Hey guys I hope that I am answering this right! I am a Sociology major and so the majority of the courses that I have studied are within the field with a focus in racial and socioeconomic disparities. Prior to taking an economic course I only had a basic understanding of economic ideologies and concepts. Furthermore, I have always associated US economics with capitalism. Therefore, I have was intimidated with the idea of learning economics. Nevertheless, while/after taking the economics course I was able to use assimilation to understand how closely the two fields of study actually are to each other. I was able to fit the new concepts of economics into the existing schema that I already had with sociology. I don't believe that I used a lot of accommodation only because my existing schema were not really altered and new schema were not really created either. After taking the economics course I got a better understanding about social issues such as socioeconomic disparities especially affected by race because I learned the other side of the spectrum's point of view. Economists point of view that disparities can be rationalized reinforces my believes and conceptions with sociology.
I guess the only question I'd have to ask is how or what tools did you use to fit a concept as broad as economics into your original scheme of understanding race and socioeconomic disparity? Was there one thing in particular that helped you better understand those two terms? And if so, in what way did you gain a better understanding? As in, reinforcing or not supporting the definitions of the terms?
It sounds like assimilation really helped you understand the connection between racial and socioeconomic disparities. Do you think accommodation could have been useful at all, or do you think that it works better in different situations?
I agree with you in the idea that assimilation was at play in your study of economics. The "basic understanding of economic ideoligies and conepts" already existed in your scheme from your previous knowledge and experience with the subject matter. As you studied the topic, you fit this new information into that scheme rather than created a new one..... as I type this though, I think it would be interesting to know what your basic knowledge of economics was. Did you have a decent grasp on the subject matter? Did you only understand small bits? Was the information that existed in your scheme prove to be completely wrong, where by in that case a new scheme would have been created or altered through accommodation. Interesting. And either way economics is not fun. Thanks for sharing.
I took a class in high school about how to set up curriculum for students in elementary school. I knew that setting up curriculum would be different for the majority of grade levels, but I was surprised to find that there were similar methods that were taught as soon as I got to my college level courses for the education major, or I should say values maybe that were taught...that I learned to reconstruct in my previous schema of knowledge about elementary school students. Creating hands-on approaches for students to learn through different learning styles was a new technique that I had to accommodate to my previous knowledge of classroom methods of instruction, to be able to develop a stronger practice of materials-based teaching. I would say however, that I tried to assimilate what I learned to keep my original structure of understanding, while creating a deeper understanding of learning how to start slow, and begin from the basics of the subject being taught.
Hello Dawn. I could really only think of one question to ask you. Do you think that you used more accommodation than assimilation when it came to learning new teaching techniques? If so,why?
Hi Dawn, Thanks for the insight! It's interesting to know that similar approaches towards planning can be applied at such different grade levels. Would you say that accommodation or assimilation was more valuable to you in the process? Or were they about the same?
Two year ago I had the opportunity to study abroad in Nantes. I lived in France for a quarter, sharing dorms and attending classes with French and other international students. On a cultural level, the entire experience was very educational. I used assimilation and accommodation as I experienced the culture first hand and gained a new perspective on the reality of living in a French-speaking country. My schema were altered as I gained and incorporated new knowledge about how their culture worked. Experiencing it on my own was quite different from hearing about it in a classroom setting!
Hi Rachel, Did connecting with the French culture, and using both accommodation and assimilation to further broaden your scope of understanding make you more conscious of differences or similarities through your own cultural ties as well? Or did you just have a greater knowledge added on to what you thought you already knew about French culture? Or maybe it was a mixture of both?
Hello Rachel! which do you think happened more assimilation or accommodation? Which do you think was more useful in your ability to learn more about French culture and French as a language?
Hi there Rachel. I love French food, bummer is though that I recently have become sensitive to dairy which is pretty much the base of all French food. Okay just kidding, for real I think your experience in France, in my opinion, is a great example of accommodation. You had up to the point of travelling over to France created your own scheme, and upon arriving in a new situation that was very different from what you knew, you had to adjust your way of thinking to fit the new information rather than being able to adjust the information to fit your way of thinking. The similarities that you experienced might be assimilation because you used the existing scheme to make sense of these similarities by fitting them into the knowledge that you already knew. Great example.
When reading this question, the first most obvious example for assimilation for me came to mind. It involves learning new families, genes, and species in my major. While going through the major/program, there are general items that I learn surrounding the environment, such as basic schools of thought and practice, or also function, structure, and composition. In this subject matter we learn large, broad ideas about how the environment works, or how different ecosystems interact with each other. As the classes progress, either throughout the quarter or even from quarter to quarter the information becomes more specific, such as learning specific families of plants and trees, to the genes, to the species. Once we start learning those, we get even more specific with the characteristics of each of them and how they each react to different ecosystems and adapt to changes. This addition of more and more specific knowledge is added to the overall general schema that allows for better understanding of the broader sense. While also thinking about this, I think I came up with an idea for a change in my schema though accommodation. The experience I thought of was on a spiritual level. I was brought up in a heavily influenced Catholic family. I was taught from a very early age about certain ideas of the faith that I was expected to follow and study. As I grew, I began to learn smaller more detailed ideas about the faith and added those to my schema. Also, as I met more and more individuals that were practicing the faith, I began to change my own schema about the faith to accommodate the new information acquired. This is also true as I learned more information about other ideas of faith and had other experiences/interactions with other people of different faiths. I began to change due to these experiences through accommodation.
