Webinar for third year undergraduates studying educational psychology. The aims are to make connections between many of the concepts and contemporary contexts we have discussed, recognise that theory is open to reinterpretation and have a go a developing theory, complexities of learning and teaching. Move from cognitive understanding of learning to a social constructivist understanding of learning. Feedback much appreciated:) Correction on slide 14 - epistemology "how can we know", ontology "what can we know"

1. A Webinar on Learning:
From Cognitive Development to
Identity Development
Jenna Condie
University of Salford
@jennacondie

2. This session is about making the connections:
Developmental
Educational Practice
Theory
Technology Globalisation
Learning
E-Learning Multiculturalism
Identity Cognitive
Development Development

3. Unpicking theory
Flickr: ogimogi
Flickr: wallyg
Developing theory
Theory as underpinning your practice

4. An Opportunity to Reflect & Apply
Flickr: London College of Fashion short courses
During the
webinar, consider
the benefits
and limitations
of learning online.
Can this approach
be applied to your
assignments?

5. What can you remember
about Jean Piaget’s theory
of cognitive development
from last year (this year)?
Image from Wikipedia

6. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
• Sensorimotor stage (birth to two years)
• Preoperational stage (two to seven years)
• Concrete operations stage (seven to eleven years)
• Formal operations stage
(from about eleven years)
6
Flickr: ecohen Flickr babypixel eyes Flickr : Lee Coursey Flickr: geonando

7. Does the theory stand up to examination?
Consensus: Further theoretical development
needed
• Formal operations
– Children think differently, they are not mini-adults
(Mitchell & Ziegler, 2013)
• ‘Naughty teddy’ (Donaldson et al., 1978)
– Young children can conserve.
– Must have misunderstood what Piaget was asking
them.
Flickr: AndyNor

8. Misrepresentations of Piagetian theory?
“First, the simple fact that during his productive lifetime – well
over 60 years – he wrote more than any one person could keep
up with; and his ideas, of course, developed, interacted, and
changed in more and less subtle ways.” (von Glasersfeld, 1982)
Important to read
original work & make
your own interpretations
Re-interpret Flickr: adesigna
von Glasersfeld (1982) An Interpretation of Piaget's Constructivism
Link: http://elearnmap.ipgkti.edu.my/resource/dpli_r/index_htm_files/InterpretationPiagetConstructivism.pdf

9. Interpreting Piaget: The difference
between development and learning?
Piaget (1964) – Development and Learning: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35piaget64.pdf

10. Linking cognitive development to
learning to read
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJCa_0iZd0Q

11. Uta Frith (1985): A theory of reading acquisition
• Instant recognition of familiar words
• Word order largely ignored
Logographic • Phonological factors secondary
stage
• Willing to have a guess, no response if word unknown
• Reading systematically decoding phonemes and
graphemes
Alphabetic • Enables pronunciation of unfamiliar & novel words
stage
• Letter order and phonological factors now key
• Written words as a whole
• Fully systematic approach to reading that is non-visual
Orthographic
stage • Internally representing letter-by-letter strings
Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In K.E. Patterson, J. C. Marshall, &
M. Coltheart (Eds.), Surface dyslexia , London: Erlbaum. Available here

12. Could you combine aspects
of Piaget’s theory
with aspects of Frith’s theory
to develop your own
theoretical approach for
learning to read? have
go
a concept
at
Flickr: ellajphillips
mapping

13. The problem with stage theory
explanations of learning…
Can you jump a stage?
Can you be in more than one stage at a time?
Are these theories universal?
How might learning to read differ across
languages?
What about the style of teaching?
Role of others? Role of culture?
Role of identity?
Flickr: followtheseinstructions

14. Piaget’s constructivism: an epistemology that
knowledge is actively constructed by the individual
(Mitchell & Ziegler, 2013, p. 14)
Piaget’s constructivist theory and the classroom
Epistemology: a theory of knowledge, how can we know
14
Flickr IMLS DCC (Willig, 2001)
Flickr 4nitsirk

15. Lev Vygotsky: taking constructivism further
Piaget Cognitive constructivism
Learning as assimilating and accommodating
information (revisit Slater & Bremner, 2011)
Vygotsky Social Constructivism
Can not separate learning from the social context
“Every function in the child's cultural development
appears twice: first, on the social level and, later on,
on the individual level; first, between people
(interpsychological) and then inside the child
(intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary
attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of
concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual
relationships between individuals.”
(Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57)

16. Flickr: Leonard John Matthews
Social Constructionism*
• What we experience or perceive is not a direct
reflection of objective environmental
conditions. It is constructed in talk and
interaction (Willig, 2001).
• Social Constructionist research identifies the
ways in which people construct their social
realities by taking into account the specific
linguistic, cultural and historical influences
(Burr, 2003).
* Note the different and interchangeable terms (for further reading see Burr, V. (2003) Social
16
Constructionism, Hove: Routledge)

17. Identity Development and Learning
Talk
Learning
Thought
Identities
Flickr : USAG-Humphreys
Social constructionist view – identities as
constructed in dialogue in the classroom.

