Education Commons^™

Acuta Enews December 1982, Vol. 11, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

CANADA BELL, BY OUTSMARTING GOVERNMENT, MAY SHARPLY REDUCE REGULATION OF ITSELF

POTPOURRI

FROM THE BOARD

BELLS REP LETS 'ANTELOPE' RUN FREE AT SEMINAR

PHONE CENTER TRIVIA

INSIDE ACUTA

Acuta Enews November 1982, Vol. 11, No. 11

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

INSIDE ACUTA

PARTY LINE

FROM THE BOARD

"MOUTH OF THE SOUTH"

POTPOURRI

Epilogue: The Man Who Made The World Safe For Epistemology

ADAPT Program: Essays

. . . I turned to Piaget. "Have you anything to say to the Nebraska populace?"

Piaget tipped his beret, toked briefly, and stepped to the waiting microphone. "My dear fellow-knowers: Let me just remind you once again that the pyramid of knowledge neither rests on its base of data nor hangs from its vertex of theory but rather floats in midair in an ever-expanding dynamic equilibrium."

The crowd roared, cheered, and burst into song: . . .

T-Shirt Ad: "All The Way With Piaget"

ADAPT Program: Essays

PIAGET T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE
White Shirt, Black line drawing, Red letters
50 % Polyester, 50 % Cotton

Theories Of Piaget, Who Died This Month, Inspire Growing Band Of U.S. Professors, Robert L. Jacobson

ADAPT Program: Essays

The death of Jean Piaget this month at the age of 84 came at a time when the Swiss psychologist's theories of cognitive development were inspiring a small but growing number of innovative instructional programs in American colleges and universities. Most were started within the past few years and have yet to produce much hard evidence of their effectiveness. But participating faculty members say they are excited about what has been happening in their classrooms.

"Piagetian-based instruction," they say, offers many potential advantages over traditional methods: It facilitates communication, improves students' reasoning ability and academic achievement, boosts their self-confidence and …

Chapter 17: Learning Cycles And Anthropology, Ellen Dubas

ADAPT Program: Essays

We can rarely send students to live in cultures we want them to learn about. Yet all of them are proficient in living in their own culture. Since I am asking them to do fieldwork in a culture that they are extremely well acquainted with, they are able to assume a level of competence and confidence that gives them great interest in the cultural system they are manipulating.

A learning cycle in anthropology consists of three stages: exploration, invention and application. One exploration phase of a learning cycle is cultural anthropology consists of, firstly, asking students to put their last …

Chapter 18: Adapt: A View From A Distant Campus, John A. Ricketts

ADAPT Program: Essays

My association with the ADAPT faculty brought home the idea that in order to be effective in the classroom, the instructor must ascertain the cognitive level of the students. Teaching formal concepts to concrete operational students is useless; hence, diagnosis of student weaknesses is imperative if the student is to progress up the cognitive ladder.

I want to thank those in the ADAPT program for altering my view on the teaching-learning experience. Without their philosophy and their concern, I would still be teaching formal concepts to concrete students and wondering why they couldn't grasp these concepts. Now I am aware …

Chapter 8: Content Versus Reasoning: A Physics Instructor's Struggle, Robert Fuller

ADAPT Program: Essays

In concluding this chapter, I want to try to generalize on my experience with the physics component of ADAPT and try to express my impressions about what has happened in the other ADAPT disciplines during this project. I would like to believe that professors who think formally about their discipline are able to sit down in a quiet place and carefully analyze the structure of their discipline into a sequence of topics that increase montonically in terms of the level of reasoning required of the students. However, I think our experiences in teaching the ADAPT program indicate otherwise. We can …

Chapter 9: Development And Learning: Complementary Or Conflicting Aims In Humanities Education?, Robert D. Narveson

ADAPT Program: Essays

It will be clear from these sketchy examples that working out some of the implications of Piagetian theory for an educational program such as ours offers us a continuing challenge. The theory perhaps does more to console us for some of our failures as teachers than to tell us how our failures may be overcome, for if the fault is in the developmental level that our students have attained, then the fault is not in us. Our teaching, Piaget tells us, can play a role in fostering development, but only a fairly limited role. On the other hand if we …

Chapter 10: Piaget And Teaching Composition, Robert F. Bergstrom

ADAPT Program: Essays

As someone who teaches composition regularly and who is always aware of and interested in his students' writing, I have come to think that the most serious problem students have with their writing is a general inability to structure their thoughts with logical clarity and rhetorical skill. Not commas or parallel structure or sentence fragments. Organization. I have written notes to students by the hundreds about this problem, and sometimes the papers come back to me with a much clearer organizational pattern. All too often, however, they are returned lovingly with the commas in the right places, a one-sentence opening …

Chapter 11: Poetry, Prose And Piaget, James A. Mcshane

ADAPT Program: Essays

As a second generation ADAPT staff member, the first to add an essay to this series, it properly falls to me to extend the reflections of my colleagues.

