EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY tâm lý giáo dục

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
TÂM LÝ GIÁO DỤC
Author: Robert Slavin
PREFACE
When I first set out to write Educational Psychology: Theory and
Practice, I had a very clear purpose in mind. I wanted to give you, tomorrow’s
teachers, the intellectual grounding and practical strategies you will need to be
effective instructors. Most of the textbooks published then, I felt, fell into one of
two categories: stuffy or lightweight. The stuffy books were full of research but
were ponderously written, losing the flavor of the classroom and containing
few guides to practice. The lightweight texts were breezy and easy to read but
lacked the dilemmas and intellectual issues brought out by research. They
contained suggestions for practice of the “Try this!” variety, without considering
evidence about the effectiveness of those strategies.
My objective was to write a text that
• presents information that is as complete and up to date as the most
research- focused texts but is also readable, practical, and filled with
examples and illustrations of key ideas.
• includes suggestions for practice based directly on classroom
research (tempered by common sense) so that I can have confidence that
when you try what I suggest, it will be likely to work.
• helps you transfer what you learn in educational psychology to your
own teaching by making explicit the connection between theory and practice
through numerous realistic examples. Even though I have been doing
educational research since the mid-1970s, I find that I never really understand
the ones or concepts in education until someone gives me a compelling


classroom example; and I believe that most of my colleagues (and certainly
teacher education students) feel the same way. As a result, the words for

example or similar ones appear hundreds of times in this text.
• appeals to readers; therefore, I have tried to write in such a way that
you will almost hear students’ voices and smell the lunch cooking in the school
cafeteria as you read.
These have been my objectives in the sixth edition as well as in earlier
editions. In addition, I have made changes throughout the text, adding new
examples, re-fining language, and deleting dated or unessential material. I am
meticulous about keeping the text up to date, so this edition has more than
1.800 reference citations, more than one-third of which are from 1995 or later.
While some readers may not care much about citations, I want you and your
professors to know what research supports the statements I’ve made and
where to find additional information.
The field of educational psychology and the practice of education have
changed a great deal in recent years, and I have tried to reflect these changes
in this edition. Only a few years ago, direct instruction and related teacher
effectiveness research were dominant in educational psychology. Then
discovery learning portfolio and performance assessments, and other
humanistic strategies returned. Now, emphasis on “back to the basics” is
returning, which requires teachers more than ever to plan outcomes and teach
purposefully, qualities that I emphasize in this edition as intentional teaching.
In the first and second editions of this text, I said that we shouldn’t entirely
discard discovery learning and humanistic methods despite the popularity,
then, of direct instruction. In the next editions, I made just the opposite plea:
that we shouldn’t completely discard direct instruction despite the popularity of
active, student-centered teaching and constructivist methods of instruction.
With this edition, I continue to advocate a balanced approach to instruction.
No matter what their philosophical orientations, experienced teachers know


that they must be proficient in a wide range of methods and must use them

with intentionality.
The sixth edition presents new research and practical applications of
these and many other topics. Throughout, this edition reflects the “cognitive
revolution” that is transforming educational psychology and teaching. The
accompanying figure presents a concept map of the book’s organization.
Given the developments since the mid-1970s—such as the Carnegie
Foundation reports on secondary education and the teaching profession, the
National Commission on Excellence in Education report A Nation at Risk, and
the adoption of national educational goals such as Goals 2000 - no one can
deny that teachers matter or that teachers’ behaviors have a profound impact
on student achievement. To make that impact positive, teachers must have
both a deep understanding of the powerful principles of psychology as they
apply to education and a clear sense of how these principles can be applied.
To that end, I have introduced the concept of “the intentional teacher,” one
who constantly reflects on his or her practices and makes instructional
decisions based on a clear conception of how these practices affect students.
Effective teaching is neither a bag of tricks nor a set of abstract principles;
rather, it is intelligent application of well-understood principles to address
practical needs. I hope this edition will help give you the intellectual and
practical skills you need to do the most important job in the world-teaching.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Slavin is Co-Director of the Center for Research on the
Education of Students Placed at Risk. Johns Hopkins University, and
Chairman of the Success for All Foundation: He received his Ph.D. in Social
Relations from Johns Hopkins in 1975, and since that time he has authored
more than 200 articles and book chapters on such topics as cooperative
learning, ability grouping, school and classroom organization, desegregation,
mainstreaming and research review. Dr. Slavin is the author or coauthor of 15
books, including Cooperative Leaning School and Classroom Organization,

Effective Programs for Students at Risk, Preventing Early School Failure, and
Every Child, Every School: Success for All. In 1985 Dr Slavin received the
Raymond Cattell Early Career Award for Programmatic Research from me
American Educational Research Association. In 1988 he received the Palmer
O. Johnson Award for the best article in an AERA journal. In 1994 he received
the Charles A. Dana Award, and in 1998 he received the Tames Bryant
Conant Award from the Education Commission of the States. Dr. Slavin is
pictured here with his daughter Becca.

