Useful Theorists and Support Guides for the edTPA

Elliot Aronson

1932 - present

Image Source: Public domain, Vera Aronson, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Summary of Theory

Elliot Aronson invented and formalized the jigsaw classroom. The jigsaw classroom is a cooperative learning technique that organizes classroom activities and learning to make students dependent on each other to successfully complete something. In jigsaw activities, in groups, each student is responsible for learning or completing a specific task and then reporting back to their groups and teaching it to their peers. This is akin to pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that only work when all pieces fit into each other. Everyone takes responsibility for their own part but ultimately, it only works when everybody does their part. Cooperative learning utilizes social learning theories that bring people together and learn from each other. Aronson built a good portion of his work from Spencer Kagan's writing.

Interestingly, jigsaw learning was more critical for classroom and behavioral management than for direct instruction. The jigsaw classroom was originally developed to reduce racial conflicts and to help students work together. Aronson and his graduate students had ultimately figured out that the competitive nature of the school environment can contribute to these conflicts. They worked together with teachers, principals, and other staff to create a system where students are dependent on each other. Aronson initiates that jigsaw groups should be diverse and allow for great sharing.

According to jigsawclassroom.org, these are the following steps for jigsaw learning.

Jigsaw activities allow students to learn from each other and see from each other's perspectives. They understand what role they play in groups. They begin to take pride in their role in their group and take responsibility for what they have to do. They see the value of working in groups. Jigsaw classrooms have resulted in students displaying more empathy. They may begin to like each other more. Not only is the atmosphere more pleasant, the students are also happier and less likely to not want to participate. Furthermore, in case studies, the students who were unfriendly changed and developed better relationships and became better at communicating with those they were unfriendly with. Students who struggled with the materials became better at them and the ones who were better at them strengthened their abilities, especially through teaching it to others.

Aronson also worked on the concept of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance refers to the perception of contradicting information received by the person. This is an interesting subject of study and explains many behaviors; for example, smoking is harmful to the body and only produces a temporary calming effect for an already agitated mind, yet people still do it. This page will not go into detail on cognitive dissonance, but it has its uses for explaining human behaviors.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

It is common to see jigsaw activities in lesson plans. As mentioned, Aronson suggested that groups should be diverse. In his original studies, groups had 5 or 6 members. They should reflect different ethnicities, genders, and academic abilities. "Best" friends and "worst" enemies are avoided being grouped together. This prevents an amount of dissonance. Groups should also reflect different strengths students have. Give students the opportunity to take pride in what they can contribute to their groups.

Jigsaw learning was created in response to difficulties due to competitiveness, especially in an era where schools were being racially integrated. While a certain amount of competition is good and even necessary for student success, we don't want our classes to be too competitive to a harmful extent.

Make sure you indicate that you followed the ten steps developed by Aronson and his team and that they are indicated clearly in your lesson plans. It is preferable that you, as the teacher, create the groups for simplicity of the edTPA. With each step, allot a proper amount of time depending on your class and other circumstances. Remember that the edTPA needs to be thorough and you should adhere to formalities for more convenient writing and analysis.

When writing the edTPA make sure to define what specific roles and parts are assigned to each member of the jigsaw group. Also define the task each group member has to carry out and what they have to learn and ultimately report back to the group. Make sure there is time for them to synthesize. Make sure you are monitoring their progress and take steps to boost the less productive groups.

You should also note the behavioral management strategies employed by Aronson and his team in the classroom. In situations where students teased each other, one strategy he adopted was pointing out very clearly that teasing would not resolve what they as a group are trying to accomplish. Denigrating behaviors and destructive criticism brings everyone down. Cooperation brings everyone up. Make this point very clear to the students. Furthermore, by making a test based on cooperation, the same behaviors in the past did not work anymore. They will have to resort to cooperative and constructive behaviors. Furthermore, he would glorify the accomplishments of the groups who chose cooperative behaviors.

Jigsaw learning can also be useful as an adaptation for your focus students if your focus student can practice his/her language and communication skills in a small group with supporting classmates. Cooperative learning was meant to reduce tensions (often due to prejudices) and Aronson and his team has shown that jigsaw has shown to be effective for reducing such tensions.

We will not go into detail on how to utilize cognitive dissonance but it can be used to explain behaviors. One way to use cognitive dissonance is for behavioral management. Make the alternative to misbehaving much better than the consequences of misbehavior. Positive attention is much better than negative attention. If students make a horrible choice, keep reasoning with them about the consequences and why the one they chose hurts them both in the short term and long term.

David Ausubel

1918 - 2008

Image source: reducom.org

Summary of Theory

Ausubel was a psychologist who came up with the "meaningful learning theory" where in a person's mind there is a hierarchical organization of knowledge. In contrast to Piaget, Ausubel indicated that there was only one body of knowledge that could be rearranged. The human brain would rearrange this body of knowledge. He distinguished his work as different from rote learning and discovery learning.

Meaningful learning has been informally described as making meaning out of the learned information presented to you. There are factors that affect learning and many facets of cognition. Meaningful learning is in contrast to rote learning, which does not result in acquisition of meanings in the brain. Ausubel discussed that rather than intaking and regurgitating, the learners should be making the most meaningful connections from it. Remember to show that students are making useful connections from what they are learning. It is also in contrast to discovery learning as later discussed with propositional learning.

Meaningful reception learning and retention, according to David Ausubel is the acquisition of new meanings from presented materials and holding on to them. It is not automatically synonymous with learning meaningful material. Ausubel specified three kinds of meaningful learning.

Representational learning, closest to rote learning, involves equating objects to their "referents" like knowing the names of physical objects.

Concept learning refers to learning concepts, defined as objects, events, situations, properties, and etc that are related and have the same symbolic designation. Ausubel further breaks down that concept formation takes place in younger children and concept assimilation is the focus for school age children and adults.

Propositional learning is learning when propositions are presented to the learning and the learner relates the content to existing cognitive structures. Ausubel makes a contrast to discovery learning in that this content is presented in a non-problem-setting proposition that the learner needs to understand and remember rather than discover.

Advance Organizers

Ausubel drew on the work of Jean Piaget. He used the concepts of schema and schemata just as Piaget did, however his focus is on how learners obtain knowledge from presentations. His focus on making meaning from verbal and textual data led him to develop structures that allow students to learn effectively from these structures. Ausubel called such a structure the Advance Organizer, which can be further split into Comparative Organizers and Expository Organizers.

Comparative Organizers aim to activate existing schemas. They bring relevant content into the discussion. They draw on previous knowledge and make that familiar knowledge active for learning. An example for science class might include a visual that recaps properties of metals for a lesson on why metals have such properties.

Expository Organizers provide new knowledge that students will need to understand upcoming lessons. They provide a broad idea of the purpose of the lesson. From our science class example, we might include an organizer that asks students to identify common metals heard about in the house and physically in the classroom.

Note that the distinctions between the organizers are very blurry. Ausubel had acknowledged that. You can do further research and justify your choices as to what you identify your organizer as.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Ausubel's work focuses on the expository aspects of learning. It refers less to memorization and discovery. This may be most appropriate in some situations where discovery is not the most suitable way to learn something such as universal structures and notations that students should be knowledgeable of and use. For example, the structure of a persuasive paragraph has a universal structure and is best taught with organization. Another example involves notations for mathematical expressions and setting up work to reduce clutter. Discuss why and how your teaching is "meaningful" to the students. Make sure you establish why it is important and meaningful to them prior to teaching it to them. For many subjects, make sure you indicate that even if they feel that the material is not directly useful in their lives, it is important for them to learn the content to explore the possible world around them, the different fields of study, to avoid appearing ignorant, and to just make yourself a better person. Guide them to develop that understanding. Students who are thinking about programs and activities they want to partake in and future careers they want to have will find meaning in what you aim to teach them.

