My name is Sam Lopaze and I am an Educational Studies major with a Political Science track for my focus track at Arizona State University.  This will be my 4th college degree and I obviously love being a life-long learner. I am a stay-at-home father by day and make Ride-Share dreams come true by night, which has paid for 100% of my coursework at Arizona State University, including this course, "Educational Psychology for the Non-Teachers," which has quickly become on of my favorites.

My professional goal in the short and long term is to become a teacher when my children are oin school themselves. I look forward to working with any grade, in any school, but i ultimately aim to teach american government, political science, or business (my prior college degrees are in these subjects) at the secondary level or social studies at any level

Lesson 1: Introduction to Educational Psychology

In “The Routledge International Companion to Educational Psychology,” Hughes argues that learner-centered approach is a great practice in educational settings.  “Learner-centered education, good practice (arguably) around the globe in early childhood and primary school settings today, is deeply rooted in Piaget’s theory that people learn best about the world through exploration of it rather than being told (2014, Pg. 20).”  Because this method translates into any language and withstands cultural disparities, Piaget’s theory is applicable anywhere in the world, in any educational setting, and reinforces how important it is to gain knowledge about educational psychology from an international perspective.  The cultural and societal differences can be apparent in different parts of the world, but even in different parts of a state.

The ‘Who’s Who’ of Educational Psychology
For this portion of the assignment, I chose to take a closer look at Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget.  I chose these individuals from this list because of the 18 names chosen in chapter 1 of our class text, they were the two I have heard the most often; Montessori from the name of a few educational establishment in my area and Piaget from earlier course work in educational theory at Arizona State University.

Upon watching the class video on Maria Montessori I learned how instrumental she was in developing a teaching program that enabled mentally disabled students to read and write (Lifelong, 2011).  Aside from becoming the first woman in Italy to earn the degree of doctor of medicine in 1896, she used her passion and convictions to teach children with disabilities in different ways.  According to the video, she sought to teach skills like reading and writing through developing exercises and skills that would prepare them for success at an early age (Lifelong, 2011). 

“The Montessori method of teaching (as it became known) was a revolutionary method of education characterized by personalized teaching and individual learning, children’s self-directed activity, teachers matching children’s learning environments to developmental level, and the role of physical activity in forming concepts and gaining mastery in practical skills (Holliman, 2014, Pg. 21).”  These are strategies that I see used in pre-kindergarten remote learning with my daughter, truly wonderful and enabling activities for children of all abilities.

Jean Piaget, the Swiss developmental psychologist, was seen as arguably the most influential figure in educational psychology.  His theories of stages in cognitive development to educational contexts.  He used scientific methods of observation and experimentation, learned from his prior work with mollusks, to explore the differences in how children at different ages thought about a problem (Holliman, 2014, Pg. 20).  He started these observations with his own children at first, and developed the pendulum problem to test at what age children can engage in formal operations.  “Essentially, formal operations involve the development of an ability to think scientifically and apply the rigor of the scientific method to cognitive tasks. Piaget used this test to judge whether a child had progressed sufficiently to perform formal operations (Holliman, 2014, Pg. 20).”  This is a simple assessment that is still in use today to determine age-appropriate curriculum.