Chapter 1. Educational Psychology: A Foundation Tor Teaching
Ellen Mathis was baffled. She was a new teacher who had been trying
to teach creative writing to her third-grade class, but things were just not going
the way she’d hoped. Her students were not producing very much, and what
they did write was not very For example, she had recently assigned a composition on “My Summer Vacation,” and all that one of her students wrote was
“On my summer vacation I got a dog and we went swimming and I got stinged
by a bee”.
Ellen wondered whether her kids were just not ready for writing and
needed several months of work on such skills as capitalization, punctuation,
and usage before she tried another writing assignment. One day, however,
Ellen noticed some compositions in the hall outside of Leah Washington’s
class. Leah’s third-graders were just like Ellen's, but their compositions were
fabulous! The students wrote pages of interesting material on an astonishing
array of topics.
At the end of the day, Ellen caught Leah in the hall. “How do you get
your kids to write such great compositions?' she asked.
Leah explained how she first got her children writing on topics they
cared about and then gradually introduced “mini-lessons” to help them
become better authors. She had the students work in small groups and help

one another plan compositions. Then the students critiqued one another’s
drafts, helped one another with editing, and finally “published” final versions.
“I’ll tell you what,” Leah offered. “I’ll schedule my next writing class
during your planning period. Come see what we, re doing.”
Ellen agreed. When the time came, she walked into Leah’s class and
was overwhelmed by what she saw. Children were writing everywhere—on
the floor, in Groups, at tables. Many were talking with partners. Leah was
conferencing with individual children. Ellen looked over the children’s
shoulders and saw one student writing about her pets, another writing a gory
story about Ninjas, and another writing about a dream. Marta Delgrado, a
Mexican American child, was writing a funny story about her second-grade
teacher’s attempts to speak Spanish. One student, Melinda Navens, was even
writing a very good story about her summer vacation!
After school, Ellen met with Leah. She was full of questions. “How did
you get students to do all that writing? How can you manage all that noise and
activity? How did you learn to do this?”
“I did go to a series of workshops on teaching writing,” Leah said. “But if
you think about it, everything I’m doing is basic educational psychology.
Ellen was amazed. “Educational psychology? I got an A in that course in
college, but I don't see what it has to do with your writing program.”
“Well: let’s see,” said Leah. “To begin with, I’m using lot of motivational
strategies I learned in -ed psych. For instance, when I started my writing
instruction this year. I read students some funny and intriguing stories written
by other classes, to arouse their curiosity. I got them motivated by letting them
write about whatever they wanted, and also by having ‘writing celebrations' in
which students read their finished compositions to the class for applause and
comments. My educational psychology professor was always talking about
adapting to students’ needs. I do this by conferencing with students and
helping them with the specific problems they’re having. I first learned about

co-operative learning in ed psych, and later on I took some workshops on it. I
use cooperative learning groups to let students give each other immediate
feedback on their writing, to let them model effective writing for each other,
and to get them to encourage each other to write. The groups also solve a lot
of my management problems by keeping each other on task and dealing with
many classroom routines. I remember that we learned about evaluation in -ed
psych. I use a flexible form of evaluation. Everybody eventually gets an A on
his or her composition, but only when it meets a high standard, which may
take many drafts. I apply what we learned about child development just about
every day. For example, I adapt to students’ developmental levels and cultural
styles by encouraging them to write about things that matter to them—if
dinosaurs or video games are important right now, or if children are
uncomfortable about being Muslim or Jewish at Christmas time. that's what
they should write about!”
Ellen was impressed. She and Leah arranged to visit each other’s
classes a few more times to exchange ideas and observations, and in time,
Ellen’s writers began to be almost as good as Leah’s. But what was
particularly important to her was the idea that educational psychology could
really be useful in her day-to-day teaching. She dragged out her old textbook
and found that concepts that had seemed theoretical and abstract in -ed
psych class actually helped her think about problems of teaching.
Using Your Experience
Creative Thinking
Based on Leah’s explanation of her writing instruction, work with one or
more partners to brainstorm about what educational psychology is and what
you will learn this semester. Guidelines: (1) the more ideas you generate, the
better; (2) hitchhike on others, ideas as well as combining them; and (3) make
no evaluation of these ideas at this time. Take this list out a few times during

the semester and add to it as well as evaluate it.