Technology can be involved in meaningful learning. However, it should be treated as a tool for learning and never as a replacement for learning. Make sure all of your decisions of using web and technology resources are properly justified. With technology, they can explore their interests and find new doors in the infinitely vast pool of information and resources.

Advance Organizers and Schemata

Advance organizers are great for learning! You can often find advance organizer worksheets, posters, computer graphics, and more from academic websites and other places. You can also create your own. Google Drawings is a great resource for creating your own organizers. There are organizers for many subjects from all levels of learning. Ausubel engrained his work on advance organizers in meaningful learning and retention. As Ausubel would describe them, they are purposefully organized in schemata to facilitate learning. In advance organizers, have students organize their previous knowledge and ideas. Then reference this organizer as you build into your content in your lesson. Make sure you follow the basis of Ausubel's meaningful learning theories in your analysis. In your writing, break down the advance organizers into the schemas that you want the students to acquire and retain. The organizers are usually built in discrete packets for the students to work on one section at a time.

We will use our interpretation to address the potential difficulties with distinctions between comparative organizers and expository organizers. (However, this may or may not be the "professional interpretation".) From our perspectives, comparative organizers are based on content from previous lessons. They combine knowledge from previous lessons. For expository organizers, we believe they are based on content from their lives or their interest and content from previous classes that are relevant to what you will be teaching. These concepts are definitely not absolute nor mutually exclusive so whatever justification you choose, make sure you explain it reasonably.

Alan Baddeley

1934 - present

Image Source: https://www.york.ac.uk/

Summary of Theory

Baddeley is best known for developing the concept of working memory. In Baddeley's model, there is the existence of multiple short term memory stores. Short-term memory is the part of our memory that stores a limited number of items which last for a short transient period of time. In his initial work, he illustrated three major components to his model. They are the central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad. In 2000, he added the fourth component, the episodic buffer.

The central executive is the most important component and the most obscure component of this model. It decides which information gets priority in the moment and which parts of the working memory to send that information to manage it. Baddeley argues that the central executive is a system which controls attentional processes rather than as a memory store. For example, if a parent is multitasking and suddenly notices his/her child is crawling towards the medicine cabinet, the central executive of the brain of the parent will probably rush over to keep the child from going where he/she should not.

The following two components are the subsystems of the central executive.

The phonological loop which processes spoken language is composed of two parts, the phonological store and the articulatory control process. The phonological store is the inner ear. In the first seconds of hearing something, this is where you perceive your hearing. The articulatory control process is your "inner voice". It rehearses and manages what you are going to say.

The visuospatial sketchpad is where you process visual and spatial information from what you see and perceive. This part of your brain is used for moving around and navigating. It processes and updates quickly to allow you to comfortably move around without crashing into things. It also takes visual and spatial information and stores it into long-term memory.

As components of working memory, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad can operate at the same time. One task from each of the components can be simultaneously executed. On the contrary, two tasks that utilize one component are hard to execute. This explains why it is easy to process a visual task and verbal task at the same time but hard to process two visual tasks or two verbal tasks. It is hard to read two different sets of text at the same time or to think of two settings at the exact same time, however it is possible to see and image and read a descriptive statement of it.

The episodic buffer is a limited capacity passive system that communicates between long-term memory and the components of working memory. allows for some level of linking information across domains to form integrated units. In the episodic buffer, the information is linked from working memory to perception and ultimately to long-term memory.

Long-term memory is not part of working memory and is rather the "large database" that is accessed as needed. Some information from working memory eventually gets devoted to long-term memory.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Baddeley's work is all about the science of information processing and memory. Working memory affects the process in the moment while long-term memory is material for deeper access and for deeper storage. If you wish to use it in the edTPA, you can explicitly write about the specifics of the lesson and how each aspect of the lesson suits each component of working memory. As mentioned, the central executive is not well understood but nevertheless explains the priorities of the person in the moment.

As teachers, we wish to choose the practices that best help our students optimize their thinking. In general, you wish to choose functions where one utilizes the phonological loop and one that utilizes the visuospatial sketchpad. (IE it is better for them to read words under a picture at the same time rather than look at two words on the same card.)

When reading a story or listening to a story, the brain uses the visuospatial sketchpad. Each person visualizes the scene differently but is able to sense out physical locations of objects and sensations described by the story. When students recreate such an environment, they are using the working memory of the visuospatial sketchpad. It is also used for mathematical understanding of space as well.

In your analysis of the assessment, consider how the learner is using working memory to process what he/she learned. In your film if you have students speak or verbally present something (to their peers and you), they have to use their phonological loop to organize what they want to say. Depending on age, circumstance, and language familiarity, the amount they have to use this will vary. Scratchwork and written responses can also show use of the phonological loop. If the learner has to draw a diagram or illustration of something, he/she is using the visuospatial sketchpad to demonstrate his/her visuospatial knowledge. Finally, you can observe if they are storing knowledge into long-term memory where they will need in in the future.

Using Long-term Memory

There are two aspects of using long-term memory. What should they be accessing from their current long-term memory for this lesson and task and what they should be devoting into long-term memory. If lessons require that they access something they learned or experienced in the past, include a discussion of long-term memory.

Decide which aspects of what you are teaching should be devoted to long-term memory and work out how you plan for them to attain that and how and where it will need to be accessed in the future. Describe it for relative short term and long term. For example, in social studies class, students should understand the general overview of philosophies in a dynasty in China and expect to participate in a discussion in a subsequent lesson. However, in the future, it is expected that they shall compare the philosophies in a later time period in Europe and be able to consider how a philosopher in Europe would perceive and express opinion about policies and happenings from China and vice versa.

Also, consider and describe how your content will go into their brain and what should be devoted to long-term. memory. A picture illustrating a graph, a mathematical function in functional notation, or a statement describing properties of the graph are all processed differently but nevertheless all have to go into long term memory. They can probably coexist on one page but do not overburden their brains for the moment.

Urie Bronfenbrenner

1917 - 2005

Image Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1986-0610-037 / Brüggmann, Eva / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons

Summary of Theory

Bronfenbrenner researched how the social and physical environments influence the development of the child. Bronfenbrenner's theories analyze the setting and its importance and roles in shaping the mind and learning. The natural settings are crucial to the development of the child. It is shaped by interaction between the individual and their environment. He developed the "bioecological theory", also called the "ecological systems theory" from these studies. Bronfenbrenner had developed the study of the biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment. It is comparable to understanding how an organism develops and interacts with the external environment and other organisms around it and how this all influences development. The ecological systems theory refers to complex systems of relationships affected by the different levels of environment. These different systems are the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem. Processes in these systems are the "engines of development" for children.

The ecological systems do intertwine and can be difficult to perfectly define but observably, school and home are defined to be in the microsystem.

The Microsystem

The microsystem refers to the close living arrangement of the student. Bronfenbrenner defines that in microsystems, roles are labels used to designate various social positions. A role is a set of activities and relations expected of a person occupying a particular position in society, and of others in relation to that person.

The Mesosystem

The mesosystem is defined by the relationships and interactions within the microsystem of the child. Parents, teachers, parents of friends, and more who are both involved in the microsystems set the relationships. Learning centers and after school programs are also a bit more in the mesosystem. Positive relationships between adults and members in the mesosystem build positive development whereas negative relationships result in negative development. Examples include how parents and teachers get along and interact, and how parents perceive the child's friends, classmates, and families of those classmates.

