EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY FINAL



EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY MIDTERM

EDF 250-003

Fall 2004

Name ______________________ Total Score: ____/20 pts.

Criteria Rubric for Essay Items:

▪ High Score (3): Response is clear, focused and accurate. All relevant points are made with good support. Important insights are evident.

▪ Medium score (2): The answer is somewhat focused. Most relevant points are made with some support of points made and few important insights are noted.

▪ Low score (0-1): The response misses the point, contains inaccurate information, or demonstrates a lack of mastery of the material. Points are unclear, support is missing and/or no insights are included.

1. Lee Trang is making an effort to make his teaching more consistent with constructivist views of learning. In a lesson on electricity with his 4th-graders, he distributed wire, a light bulb, a battery, and a switch to groups of four students, and directed them to figure out how to make the bulb light up. While the students tried different arrangements, Lee circulated among the groups, asking questions and making brief suggestions. It took most groups about 20 minutes to complete the activity. Lee could have demonstrated the correct arrangements for making the bulbs light up in five minutes or less.

a. (.5 point) Given what we know about the limited amount of time teachers have for instruction, and given how difficult it is to cover the curriculum within the available time, explain on the basis of constructivism why Mr. Trang decided not to simply show the students how to wire the circuit?

Abstract explanations don’t do much to help ideas make sense. If students have the opportunity to have meaningful, “real-life” problems to solve, they will more likely learn and remember the information.

b. (.5 point) Suggest one thing that social constructivists would recommend to increase the learning in the activity.

Social constructivists would suggest that the students be encouraged to share their different perspectives while they worked in groups. (They might also encourage more knowledgeable students to share their information with other students, but this can have other social/emotional ramifications, particularly if activities of this sort were conducted with older students.

c. (.5 point) Were his students in the zone of proximal development? Defend your answer with information from the example.

The fact that all groups completed the task successfully suggests that most were in the zone of proximal dev. (although we can’t tell about individual students from group performance).

d. (1 point) Identify any examples of teacher scaffolding in Mr. Trang's lesson, and explain why they demonstrate scaffolding.

Lee used teacher scaffolding when he answered questions and made suggestions

2. (.5 point) A first grade teacher demonstrates that air takes up space by pushing an inverted drink cup into a fish bowl of water. Students see that the cup doesn’t fill with water. Natalie explains that water doesn’t go into the cup because “the cup is tipped over.” Euchica says, “My dad and I were in the swimming pool, and when he tipped the cup, some air got out and water got in, but if he didn’t tip the cup, no water could get in.”

Which of the following conclusions best explains the developmental differences we see in this example?

a. Piaget’s view better explains the children’s development than does Vygotsky’s, because both the children are first graders, and first graders are preoperational in their thinking.

b. Piaget’s view better explains the children’s development than does Vygotsky’s, because the teacher’s demonstration disrupted the children’s equilibrium, and they attempted to re-establish it with their explanations.

c. Vygotsky’s view better explains the children’s development than does Piaget’s because we see the influence of social interaction on the developmental differences in the children. . Euchica benefited from the experience with her father. This is consistent with Vygotsky’s view of dev. E. interacted with a more knowledgeable other-her dad, she was in the zone of proximal dev., language was used to help her understand the event, and she applied her understanding to a new situation sometime later.

d. Vygotsky’s view better explains the children’s development than does Piaget’s because both the children are in the zone of proximal development.

3. (.5 point) T F In addition to putting students into passive roles, lengthy explanations by the teacher have other disadvantages such as overloading the students’ short term memories.

4. (1 point) What is Kaufman’s theory of intelligence? Give an example of how a teacher would teach a lesson to include both kinds of learners.

Sequential vs. Simultaneous

5. (.5 point) Research indicates that “multiple questioning” (asking a second question before the student can respond to the first) is an ineffective teaching behavior. Of the following, the concept from the information processing model that most closely relates to this research is:

a. sensory memory memory Information is only briefly retained in the sensory registers. If a second question is asked before the first is answered, one or the other is likely to be lost from the sensory register before the learner attends to it.

b. long term memory

c. perception

d. meaningfulness

e. organization

6. Mrs. Amos’ students understand fractions, and she is now working with them on the addition and subtraction of fractions. She models the process for adding fractions with like denominators, then gives the students several practice examples. She follows by demonstrating what equivalent fractions are, and gives the students several examples where they determine the fractions are equivalent or not. She then models the process for finding equivalent fractions and again gives them examples to practice on. She continues with this process for the addition of fractions with unlike denominators and repeats the process for the subtraction of fractions.

