Should age-driven grade levels be abolished and replaced by developmentally driven groupings? What implications would this have for the curriculum? For instruction? What does developmentally driven groupings mean?

Study Chapters 2 & 3 of the text.
Watch the videos found at: https://mediaplayer.pearsoncmg.com/_bluetop_640x360_ccv2/ab/streaming/myeducationlab/eggen/Properties_of_Air_FULL_2_1.mp4

1. Should age-driven grade levels be abolished and replaced by developmentally driven groupings? What implications would this have for the curriculum? For instruction? What does developmentally driven groupings mean?

2. Can maturation take place without experience? Offer a concrete example to support your point.

3. Should teachers and schools attempt to accelerate cognitive development? If so, how? If not, why not?

4. Do Piaget’s descriptions of development have more or fewer implications for curriculum and instruction than do Vygotsky’s descriptions? Explain.

5. Review the case study below. Did Karen conduct the lesson in her students zones of proximal development? Explain why you do or do not think so. What forms of scaffolding did Karen provide? How effective was the scaffolding?

Karen Johnson, an eighth-grade science teacher, is attempting to help her students understand basic concepts in science, such as mass, volume, and density.

My students are struggling, she laments to a colleague. These concepts are important in our everyday world. For example, we hear about dense fog, massive changes, high-volume business, and so on ……. But to my kids, mass and density are the same. And if its bigger, it has more mass and is more dense……..I need to do something.

Karen thinks about the issue, and decides to do something different, even if it seems a bit elementary.

So, on Monday, she begins her class by displaying a cup full of cotton balls.

She asks the students for observations of the cup and cotton balls, leading them to the idea that volume is the amount of space taken up, so the volume of the cotton is the amount of space it takes up in the cup. She continues by leading the students to the idea that mass means the amount of material there is in a substance, such as the amount of cotton.

Karen then compresses the cotton balls, pushing them down into the cup.
So, is the mass the same as or different from it was before we compressed the cotton? . . . Janine?

. . . Its the same, she responds hesitantly.

How do we know? . . . Zach?

With some prompting from Karen, Zach concludes, . . . The total amount of cotton is the same. We havent taken any cotton balls out or put any in.

What about the volume? . . . Jacinta?

Its less …….Its taking up less space, Jacinta says quickly, warming to the task.

Very good …….We now have the same amount of mass in less space, so the cotton is more dense, Karen explains.

Karen then provides some additional examples, such as putting equal volumes of water and vegetable oil on balances. Before doing so, she asks the students to predict which side of the – balance will go down. Most predict the oil side will go down, reasoning that it is thicker than water.

To the students surprise, the side with the water goes down, which means its more dense than the oil.

Hey, I get it, Ethan nearly shouts. Thats why oil floats on water. Its less dense.

The class then discusses other examples, such as population density, and screens on a window with a tight versus a loose wire mesh.

Karen then asks them what dense cloud cover would mean, they discuss the question, and seeing that the period is nearly over, Karen brings the lesson to closure.

6. How much of instruction should be targeted toward the development of self-concept? What specific things can teachers do to help develop positive self-concepts?

7. What should be the school’s role in helping your students in the process of identity development?How would Erikson respond to this question? How would Kohlberg respond? How would Gilligan respond? What specific things can teachers do to aid in this process?

8. This text takes the position that moral issues cannot be avoided, and the most effective approach is for schools and teachers to deal with the issues openly and honestly. Do you agree or disagree with that position? Why do you feel the way you do?

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