Reflection 1

 This week's reading was on Cognitive Development.  Several well-known psychologists and their theories are mentioned in this reading.  Piaget believed that each individual goes through stages based on age from birth through adulthood.  If you are not that old, then you can’t do whatever is in that stage, and if you are that old, then you should be able to do it.  I have found in personal experience and my classroom that the age of the person does not dictate whether they can or can’t do something.  This makes me wonder if my scholars sometimes need lessons to be tailored based on these stages, even though their ages match, are they stuck on a prior stage? Do they get stuck and need help getting to the next stage? What happens if we never master a stage? Can you master a stage at a different age? The assignments, activities, and teaching I do in my classroom may look different if I pay attention to stages and not abilities. 

Vygotsky believed that you develop based on age and on the experiences that you have in your environment.  I believe that this is largely true.  The experiences that you are exposed to in your life in all settings are going to flavor what you learn and how you learn. I do believe that you can go against what your environment may push you towards.  One of the primary ways I see this is in those who grow up in abusive households or in poverty.  I have seen several scholars and families who live in poverty, as we are a Title 1 school. I have seen individuals who defy the cycle and better themselves.  I have seen several scholars make it into gifted programs, get recognized by others outside the districts, and get scholarships to further their education, just because their parents or grandparents did not get an education or have money, did not dictate where they would be. We can break the cycles that we are born into; it may take work, but we can do it.  However, I will admit I also can see generational cycles of poverty and poor education.  Education isn't important to the scholar because “their momma” or “their nana” didn’t think it was important.  Circumstances flavor what we hold to be important or even what we spend our time on.  Those experiences, both negative and positive, can make us want to do it more, so we work harder.  The biggest things in this chapter that I use and that I want to know more about are private speech and scaffolding.   

Private speech being part of cognitive development kinda made me stop in my tracks.  I am the worst at bad-talking myself in private, and yet I have other individuals that I come in contact with who don’t struggle with private speech.  They can have a running dialogue with themselves that is positive and has a purpose. Whereas I don’t know if it is the ADHD, my circumstances, or now my cognitive development that my private speech tends to be negative and without a purpose.  I firmly believe that there is truth that we self-talk and private talk to ourselves, and that may change how we do things or see things.  I try to make sure that my scholars hear positive voices in all settings because I struggle with this.  I work daily on making my private speech positive and worth listening to. I incorporate this into my classroom by saying positive affirmations and posting ones that they can see.   I try to make sure that I know they can, that they are capable and able.  I tell myself these things daily and even hourly, especially now that I am back in school myself.  

Scaffolding is the concept that all can, but might need assistance to do it.  In my special education classroom, I use scaffolding and modification all the time.  I believe that scaffolding may look different for each scholar and each concept.  I don’t feel like scaffolding is lowering the skill; I think it is giving the scholar more of a chance to learn, grow, and master a skill.  I would love to learn more about how this concept of scaffolding comes into play with his Zone of proximal development.  Questions like- does the zone of proximal development impact what they can learn so therefore impacting the scaffolding?  Bronfenbrenner is one that I am not as familiar with, but the concept that we are impacted by different things in the environment.  The circles of influence impact what we learn, how we learn, and what we do. I would love to learn more about what he felt, and if it felt like it was an all or none concept.  

To be an intentional teacher, the next steps of what I do and how I teach in my classroom should be based on the impact of things in the environment and the norms of those things around us.  This goes back to the schemes that Piaget believed in, and that we develop norms that influence what we learn and do. I also believe that it goes back to Vygotsky’s belief that we need those around us to help us know that we are capable of learning a task.  We don’t naturally just know, but need help from those around us. I will have to give opportunities to learn, grow, and develop that may not be what scholars are used to.  If we are impacted by the environment that we are in, can we use the school environment to be a positive influence?   In my classroom, I often strive to hold my scholars to high expectations and push them.  I believe that they can learn and that I have to figure out how, so that I don’t get to give up because I try 2 strategies and they do not work.  I have to keep going.  Reading and learning about cognitive development reminds me that I need to keep striving to learn what might help my scholars, but what might also help me build positive environments that help foster growth.