Elizabeth O'Brien's EPSY 3010 Blog

1. Week 3-2: Leave a  30-word  micro session summary.  Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism perspective focuses on the social nature of cognition. Three concepts are key to this theory: the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), More Knowledgeable Other, and scaffolding. Language and culture are also essential to knowledge and understanding reality. 2.  What is learning  from Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism perspective? Learning is the result of a collaborative process and is essentially a social phenomenon. Vygotsky believed that language helps learners work through problems and is necessary for cognition. Teachers must understand their students’ ZPD and work within that zone. Scaffolding is the process of helping a student master a concept independently by “fading” assistance and allowing the student to become responsible for mastering a concept. 3. What are the big things that you learned about Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism? I found the...

1. Week 3-1: Leave a  30-word  micro session summary. Cognitive Constructivism Theory focuses on how knowledge is actively constructed in light of one’s previous knowledge. Piaget was an influential supporter of the theory and suggested that adaption and organization were the two major principles of knowledge and learning. 2.  What is learning  from Piaget’s individual(cognitive) constructivism perspective? Learning is actively constructed through discovery, assimilation, accommodation of new information to previous schemas. Unlike behaviorism, internal motivation is required to motivate learners. External rewards alone are not sufficient. Learners must be able to engage with the new information they are learning by making the information relevant to them and having problems that require logical, analytic thinking. 3. What are the big things that you learned about Piaget’s constructivism? I enjoyed learning about how Piaget’s theory applies t...