What is educational psychology? An academic definition would perhaps
say that educational, psychology is the study of learners, learning, and
teaching. However, for students who are or expect to be teachers, educational
psychology is something more. It is the accumulated knowledge, wisdom, and
seat-of-die-pants theory that every teacher should possess to intelligently
solve the daily problems of teaching. Educational psychology cannot tell
teachers what to do, but it can give them the principles to use in making a
good decision. Consider the case of Ellen Mathis and Leah Washington.
Nothing in this or any other educational psychology text will tell teachers
exactly how to teach creative writing to a particular group of third-graders.
However, Leah uses concepts of educational psychology to consider how she
will teach writing, to interpret and solve problems she runs into, and to explain
to Ellen what she is doing. Educational psychologists carry out research on
the nature of students, principles of learning, and method of teaching to give
educators the information they need to think critically about their craft and to
make teaching decisions that will work for their students.!
WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER?
What makes a good teacher? Is it warmth, humor, and caring about
people? Is it planning, hard work, and self-discipline? What about leadership,
enthusiasm, a contagious love of learning, and speaking ability? Most people
would agree that all of these qualities are needed to make someone a good
teacher, and they would certainly be correct. But these qualities are not
enough. 
Knowing the Subject Matters (but So Does Teaching Skill)
There is an old joke that goes like this:
Question: What do you need to know to be able to teach a horse?
Answer: More than the horse!

This joke makes the obvious point that the first thing a teacher must
have is some knowledge or skills that the learner does not have; teachers


must know the subject matter they expect to teach. But if you think about
teaching horses (or children), you will soon realize that although subject
matter knowledge is necessary, it is not enough. A rancher may have a good
idea of how a horse is supposed to act and what a horse is supposed to be
able to do, but if he doesn’t have the skills to make an untrained, scared, and
unfriendly animal into a good saddle horse, he’s going to end up with nothing
but broken ribs and teeth marks for his troubles. Children are a little more
forgiving than horses, but teaching them has this in common with teaching
horses: Knowledge of how to transmit information and skills is at least as
important as knowledge of the information and skills themselves. We have all
had teachers (most often college professors, unfortunately) who were brilliant
and thoroughly knowledgeable in their fields but who could not teach. Ellen
Mathis may know as much as Leah Washington about what good writing
should look like, but she has a lot to learn about how to get third-graders to
write well.
For effective teaching, subject matter knowledge is not a question of
being a walking encyclopedia. Effective teachers not only know their subjects,
but they can also communicate their knowledge to students. The celebrated
math teacher Jaime Escalante taught the concept of positive and negative
numbers to students in a high school in a Los Angeles barrio by explaining
that when you dig a hole, you might call the pile of dirt + 1, the hole -1. What
do you get when you put the dirt back in the hole? Zero. Escalante's ability to
relate the abstract concept of positive and negative numbers to his students’
experiences is one example of how the ability to communicate knowledge
goes far beyond simply knowing ii.
Mastering the Teaching Skills

The link between what the teacher wants students to learn and
students’ actual learning is called instruction, or pedagogy. Effective
instruction is not a simple matter of one person more knowledge transmitting
that knowledge to another. If telling were teaching, this book would be


unnecessary. Ruther, effective instruction demands the use of many
strategies.
For example, suppose Paula Ray wants to teach a lesson on statistics
to a diverse class of fourth-graders. To do this, Paula must accomplish many
things. She must make sure that the class is orderly and that students know
what behavior is expected of them. She must find out whether students have
the prerequisite skills; for example, students need to be able to add and divide
to find averages. If any do not, Paula must find a way to teach students those
skills. She must engage students in activities that lead them toward an
understanding of statistics, such as students roll dice, play cards, or collect
data from experiments; and she must use teaching strategies that help
students remember what they have been taught. The lessons should also take
into account the intellectual and social characteristics of students in the fourth
grade and the intellectual, social, and cultural characteristics of these
particular students. Paula make sure that students are interested in the lesson
and are motivated to learn statistics. To see whether students are learning
what is being taught, she may ask questions or use quizzes or have students
demonstrate their understanding-by-setting up-and interpreting experiments,
and she must respond appropriately if these assessments show that students
are having problems. After the series of lessons on statistics ends, Paula
should review this topic from time to time to ensure that it is remembered.
These tasks-motivating students, managing the classroom, assessing
prior knowledge, communicating- ideas effectively, taking into account the
characteristics of the learners, assessing learning outcomes, and reviewing

information-must be attended to at all levels of education, in or out of schools.
They apply as much to the training of astronauts as to the teaching of reading.
How these tasks are accomplished, however, differs widely according to the
ages of the students, the objectives of instruction, and other factors.
What makes a good teacher is the ability to carry out all the tasks
involved in effective instruction (Reynolds, 1995). Warmth, enthusiasm, and


