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 4thgraders, 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.
c.
d.
e.
long term memory
perception
meaningfulness
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.
b.
c.
d.
authentic task and context
authentic task and information processing
meaningfulness and encoding
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.