Title: Educational Psychology — LearnCoachAssist

Q: What is constructivism in education?
A: Constructivism is a learning theory stating that learners actively construct their own understanding and knowledge through experiences, rather than passively receiving information.

Q: Who is considered the founder of cognitive constructivism?
A: Jean Piaget is considered the founder of cognitive constructivism, emphasizing that children build knowledge through interaction with their environment.

Q: What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?
A: Sensorimotor (0–2 years), Preoperational (2–7 years), Concrete Operational (7–11 years), and Formal Operational (11+ years).

Q: What is assimilation in Piaget's theory?
A: Assimilation is the process of incorporating new information into existing cognitive schemas without changing the schema itself.

Q: What is accommodation in Piaget's theory?
A: Accommodation is the process of modifying existing schemas or creating new ones in response to new information that doesn't fit current understanding.

Q: What is equilibration according to Piaget?
A: Equilibration is the self-regulatory process by which learners balance assimilation and accommodation to achieve cognitive stability.

Q: What is social constructivism?
A: Social constructivism holds that knowledge is co-constructed through social interaction and cultural contexts, building on the ideas of Vygotsky.

Q: How does social constructivism differ from Piaget's cognitive constructivism?
A: Social constructivism emphasizes collaborative learning and cultural tools, while Piaget's cognitive constructivism focuses on individual cognitive development through personal exploration.

Q: What is behaviorism in education?
A: Behaviorism is a learning theory that focuses on observable behaviors and the ways they are learned through conditioning, rather than internal mental states.

Q: Who is B.F. Skinner and what is his contribution to education?
A: B.F. Skinner developed the theory of operant conditioning, showing that behavior can be shaped through reinforcement and punishment.

Q: What is operant conditioning?
A: Operant conditioning is a learning process in which behavior is modified by its consequences—reinforcements increase behavior, punishments decrease it.

Q: What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement?
A: Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus to increase behavior; negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus to increase behavior.

Q: What is classical conditioning and who developed it?
A: Classical conditioning, developed by Ivan Pavlov, is a learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

Q: Give an example of classical conditioning in a classroom.
A: A student who had a negative experience during a math test may feel anxiety (conditioned response) whenever they see a math test paper (conditioned stimulus).

Q: What is a schedule of reinforcement?
A: A schedule of reinforcement is a rule that determines when and how often a behavior is reinforced, such as fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, or variable-interval.

Q: What is Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?
A: The ZPD is the gap between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable other.

Q: Who was Lev Vygotsky?
A: Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who emphasized the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development, best known for the ZPD concept.

Q: What is a "More Knowledgeable Other" (MKO) in Vygotsky's theory?
A: An MKO is anyone who has a higher level of understanding than the learner on a particular task—such as a teacher, peer, or even a computer program.

Q: How is scaffolding related to the ZPD?
A: Scaffolding provides temporary support within a learner's ZPD, gradually removed as the learner gains competence, enabling independent mastery.

Q: What is growth mindset?
A: Growth mindset, proposed by Carol Dweck, is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence.

Q: What is fixed mindset according to Carol Dweck?
A: A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence and talent are static, innate traits that cannot be significantly changed through effort.

Q: How does praising effort differ from praising intelligence in Dweck's research?
A: Praising effort encourages a growth mindset and resilience, while praising intelligence fosters a fixed mindset and avoidance of challenges.

Q: What is intrinsic motivation?
A: Intrinsic motivation is the drive to engage in an activity for its own sake because it is inherently interesting, enjoyable, or satisfying.

Q: What is extrinsic motivation?
A: Extrinsic motivation is the drive to perform an activity in order to obtain an external reward or avoid a punishment, rather than for the activity itself.

Q: What is the overjustification effect?
A: The overjustification effect occurs when external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, causing a person to lose interest in an activity they previously enjoyed.

Q: How can teachers foster intrinsic motivation in students?
A: Teachers can foster intrinsic motivation by offering autonomy, relevance, choice, and optimal challenge while minimizing controlling external rewards.

