
Building on theory

Piaget

 Individual maturation and self discovery
 Concrete operational thought
 Ability to reason things out if they have real (concrete)
items
 Ability to organize into groups or categories
 Daisies, Roses, and Flowers
 Transitive inference
 Ability to infer one fact from others
 E.g. Height of persons A,B, & C
 Seriation
 Logical sequence
 E.g. Largest to smallest
Vygotsky

 Sociocultural context is important
 Instruction is essential
 “Apprentices in learning”
 Culture teaches
 Customs
 Mentors
 Sources of intellectual activity
 Families
 Preschool programs
 First grade
Context (situation)
affects learning

 Learning math on paper = good at school math
 Learning math with money = good at math with
money
Memory

 Sensory memory
 Stores stimuli for a split second
 Sensations become perceptions
 Perceptions are transferred to working (short-term)
memory
Working (short-term)
memory

 Crucial areas
 Phonological loop
 Stores sounds
 Visual-spatial sketchpad
 Stores sights
 Chunking is crucial
Long-term memory

 Storage and retrieval
 Retrieval is easier for vivid, highly emotional
experiences
 By middle adulthood, the capacity for long term
memory is virtually limitless
Knowledge base

 More you know = more you can learn
 New concepts need to be connected to personal and
cultural experiences
Language & Vocabulary

Understanding
metaphors

 “He put his foot in his mouth”
 “I am tied up all day at the office”
 “He left under a cloud of suspicion”
Adjusting vocabulary to
context

 The pragmatics (the practical use) of language
 Understanding how tone of voice, word selection and
context may override the literal content of the speech.
 Older persons - Formal
 Friends – Informal
 Symbols – Text messaging – abbreviations &
symbols
 E.g. – LOL, BFF, :-D
Differences in language
learning

 What causes come children to learn language at a faster
rate than others?
 Family poverty
 Strong correlation between academic achievement and
socioeconomic status
 What causes this?




Language is a major factor
1. Limited early exposure to words in the family
2. Low teacher & parent expectations
3. Microsystem
 The broader society they interact with (locally and
nationally) can increase (or decrease) the use of more
sophisticated words.
Teaching and learning

The “Hidden
Curriculum”

 Assumptions and expectations implied in the school
setting.
 Varies greatly by country
Learning a second
language

 Immersion
 Speaking the new language the entire day
 (e.g. in a foreign country)
 Bilingual education
 Both languages taught in same classroom
 ESL = English as a Second language
 Classes taught only in English to non-Englishspeaking children
Religious education

 Separation of church and state
 = no religious education in public schools
Gender differences

 “Gender-similarities” hypothesis
 Both sexes are similar on most test measures
 Are differences due to nature, nurture, or a
combination?
U.S. – No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001

 Federal law
 Frequent testing against national standards to
measure school achievement
 Focus is on reading and math
 National Assessment of Educational Progress
 Federally sponsored tests in reading, math, and other
subjects
 No testing by the state = no federal funds
 Creates conflict between local control of curriculum
& national standards
Common Core
Standards Initiative

 Adopted by many states in place of federally
sponsored tests
 Reading, math, science, etc.
Who determines educational
practice?
Recent ideas
for schools
 Charter schools
 Public, not private as indicated in the lecture
 Licenses by the state or local districts
 Use their own set of standards
 Voucher system
 Used for public or private schools
 Encourages competition between schools
 One problem = separation of church and state
