301 final exam

Question 1

Define metacognition

Answer 1

• The process in which you think about your own cognition
• “Thinking about thinking” and reflecting on your cognitive process
• Includes: monitoring, reflecting, evaluating, and planning

Question 2

Metacognition is the process of which of the following knowledge and skills? Examples?

Answer 2

o Knowing what one’s own learning and memory capabilities are and what learning tasks one can realistically accomplish
o Knowing which learning strategies are effective and which are not
o Planning a viable approach to a new learning task
o Tailoring learning strategies to the circumstances
o Monitoring one’s present knowledge state
o Knowing effective strategies for retrieval of previously stored information

Question 3

What is difference between cognitive (study) strategies for learning and metacognitive strategies?

Answer 3

• Metacognitive: higher level—being the executive
• Cognitive: the actual process of reading
• Metacognitive follows cognitive

Question 4

What are the differences between “good” readers and “poor” readers?

Answer 4

• Good readers understand and effectively remember what they read
  o Elaborate on what they just read; clarify their purpose for reading that passage; draw of prior knowledge; etc.
• Poor readers have trouble learning and remembering what they read
  o Little focus and sense of purpose as they read a passage; little metacognitive awareness of what they should be doing while reading

Question 5

Provide examples of person knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge

Answer 5

• Person knowledge: visual vs. auditory learner
  o Understanding own capabilities (strengths, weaknesses, accommodations, etc)
  o i.e. I know that I
• Task knowledge: read and comprehend biology text vs. novel
  o How we perceive the learning task; ability to perceive and analyze the task
  o Knowing difficulty, length, type of assignment, relevance, content, etc.
  o i.e. I have difficulty with word problems
• Strategy knowledge:
  o Awareness of strategies that we can use to improve our learning as well as when and why to apply them
  o Using strategies, not just knowing them
  o i.e. so I will answer the computational problems first and save word problems for after

Question 6

Define self-regulation

Answer 6

• Controlling your own actions, motivations, and thoughts

Question 7

List ways in which students use self-regulated learning or what do self-regulated learners do? Those who use self-regulated learning reap the benefits of what in school?

Answer 7

-	What do self-regulated learners do?
o	Set goals
o	Plan an approach
o	Control their attention and effort
o	Use effective strategies 
o	Monitor their progress
o	Self-evaluate and self-reflect
-	When students are self-regulating learners, they set higher academic goals for themselves, learn more effectively, and achieve at higher levels

Question 8

Define the four different types of metacognitive knowledge.

Answer 8

o Declarative: “that” a particular strategy exists
o Procedural: “how” to enact a particular strategy
o Conceptual: “why” to enact a particular strategy
o Episodic: “when and where” to enact a particular strategy

Question 9

List and describe effective study strategies that you would recommend to a student who has trouble learning and remembering class material

Answer 9

• Meaningful learning and elaboration
  o Meaningful learning: process of relating new material to knowledge already stored in long term memory
  o Elaboration: process of using prior knowledge to interpret and expand on the material
• Organization
  o Internal organization: finding connections and interrelationships within a body of new information
• Note taking
  o Keeps students’ attention, facilitates encoding of the material, and serve as a form of concrete external storage for information presented in class
• Identify important information
  o Must separate main ideas from details
• Comprehension monitoring
  o Def: steps to remediate any comprehension difficulties they have
  o i.e. asking questions or rereading passage
• Mnemonics
  o Memory tricks to facilitate learning and memory of many forms of hard-to-remember information

Question 10

+ Define epistemic beliefs. Explain different kinds of epistemic beliefs. Which beliefs are harmful to students? Which ones are beneficial?

Answer 10

• Our ideas about what ‘knowledge’ and ‘learning’ are
• Different kinds:
  o Certainty of knowledge
  o Simplicity and structure of knowledge
  o Source of knowledge
  o Criteria for determining truth
  o Speed of learning
  o Nature of learning ability

Question 11

List different types of transfer

Answer 11

Positive vs. negative
Near vs. far
Vertical vs. lateral
Specific vs. general
Low road vs. high road
Forward reaching vs. backward reaching

Question 12

Describe positive vs. negative transfer; examples?

Answer 12

Positive:
• Something that we’ve learned before makes it EASIER for us to learn something new
o i.e. driving in another country; using someone else’s phone

Negative:
• Something that we’ve learned before makes it HARDER for us to learn something new
o i.e. way learn to study for tests for different professors; xbox vs. play station; downhill skiing vs. water skiing; reading vs. mathematics

Question 13

Describe near vs. far transfer; examples?

Answer 13

Near: similar in both underlying relationships and their surface features
• i.e. transfer of using different sizes of knife and fork; using different buses

Far: similar in underlying relationships but different in their surface features
• i.e. drinking hot coffee from mug vs. drinking hot coffee from thermos; transfer from using knife and fork vs. using chopsticks

Question 14

Define vertical vs. lateral transfer; examples?