18. Identity as socially constructed
• Identities seen as something which requires
“ongoing negotiations within a complex web of
relationships and practices” (Gough & McFadden,
2001, p. 89).
• Identities as negotiated in interactions and the
“telling” of “stories” (Seaton, 2009, p. 304).
• Identities as relational to others (Mason, 2004)

19. Developing dialogues for learning
• Mercer (2008) social constructionist research, ‘learning
talk’ & construction of identities.
• Vygotskian influence, relationship between language
and thinking
“One of the strengths of bringing a sociocultural
perspective to bear on education, I believe, is that it
encourages us to recognize that the quality of education
cannot be explained in terms of 'learning' or 'teaching' as
separate processes, but rather in terms of the interactive
process of 'teaching-and-learning” (p. 18, in press version)
Mercer (2008) Developing Dialogues, Link:
http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/Files/Courses_Folder/documents/Mercer.DevelopingDialoguepdf.pdf

20. Where is The Self?
“When you ask people to localize their self, they
will point to their body and tell you that it is
somewhere inside.” (Hermans, 2004, p. 298)
20
Flickr: hanspetermeyer.ca

21. Constructing identities
“The choosing, deciding, shaping
human being who aspires to be
the author of his or her own life,
the creator of an individual
identity” as “the central
Flickr: AhmadHammoud
character of our time”
(Beck & Beck-Gernsheim,
2001, p 22–23)
21

22. Teaching as dialogical
“Teaching involves communication; whether its purpose is
to enable students to gain access to inalienable truths, or
to promote intellectual or social exploration for its own
sake.” (Stables, 2003, p. 1)
Vygotskian influence: learning through dialogue with a
more learned other in a ‘zone of proximal development’
Classroom dialogue can impact positively or negatively on
children’s identities and sense of self.
Stables, A. (2003) Learning, Identity and Classroom Dialogue, Journal of Educational Enquiry, 4 (1)
Available here: http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/EDEQ/article/viewFile/528/398

23. Learning through blogging
• Remember quadblogging?
• Blogging and development of
writing skills
(McGrail & Davis, 2011)
• Ownership creativity, expression,
experiment, exploration, Flickr: kpwerker
audience, self-directed (Ducate & Lomicka, 2008)
• Learning identities?

24. Link: http://zororomubaya.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/reflection-my-unique-experience/

25. Link: http://www.doubleblind.org/

26. Teachers as
learners too
Need ideas &
inspiration for
your seminar?
Check out
Salford PGCAP
Website
Link: http://hub.salford.ac.uk/salfordpsych/2012/11/07/labels-hurt/

27. Narratives in the classroom:
Interrogating practice (Karen Gallas)
• ‘Sharing time’ in a socio-economic and racially
diverse classroom in city suburb.
• “Discourses of power”, dialogical approach
• Jiana
– six year old African American girl, lives in shelter
– Said to Gallas “my mother must not have gone to the
same kind of school as you”
– Initial assessment (pre-kindergarten level)
– Wait and see approach
– Jiana enjoyed ‘sharing time’

28. Screenshot from Riessman, C. (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences,
London: Sage

29. Screenshot from Riessman, C. (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences,
London: Sage

31. Narratives for development and learning
Flickr: umjanedoan
• Stories became part of the “fabric” of the
classroom. Stories as “power” (Gallas, 2003)
• “Identities were formed and transformed in group
performance” (Riessman, 2008, p. 136)
• The role of classroom dialogue in enhancing
the student learning experience (Stables, 2003)
• Teaching-and-learning interaction (Mercer, 2008)

32. An Opportunity to Reflect & Apply
Flickr: London College of Fashion short courses
During the
webinar, consider
the benefits
and limitations
of learning online.
Can this approach
be applied to your
assignments?

33. Conclusions
What is your stance on learning and development?
Same, different, fence?
What’s your theoretical position on learning?
Cognitivist, constructivist?
What has influenced your learning identity? How does
your identity link to your learning?
Underpin your work with theory. Take a stance!
Flickr: derekbruff

34. A Webinar on Learning:
From Cognitive Development to
Identity Development
Jenna Condie
University of Salford
@jennacondie

35. A Webinar on Learning:
From Cognitive Development to
Identity Development
Jenna Condie
University of Salford
@jennacondie