CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR S.C. TEACHER CADET COURSE | EXPERIENCING EDUCATION, TENTH EDITION
Theme I: Experiencing Learning
Unit 3: Growth and Development
Conducting Tasks and Observations
Note: Do not feel restricted to just these three experiments. You may do research about other
tasks conducted by Piaget and use those instead of or in addition to the three listed
here. Get your teacher’s permission before using alternate tasks. Practice them
before conducting them with a child.
1. Conservation #1.
Materials: three non-breakable clear containers, two matching short, fat ones and one that
is tall and thin; colored water
Task: Put the same amount of colored water into the two short, fat glasses. Ask the child
if both contain the same amount of colored water. He will probably say "Yes."
Next, pour the water from one of the short glasses into the tall, thin one, and line it up with
the other fat glass of water. Ask again if each glass has the same amount of water. He
might think the taller glass has "more water" if he is still having difficulty with the concept
of conservation, the principle that "the amount or number of something remains the same
even if the appearance or arrangement is changed, as long as nothing is added and
nothing taken away." (Bybee and Sund, 1982)
2. Conservation #2.
Materials: two balls of clay or Play-Doh® of the same color and size
Task: Ask the child if both balls have the same amount of clay. He should say yes, if they
are identical. Then take one ball, and roll it into a long "snake" shape. Now ask again if
the balls contain the same amount of clay. Record the response, and then say something
like, "The other day a little girl told me that the snake weighed just as much as it did
before it was changed from a ball shape. What would you say to her?" Record the
response.
3. Global Evaluation #3:
Materials: seven vases, seven flowers, and seven pennies
Task: With seven vases in a row and a pile of flowers nearby, ask the child to get one flower
for each vase and then to check his work by putting one flower in each vase (thus
establishing one-to-one correspondence). Then remove the flowers, put them in a bunch,
and ask the child if there are still the same number of flowers and vases, or if there are
more flowers or more vases. Vary the procedure using pennies in place of vases, telling
the child he/she can “buy” one flower for one penny. Ask him/her to find out how many
pennies he/she will need to buy all the flowers. Children of four to five years of age often
cannot make the one-to-one correspondence of flowers to vases. They might make a row
of flowers below the rows of vases, so that the end flowers line up with the end vases, but
there are more or fewer flowers in the row than there are vases. Piaget calls this global
evaluation. The flowers are not thought of separately. If the ends of the vases and
flowers line up, the child thinks the number is the same.
Observations:
Observe the class specifically for evidence to Vygotsky’s theory regarding socialization and
learning. What evidence do you find of the following?
• ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) (See notes on Vygotsky.)
• Cultural aspects of learning
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