Textbook - Chapter 2

Question 1

The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates were the first Western thinkers to _

Answer 1

document whether basic knowledge about the world exists before birth or whether we accumulate it through experience

Question 2

Ancient thoughts on learning were later (after plato/socrates) revived by thinkers of the European Enlightenment era (17th to 18th century) such as _ who _

Answer 2

John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau who continued to wonder about the influences of experience in shaping the mind

Question 3

Describe Plato’s role in learning

Answer 3

• founded the first western institution of higher learning, the Academy, ~387 BC
• was a free place of learning that welcomed scholars and their pupils to teach and study topics that ranged from mathematics and science to philosophy and politics
• Plato was a rationalist, having the philosophical viewpoint for the existence of innate or inborn knowledge (ex. nature - suggesting that our genes have great influence on our personalities)

Question 4

Plato himself studied under _ who _

Answer 4

the famous philosopher Socrates who developed the Socratic method of teaching and learning

Question 5

describe socratic thinking + provide an alternative name for it

Answer 5

*dialectic approach to learning
- requires the use of questioning as its main focus
- the teacher asks open-ended questions expecting answers outside of a ‘yes or no’ response
- the student is encouraged to generate their own questions all the while co-creating a learning experience that is a shared conversation (i.e., the dialectic approach) between the teacher and student

Question 6

Does the socratic thinking/dialectic approach follow an organized set of answers?

Answer 6

NO - This interactive form of learning has no set agenda with no expectation that the student must arrive at the same conclusion as the teacher

• Rather, the teacher guides the student to direct thinking on personal underlying beliefs and assumptions instead of accepting a single explanation that requires agreement with the teacher’s point of view

Question 7

What was the name of one of Plato’s most famous students who went on to develop his own philosophy? What was the philosophy called?

Answer 7

Aristotle
- empiricism
- Aristotle thought that knowledge and expertise occur through direct experience with the external world (aka. nurture - environment greatly influences who we are and how we interact with the world)

Question 8

Although Aristotle’s empirical approach differed from Plato’s rationalism, both supported

Answer 8

the use of debate, conversation, reflection, and active engagement through the dialectic method to support intellectual growth and development

Question 9

What was the Roman Catholic Church’s very specific method of teaching and learning? Why?

Answer 9

rote memorization
- The verbatim recollection of scripture was important as divine writings could not change from their original structure and language

Question 10

However, the practicalities of daily life required for much of education to occur outside of the church. Name the model used when focus increased on advancements in architecture, engineering, and other technical fields to modernize Roman cities,

Answer 10

the apprentice-teacher model was a better learning strategy for those studying the trades
- instead of discussions about high-level intellectual and complex ideas, characteristic of the Greek approach to learning, the focus here was on the acquisition of skills through experience and apprenticeship

Question 11

The two system approach to education resulted in the Romans’ focus on preserving _ while also supporting _ through what is now called _

Answer 11

religious doctrine, the advancement of civil infrastructure, experiential education

Question 12

The Renaissance period (insert century) brought about advancements by _. Name some influential people who were involved in this

Answer 12

14th - 17th century
- combining discrete disciplines into combined interdisciplinary fields
- leonardo da vinci
- michelangenlo
- nicolaus copernicus

Question 13

How did Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo combine discrete fields into interdisciplenary ones?

Answer 13

• infused both art and medicine into painting the human form by illustrating the anatomically accurate location and structure of muscles and tendons
• other artists used optics principles from physics to accurately depict depth and space in two dimension

Question 14

In the science fields, what did Nicolaus Copernicus combine?

Answer 14

astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) combined mathematics with astronomy to record the movements of planets and stars. His approach laid the foundation for direct observation as a critical component for both scientific discovery and science education.

Question 15

Similar to Platos’ free Academy, theologian _ advocated for accessible education. What did this help lay the groundwork for?

