1
Q
What is the CNS?
A
Art of the nervous system that include the brain and the spinal chord which process and coordinate all information
2
Q
What is the PNS?
A
Part of the nervous system that connects the CNS to the rest of the body through a network of nerves
3
Q
What are neurones? What are the different parts and their functions?
A
- groups of cells that make up the nerves. The nervous system is made up of neurones.
- these transmit info in the form of electrical impulses.
- cell body: contains nucleus
- dendrites: receive info/ signals
- axon: send messages away from cell body
4
Q
How do messages travel between neurons?
A
- travel across the gap called synapse
- using neurotransmitters
- receptors on the receiving neurons are shaped to fit specific neurotransmitters, ensuring accurate communication between cells
5
Q
What happens in the pre natal stage of development?
A
- brain develops around 16 days after fertilisation when the neural tube forms
6
Q
What happens by week 3 of the pre natal stage?
A
The fore-, mid-, and hindbrain fuse together
7
Q
What happens by week 8 of pre natal stage?
A
- the neural tube has developed into the brain and spinal cord
8
Q
What happens between weeks 6 and 20 of pre natal stage?
A
-New brain cells (neurones) form rapidly
- these neurones migrate rapidly to their correct locations to form key brain reigon such as cerebral cortex
9
Q
What does cerebral cortex control?
A
Thoughts, intelligence, movement
10
Q
What happens by 5 months of the pre natal stage?
A
Synapses being to form, allowing neurons to communicate
11
Q
What happens by the second trimester of the pre natal stage?
A
- foetus can respond to sound
- brain growth continues until birth
12
Q
What happens in the pre natal stage by the time a baby is born?
A
100 billion neurone are already in place
13
Q
What are factors that can affect pre natal brain development?
A
- exposure to substances such as alcohol can disrupt neural connections
- lead to foetal alcohol syndrome
- this can cause memory or learning problems after birth
14
Q
What happens to the brain after birth?
A
- brain continues to grow rapidly and form around 1000 new neural connections per second
15
Q
What append by age four of childhood in terms of brain development?
A
- number of synapses in some areas such as the visual cortex nearly doubles compared to adulthood
16
Q
What happens to the pre-frontal cortex in childhood stag of development?
A
-It’s particularly active which allows children to understand cause and effect
- decision making and memory
17
Q
What happens to the brain during later childhood?
A
- unnecessary neural connections are pruned
- making the brain more efficient
18
Q
What is neural pruning?
A
When unused or redundant neurones are removed to make the brain more efficient
19
Q
What happens to the brain during adolescence?
A
- major changes occur in the grey matter found on the surface of the brain
- limbic system matures before the pre frontal cortex
- this delay explains why teenagers are risk takers and emotional
- frontal love continues to develop until it reaches maturity around 16 years old
20
Q
What is grey matter?
A
Composed of cell bodies of neurones, nerve fibres and support cells
21
Q
What happens in the adulthood stage of development?
A
- by around 25 the pre frontal cortex fully matures and improves rational decision making and reduces impulsivity
22
Q
What happens in the later stages of adulthood?
A
- brain function may decline due to loss of neurone
23
Q
What are neurodegenerative diseases?
A
- chronic condition
- cells in the nervous systems and neurones gradually loose function and die over time
- this can cause memory loss, impaired thinking and reduced motor control
24
Q
What is intelligence?
A
Our ability and potential to learn, think and solve problems
25
What do IQ tests do?
- measure intelligence
- give a numerical score to represent a persons cognitive abilities
26
Who was Alfred Binet?
- one of the first psychologists to design a test measuring intelligence
- early 1990s
- asked to identify children who might struggle in school so they could get extra help by the French government
27
What did Binet create? What did he conclude?
- test that measured memory, attention, and problem solving skills
- these tests could measure certain abilities BUT intelligence is far more complex than a single score
28
Whats an example of a modern IQ test and what age range are they used for?
- Wechsler Intelligence scale for children (WISC)
- children aged 6-16
- asses abilities such as verbal reasoning, working memory, and processing speed
29
What are the uses of IQ tests?
- identify children who need extra educational support OR challenge
- compare intellectual abilities across different groups/ individuals
- identify learning difficulties such as dyslexia/ ADHD
30
How have IQ tests been misused as a form of social control?