caring are essential, as is subject matter knowledge. But it is the successful
accomplishment of all the tasks of teaching that makes for instructional
effectiveness.
Can Good Teaching Be Taught?
Some people think that good teachers are born that way. Outstanding
teachers sometimes seem to have a magic, a charismas, that mere mortals
could never hope to achieve. Yet research since the early 1970s has begun to
identify the specific behaviors and skills that make up the “magic” teacher
(Mayer. 1992). An outstanding teacher does nothing that any other teacher
cannot also do—it is just a question of knowing the principles of effective
teaching and how to apply them. Take one small example. In a high school
history class, two students in the back of the class are whispering to each
other-and they are not discussing the Treaty of Paris! The teacher slowly
walks toward them-without looking at them, continuing his lesson as he walks.
The students stop whispering and pay attention. If you didn’t know -what to
look for, you might miss this brief but critical interchange and believe that the
teacher just has a way with students, a knack for keeping their attention. But
the teacher is simply applying principles of classroom management that
anyone could learn: Maintain momentum in the lesson, deal with behavior
problems by using the mildest intervention that win work, and resolve minor
problems before they become major ones. When Jaime Escalante gave the
example of digging a hole to illustrate the concept of positive and negative

numbers, he was also applying several important principles of educational
psychology: Make abstract ideas concrete by using many examples, relate the
content of instruction to the students’ background, state rules, give examples,
and then restate rules.
Can good teaching be taught? The answer is definitely yes. Good
teaching has to be observed and practiced, but there are principles of good
teaching that teachers need to know, which can then be applied in the


classroom. The major components of effective instruction are summarized in
Figure 1.1 on page 8.
TEACHERS IN ACTION
How have educational psychology theory and research helped you
in your teaching?
Linda J. DiPasquale-Morello
Kindergarten Teacher
John C. Milanesi School
Buena, New Jersey
Educational psychology has played an important role from the
beginning of my teaching career, for I began teaching as an eager 18-year-old
in a parochial school. (The year was 1969 and they desperately needed staff
members.) I started taking college courses two weeks after my high school
graduation, because I knew I wanted to be a teacher! Day, evening, and
extension courses at a local state college served me well during 1968 and
1969. Many of my courses were practical applications as well as educational
theory and behavior courses.
During my first year of teaching, my application course work was useful,
but many times! would refer to my educational psychology books for specific
information (looking for the right terms to describe the actions that had taken
place in my classroom that day). I continued to teach by day and study by

night I read about teaching strategies and used my class as a case in study. I
constantly read, evaluated and continued to search for more information that
could help me and (my students become the best team we could be. Many
nights, I would try to understand the actions, behaviors, and practices of the
school day from the perspective of educational psychology. I continued to read
everything I could get my hands on regarding teaching practices and their
application to students and learning development


Education is not a field of learn today… learn forever.” Research is
constantly changing what we know about how we learn. The latest information
on early brain development, stemming from advanced scientific technology,
would have had my Aunt Lil (a former kindergarten teacher for 40 years) in a
tizzy. She believed her job was to teach the children social skills and how to
get along with others. This is still very true for teachers; however, a much
different approach is now recommended by early childhood specialists. Future
teachers will need to become more aware of their students' needs, abilities,
experiences, and backgrounds to formulate their plans for effective teaching in
the twenty-first century.
As I now enter my 30th year in the field of education, I continue to find
myself thinking about searching for, and reading the latest information on the
psychology of learning. Maybe the true mark of effectives teachers is that we
must be lifelong learners before we can promote lifelong learning in the
children we teach.

Rosa E. Lujan
Bilingual Teacher, Grades 5-6
Ysieta Elementary School
El Paso, Texas
A few years ago, I was selected to participate in a national research

project being implemented in my school district-a 5-year study of the effects of
cooperative learning among Hispanic students using a program known as
CIRC (Cooperative integrated Reading and Composition). Educational
researchers are working with teachers like me to develop a process for
effective bilingual and second-language instruction through cooperative
learning. My students and I have helped in piloting, giving feedback, and
experimenting with assessments.


Originally, CIRC was developed to be used with monolingual English
students, but this model is now being adapted to classrooms with large
numbers of language-minority students. This adaptation has required
extensive teacher and staff development so that I and other teachers could
become researchers in our own classrooms. My involvement in this research
has made me more analytical about what I observe in the classroom and more
appreciative of the importance of educational psychology theory and research
in what I do.
The greatest result though, has been the increased self-esteem and
achievement of my students. Even the-most reluctant learner becomes
actively involved in learning. Students know they are important a part of the
classroom familia. Academically, they are now reading and writing in two
languages. As a professional my commitment and excitement for teaching and
learning is stronger, I’m on fire!

