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.
