FRJ #1 Piaget

FRJ 1: what evidence do you see of specific teacher behaviors that are geared toward Piaget’s theories about the developmental levels of children at particular ages? Cite specific examples and make clear connection to Piaget’s work.



I did my observation at Timpview High School and observed 4 AP World History classes and 2 U.S. History Honors classes. The U.S Honors classes were made up of all sophomores and the AP World classes consisted of juniors and seniors. Although the AP and Honors students are starting to experiment with the Formal Operational stage of Piaget’s stages almost all of them are still spending most of their learning time in the Concrete Operational stage. When in the Concrete Operational stage adolescents learn best by connecting to real life. They need to make whatever they are learning about real and relevant. In my observation Ms. B did a great job helping her students make clear connections between what they were learning and their real lives. This allowed the students to be able to handle any disequilibrium that might be taking place. Ms. B is a very good example of being able to use assimilation and accommodation to teach her students. She did this two different ways; the first way was by always making connections about what she was teaching and situations in their lives, the second way was by having them do hands on activities that helped them put the historical ideas into practice.

Ms. B’s ability to connect almost any historical event to teenage pop culture blew me away. If I got anything out of my observations it would be that you must help these students make connections of what they are learning in history and their lives. History, especially ancient world history, can be very abstract and difficult for them to connect to. Ms. B expressed to me that she found it to be extremely important for her to explain why all of history affects them today. Throughout all of her lectures she would explain a concept or event and then she would connect that idea to something that the students are involved in. Ms. B expressed the importance of knowing what is popular for her students at the time and participating in it. She said that she listens to music, reads books, and watches T.V and Movies that she knows her students listen to, read, and watch just so she knows what they are talking about. She said that doing this gives her the knowledge she needs to make connections for her students.

One example of this would have to be in her AP world class they were learning about the different districts in Ancient China. Ms. B explained to the class that China was divided up into these districts just like the districts in the book The Hunger Games. She then continued on to explain that Emperor Shi unified the districts just like Katniss helps do in the third book of the series. Another time during a U.S. Honors class Ms. B taught about Colonel Custard’s Last Stand. She taught that it was one of his last battles of his career and what he is most remembered for. Colonel Custard and his regiment lost pretty horribly to a band of Sioux Indians and it would become his supreme embarrassment of his life. Ms. B brought up the movie Night of the Museum II and talked about how in the movie he (Custard) is always scared and it is because of this failure. All of the students were like, “Oh yeah, that makes sense now.”

The other way Ms. B impressed me by making history real for her students was by having them do application activities. The way she structured her class was to have the lecture, then some type of application activity, and then she would end with some type of assessment (it could be either formal or informal). Everyday these students are doing some type of hands on activity that is allowing them to put the practice into action. This also crosses over with Vygotsky’s theory of play (but I will talk about that in a different Journal response).

The activity that most impressed me had to do with their Civil War unit. Ms. B’s U.S. Honors class was studying the Civil War; they were talking about the different battles and they discussed how wounded soldiers would have to have their limbs amputated right on the battle field. Ms. B and her class preformed an actual amputation in class. Ms. B took a cow femur and wrapped it in spaghetti (tendons), steaks (the muscle), and cooked lasagna noodles (the skin) and attached it to a manikin dressed as a Union Soldier. She also inserted baggies filled with fake blood under the steaks so that as the students cut into the leg it would bleed. The students were provided with old tools such as saws and picks to perform the amputation. They discussed the process to amputate a wounded leg and then she had them perform it. I know that every single students that was in the class that day will remember the U.S. Civil War.