The Intentional Teacher
There is no formula for good teaching no seven steps to Teacher of the
Year. Teaching involves planning and preparation, and then dozens of
decisions every hour (Sabers, Cushing & Berliner, 1991: Swanson, O’Connor,
& Cooney, 1990). Yet one attribute seems to be characteristic of outstanding
teachers: intentionality. Intentionality means doing things for a reason, on

purpose. Intentional teachers are those who are constantly thinking about the
outcomes they want for their students and about how each decision they
make moves children toward those outcomes. Intentional teachers know that
maximum learning does not happen by chance. Yes children do learn in
unplanned ways all the time, and many will learn from even the most chaotic
lesson. Bur to really challenge students, to get their best efforts, to help them
make conceptual leaps and organize and retain new knowledge, teachers
need to be purposeful, thoughtful, and flexible, without ever losing sight of
their goals for every child. In a word, they need to be intentional.


The idea that teachers should always do things for a reason seems
obvious, and in principle it is. Yet in practice, it is difficult to constantly make
certain that all students are engaged in activities that lead to an important
outcome; and teachers very frequently fall into strategies that they themselves
would recognize, on reflection, as being time fillers rather than instructionally
essential activities. For example, an otherwise outstanding third-grade teacher
once assigned seatwork to one of her reading groups. The children were
given two sheets of paper with words in squares. Their task was to cut out the
squares on one sheet and then paste them onto synonyms on the other.
When all the words were pasted correctly, lines on the pasted squares would
form an outline of a cat, which the children were then to color. Once the
children pasted a few squares, the puzzle became clear, so they could paste
the remainder without paying any attention to the words themselves. For
almost an hour of precious class rime, these children happily cut, pasted, and
colored—not high-priority skills for third graders. The Teacher would have said
that the objective was for children to learn or practice synonyms, of course;
but in fact the activity could not possibly have moved the children forward on
that skill similarly, many teachers have one child laboriously work a problem
on the chalk-board while the rest of the class has nothing important to do.

Many secondary teachers spend most of the class period going over
homework and classwork and end up doing very little teaching. Again, these
may be excellent teachers in other ways, but they sometimes lose sight of
what they are crying to achieve and how they are going to achieve it.
Intentional teachers are constantly asking themselves whether each
portion of their lesson is appropriate to students’ background knowledge,
skills, and needs; whether each activity or assignment is clearly related to a
valued outcome: whether each instructional minute is used wisely and well. An
intentional teacher trying to build students' synonym skills during follow-up
time might have their, work in pairs to master a set of synonyms in preparation
for individual quizzes. An intentional teacher might have all children work a
given problem while one works at the board, so that all can compare answers


and strategies together. An intentional teacher might quickly give homework
answers for students to check themselves, ask for a show of hands for correct
answers, and men review arid re teach only those exercises missed by many
children. An intentional teacher uses a wide variety of instructional methods,
experiences, assignments, and materials to be sure that children are
achieving all sorts of cognitive objectives, from knowledge to application to
creativity, and that at the same time children are learning important affective
objectives, such as love of learning, respect for others, and personal
responsibility.
The most important purpose of this book is to give tomorrow’s teachers
the intellectual grounding in research, theory and practical wisdom they win
need in order to become intentional, effective teachers. To plan and carry out
effective lessons, discussions, projects, and other learning experiences,
teachers need to know a great deal. Besides knowing their subjects, they
need to understand the developmental levels and needs of their children.
They need to understand how learning, memory, problem-solving skill, and

creativity are acquired, and how to promote their acquisition. They need to
know how to set objectives, organize activities designed to help students
attain those objectives, and assess students* progress, to ward them. They
need to know how to motivate children, how to use class time effectively, and
how to respond to individual differences among students. Like Leah
Washington, the teacher in the vignette that opened this chapter, intentional
teachers are constantly combining their knowledge of principles of educational
psychology, their experience, and their creativity to make instructional
decisions and help children become enthusiastic and effective learners. They
are continually experimenting with strategies to solve problems of instruction
and then observing the results of their actions to see if they were effective
(Schmuck, 1997).
This text highlights the ideas that are central to educational psychology
and the research related to these ideas. It also presents many examples of


how these ideas apply in practice. The emphasis is on teaching methods that
have been evaluated and found to be effective, not just theory or suggestions.
The text is designed to help the reader develop critical-thinking skills for
teaching: approach and systematic approach to the many dilemmas that are
found in practice and research. No text can provide all the right answers for
teaching, but this one tries to pose the right questions and to engage the
reader by presenting realistic alternatives and the concepts and research
behind them.
Many studies have looked at the differences between expert and novice
teachers and between more and less effective teachers. One theme comes
through these studies: Expert teachers are critical thinkers (Anderson et al.,
1995; Floden & Klinzing, 1990; Swanson et al., 1990). Teachers are constantly
upgrading and examining their own teaching practices, reading and attending
conferences to learn new ideas, 2nd using their own students', responses to