Before doing so, let me outline my relationship to the ADAPT Program. Piagetian theory attracted me for several reasons; most of them are alluded to elsewhere in this book. I had first become aware of Piaget's work about ten years ago when participating in a teacher training project, but had not worked out its implications for college teaching very fully. So I was curious when I heard of the ADAPT Program and …

Chapter 12: Piaget And Social Problems, H. Jay Corzine

ADAPT Program: Essays

Although the attention given to problems of teaching sociology greatly increased during the 1970's, the implications of Piaget's ideas for college level instruction remained unexplored by most sociologists. In 1978, only one of twenty-five articles published in Teaching Sociology, the discipline's only journal devoted to teaching-related issues, contained references to Piaget's work. Thus, the social problems course offered through the ADAPT program during the 1980 spring semester represents one of the few attempts to apply Piaget to teaching sociology in a university classroom.

Recent developments in social problems theory (Spector and Kitsuse, 1977) are complementary to the constructivist epistemology underlying …

Chapter 13: Adapt: The First Five Years, David Moshman, Susan Johnston, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Vernon Williams, Debra Eisert

ADAPT Program: Essays

The ADAPT program has, throughout its brief history, been subjected to continuing evaluation, both to assess its effectiveness in meeting its objectives and to get the sort of ongoing feedback necessary for the program itself to continue developing. These evaluations have ranged from formal, objective comparisons, on a variety of measures, of ADAPT students with one or more groups of control students not involved in the program to more informal and subjective observations of classroom activities, analysis of written assignments, and interviews with students. Detailed reports of these evaluations are available elsewhere, e.g. (Johnson & Moshman, 1980, Sheldon, 1978; Tomlinson-Keasey, …

Chapter 14: Personal-Emotional Development In Adapt, Vernon Williams

ADAPT Program: Essays

From its inception theorists in the student development field have written about developing the whole student. As time passed, we became increasingly aware of the vastness of our ignorance regarding how to enhance that development. Beginning in the early sixties, this knowledge gap began to be filled. Theorists such as Keniston (1965), Astin (1969), Sanford (1966), Chickering (1969), Roy Heath (1958), and Douglas Heath (1968) contributed to this knowledge. Recently Perry (1970) has had a large influence on student development theory. Loevinger (1976) has produced a new work extending her theory significantly. That addition enhances the value of her theory …

Chapter 15: Adapt Faculty: Who Are They?, Robert Fuller

ADAPT Program: Essays

You have had a chance to read about the ADAPT program. The presentations in this book are as varied as the styles of the people who participated in the ADAPT project. Amidst all of this variety of information, you may be wondering just what the essential features of the ADAPT program really are. Is it essential to have six different disciplines in the program? Does it make any difference which six disciplines you choose? Do evaluating psychologists play a key role in such a project? There are, I believe, two necessary conditions for starting an ADAPT-type program: a first-rate, tenured …

Chapter 16: The Adapt Workshop And Its Legends, Robert Fuller

ADAPT Program: Essays

Almost from its beginning, the ADAPT project had faculty development workshops as one of its products. Early in the ADAPT project the staff agreed that ADAPT was not a set of curricular materials to be developed and marketed. Rather the ADAPT faculty saw the insights gained from Piaget’s work as a different way of understanding college teaching. This understanding may manifest itself in active learning classroom exercises based on the Learning Cycle. Perhaps, more importantly, the constructivism of Piaget transforms the mission of the college teacher and it provides clues to proper teaching behaviors. The best way to share the …

Chapter 3: Active Learning Based Upon The Work Of Piaget, Robert Fuller

ADAPT Program: Essays

A Piagetian-based classroom instruction strategy to assist students in the development of logical thought was developed by Robert Karplus. It was called the Learning Cycle. The Learning Cycle has been modified for college instruction by the ADAPT faculty. An ADAPT Learning Cycle is divided into three major phases known as Exploration, Invention, and Application.

Chapter 4: A Teacher's Guide To The Learning Cycle, Thomas C. Campbell, Robert Fuller

ADAPT Program: Essays

Suppose you are preparing to teach a new college course this year. Assume that this course is designed to serve students who have career goals other than to become college professors. We would like you to consider what teaching strategies you will use to teach such students.

Chapter 5: The Details Of The Adapt Program For College Freshmen

ADAPT Program: Essays

The following paragraphs were taken from the brochure mailed to all prospective University of Nebraska-Lincoln freshmen. Forty students who expressed an interest in the ADAPT courses from the brochure were selected for the program. No attempt was made to select students on the basis of their previous school work or test scores.

Chapter 6: Piaget And Learning Economics, Jerry L. Petr

ADAPT Program: Essays

There are times when teachers of economics encounter unexpected responses to economics questions asked of students. Some of the unexpected responses which I have received are reproduced below and are worth rather careful consideration.

