The Pedagogy of School and Preschool Education

Tutorial One
COMPREHENSION-EXPRESSION ACTIVITIES, Part One.

1. Read and translate the following text:

Philosophies of Learning and Teaching

The dominant philosophies of learning and teaching have undergone significant developments over
the past century. The most important school of thought in the United States educational psychology in the
first half of the 20th century was behaviourism. It described learning as the acquisition, strengthening and
application of stimulus-response connections through reinforcement. Teaching was thought to influence
this through providing adequate reinforcement. According to behaviourist views, positive rewards
following a correct response automatically strengthen the connection to the stimulus. Even complex
behaviour can be taught by reinforcing spontaneous behaviours step by step, until the whole behaviour
sequence is built together. Exercise and repetition are seen as crucial to develop and maintain stimulus-
response connections. Models based on these theories are called “drill and practice” and “programmed
instruction”.
Behaviourism was also relevant, but less prominent, in the European countries at the beginning of
the 20th century. Rather, some alternative theories were developed, like Gestalt psychology and the
Würzburg School of Denkpsychology. The central tenet of Gestalt can be summarised in the quote, “The
whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Accordingly, the Gestalt approach criticised behaviourism for
breaking down behaviour into its parts. In the Gestalt perspective, learning is seen as a process of
understanding the structures of problems and gaining sudden insight rather than as an iterative development
of stimulus-response connections. Similarly, the Würzburg School studied problem-solving processes. In
general, these theories were less helpful for developing instructional approaches.
Influenced by behaviourism as well as Gestalt and Denkpsychology, the middle of the 20th century
saw the rise of cognitive psychology in both the United States and Europe (later adopted worldwide) and
thus a shift of focus from behaviour to information processing. Cognitive psychology examines mental
processes and knowledge structures. It tries to understand how knowledge of different themes is acquired
and structured, and which strategies are used for problem solving. Learning is seen as the acquisition of
knowledge. But while the rise of cognitive psychology led to a deeper understanding of learning processes,
it did not yield many innovative approaches for teaching. By and large, cognitive theories still encouraged
lectures and the use of textbooks as the preferred instructional methods and assigned students a rather
passive role in learning.
During the 1970s and 1980s, yet another theory emerged to overcome the limits of cognitive
approaches. Constructivism suggested a more student-centred approach to instruction. Through interacting
with the environment, students were thought to actively build up and reorganise mental structures of
knowledge and skills. Numerous instructional approaches are based on constructivism. Central to these is
that teachers are not thought to be direct transmitters of knowledge, but rather facilitators of an active, self-
directed construction of knowledge.
At the end of the 20th century, there was yet another turn in educational theory: socio-constructivist
theories started examining the interaction of psychological processes within the learner with social and
situational characteristics of the learning process. While constructivism described learning as a process
happening within the isolated mind of an individual, the socio-constructivist view rather understands
knowledge as situated and “being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is
developed and used”. Several practices have evolved from this approach; for example, “self-directed
learning”, “co‑operative learning”, “self-regulated learning”, “guided discovery”, “scaffolding”, “cognitive
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 The Pedagogy of School and Preschool Education

apprenticeship”, “teacher-mediated dialogue”, “independent group discussion”, “problem‑based learning”,

“project-based learning”, and “knowledge building”.
It is important to note that all of these approaches are rooted in Western thought, though they are
also influential outside of North America and Western Europe. For example, Hong Kong’s Target-Oriented
Curriculum reform alludes to constructivism in promoting a “learner-centred approach” and an emphasis
on “communicating, inquiring, conceptualising, reasoning and problem solving”. It also integrates ideas of
adaptive or differentiated instruction, making demands to account for “individual differences and the needs
of individual students” and the use of formative assessment. Likewise, in Turkey and in Chile, socio-
constructivism has been subject to scientific debate. Nevertheless, other theories and approaches not
mentioned here may be even more influential in some regions, especially Confucian traditions in Southeast
Asia or Islamic concepts in the Mideast, but also newer non-Western theories such as Gu’s pedagogical
theory in Hong Kong (2001).

2. Mark the answers “true” or “false”. According to the text:

a. there are six main approaches to learning and teaching having influenced instructional methods; □
b. there are five important trends concerning instruction and its possible practice; □
c. there are only five important trends concerning instruction and its possible practice all over the world; □
d. the philosophies of learning presented are rather dominant in the Euro-Atlantic space; □
e. there are other philosophies of learning which influence instruction in different cultures; □
f. cognitive psychology was the first to shift interest towards the student; □
g. according to the socio-constructivist view, knowledge relates to human activity, context, and culture. □

 VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR PRACTICE

1. Find synonyms in the text for: (to) appear, information, contextual.

2. Is the word knowledge a singular or a plural? What kind of noun is it? What are its different meanings in
the text?

 GENERAL DISCUSSION POINTS

 Which of these dominant schools of thought dominate(s) instructional approaches in Romania?

 Do you think culture or history are influential when it comes to the choice of instructional approaches
in different societies? In what way(s)?

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 The Pedagogy of School and Preschool Education

COMPREHENSION-EXPRESSION ACTIVITIES, Part Two.

1. Fill in the blanks with the words listed below:

■ presentation ■ supported ■ problem solving ■ researchers ■ quality ■ direct instruction ■ interactions ■

■ approaches ■classroom climate ■ rules ■ instruction ■

Research in Educational Effectiveness

Aside from theoretical approaches, the selection of classroom teaching practices must also be based
on research in educational effectiveness. Educational ………………… have set out to describe high-
quality, effective teaching using more general, generic terms:
• 1) ………………………………………………
Research has shown that student learning is generally ………………… by a positive and respectful
atmosphere that is relatively free of disruption and is focused on student performance (Creemers and
Kyriakides, 2008; Harris and Chrispeels, 2006; Hopkins, 2005; Scheerens and Bosker, 1997). The major
facets of a positive ………………… are: supportive teacher-student …………………, good student-
student relationships, achievement orientation and an orderly learning atmosphere with clear disciplinary
………………… .
• 2) ………………………………………………
This view advocates the use of close monitoring, adequate pacing and classroom management, structure,
clarity of …………………, and informative and encouraging feedback. These components help create an
orderly environment and maximise effective learning time. Well-structured lessons implementing features
of ………………… have been shown to have a positive impact on student performance, especially for
disadvantaged students.
• 3) ………………………………………………
Approaches based on reform pedagogy (see Oelkers, 2005) and humanistic psychology (e.g. Deci and
Ryan, 1985) emphasise the role of autonomy and social relatedness in promoting student motivation and
non-cognitive outcomes. Researchers inspired by these theoretical …………………, (e.g. Deci and Ryan,
1985), argue that student motivation and non-cognitive outcomes require additional facets of
…………………, such as a classroom climate and teacher-student relations that support autonomy,
competence and social relatedness.
• 4) ………………………………………………
Finally, in order to foster “cognitive activity” (Mayer, 2004) – rather than “activity per se” – and
conceptual understanding, ………………… should use deep, challenging content (Brown, 1994). In the
case of mathematics, for example, this means making connections between mathematical facts, procedures,
ideas and representations (Hiebert and Grouws, 2007). To achieve this, argumentation and non-routine
………………… should be promoted.

2. Now match the missing subtitles:

a. Cognitive activation and challenge
b. Direct instruction
c. Support for self-determination
d. Classroom climate

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vieluf S., et al. (2012), Teaching Practices and Pedagogical Innovation: Evidence from TALIS,
OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264123540-en
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