The Exosystem

The exosystem includes the neighborhood, parent's workspace environments, up to the media and governmental influences. Policies and happenings from this level can impact development.

The Macrosystem

The macrosystem refers to the cultural elements that affect the development of the child. Socioeconomic status, wealth, poverty, and ethnicity are all elements of the macrosystem. The macrosystem refers to overall systems that are more difficult to change (although they can be steered).

The Chronosystem

The chronosystem encompasses all the environmental changes and transitions that happen over the lifetime that can influence development. Time and circumstance are crucial. For example, if the child observes his/her parents getting a divorce, the age, level of understanding, and circumstances can affect the child's development. The chronosystem also reflects the changes over time in all of the systems and how they affect the learner. With the pandemic and other happenings in the media, you can see this.

Ecological Transitions

Ecological transitions refer to shifts in role (explained in the microsystem) and/or setting. Entering school is one such shift. If your students are coming from a different period in their lives (i.e. just starting school, from elementary school, from middle school) or will soon be entering a new period. Your role in this process of facilitating this is also crucial. Ecological transitions involve changing locations such as moving from places with different climates, cultures, and living practices.

The time period of their lives for the students you will be writing about may be useful (depending on your learning unit). For example, many college applications are due in late November. If your students are seniors, indicate how you remind and assist them with this. You can have assignments in the unit that relate to this. This sets an opening phase for the transition between high school and college.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Make sure to indicate your knowledge of the environment that the child is living in and learning in, namely the environment of the home and school. Note that with distance learning, most students will be learning in the household environment, their "natural environment". The transition to learning at school involves a shift in environments and can also be treated as an ecological transition.

The environment of the school can be thoroughly analyzed. While factors such as the geography and architecture of the school cannot be changed, how do they shape the learning setting?

You can consider discussing the environment in terms of diversity. It is important to indicate how you make your classroom a safe space; safe for learning, interaction, and contribution. How do you, to the best of your ability, control external factors that may hinder or disturb learning?

In recent happenings, factors such as spikes and increases in COVID-19 cases can steer policies and ultimately affect all of the ecosystems on all levels. On the microsystem level, it can involve safety measures at home and mask wearing in public places. On the macrosystem scale, it can involve major policies involving health, sanitation, and public/business practices.

Uses of the Microsystem

A teacher is a role in the microsystem. You can cite the microsystem to illustrate your role as a teacher. Teachers provide guidance over a segment of a student's life. Parents play a much more intimate and nurturing role than teachers do. Do your instructional decisions fulfill the guidance role?

Uses of the Mesosystem

Through parental communication and maintaining a positive relationship with parents, you are helping establish positive development. Understanding the importance of bridges of trust helps you create the positive growth and development of students. Make sure you are also knowledgeable of potential negative factors that can result in negative development. While we cannot control such factors, we can look at ways to mitigate them. We want to help students see the positive aspects in darkness and grow from difficult experiences.

Uses of the Exosystem and Macrosystem

If you teach using a recent news article about a national or international happening, consider yourself using the exosystem (and to an extent the macrosystem). Mass media can influence your teaching and choice of content. (This is common with English and Social Studies classes.) Note that if you are using something (like an article or song) that is not as recent, we don't believe it is appropriate to consider it as part of the exosystem.

In the macrosystem, we can see that the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced recent happenings and overarching culture. It differs in that it is a larger scale system that is already established. Cultural patterns and values are encompassed into the macrosystem. Decisions being made on the state, interstate, and federal level influence the happenings. COVID-19 and the decisions that were made definitely also influenced the Chronosystem as recent events are considered.

Uses of the Chronosystem

The chronosystem may be very useful for addressing students who have had difficulties and losses over their lifetimes. For some English Learner students, this may include immigrating from another country and coming to the United States. Sudden cultural changes can be difficult for such learners.

Take a Moment and Ponder

If you think about it, language is just a series of symbols (in this case letters) that are organized in some way, and you can manipulate them to help someone else understand.

How do these exact words represent what I am writing to you? Your brain is decoding something that is just made of reorganized symbols. Furthermore, if you look at writing in a totally foreign language to you, what do those words mean to you? You do not have any means of decoding what that text says. To someone who does not know any English but knows and can read that foreign language, they have the opposite experience you had. This is one way to understand just the value of the knowledge and skill that you have built up. Furthermore, it allows us to appreciate just how complex and capable the human mind is. It also illustrates the extent of what symbolic representation is.

Furthermore, there are some things that can only be represented with language and symbols. Especially in math class, higher level concepts are difficult to represent, yet many students are able to understand them. We will comment that students must fully comprehend earlier concepts in order to be able to understand higher level concepts. If you teach higher level math and/or science, equations, symbols, statements, and other representations that you understand from your years of learning and working with the subject need to be properly taught to students where they will carefully develop accurate mental codings in their minds.

Jerome Bruner

1915 - 2016

Image Source: Wikipedia.org

Summary of Theory

Jerome Bruner was a cognitive psychologist. He developed theories on knowledge representation in the human brain. He indicated that the best way to learn is to discover something and figure out one's own representation. He states that there are three modes of representation; Enactive representation (action-based), Iconic representation (image-based), Symbolic representation (language-based). People develop their own portrayals of reality from what they perceive.

Representations of Knowledge

In enactive representation (ages 0-1) thinking is based on physical actions. From the infant years, infants learn by physically doing. Muscle movements characterize this type of representation. Humans still, however, continue to develop muscle memory as we learn even past our infancy stages.

Iconic representation (ages 1-6) is based on understanding sensory images. Sensory images are definitely not solely visual images but images from all senses such as hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. Humans start to represent concepts and ideas with images.

Symbolic representation (ages 7+) is the last representation that humans develop. At this stage, knowledge is stored in words, mathematical symbols, musical notes, or other abstract coding systems. Symbols have more flexible coding and representations in contrast to images. Symbolic representation is absolutely necessary for representing and understanding abstract concepts.

While these representations do correspond to certain years of their lives, they most definitely are not exclusively excluded to those years. For example, older children and adults do use physical modes to learn. For example, learning to ride a bicycle or operate a large machine utilizes action based enactive representation. You can still develop muscle memory when you are older.

Discovery Learning

Jerome Bruner postulated that learners construct their own knowledge and organize and categorize information in their own coding system. Discovery Learning follows perfectly from Bruner's theories on the representation of knowledge. Students learn best by discovering knowledge and figuring out their own representations of that knowledge. He has stated that a good teacher helps students discover the relationships between steps of information. As learners explore, they discover and create their own codings to understand and retain and build their knowledge.

He and many other theorists developed the paradigm of constructivism. Discovery Learning, championed by Bruner, is encompassed under the constructivist learning paradigm. Learners learn best through constructing or creating their own coding system rather than being directly told or taught. Experiences allow the learner to develop their internal coding system. He developed the term scaffolding which relates to Vygotsky's "Zone of Proximal Development". Remember that the ZPD refers to the space between what a learner can do without help and guidance and what the learner can do with assistance. Through the concept of scaffolding, he suggested that subjects should be taught at gradually increasing difficulty and taking steps further into the ZPD.

Scaffolding and the Teacher's Functions

Discovery learning is a highly engaged form of learning. Learners exercise the schemata in their brains by rearranging information when discovering. Students develop an ability to find "recurrent regularities" and patterns in the environment. The teacher's role under guided discovery learning is not passive. Scaffolding should involve the teacher circulating the classroom. During the time the teacher will perform six core functions. Bruner describes the six core functions as the following.

Recruitment describes ensuring that the students are interested as well as understanding the expectations.