- Robert Yerkes during the First World War in the USA used IQ tests to screen for army recruits
- some were recent immigrants who knew nothing about American culture
31
What were the different tests of Yerkes army IQ tests?
- over 1.75 million US army recruits were tested
- alpha version: written test for literate recruits
- beta test: pictorial test for illiterate recruits
- individual test: spoken version for those who failed beta test
32
What did Yerke claim about his tests?
- they were fair, reliable and not affected by education/ cultural background
33
Criticisms of Yerkes IQ tests?
- culturally and linguistically biased as they relied on knowledge of American culture, language and lifestyle (e.g. US brands)
- Illiterate and non-English speaking requires were given Alpha test they couldn’t complete so they were disadvantaged
- Results misinterpreted to claim that Sothern and Eastern Europeans and black Americans were less intelligent —> reinforced racial prejudice
34
What policies did Yerkes IQ tests lead to? Consequences?
- findings were misused to justify restrictive immigration policies such as the 1924 Immigration act
- limited entry to certain ethnic groups, preventing many refugees from escaping persecution
35
What did Williams suggest in his book?
- knowledge must be meaningful
- teachers must ensure that when teaching knowledge or facts to students they create links between information rather than giving them lists of facts to memorise
- e.g. instead of giving children a list of kings and queens to memorise they must explain how they came to the throne
36
What is most important for learning according to willingham? Why?
-The meaning of material is more important than trying to teach children using their preferred learning style
- children will be more likely to learn the info more deeply and recall it from their LTM
37
What did willinham believe about “drilling” information?
- boring
- makes students dislike school
38
What did willingham suggest about homework?
- they should be careful about what they set
- consider if the homework will benefit students as the work will affect what they remember
39
What did willingham believe about making information relevant to the students personal interests?
- the haters shouldn’t worry about making the conent meet their personal interests and it actually doesn’t improve their learning
- knowledge should be meaningful and engage learners
40
What did willingham say about carrying science experiments?
- students are unable to think like actual scientists/ historians because they would need years of study and experience
- teachers must think carefully bot the benefits of carrying experiments
41
Critisims on Williams theory of meaning for learning?
- many teachers and lecturesrs would disagree with his view that there’s little benefit in students trying to be like scientists/ historians: they need to learn about the issues involved in conducting reasearch such as controlling EVs and ensuring replicability
- certain things might benefit drilling: such as learning timestables by chanting them which helps access and recall this info which helps with their metal arithmetic skills (not suitable for all but beneficial)
- Dwek and Willinghams theories both favour nurture over nature: willing ham suggests that if method of learning suits the content learners will do well but ignore some innate factors such as how some children’s brains may be wired differently so need to be taught in a specific way to assist their learning.
- ignores how some children’s brains may are kinaesthetic learners because thats how they were taught at school when they were vey young. They have been conditioned this way so continuing to learn as such will be beneficial
42
background on Blackwell, Trzesniewski and Dwek study into intelligence predicting achievement across adolescent transition?
- many changes during adolescence: physical maturation, changing demands from society and academic expectations, complex relationships
- In the USA transition from elementary school to junior high (around 12 years) presents many challenges: more competitive environment, social comparison, decades in choice and descision making at a time where adolescents aim for more control
- motivational model of achievement have been developed to help us understand why some succeed under pressure and some students don’t
- Dweck and Leggat suggest students may have diffrent beliefs about their intelligentce, its either fixed and unchangble (entity theory) or legible (incremental theory)
- Henderson and Dweck found students with belief in flexibility of intelligence gained higher grades in first year of junior high.
- arson, good and Inzlicht found an inetrvation teaching students that intelligence can be changed led to a significant improvement in test scores than students in a control group
- study wanted to investigate whether students perception of their intelligence had a lasting effect on their performance across junior high
43
Aim of blackwells study 1:
To see whether theories of intelligence correlate with academic achievement in maths to test the impact of academic intervention
44
Hypothesis of Blackwell study 1?
There will be a relationship between 7th grade students theories of intelligence (fixed/ growth mindset) and achievement grades on a standardised mathematics test
45
Methods of Blackwell study 1?
