Psychological foundation of curriculum

 The scientific study of mental
functions and behavior including:
Perception
Cognition
Behavior
Emotion
Personality
Interpersonal relationships

 Basis of understanding – John Dewey
 Modes of thinking – Jerome Bruner
 “Unifying elements of the learning
process. It forms the basis for the
methods, materials, and activity of
learning… serves… for many curriculum
decision
 How we think and how we learn

 Focuses on stimulus response
and reinforces;
 Studies conditioning,
modifying, or shaping behavior
through reinforcement and
rewards

 THORNDIKE – Connectionism
 PAVLOV (AND WATSON) – Classical
Conditioning
 SKINNER – Operant Conditioning
 BANDURA – Observable Learning and
Modeling
 GAGNÉ – Hierarchical Learning

 Father of modern educational
psychology & founder of behavioral
psychology
 CONNECTIONISM
 Laws of Learning
› Law of Readiness
› Law of Exercise
› Law of Effect

 Thorndike’s Influence
Thorndike and other followers believed
that rote memorization does not
necessarily strengthen connections
Thorndike broke the traditional thinking
about hierarchy of subject matter

 Pavlov was the first to demonstrate
Classical Conditioning.
 He is best known for his experiment with
salivating dogs.
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Pavlov’s experiment with salivating dogs
best demonstrated the principle of Classical
Conditioning.

 Watson took Pavlov’s findings to another
level.
 Emphasized that learning was observable
or measurable, not cognitive.
 Believed the key to learning was in
conditioning a child from an early age
based on Pavlov’s methods.
 Nurture vs. Nature

 One of the most influential American
psychologists
 He began his research with rats at
Harvard and pigeons during WWII.
 Respondent vs. Operant behavior
 Operant Conditioning

 Types of reinforcers
 Operant behavior will “extinguish” without
reinforcement
 By selecting which behavior to reinforce,
we can direct the learning process in the
classroom
 Learners can acquire new operants
 “Education is what survives when what has
been learned has been forgotten”

 Contributed to the understanding
of learning through observation
and modeling

 Gagné’s Hierarchy of Learning notes the
transition from behaviorism to cognitive
psychology
 Mental operations needed for each outcome
differ
 Gagne’s Instructional Events lead into
cognitive Psychology
 Five Learning Outcomes (observable and
measurable)
 The Hierarchy of Learning

ATTITUDES.
MOTOR SKILLS
COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
INFORMATION
INTELLECTUAL SKILLS

 Curriculum should be organized so students
experience success in master the subject
matter.
 Behaviorist are very prescriptive and
diagnostic in their approach.
 Rely on step-by-step structured methods for
learning.
 Behaviorism in curriculum includes careful
analyzing and sequencing of the learners’
needs and behaviours.

Focus on how individuals
process information
Emphasis on memory
(storage, retrieval, types)
Learner is the key player

MONTESSORI- Sensory
Stimulation
PIAGET- Cognitive Development
Stage
VYGOTSKY- Zone of Proximal
Development

 Authors do not place her with
progressive child- centered approaches-
lack of “free play” vs. freedom within
structure
 Opposed behaviorist focus on only
“doing” but focused also on looking and
listening
 Focus on how sensory stimulation from
the environment shapes thinking

 Swiss psychologist (Pestalozzi)
 America noticed in the 50’s and 60’s
 Text reminds us that his theories
are not fact, and should be taken as
“suggestive”
 Like Gagne , stages described as
hierarchal
 Schema theory
 Piaget’s Cognitive Development
Stage

Formal
operations
begins
@ 11-15
abstract thinker
Concrete operations
(ages 7 to 11)
begins to think abstractly,
needs physical, concrete
examples
Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 4)
Needs concrete interactions (no abstract)
use of symbols (pictures, words) to
communicate
Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 years old)
learning by movement and sensory exploration

 Russian psychologist
 The West published in 1962
 theory of socio-cultural
development
 Culture requires skilled tool use
(language, art, counting systems)
 The Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD)

 Cognitive approach constitutes a logical
method for organizing and interpreting
learning
 Rooted in the tradition of subject matter
 Educators been trained in cognitive
approaches
 Schools are the place for cognitive learning.
Students should not afraid to ask, not afraid of
being wrong, not afraid of not please teacher,
and not afraid of taking risk and playing with
ideas.

Psychological foundation of curriculum

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