Senin, 30 April 2012

The Review on the Educational Theories


Study and learning term is a term which has a strong relevance. Study is a process of change behavior as the result of interaction between individual with environment to fulfill their life need. Learning is an activity which done to create atmosphere or give service which make students study. As a teacher, we must understand the process getting knowledge, so we can get exact learning strategy for students.
Theory is a set of ideas which related each other and help to explain the data, and make prediction (Santrock, 1995). When study about knowledge, theory as a case which absolute which must study first to explain that case. The aim is that knowledge has strong base to be apply in real life.
As a teacher in the future we need educational theories, as something that guides, explains, or describes educational practice. Educational theory is a set of general statement that used to explain reality of study. The advantages of educational theory are for: help teacher understanding how student learning, see across teacher to design and planned their learning process, guide teacher to manage the class, help teacher to evaluate the process, help process more effective, efficient, and productive, and also help teacher to give support to their students to achieve maximum achievement. It is same the application of the nature of student learn mathematics.
Constructivism is one of the educational theories. It is show that knowledge is constructed and the learner is an active creator. The definition of this theory is a philosophy of learning that founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. We use rules and mental models to make sense of our experiences. The guiding principles of constructivism consist of learning is a search for meaning, meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts, we must understand the mental models that students use assumptions they make to support those models, and the purpose of learning is for an individual to construct their own meaning answers and meaning.
1.      Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Based on Piaget, in learning the students must experience by themselves and direct belong in realistic with object that learning. Learning must be active and social. He told that cognitive as a composite from adulthood of brain and nerve system, also adaptation in our environment.

He used five terms to describe the dynamics of cognitive:
a.       Scheme: show mental structure, thinking pattern which people use to overcome condition in environment. Example: baby look thing which they want, then the learning to catch what they look. They make exact scheme with the situation.
b.      Adaptation: process to adjust thinking with insert new information into individual thinking. Piaget (in Rice, 2002) said that children adapt with two ways, they are assimilation and accommodation.
c.       Assimilation means getting new information and inserts it into nowadays scheme in response new environment stimulus.
d.      Accommodation consist of adjust new information with create new scheme when old scheme was not success. Example: when children watch dog for the first time (assimilation), but they learn that some dog was safety to keep and others dog not (accommodation). When children get a lot of information, they arrange their understanding about different world.
e.       Equilibration defined as compensation to external interruption. Intellectual development become progression which always movement from one structural unbalanced to new higher structure balanced.

Piaget explains four stadiums of individual thinking (that related each other):
1)      Sensorimotor (birth – 18 months): study with feeling, study with reflex, and substance manipulation.
2)      Preoperational (18 months – 6 years): ideas based on their perception, just focused on a variable in a time, and generalize based on definite experience.
3)      Concrete operational (6 years – 12 years): ideas based on thinking, thinking bounded at things and chummy event.
4)      Formal operational (12 years or more): conceptual thinking and hypothesis thinking.

2.      Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934).
Learning and development are two cases that related each other from the first day of human life. Learning is cognitive development and social interaction which fulfill each other. Social interaction is learned by students through adult people in their around, so teacher as a guide of the students activity and also make students be independent working. Children world built from family, socio-economy status, education, and their understanding about this world. Everyday, they develop language ability and catch new concepts when they were talking and hearing each other. The most important from Vygotsky is about understanding the interaction between teacher and student’s friend in developing student’s knowledge.
Important concept from Vygotsky is Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). He defines the area where students can learn helped by competent people. Scaffolding as knowledge frame which prepared when ripeness time coming. It means by giving an important ability to children to solve the problems independently like discussion with their friends, practice directly, and giving motivation. The combination from children teaching and respect children development can optimized the learning.
Constructivism impacts learning:
-          Curriculum: customized to the students’ prior knowledge and hands-on problem solving.
-          Instruction: educators focus on making connections between facts and develop the new understanding.
-          Assessment: becomes a part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress.

The teacher must careful when take messages in educational theories on learning situation to apply it for their students, so the teaching-learning can efficient and effective.

Resources:
____.Educational Theories.(online). http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/isr/education/theories.htm accessed on April 14th 2012 at 09.57 Am.
Izzaty, Rita Eka, dkk. (2008). Perkembangan Peserta Didik. Yogyakarta: UNY Press
Sugihartono, dkk. (2007). Psikologi Pendidikan. Yogyakarta: UNY Press

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