P ROJECT T EAM A PPROACH Charles Newell George Paitich Leymon Sheik-Yusuf Keith Shellum Rebecca Wiedmeyer EDU 383 – April 16, 2013

W HAT IS A GRAPHIC ? Graphics are a type of visual art, it could be a drawing, words, or both Part of the process of writing is to translate ideas into words or pictures, which makes things clear for students Digital image

Graphic organizers are visual displays of ideas or maps that show the relationship between learning tasks Graphic organizers are a great tool for the writing process Examples: outlines word or mind maps plot map 5W chart double bubble Helps students see the bigger picture- a roadmap to their learning How we use them… Graphic Organizer…

GRAPHICGRAPHIC ORGANIZERORGANIZER EXAMPLESEXAMPLES

H OW DO GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ENHANCE L EARNING ? Graphic or graphic organizers give students a clear outline of the task they are working on. We can use graphic organizers as part of the writing process to teach students: brainstorm outline idea write a draft edit and revise People tend to think in pictures - graphic organizers will help students get their complex idea in print through words or pictures Helps students see the whole picture Students can get creative with organizing their ideas ?

The cognitive psychologists, Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky, all aided in the development of constructivism. They saw learners as the number one agent in constructing their own knowledge and understanding that acquired knowledge. They all see the importance of cognitive development and the applied methods when this cognitive development takes place. Their discoveries and influences in development have continued to provided teachers guidance within their classrooms through today. Jean Piaget Jerome Bruner Lev Vygotsky

Bruner Piaget Learning is the construction of knowledge within a social context Development happens when conflict are created in the mind Knowledge happens through interactions with the environment Learner is an active participant in his/her own learning within society Assimilation = fitting information into categories Language plays a central role in cognitive development Young age capable of learning any material as long as the instruction is organized appropriately Teachers teach by “scaffolding” their lessons for the individual Human brain seeks patterns and order in language and its environment Social interactions play an important role in cognitive development Ability to provoke a child into increased thought processes. Big ideas and broad concepts transfer to other courses and contexts

E XAMPLES OF P SYCHOLOGIST ’ S VIEWS OF LEARNING Bruner Vygotsky Piaget

Cognitive Psychologists Behaviorist Psychologists Association between specific events and specific consequences (stimuli) Learning takes place in the mind Capacity to process and organize information in their mind Only concerns itself with behaviors that are observed No difference between animal behavior and human behavior. Concerned less with visible behavior and more with the thought processes behind it Attempts to explain human behavior Gauge how humans interpret their environments Using assessment as a tool to measure student’s mastery of content

The psychologists, educators, and theorists of the 1900s had dramatic influence on how we view learning today. Early in the century the behaviorist perspective was formed, which saw learning as responses to external stimuli. Knowledge, from this perspective, could only be demonstrated through observable changes in behavior, and motivation to gain that knowledge was thought to come from external forces. The second half of the 20 th century saw the cognitive psychologists begin to reject many of the behaviorists’ assertions about learning. Theorists of this movement, such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bruner, argued that learning was an internal mental process. Knowledge was seen as individualized and malleable, and motivation to learn came from the learners themselves. N ARRATIVE

( N ARRATIVE C ONTINUE ) The views of the cognitive psychologists laid the building blocks for constructivism – the modern understanding of how we learn. Constructivism differs from earlier theories by placing more importance on the learner as an active participant in creating and recreating their own understanding of the world around them. In this view teachers scaffold experiences, offer multiple paths to learning, and generally guide students through their knowledge of learning techniques and the learners themselves. Over the course of a century our conceptions of learning and learners has shifted from the behaviorist perspective to the views of cognitive psychologists, and finally settled into constructivism. Learning that was once seen as passive absorption is now believed to be active transformation, and it is because of this change that we are able to make our classrooms more vibrant, more engaging, and ultimately more effective than ever before in history. “What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see.” ― Jean Piaget