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[anonymous_alaska]

I finally learned where this movement away from traditional teaching or the "jug and mug" approach came from.

Hats off to Piaget. One could include many others, but he seems to have been the main ripple.

I started teaching english in 1996 and language teaching seemed to already have been way ahead of the game. It was quite a shock to go from traditional teaching methods to the methods I used abroad. It was even more interesting to find books published all the way back to the 80's.

Now this 'constructivist' approach seems to be taking everywhere by storm. It's affecting all disciplines. The Dutch are really going all out with their high school mathematics curriculum.

If one wants to read a hilarious take on the 'traditional' approach, Noam Chomsky's chapter on education in Understanding Power is a good one.

It seems education is moving towards the philosophy Chomsky espouses. The constructivists seem to aim at putting the emphasis on the learner, greater independence, with a critical approach to learning. What's even more interesting is some scholars, Bruner to name one, seem to very lightly hint that this may upend our whole conception of the past.

The problem with any new movement is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But it's interesting to see what kind of effect this movement will have on society in coordination with the information out there on the internet and advances in technology.

[Alex42]

[dyak]

[Roger]

I am puzzled too. Who was 'Piaget'?
There was one psychologist from Switzerland in the first half of last century that went by the name of Piaget; he had a monumental influence on child-rearing and preschool education.

[Nauczyciel]

[anonymous_alaska]

He had a big impact on cognitive psychology. He studied how children learn and much of what he wrote is being translated into English even now since he wrote so much. There's another guy Vygotsky(spelling?), a Russian who's his counterpart.

Anyway, if you have e-book access from your library, there's a good book out called In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms by Brooks and Brooks.

Studying education now in a University, you can't get away from this name Piaget.

What's interesting is Caleb Gattegno's Silent Way seems quite similar to if not taken from Piaget's philosophy as well as Task based learning. I don't know if language teaching developled separately from Piaget but they both go against the 'jug and mug' approach.

Now it's entering all disciplines.

[teacheringreece]

Any chance of actually giving some clear details on how "Piaget's revolution" is actually relevant to language teaching? What kind of classroom activities are suggested by his writings? How can these be shown to be superior to other approaches? And what exactly is the "jug and mug" approach?

[Alitas]

I took an adolescent literacy course two summers ago. The professor's ideas were rooted in Vygotsky's theories.

Right now in Spanish we are doing a unit on poetry, employing some of the techniques I learned from the ad lit course.

One specific activity is something called symbolic story representation. The student uses a variety of objects and symbols to represent the meaning of the text. Obligatory symbols to include are ones which represent the student as a reader (when I do examples I always use an expired passport), and the symbol of the author and his position to the text.

I've found that this exercise makes me students really think about what they are saying in Spanish because it allows them to interact with the text in a personal way, as well as develop the understanding that the author is also representing a certain way of thinking.

All in all better than a few lousy worksheets and vocabulary grinds.

Another useful technique is something called a KWL (what you Know, what you Want to know, and what you Learned). It is a useful technique to employ before any topical discussion. We do it together on the board.

Multiple entry journals are also useful. I try not to overload with words. In one course we recently watched the film "Maria, Llena Eres de Gracia", and we made a list of words that we could use to discuss the film (plot, character, and so on). The students had to come up with a definition in their own words, a synonym, and a visual image. I usually allow this work to be done in groups because it can feel overwhelming, especially since students are required to construct so much meaning at once.

Another successful technique is something called a "Museum of Texts". After students identified the main characters of the film and their motivators, students took on ther personality of one of the characters and wrote a letter to another character, explaining their position in the film. I had several Maria's, Blanca's and Lucy's (characters from the movie). Students then read each other's letters and picked out a key phrase in each one. The letters were re-assembled as group efforts, using the best from each individual. After all this construction we read the letters to each other's characters. The comprehension level after all this was amazing, with students nodding and agreeing, and otherwise responding to, each other's character statements. This is second year Spanish, by the way.


I use rubrics to grade projects, and often ask my students to assist me in determining the criteria.

We are beyond the basic grammatical rules. At this point I would like them to feel free to think and use the language.

[Roger]

jean Piaget influenced various new pedagogies in the early 1900s, including Maria Montessori. Get a copy of Paula Polka LILLARD's "Montessori a Modern Approach to Teaching"

[Stephen Jones]

What's the 'jug amd mug' method (Getting the students pissed at the beginning of the lesson so they lose their inhibitions?).
How come Piaget has had a revolutionary influence on EFL teaching in the late 80s when he has been taught in every education course since the early 50s?

[guest of Japan]

Stephen Jones rhetorically questioned: