W02&03

After formulating my response to the discussion topic, I wanted to learn a little bit more about Eratosthenes. I found this website: http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/men/eratosthenes.html that talked about his biography. Turns out that he was a pretty interesting individual!

He was the third librarian of the Library of Alexandria.

He created a sieve that can determine prime numbers.

He went by "Beta" because he was never famous enough to be "Alpha".

...and much more!

This seems like a completely random thought... but after realizing that the Greeks determined the circumference of the Earth and therefore understood that the Earth was round during Eratosthenes' time, it absolutely blows my mind that other parts of the world believed it to be flat for SO MUCH LONG! I mean seriously! Spain sent Columbus, who everyone believed was going to fall off the surface of the Earth after passing the horizon. That was in the 1400's... how is this possible.

	Behavioral	Constructivism	Cognitive
Narrative	This perspective combines many fields together, including philosophy, theory, and methodology. It is in regards to primarily observable behavior and how that is predominant to thoughts in the psychological evaluation of individuals. Pavlov and Skinner played roles in the development of these ideals and different types of conditioning.	Constructivism revolves around the idea of experiential learning through experience. For example, inquiry and discovery based learning are both methods of constructivism. This promotes creativity in thinking and improves analytical skills. Teachers in the constructivist realm allow for open-ended questions that promote creative thought and ingenuity. Constructivism is generally challenging and allows for modification of existing knowledge into knew knowledge through discovery.	This perspective focuses primarily on the mental processes associated with learning. It studies attention, thinking, memory, creativity, perception, etc. One of the most important concept in cognitive psychology is metacognition, which is related to how one thinks about one’s own thinking and knowledge. This plays a role in self-evaluation and self-monitoring.
Beliefs	Behavioral psychologists believe that psychological observations should be made based on a person’s actions and behavior and not by their thoughts or beliefs. They believe that most knowledge is learned and that behaviors reflect this knowledge.	Constructivists believe that knowledge is built primarily upon experience. This implies a couple of different things about education. It means that someone’s previous experiences can either help or hinder current learning. Additionally, it implies that the best learning is done in an inquiry, Q&A fashion in which the student is making discoveries about the world.	Cognitive psychologists have many ranging beliefs, including but not limited to those regarding time sensation, semantic memory, working memory, attention, and many other ideas. Furthermore, it delves into personality psychology which includes the “Big 5”: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Cognitive therapy is used for many people with personality disorders.
Principles	Behaviorists believe in the power of conditioning. They believe that most behaviors are learned through a process of negative and/or positive reinforcements.	Primarily, questioning is the key to constructivism. Students attempt to answer their own questions by thinking outside the box and being provided with loose direction. It allow for more innovation than other perspective and can provide several representations of reality.	Cognitive psychologists believe a broad range of different ideas about different areas of the brain. Thoughts happen in so many areas that it is difficult to but cognitive psychology in a box.
Limitations	The behavioral perspective downplays the role of nature in determining one’s predisposition. Though nurture very evidently plays a large role in one’s actions, it is clear from other psychological research that it is not the only factor in determining such conditions.	Constructivism is not as practical or timely as other modes of learning. It requires students to be excited about the topic, as much of the success that stems from this perspective I based on student questions and drive to answer those questions. It minimizes some basic learning ideas such a memorization, etc. by filling those gaps with larger, more conceptual knowledge, sometimes disregarding the importance of smaller mechanisms of thought.	Many people believed cognitive psychology to be inconsistent with its acceptance of internal mental states. Because it is such a broad area, there have been attacks on the branch for being too general and not specifically pertaining to anything.

 

Constructivism psychological perspective is based on real life experiences developing into knowledge. This particular perspective allow for creativity and individual thought to play a large role in education. I spoke about this quite a bit in my last entry, but thought I'd just describe my own personal experience with it here...

This makes me think of my life as a late elementary/middle-schooler. I attended Learning Gate Community School, a small charter school in Lutz, FL that focuses on environmental education. Each day was an adventure at this campus, located on 35 acres of woodland property. We spent hours on trail walks and investigating nature. Growing up around the forest, I learned to identify various plants , animals, and other ecological features drawn from my experiences.

For example, I still remember to this day several edible plants that are native to Florida. That knowledge was developed from my experiences, running through the woods, identifying various plants when waiting for it to be lunch time. At Learning Gate, we did many other activities to influence our education, such as celebrate Biome Day, a school-wide festival honoring different biomes such as wetlands, tundra, etc. From many of the school plays, living dioramas, and other Biome Day activities that I was involved in, I retained a lot of experience-based knowledge. Constructivism psychological perspective played a huge role in my education.

Here is a picture of my childhood friend Walker and I playing Learning Gate Ball, a modified form of dodge ball in which a ball bouncing off a tree was fair play.

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