Scenarios Case

Scenario 3.2

-What do theories of cognitive development tell you about how Sara may understand death?

Sara is Piaget’s Preoperational stage of development. In this stage children begin to use representations to think about the world. Their thinking is influenced by perception. During this stage, children thoughts are irreversible, and appearance is everything to them. Sara may understand death as something that happened just to her to hurt her. Since she is too young to understand, and her thoughts about death are influenced by her own perceptions.

-How is the concept of a “community of learners” relevant to supporting Sara?

Since community of learners is relationships built towards the same goals to accomplish things together the same method is relevant to supporting Sara. When all participants such as teachers, students, and parents are involved it can create a better outcome for supporting Sara.

-You decide to write your ideas about breaking the news to Sara’s classmates and show them to a senior colleague. What will you write and how will you justify it to your colleague?

I would write that one of my students father has passed away, and I am going to inform the rest of the classroom about how Sara won’t be back in school until next week. Then, I will have the students create artwork for Sara. I would justify it to my colleague by being straightforward and informing on everything that I know.

Scenario 3.5

-Tim has a lot of questions about his teaching strategies. What could he do as a first step in answering them?

He can write down his thoughts and ideas in a brainstorming web.

-Does accommodating different ways of learning in the classroom necessarily lead to watering down the