- longitudinal: over 5 years
- correlational field study investigating students theories of intelligence and achievement related beliefs as well as achievements in maths as they progressed through 7th and 8th grade
- natural setting: their school in NY
46
What were the variables in Blackwells study 1?
- students theories of intelligence
- students achievement related beliefs
- maths achievements in 7th and 8th grade
47
Sample of Blackwell study 1?
- 373 students (198 female and 175 male)
- from four successive 7th grade classes at a public secondary school in NYC
- data from four cohorts was combined for the presentation of their results
- ethnically varied, and also varried in achievements and socioeconomic status (SES)
- 205 African American, 101 South Asian, 56 Hispanic, 11 East Asian and European American
48
Materials for Blackwells study 1?
- scores on a standardised maths achievement test taken in the spring of 6th grade (still at elementary) and used as a baseline to compare later tests
- standardised maths test to measure achievement in autumn and spring terms of 7th and 8th grade
- motivational questionnaire which was scored on a likert scale from 1 (strongly agree) and 6 (strongly disagree)
49
what did the motivational questionnaire asses?
1) theory of intelligence: “you can always greatly change how intelligent you are” or another
2) learning goals: “doing school work it’s important because i like to learn”
3) effort beliefs: “the harder you work, the better you will be at it” or “when i work hard at school i dont feel very smart”
4) helpless responses to failure: given a scenario and asked what they would do in that situation (thinking you like a subject and know it very well, doing a test that you tink went okay but you only studied a medium amount, you actually needed up getting an F. Hw would you react? How would you justify your grade?)
50
Dweck study 1 procedure?
- informed consent obtained from parents and students and they had the right to withdraw at any time.
- completed motivational questionnaire at the beginning of 7th grade
- questionnaires given by trained reasearch assistants during normal lesson time, had the permission of the teachers
- participants had one student in seventh grade and another during eighth grade
- maths teaching at the school was not unusual compared to other schools
51
Dweck study 1 results?
- no significant correlation between theory of intelligence and other motivational scores and maths test scores when measured at the start of seventh grade
- when participants tested in the autumn of seventh grade and spring term of eighth grade theories of intelligence became a significant predictor of maths achievement.
- participants who believed they could change their intelligence showed greater improvement on the maths test than those who believed their IQ was fixed at birth.
52
Blackwell study 2 hypothesis?
Students who are TAUGHT to think that intelligence is malleable show more positive motivation in the classroom and achieve more highly than students who were not taught that intelligence is malleable.
53
Blackwell study 2 method?
- correlational field study with an experimental section
- IMD
- research took place in public secondary school in NYC
54
IV and DV in Blackwell study 2?
- IV: whether participant was in the incremental theory intervention group or control group (not given)
- DV: levels of motivation and achievements on maths test
55
Blackwell study 2 participants?
- 99 pps (49 female and 50 male) from 7th grade
- varried ethnicity and SES
- voluntary participation and consent obtained in advance from students and parents
- 91/99 who took part in questionnaire study continued to the intervention study (48 in experimental group and 43 in control group)
56
Materials for Blackwells study?
- sixth grade maths grades used as baseline
- motivational questionnaire (same as study 1). For theory of intelligence became
57
Blackwell study 2 procedure?
- all pps completed motivational questionaire at the start of autumn of 7th grade
- pps randomly assigned to intervention group/ control group
- both groups given opportunity to take part in 8 week voluntary workshop on the brain that would help them with study skills
- key message taught to intervention group: “learning changes the brain by forming new connections and students are in charge of this process”
- lesson for control group: on memory, and discussed various relevant areas of academic interest
58
Blackwell procedure 2?
- 16 undergraduate students recruited and trained as mentors for participants. Some trained to teach motivational workshops
- others mentored the control group and were trained to teach an alternative workshop on the structure of memory
- at the end of eight week course students were given a multiple choice quiz on the content of the workshops
- three weeks after the last of the eight sessions participants were given the motivational questionnaire
- maths teacher was asked to write a report on any students who had shown changes in their motivational behaviour
- comments were coded as whether change occurred in motivational behaviour was a positive one
- teachers did not know which students received interventions
- participants maths grades recorded in the autumn of seventh grade and spring of eighth grade
59
Results of Blackwell study 2?
