Question #5 - Present, compare, evaluate, and analyze how they influence each other, the theories of Schemas and scripts & Long-term memory & Semantic memory. Show and demonstrate why is important (if you think it is) to know about the possible influence of these theories in the cognitive processes we encounter in the daily life. Show how these theories could be used in your future career. Evaluate the importance of knowing about the theories in your career. Present examples applied to your career, and present critiques to the theories.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Schemas and Scripts, Long Term Memory and Semantic Memory
Question #5 - Present, compare, evaluate, and analyze how they influence each other, the theories of Schemas and scripts & Long-term memory & Semantic memory. Show and demonstrate why is important (if you think it is) to know about the possible influence of these theories in the cognitive processes we encounter in the daily life. Show how these theories could be used in your future career. Evaluate the importance of knowing about the theories in your career. Present examples applied to your career, and present critiques to the theories.
Final Reflection
Schemas and scripts, long term memory and semantic memory are all very important in both our daily life and in our careers. If theories about these are known, it can greatly affect how you deal with certain situations.
Schemas and scripts are used in everyday life, even if you are unaware that you are using them. Most of the time we are so used to doing things a certain way that we do not even realize what we are doing. This is really apparent when it comes to scripts. When you go to subway and place an order, you know the exact routine you are suppose to go through to get what you want. This script was encoded into our memory and for the most part it is a constant every time we go. We also use schemas often in everyday life. An example of when we would use schemas is if we came home and saw that all of your belongings were thrown all around. Our schema, or our knowledge of situations or events, would tell us that someone had broken in and might even still be there.
If you wake up in the morning and only catch the part of the weather forecast that says it’s going to be chilly, you would still know to grab a jacket because it might be cold. You can thank your semantic memory for this. Semantic memory helps us connect related words together, so when you heard chilly, you knew it was going to be cold and you would want to dress accordingly.
As important as schemas, scripts and semantic memory are in everyday life, I would have to put long-term memory as being the most important. What good is it to have scripts if you are going to forget them in an hour or less? Long-term memory allows us to keep this information and recall it for later use. Referring to examples in my literature review, long term memory allows us to recall what to do at a red light or to avoid touching a hot stove.
The information from the theories of scripts, schemas, semantic memory and long-term memory are invaluable to teachers. To be a teacher and understand how children learn and encode that information into their memory is a great tool. Teachers need to understand how students encode knowledge into their memory so that they can find better ways of presenting the material. Scripts can be taught to children so that they are aware of how and what they are suppose to do during the day. If a child does not know the script of how we line up for recess, then how can you expect them to do it correctly? Eventually students will get the picture or idea of what you are expecting of them in the classroom. Although this might take awhile, you have to develop the children’s schema of what you expect from them. After practice they will begin to know how to act in different situations (recess, rest time, center time, etc.) because they will have developed a schema for these situations. As teachers you are always trying to build up the semantic memory, or knowledge of the world, of your students. You are teaching them important facts and material that will help them in the future. I know as a kindergarten teacher that there are times where I forget that I am teaching children with very little semantic memory. I have to provide some of the building blocks for this memory because of their inexperience in the world. When everything is said and done, we hope that our students are able to convert the information we are giving them into their long-term memory. We hope to make a strong enough connection in their memory so that they can recall the information they need when they need it. When a child leaves my room at the end of the year, they should have a schema of the way a classroom looks and how to behave in a classroom. They have to convert this into their long-term memory, and when they return for first grade the next year; they should still remember the basics on what a classroom looks like and how to behave in a classroom.
At times during this class I was wondering why any of this information was relevant and why we had to take a class like this. After doing some research, listening to workshops, and reading the book, I now understand how valuable this information can be. I have already thought of new methods to try to reach my students. We can now look at our students and better understand how to reach them. Everyone should have a better understanding of how our brain works and how we encode information into our memory. I am looking forward to next year when I can take some of the information that I have been taught and apply it to my classroom.
Schemas and scripts are used in everyday life, even if you are unaware that you are using them. Most of the time we are so used to doing things a certain way that we do not even realize what we are doing. This is really apparent when it comes to scripts. When you go to subway and place an order, you know the exact routine you are suppose to go through to get what you want. This script was encoded into our memory and for the most part it is a constant every time we go. We also use schemas often in everyday life. An example of when we would use schemas is if we came home and saw that all of your belongings were thrown all around. Our schema, or our knowledge of situations or events, would tell us that someone had broken in and might even still be there.
