Alexus Jones

09/13/15
ECE 250
Making Orange

1. Piaget: Piagets theory would explain the learning and teaching

depicted in this video as the child working in the preoperational
period of Piagets Formal Operations. The teacher is giving the
children hands-on activities to demonstrate how to create the color
orange using red and yellow. Through this activity, the child is gaining
physical knowledge by directly interacting with the yellow and red
paints to mix on his paper to create orange. The child is also gaining
social-conventional knowledge, learning from others. At the very
beginning of the video, the child comments Olivia made orange!, and
the teacher agrees that she did, and asks the child if he is now going to
make orange as well. While mixing his paints, he looks at the childs
paper next to him a couple different times.
2. Vygotsky: Vygotskys theories might explain the learning and
teaching in this classroom in a couple different ways. Vygotsky
believed that knowledge was socially constructed and then internalized
rather than independently through interactions with objects. First off,
the child in the video is learning how to make the color orange by

collaborating with two different expert partners. Those expert

partners would be his classmate, Olivia, and his teacher. He sees Olivia
make the color orange and then makes the color orange on his own,
looking over at her paper while he is mixing red and yellow. During the
process of mixing his colors, his teacher asks him questions about what
he is doing. This could be using Vygotskys theory about language, the
way children organize their thinking. The teacher is making the child
state verbally what he is doing, what colors he is mixing, and what
happens when he mixes the two colors. The child is learning in the
optimal learning zone because he is engaged, not distracted from
learning, he has a couple expert partners, he is given verbal prompts,
and he is working on a new concept with familiar elements of paint and
colors.
3. Erikson: According to Eriksons psychosocial theory, the child is most
likely in the initiate vs. guilt stage, where most children aged 3-5 fall
under. The child is at school interacting with his peers, exploring and
developing interpersonal skills through activities. The child is taking
initiative with the activity of combining red and yellow paint to make
orange. At this stage, according to Erikson, it is important for the child
to have a healthy balance between initiative and guilt to lead to the
child having a sense of purpose. The child is eager to learn and excited
to complete the painting activity. This stage is important for the child
to feel confident in making his own decisions. The child could also fall
under Eriksons Industry vs. Inferiority category if he is 6 years old. If

the child is in this stage, it would explain why he is telling the teacher
what he is doing to get a positive reaction from her and develop a
sense of pride in his accomplishments, which would be creating the
color orange.