Reducing degrees of freedom involves removing irrelevant directions of thought and distractions. While trial and error is absolutely necessary, avoiding too many exhaustive trials can be helpful to the learner.

Direction maintenance is making sure that the learners are on task and invested in learning this. This also involves breaking down the main objectives and aims into smaller sub aims that are easier to reach and understand.

Marking critical features refers to highlighting and pointing out key concepts and processes as well as errors, fallacious thinking, and misconceived ideas.

Frustration control is encouraging students when they get frustrated and preventing them from giving up.

Demonstration involves providing models for imitation and processing.

Further Uses of Representation

Note that Bruner's theories were indeed useful for computers and technology. Developing icons and representations was a critical process in technology and continues to be. It is important to think about this in the design process. Furthermore logos, images, and other representations we see and sense settle into our brain and for computers, we become familiar with using them to the point that it is almost instinctive.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Uses of Enactive Representation

Most children in school will have passed the enactive stage but teaching muscle memory is still useful for learners of all ages. Tactile learners benefit from enactive representations. Activities with physical gesturing can help learners develop enactive representation. Anything that involves physically carrying out activities still utilizes enactive representation.

Uses of Iconic Representation

Graphic organizers are often perfect examples of using iconic representations. Diagrams, illustrations, pictures, and icons help us learn. It can be useful to start a unit with a graphic organizer that puts together visual representations of the foundational knowledge they will need for the learning unit. Abstract understandings build from concrete and observable ones. As mentioned, they don't have to solely be visual but rather, they are iconic and repesentative and help humans associate and comprehend.

Uses of Symbolic Representation

Every subject has symbolic representations that the human brain must understand and interpret. As mentioned, language is the human instinct and is one of those understandings. Even without formal education of language structures, children learn to communicate. Everything is represented in language. All subjects use the structure of your language to be taught. However, each subject has its own "academic vocabulary". Building knowledge from understanding academic vocabulary is an expectation of learning. Being able to read symbols, including musical notes and mathematical equations is part of learning and even for the more advanced, newer representations can be built.

Scaffolding and Helping Students Discover

As a teacher, you should scaffold the learning process and allow them to develop their own personal mental representations of knowledge. Scaffolding includes using their knowledge and learned materials to help them understand new content. Asking students to describe something in their own words is also a perfect example of helping them develop their own understanding. You provide challenges and questions to help them move up levels. Thus, they use discovery learning as they construct their own understandings.

If you have students learn through discovering, discuss what they are doing and how in your plans, you help set up the scaffolding for their learning. Describe the aspects of the six core functions that you carry out. If students appear to be frustrated, give encouragement and a nudge in the right direction. If they are off task, urge them to learn this valuable knowledge. If they are on an academic path but the discussion is going away from the main point, redirect them on the right path. If from past experience, they often veering in wrong directions, constrain their direction. Reduce the degrees of freedom and acknowledge that in real life, you can definitely look at different directions but for this lesson, we should focus on a specific direction and topic. For example, in a social science class, if you are having students discover the different aspects of Lewis and Clark's expedition and they start exploring beyond the expedition to the future implications such as the pioneer trails, inform them that they will learn of that later and focus now on the initial discoveries of Lewis and Clark's group.

Manipulatives and Constructivism

Use of manipulatives (such as algebra tiles) are commonly associated with constructivism because they are often literally constructing visualizations with their hands. (This is relatively common in math classes.) Sometimes the concrete manipulatives can represent abstract ideas such as variables. Describe how the students construct their understanding which these physical manipulatives.

If you film such sections, show examples of students working on such activities and show their physical building with them. Show samples of them constructing the correct results and also the incorrect results where they eventually find their way to the correct results. This illustrates Discovery Learning as the learners construct and discover the final results.

Assessing Discovery Learning

When assessing discovery learning, check if they retained what they learned and/or not unintentionally overgeneralize or develop other erroneous thinking. If you notice a potential issue of them going the wrong direction, correct them and make sure they understand it only applies in a specific context. For example, a child learning how to subtract numbers learned about "borrowing" with manipulatives. Without the manipulatives, when presented 24 – 7, the child may unintentionally subtract the 4 in the ones place and obtain 23 (or 13) as a result. Re-present the manipulatives and ensure this concept is solidified and remind him/her of what he/she discovered. Likewise, he/she may overgeneralize and try "borrowing" for a question like 28 – 7 when such borrowing is not necessary. Have them rediscover with more guidance when you show them the correct illustrations.

Michelene Chi

Year of Birth Undisclosed - present

Image Source: https://www.cmu.edu/, Carnegie Mellon University

Summary of Theory

Michelene Chi is best known for her development of the theoretical framework for active learning. She defines active learning as engaging cognitively and meaningfully with the materials rather than passively receiving it. Interactive engagement is demonstrated by collaborative dialogues. Chi argues that this is superior for learning than constructive engagement. Her research is used for instructional design and places emphasis on interaction.

She categorized student engagement behaviors into four categories. This taxonomy allows educators to characterize the level of engagement of the instructional material and activities. Chi has also referred to these as knowledge-change processes. They are given single-word labels provided in italics at the end.

From least engaged to the most engaged, the four modes of engagement are described as the following.

Passive/receiving : This is the least engaged form of learning. The learner receives the knowledge without overtly doing anything else related to the content. This produces minimal understanding. Store

Active/manipulating : On this level, the learner is manipulating the material such as inspecting the material for searching through the material to see what can be found. This produces shallow understanding. Integrate

Constructive/generating : In this level of the taxonomy, the leaner must generate or produce external outputs beyond what was provided in the learning material. This produces deeper understanding that may transfer to other contexts. Infer

Interactive/dialoguing : The most interactive level, the learner is interacting and learning through interactions. This produces understanding that can generate new ideas. Co-infer

Because I > C > A > P, this model is called the ICAP model or ICAP framework. In comparison to Bloom's Taxonomy, Chi's ICAP model also addresses intrapersonal and interpersonal cognition.

The modes of dialogue are also characterized in her work. Joint dialogue offers two people more chances to learn from each other. If one person dominates the discussion, that is not interactive or constructive. Thus, they encourage fair contributions from both members during dialogue. Schemas are activated in their minds; subsequently they mutually generate ideas off each other's contributions.

The researchers also compared results produced by different tasks. Tasks differed by the amount of interactivity with peers. To measure gains in learning, the researchers analyzed the knowledge indicated in the sentences they produced. They measured the number of features in statements they produced after the activities. They were referred to as single-feature sentences, double-feature sentences, and triple-feature sentences. A generalized overview indicates that interactive tasks and activities require learners to produce new knowledge and thus they end up creating many more triple-feature sentences than for less interactive tasks.

Chi has further used this work to research and explain why a learner learning with tutorial dialogue-videos than lecture-style monologue-videos tend to learn more. The interaction between two members in the video makes it more effective. When analyzing videos, they created the term turn to describe a change in who is the speaker. Coconstructive turns refer to "change" in speaker that contains substantive contributions from both speakers. Constructive dialogue has thus been incorporated into creating engaging tutorial videos.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

ICAP Framework

Using Chi's work, you can justify why you chose your materials. You wish to show them in I, C, and A levels in Chi's modes of engagement. P should be in there but in sparing amounts. If you choose a specific item such as a poster, a lab activity, for them to search through and find pertinent information, you have chosen an active activity where they can search for what they want. Write your work in comparison to passive activities. We recommend including something on each level and then finally put emphasis on the highest level, interactive.

