Ch. 2 Case Study - Elementary
Instructions: Read the case study, then answer the questions that follow on your blog. Your responses should demonstrate critical thinking and thorough understanding of the subject matter, using proper terminology.
Case:
As the final school bell rings, most of the students in Ms. Bowman's first-grade class gather their belongings and hurry out the door. But Amy convinces her friend Lucy to linger for a few minutes while she checks on Ringo, the class's pet goldfish. As this week's "animal keeper" for the class, Amy has noticed that Ringo hasn't eaten any of his food for the past 2 days. In fact, all he does now is lie sideways on the surface of the water; he doesn't try to swim away when she touches him. With her friend looking over her shoulder, Amy tries to give the fish a slight push toward a few flakes of food.
"He must be sleeping," she says. "Usually all I have to do is swish the water around to make him swim. He's acting really weird. Maybe he's forgotten how to eat and swim."
Lucy inspects the fish and then looks back at her friend and says, "I don't know, May. He's been sleeping an awful long time. He's not eating either. I'll get Ms. Bowman, and maybe she can fix him."
Lucy hurries over to her teacher and grabs her by the hand. "Something's wrong," Amy declares as Lucy and Ms. Bowman approach the fish bowl. "He's not moving. He hasn't eaten for a long time."
When Ms. Bowman looks in the bowl, she realizes that Ringo has died. She delicately explains the situation and then wraps the fish in a paper towel. She assures the girls that she will give Ringo a proper burial as soon as she gets home.
Amy looks puzzled. "But...but...when my grandpa died last summer, he went away to heaven and didn't come back. Ringo's still here. If he's dead, he should be going to heaven."
"Do you want Ringo to go to heaven?" Amy nods, and Ms. Bowman smiles. "Well, then, I bet he'll go there just as soon as he possibly can."
As the two girls walk home, Lucy poses a question: "Do you have to eat in heaven?"
"I don't know," Amy responds. "I suppose so, or else you'd be hungry all the time."
"Oh, that makes sense." Lucy pauses for a moment and then asks, "Well, do you have to go potty in heaven?"
Amy rolls her eyes, indignantly puts her hands on her hips, and replies, "Of course not, silly! You know our mommies and Ms. Bowman make us go potty before we go anywhere!"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot," laughs Lucy.
Questions:
1. Describe an episode in the case study that demonstrates disequilibrium. Justify your response. an episode in the case study that demonstrates disequilibrium is when Amy is wondering if her grandpa went to heaven when he died, then how come Ringo is not in heaven. This is because she is puzzled that she can still see Ringo even though he is dead and when her Grandpa died she could not see him.
Describe an episode that demonstrates assimilation. Justify your response. An episode of assimilation is when Amy says that you will not have to go potty in heaven because they are always told to go potty before they go anywhere. This is because she is dealing with a situation in a way that she understands. Everybody uses the potty before they go somewhere.
2. Identify a possible instance of preoperational egocentrism in the case. Justify your response.
When Lucy asks Amy if you eat in heaven and Amy responds that of course or you would be hungry. This gives an example of the act of speaking without taking into account the listeners knowledge.
3. How might a Vygotskian theorist suggest Ms. Bowman address the death of the class pet?
A Vygotskian theorist would suggest that Ms. Bowman use guided participation to address the death of Ringo. This would require steps to help the students understand the process of death. Involving the practice of mediation, scaffolding, and supervision for a child to get a better understanding of why things have to die.
4. How might taking care of pets in the classroom promote students' cognitive development? When you have to care for a pet it gives you responsibilities and understandings of what something needs to exist and live a good life, helping increase a persons knowledge, thinking, and reasoning processes. Knowledge of caring for something, thinking about how to care and what needs to be done, and the reasoning of why certain things need to be done.
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