(.5 point) Which of the following best describes what Mrs. Amos is attempting to accomplish with her procedure?

a. She is trying to avoid overloading the students’ sensory memories by not presenting too much information at a time.

b. She is attempting to have the students rehearse the process for forming equivalent fractions by modeling the process for them.

c. She is trying to avoid overloading the students’ working memories by giving them time to practice each step before moving on to another step. Her procedure best illustrates an attempt to avoid overloading the working memory. Sensory memory has virtually unlimited capacity (choice a). Rehearsal is a process the learners must be involved in. Modeling is not designed to promote students rehearsal (choice b). Practice can lead to automaticity, but it doesn’t promote metacognition (choice d).

d. Giving the students time to practice is designed to promote the students’ metacognition.

7. (.5 point) Students learn that the name of the part of speech that modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs is “adverbs.” The type of learning that this best presents is ____declarative knowledge (2 words).

8. (.5 point) T F Working memory receives information from sensory memory but it doesn’t receive information from long-term memory. . (see chart on pages 241 or 247) retrieval comes from long-term memory to working memory.

9. (.5 point) You want your students to memorize multiplication facts and you choose to use flash cards in the process. They have had concrete experiences with the facts and you are now trying to make their knowledge automatic. The primary cognitive process the students will be using to get the facts into long-term memory is _____ rehearsal (chunking, automaticity and dual processing acceptable).

10. (.5 point) T F Operant conditioning and social cognitive theory learning both view reinforcement as a direct cause of learning.

11. (.5 point) Think about an ill-defined problem of a personal relationship that is not satisfying. Describe a means-end analysis that might be used to solve the problem. Individual response here- need subgoals

12. (.5 point) You watch your 8th grade algebra students take a test. You have directed them to circle each of their answers. As you watch Joe circle an answer, you see his hand shake so much that the circle is “wiggly” around it. Assuming Joe isn’t ill and has no other physical problem, of the following, this observed behavior best illustrates:

a. negative reinforcement

b. presentation punishment

c. a conditioned stimulus

d. a classically conditioned response response Negative reinforcement (a) and punishment (b) are operant conditioning responses. People are not innately fearful of tests (e); fear of tests is learned.

e. an unconditioned response

13. (3 points) You are sitting in the workroom of your school with a faculty member who has just said, “I got sick of the students continually talking today, so I fixed them. I doubled their homework assignment. I had assigned the odd problems at the end of the section, and now they get to do all the problems.”

You comment courteously, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why not,” your colleague retorts. “It stopped the talking.”

What do you say? Provide an answer based on behaviorist learning principles.

Through classical conditioning homework, initially a neutral stimulus becomes associated with punishment (UCS) resulting in resentment (initially the UCR but which later becomes the CR). Through classical conditioning homework becomes aversive.

14. (.5 point) In which of the following pairings are the two items least related to each other? 

a. authentic task and context

b. authentic task and information processing

c. meaningfulness and encoding

d. elaboration and encoding

15. (.5 point) How are convergent thinking and divergent thinking different?

Convergent thinkers tend to focus on one solution to a problem; divergent thinkers consider many creative or new solutions

16. (.5 point) You have a class that is composed of 14 African American, 5 Caucasian Americans, 3 Japanese Americans and 2 immigrant students from the former South Vietnam. You are beginning a discussion on World War II with your history students. You begin by asking the students to tell you what they think caused the war in the Pacific theater. Kevin Davis immediately says, “The bombing of Pearl Harbor.”

“Sort of,” Kristi Sukawa responds, “but America was threatening to cut off the flow of oil from the East Indies to Japan. That’s what really caused the war.”

Of the following, the factor best illustrated in Kevin’s and Kristi’s comments is:

a. the impact of diversity on retrieval and forgetting.

b. the impact of diversity on the contents of students’ working memories.

c. the impact of diversity on students’ attention and rehearsal.

d. the impact of diversity on students’ background knowledge.

17. (3 points) Which theory of learning-behaviorism, social cognitive theory, information processing, or constructivism-best supports the value of strategy use for increasing learning? Why?

I was looking for information processing; the key word here is “strategy” since information processing looks at metacognition and learning strategies. However, if you put constructivism because the student has to plan (and you thought “strategize”) how he/she will work on the project I will give you credit.

18. (.5 point) Teachers will sometimes give all students in a cooperative group the same grade. Is this likely to be effective practice? Explain, using your understanding of social cognitive theory and cooperative education as the basis for your answer.

No, because social cognitive theory includes self-regulation regarding assessment; however, having the students work cooperatively, learn from observing others, and gain control over their behavior are components of this theory.

19. (.5 point) Of the following, the best explanation of how social cognitive theory differs from behaviorism is:

a. both define learning as an enduring change in observable behavior, but social cognitive theorists take into account a person's belief systems, environment, and behavior

b. social cognitive theory views behavior, the environment, and personal factors as all capable of influencing each other, whereas behaviorism does not.

c. punishment and reinforcement are concepts that behaviorists use, but social cognitive theory does not.

d. modeling is a central idea in social cognitive theory, whereas behaviorism deals exclusively with stimuli followed by responses.

20. (3 points) Create a Concept Map on the following four educational psychologists: Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, and Kohlberg.

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