In your analysis, when discussing an individual dialogue you listened to, make sure you illustrate how it is interactive and constructive. During Think Pair Share activities, assess the quality of the discussions when you walk around the classroom. During the pair process, schemas are activated in both of their minds. Focus in on some examples of the discussions you heard. Write about what you heard and how all of the members in the group were contributing fairly with double and triple feature sentences in comparison to simple terse single word or simple sentence responses. During the share process, existing schemas are synthesized by all involved.

The content covered in this section is only a cursory view of the research methods and characterizations used by Michelene Chi and her team. Nevertheless, the terminology of her research and analysis can be used in your writing to describe and justify what you choose and observe for your writing.

It would be interesting applying Chi's work to Flipgrid (or an equivalent video recording software). Although Flipgrid is not directly interactive, it technically is meant for interaction with "eventual viewers". Describe some triple-feature statements and what the student thoroughly discusses in the amount of time allotted to the Flipgrid video.

Applications to Instructional Videos

When justifying your choice of instructional content such as videos, choose videos that have interaction between members. Briefly analyze and discuss how people in the video interact. In the dialogue, you can point out some coconstructive turns where each of them contribute substantially to the content. For example, in Generation Genius's videos, Dr. Jeff Vinokur and the teens in the video often discuss and synthesize the events that happen in their videos. Note a rough measure of how many coconstructive turns exist in the video and how students learn from that interaction observed in the video.

Chi's work can also be applied to video creation if that is a project you have them do or if it is integral to your subject and curriculum. If you have them create videos to teach a topic, encourage them to use dialogue. Even if their acting is not up to desired levels, it is still helpful to their learning. [However, if this a class where the acting has to be graded and evaluated (such as for drama class), you should follow required standards as expected.] The observed interaction and coconstructive turns they create in the video benefits both the learner creating the video and the learner watching it. The creators would have to utilize high level thinking to explain to the viewer.

Noam Chomsky

1928 - present

Image Source: Wikipedia.org, Nationaal Archief

Summary of Theory

Noam Chomsky is a well-known scholar who is active in many fields. He is most known, however, for his studies in linguistics. In the past, it was believed that language was learned through forms of behaviorism. It speculated that language was learned through means of stimulus and conditioning. Chomsky developed the theory of "Universal Grammar" which postulates that to an extent, language development, namely syntactic knowledge or knowledge of rules and structures of a language are at least partially congenital. Children are capable of developing complex language skills from a young age onward. There is a theory that young children come with a "poverty of the stimulus", yet manage to attain very rich linguistic competence or the ability to communicate with a language. It was in contrast to the idea that language was learned solely through experience. Chomsky's Universal Grammar however, has been challenged by many prominent linguists. But there is significant evidence to support the fact that language acquisition is congenital to some degree. Furthermore, there are universal features and universal absence of features that do exist in languages. For example, no languages have sentence structures that end with the word "and". Children are also never observed making these types of mistakes as they learn to speak.

Chomsky also developed the concept of transformational-generative grammar. This theory relates the specific structures of a language and how the speaker is able to generate grammatically correct sentences from existing knowledge. It utilizes algebraic notations to analyze sentences in different languages. Transformational-generative grammar is a very useful tool for analyzing complexities and ambiguities in languages.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Linguistics and Native Languages

Each language has its own unique sets of rules and structures. Native speakers of those languages learn them from infancy in the same way you learned your native language(s).

Even if you are not a language teacher, remember that language is what you use to communicate. Through language, you are able to write this project. Through language, you can describe concrete experiences your students go through. Through language, you describe all the abstract knowledge that can be imparted into their minds. Academic language carries a wealth in what you teach. Help your students develop the satisfaction of understanding the prosperity the language that they are learning carries.

Universal Grammar

Chomsky's Universal Grammar is especially useful when working with younger children. It has been observed that they can develop complex language rules and structures from young ages even without formal instruction on those aspects of a language. Children learn language from interacting with others in a language. Foster dialogue between students and you so that they can work on their language skills. They develop these skills without making conscious efforts. Harnessing this synergy between involuntary practice and growth can be a very rewarding part of teaching.

With older students, if you or someone else in the classroom or you are working with is knowledgeable about an English Learner's native language, you can harness the parallels of that language to help your EL student with language acquisition. Also, help them cultivate parallels between academic vocabulary and vernacular in other aspects of the language.

Tranformational-generative Grammar

Transformational-generative grammar may not appear useful to you but understanding the importance of sentence starters and possible ambiguities in your language is important. When providing support for EL students or students with low literacy, make sure they are developing their abilities to speak with complex sentences.

The Human Instinct

Language is the human instinct. From birth through interaction, humans can learn a language. It is a tool for communication, learning, culture, legacy, and for the future. Every subject utilizes language to teach and communicate it. The ability to communicate with students is crucial to your success as a teacher. If language serves as a barrier, work with what they have and what you have to overcome that barrier.

Linguistics

Linguistics is the study of human language and structures. It branches off into many subfields. Linguistics explains the structure of sentences, the morphology of words, and the phonetics of a language. All of these are involved in human communication. There is extensive research into all of these fields. Some features of a language may not exist in another language. For example, Mandarin Chinese does not have tense. In comparison, English does have tenses. There are theories, such as the Sapir Whorfian Hypothesis about whether language and thinking mutually shape each other and whether people who have different native language(s) brains develop differently.

Learning a new language will broaden your view of the world and change your thinking. We highly recommend you try learning a new language. It will furthermore help you understand your native language better. You can also understand the difficulties that EL students face as they learn a language. As an adult, when you discover new unique rules and structures of language, you may start to think about how that is represented in English and other languages you know. This will improve your ability to think from different perspectives and figure out more ways to resolve them.

Arthur Costa

1904 - 1990

Image Source: Teachers College Press

Summary of Theory

Arthur Costa is a professor at Cal State University Sacramento. In his career classroom teacher, a curriculum consultant, and an assistant superintendent for instruction in the Office of the Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools. He also directed education programs with NASA. He has written many books about teaching and instructional practices. In his career, he has focused on developing "thought-full" instruction and assessment.

Costa's Levels of Thinking and Questioning

Arthur Costa developed a 3-story house structure of levels of thinking. His work coincides with Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy. As with Bloom's Taxonomy, verbs from the appropriate levels should be used.

Level 1 is based on Gathering information from a text. It is also referred to as Input. All verbs from this level of questioning are based on the base levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Often literally, it requires recall of material from "on the page". Costa described them as "text explicit". These questions correspond to the Remember and Understand levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Level 2 is based on Processing information. After information is input, it is now processed. Understanding the implications of what is written and described. These questions may ask for evidence to support them. Cost described them as "text implicit". On Bloom's Taxonomy, this matches with the Apply and Analyze levels.

Level 3 is based on Applying information. It requires you to go beyond what is written and think about further implications. Apply your understanding and experience to synthesize the material. This corresponds to the highest levels of Evaluate and Synthesis.

The second and third levels are referred to as higher order thinking skills. They stimulate thinking beyond what is written or visible on the page.

Assessments

In his book, Assessment Strategies for Self-Directed Learners, Arthur Costa writes in depth about assessment and its role in learning. Notably, per the title, he put emphasis on creating self-directed learners. One question he posed was "are we preparing students for a life of tests or for the tests of life"? Teachers set process-oriented goals in assessment, namely the ability for students to become more self-directed and self-evaluative. This is a gradual process for those who have not attained these goals. Costa maintains that assessment is a mechanism for providing constructive feedback to students. Use assessments to discuss both their knowledge and their learning and skills for lifelong practices. Self-knowledge, understanding how much knowledge one has on a topic, is the first step of assessment.

