Development

Question 1

Brain Stem AO1

Answer 1

The brain stem connects the brain to the spinal cord
This carries sensory nerves to the brain from the rest of the body and motor nerves from the brain to the rest of the body via the spinal cord.

It controls basic autonomic functions like breathing.

The brain stem is the most developed part of the brain at birth because it needs to be developed for
survival.

Question 2

Cerebellum AO1

Answer 2

This is located near the top of the spinal cord.
It coordinates:
• Movement such as balance
• Sensory information with motor information
• It also has some input with regards to language and emotion
It is one of the last parts of the brain to reach maturity

Question 3

Thalamus AO1

Answer 3

This is located deep inside the brain (one in each
hemisphere)
This is a hub of information which receives and sends signal from other areas of the brain

Question 4

Cerebral Cortex AO1

Answer 4

This is the outer covering of the brain which covers other structures and is divided into two halves (one for each hemisphere)
Our thinking and processing happen in this area
• Thinking (cognition) takes places mainly in the frontal cortex such as planning and decision making
• Sensory processing takes place in the visual area (for seeing) and the auditory area (for hearing)
• Motor processing is controlled by the motor areas which directs movement
The sensory and motor areas of the cortex are functioning in the womb but continues to develop
throughout an individual’s life as a result of learning.

Question 5

Define Nature

Answer 5

biological influences, aspects we have inherited from birth, so brain development is genetically influence.

Question 6

Define Nurture

Answer 6

environment influences, such as house you grew up in, life experiences, what we eat/drink etc.

Question 7

Nurture effect of brain development

Answer 7

Smoking:
Mothers who smoke give birth to smaller babies, so this also affects the size of the brain because nicotine slows down brain growth

Infections:
Rubella (German Measles) can cause brain damage such as hearing loss if she develops
the illness during the first week of pregnancy.

Diet:
Women need to make sure they have a healthy diet during pregnancy to help a child’s brain development. A woman needs to ensure that she has all the right vitamins and supplements in her diet to ensure that a child’s brain develops properly. Drinking alcohol also causes underdevelopment in a child, including their brain.

Voices:
Babies appear to hear their mothers’ voices immediately after birth. This
shows the brain is changing in the womb in response to external stimuli.

Question 8

Nature effect on brain development

Answer 8

Nature’ refers to the idea that development is genetically influenced.

Evidence that early brain development is affected by nature comes from genetic conditions that
result in issues with brain development.

Studies that have found that identical twins (who share exactly the same genes), have very similar
IQs, this provides evidence that genetics play a role in brain development.

It can be argued that the brain is a product of both genes and the environment and it is very difficult to say which has more of an effect.

Question 9

Piaget’s Theory of cognitive development-Schemas

Answer 9

Piaget suggests that children learn about the world through schemas. Schemas are mental
representations that an individual has about the world and are based on past experiences. As a child
learns new things about the world, schemas are developed and become more complex through the
process of assimilation and accommodation.

Question 10

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development-Assimilation

Answer 10

This is a form of learning when an individual acquires new information, but this
does not radically change our understanding of a topic.

For example, a child has a schema of a car, and they understand that people get
into a car, it makes noise and it is red and shiny. However, one day a child
encounters a blue sports car. This doesn’t quite match their existing schema, it is a
different colour and makes a different noise. So, they child needs to add this new
bit of information to their existing schema which is assimilation.

Question 11

Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development-Accommodation

Answer 11

This is a form of learning when an individual acquires new information which requires them to form a whole new schemas to deal with their new understanding.

For example, a child has a schema of a car, and they understand that people get into a car, it makes noise and it is red and shiny. But one day they see a tractor which people also get into, it is shiny and red but has big tyres and moves slower. This requires a big change to the existing car schema and they need to form a whole new schema for a tractor.

Question 12

Sensorimotor stage: Age, Cognitive Development, Application to Education

Answer 12

Age: 0-2 years

Cognitive Development:
• Interact with the world using senses.
• They learn through trial and error e.g. pulling a lever on a music box makes a sound
• They do not remember these things until about 18 months
• Object Permanence (8 months): An object still exists even if they cannot see it.