- multiple choice quiz: no difference in recall of general content taught to both groups between the two groups
- experimental group scored significantly higher than control group on questions that tested the incremental theory content
- motivational (theory of intelligence) questionnaire: participants who had been in the intervention group showed more significant change in their theory of intelligence and showed more positive mindset. no change for participants in the control group.
- teacher report: 27% of students in intervention group were reported as showing more positive mindset compared to only 9% of control group
- maths grades: higher grades in autumn and spring for participants in intervention group. They also showed no decline in grades which was found before the intervention and in the participants of the control group.
60
Conclusions of Blackwells study 2?
- a positive effect on motivation is seen for students with a growth mindset since they hold more positive beliefs about effort.
- students with a growth mindset choose more positive, effort based strategies to respond to failure compared to fixed mindset
- teaching students that intelligence is flexible has a positive effect on their motivation and achievement in maths during transition between elementary to juniour high school
- reasearch provides compelling evidence for schools to endorse incremental theory to help students reach their full potential
61
Criticism of Dwecks study?
- sample is culturally biased so results may not be representative to other states/ countries. studies 1 and 2 took place in separate schools in NYC so it might be that something in the specific education system in NYC effected results. It would need to be replicated in other states/ countries to be able to reliable state that growth mindset has a + effect on achievement
-in study 2 the participants were taught that the terms “stupid” and “dumb” are forms of stereotyping. This extra info could have created a sense of unity with the class and faceted their motivation —> a confounding variable
- although there were significant differences between the groups the impact of the actual effect was relatively small even though researchers argue that even small effects can have a large impact over time.
- reductionist: only focused on the students mindset—> if both parents and teachers believe that intelligence isn’t fixed that might reinforce the belief in the students
62
What was Piaget theories applied to?
- the 1967 Plowden report on primary education
- this report explained to educators the invariant stages
- since this report teachers adapt their teaching based on Piaget theories
63
What have Piaget stages of development been linked to?
- different key stages in learning
64
What is readiness?
- children arent ready to learn in certain ways until they reach a relevant stage of development
- e.g. a child in the concrete operational stage would be unable to work outa maths question in their head since they haven’t developed abstract thinking
- teachers must ensure they ask students questions in a way that mirrors their developmental stage
65
What should children in the sensory motor take be given?
- simple toys such as a rattle so child can learn to grasp, shake and learn that it makes a sound
66
What should children in the pre-op stage do?
- be given dressing up clothes for role playing
- helps develop symbolic play (playing make believe)
67
What should children in the concrete operational stage stage be given?
- learning too cook helps them develop skill of conservation
- as they pour ingredients into diffrent containers
68
What should children in te formal operational stage be given?
- hypothetical situations to debate to develop hypothetical thinking
69
What did Piaget suggest about active learning?
- children need to be active learners like “little scientists”
- idea used in classroom today, know as “discovery learning”
- play is an important part of active learning
- progress shouldn’t be assessed by what’s measurable (e.g. if child is making a cake teacher can measure how well they made the cake but equally the child has learned a lot about what it takes to make a cake) —> learning problem solving and creative thinking
70
What is the concept of intelligence? In Piaget view
- he believed intelligence was innate and developed naturally as children interacted with the environment and accommodated and assimilated new info into their schemas
- suggested that children’s intelligence matures as they pass through four stages of cognitive development
- this makes it important for teachers to understand which stage of cognitive development a child is in so teachers can base their lessons around this.
71
What is growth mindset applied to education?
- educators must learn from Dweacs theory that making assumptions about a studs abilities through their IQ prevents them from reaching their full potential —> shifted view of education that IQ was fixed and unable to be grown
- teachers set small but doable tasks to students can feel they’re making progress, the feeling of achievement can encourage them to have a growth mindset
- whilst encouraging trying hard teachers must give students the right tools and strategies to succeed, otherwise they wouldn’t have a growth mindset
- effort must be praised over intelligence to help develop a growth mindset
72
Application: meaning over learning styles?
- curent evidence shows that schools shouldn’t focus on the idea of learning styles because they dont work
- teachers should use more affective methods in supporting progress rather than differentiating lessons to suit particular learning styles
- willingham suggests that teachers should focus on the meaning of info.
Psychology
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