Self-directed people have these three following characteristics, self-managing, self-monitoring, and self-modifying. These attributes are often found in peak performers in many aspects of living beyond academics including having a successful marriage, successful leadership, as well as a functioning democracy and constitutional republic in society.

Self-Managing includes managing oneself, being aware of outcomes, planning and drawing on experiences to make decisions.

Self-Monitoring is having adequate self-knowledge and metacognitive strategies to realize if something is working or not and being able to change the strategies in the moment.

Self-Modifying is reflecting on and building meaning from experience and applying the learning, skills, and more to future activities, actions, tasks, experiments, and challenges.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

This does not in any way reduce the levels of significance or importance of Costa's work, however, we believe it is best to cite his work as a subset of Bloom's Taxonomy. Costa's levels of questioning were derived from Bloom's Taxonomy and subsequently holds basis in correspondence to the levels on Bloom's Taxonomy. However, the focus is on questions asked (which is very crucial in learning) on both the sides of giving instruction and on receiving instruction. Costa's levels of questioning are particularly useful for Socratic Seminars as you can guide the depth and how deep you want to lead such a discussion.

In your lesson plans, write down the main questions you will ask in the lessons and the questions that will be asked on worksheets and activities. Identify the verbs and indicate what level of thinking they are on. For cognitive purposes, start from the Level 1 questions and build your way up to the Level 2 and 3 questions. In your analysis, describe how they are engaging with the content and developing knowledge and critical thinking on the content material and topics.

Interestingly, we have seen teachers explicitly use these levels with students (but primarily for secondary school students). Students are taught about Costa's Levels of Thinking and are asked "what level a question is being asked"? Students are expected to some extent to be able to understand the cognitive depth of the questions on a passage.

Having Students Create Questions

Another type of explicit use activity is to ask students to create a question that is of one of the three levels. This type of activity encourages students to create their own questions about the content. For example, students are expected to write questions they have about a passage; other students would then have to answer those questions. They would have to ensure a certain number of questions from each of the three levels. Sometimes students would read the answers from their peers to learn about the interpretations their friends saw and created.

This activity helps them develop their own curiosities and find answers to questions on the content. If you choose to do such an activity, make sure you take work samples and analyze them. Analyze in terms of the content and in terms of the questions the student asked.

One benefit of such an activity is that it might allow students to find what interests themselves and engage themselves. Remember that students will generally ask questions about materials of aspects that interest them. You as a teacher can look at what students who are less commonly engaged in and see what engages their interest. If you can tell that a commonly disengaged student is becoming more engaged, then you are making progress on helping them develop motivation for their work. You should describe this as a sign of growth.

Assessments for Self-Directed Learners

Costa's writing on assessment by name is useful for the assessment tasks of the edTPA. Follow his guidance for using assessment to help prepare students for the "tests of life".

Do not entirely disregard multiple choice and true-or-false questions as they assess self-knowledge. Even if we do NOT want to put that much emphasis on recall of facts (such as multiple-choice questions and true-or-false questions), it still is absolutely necessary for success in any subject or area of learning. Assessing recall allows learners to analyze their understanding of self-knowledge. There is justification for such portions of an assessment, but it is best if they build up to sections that help build self-directed learners. Costa used Bloom's Taxonomy as a guide for developing assessments as assessments measure objectives built from the taxonomy.

We want to ensure that learners are self-directed learners. For example, if you are teaching social studies and history, we are not just learning about the past, but we are also learning FROM the past. When we assess, we want to ensure students are not learning about history but to also apply that understanding to present events, potential happenings, and possible futures as well as not enhancing the positive and avoiding the negative. In your analysis, make sure to build in a level of gradual focus to not just recall of facts but to eventually develop self-direction with the knowledge.

Discuss how your assessment gradually allows learners to become self-directed if they are not there yet. When you create it, make sure it is helping them build personality attributes for better performance. When you look at their performance on the assessment, discuss where you can tell they are in terms of being self-directed, self-managing, self-monitoring, and self-modifying. From there, discuss how they have improved. How have they or will they built personal meaning from this?

Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi

1934 - 2021

Image Source: Ehirsh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Summary of Theory

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is known for founding positive psychology and most notably for the concept of flow. Flow refers to the state of mind when the person is fully immersed in an activity. A person would engage in an activity and pursue it endlessly regardless of hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc. An example would be an artist who immerses himself/herself endlessly in his/her painting. Regardless of how the body feels, the artist has lost self-consciousness and awareness of anything else going on. Enjoyment in the process is so immense that despite the costs or efforts, people will just carry out the task just for the sake of doing it. Happiness is not a static state but rather a committed effort to it. Csikszentmihalyi had interviewed artists, musicians, athletes, and concluded that in their optimal states of performance, their work seemed to "flow" out of them without much effort.

Flow

Flow is induced by being pushed out of one's comfort zone. When challenged and forced to use one's skills, people become satisfied. The push to step out of the comfort zone and engage in the difficulty is part of the process and the feeling of flow is developed from this engagement. You find a balance between comfort and challenge. You set your own goals in the state of flow and receive feedback as you partake in the actions. Your actions and awareness merge together and you are in control of what you do but feel an innate sense of when something is or isn't right. Time is "controlled" by your mind. Flow is intrinsic. No external awards are sought after. The participant is engaged for his/her own enjoyment and mental stimulation.

Interestingly, Csikszentmihalyi found that people would lose interest in their work upon completing it. The process was everything to the one engaged in it. That state of mind is found entirely in the process and not the product.

Flow has been observed for many types of activities including athletics and workplace production. Athletes can undergo flow during their best performances. Creativity is optimized in the workplace during the state of flow. An employee who is in a state of flow is productive and satisfied. Studies on what happens in the brain during the state of flow are a field of research to investigate. It is believed to be a process called transient hypofrontality where prefrontal areas of the brain are triggered to be inactive.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Remember that flow can be achieved for any subject, topic, or activity. It may not look the same for every subject but do not exclude the possibility that it can be induced. As a teacher, you can especially set them up to eventually reach such a state of mind. You may have experienced this state of mind at some point in your life. One reason to urge people to put their phone away would be to avoid letting your phone steal attention away from work. It disrupts the flow. Remove all distractions and maximize the necessary "tools" to achieve flow. It is a state that students will take time to get to, but we do wish to set them up for such a state. Help them develop a liking first. Over time, set them up to maybe eventually experience flow in your subject or develop the skills to use the subject you are teaching to eventually experience the state of flow. Even if they never experience a state of flow when you are teaching them, they might some day in the future.

Gifted and talented students can definitely reach this state of flow at some point. If you have gifted students and block periods, you can try to engage students into that state of flow. Afterwards, ask them about their experience. Have them contemplate how they can reach that state again. Additionally, as mentioned, the emphasis is on the process not the product. Yet, as teachers, it is important to preserve what they create and teach them to preserve and hold on to their work. After they are out of the state of flow, they may not choose to look at their work or products, etc. Make sure that you, as a teacher, help preserve the results of their output. Teach them to do so as well. Have them create a portfolio or record their results. Keep a record of their accomplishments. This allows you to keep track of what they have done while helping them preserve their work.

Angela Lee Duckworth

1970 - present

Image Source: angeladuckworth.com

Summary of Theory

Angela Lee Duckworth is best known for her research on grit. She defines grit as perseverance and passion for long term goals. She has given TED talks on this topic in recent years. In her research, it has been shown that grit is a great predictor of success in college. Self-discipline is a critical predictor of success because a successful learner requires that the learner regulate and maintain their understanding and persist through the boring parts of learning and pick up where the difficult parts were. Grit produces a growth mindset of getting better by trying harder. The study of the psychology of grit has produced much about mindsets for success.

