W1-W5 Test Flashcards
What is Educational Psychology?
- Study of HOW people learn and retain information
- Looks at relationship between brain development and learning
- Social, emotional, cognitive processes involved in development that effect learning
What is ‘learning’. Define.
the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught
Why is theory (educational psychology) important?
It informs what we do in the classroom. Explicit links between theory and practice help understand how learners learn and how teachers can become more effective in their practice.
Why educational psychology?
- Helps you understand your own development and behaviour
- Give you strategies to enhance your learning and motivation
- Helps you understand how students learn and how you can help students to learn
- Help you develop a deep understanding of what it means to learn and what it means to teach
Constructivist view of learning
- Constructing understanding – knowledge/learning is constructed - learners construct understanding from their own experiences
- Learning is self-determined
- What is learned depends on the way you look at things
Types of development
Physcial Social Cognitive Emotional Moral
PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
- People develop at different rates of development
- Development is relatively orderly – develop abilities in a logical order – predictable order
- Takes place gradually.
What are neurons?
Nerve cells that store and transfer information
How do neurons connect with each other?
Through fibres called Axons and Dendrites.
Axons transmit information out through axon terminals.
Dendrites receive information. These never physically touch each other (synapses).
What are synapses?
Tiny spaces between neurons. (neurons don’t quite touch each other)
If neurons don’t physically connect, how is information transferred?
By releasing chemicals called neuro-transmittors that jump across the synapses to connect to the other neurons.
What is PRUNING?
When neurons that have not been used again/being used are pruned (destroyed). Pruning less effective pathways improves function.
What is brain PLASTICITY?
The brain’s ability to be mouldable & continue to change & learn througout the lifespan.
Explain MYELINATION
Coating of neuron fibres with an insulating fatty covering called myelin which makes transmission between neurons faster and more efficient. (When brain realises the neurons are important & acts to protect them with the myelin sheath).
How is educational psychology relevant to a career in teaching?
Educational Psychology is relevant to a career in teaching as to be an effective teacher, you must understand how people, children, students learn. This will help you understand methods of teaching and how and why to apply different styles.
Stages of brain development
Infancy - late pregnancy - 2 years
Early Childhood -
Middle Childhood -
Adolescence -
Explain Toxic Stress
When a child’s home life/environment is particularly bad for a long time or child has experienced significant trauma/s. Or child has not received love & emotional support required for normal brain development. The brain has a ‘stress response’ which can effect how brain develops.
Explain Cognition
Cognition means thinking and refers to all the mental processes involved in perceiving, attending to, understanding and recalling information.
What is a SCHEMA?
Mental image or grouping of ideas used to organise knowledge. They help us make sense of the world around us and new information.
ASSIMILATION explanation
Occurs when you encounter a similar experience and your brain makes an addition to existing schema - it changes/updates existing schema in a small way. Assimilates the new information.
ACCOMMODATION explanation
Occurs when we encounter new information that requires us to create a whole new schema
OR
New information that makes us realise our existing schema may not have been fully correct.
When we drastically change an existing schema or create a new schema, this is accommodation.
Assimilation & Accommodation
ASSIMILATION = adjust schema to fit new experience ACCOMMODATION = change or create a new schema to fit new experience
Jean Piaget - what did he do?
What did he think about cognition?
Explored how we make sense of the world, and how this changes throughout childhood.
Piaget said cognition develops every time we have a new experience.
What is disequlibrium and equilibrium?
Disequilibrium happens when we experience something new and the brain notices the difference between what we already know and the new information. It is uncomfortable and brain wants to resolve it.
Resolves with assimilation or accommodation.
Equilibrium when new information now fits in with our schemas.
What are Piaget’s 4 stages of development?
What ages do they typically cover?
Sensorimotor Stage - birth to 2 years
Preoperational Stage - 2 to 6/7 years
Concrete Operations Stage - 7 - 11/12 years
Formal Operations Stage - 12 years - adult
What are the milestones for the SENSORIMOTOR stage? (there are 3)
Object permanence - child knows object still exists even when it is not in front of them (seen) anymore
Goal-directed action - child performing action with a consious intent to get a specific result
Deferred imitation - child imitates an action they have seen previously
What are the milestones for the PREOPERATIONAL stage? (there are 4)
Symbolic thought - child can represent things mentally. Child can draw symbols for things in their world.
Egocentism - children think everyone sees the world from their perspective. Hard for them to to understand that others have different perspectives.
Centration - concentrating on one aspect of a situation & ignoring all other aspects
Animism - giving human characteristics to inanimate objects
What are the milestones for the CONCRETE OPERATIONS stage? (there are 3)
Conservation - can see that certain characteristics of an object don’t change with changes in the object’s physical appearance (e.g. same amount of liquid in 2 different size glasses)
Classification - can group objects together based on a particular criteria
Seriation - ability to arrange things in order of a particular dimension
What are the milestones for the FORMAL OPERATIONS stage? (there are 2)
Metacognition - thinking about thinking
Deductive reasoning - reasoning from a rule or principle to reach a logical conclusion
Piaget vs Vygotsky
Vygotsy’s theory is social interaction is primary cause of cognitive development. Piaget saw cognitive development as something that occurs on an individual level
Lev Vygotsky thought cognitive development was what?
