Unit 4: A little history of educational psychology and tying things all together

Syllabus
Moodle
Mark
Calendar
Random link
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Unit 7
Unit 8
Unit 9
Unit 10

Overview:

After spending some time reading and thinking about the three major perspectives in educational psychology, it is appropriate to examine a bit of history re-telling the story of how E.L. Thorndike, one of the first true educational psychologists (and yes, a devout behaviorist) believed schooling should be organized... and how his ideas took root more tenaciously than the ideas of John Dewey (a more humanistic pschologist who's ideas we will explore more seriously later). After reading the Thorndike won and Dewey lost piece you should have a clear picture of why schooling is shaped the way it is... but also have a vision for what it could be like had Dewey's ideas been picked up more widely. Finally, the Learning and Cognition reading... is a bad, bad boy. This is a chapter from the Handbook of Educational Psychology written for nerds like me. It is absolutely the varsity reading... if you've been waiting for your chance to get in the game... here it is. Give the first few pages (at least) a thorough analysis as the chapter is structured around behaviorism, cognitive theories, and social or situative theories so you will recognize lots of the conversation. More importantly, however, this baby is an amazing review of major ideas. Take it slow... give it adequate time... and don't get immediately discouraged. If you can get through the whole chapter you are a star. If you can get through the first 5-6 pages... you are doing just fine. Good luck! This reading will be a major resource for your Learning Theories Table assignment described in the syllabus.

Readings:

Discussion questions:

Consider these very simple questions as you read. Each of these question sets also appear in Moodle.

  1. Given examples of where/how you see that Thorndike won and Dewey lost. How would schools be organized differently had Dewey won?
  2. What connections did you make in reading the bad boy on Learning and Cognition? I'm not going to ask what do you still not get... because people spend their careers learning about theses issues so you should still have things you are cloudy on... but I hope some additional things came into focus. What are those?

Supplemental materials:

*These have nothing to do with anything!