People with grit track and monitor their own goals. Self-regulating and self-monitoring are encompassed in grit and help learners develop that perseverance and decide the direction to continue their goals. This is a practice we want to instill in our students.

As part of perseverance, Duckworth explicitly states that teaching students that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Grit is not about "not making mistakes" or "always getting it correct". It is about persisting and self-correcting yourself to get to the right answer. At times, this can lead to feeling "exhausted" or "bored" due to doing something over and over to get it right.

Duckworth's team researched practices to apply in the classroom. Duckworth and her team of researchers have developed action steps for superintendents, principals, and teachers to adapt. The two practices are establishing a common vocabulary on character strengths in the setting and utilizing this vocabulary in specific instructional moments. Teachers use specific vocabulary with the weight of grit in them. They use phrases with emphasis on "character strength focus" in their curriculum and instruction. "Intellectual aggressiveness" and "Let's get curious!" are examples of terminology and phrases regularly incorporated into their curriculum. Intellectual aggressiveness is an example of this where the student cannot misbehave to mask lack of knowledge but pushes through the content with guided knowledge. One example of a specific instructional moment includes when a student is about to give up on a task, the teacher gives a gritty push and demonstrates how he/she would approach executing the task with grit. Another example is such moments include creating a "schedule of not giving up" for students that want to give up and holding students to account to it. Have them ultimately "taste" success and reflect on how they feel.

Grit has even built grit into Positive-Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). If you are interested in looking at school behavioral and disciplinary practices and how grit was incorporated, consider researching Duckworth's works.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

For the edTPA, the psychology and theory of grit may be limited to a discussion on building a strong work ethic in the classroom but it is a powerful mindset for you to establish in the classroom.

Setting Goals

In our experience, some teachers have weekly or monthly goal sheets that they want their students to achieve. Goals are not limited to just goals for that specific class or subject. (However, it is best to have one section on your goals sheet specific to the class. This allows you to gauge their grit on your particular class.)

"Boring" Aspects

Remember to teach the students that there will be "boring" aspects of learning, whether for the gifted and highly talented students, the struggling students, or the disengaged students. Grit involves getting through those aspects. Being able to find interest in the boring parts of learning is also a skill to have. For rote procedures, understanding the importance of rote work is a necessity for building a strength in the brain. However, as a teacher, it is important to not aim for rote work and "boring procedures" too often and if something appears to be too rote and going too far, it is best for you to aim for a different type and/or level of engagement.

Classroom Practices

As illustrated with Duckworth's research, teachers who build mindsets of grit in the classroom have more successful students. When building the classroom environment, incorporate practices that help students develop grit. Your classroom practices will be unique to your personality and styles of instruction. Create your own practices with grit and use words of "character strength focus" and phrases that you like. Think about what are the best statements and "catchphrases" that will drive grit. If students you work with give up too quickly, demonstrate and execute your best practices and hold them.

Include stories of persistence, strategy, and success in your curricula. Have the students read them and write their goals. This does not have to be part of your TPA but you can discuss it as how you developed the learning environment prior to working on your TPA. You can briefly discuss your pre-TPA lessons and activities you have taught that helped them build mindsets of grit. You can also discuss future practices you plan to improve on and develop with grit. The mindset for growth will not occur overnight but must be slowly built in.

Kieran Egan

1942 - 2022

Image Source: Wikipedia.org

Summary of Theory

Kieran Egan was an Irish educational philosopher who has put emphasis on the use of imagination. In his writings, Egan states that children's imaginations are the most powerful and energetic learning tools. Imagination is difficult to fully grasp, therefore it is not commonly incorporated into many learning theories. Egan has criticized theories because of this. Nevertheless, imagination is an important aspect that children utilize in their lives and its significance cannot be discredited.

Cognitive Tools Theory / Cultural Toolkits Theory

Similar to Erickson's and Piaget's theories, Kieran Egan developed a stage-based development system where the person develops his/her brain sequentially over periods of time in their growth. Egan drew significant influence from Piaget and Vygotsky. He argued that education should focus on allowing students to develop various cognitive tools such as oral language, literacy, and theoretic abstractions. He developed Cognitive Tools Theory, a learning theory founded on the acquisition of five kinds of "understanding" or cognitive tools. These are also referred to as "cultural toolkits" and subsequently described as the "cultural toolkits" theory.

There are five stages of understanding in the Cognitive Tools Theory. The stages do not replace the following stages but each one sets the foundation for the subsequent stage. Sometimes they are referred to as Somatic toolkit, Mythic toolkit, etc.

The stages of understanding are, chronologically, as follows.

Somatic Understanding (Birth to Age 2) – Infants learn from physical understanding. Their senses are tools for exploration. Everything they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch are tools for finding out more about the world.

Mythic Understanding (Age 3 to Age 7) – As toddlers, they start to develop oral language. In their early childhood, language helps extend thinking and understanding of reality. Imagination has no limits. This is also the stage when concepts of black and white and right and wrong form.

Romantic Understanding (Age 8 to Age 14) – This stage refers to the period when children master reading and writing. Literacy is developed during this period. Reality is more established in their minds during this time. They also develop heroes during this stage. Heroes refer to people with qualities they admire and want to imitate.

Philosophical Understanding (Age 15 to Age 20) – Adolescents develop theoretical understanding during this period. They seek "reality on a higher level" and develop systemic and theoretical understandings based on their preferences.

Ironic Understanding (Age 21 to Onwards) – At this age learners start to realize that systemic understanding has limits. Language is "not enough" for communication. Learners also realize that their personal experiences and culture shape how their world appears.

Story Telling

Egan also wrote a book on story telling for elementary school. The focus of the book is on how to tell stories effectively. He describes how to utilize this universal aspect of human experience in pedagogy.

In his discussions on story telling, he encourages a teaching practice of moving from concrete to abstract. For storytelling, he cites examples of powerful abstract concepts such as good/bad, security/fear, courage/cowardice, and more. Fantasy stories will show characters and actions in the plot that illustrate these abstract concepts and these concepts are often quite remote from the children's experiences in life. The child reads about the more concrete situations in the story and eventually picks up understanding of these abstract concepts. This is how humans develop understandings not just about abstract philosophical concepts but also abstract knowledge in many subjects.

Egan philosophically compares education to storytelling and that as teachers we are storytellers of our cultures. This is not limited to any subjects at all. These are stories of science, mathematics, history, music, and more. Story forms are universal throughout humanity and culture just as these subjects are. Many elements of stories are found throughout cultures and are incorporated into children's learning. He has discussed teaching as a chance to evoke and stimulate learning much as hearing or reading a story evokes and stimulates our interest.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Cognitive Tools

Applications in the classroom include engaging these tools they have and helping them further their own curiosity with these tools. Age is clearly important in this theory. If your students are within an age group, focus on that stage of understanding in your analysis. If they are in a "transitional period" between two stages, they are currently "sitting on the foundation of the previous level". You are now helping them start building to the next stage. Ponder and discuss how your activities help them transition to the next stage of understanding.

Consider the content. What cognitive tools are they developing through your tasks, activities, and assignments? Why is the content you chose appropriate for your students? How is it helping them build the skills they need at the stage they are at? How have you ensured that students have fully acquired the tools. Make sure you introduce new concepts at an appropriate point. Your justifications should include age appropriateness and how the previous stages are firmly rooted. If you feel that there are concepts that are too advanced in the unit that you chose not to teach, then based on the stages of understanding, you can discuss why you chose points of where to stop.