If you wake up in the morning and only catch the part of the weather forecast that says it’s going to be chilly, you would still know to grab a jacket because it might be cold. You can thank your semantic memory for this. Semantic memory helps us connect related words together, so when you heard chilly, you knew it was going to be cold and you would want to dress accordingly.
As important as schemas, scripts and semantic memory are in everyday life, I would have to put long-term memory as being the most important. What good is it to have scripts if you are going to forget them in an hour or less? Long-term memory allows us to keep this information and recall it for later use. Referring to examples in my literature review, long term memory allows us to recall what to do at a red light or to avoid touching a hot stove.
The information from the theories of scripts, schemas, semantic memory and long-term memory are invaluable to teachers. To be a teacher and understand how children learn and encode that information into their memory is a great tool. Teachers need to understand how students encode knowledge into their memory so that they can find better ways of presenting the material. Scripts can be taught to children so that they are aware of how and what they are suppose to do during the day. If a child does not know the script of how we line up for recess, then how can you expect them to do it correctly? Eventually students will get the picture or idea of what you are expecting of them in the classroom. Although this might take awhile, you have to develop the children’s schema of what you expect from them. After practice they will begin to know how to act in different situations (recess, rest time, center time, etc.) because they will have developed a schema for these situations. As teachers you are always trying to build up the semantic memory, or knowledge of the world, of your students. You are teaching them important facts and material that will help them in the future. I know as a kindergarten teacher that there are times where I forget that I am teaching children with very little semantic memory. I have to provide some of the building blocks for this memory because of their inexperience in the world. When everything is said and done, we hope that our students are able to convert the information we are giving them into their long-term memory. We hope to make a strong enough connection in their memory so that they can recall the information they need when they need it. When a child leaves my room at the end of the year, they should have a schema of the way a classroom looks and how to behave in a classroom. They have to convert this into their long-term memory, and when they return for first grade the next year; they should still remember the basics on what a classroom looks like and how to behave in a classroom.
At times during this class I was wondering why any of this information was relevant and why we had to take a class like this. After doing some research, listening to workshops, and reading the book, I now understand how valuable this information can be. I have already thought of new methods to try to reach my students. We can now look at our students and better understand how to reach them. Everyone should have a better understanding of how our brain works and how we encode information into our memory. I am looking forward to next year when I can take some of the information that I have been taught and apply it to my classroom.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Applying It All to the Classroom
The four topics discussed: Schemas, scripts, long-term memory and semantic memory have many applications to teachers and education.
When children are coming into my kindergarten class, I always assume that everyone knows nothing about being at school. Of course some have had pre-kindergarten, but none of them know what to expect. They have no schema for what kindergarten is suppose to be. We have to develop a script for them to follow for the day. Routine is very important at a young age. They have to understand what is going on and what is expected. They are developing their semantic memory and schemas of events each day. We learn how to behave in different situations and we also gain knowledge about the world through our lessons. In the end we hope they store this information in long-term memory for later use. That is the dream of every teacher though, that a student will gain the knowledge they need to succeed and store that knowledge to be successful throughout their life.
Schemas In Young Children
Could time out be promoting further disruptive behavior?
I posted this section to reflect on the article about young children’s perceptions of time out. After my first year of teaching kindergarten I was wondering what the effectiveness was of this strategy. I had tried it in my classroom but with little success in my opinion.
This article discussed the observations of fourty-two children that were interviewed after a time out experience. They worked with 11 different child care centers in this study. The article stated that "more children were observed to be isolated for reasons of noncompliance than for aggression." (Readdick and Chapman, 2000, p.81). They observed children when they were sent to time out, and after awhile they tried to talk to these children that were in time out. They asked them simple questions to get an idea of how they felt when they were sent to time out. Some of the students interviewed expressed the feelings of being alone, ignored or even the feeling of being disliked by their teacher. To a very young child they are viewing this as a punishment instead of a time to calm down and think about their actions. The article states that many children are not even able to tell you the reason they were in time out, which means they have not gained any knowledge or schema of the situation. It will do little to deter the same behavior in the future. Children's perceptions of time out may help adults weigh the appropriatness of using time out in their classroom.
With the child’s limited knowledge and experience (schemas of how things are suppose to be), they might even feel rejected or humiliated. The article goes on to suggest that because of their social inexperience they could internalize these negative labels and react accordingly. If this were true, we are developing the exact opposite schema that we had intended.
