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Tiffany Tseng
University of British Columbia
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Piaget also sees intelligence as adapting to physical and social environment (Good et al.,
p. 688). When students work as a group, they are constantly examining their own ideas, and
adapting these ideas to fit the environment. I would suggest that the teacher circulates around
the room when students are doing the group activity. If the teacher recognizes any mistakes,
dont point them out right away. Encourage students to collaborate and compare their answers
with their group members so they have a chance to examine their own ideas. This process helps
students to reflect their own thinking so they can build new mental structures.
This lesson is also a great example of the constructivist approach. When students create
different rectangular plots and find a quadratic equation to represent the area, they are
constructing their own knowledge. According to Von Glaserfeld, the cognitive organism tries
to make sense of experience in order to avoid clashing with the worlds constraints (2008, p. 41).
In this lesson, the group activity allows students to constantly exchange ideas with their peers.
As a result, students ideas are examined by their group members, and they are required to make
sense of their ideas if their answers clash with those of their classmates. This process helps
students to build their understanding and solidify their learning. Von Glaserfeld also believes
that the goal of math instructions is to make students aware of what he or she is doing, and why
it is being done (2008, p. 44). It is good that this lesson starts off with a real-life problem of
enclosing an area for a dog by using 100 feet of fence. This helps students see the practicality of
their activity, and also adds a sense of purpose to why this activity is being done. Throughout
the lesson, the teacher should also ask questions that encourage students to be reflective in their
thinking processes. For example, if you created a larger area than the previous attempt, what
was it that you did differently? If the width is x, what would the length be in terms of x?
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The activity in this lesson also provides a degree of self-generated reinforcement. When
students create the largest area possible using the toothpicks, the fact that they have achieved the
goal of the activity is an excellent self-generated reinforcement. This positive result helps to
encourage cognitive potential in students (Von Glaserfeld, 2008, p 47).
Finally, this lesson asks students to use a graphing calculator to find the graphs of
quadratic functions. While this is helpful, I would argue that drawing a parabola by hand would
be even more meaningful to students. Technology allows students to see the shape of a parabola
in a short period of time. However, when students start drawing a graph by first building a table
of values, they could observe the symmetrical nature and the maximum/minimum characteristic
of a quadratic function. Thus, to improve this lesson plan, I would ask students to draw the
graph of a quadratic function by hand. The graphing calculator component can be used later in
the unit after students have gained a solid basic understanding of quadratic functions.
The behaviorist theory focuses on changes in students behavior as a result of a stimulusresponse association (Standridge, 2002). In this lesson, less emphasis is placed on the
behaviorist theory. One effective behaviorist strategy that could be employed into the lesson is a
reward system. According to the behaviorist approach, positive reinforcements increase the
desired behaviour, and also encourage students to be on-task during the lesson (Standridge,
2002). For example, a reward could go to the first group that draws the correct graph in the
shortest amount of time. This encourages students to use what they have learned and allows the
teacher to assess their understanding. A second reward goes to the group that shows best team
work. This encourages students to value team work and collaboration.
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References
Good, R., Mellon, E. K., Kromhout, R. A. (1978). The work of Jean Piaget. Journal of Chemical
Engineering, 55, 688-693.
John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Socialcultural approaches to learning and development: A
Vygotskian framework. Educational Psychologist, 31(3/4), 191-206.
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Zamarian, L., Ischebeck, A., & Delazer, M. (2009). Neuroscience of learning arithmetic:
Evidence from brain imaging studies. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33, 909925.
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