Q: What is metacognition?
A: Metacognition is thinking about one's own thinking—the awareness and regulation of one's cognitive processes, including planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning.

Q: What are the two main components of metacognition?
A: The two components are metacognitive knowledge (what you know about your own cognition) and metacognitive regulation (how you control your cognitive processes).

Q: Why is metacognition important for learners?
A: Metacognition helps learners become self-directed, enabling them to identify effective strategies, monitor comprehension, and adjust their approach when needed.

Q: Give an example of a metacognitive strategy.
A: A student pausing after reading a paragraph to ask themselves "Did I understand that?" and re-reading if necessary is using metacognitive monitoring.

Q: What is Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences?
A: Gardner proposed that intelligence is not a single general ability but consists of at least eight distinct intelligences, each representing different ways of processing information.

Q: Name four of Gardner's multiple intelligences.
A: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, and Bodily-Kinesthetic are four of Gardner's eight intelligences.

Q: What are the other four of Gardner's multiple intelligences?
A: Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic intelligence.

Q: How can teachers apply multiple intelligences theory in the classroom?
A: Teachers can design lessons that engage diverse modalities—such as music, movement, visuals, group work, and reflection—to reach learners with different intelligence strengths.

Q: What is dyslexia?
A: Dyslexia is a specific learning disability characterized by difficulty with accurate and fluent word recognition, poor spelling, and decoding abilities, despite adequate intelligence.

Q: What is ADHD and how does it affect learning?
A: ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting attention, impulse control, and activity levels, which can impair focus and academic performance.

Q: What is dyscalculia?
A: Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability that affects a person's ability to understand numbers, math facts, and mathematical reasoning.

Q: What classroom accommodations help students with dyslexia?
A: Helpful accommodations include audiobooks, extra time on tests, multisensory reading instruction, and the use of assistive technology like text-to-speech tools.

Q: What strategies support students with ADHD in the classroom?
A: Effective strategies include structured routines, frequent breaks, clear instructions, preferential seating, and breaking tasks into smaller steps.

Q: What is Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)?
A: SEL is the process through which students develop skills in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Q: What are the five core competencies of SEL according to CASEL?
A: The five competencies are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Q: Why is SEL important in schools?
A: SEL improves academic achievement, reduces behavioral problems, and promotes positive mental health and prosocial behavior in students.

Q: How can SEL be integrated into academic instruction?
A: Teachers can integrate SEL through cooperative learning, class discussions about emotions, conflict resolution activities, and modeling empathetic communication.

Q: What is the Montessori method?
A: The Montessori method, developed by Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach emphasizing self-directed activity, hands-on learning, and collaborative play.

Q: What are key principles of Montessori education?
A: Key principles include mixed-age classrooms, student choice of activity, uninterrupted work periods, and specially designed learning materials.

Q: What role does the teacher play in a Montessori classroom?
A: In Montessori, the teacher acts as a guide or facilitator who observes children and prepares the environment rather than delivering direct instruction.

Q: What is the "prepared environment" in Montessori education?
A: The prepared environment is a carefully organized classroom designed to promote independence and exploration, with accessible, developmentally appropriate materials.

Q: What is cognitive load theory?
A: Cognitive load theory, developed by John Sweller, describes how the limited capacity of working memory affects learning and instructional design.

Q: What are the three types of cognitive load?
A: The three types are intrinsic (complexity of the material), extraneous (poor instructional design), and germane (effort devoted to learning and schema building).

Q: How can teachers reduce extraneous cognitive load?
A: Teachers can reduce extraneous load by eliminating unnecessary information, using clear visuals, integrating text with diagrams, and avoiding split-attention effects.

Q: What is the split-attention effect in cognitive load theory?
A: The split-attention effect occurs when learners must mentally integrate multiple sources of information that are physically or temporally separated, increasing extraneous load.

Q: What are Erikson's stages of psychosocial development?
A: Erik Erikson proposed eight stages of development, each defined by a psychosocial conflict: from Trust vs. Mistrust in infancy to Integrity vs. Despair in late adulthood.