Application to Education:
• Sensory toys such as those which make noises or squeak
• Peekaboo

Question 13

Preoperational Stage: Age, Cognitive Development, Application to education

Answer 13

Age: 2-7 years

Cognitive development:
• A child’s thinking is egocentric: they only see the world from their point of view
• The cannot conserve: they do not understand that if the appearance changes, the quantity remains the same

Application to Education:

Egocentrism:
• Play dress up or house (so they have to use their imagination to make sense of the world)
Conservation:
• Play with toys that change shape such as playdough or water play

Question 14

Concrete Operational stage: Age, Cognitive development, application to education

Answer 14

Age: 7-11 years

Cognitive Development:
• Children are less egocentric
• Children develop the ability to conserve
• They have better understanding of logic and problem solving if they can see or physically handle the problem (concrete logical thinking) but will have difficulty if asked to imagine the problem.

Application to Education:
• Simple experiments to give them a chance to manipulate objects and tests ideas
• Give them concrete apparatus like counters to problem solve
• Read books with a limited number of characters

Question 15

Formal operational stage: Age, Cognitive development, Application to education

Answer 15

Age: 11-18 years

Cognitive development:
• Have developed abstract thinking which means they are able to think through complicated ideas in their heads without having to see a concrete image

Application to education:
• Teach broad concepts rather than just
facts e.g. poetry
• Ask them to write short stories on hypothetical topics e.g. living in outer space

Question 16

What is egocentricity

Answer 16

Egocentrism is a child’s tendency to only see the word from their point of view. Children are egocentric in the pre-operational stage however they are no longer egocentric in the concrete op stage.

Question 17

Piaget’s Mountain Task

Answer 17

Piaget demonstrated egocentricity through the Mountain Task, where he showed children a model of three mountains and placed a doll somewhere besides the mountain. The child was then shown photos that had been taken from each side of the mountain and asked to choose the photo that represented the doll’s point of view.

He found that children in the preoperational stage chose a photo that showed their own viewpoint
however, older children in the concrete operational stage chose the one from the doll’s viewpoint. From
this he concluded that children are egocentric during the preoperational stage (below 7) and after seven are not egocentric.

Question 18

Hughes (1975) - Policeman Doll Study (AO1)

Answer 18

Aim: To investigate egocentrism with a more understandable task compared to Piaget’s Mountain Task

Sample: 30 children between 3.5 and 5 years from Edinburgh

Procedure:
• The child was shown a model with two intersecting walls.
• A policeman doll was placed on the model.
• Each child was asked to hide a boy doll on the model where the policeman could not see it.
• A second policeman doll was introduced, and the children were asked to do the same with the
boy doll

Findings:
• 90% of the children were able to hide the boy doll from the policeman doll(s)

Conclusion: Most children between 3.5-5 years old can see things from another person’s point of view
so are not egocentric in their thinking (criticising Piaget’s idea that children are egocentric in their
thinking)

Question 19

Hughes (1975) - Policeman Doll Study (AO3)

Answer 19

One strength of Hughes’ policeman doll study is that it was a more realistic task compared to
Piaget’s mountain task. This is because the task was engaging and meaningful and similar to a problem
they might experience in every day life. This means that children are more likely to show their cognitive
abilities, increasing the validity of
the policeman doll research.

However, a weakness of Hughes’ policeman doll study is that the sample is culture bias as it was
only conducted on children from Edinburgh. This is an individualistic culture which means they are
more concerned with their own views which makes it difficult to generalise the findings to collectivists
cultures. Therefore Hughes’ policeman doll study is not representative of all cultures.

Stretch:
A strength of Hughes’ policeman doll study is that it challenges some of Piaget’s assumptions. It
suggests that children from 3.5 years and upward can see the world from other people’s perspectives
and demonstrates that not all children in Piaget’s preoperational stage are egocentric and this is a skill
that can be developed earlier than what Piaget suggests. Therefore, the policeman doll study has
provided useful information into the cognitive abilities of young children.

Question 20

Conservation AO1

Answer 20

Conservation is the ability to understand that even though appearance changes, the quantity remains the same. Piaget demonstrated that children in the preoperational stage could not conserve as he suggests children can conserve at the age of 7 years.

Question 21

McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) - Naughty Teddy Study (AO1)

Answer 21

Aim: McGarrigle and Donaldson wanted to see if younger children could conserve if there wasn’t a deliberate change in a row of counters.