Answer 15

Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German leader of the Protestant Reformation,
- This helped lay the groundwork for our modern public education system, requiring free learning to be inclusive and equitable.

Question 16

What did René Descartes do?

Answer 16

• towards the end of the Enlightenment period French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650), revived discussions of the Platonic conceptualization of innate knowledge
• While Descartes acknowledged the role of sensory experience (i.e., direct interaction with the world), he also believed that innate (inborn) thinking strategies were equally important

Question 17

What did John Locke do?

Answer 17

• supporters of Artistole’s empiricism such as John Locke (1632-1704), the English physician and philosopher, continued to advocate for the role of experience
• Locke famously compared a child’s mind to a tabula rasa (blank slate) to develop through sensory experience

Question 18

What did Jean-Jacques Rousseau do?

Answer 18

(1712 - 1778) *Enlightenment era
- incorporated Locke’s philosophies into his work
- published in 1762, in the then controversial novel “Emile, or On Education,” Rousseau proposed a radical educational reform: the removal of rigid educational structure

Question 19

what was the suggestion of Rousseau in “Emile, or On Education” novel?

Answer 19

• align teaching strategies with the stages of children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development (**developmental stages)
• building an ducational system based on experience and exploration rather than rigid structures and rote memorization
• replaced the authoritarian teacher with an open-minded tutor that created experiences focused on exploration
• the educational strategy, although initially based on sensory experience later goes on to focus on more complex types of thinking such as moral reasoning

Question 20

what did Immanuel Kant do?

Answer 20

• formally bridged the gap between rationalism and empiricism, similar to how we conceptualize the nature or nurture argument
• nature is the genetic predisposition or biological makeup of an individual and nurture is the physical world that influences our genetic predisposition ( the expression of our genes is influenced by our environment and our experiences)
  *In return, our experiences may impact whether a gene is expressed or not (Sravanti, 2017)

Question 21

From Kant’s perspective, innate knowledge may include_, all of which are essential for _

Answer 21

• the basic understanding of concepts such as space, time, and causality
• making sense of our world

Question 22

Explain Kant’s stance on something like the typical 24 hour cycle of the sun rising and setting each day

Answer 22

• Kant argued that our minds already have a concept that is time
• we don’t learn about the idea of “time passing” just from observing the sun
• rather, our mind uses the innate concept (i.e., rationalism) of time to make sense of a sunrise and a sunset

Question 23

Why were the 19th and early 20th centuries a great time of change ?

Answer 23

• due to the creation of academic disciplines and sub-specialties in universities across much of Europe and North America
• researchers in the psychological sciences set out to use a common method of inquiry to study human behaviour so that psychology could be recognized as a rigorous scientific discipline
• majority of the focus was on establishing the widespread use of a rigorous scientific method to advance our understanding of human behaviour and how humans learn

Question 24

To include scientific rigour to any academic discipline, we must use a universal and standard approach: _

Answer 24

observation, experimentation, and data-driven interpretation

Question 25

What did Edward Lee Thorndike do?

Answer 25

(1874-1949)
- famous American researcher who applied the scientific approach to the study of learning using unique experimental participants, cats
- was able to plot learning over time using the graphical representation of experience (the number of attempts at a task on the x-axis and the amount of time it took to make a correct response on the y-axis)

Question 26

What did the plotting of easily observable and objective data allow Thorndike to do?

Answer 26

document the progression of learning over time
*learning was occurring when Thorndikes cats were taking less and less time to complete a task
*applying the same principles of experimentation to humans as well

Question 27

What did B.F. Skinner do?

Answer 27

(1904-1990)
- studied factors that influenced the rate at which we learn
- due to his fascination of mechanical systems, Skinner was especially keen on creating automated devices so that ongoing behavioural data could be collected without much human involvement
*although both Skinner and Thorndike collected data mostly on non-human participants, both strongly believed that their research could explain universal principles of learning

Question 28

How did Skinner apply his fascination of mechanical systems to behavioural data?

