Activity 3.5

Discussant Role:

The strengths of B.F. Skinner’s perspective are that the students’ interactive behavior demonstrates that they understand the content. However, observing behavior alone can be deceiving as the group work allows struggling or shy students to get lost or left behind during the group activities. The strengths of Lev Vygotsky’s perspective are that the lesson permits scaffolding and assisted learning. However, the adult-student interactions are limited and although misconceptions are discussed at a group level, they are not addressed on an individual level with struggling learners. The strengths of William James perspective are that the students have received an impression and are reacting and expressing that they’ve learned the material.  However, this same strength is a weakness as not all students have the opportunity to be individually formally assessed. This leaves the instructor without a clear understanding of the students that have mastered the mathematical concepts and the students that are struggling. The strengths of Piaget’s perspective are that the students enter disequilibrium in order to solve the equation and that students assimilate and accommodate information in order to achieve equilibrium. The weakness of Piaget’s perspective are that the lesson requires students to have schema about the content. In addition, the teacher assumes that all students are equally familiar with terms, content and strategies necessary to solve the equation.

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