Sometimes children need time to think about what they have done wrong and need a “cool down” spot. I always talk with them after a few minutes of time out and see if they know why they are in time out. We talk about how we should be behaving and how to improve upon it in the future. With the difficult class that I had this year, I am not going to say time out doesn’t work, but I enjoyed little success with it. I found this article interesting because it touched on some of the reasons as to why timeout might not work for some young children. It also tied in with how young children do not have the semantic knowledge, schemas or scripts encoded in their long-term memory when they first come into my classroom. I must start from scratch, with some students, in building up their knowledge so that I do not humiliate a child when they are sent to time out.
Article Reference:
Readdick, C. A., & Chapman P. L. (2000). Young Children’s Perceptions of Time Out. Journal of Research in Childhood Education. 15(1). 81-87.
I posted this section to reflect on the article about young children’s perceptions of time out. After my first year of teaching kindergarten I was wondering what the effectiveness was of this strategy. I had tried it in my classroom but with little success in my opinion.
This article discussed the observations of fourty-two children that were interviewed after a time out experience. They worked with 11 different child care centers in this study. The article stated that "more children were observed to be isolated for reasons of noncompliance than for aggression." (Readdick and Chapman, 2000, p.81). They observed children when they were sent to time out, and after awhile they tried to talk to these children that were in time out. They asked them simple questions to get an idea of how they felt when they were sent to time out. Some of the students interviewed expressed the feelings of being alone, ignored or even the feeling of being disliked by their teacher. To a very young child they are viewing this as a punishment instead of a time to calm down and think about their actions. The article states that many children are not even able to tell you the reason they were in time out, which means they have not gained any knowledge or schema of the situation. It will do little to deter the same behavior in the future. Children's perceptions of time out may help adults weigh the appropriatness of using time out in their classroom.
With the child’s limited knowledge and experience (schemas of how things are suppose to be), they might even feel rejected or humiliated. The article goes on to suggest that because of their social inexperience they could internalize these negative labels and react accordingly. If this were true, we are developing the exact opposite schema that we had intended.
Sometimes children need time to think about what they have done wrong and need a “cool down” spot. I always talk with them after a few minutes of time out and see if they know why they are in time out. We talk about how we should be behaving and how to improve upon it in the future. With the difficult class that I had this year, I am not going to say time out doesn’t work, but I enjoyed little success with it. I found this article interesting because it touched on some of the reasons as to why timeout might not work for some young children. It also tied in with how young children do not have the semantic knowledge, schemas or scripts encoded in their long-term memory when they first come into my classroom. I must start from scratch, with some students, in building up their knowledge so that I do not humiliate a child when they are sent to time out.
Article Reference:
Readdick, C. A., & Chapman P. L. (2000). Young Children’s Perceptions of Time Out. Journal of Research in Childhood Education. 15(1). 81-87.
Long Term Memory
There is information being thrown at us from every direction every day. Some of it we can forget in a few minutes, some even in a matter of seconds. The information that we take in can be encoded into our long-term memory and retrieved later when it is needed, as shown in the diagram.
Long-term memory is very important. Without it we would not be able to recall things from the past or learn from any of the mistakes we made. Essentially, without long-term memory we would have anterograde amnesia for our whole life. Anterograde amnesia is where you cannot create new memories. The movie Memento depicts this type of amnesia very well. Recalling memory is not always as easy as it would seem. Have you ever been asked a question and you know the answer, but can’t quite find the words? This is known as tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Even though we might store something in our long-term memory, it does not necessarily mean that we will have an easy time recalling it. In the article by Katherine White and Lise Abrams they brought up some interesting points about tip-of-the-tongue phonomenons. Their report included a logical explanation as to why some things might be more prone to this phenomenon. "Words that are not activated frequently are more susceptible to TOTs. In addition, recent presentation of a word decreases the likelihood of later having a TOT for that word." (White and Abrams, 2002, 227)
Long-term memory stores our experiences and our information that we gain over our lifetime. Why is long-term memory so important? We develop schemas and scripts on what we expect and what we are suppose to do in certain situations. These schemas and scripts are stored in our long term memory. Imagine what would happen if you could not recall what to do to in situations because you had no prior knowledge. Simple tasks such as stopping at a red light or knowing not to touch a hot stove could cause dangerous consequences.
