How Educational Theories Contribute to an IEP Essay

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Individual Education Plan

In education it is important to understand the pedagogy and historical philosophical perspectives on educational theories to fully understand the educational plan in a comprehensive fashion. Understanding this element of an education plan can provide insights to education that can have practical consequences on implementation. This analysis will provide a background into three of such theories -- behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Furthermore, it will discuss how these theories may or may not be consistent with each of the thirteen disability categories under the IDEA and what challenges and obstacles may be present relative to these perspectives and an individual student's circumstances. It will further provide insights into how these theories may be relevant to different stakeholder involvement strategies in the individual education plan (IEP) for students. Finally, it will discuss how these learning theories can influence the style of instruction in the IEP.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a theory that began with the work and ideas of B.F. Skinner. BF Skinner looked at the psychology from an entirely different perspective than his predecessors when he was developing his theories. Behaviorism is a theory takes more of a scientific approach based on observable behavior without further speculation about the process occurring internally in the individual. Skinner believed anything that could not be observed was mere speculation and thus could not be tested with the scientific method. This approach was largely a response to theories about subconscious forces like Freud's id, ego and superego that constitute the inner psychological processes. The basic assumption that grounds this work is that behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or be extinguished (i.e. weakened) (McLeod, 2007).

Human beings are complex social creatures and many modern critics of this theory dismiss it as being too simplistic and mechanistic to accurately model the full range of the human experience. However, others find that the system is has value and counter such arguments on the basis of scientific grounds. As opposed to trying to fully explain personality in humans, Conceptually and empirically, behaviorism is a science of probability and a means of understanding how we can change the odds that a particular event will occur (or not occur) now and in the future. Indeed, powerful behavioral interventions with preschoolers fail to show a deterministic stimulus- response (S-R) relationship (Strain & McConnell, 1992). Yet numerous investigations have assessed the effects of a broad range of historical, socioeconomic, ecological, and behavioral variables on the behavior of individual children which give credibility to the approach. Given that this approach is heavily rooted in probabilities and not necessarily trying to identify a specific causality, the approach is consistent with any of the disability categories. In regards to stakeholder involvement, each stakeholder will have to coordinate their activities in order to strengthen the effects of the conditioning.

Cognitivism

Whereas behaviorism focus on the behavior, cognitivism focuses on the cognitive processes that occur internally. Cognitive theorists may want to understand how problem solving changes throughout childhood, how cultural differences affect the way we view our own academic achievements, language development, and much more (Feldman, 2015). Since the development stage of the child are fairly well-known at this point, this perspective provides many insights into the capabilities of a young brain as well as strategies to educate them. For example, the first of the operational stages is when the child begins to develop language and thinking skills and during this stage the child generally focuses on themselves and how the world relates to them. However, once the next stage begins, the child will begin to consider how the world relates to others and not focus so much on themselves.

By understanding the different stages of cognitive development, educators can design different strategies to teach children in ways that they will find interesting. Additionally, much of the focus will be on learning how to learn as opposed to acquiring actual knowledge. This perspective is important to stakeholders because they can select learning activities that are appropriate for different stages in cognitive development. Furthermore, the cognitive development stages do not occur on the same timeline for children with disabilities and can vary by the specific disability that the child has as well. For example, a child with autism or an intellectual disability will progress through the stages at a much slower pace and quite possibly may never reach the final or operational stage.

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Some theories of cognition in regard to autism state that individuals with autism fail to "impute mental states to themselves and others" and that this deficit manifests as inability to metalize, or failure to take into account others' mental states (Rajendran & Mitchell, 2007). Therefore, the individual education plan should focus on the specific challenges that child has regarding their internal cognitive states that are based on their specific disability to customize an effective educational plan for the child.

Constructivism

In the early development of the theory of constructivism, this theory was limited to work done by philosophers, epistemologists, and psychologists. However, in today's educational environment the constructivist approach has significantly increased in popularity and is quickly becoming more accepted in academia (Brooks & Brooks, 1999). This theory is based on the assumption that it is virtually impossible to control what students learn and learning can provide significantly different meanings for each student. Even when students learning the same concepts at the same time, the students will still "construct" their own meaning of the material based on their own internal cognitive processes.

Each student will have different motivations to learn and different topics that interest them. If a student finds a topic particularly interesting then they are likely to devote more energy into learning and even engage in self-directed learning. Therefore, in this perspective, education become more of a dynamic process that is based on interactions between student and teacher. The teacher must be open to identifying learning interests in order to tailor a curriculum that a child finds interesting and one that they can devote their energy towards. The students' individual interests will be based on their own experience and what they might find relevant to their lives outside of the classroom. Teachers can explore "big ideas" and let the children work on the related concepts that they find the most relevant to their lives.

A constructivist inquiry-based learning environment where students' prior knowledge and agency are recognized and encouraged and where knowledge is actively constructed in students' minds has been found to promote effective learning in many disciplines in education (Peoples, O'dwyer, Wang, Rosca, & Camelia, 2014). This process is dynamic and interactive and it can make preparing a curriculum more difficult as well as create challenges to the idea of standardizing education. Although there can be learning goals that are identified and implemented, the individual students path towards these goals can be completely unique. Of the three educational theories covered, this perspective requires the highest level of collaboration between stakeholders because of the strategies fluid nature. Educators, parents, administrators, and all other stakeholders must be in constant communication to effectively support the child's evolving learning interests.

Learning Theories and the IEP

Each learning theory has influenced education considerably as well as the style of instruction that teachers may use in the classroom. Each of the theories contains its own inherent set of strengths and weaknesses. For example, the behaviorist perspective is a pragmatic approach that can simplify the focus on a child's educational habits. By focusing on behavior, it is possible to influence the child's study habits through conditioning exercises. However, this theory offers little in the way of insights into the cognitive processes of the child. The cognitivist perspective offers more in the way of insights into what materials are appropriate for the child in their individual stage of cognitive development and their personal limitations that may or may not be a result of their specific disability. The constructivist approach is the most flexible in regards to responding to a child's specific learning interests, but can also be challenging in the sense that it can be difficult to plan lessons in advance or keep multiple students on the same learning trajectory. Yet, at the same time, each of this theories can be incorporated into an individual learning plan to ensure the student has the opportunity to be educated in regards to the benefits and insights that each of these theories offers......

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