IN THE CLASSROOM: CONCRETE NEVER ENDS

By Abigail Mills, November 17, 2012

Jean Piaget was one of the most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology. In his view, young children develop a schema, categories of knowledge that help us interpret and understand the world.

Piaget viewed the schema as both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas. I see this as the snowball effect. As children are taught and experience life, those lessons accumulate, like a snowball rolling on the ground.

Piaget determined that children in the concrete operational stage begin at age 7, and continue to about age 11. The methodology of concrete learning involves hands-on cognitive experiences. On this stage, the child has the ability to develop logical thoughts about an object, as they manipulate it. Their ideas are formed by the appearance of an object.They must be able to take in many aspects of the object , by looking at it, and by touching it. With this hands-on approach, they can re-create a relationship between a part and the whole. They are very much rooted in the world as it is.

It is with this idea ,that of concrete, hands-on operations, which is appropriate in the 7-11 age range, that I say that this is applicable to every learning individual.

Now, the Barefoot Contessa can show us, with delicious description, how to make Coq Au Vin…But, I maintain that one can really learn and remember how to do this, by really doing it, step by –step, with Barefoot Ina Garten at one’s side.

I have the privilege of teaching the SLS(college experience)1101 class this semester. They are a group of 22, deer-in-the-headlights, eager and anxious college freshmen.There are many questions. I go from chapter to chapter, discussing the how-to’s, and.. this is how’s, but I don’t lecture ad nauseum. I want to share some of the hands-on, multi-sensory ideas, some of which I gleaned from my 34 years of teaching, and others that I have shared with my colleagues over the years.

The students have already read the designated chapter. I scaffold the general idea. Every class period has a previously assigned twosome who present , in their words, the chapter. After this, we do a project within the chapter, usually an acting-out, role-playing, creative dramatics experience. This class meets twice a week. On the second day of that week, an invited speaker comes to the classroom to expound on the topic.

In the setting priorities chapter, I wanted them to use a physical and visible experience. Without any explanation, I asked them to line up in Alphabetical order. They didn’t know each other’s names. They had to ascertain this, before they could find their place in the line. After they did this, I asked them to write a paragraph about how they made their line alphabetically. Then, I asked them to write a list, on a scale from 1-10, the most important things in their lives, their priorities, from the most, to the least, and then, we correlated the experience of lining up, finding the places in the line, with those, which they deemed their priorities. They, tangibly could see their priorities, because, physically, they created them, and could see a sequence.

In the chapter on talking to their instructors, I asked them to form 4 groups, and for each group to write some problems that they might need to discuss with their instructors.I called each group up to the front of the room. I became the instructor. As they spoke of the problem, I became, for each group, a different teacher, with a different attitude. I was critical, dismissive, sarcastic, and almost nice. It was an exaggeration, but the point was that they needed to be aware of their demeanor, and ability to carry themselves in a civilized, polite, and appropriate manner,as a college student, and as a prospective employee.(no matter how the boss was behaving). There were a few hearty souls who said that I had an attitude, and they would have to “give it back to me”. I turned to the class, and asked them what they thought of this. One young man said,” well, you can give it back to her, but you’ll get fired.”

  • Lessons in deportment, critical thinking, managing money, are some of the topics.Better yet, when they receive as a gift, from me, a million dollars each, and are asked tomatch this with their expenses, that they really have. Interestingly, some said they wanted to invest the money.
  • In conclusion, there is more to teaching than the telling,…the doing, is what makes the remembering significant. It starts in first grade, and as far as I’m concerned, as a responsible educator, it never ends.