Answer 14

Vertical: a learner acquires new knowledge or skills by building on more basic information and procedures
• i.e. should master addition before moving onto multiplication

Lateral: when knowledge of first topic is helpful but not essential to learning the second one
• i.e. knowing French isn’t essential for learning Spanish, but can help b/c very similar languages/words

Question 15

Define specific vs. general transfer; examples?

Answer 15

Specific: What we learned before overlaps with what we’re learning now
**more common

General: Learning in one situation affects learning and performance in somewhat dissimilar situation; the original task and learning task are different in both content and structure
• Tasks are different in content, but skills may be similar
• i.e. if knowledge of Latin helps student learn physics

Question 16

Define low road vs. high road; examples?

Answer 16

Low road: Transfer of well-established skills in spontaneous and possibly automatic fashion
• Primarily automatized procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge

High road: Transfer involving abstraction through an explicit conscious formulation of connections between situations
• Declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge, and complex production systems

Question 17

Define forward reaching vs. backward reaching transfer; examples?

Answer 17

• Forward reaching: you intend the transfer at the time you are learning what ever you are learning
• Backward reaching: you realize the applicability of what you learned in the past only after it becomes relevant

Question 18

Understand the factors that affect transfer

Answer 18

• Meaningful learning promotes better transfer than rote learning
• The more thoroughly something is learned, the more likely it is to be transferred to a new situation
• The more similar two situations are, the more likely it is that something learned in one situation will be applied to the other situation
• Principles are more easily transferred that discrete facts
• Numerous and varied examples and opportunities for practice increase the extent to which information and skills will be applied in new situations
• The probability of transfer decreases as the time interval between the original task and the transfer task increases
• Transfer increases when the cultural environment encourages and expects transfer

Question 19

Define problem solving

Answer 19

Using knowledge and skills we’ve previously learned—that is, transferring them—to address an unanswered question or troubling situation

Question 20

Differences between well-defined problem and ill-defined problem

Answer 20

• Well-defined problem: desired end result is clearly stated, all needed information is readily available, and particular sequence of operations will lead to correct solution
o i.e. fixing a computer problem; diagnosing a patent

• Ill-defined problem: goal is ambiguous, some essential information is lacking, and there’s no guaranteed means of achieving the goal
o i.e. win an election; design a better car

Question 21

List examples of problem-solving strategies

Answer 21

Trial and error
Insight
Heuristics
(Algorithms)

Question 22

Describe trial and error; examples?

Answer 22

• Remember Thorndike and the puzzle boxes?
• Trial and error is something we use
• Not effective and not reliable
• Can even have negative effects
• **Should not be your go-to problem solving strategy

Question 23

Describe insight; examples?

Answer 23

• Definition: a sudden awareness of a likely solution; “Ah-ha” moments
• Research indicates 4 steps:
• Preparation: time to learn and gather information
• Incubation: time to think
• Inspiration: Eureka!
• Verification: time to test

Question 24

Describe heuristics; examples?

Answer 24

• Mental shortcuts
• General methods for solving problems that use principles (rules of thumb) that usually lead to a solution
• Informal, intuitive, speculative strategies that sometimes work
• Versus algorithm: sequence of operations that when repeated over and over again guarantees success
• Benefits:
• Working with unfamiliar content in unfamiliar domain
• Provides a more systematic method
• Drawbacks:
• Can be limiting to the “process”
• When learners can use established procedural knowledge, heuristics are not as effective/efficient

Question 25

What would you recommend to teachers who want to promote transfer and problem solving in their classes?

Answer 25

• Students should learn information meaningfully and thoroughly
• Students should also learn problem-solving strategies in a meaningful manner
• Discovery activities and expository instruction both play important roles in learning problem solving skills
• Students should have mental set for transfer
  o Culture of transfer: learning environment in which applying school subject matter to new situations, cross-disciplinary contexts, and real-world problems is both the expectation and the norm
• Some prerequisite skills should be practiced until they’ve learned to the level of automaticity
• Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but it does increase the odds of successful transfer and problem solving
• Students should have experience identifying problems for themselves
• To minimize negative transfer, differences between two ideas should be emphasized
• Instruction in general problem-solving skills (both cognitive and metacognitive) can be helpful
• Students should learn strategies for defining ill-defined problems
• Students’ early attempts to solve difficult problems should be scaffolded
• The development of effective problem-solving strategies can be facilitated through cooperative group problem solving
• Authentic activities can increase the probability that students will transfer knowledge, skills, and problem-solving strategies to real-world contexts
  o Problem-based learning: students are given complex, real-world problems to tackle and must acquire new knowledge and skills in order to solve them
• Classroom assessment practices should include measure of transfer and problem solving

Question 26

Define critical thinking

Answer 26

o “Evaluating the accuracy, credibility, and worth of information and lines of reasoning”
o Reflective, logical, evidence-based, and purposeful
o A wide, wide variety of cognitive skills
• Acknowledge that it requires mental efforts

Question 27

Define motivation

Answer 27

• a construct that is used to explain the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of an individual’s behavior in a particular situation
• an internal state that arouses us to action, pushes us in particular directions, and keeps us engaged in certain activities

Question 28

Define situation motivation; example?

