed done and I was really happy with the way it turned out:
CoP Practice: Background Design
Finally started working on the actual animation. So first of I started with essentially the same background sketch I did in the previous blog post, figuring out perspective in out doors was the difficult part. For some reason understanding perspective is a lot easier in doors than out doors, probably because indoors you see objects in certain context and you can align some objects to the presictive lines of walls, ceilling or floor. This was a nice chance to recap on my knowledge of drawing.This brought me back to arts school where I attempted to draw 3 stories of my schools hallway with alms fisheye perspective. When I finally got the hang of when the lines are supposed to bend and when they are straight I understood how perspective works a lot better:
So when I recapped on this I figured vectors are perfect for this job because you can draw and bend lines really quickly and make everything really neat. The first background I did was this one;
The perspective here was not that difficult so it did not take long to make. I animated the smoke as well, To give it more depth Ive put up a few pipes in the foreground so they would move out of the way when camera pans into the view. Then I carried on making the next one:
This one seemed a bit dull and needed something to happen while the camera was panning through the view so I figure to put through a few poles passing by to give it yet again an impression of depth, especially when things unclose move quicker than the ones very far away, like when you're on a train and the things unclose flash by so quickly it's impossible to focus on them, whereas the mountain in the distance moves very slowly. As I wanted it to be synchronise with the music I made the poles pass by as with the beat of the music. Then I moved on making the establishing shot of the factory:
This did not demand of lot of brain work just a bit more detail than the other ones, because I felt this shot was important, and it needed to grab your attention a bit more. Then logically I would establish the environment inside the factory. this is where I wanted to change up the colour and make it red/black to make it look a bit evil. Because in a way that is how I feel about schools. Not that they are villain type of evil. Just the kind that tries to make you something you might not necessarily want to be. This is where the perspective got tricky. So I started of with the perspective point and dragging a bunch of lines from it.
After neating the lines up a bit I started giving them a bit more angles and thickness.
Then adding details and boom:
As for the lighting I decided to light it from the floor up to give it this oozing lava feel, or rather hinting that there's something going on down there but you can't see i yet. Also it sort of ampliphiet this evil feel I was going for.
I did the next background with applying the same logic, but the pace of the animation needed something animated in it so in the foreground I thought puttin moving gears would liven it up a bit as well as giving it a mechanised factory feel.
Then it was the tricky part of showing the factory making a product but not yet revealing what exactly it is. I did not want blur the only moving thing the view because either the view has to be super detail so the it takes the attention off the moving blurry thing or not use blur but be very careful with what show. So I tried to use silhouettes and hide them slightly behind the production lines being in perspective from the view below. So I start doff with two perspective points:
The drawing in the vertices:
I used crossed lines from one corner to establish the middle of a square shape, so those line would be correctly positioned.
COP visual response: Idea generation
As soon as my essay was finished I started generating ideas for the visual response part of COP. To be honest I had this idea since I have started the essay and I sort of stuck with it because I feel it was the best way to amplify my essay. In one part of my essay I mentioned how school resemble factories:
"First of all, the whole educational system is built to cater the needs of industrialism which makes it greatly out of date today. It seems to render kids in batches, sorting them by age and academic abilities. Even the schools structure resembles a factory- ringing bells, broken down into certain subjects and therefore separate facilities."
So I decided to build from there. After the tutorial with Richard he thought it would be an interesting idea to picture schools as grim factories producing children, so I figured to take more of a visual approach than a narrative. I was considering to follow a narrative of one particular student who questions the way the factory works and what he is supposed to do when hes outside. But I figured it would not make as much of an impact as a more visual animation. By visual animation I mean create a series of backgrounds and pan through them slowly revealing what the animation is about and using music to add to the environment. I started off with search for music that would help with mood of the animation and would set the one for it. As I browsed through various different libraries, one song kept popping into my head and I figured to listen to it a couple of time and see if it gave me any ideas.
"First of all, the whole educational system is built to cater the needs of industrialism which makes it greatly out of date today. It seems to render kids in batches, sorting them by age and academic abilities. Even the schools structure resembles a factory- ringing bells, broken down into certain subjects and therefore separate facilities."
So I decided to build from there. After the tutorial with Richard he thought it would be an interesting idea to picture schools as grim factories producing children, so I figured to take more of a visual approach than a narrative. I was considering to follow a narrative of one particular student who questions the way the factory works and what he is supposed to do when hes outside. But I figured it would not make as much of an impact as a more visual animation. By visual animation I mean create a series of backgrounds and pan through them slowly revealing what the animation is about and using music to add to the environment. I started off with search for music that would help with mood of the animation and would set the one for it. As I browsed through various different libraries, one song kept popping into my head and I figured to listen to it a couple of time and see if it gave me any ideas.
After listening to the song I decided to buil my animation around, the music inspired a lot of visuals for me and I started drawing sketches.
CoP practice: Idea generation part 2
After I thought of what specifically what I wanted to do for practice part of the essay I looked into some art work for inspiration. I was looking for artwork featuring factories and preferably black and white. Stylistically wanted to got for a pretty simple tone based background design, mainly with grey and red colours. So I made a mood board:
After I went through the mood board I made a sketch to try our an idea I had of making environments using only tones:
And then did a quick colour test:
Also made a few sketches for the animation itself:
As soon as I edited the music I figured there was no real need for an animatic because it would be synchronised with the music anyway and it would be the camera panning through various backgrounds, so i decided to to just get on with making the backgrounds.
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