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.
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