Answer 28

Motivation is partly a function of the learning environment

• i.e. whether information is interesting, challenging, and relevant to students’ lives

Question 29

Describe the effects that motivation may have on cognition and/or behavior

Answer 29

• Directs behavior toward particular goal
• Increases effort and energy in pursuit of those goals
• Increases initiation of and persistence in certain activities, even in the face of occasional interruptions and frustrations
• Affects cognitive processes, such as what learners pay attention to and how much they think about and elaborate on it
• Determines which consequences are and aren’t reinforcing and punishing
• Increases time on task
• Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation

Question 30

Define intrinsic motivation; examples?; advantages?

Answer 30

• Developing from needs for competence, autonomy, mastery, and growth
• Comes from inside

Benefits:
• Persistence, creative, conceptual understanding and higher quality learning, optimal functioning and well-being
• Want to do something b/c it is just enjoyable

Why do we want to increase intrinsic motivation?
• Better conceptual understanding and higher quality learning
• Greater creativity
• Optimal functioning and well being

i.e. continue to read romantic novels, eat junk food

Question 31

Define extrinsic motivation; examples?; drawbacks?

Answer 31

o when source of motivation lies outside the individual and the task being performed

• Comes from outside
• Drawbacks:
• Can determine performance quality and interfere with learning process
• Undermine long-term capacity for autonomous self-regulation
• Why might we want to avoid extrinsic motivation?
o Lower performance quality
o Interference with learning process
o Undermine long-term capacity for autonomous self-regulation

i.e. clean entire house when having a house party; pay taxes because the gov’t will come after if don’t

Question 32

Define incentive motivation; when do incentives work/increase intrinsic motivation?

Answer 32

• incentive motivation serves as a mediator btwn stimuli and responses, affecting which stimuli are responded to and which are not
• The children who were given a reward for that specific activity did not chose that activity again b/c they associated the activity with the reward
• Research has shown that incentives work when the task is highly mechanical and does not require higher level of cognitive processing

Question 33

Understand Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the five distinct kinds of needs

Answer 33

Maslow—hierarchy of needs (top to bottom)
o **Before can move up, must establish bottom first before move up one level

Self-actualization:
• Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts

Esteem:
• Self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others

Love/belonging:
• Friendship, family, sexual intimacy

Safety:
• Security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property
• i.e. free from bullying, living in shelter

Physiological:
• Breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Question 34

Define deficiency needs

Answer 34

physiological, safety, love and belonging, and esteem needs result from things a person lacks

Question 35

How can teachers create a more motivating classroom environment?

Answer 35

• Students learn more effectively and engage in more productive classroom behaviors when they are intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated to learn and achieve
• Students are more likely to be intrinsically motivated when they feel confident they can succeed at classroom tasks
• Students’ intrinsic motivation also increases when they have some degree of autonomy in classroom activities
• Extrinsic motivation can also promote learning
• Feedback and other forms of extrinsic reinforcement should maintain or enhance students’ sense of competence and self-determination
• Students are more likely to focus on their schoolwork when their nonacademic needs have been met
• Dispositions that involve actively and thoughtfully engaging with school subject matter should promote more effective cognitive processing and learning over the long run
• Learning is—and should be—an affective as well as cognitive enterprise
• Classroom assessments are more effective motivators when students perceive them as means of enhancing future achievement rather than judgment of ability and worth

Question 36

Difference between mastery goals and performance goals

Answer 36

Mastery goals—achieving competence by acquiring additional knowledge or mastering new skills (aka learning goals)

Performance goals—desire to present oneself as competent to others

Question 37

Difference between internal and external locus of control

Answer 37

• Internal: attribute causes of events to factors within ourselves
• External: attribute evens to factors outside our selves

Question 38

Difference between stable vs. unstable temporal stability

Answer 38

• Stable: events are result of things that probably won’t change much in near future
• Unstable: events are result of things that can change from one time to the nex

Question 39

Describe attribution theory of controllability

Answer 39

• Sometimes we attribute events to controllable factors—to things that we (or perhaps someone else) can influence and change
• i.e. if you believe a classmate invited you to lunch b/c you always smile and say nice things to her
• i.e. if you think you probably failed a test simply b/c didn’t study rights thing

Question 40

Differences between master orientation vs. learned helplessness

Answer 40

• Mastery orientation: some people typically attribute their accomplishments to their own abilities and efforts; have an I-can-do-it attitude
• Learned helplessness: attribute successes to outside and uncontrollable factors and believe that their failures reflect a relatively permanent lack of ability; have I-can’t-do-it-even-if-I-try attitude