SOLAMIN, ANGEL MAE H.

BEED 2B

DISCUSSION QUESTION #4

1. How did Skinner apply operant conditioning to classrooms? What is behavior modification?

Discipline is important for a child's success and development - most teaching staff would vouch for that.
It's easy to think that discipline is always a form of punishment, but in truth, this doesn't have to be the
case. Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom
environment to get the good behavior you want and need from your pupils.

Skinner's theory of operant conditioning uses both positive and negative reinforcements to encourage
good and wanted behavior whilst deterring bad and unwanted behavior. Psychologists have observed that
every action has a consequence, and if this is good, the person is more likely to do it again in the future.
However, if the consequence isn't so great, it is likely the individual will avoid doing it in a similar situation
next time around. It is through this process that we develop our behaviors and begins to understand what
is appropriate and useful, and what isn't.

Used in a variety of situations, operant conditioning has been found to be particularly effective in the
classroom environment. One of the main ways of reinforcing behavior is through praise.

1. Describe Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development.

Piaget figured out that children actually reason quite differently. He believed that children are actively
constructing their understanding of the world as they grow so that as their bodies grow, their minds grow
as well. He thought that this happened generally in different stages.

Sensorimotor stage: Birth to 2 years

The main task or awareness that develops in these stages is object permanence where infants don’t
recognize that objects still exist even though they can’t see them. As they discover how to use their senses,
they also discover how to move their bodies around. This helps them explore the world and learn what
they are capable of. Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

• Know the world through movements and sensations.

• Learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening.
• Learn that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen (object permanence).
• Realize that they are separate beings from the people and objects around them.
• Realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them.

Preoperational stage: Ages 2 to 7

Children start to develop and engage in pretend play, and they will begin to be able to use symbols to
represent things. They learn to talk. As they learn that words symbolize objects, that starts to help them
into the preoperational stage and understand the idea of symbols. Major characteristics and
developmental changes during this stage:

• Begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.
 • Tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.
• Getting better with language and thinking, but still tend to think in very concrete terms.

Concrete operational stage: Ages 7 to 11

While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development, they become
much more adept at using logic. The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear as kids become
better at thinking about how other people might view a situation. Major characteristics and
developmental changes during this stage:

• Begin to think logically about concrete events.

• Begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup
is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example.
• Thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete.
• Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle.

Formal operational stage: Ages 12 and up

Children are able to reason abstract concepts and think about the consequences of potential actions. They
are able to reason out what might occur. This is where sophisticated moral reasoning began to take place.
Children are reasoning more like adults, and they continue to develop it over time. Major characteristics
and developmental changes during this time:

• Begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems

• Begins to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require
theoretical and abstract reasoning
• Begins to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information

3. Why was Maria Montessori considered a psychological pioneer in cognition?

She opened her first school for children of low-income workers in an apartment building in Rome in 1907.
The school was called “Casa Dei Bambini”, Home for children. She researched how to teach kids who
experience some form of mental disability. She created her materials after she found out that students
seem to understand complex concepts better when they engaged all their senses. She observed that
children showed episodes of deep concentration and multiple repetitions of the same activity. Given free
choices, kids showed more interest in practical activities and the materials than normal toys, sweets, or
other rewards. Over time, spontaneous self-discipline emerged. The goal is to grow children to become
independent and responsible adults who share a love for learning.

Soon after Montessori herself and her ideas started traveling the world to inspire progressive thinkers and
educators from all over. The inventors, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison became early
advocates. Later, alumni include Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia, author Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well as
the two google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Today, “Montessori” stands more for a method than a school itself. The fact that it can be used freely by
anyone led to a great variation in schools. Educators all over the world borrow Montessori’s name,
insights, and materials to organize Kindergarten, Elementary schools, special need programs, or even full
12-year curriculums.
4. Why does phenomenology appeal to educational reformers of various psychological
orientations? How can phenomenology be applied to the field of the curriculum?

Phenomenology focuses on an individual’s first-hand experiences rather than the abstract experience of
others. It emphasizes explaining the meaning of things through an individual’s perspectives and self-
experiences. Phenomenology inspires self-searching, self-experiences, and new learning. It also requires
a motivated inquiry into knowledge and a desire to learn about self and others.

Phenomenological learning is related to the search for the meaning of self-experiences and perceptions.
Students must be encouraged to describe, investigate, and explain their feelings, experiences, and
thoughts. They describe their experiences, consider possible meanings, and understand the essence of
their experiences in relation to the topics of learning. The student’s self-experiences include feelings,
thoughts, responses, and the relationship between self and others, which include other students,
teachers, learning topics, and so on. If we ask students about their self-experiences, the answers will
include images, intuitions, ideas, innovations, inquiries, creativities, perceptions, understanding, and
perspectives. Education should focus on these by means of its curriculum implementations. The
phenomenological approach should be applied in the education system as a tool for learning.

5. In what ways do psychological foundations enable curriculum workers (teachers, supervisors, and
curriculum developers) to perform their educational responsibilities?

Psychology deals with how humans learn and behave. Since the main goal of the curriculum is to bring
about learning, therefore, curriculum workers/developers need to know how humans learn so that they
can incorporate psychological principles when they design, develop, and implement the curriculum.