Applied Lesson Plan - Developmental Cognitivism

Applied Lesson Plan: Developmental Cognitivism

1. Stage-based learning – Before teaching this lesson I would definitely consider the stage that my students are at in their learning. I do not want to teach this topic to the wrong age group because they will not be able to understand what I am trying to teach them. Also, I will be sure that I am not trying to just force the students to believe what I am teaching but I will be teaching the right age group so that they actually understand what I am teaching, rather than just saying that they understand. In the example we watched in class, the father practically forced his daughter into saying that the two lines of cereal were the same when she was not even in the concrete operational stage yet. This is something that I must avoid while teaching this topic.

2. Uniqueness of individual learning – To consider this while teaching my lesson, I will make sure to reward the uniqueness of individual learning when I see individual learning take place. I will watch for personal progress, growth, and understanding. I will have the students compare their own work to their own work, rather than the work of others. I will consider those students who are much better individual learners than they are group learners. Because of this, I will allow students to choose if they want to work independently or with a group so that each type of learner has an equal learning opportunity.

3. Experience that involves action – I will make sure that while teaching this lesson students are up and moving, actively participating in the learning process. I do not want to lecture on the topic I teach but I want the students to do things. I want the students to perhaps even take the concept home with them and apply it at home. This works especially well with teaching health and the food pyramid. This helps the topic become more real to the students.

4. Necessity of social interaction – Because social interaction helps students learn from other students and provides feedback to both the teacher and student it is very necessary in a lesson. In order to make sure that social interaction is a part of my lesson, I will carefully plan effective group work, specify the learning tasks clearly, and monitor each group to make sure they understand the concepts correctly.

Adaptation – Adaptation can be demonstrated in this lesson plan if we continue with the idea of elaboration from my cognition lesson. If the students know through this elaboration, what the proportions of the different food groups in the food pyramid are equal to in terms they understand; they are able to assimilate this new information into existing schemas and can adapt to the concept being taught.

Disequilibrium – In order to demonstrate disequilibrium, I will ask the students why people lose their teeth. The students’ probable response would be because they don’t brush their teeth. I will tell the students that this is not the reason in most cases. I will explain that today we will find out the reason why people lose their teeth. Because the students will be in a state of disequilibrium (expecting lost teeth to be due to not brushing then finding out that this is not the reason why people lose their teeth) they will be more interested to learn. Being in a state of disequilibrium is optimal for learning. Then, sometime during the lesson I will briefly explain to the students that people actually lose their teeth because they do not eat foods that contain Vitamin C.

Schemas – The concept of symbolic schemas can be utilized in my lesson plan. In my cognition lesson plan, students were to use a chain method by memorizing a saying in order to help them remember the different food groups of the food pyramid. This is a mental representation of the food groups in the food pyramid. As the students recognize the phrase Drinking Milk Often Feels Very Good, they can notice the symbolic representation DMOFVG to mean the objects dairy, milk, other, fruit, vegetables, and grains. This is a great way to incorporate symbolic schemas into the lesson plan.

Discovery or guided discovery learning – In order to utilize this concept in my lesson plan, I could bring in examples and non-examples of a well balanced meal. I can have say three meals on different lunch trays displayed at the front of the classroom. The first meal can represent a horribly balanced meal, the second an ok meal, and the third can be the optimal balanced meal. At the beginning of class, I can have students come up and discuss the different meals on the table. I will ask guiding questions so that students can find out for themselves the differences between the meals and what I am trying to teach them about healthy dieting. I can ask the students questions pertaining to the different food groups without telling them about the different food groups, but I can have them try to come up with the different food groups on their own.

Classification – In order to utilize this concept, I could bring in several examples of foods that fit under each of the different food groups. I can mix them all up and place them on a table at the back of the room. At the end of the lesson, students could be assessed on the different food groups by classifying each of the different foods and putting them into their correct food group. This would be a great way to assess the students’ understanding of the different food groups and what classifies each food as being part of their specific food group.