Using Story Telling

A lot of story telling may be geared more towards language arts teachers and multiple subject teachers and indeed his book is explicitly written for elementary school. However, there can be uses of it beyond that depending on lesson and project activities. It is a universal human idea that has transcended generations and has allowed humanity to pass down legacies. Many elements of stories that Egan wrote about are discussed in language arts classes. They have often lasted through humanity and that same spark of interest is what can provoke your students. In Egan's writing, he provides examples of science with asking questions to provoke curiosity and organizing content into a developing story form that evokes thinking. There is currently a plethora of scholarly writing on how to apply storytelling in many different subjects and if this interests you, search them up in scholarly sources.

As mentioned, imagination is something that all humans have that should be harnessed and utilized. Story telling can be incorporated into activities that allow students to showcase their imagination. Creative writing and execution are all skills that you can allow your students to display on your assignments. New technologies have also provided creative ways to present and showcase their knowledge and imagination.

Erik Erikson

1902 - 1994

Image Source: Getty Images, retrieved from https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-psychoanalyst-erik-erikson-in-his-study-news-photo/50380034

Summary of Theory

Erikson indicated that emotional development is crucial to developmental well-being. Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud developed Psycholanalytic Theories. These theories form into the stages of psychosocial development. We develop through an unfolding of our personality in predetermined stages. Development proceeds according to epigenetic principle. This implies that our personality unfolds in predetermined stages which are influenced over time by the surrounding environment and culture. Erickson's theories discuss that developing identity is the main quest of life. Personality develops from the struggles in a series of stages. Each level of "crises" expands accordingly into the radius of significant relations such as going from the parents to neighborhood to the school to the world. Single words are also used to label each stage. The following stages are

Notice that Erikson aimed to research a whole life span. The stages build on top of each other. For behavioral management, Erikson's theories are particularly useful. Given that the details are lengthy, we suggest you research the details at the stage (age level and circumstance of the learner(s)) you are working with and plan to use.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Shaping Identity

If you plan to discuss your role of helping your students develop their identity in the TPA, Erikson's theories will be very helpful. Remember that you are likely a newcomer in their radius of significant relations. You have to build trust as you enter their "world". Erickson realized that difficulties with identity on different scales occur in everyone's life. Analyze behaviors from an identity crisis perspective and you may see ways to help them reduce that difficulty. Struggling is inevitable in the learning and exploration process but you as a teacher can serve a role in helping them come out with positive personality development. Sometimes giving students glimmers of success can help them shape their identities and spark the hopes for finding their success. Sometimes providing that challenge that they aim to overcome sets them on a journey to find their identity. Finding themselves through decisions that they make is part of that journey. Look into the ways that your interactions, activities, assignments, and more help them develop their identities and resolve crises they may have.

Depending on the circumstances of your case study student, you may want to cite theories about personality development. Sometimes students can get themselves into internal arguments about why they should care about school. Also, remember that gifted students are possibly having crises about their place in school and in their place in the world.

Erikson's Studies on Minorities

Erikson was particularly sensitive to ethnic and social minorities and marginalized groups. Erikson himself had a mixed cultural heritage and empathized with this. He worked with veterans and with immigrant groups who also were struggling developing "group identities". His studies included research on people who underwent "identity crises" due to the wars and societal conflicts during his lifetime. The recent media has often discussed minority representation in the entertainment industry. This factors into identity development. If your lesson plans incorporate and address this or related issues, it is wise to indicate that you are using such a theory for the benefit of your student(s).

John Flavell

1928 - present

Image Source: stanfordmag.org

Summary of Theory

John Flavell is considered a founding scholar of the field of metacognition. Metacognition is "thinking about thinking". It is about the learning processes of how you believe you learn and how you believe others learn. The concept of thinking about how you think and comprehend and making use of that is part of metacognition.

According to Flavell's publications, cognitive monitoring consists of four major phenomena, metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experiences, goals, and actions.

Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge or beliefs that affect the courses of our thinking process. It is further divided into person, task, and strategy. "Person" refers to understanding how you believe you learn best and how others learn best and all aspects that pertain to how a human communicates and learns. "Task" involves the information available to make a judgment or do something. Task also involves the level of metacognition about carrying out the task. For example, being able to understand how difficult something will be for you. "Strategy" refers to the procedures you know you should adopt.

Metacognitive experiences refer to your internal response of learning. The emotions and internal feedback are all crucial to learning. You may recall memories, information, and earlier experiences in your life and use them as part of your learning strategies. For example, one teacher suggested remembering a person's first name by picturing them with someone you know that has the same first name. From her experience, she realized that people with the same first name who were together at a particular time made it easier to remember their names. Understanding how your brain works best allows you to look at ways to use those methods to improve your memory and learning. Your experiences of confusion, failure, and success will likely shape your goals and decisions.

Goals or tasks refer to the objectives of such metacognitive activities. What do you aim to achieve?

Metacognitive strategies are the strategies and processes you design to monitor your progress in regards to learning and thinking. An example includes monitoring whether you understand the lessons. By taking time to see if you actually understand, you are adopting metacognitive strategies that help you see whether you need to relearn something or take a different approach to learning something. Another example is taking time to see if you comprehend the purpose of the lessons and the long-term goals. Looking into why you are learning what you are learning is part of metacognition. If you can see the longer-term goals and to an extent see things from the perspective of the lesson creator or writer, your learning experience will be smoother. When you set your own pace of learning and amount of time devoted to studying etc, you are using metacognitive strategies that work best for you.

Incorporation into Instructional Planning, Assessment, and Analysis

Metacognition may sound quite complicated and there are some complicated aspects of it but at its core, it may not be so difficult. Taking time to think about what you know and your past experiences with learning, remembering, and retaining are keys to success. Thinking about "what are the best practices to help me learn, remember, retain, and use this knowledge?" is an example of metacognition. Contemplating strategically about long-term practices and how to apply each of them can be incorporated into metacognition. Ultimately, people who are capable of analyzing their cognitive actions will be more successful in life. People who know what "works best for them" often used this to achieve what they want.

Metacognition also incorporates understanding cultures and cultural strategic thinking and learning. It is used in workplaces to help people develop and improve on their own strengths and learning and working processes and skills. Leaders use it for their own thinking process and improving their leadership. Look into the learning and remembering strategies that students adopt in their culture and ask them to synthesize and go over how it works and how it makes them feel. Metacognition allows you to take an "outside look at yourself" and what you are regularly exposed to, how that shapes your thinking and learning, and strategies you are taught and why they work.

If you use any practices that involve metacognition, you can discuss that in your TPA. Exercises involving finding their own learning styles, practicing ways to remember and retain information, and looking at experiences that will help them recall what they learn are all very important. For students who are struggling, you have to help them reconsider and realize that they need to fix up and think about what works best for them. One strategy I have seen is teaching students to develop word associations that they know they will remember often because it is based on something they like or is highly relevant to their lives. If you have special strategies that you personally use, analyze the metacognitive aspects of those strategies and how you apply them. Some students might be able to use your special strategies. Set goals for their metacognitive practices. In Flavell's work, building associations to experiences is part of metacognition.

Thinking From a Different Perspective

Metacognition also involves understanding how to think for success. One example includes thinking from the perspective of the question writer. From experience, depending on the age and level of the students, we do not believe that many students will be able to think from the perspectives of the creator of content. But as teachers, we can provide our experience when going over questions with them. This is often a strategy with applicational thinking and standardized test preparation. Some students have learned about such strategies and know techniques of success by thinking from that perspective. See if they are adopting such strategies. Remember that depending on age and circumstance, they are capable of metacognition. When used strategically, it can produce amazing outcomes for the learner.

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