Answer 28

• the Operant Conditioning Chamber, also known as the Skinner Box
• made of levers and buttons for animal participants to push and press allowing for the delivery of stimuli (e.g., lights, sounds), reinforcements (e.g., food pellets, water), or punishments (e.g., mild electric shocks) on various schedules of training

Question 29

What was the genius in using an operant conditioning chamber to record participant responses?

Answer 29

it automatically allowed for the plotting of data without any human intervention
- the data was transcribed allowing for an objective measure of learning
- could easily plot learning on a graph with the number of trials (or attempts) on the x-axis and the number of correct and incorrect responses on the y-axis
- this graphical representation also allowed Skinner to mathematically calculate the rate of learning over time

Question 30

By analyzing data from the operant conditioning chamber, Skinner could determine how different schedules of reward and punishment affected _

Answer 30

the acquisition or persistence of different behaviours in his participants

Question 31

What did Jean Piaget do?

Answer 31

(1896-1980)
- interested in studying how children think and problem solve as they age
- like Kant, Piaget believed that we have predetermined concepts or categories of knowing that support our experiences with the world
- piaget came to view that it is through such experiences that a child constructs relationships between objects and ideas, including societal structures and rules
* focus on cognitive changes across development!! (diff from rousseau’s stages of development)

Question 32

How did Rousseau and Piaget profoundly influence our current educational practices?

Answer 32

• Rousseau’s philosophies support a greater focus on child-centred education of exploration and discovery
• teaching methods that match cognitive abilities at different ages are mainly due to Piaget’s work

Question 33

we conceptualize cognition as _

Answer 33

basic ability to think, reason, and make sense of the world around us

Question 34

Who said “The true development of thinking is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual”

Answer 34

Lev Vygotsky

Question 35

What did Lev Vygotsky do?

Answer 35

(1896-1934)
- studied the social-cultural theory of learning. - since we are a social species, Vygotsky believed that our psychological well-being and our capacity to learn can be greatly influenced by the interactions we have with with others
- Also, Vygotsky suggested that the cognitive development of children is greatly influenced by the societies in which they live and the cultural standards that may influence their everyday living

Question 36

how did Vygotsky’s theories influence educational practices?

Answer 36

• emphasis on collaborative learning practices where students interact with one another to enhance their learning
• the focus on maintaining mentoring relationships between older and younger students

Question 37

What did John Dewey do?

Answer 37

(1859-1952)D
- credited for the teaching and learning motto: Learning by Doing (learning should occur through experience)
- Dewey believed, in part with Rousseau, that education should not be separate from life itself
- Similar to Vygotsky, Dewey argued for progressive education with socially engaging learning activities that are developmentally matched and are socially relevant
*responsive classroom approach

Question 38

how does the responsive classroom approach work?

Answer 38

• a teacher creates a happy learning community assisting their students in building positive social relationships to foster a community of learners
• the responsive classroom values experiential learning, where students engage in hands-on activities that are meaningful and relevant to their lives
• This is the learner-centred approach to teaching and is perhaps most evident in montessori schools where the curriculum is modifiable based on students’ personal interests and social needs

Question 39

Both John Dewey and _ aligned in their approach to learner-centred teaching?

Answer 39

Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

Question 40

What was Maria Montessori’s background?

Answer 40

• never formally studied education design or policy although she did write several books on the topic and developed the Montessori method of early education
• trained as a physician, but held strong beliefs about education and that children learn best in an environment that supports their natural curiosity

Question 41

The Montessori approach emphasizes _

Answer 41

hands-on, self-directed learning, where children are given the freedom to explore and choose their activities within a supported environment

Question 42

How are Montessori classrooms designed?

Answer 42

• designed to promote independence, where teachers are guides or facilitators, observing and supporting the learning process rather than directing it
• also emphasizes mixed-age classrooms allowing older children to mentor younger ones and foster a sense of community and collaboration