Long-term memory lets us recall information when we need it most. We encode it into our memory in ways so that we can recall it. Sometimes we can recall it instantaneously while other times it takes a lot of work to remember. As teachers we are trying to give our students knowledge that will be stored into long-term memory, so that they can recall it when they need it.
Some people develop an expertise for a specific skill or topic and are able to recall things easily. An example of someone who would have developed an expertise for a specific skill would be a master chess player. Experts have a strong connection to the memories that show the pieces on a chess board. They are able to search their memory and see when the pieces are in the right position to make certain moves.
An article on long term memory that I found interesting was the article by Igor Sotgiu and Dario Galati. This article discussed the long term memory for traumatic events and more specifically discussing the memories of victims during the flood in Italy in the year 2000. The authors had members of the community complete a questionnaire three years after the flood to see how they remembered the traumatic events. The results came back with them recalling the most critical phases of the flood the most. “The emotions most strongly experienced by respondents – sadness, fear, and surprise – were associated with specific appraisals.” (Sotgiu and Galati, 2007, p. 91). Participants tended to remember the more personal experiences that occurred and especially the ones that occurred during the emergency phase of the disaster. They however did not remember as many experiences from the efforts of preparing for the flood. The efforts of preparing for a flood are not traumatic, but if you experience an event that causes such destruction and you are filled with a sense of surprise and fear, this is encoded into your memory. Flashbulb memory is your memory for the situation where you found out about something that was dramatic or surprising. Those that were actually there during the flood are going to have images that are stored into their memory that allow them to recall these events. I can remember certain events about the twin towers being hit in New York, but the long term memory of the events are going to be much clearer to those who had to experience it in person and saw the events unfold.
Long-term memory is very important. Without it we would not be able to recall things from the past or learn from any of the mistakes we made. Essentially, without long-term memory we would have anterograde amnesia for our whole life. Anterograde amnesia is where you cannot create new memories. The movie Memento depicts this type of amnesia very well. Recalling memory is not always as easy as it would seem. Have you ever been asked a question and you know the answer, but can’t quite find the words? This is known as tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Even though we might store something in our long-term memory, it does not necessarily mean that we will have an easy time recalling it. In the article by Katherine White and Lise Abrams they brought up some interesting points about tip-of-the-tongue phonomenons. Their report included a logical explanation as to why some things might be more prone to this phenomenon. "Words that are not activated frequently are more susceptible to TOTs. In addition, recent presentation of a word decreases the likelihood of later having a TOT for that word." (White and Abrams, 2002, 227)
Long-term memory stores our experiences and our information that we gain over our lifetime. Why is long-term memory so important? We develop schemas and scripts on what we expect and what we are suppose to do in certain situations. These schemas and scripts are stored in our long term memory. Imagine what would happen if you could not recall what to do to in situations because you had no prior knowledge. Simple tasks such as stopping at a red light or knowing not to touch a hot stove could cause dangerous consequences.
Long-term memory lets us recall information when we need it most. We encode it into our memory in ways so that we can recall it. Sometimes we can recall it instantaneously while other times it takes a lot of work to remember. As teachers we are trying to give our students knowledge that will be stored into long-term memory, so that they can recall it when they need it.
Some people develop an expertise for a specific skill or topic and are able to recall things easily. An example of someone who would have developed an expertise for a specific skill would be a master chess player. Experts have a strong connection to the memories that show the pieces on a chess board. They are able to search their memory and see when the pieces are in the right position to make certain moves.An article on long term memory that I found interesting was the article by Igor Sotgiu and Dario Galati. This article discussed the long term memory for traumatic events and more specifically discussing the memories of victims during the flood in Italy in the year 2000. The authors had members of the community complete a questionnaire three years after the flood to see how they remembered the traumatic events. The results came back with them recalling the most critical phases of the flood the most. “The emotions most strongly experienced by respondents – sadness, fear, and surprise – were associated with specific appraisals.” (Sotgiu and Galati, 2007, p. 91). Participants tended to remember the more personal experiences that occurred and especially the ones that occurred during the emergency phase of the disaster. They however did not remember as many experiences from the efforts of preparing for the flood. The efforts of preparing for a flood are not traumatic, but if you experience an event that causes such destruction and you are filled with a sense of surprise and fear, this is encoded into your memory. Flashbulb memory is your memory for the situation where you found out about something that was dramatic or surprising. Those that were actually there during the flood are going to have images that are stored into their memory that allow them to recall these events. I can remember certain events about the twin towers being hit in New York, but the long term memory of the events are going to be much clearer to those who had to experience it in person and saw the events unfold.