Q: Which Erikson stage is most relevant to elementary-age children?
A: Industry vs. Inferiority (ages 6–12), where children develop a sense of competence through mastering skills and receiving encouragement.

Q: Which Erikson stage is most relevant to adolescents?
A: Identity vs. Role Confusion (ages 12–18), where teenagers explore different roles and develop a sense of personal identity.

Q: How can teachers support students in Erikson's "Industry vs. Inferiority" stage?
A: Teachers can provide meaningful tasks, positive feedback, and opportunities for mastery to help students build confidence and avoid feelings of inferiority.

Q: What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
A: Maslow's hierarchy is a motivational theory with five levels: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, arranged from basic to higher-order needs.

Q: How does Maslow's hierarchy apply to education?
A: Students cannot focus on higher-order learning if their basic needs (food, safety, belonging) are unmet; schools must address the whole child to enable academic success.

Q: What does self-actualization mean in Maslow's framework?
A: Self-actualization is the realization of one's full potential, creativity, and personal growth—the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy.

Q: How can schools address students' safety needs according to Maslow?
A: Schools can create predictable routines, anti-bullying policies, and supportive relationships to ensure students feel physically and emotionally safe.

Q: What is Self-Determination Theory (SDT)?
A: SDT, developed by Deci and Ryan, proposes that people are motivated when three basic psychological needs are met: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Q: What is autonomy in Self-Determination Theory?
A: Autonomy is the need to feel in control of one's own behavior and goals, experiencing a sense of choice and volition in learning activities.

Q: What is competence in Self-Determination Theory?
A: Competence is the need to feel effective and capable when interacting with the environment and mastering tasks.

Q: What is relatedness in Self-Determination Theory?
A: Relatedness is the need to feel connected to others, experiencing a sense of belonging and warm relationships with peers and teachers.

Q: How can teachers support autonomy in the classroom?
A: Teachers can support autonomy by offering meaningful choices, minimizing controlling language, and explaining the rationale behind tasks.

Q: What is attribution theory in education?
A: Attribution theory, notably developed by Bernard Weiner, examines how individuals explain the causes of success and failure and how these explanations affect motivation.

Q: What are the three dimensions of causal attributions?
A: The three dimensions are locus of control (internal vs. external), stability (stable vs. unstable), and controllability (controllable vs. uncontrollable).

Q: How do attributions affect student motivation?
A: Students who attribute failure to lack of effort (internal, unstable, controllable) are more motivated than those who attribute it to lack of ability (internal, stable, uncontrollable).

Q: What is a maladaptive attribution pattern?
A: A maladaptive pattern involves attributing success to external, uncontrollable factors (like luck) and failure to internal, stable factors (like low ability), leading to learned helplessness.

Q: What is schema theory?
A: Schema theory proposes that knowledge is organized into mental frameworks called schemas that help individuals process, store, and retrieve information.

Q: How do schemas affect learning?
A: Schemas help learners organize new information, make predictions, and fill in gaps, but they can also lead to misconceptions if existing schemas are inaccurate.

Q: What is schema activation in teaching?
A: Schema activation involves connecting new content to students' prior knowledge, such as using advance organizers or KWL charts before a lesson.

Q: What happens when new information conflicts with existing schemas?
A: This creates cognitive dissonance, which can lead to schema modification through accommodation—updating or restructuring the existing schema.

Q: What is transfer of learning?
A: Transfer of learning is the application of knowledge or skills learned in one context to new and different situations.

Q: What is the difference between near and far transfer?
A: Near transfer applies learning to similar contexts (e.g., similar math problems), while far transfer applies learning to very different contexts (e.g., using math in science).

Q: What is positive transfer vs. negative transfer?
A: Positive transfer occurs when prior learning facilitates new learning; negative transfer occurs when prior learning interferes with new learning.

Q: How can teachers promote transfer of learning?
A: Teachers can promote transfer by teaching for understanding rather than memorization, using diverse examples, and helping students identify underlying principles.

Q: What is scaffolding in education?
A: Scaffolding is a teaching strategy that provides temporary, structured support to students as they develop new skills, gradually removed as competence increases.