guide their instructional decisions (Sabers et a]., 1991; Schmuck, 1997).
There’s an old saying to the effect that there are teachers with 20 years ofexperience and there are teachers with 1 year of experience 20 times.
Teachers who get better each year are the ones who are open to new ideas
and who look at their own leaching critically. Perhaps the most important goal
of this book is to start the habit of informed reflection with tomorrow's expert
teachers.
SELF-CHECK
Reassess the chapter opening vignette. In terms of the concepts
introduced in this section, what qualities identify Leah Washington as an
intentional teacher?
The Intention Teacher
Guiding Questions to Help You Improve Teaching and Learning
An intentional teacher is one who plans for success. An intentional
teacher worries little about filling the minutes and thinks often about ensuring


that each student is engaged in meaningful activities that result in important
learning. An intentional teacher thinks about students in terms broader than
cognitive growth; this teacher sees students as individuals who are also
progressing physically, linguistically, morally, and socially-and the intentional
teacher takes responsibility for fostering students' growth in each of these
areas. The intentional teacher questions classroom practice to ensure that it is
in line with appropriate goals. That it meets individuals’ needs, and that it is
equitable. The intentional teacher consistently gathers information about
students' respond and learning and adjusts instruction based upon this
information intentional teacher seeks to do even better tomorrow.
How will you begin your journey toward intentional expertise? How will
you systematically plan, teach, and reflect in ways that enact your professional
knowledge base and your understanding of specific students in the classroom
context? What strategies can you use to ensure that you are sharpening your

educational decisions so that they are flexible, responsive, and critical?
Intentional teachers ask questions. A generic set of questions can guide
journey by providing signposts to direct you as you consider the content of
each chapter in this book. The following five generic questions can start you
on your way.
Because intentional teachers keep goals in mind, you can ask yourself.
1. What am I trying to accomplish?
Because intentional teachers consider their students' needs and
background, you can ask yourself.
2. What are my students' relevant experiences and needs?
Because intentional teachers vary that methods, experiences, as- and
material in their aim to challenge students, you can ask yourself
3. What approaches and materials are available to help me challenge
every student?


Because intentional teachers are flexible in light of their goals, you can
ask yourself.
4. How win I know whether and when to change my strategy or modify
my instruction?
Because intentional teachers reflect, you can ask yourself:
5. What information will I accept as evidence that my students and are
experiencing success?
Whether you will teach mathematics to high school students or the
foundations of literacy to kindergarten students, these five questions can
provide markers for you. They can point you toward intentional practice by
reminding you to keep inquiring about your goals, your students, your actions,
and evidence of your success.
The aim of this feature-The Intentional Teacher—is to enable you to
internalize a set of questions that can help you plan, teach, and revise your

practice in intentional ways. Each chapter allows you to revisit these essential
questions from a new vantage point, to consider different aspects of your
practice in light of the chapter's content Because you’ll be asked to think about
these questions 13 more times, here they are once again as a set
1/. What am I trying to accomplish?
2/. What are my students' relevant experiences and needs?
3/. What approaches and materials are available to help me challenge
every student?
4/. How will I know whether and when to change my strategy or modify
my instruction?
5/. What information will I accept as evidence that my students and I are
experiencing success?
In each chapter you will find specific answers to these questions, along
with illustrative examples for different grade levels and subject areas. By


considering questions such as these, you can become a teacher who does
things on purpose-an intentional teacher.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER?
Good teachers know their subject matter and have mastered
pedagogical skills. They accomplish all the tasks involved in effective
instruction with warmth, enthusiasm, and caring. They are intentional
teachers, and they use principles of educational psychology in their decision
making and teaching. They combine research and common sense.

Chapter 2. Theories of Development
Each week, day, and hour, you will encounter students with differing
individual needs based on their cognitive, physical, social, and moral
development. An understanding of some documented stages in development

that are important at various ages will help you to become a more effective
teacher and a more skilled evaluator of productive learning environments. The
following three scenarios cover distinct time periods and developmental
dilemmas.
In the first week of school, Mr. Jones tried to teach his first-graders how
to behave in class. He said, “When I ask a question, I want you to raise your
right hand, and I’ll call on you. Can you all raise your right hands, as I am
doing?” Thirty hands went up. All were left hands
• Because her students were getting careless about handing in their
homework, Ms. Lewis decided to lay down the law to her fourth-grade class.
“Anyone who does not hand in all his or her homework this week will not be
allowed to go on the field trip.” It happened that one girl’s mother became ill
and was taken to the hospital that week. As a result of her family’s confusion
and concern, the girl failed to hand in one of her homework assignments. Ms.