Just Some Interesting Information on Long Term Memory and Some Fun Memory Games
Flies and Long Term Memory
Your probably wondering why there are flies under the title “interesting information on LTM”. I came across this video about some scientists who are doing research on long term memory in flies. They explain the experiment they are doing, using shocks and odor to teach flies to go through a maze, and also explain what effects it could have on humans at the end. I found it interesting that they were researching ways to help with tramatic experiences.
Here are some activities and games to test your memory:
Simon Game
Face Game
Semantic Memory and Long Term Memory
Semantic memory -
“Human brains are storehouses of vast amounts of different kinds of information – about people in the neighborhood and in the movies, about places and how to look, reach or navigate towards them, and about things and what they look, sound, feel, smell and taste like.” (Federmeir, 2000, p. 463)
Long term memory is divided into two kinds of memory. One kind is semantic memory, which is our knowledge of the world. “Semantic memory includes encyclopedic knowledge. It also includes lexical or language knowledge. In addition, semantic memory includes conceptual knowledge.” (Matlin, 2005, p. 248) To put it in simpler terms this memory helps you to recall names, dates, important facts, that a rectangle has two sets of parallel lines, and which words are associated with each other.
The other kind of memory is episodic. This is the memory of our own events or experiences. Such events that might be stored in this memory are your very first date, the first time you bought a new car, or recalling the day you were married.
As educators we are always looking to increase the semantic memory of our students. With my kindergarten students, you know that their semantic memory is very limited. They have very little knowledge about the world. Each grade that they pass through we continue to build on this knowledge.
In semantic memory we are organizing our knowledge into categories to make it easier to recall. Sometimes when we loose those connections the memory is harder to recall. You might still have that memory somewhere but you have nothing to connect it to, so you cannot recall it. There are different models to help explain how semantic memory works.
One model is the feature comparison model. According to this model, ideas are stored according to their characteristics. The prototype approach says that you place and object in a category by comparing that item with a prototype. An example of this would be if I saw a corvette, I would place this in the category of cars because it matches what a prototypical car would be. The final approach is the exemplar approach. This approach is based on examples of objects that you have already seen. First you must learn the examples and then you may place new items into that category depending on how closely they fit your examples.
Obviously there is not a clear cut best choice or we would not be discussing the other two. Each approach has its supporters and those who oppose it. In kindergarten their knowledge of the world is vastly limited compared to adults. We are still building the foundations of knowledge that they will need to help categorize items. Discussing all of these approaches does remind me of a game that was taught to me this year. We use this game, Mr. Niehaus’ Farmhouse, as a fun activity. I would give them clues as to what animal I was thinking of, and they would have to make logical guesses as to what animal I had in mind. This forced them to connect their prior knowledge of animals to the clues that I gave them. It became obvious who had previous knowledge about certain animals. One time I said “this animal stands on two legs,” and while some immediately had ideas, others did not have this past knowledge and had to wait for other clues.
An interesting explanation and picture of where semantic memory might be taking place in your brain:
Schematic representation of (a) ventral and (b) lateral surfaces of the brain. Shown are the approximate locations of regions where information about object form, motion and object-use-associated motor patters may be stored. Information from an increasing number of sources may be integrated in the temporal lobes, with specificity increasing along the posterior to anterior axis. Specific regions of the LIPC and the polar region of the temporal lobes may be involved differentially in retrieving, monitoring, selecting and maintaining semantic information. (Martin and Chao, 2001, p. 197)
Jean Piaget was very influential in the area of developmental psychology. His main focus was on the biological aspects of how humans come to know things or form concepts. Huitt and Hummel (2003) explained that “Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called “reflexes.”” Infants use these “reflexes” to adapt to the environment and these reflexes are replaced with schemes on how things are suppose to be.
Piaget had two processes to explain how humans attempt to adapt. These two processes are assimilation and accommodations. “Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment.” (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Humans use assimilation and accommodation all the time. An example of assimilation in children would be knowing the rules on our playground and using them on other playgrounds. During the year we take field trips and occasionally stop at a park for a break. The children are using their knowledge of the rules they are suppose to follow at the school playground and having to apply that to the new playground. An example of accommodation that Huitt and Hummel (2003) used would be when a child needs to modify a sucking schema developed by sucking on a pacifier to one that would be successful for sucking on a bottle.
