Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms – Chapter 2 – Flashcards
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Development
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Changes that occur in all of us as we go through our lives.
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Physical Development
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Changes in the size, shape, and functioning of our bodies and why we can do different tasks as we age.
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Personal, Social, and Emotional Development
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Changes in our personalities, the way we interact with others, and the ability to manage feelings.
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Maturation
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Genetically driven, age-related changes in individuals.
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Microsystem
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Innermost level of Bronfenbrenner's biological model of human development; the people and activities in our immediate surroundings.
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Mesosystem
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The interactions among the elements in the microsystem. Healthy development depends on how effectively the elements work together.
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Exosystem
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Societal influences such as parents' jobs, schools, and workplace conditions that influence the microsystem and mesosystem.
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Macrosystem
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The culture in which a child develops, and it influences all of the other systems.
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Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development
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The levels of influence the four development systems have on the growth of an individual.
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Neuroplasticity
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The brain's ability to physically remodel itself in response to experience.
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Neurons
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100-200 billion nerve cells that compose the human brain.
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Dendrites
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Relatively short, branchlike structures that extend from the cell body and receive message from other neurons.
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Axons
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Longer branches that also extend from the cell body and transmit messages.
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Synapses
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Tiny spaces between neurons that allow messages to be transmitted from one neuron to another.
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Myelination
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First of two process that occurs in the brain's development. Occurs when cells grow around neurons to provide structural support and a fatty coating of myelin.
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Myelin sheath
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Fatty coating of myelin which develops to insulate axons and enable them to conduct electrical charges quickly and efficiently.
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Synaptic Pruning
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Second of two process that occurs in the brain's development. The physical reorganization as the brain recognizes patterns in our environments.
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The Cerebral Cortex
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Part of the brain that rests on its top and sides. Area where much of the human thinking occurs.
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Prefrontal Cortex
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Located near the forehead. Area largely responsible for a range of complex human activities.
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Equilibrium
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State in which the cognitive order, balance, and predictability that we described in our overview.
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Schemes
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Mental operations that represent our understanding of the world in order to make sense of our experiences and reach equilibrium.
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Assimilation
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The process of using existing schemes to interpret new experiences.
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Accommodation
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The process of changing our thinking to create new schemes or adjust old ones when they can no longer explain new experiences.
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Social Experience
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The process of interacting with other people.
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Stages of development
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General patters of thinking for children at different ages or with different amounts of experience.
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Four stages of development
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Sensorimotor (0-2), Preoperational (2-7), Concrete Operational (7-11), Formal Operational (11-Adult)
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Object Permanence
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Understanding that objects exist while out of sight.
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Conservation
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The idea that the amount of some substance stays the same regardless of its shape or number of pieces in which it is divided.
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Centration
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Tendency to focus on the most perceptually obvious aspect of an object or event and ignore other features.
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Transformation
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The ability to mentally record the process of moving from one state to another.
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Reversibility
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The ability to mentally trace the process of moving from an existing state back to a previous state.
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Egocentrism
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Inability to see objects and events from others' perspectives.
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Classification
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The process of grouping objects on the basis of common characteristics.
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Seriation
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The ability to order objects according to increasing or decreasing length, weight, or volume.
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Transitivity
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The ability to infer a relationship between two objects based on their relationship with a third.
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Neo-Piagetian Theories of Development
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Basic insights from Pieget while focusing more on the ways people process information to explain movement from one stage to the next.
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Sociocultural Theory of Development
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Emphasizes the role of social interaction, language, and culture on the child's developing mind.
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Cognitive Tools
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Used to understand the concepts and symbols together with real tools that allow people to think, solve problems, and function in a culture.
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Internalization
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The process through which learners incorporate external, society-based ideas into internal cognitive structures.
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Private Speech
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Self-talk that guides thinking and action.
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Zones of Proximal Development
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Range of tasks that an individual cannot yet do alone but can accomplish when assisted by others.
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Scaffolding
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Assistance that helps children complete tasks they cannot accomplish independently.
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Nativist Theory
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Emphasizes heredity and suggests that all humans are genetically wired to learn language.
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Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
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Innate, genetically controlled tool which predisposes children to learn the rules governing language.
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Overgeneralization
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Occurs when a child uses a word to a refer to a broader class of objects than is appropriate.
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Undergeneralization
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Occurs when a child uses a word too narrowly.
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Semantics
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Branch of linguistics that examines the meanings of words.
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Syntax
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The rules we use to create meaningful sentences.