Method:
• Children(aged from 4 to 6 years) were shown two identical rows of counters and were asked whether there were the
same number of counters in each row.
• The ‘naughty teddy’ then accidentally moved one row of counters so they were more spaced out.
• The children were asked whether there were the same amount of counters in each row, again.

Results:
• Over 60% of the children gave the correct answer that there were the same amount of counters
in each row.
• A higher proportion of the older children, compared to the younger children answered
correctly.

Conclusion:
This suggests that children under the age of seven can conserve and that the ability to
conserve increase with age (criticising Piaget’s theory that children cannot conserve in the
preoperational stage).

Question 22

McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) - Naughty Teddy Study (AO3)

Answer 22

One weakness of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study is that the study lacks ecological validity. This is
because the research took place in an artificial environment which would have been strange for the
child and with an adult that they do not know. This make it difficult to generalise the findings to a more
familiar setting for the children. This lowers the
validity of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s naughty teddy study.

Another weakness of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study is that the sample is culture bias as it was
only conducted on children from Edinburgh. This is an individualistic culture which makes it difficult to
generalise the findings to collectivists cultures. Therefore McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study is not representative of all cultures.

A strength of this study is that it challenges Piaget’s theory.
McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study implies that Piaget’s original work confused young children.
Therefore this study helped refine this type of child development research.

Question 23

Piaget’s stages of development AO3

Answer 23

A weakness with Piaget’s theory is that he underestimated children’s abilities.
Other research has found that younger children can show conservation and a reduction in egocentrism.
This suggests that certain types of thinking develop earlier than he proposed.

A weakness is that Piaget overestimated what children could do.
He argued that 11-year-old children should be capable of abstract reasoning when other research has found this is not true. This shows that not all children’s thinking is advanced as he suggested.

A strength of his theory is that it does show that children’s thinking changes with age.
Although research has suggested that changes in thinking occur earlier, the fact remains that they still occur.
This shows that the basic principle of the theory is valid.

Question 24

Dweck’s Mindset theory of learning

Answer 24

Dweck (2007) believes that the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is due to their mindset

Question 25

Dweck’s Mindset Theory of Learning - Fixed Mindset

Answer 25

People with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities, such as intelligence, are innate e.g. fixed by their genetics. They do not believe that you must work hard to achieve because if you have to work hard then you cannot really be that talented, so you might as well give up.
They are focused on performance goals; they feel good when they are doing well.
If someone with a fixed mindset fails at something, they believe there is no point in trying and might as
well give up.

Question 26

Dweck’s Mindset Theory of Learning- Growth Mindset

Answer 26

People with a growth mindset believe that you can always get a little bit better and improve your abilities.
They believe that success is due to hard work and perseverance. They believe in putting effort into their endeavours because they will become better the more they work at something, and enjoy being
challenged but not always succeeding, this is because you can learn from mistakes.
They are focused on learning goals; they feel good when they are working hard
If someone with a growth mindset fails at something, they believe this is a great opportunity to learn more and overcome this obstacle.

Question 27

Dweck’s Mindset Theory of Learning (AO3)

Answer 27

One strength is evidence that a growth mindset leads to better grades.
Dweck found that seventh graders taught a growth mindset had better grades and motivation than a group who were just taught about memory.
This suggests that this approach can improve performance.

A weakness is that any sort of praise may be bad.
The idea of praising people’s effort still leads to them doing things for approval from others rather than doing it for themselves.
Growth mindset can therefore discourage the type of independent behaviour it is trying to promote.

A strength is good real-world application.
Mindset has been used to improve performance in areas such as schools, businesses, sport and relationships.
Teaching people to see failure as a lack of effort rather than lack of talent motivates future effort.

Question 28

The role of praise in learning

Answer 28

When an individual is praised (such as for their effort or standard) this acts as a reward, it makes an
individual feel good and they are more likely to repeat that behaviour again. This is because it increases an individual’s self-esteem and increases motivation to continue that behaviour.

Learners should be praised for effort as well as achievement. Effort is a variable that can be controlled by a student, and praising someone for effort (even if they did not succeed) will be motivating because you can always increase your effort.

Question 29

The role of self-efficacy in learning

Answer 29

Self-efficacy is an individual’s understanding of their own abilities. Self-efficacy is based on past
experiences and how others treat you and this can determine how far you believe you can achieve
something.

How can we help students achieve self-efficacy?
• Set easier questions so that students can complete them successfully
• Break down tasks into steps to complete one at a time
• Show students that other students get stuck sometimes but that is part of the learning process
• Praise when a student successfully completes a task

Question 30

Praise and self-Efficacy (AO3)

Answer 30

A strength is that support for self-efficacy comes from research into the stereotype effect.
Steele and Aronson found that African-American students scored lower on an IQ test if they had to indicate their race beforehand.
This suggests that their performance was affected by how they expected to do, supporting the theory of self-efficacy.

However, being dependent on praise from someone else can be damaging to internal motivation.
There is evidence to suggest that praising effort means the individual continues to work hard but this hard work is to gain another person’s approval rather than for their own satisfaction. This limits the use of praise of effort may not be the best way to motivate learners internally to improve their own self-efficacy.

Research to contradict the role of praise in learning was conducted by Dweck (1975) who looked at
the effect of feedback on school students. Half of the group were persistently told that the reason they have not achieved in their schoolwork is because they were lazy and should try harder. The other group were always praised and given constructive feedback on how to improve. The first group increased their effort compared to the second group who showed low task persistence. This contradicts the role of praise because it shows that students improved their performance even if they were criticised rather than praised.

Question 31

Learning styles

Answer 31

Learning styles are the difference ways people process (take in) information. Psychologists suggest that
people learn best when information is presented to them in their preferred learning style
There are three learning styles that have been identified by psychologists
• Verbalisers
• Visualisers
• Kinaesthetic Learners

Question 32

Verbalisers AO1

Answer 32

Verbalisers are individuals who prefer to deal with information that is auditory
(based on sounds) such as hearing words.
• Like to learn by hearing/listening to things
• Like to speak out loud to aid their learning
• Prefer verbal instructions
• Like discussion-based learning
• Like to repeat things verbally

Question 33

Visualisers AO1

Answer 33

Visualisers like to see information in the forms of pictures and diagrams.
• Like to learn by seeing things through pictures or mind maps.
• Remember things based on what they looked like
• Prefer graphs, illustrations, photos, pictures and videos

Question 34

Kinaesthetic Learners AO1

Answer 34

Kinaesthetic learners are ‘hands on’ and prefer direct experiences through
physical activities
• Learn best by doing things themselves
• Prefer to get physically involved and do things first-hand
• Like to touch and feel things, move things
• They like active exploration of environments, making things and experimenting

Question 35

Learning Styles (AO3)

Answer 35

A strength of learning styles is that they have encouraged teachers to focus on other teaching methods rather than just traditional verbal ones.
This has led to teachers adopting a more varied approach.
This has benefited their students’ learning.

A weakness is that there is little evidence to suggest that learning styles work.
Pashler et al. reviewed many good quality research studies and found no support.
This challenges the claim that learning styles improve performance.

A weakness is that there are too many learning styles.
There are 71 different types of learning styles.
This is a problem as it will make it difficult for people to work out their preferred learning style.

Question 36

Willingham’s Learning theory AO1

Answer 36

Willingham criticises the learning style approach to teaching and states that it does not improve learning as there is no evidence of improved exam results from using this approach. Willingham believed that students should be taught using the best method based on the content being taught rather then their preferred learning style

Willingham stated there is a difference between ability and style. Ability is that you can do something, and a style is how you do something. He agrees there is a difference in abilities but does not see this as evidence for the existence of learning styles.

If students are only taught using their preferred learning style, then in the future they will have difficulty accessing information that is not in there preferred learning style. Students should be taught using a wide range of different learning styles so that they are comfortable with all forms of learning.

Question 37

Willingham’s Learning Theory AO3

Answer 37

A strength is that the theory is based on scientific evidence.
The studies on which it was based were well-designed, objective investigations.
This gives the claims of his theory greater validity.

A strength of the theory is that it has real-world applicability.
Willingham has selected research that has clear relevance to education and has a better foundation than learning styles. His approach offers an explanation of what you learn (rather than how you learn).

Willingham’s learning theory can be criticised for ignoring individual differences in students
learning capabilities. Although he does acknowledge there are genetic differences in student’s abilities,
he does not suggest differentiated strategies and instead applies universal ones to all students.
Therefore, this reduces how applicable his theory is to all students to enhance their learning.