Socio-cultural. Vygotsky placed great importance on the role of the child’s culture and environment on the learning that takes place.
Did Vygotsky think we learned because we developed?
No. Vygotsky thought we developed because we learn. So the learnng had to come first. Language, culture, social interactions had huge impact.
What is the ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT?
The difference between what a child can do on their own and what a child can accomplish with assitance.
The Primary Emotions are
Fear Joy Disgust Sadness Surprise Anger
These are universal emotions
The Secondary Emotions are
Shame Embarassment Guilt Envy Pride
These are determined socially
Explain Emotional Development
Changes to how we understand our emotions, express our emotions, regulate our emotions or recognise others emotions.
How can we demonstrate emotional competence?
Awareness of own emotions Ability to talk about emotions Management of negative emotions ‘Reading’ emotions of others Capacity for empathy & sympathy Awareness that outward emotions may not match inner feelings
What is Self-Determination Theory?
3 “innate psychological needs” that develop in a social context
• Competence - We need to help students feel competent – experiencing a sense of ability and success
• Autonomy – feel like they have some sort of control in their life
• Relatedness – interaction, connection, belonging.
These form a foundation that influences students’ personality and behavioural self-regulation
What are Erikson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development?
- Baby
- Toddler
- Child
- Primary
- Adolescent
- Young Adult
- Adult
- Late Adult
What are Marcia’s 4 statuses of identity development?
Foreclosure
Identity Diffusion
Moratorium
Identity Achievement
What is moral development?
Development of our interactions in social context and our understanding of our own feelings & perspective.
What are the stages of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Pre-conventional - 0-6 years
Conventional - 7 - 11 years
Post-conventional - 11+
What does IPM stand for?
Information Processing Model
What are the 3 parts & functions of the IPM?
Getting input - sensory memory
Processing the information - working memory
Saving & storing - long term memory
What are the limitations of the sensory memory?
time 0.5 - 3 seconds only
capacity 3-7 units
How does sensory memory receive information?
Through the 5 senses.
Sight - iconic memory
Sound - echoic memory
Touch - haptic memory
Taste - gustatory memory
Smell - olfactory memory
What are 2 stages of sensory memory?
Recognition & Attention
Stimulus must have meaning to be attended to - recognised.
Attention has 2 channels - audio & visual
Attention can be depleted
Cannot divide attention but can switch attention between tasks
What is Working Memory?
Temporary storage for information processing
What are the limitations of Working Memory?
time 5 - 15 seconds
capacity 7+/- 2 units ‘chunks’
Components of the Working Memory
- Visuospatial sketchpad – holding system for visual/spatial information
- Phonological loop – holding system for verbal/sound information
- Central Executive – monitors and directs attention and other mental resources
- Episodic Buffer – integrates information from the Working and Long-Term Memories to create complex representations and memories
What happens in Long Term Memory?
Encoding & Retrieving
What are the limitations of Long Term Memory?
None. Unlimited time and capacity.
What are the categories of the Long Term Memory?
- Episodic: memories of events, or ‘episodes’ or experiences. These have a sense of time and a sense of self, often visual, often forgotten. Explicit Memory
- Semantic: Knowledge of facts. A more structured form of memory, derived from episodic experience. Explicit Memory
- Procedural: memory how to do something. AKA implicit memory. Comes from repetition until an action is automated. Implicit Memory
What are 3 Memory Strategies?
- Making meaning – memories are constructed meaning, and the more we think about them (deep processing) the better we will remember them
- Connecting information – the clearer the connections, the easier the retrieval. The ‘story strategy’
- Practice – the more frequently we remember something, the easier it gets each time (strengthening neural pathways)
What is cognitive load?
the demand on the working memory at any given time
What are the 3 components of cognitive load?
Intrinsic Load
Extraenous Load
Germane Load
What is Germane Load?
The amount of capacity that memory can devote to learning.
How it works
Deep processing of information by integrating it with previous learning. Encoding, retrieving, constructing or adapting schemas for LTM
What is Intrinsic Load?
Part of the working memory that assesses the complexity or novelty of a new situation or task. Looks at all the elements & how they interact.
What is Extraenous Load?
Extra unnecessary information that takes up working memory space but does not help the learner understand the content.
Wastes memory space.
What are some strategies to reduce Cognitive Load?
- tailor lessons according to students existing knowledge and skill
- use worked examples to teach new content/skills
- gradually increase independent problem-solving as students become more proficient
- cut out unessential information
- Present all essential information together
- simplify complex information by presenting orally and visually
- encourage students to visualise concepts and procedures they have learnt