Chapter 7: Piaget And Mathematics Students, Melvin C. Thornton

ADAPT Program: Essays

Usually in the beginning courses I teach there are several students who never seem to understand what is really going on. These students are neither lazy nor dumb. Some even work very hard in math and do quite well in their other courses. Yet there seems to be something about their work in mathematics which produces frustration instead of understanding. I recall experiencing that kind of "learning" in high school geometry. I and many of my friends got fairly good grades in that course by memorizing without much understanding. As a high school sophomore I was just not ready for …

Piagetian Programs In Higher Education: Prologue, Robert Fuller

ADAPT Program: Essays

How can my college teaching be made more effective? A few years ago, several of us at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were struggling with that question. During that time the work of Piaget and the studies of the reasoning skills of American college students were brought to our attention. From those results the ADAPT program was developed.

Chapter 1: Piaget’S Theory And College Teaching, David Moshman

ADAPT Program: Essays

We will begin this chapter with a discussion of Piaget's account of general intellectual functioning at all levels of development: the nature of schemes, and the processes of assimilation and accommodation. This will lead us to his equally general (non-stage-specific) conception of how new knowledge is constructed: the processes of learning, development, and equilibration. At this point we will be ready to consider the stages of development that result from the equilibration process, with an emphasis on the state of formal operational reasoning. Finally, we will attempt to better understand the scope and limitations of Piaget's psychological work by comparing …

Chapter 2: Piagetian Interviews Of College Students, Elizabeth T. Carpenter

ADAPT Program: Essays

Since the fall of 1978, my colleague, Dr. Robert G. Fuller, and I have been involved in a project to document on videotape the variety of ways in which students approach problems. We chose problems that adequate solutions of which call for the use of certain sorts of reasoning strategies. Our materials were selected to afford rich ground for investigation by subjects of a range of operational abilities. We began by doing Piagetian clinical interviews of elementary school children and then of college students. We hope, eventually, to do similar interviews of junior high and senior high school students, too, …

Piaget And Poetry: Formal Thinking In The Humanities, James A. Mcshane

ADAPT Program: Essays

My argument in its broadest outline is not surprising: sophisticated poetry requires formal operations. Poems are, after all, statements of a propositional nature, verbal constructs of carefully integrated parts, often non-linear in their arrangements, analogical (analogy itself requiring proportional reasoning) in their presentation, and (as Aristotle noted) dependent for their intelligibility on the reader's judgment of the contextually probable. What interests me is the number of ways the Piagetian analysis of pre-formal thought illuminates those often disturbing readings, to our eyes unfathomable readings, which we are given by our less proficient students. I am further interested in what Piaget has …

Farm, Ranch And Home Quarterly Institute Of Agriculture And Natural Resources, University Of Nebraska- Lincoln

Farm, Ranch and Home Quarterly

In this issue:

An Investment Returned ....................... 2

The Northeast Station- 25 years of Research, Extension and Service......... 3

Opportunities and Obstacles- Women Choose Agricultural Careers.............. 11

The Animal Welfare Movement- Where did it come from and where is it going?.............. 14

Center Pivot Irrigation- Runoff Analyzed on Sloping, Clayey Soil .................. 16

Nitrogen Management- Soils Change in Nutrient Content......................... 18

New Directions in Research ................................ 20

Test 1444: Yanmar Ym336d And Ym336 Diesel 12-Speed, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURE General Tractors are tested at the University of Nebraska according to the Agricultural Tractor Test Code approved by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers or official Nebraska test procedure. The manufacturer selects the tractor to be tested and certifies that it is a stock model. Each tractor is equipped with the common power consuming accessories such as power steering, power lift pump, generator, etc., if available. Power consuming accessories may be disconnected only when the means for disconnecting can be reached from the operating station. An official representative of …

Test 1443: Yanmar Ym276d And Ym276 Diesel 12-Speed, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURE General Tractors are tested at the University of Nebraska according to the Agricultural Tractor Test Code approved by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers or official Nebraska test procedure. The manufacturer selects the tractor to be tested and certifies that it is a stock model. Each tractor is equipped with the common power consuming accessories such as power steering, power lift pump, generator, etc., if available. Power consuming accessories may be disconnected only when the means for disconnecting can be reached from the operating station. An official representative of …

Test 1442: Yanmar Ym226d And Ym226 Diesel 9-Speed, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURE General Tractors are tested at the University of Nebraska according to the Agricultural Tractor Test Code approved by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers or official Nebraska test procedure. The manufacturer selects the tractor to be tested and certifies that it is a stock model. Each tractor is equipped with the common power consuming accessories such as power steering, power lift pump, generator, etc., if available. Power consuming accessories may be disconnected only when the means for disconnecting can be reached from the operating station. An official representative of …

Test 1439: International 3488 Hydro Diesel Hydrostatic, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURE General Tractors are tested at the University of Nebraska according to the Agricultural Tractor Test Code approved by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers or official Nebraska test procedure. The manufacturer selects the tractor to be tested and certifies that it is a stock model. Each tractor is equipped with the common power consuming accessories such as power steering, power lift pump, generator, etc., if available. Power consuming accessories may be disconnected only when the means for disconnecting can be reached from the operating station. An official representative of …