psychology
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Moral Reasoning and Empathic Orientation in Adolescents
Nancy Eisenberg’s model of moral development is based on the assertion that most children’s and adolescents’ moral dilemmas involve a choice between serving one’s own interests and those of others. She divides moral reasoning into four stages: hedonistic orientation (concern with one’s own pleasure), needs-oriented orientation (concern with others’ need for help), stereotyped approval-focused orientation Continue reading
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Effective Reasoning and Prior Beliefs
Klaczynski and Narasimham demonstrated in a 1998 study that if children and adolescents are presented with evidence that contradicts beliefs they already hold, they will often ignore or reject the evidence, rationalize as to its real significance, or otherwise do whatever they can to hold on to their preconceived notions. As educators, we can certainly Continue reading
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the adolescent brain
This article from today’s Globe and Mail discusses a book by Robert Epstein, the former editor of Psychology Today, which claims that the psychology of “adolescence” has no basis in biology or neurology, but is socially constructed – that adolescents are, at the biological base, intellectually and emotionally no different from adults. This strikes me Continue reading
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Adolescent and Adult Decision-making Processes
When we look at our students, we can see all sorts of choices being made that make little sense to us, unless we look back to some of the choices we made when we were students, choices that may seem foolish to us now. According to R. Kail et al’s Human Development: A Life-Span View, Continue reading
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Mean ’til Hallowe’en: Classroom Discipline and the First Day of the Semester
Yesterday I attended a small workshop, given by three members of my faculty, on classroom practices and strategies. It was an informal round-table discussion, in which each speaker spent about twenty minutes talking about some of the things they do to make their classroom a productive learning space. There were a lot of suggestions that Continue reading
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cheating and moral development: an aside
Here’s a post that discusses some of our underlying psychological programming where cheating is concerned, and the most productive actions and attitudes societies can take to control it. Continue reading
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ways of knowing: part 2
How can understanding the different ways of knowing (see “ways of knowing: part 1”) help us understand how students learn? According to research, most college/first-year university students are in the absolute or transitional stages of knowing, with a few in the independent stage. In a literature class, “absolute knowers” are often frustrated. They expect to Continue reading
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ways of knowing: part 1
In studying the psychology of learning, we look at a number of models of different “ways of knowing.” For example, Baxter Magolda’s Model of Epistemological Reflection divides ways of knowing into four stages: Absolute Knowing, Transitional Knowing, Independent Knowing and Contextual Knowing. We all start out in the first stage, and achievement of later stages Continue reading
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Class Size: The Root of All Evil
My main beef with the educational system as it stands, from kindergarten up through university, is with class size. I believe that if every class in the country were reduced to a maximum of fifteen students, many, if not most, of our educational and social ills would be resolved. Children, young adults and adults would Continue reading
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Overture
I’ve been meaning for years now to write about teaching. And I’ve been meaning to write a blog. The fundamental question, where blogging is concerned, is whether one has anything to say. I don’t know a whole lot about most things, and nothing I have to say about those things would be very meaningful. When Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 