Hey guys I hope that I am answering this right! I am a Sociology major and so the majority of the courses that I have studied are within the field with a focus in racial and socioeconomic disparities. Prior to taking an economic course I only had a basic understanding of economic ideologies and concepts. Furthermore, I have always associated US economics with capitalism. Therefore, I have was intimidated with the idea of learning economics. Nevertheless, while/after taking the economics course I was able to use assimilation to understand how closely the two fields of study actually are to each other. I was able to fit the new concepts of economics into the existing schema that I already had with sociology. I don't believe that I used a lot of accommodation only because my existing schema were not really altered and new schema were not really created either. After taking the economics course I got a better understanding about social issues such as socioeconomic disparities especially affected by race because I learned the other side of the spectrum's point of view. Economists point of view that disparities can be rationalized reinforces my believes and conceptions with sociology.
ReplyDeleteHi Marlene,
DeleteI guess the only question I'd have to ask is how or what tools did you use to fit a concept as broad as economics into your original scheme of understanding race and socioeconomic disparity? Was there one thing in particular that helped you better understand those two terms? And if so, in what way did you gain a better understanding? As in, reinforcing or not supporting the definitions of the terms?
Hi Marlene,
DeleteIt sounds like assimilation really helped you understand the connection between racial and socioeconomic disparities. Do you think accommodation could have been useful at all, or do you think that it works better in different situations?
I agree with you in the idea that assimilation was at play in your study of economics. The "basic understanding of economic ideoligies and conepts" already existed in your scheme from your previous knowledge and experience with the subject matter. As you studied the topic, you fit this new information into that scheme rather than created a new one..... as I type this though, I think it would be interesting to know what your basic knowledge of economics was. Did you have a decent grasp on the subject matter? Did you only understand small bits? Was the information that existed in your scheme prove to be completely wrong, where by in that case a new scheme would have been created or altered through accommodation. Interesting. And either way economics is not fun. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteI took a class in high school about how to set up curriculum for students in elementary school. I knew that setting up curriculum would be different for the majority of grade levels, but I was surprised to find that there were similar methods that were taught as soon as I got to my college level courses for the education major, or I should say values maybe that were taught...that I learned to reconstruct in my previous schema of knowledge about elementary school students. Creating hands-on approaches for students to learn through different learning styles was a new technique that I had to accommodate to my previous knowledge of classroom methods of instruction, to be able to develop a stronger practice of materials-based teaching. I would say however, that I tried to assimilate what I learned to keep my original structure of understanding, while creating a deeper understanding of learning how to start slow, and begin from the basics of the subject being taught.
ReplyDeleteHello Dawn. I could really only think of one question to ask you. Do you think that you used more accommodation than assimilation when it came to learning new teaching techniques? If so,why?
DeleteHi Dawn,
DeleteThanks for the insight! It's interesting to know that similar approaches towards planning can be applied at such different grade levels. Would you say that accommodation or assimilation was more valuable to you in the process? Or were they about the same?
Two year ago I had the opportunity to study abroad in Nantes. I lived in France for a quarter, sharing dorms and attending classes with French and other international students. On a cultural level, the entire experience was very educational. I used assimilation and accommodation as I experienced the culture first hand and gained a new perspective on the reality of living in a French-speaking country. My schema were altered as I gained and incorporated new knowledge about how their culture worked. Experiencing it on my own was quite different from hearing about it in a classroom setting!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel,
DeleteDid connecting with the French culture, and using both accommodation and assimilation to further broaden your scope of understanding make you more conscious of differences or similarities through your own cultural ties as well? Or did you just have a greater knowledge added on to what you thought you already knew about French culture? Or maybe it was a mixture of both?
Hello Rachel! which do you think happened more assimilation or accommodation? Which do you think was more useful in your ability to learn more about French culture and French as a language?
DeleteHi there Rachel. I love French food, bummer is though that I recently have become sensitive to dairy which is pretty much the base of all French food. Okay just kidding, for real I think your experience in France, in my opinion, is a great example of accommodation. You had up to the point of travelling over to France created your own scheme, and upon arriving in a new situation that was very different from what you knew, you had to adjust your way of thinking to fit the new information rather than being able to adjust the information to fit your way of thinking. The similarities that you experienced might be assimilation because you used the existing scheme to make sense of these similarities by fitting them into the knowledge that you already knew. Great example.
DeleteWhen reading this question, the first most obvious example for assimilation for me came to mind. It involves learning new families, genes, and species in my major. While going through the major/program, there are general items that I learn surrounding the environment, such as basic schools of thought and practice, or also function, structure, and composition. In this subject matter we learn large, broad ideas about how the environment works, or how different ecosystems interact with each other. As the classes progress, either throughout the quarter or even from quarter to quarter the information becomes more specific, such as learning specific families of plants and trees, to the genes, to the species. Once we start learning those, we get even more specific with the characteristics of each of them and how they each react to different ecosystems and adapt to changes. This addition of more and more specific knowledge is added to the overall general schema that allows for better understanding of the broader sense.
ReplyDeleteWhile also thinking about this, I think I came up with an idea for a change in my schema though accommodation. The experience I thought of was on a spiritual level. I was brought up in a heavily influenced Catholic family. I was taught from a very early age about certain ideas of the faith that I was expected to follow and study. As I grew, I began to learn smaller more detailed ideas about the faith and added those to my schema. Also, as I met more and more individuals that were practicing the faith, I began to change my own schema about the faith to accommodate the new information acquired. This is also true as I learned more information about other ideas of faith and had other experiences/interactions with other people of different faiths. I began to change due to these experiences through accommodation.