Lewis explained to the class that she would make an exception in this case
because of the girl’s mother’s illness, but the class wouldn’t hear of it. “Rules
are rules,” they said. “She didn’t hand in her homework, so she can’t go!”
• Ms. Quintera started her eighth-grade English class one day with an
excited announcement: “Class, I wanted to tell you all that we have a poet in
our midst. Frank wrote such a wonderful poem that I thought I’d read it to you
all.” Ms. Quintera read Frank's poem, which was indeed very good. However,
she noticed that Frank was turning bright red and looking distinctly
uncomfortable. Ạ few of the other students in the class snickered. Later, Ms.
Quintera asked Frank whether he would like to write another poem for a
citywide poetry contest He said he’d rather not, because he really didn’t think
he was that good; and besides, he didn’t have the time.
Using your EXPERIENCE
Critical Thinking Why do you think Frank reacted the way he did? How

could Ms. Quintera alter her approach so as to motivate Frank?
Critical Thinking Compare and contrast these three scenarios. Explain
which case(s) involved a behavioral, cognitive, social, moral, or physical
development dilemma. Specify the dilemma.
WHAT ARE SOME VIEWS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT?
The term development refers to how and why people grow, adapt, and
change over the course of their lifetimes. People grow, adapt, and change
through physical development, personality development, socioemotional
development, cognitive development (thinking), and language development
This chapter presents five major theories of human development that are
widely accepted: Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive and moral development,
Ley Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, Erik Erikson’s theory of
personal and social development, and Lawrence Kohlberg’s and Martin
Hoffman's theories of moral development.
Aspects of Development


Children are not miniature adults. They think differently, they see the
world differently, and they live by different moral and ethical principles than
adults do. The three scenarios just presented illustrate a few of the many
aspects of children’s thinking that differ from those of adults. When Mr. Jones
raised his right hand, his first-graders imitated his action without taking his
perspective; they didn’t realize that since he was facing them, his right hand
would be to their left. The situation in Ms. Lewis’s class illustrates a stage in
children’s moral development at which rules are rules and extenuating
circumstances do not count. Ms. Quintera’s praise of Frank's poem had an
effect opposite to what she intended; but had she paused to consider the
situation, she might have realized that highlighting Frank's achievement could
cast him in the role of teacher’s pet, a role that many students in early
adolescence strongly resist. 

One of the first requirements of effective teaching is that the teacher
understand how students think and how they view the world. Effective
teaching strategies must take into account students’ ages and stages of
development. A bright fourth-grader might appear to be able to learn any kind
of mathematics but in fact might not have the cognitive maturity or experience
in mathematics to do the abstract thinking required for algebra. Similarly, Ms.
Quintera's public recognition of Frank’s poetry might have been quite
appropriate if Frank had been three years younger or three years older.
Issues of Development
Two

central

issues

have

been

debated

for

decades

among

developmental psychologists. One relates to the degree to which development
is affected by experience, and the other to the question of whether
development proceeds in stages.

NATURE-NURTURE CONTROVERSY
- Is development predetermined at birth, by heredity and biological
factors, or is it affected by experience and other environmental factors? Today,
most developmental psychologists (e.g. Berk, 1997; Elkind, 1994) believe that


nature and nurture combine to influence development biological factors
playing a stronger role in some aspects of development, such as physical
development, and environmental factors playing a stronger role in others,
such as moral development.
CONTINUOUS AND DISCONTINUOUS THEORIES
- A second issue revolves around the notion of how change occurs. One
perspective assumes that development occurs in a smooth progression as
skills develop and experiences are provided by parents and the environment.
This continuous theory of development would suggest that at a fairly early
age, children are capable of thinking and acting like adults, given the proper
experience and education.
A second perspective assumes that children progress through a set of
predictable and invariant stages of development. In this case, change can be
fairly abrupt as children advance to a new stage of development. All children
are believed to acquire skills in the same sequence, although rates of
progress differ from child to child. The abilities that children gain in each
subsequent stage are not simply “more of the same” at each "Stage, children
develop qualitatively different understandings, abilities, and beliefs. Skipping
stages is impossible, although at any given point the same child may exhibit
behaviors characteristic of more than one stage (Epstein, 1990). In contrast to
continuous theories, these discontinuous theories of development focus on
inborn factors rather than environmental influences to explain change over
time. Environmental conditions may have some influence on the pace of
development, but the sequence of developmental steps is essentially fixed.'