Q: Who introduced the concept of scaffolding in education?
A: The term was introduced by Jerome Bruner, David Wood, and Gail Ross, inspired by Vygotsky's ZPD concept.

Q: Give three examples of scaffolding techniques.
A: Examples include modeling a procedure, providing graphic organizers, and offering sentence starters or prompts for writing tasks.

Q: When should scaffolding be removed?
A: Scaffolding should be gradually faded as the student demonstrates increasing independence and mastery of the skill or concept.

Q: What is the information processing model of learning?
A: The information processing model compares the mind to a computer, describing how information flows through sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory.

Q: What is sensory memory in the information processing model?
A: Sensory memory is the brief, initial recording of sensory information (lasting less than a few seconds) that filters what enters working memory through attention.

Q: What is working memory and what are its limitations?
A: Working memory is the cognitive system that temporarily holds and manipulates information; it is limited to approximately 7 ± 2 items and lasts about 20–30 seconds without rehearsal.

Q: What is long-term memory?
A: Long-term memory is the relatively permanent storage of information with essentially unlimited capacity, organized into declarative (facts) and procedural (skills) knowledge.

Q: What is encoding in the information processing model?
A: Encoding is the process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in long-term memory, enhanced by strategies like elaboration and organization.

Q: What are effective rehearsal strategies for long-term retention?
A: Effective strategies include elaborative rehearsal (connecting new info to existing knowledge), spaced practice, and retrieval practice rather than simple rote repetition.

Q: What is self-efficacy according to Bandura?
A: Self-efficacy is an individual's belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task, as defined by Albert Bandura.

Q: What are Bandura's four sources of self-efficacy?
A: The four sources are mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological/emotional states.

Q: Why are mastery experiences the most powerful source of self-efficacy?
A: Mastery experiences provide direct evidence of one's ability to succeed; past success builds confidence, while repeated failure undermines it.

Q: How do vicarious experiences influence self-efficacy?
A: Watching similar others succeed at a task raises the observer's belief that they too can succeed, especially when the model is perceived as similar in ability.

Q: How can teachers build students' self-efficacy?
A: Teachers can build self-efficacy by providing achievable challenges, specific feedback, peer modeling, and helping students manage test anxiety.

Q: What is Bandura's social learning theory?
A: Bandura's social learning theory states that people learn through observation, imitation, and modeling, not just through direct reinforcement.

Q: What is the concept of reciprocal determinism?
A: Reciprocal determinism is Bandura's concept that behavior, personal factors, and the environment all interact and influence each other in a continuous cycle.

Q: What is learned helplessness and how does it relate to education?
A: Learned helplessness occurs when students believe their actions have no effect on outcomes, leading to passivity and disengagement; it is linked to maladaptive attributions.

Q: What is the difference between formative and summative assessment in educational psychology?
A: Formative assessment monitors learning during instruction to provide ongoing feedback; summative assessment evaluates learning at the end of a unit or course.

Q: What is Bloom's Taxonomy and why is it important?
A: Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical framework of cognitive skills—from Remembering to Creating—used to design learning objectives that promote higher-order thinking.

Q: What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in Self-Determination Theory?
A: SDT views motivation on a continuum: intrinsic motivation is fully autonomous and self-driven, while extrinsic motivation ranges from external regulation to integrated, internalized forms.

Q: What is the spacing effect in learning?
A: The spacing effect shows that distributing study sessions over time leads to better long-term retention than massing practice into a single session (cramming).

Q: What is the testing effect (retrieval practice)?
A: The testing effect demonstrates that actively recalling information from memory strengthens learning more effectively than simply re-reading or reviewing material.

Q: What is cognitive apprenticeship?
A: Cognitive apprenticeship is a teaching model where experts make thinking processes visible through modeling, coaching, scaffolding, and fading to help learners develop cognitive skills.

Q: How does Piaget's concept of disequilibrium promote learning?
A: Disequilibrium creates a state of cognitive conflict when new information doesn't fit existing schemas, motivating the learner to accommodate and restructure understanding.