Piaget TIPR

One of the biggest examples of creating disequilibrium that I saw is when Mr. D was teaching from Paradise Lost.  Many of the students were of LDS background and had learned that Eve could not have children and remain in the garden.  Mr. D caused some disequilibrium when he told them that in Paradise Lost that is not the case.  Adam and Eve could have children and that moral dilemma that exists in the LDS faith doesn't exist in Paradise Lost.  This was something necessary for them to learn in order to understand Paradise Lost and required them to accommodate by understanding that Milton's understanding of the Garden of Eden was not their own.  Mr. D helped them accommodate by giving them some time to process what he had just told them, by telling the implications that were related to Paradise Lost, and allowing them to answer questions regarding things they still didn't understand.  I also saw an example of assimilation when Mrs. S was going over a different part of Paradise Lost where Satan is written as a sympathetic character.  Mrs. S helped the students explore the concepts of Satan's character and had a discussion with them which helped them assimilate the new ideas of Satan's character with the ideas that they already had.  Most of the lessons seem to be in the Formal Operational stage as the goal of the course is to get the students to think critically about their world.

The students in the class that I'm observing have many chances to think critically and analyze situations, but it seems like to me that only a few students are actually doing the critical thinking and there doesn't seem like there is much opportunity for the other students.  Having the students think abstractly and hypothetically is something that the students need in their current stage of development.  In my mini-lesson something that I might do is have the students create a write-up that focuses on more abstract and hypothetical ideas.