Learning and Assessment in Geography Education – an exploration

How do we learn?

Behaviourism e.g. Skinner

Cognitive constructivism e.g. Piaget

Social constructivism e.g. Vygotsky

Behaviourism

Learning is simply defined as the acquisition of new behaviour.

e.g. Pavlov

Includes the use of rewards – extrinsic use of rewards to strengthen and highlight desired outcomes

Learning is seen as a relatively permanent, observable change in behaviour as a result of experience. It relates strongly to the use of reward, but has little regard, initially, for mental processes or understanding

Constructivism

Believe that individuals actively construct their own knowledge and understanding.

Piaget

Cognitive constructivism

– believed that children learned through being active

- Children operate as ‘lone scientists’

- if children are shown how to do something rather than being encouraged to discover it for themselves, understanding may actually be inhibited

- the teacher is the provider of ‘artefacts’ needed for the child to work with and learn from

- cognitive growth has a biological, age-related, developmental basis

- Children are unable to extend their cognitive capabilities beyond their stage of development. There is no point teaching a concept that is beyond their current stage of development.

Period Age Characteristics of the stage

Sensori-motor

0-2 years Simple reflex behaviour gives way to an ability to form schemas and to create patterns and chains of behaviour. Child begins to understand that an object still exists even when it can’t be seen.

Pre-operational

2-7 years Children are essentially egocentric and unable to consider events from another’s point of view. The use of symbolic thought begins and the imagination also begins to develop.

Concrete operational

7-11 years Children begin to use logical thought about physical operations; they are able to conserve – that is they realise that two equal physical quantities remain equal even if the appearance of one changes.

Formal operations

11+ years Children are able to think hypothetically and abstractly, although this is limited by lack of depth and breadth in knowledge.

Vygotsky

Social constructivism

- Children learn by being active

- learning is a socially mediated activity

- emphasis placed on the role of the teacher or ‘more knowledgeable other’ as a ‘scaffolder’

- the teacher is a facilitator who provides the challenges that the child needs for achieving more

- development is fostered by collaboration (in the Zone of Proximal Development), and not strictly age-related

- development is an internalisation of social experience; children can be taught concepts that are just beyond their level of development with appropriate support. ‘What a child can do with adult support today, they can do alone tomorrow’

Cogn itive Landscape

Cogn itive Landscape

L ittle parcels o f unconnectedknow ledge - d iffi cu lt to learndue to a lack o f contextualisatio n

Cogn itive Landscape

L inking o f new areas, and thenew total extent o f the cogn itivelandscape - developing deep learn ing

What do these theories tell us about learning and the pedagogies we should be considering in the classroom?

Going back to our ideas from session 1, how does this introduction to learning add to our consideration of curriculum development?

Making learning objectives clear

Set targets

Modelling - formative

Self and peerassessment

Feedback

Modelling - reflective

An outline model of the formal elements of Assessment for Learning

What are the audiences for assessment?

Classroom/student

experience

Government/managers at school scale and

above

summative

formative

Typ

e o

f as

sess

men

t

Who is the assessment for?

Standard setting and accountability

Monitoring and management

Improving the curriculum and teaching

Teaching and learning in the classroom

From Shepard, 2000

So what should classroom assessment look like, and how should it relate to learning?

- Assessment

- Learning

- Curriculum

What are the characteristics we want an ideal student to have by the end of Key Stage 3?

In terms of: