Terms to Know

Question 1

Constructivism

Answer 1

Learners construct knowledge from A philosophy of learning based upon the premise that people construct their own understanding of the world they live in through reflection on experiences.

Question 2

Metacognition

Answer 2

A person’s ability to think about his or her own thinking. Metacognition requires self-awareness and self-regulation of thinking. A student who demonstrates a high level of metacognition is able to explain his or her own thinking and describe which strategies he or she uses to read or to solve a problem.

Question 3

Schemata

Answer 3

A concept in the mind about events, scenarios, actions, or objects that have been acquired from past experience. The mind loves organization and must find previous events or experiences with which to associate the information, or the information may not be learned.

Question 4

Transfer

Answer 4

The ability to apply a lesson learned in one situation to a new situation–for example, a student who has learned to read the word “the” in a book about cows and then goes home and reads the word “the” successfully in a note that a parent left on the counter.

Question 5

Intrinsic Motivation

Answer 5

Motivation that comes from “within”, or from inside a person. Providing students time to reflect on goals and achievements or helping students see what they have learned and how it’s important are examples of intrinsic motivators for students.

Question 6

Extrinsic Motivation

Answer 6

Motivation that comes from “without”, or outside of a person. Stickers, behavior charts, and incentives for learning are all examples of extrinsic motivators for students.

Question 7

Scaffolding

Answer 7

Instructional supports provided to a student by an adult or a more capable peer in a learning situation. The more capable a student becomes with a certain skill or concept, the less instructional scaffolding the adult or peer needs to provide. Scaffolding may take the form of a teacher reading aloud a portion of the text and then asking the student to repeat the same sentence, for example

Question 8

Schema

Answer 8

A concept in the mind about events, scenarios, actions, or objects that have been acquired from past experience. The mind loves organization and must find previous events or experiences with which to associate the information, or the information may not be learned.

Question 9

Influences on Learning

Answer 9

Past Experiences
Talents
Prior Learning
Language
Culture
Family
Community Values

Question 10

Multicultural Students

Answer 10

Pay special attention to age-appropriate activities, include the students cultures at school, note linguistic patterns and differences, pay attention to social and emotional issues.