Early childhood programs have used Piaget’s theory to provide better instructional techniques. Using a variety of teaching methods can help the children to attain the knowledge they need. In my classroom I attempt to use many different methods. We work with different manipulatives, perform experiments, work in groups and even take the occasional field trip. By giving them different ways to attain the knowledge you give them more opportunities to succeed.
“Human brains are storehouses of vast amounts of different kinds of information – about people in the neighborhood and in the movies, about places and how to look, reach or navigate towards them, and about things and what they look, sound, feel, smell and taste like.” (Federmeir, 2000, p. 463)
Long term memory is divided into two kinds of memory. One kind is semantic memory, which is our knowledge of the world. “Semantic memory includes encyclopedic knowledge. It also includes lexical or language knowledge. In addition, semantic memory includes conceptual knowledge.” (Matlin, 2005, p. 248) To put it in simpler terms this memory helps you to recall names, dates, important facts, that a rectangle has two sets of parallel lines, and which words are associated with each other.
The other kind of memory is episodic. This is the memory of our own events or experiences. Such events that might be stored in this memory are your very first date, the first time you bought a new car, or recalling the day you were married.
As educators we are always looking to increase the semantic memory of our students. With my kindergarten students, you know that their semantic memory is very limited. They have very little knowledge about the world. Each grade that they pass through we continue to build on this knowledge.
In semantic memory we are organizing our knowledge into categories to make it easier to recall. Sometimes when we loose those connections the memory is harder to recall. You might still have that memory somewhere but you have nothing to connect it to, so you cannot recall it. There are different models to help explain how semantic memory works.
One model is the feature comparison model. According to this model, ideas are stored according to their characteristics. The prototype approach says that you place and object in a category by comparing that item with a prototype. An example of this would be if I saw a corvette, I would place this in the category of cars because it matches what a prototypical car would be. The final approach is the exemplar approach. This approach is based on examples of objects that you have already seen. First you must learn the examples and then you may place new items into that category depending on how closely they fit your examples.
Obviously there is not a clear cut best choice or we would not be discussing the other two. Each approach has its supporters and those who oppose it. In kindergarten their knowledge of the world is vastly limited compared to adults. We are still building the foundations of knowledge that they will need to help categorize items. Discussing all of these approaches does remind me of a game that was taught to me this year. We use this game, Mr. Niehaus’ Farmhouse, as a fun activity. I would give them clues as to what animal I was thinking of, and they would have to make logical guesses as to what animal I had in mind. This forced them to connect their prior knowledge of animals to the clues that I gave them. It became obvious who had previous knowledge about certain animals. One time I said “this animal stands on two legs,” and while some immediately had ideas, others did not have this past knowledge and had to wait for other clues.
An interesting explanation and picture of where semantic memory might be taking place in your brain:
Schematic representation of (a) ventral and (b) lateral surfaces of the brain. Shown are the approximate locations of regions where information about object form, motion and object-use-associated motor patters may be stored. Information from an increasing number of sources may be integrated in the temporal lobes, with specificity increasing along the posterior to anterior axis. Specific regions of the LIPC and the polar region of the temporal lobes may be involved differentially in retrieving, monitoring, selecting and maintaining semantic information. (Martin and Chao, 2001, p. 197)
Jean Piaget was very influential in the area of developmental psychology. His main focus was on the biological aspects of how humans come to know things or form concepts. Huitt and Hummel (2003) explained that “Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called “reflexes.”” Infants use these “reflexes” to adapt to the environment and these reflexes are replaced with schemes on how things are suppose to be.
Piaget had two processes to explain how humans attempt to adapt. These two processes are assimilation and accommodations. “Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment.” (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Humans use assimilation and accommodation all the time. An example of assimilation in children would be knowing the rules on our playground and using them on other playgrounds. During the year we take field trips and occasionally stop at a park for a break. The children are using their knowledge of the rules they are suppose to follow at the school playground and having to apply that to the new playground. An example of accommodation that Huitt and Hummel (2003) used would be when a child needs to modify a sucking schema developed by sucking on a pacifier to one that would be successful for sucking on a bottle.
Early childhood programs have used Piaget’s theory to provide better instructional techniques. Using a variety of teaching methods can help the children to attain the knowledge they need. In my classroom I attempt to use many different methods. We work with different manipulatives, perform experiments, work in groups and even take the occasional field trip. By giving them different ways to attain the knowledge you give them more opportunities to succeed.
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