Some of the theories in this chapter emphasize discontinuous theories
of development Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, Kohlberg, and Hoffman all focus on
different aspects of development. Nevertheless, all are stage theorists,
because they share the belief that distinct stages of development can be
identified and described. This agreement does not, however, extend to the
particulars of their theories, which differ significantly in the numbers of stages


and in their details. Also, each theorist focuses on different aspects of
development (e.g., cognitive, socioemotional, personality, moral).  
Today, most developmentalists acknowledge the role of both inborn
factors and social experiences when explaining children’s behavior (see Petrill
Thompson, 1993). Vygotsky’s and Hoffman’s theories rely on social
interactions as well as predictable stages of growth to explain development.
SELF-CHECK
Begin a four-column comparison chart with the columns headed Piaget,
Vygotsky, Erikson, and Kohlberg. Identify the theory that each proposed, the
type of development involved, and whether the theory is continuous or
discontinuous. After you finish reading the chapter, explain the three chapteropening scenarios in terms of the theories and concepts presented in the
chapter.
HOW DID PIAGET VIEW COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT?
Jean Piaget, bora in Switzerland in 1896, is the best-known child
psychologist in the history of psychology (see Flavell, 1996). After receiving
his doctorate in biology, he became more interested in psychology, basing his
earliest theories on careful observation of his own three children. Piaget
thought of himself as applying biological principles and methods to the study
of human development, and many of the terms he introduced to psychology
were drawn directly from biology.
Piaget explored both why and how mental abilities change over rime.
His explanation of developmental change assumes that the child is an active

organism. For Piaget, development depends in large part on the child's
manipulation of and active interaction with the environment In Piaget's view,
knowledge comes from action (see Ginsburg Opper, 1988; Wadsworth, 1996).
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that a child’s intellect, or
cognitive abilities, progresses through four distinct stages. Each stage is


characterized by the emergence of new abilities and ways of processing
information.
How Development Occurs
SCHEMES
Piaget believed that all children are born with an innate tendency to
interact with and make sense of their environments. He referred to the basic
ways of organizing and processing information as cognitive structures. Young
children demonstrate patterns of behavior or thinking, called schemes, that
older children and adults also use in dealing with objects in the world. We use
schemes to find out about and act in the world each scheme treats all objects
and events in the same way. For example, most young infants will discover
that one thing you can do with objects is bang them. When they do this, the
object makes a noise, and they see the object hitting a surface. Their
observations tell them something about the object. Babies also learn about
objects by biting them, sucking on them, and throwing them. Each of these
approaches to interacting with objects is a scheme. When babies encounter a
new object, how are they to know what this object is al) about? According to
Piaget, they will use the schemes they have developed and will find out
whether the object makes a loud or soft sound when banged, what it tastes
like, whether it gives milk, and maybe whether it rolls or just goes thud when
dropped (sec Figure 2.1a). 
ASSIMILATION AND ACCOMMODATION
• According to Piaget, adaptation is the process of adjustin.tf schemes

in response to the environment by means of assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the process of understanding a new object or event in terms of
an existing scheme. If you give young infants small objects that they have
never seen before but that resemble familiar objects, they are likely to grasp
them, bite them, and bang them. In other words, they will try to use existing
schemes to learn about these unknown things (see Figure 2.1b). Similarly, a
high school student may have a studying scheme that involves putting


information on cards and memorizing the cards, contents. She may then try to
apply this scheme to learn difficult concepts such as economics, for which this
approach may not be effective.
Sometimes, however, old ways of dealing with the world simply don’t
work. When this happens, a child may modify an existing scheme in light of
new information or experience, a process called accommodation. For
example, if you give an egg to a baby who has a banging scheme for small
objects that will happen to the egg is obvious (Figure 2.1c). Less obvious,
however, is what will happen to the baby's banging scheme. Because of the
unexpected consequences of banging the egg, the baby might change the
scheme. In the future the baby might bang some objects hard and others
softly. The high school student who studies only by means of memorization
may learn to use a different strategy to study economics, such as discussing
difficult concepts with a friend.
The baby who banged the egg and the student who tried to memorize
rather than comprehend had to deal with situations that could not be fully
handled by existing schemes. This, in Piaget’s theory, creates a state of
disequilibrium, or an imbalance between what is understood and what is
encountered. People naturally try to reduce such imbalances by focusing on
the stimuli that cause the disequilibrium and developing new schemes or
adapting old ones until equilibrium is restored. This process of restoring

balance is called equilibration. According to Piaget, learning depends on this
process. When equilibrium is unset, children have the opportunity to grow and
develop. Eventually, qualitatively new ways of thinking about the world
emerge, and children advance to a new stage of development. Piaget
believed that physical experiences and manipulation of the environment are
critical for developmental change to occur. However, he also believed that
social interaction with peers, especially arguments and discussions, helps to
clarify thinking and, eventually, to make it more logical. Recent research has
stressed the importance of confronting students with experiences or data that