Developmental Psychology: Chapter 12

Concrete Operational Thinking Limitations

-Children remain tied to concrete, physical reality -They are unable to understand truly abstract or hypothetical questions or ones that involve formal logic

Crystallized Intelligence

-The accumulation of information, skills, and strategies that people have learned through experience and that they can apply in problem-solving situations

Expansion of Cognitive Abilities

*Cognitive AbilitiesBroaden=Handle more varied tasks *At the same time, children's thinking is still not fully adult-like -People hear sophisticated things and quote them, but can't back them up

Information Processing Approaches

-Children become increasingly sophisticated in their handling of information as they get older -Like computers, they can process more data as the size of their memory increases and the "programs" they use to process information become increasingly sophisticated -You can process more information in bigger chunks as you get older

How Many in the School-Age Population are Considered Disabled

-1 to 3%

Mild Intellectual Disability

-90% of the intellectually disabled have relatively minor levels of deficit -They score in the range of 50-70 on IQ tests -Typically, their retardation is not even identified before they reach school, although their early development is often slower than average -Once they enter elementary school, their retardation and their need for special attention usually become apparent -With appropriate training, these students can ultimately reach a 3-6th grade educational level, and although they cannot carry out complex intellectual tasks, they are able to hold jobs and function independently and successfully

The Bell Curve Controversy

-A book written by Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein that argued that intelligence is primarily due to heredity rather than to the environment -Therefore, the 15 point difference between whites and blacks is due to environment -They argued that IQ differences count of the higher rates of poverty, lower employment, and higher use of welfare among minority groups as compared with majority groups -Sparked research that indicated that environmental differences largely determine intelligence

Intellectual Disability

-A disability categorized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills

Subculture

-A group within a larger more encompassing culture Ex. We can consider particular racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, etc. -Can have substantial impact on education

Educational Trends

-Academics have shifted from emphasizing social well-being/allowing students to choose topics based on their interests -Instead, set curriculum focused on three R's (reading, writing, and arithmetic) -Children and teachers are required to take tests to determine their competence, on a national level -Schools have more diverse student populations in the U.S., which means that schools have paid increased attention to issues involving student diversity and multiculturalism Ex. The number of Hispanics has increased in the U.S., which may make non-Hispanic Caucasians a minority some day

Steinberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

-According to this model, intelligence consists of three aspects of information processing: the componential element, the experiental element, and the contextual element -People vary in the degree to which each of these three elements is present *Our level of success at any given task reflects the match between the task and our own specific pattern of strength on the three components of intelligence Componential Aspect: reflects how efficiently people can process and analyze information *Efficiency in these areas allows people to infer relationships among different parts of a problem, and then evaluate their solution *People who are strong on the componential element score highest on traditional tests of intelligence Experiental Element: People who have a strong experiential element can easily compare new material with what they already know and can combine and relate facts that they already know in novel and creative ways Contextual Element: Concerns practical intelligence, or ways of dealing with the demands of the everyday environment

Code Based Approaches to Reading

-According to this theory, reading should be taught by presenting the basic skills that underlie reading -Emphasize the components of reading, such as the sounds of letters and their combinations (phonics) and how letters and sounds are combined to make words -They suggest that reading consists of processing the individual components of words, combining them into words, and then using the words to derive the meaning of written sentences and passages

Acceleration

-Allows gifted students to move ahead at their own pace, even if this means skipping to higher grade levels -The materials that students receive under acceleration programs are not necessarily different from what other receive, but they are provided at a faster pace than they would be for the average student -This method works very well, as children excel and can even graduate high school and college early

Homeschooling

-An education alternative in which students are taught by their parents in their own homes

Metamemory

-An understanding about the processes that underlie memory, also ermines and improves during middle childhood -Different ways of categorizing and remembering information can help us remember information Ex. Coming up with pneumonic devices -By the time they enter the first grade and their theory of mind becomes more sophisticated, children have a greater notion of what memory is, and they are able to understand that some people have better memories than others

Critics of Emotional Intelligence Programs

-Argue that the nurturance of emotional intelligence is best left to students' families and that schools ought to concentrate on more traditional curriculum matters -What is acceptalbe in one culture may not be acceptalbe in another, so how can teachers teach emotional inglligence (according to critics) -Others contend that adding emotional intelligence to an already crowded curriculum may reduce time spent on academics -Others argue that there is no well-specified set of criteria for what constitutes emotional intelligence, and consequently it is difficult to develop, appropriate effective curriculum methods

Traditional Belief that Children should not yet attend school if they are younger than most of the other children in their grade

-Because younger children are assumed to be slightly less advanced developmentally than their peers, it has been assumed that such children would be at a competitive disadvantage -In some cases, teachers recommended that students delay entry into kindergarten in order to cope better academically and emotionally

Stage 1 of Reading

-Brings the first real type of reading, but it largely involves phonological recoding skills -At this stage, which usually encompasses the first and second grades, children can sound out words by blending the letters together -Children also complete the job of learning the names of letters and the sounds that go with them

Culture

-Can be thought of as a set of behaviors, beliefs, values and expectations shared by members of a particular society -Education is the cultural process, the way in which each newborn human infant is transformed into a full member of a specific human society

Stage 4 of Reading

-Children are able to read and process information that reflects multiple points of view -This ability, which begins from eighth grade and beyond, permits children to develop a far more sophisticated understanding of material -This explains why great works of literature are not read at an earlier stage of education -It is not so much that younger children do not have the vocabulary to understand such works (although this is partially true); it is that they lack the ability to understand the multiple points of view that sophisticated literature invariably presents

Bilingual Education

-Children are initially taught in their native language, while at the same time learning English -Students are able to develop a strong foundation in base subject areas using their native language, while learning English on the side -The goal of of bilingual education is to gradually increase students' English proficiency while maintaining or improving skills in their native language

Kaufman Assistent Battery for Children

-Children are tested on their ability to integrate different kinds of stimuli simultaneously and to use step-by-step thinking *Breaks thing down in to smaller factors -The test's flexibility allows the person giving the test to use alternative wording and gestures, or even to pose questions in a different language, in order to maximize a test-taker's performance -It is also quite useful for children with learning disabilities and children who belong to minority groups. It can also be effective for children who speak another language besides English, as the KABC-II allows correct answers in Spanish and other languages to be graded and given credit.

How Language Promotes Self-Control

-Children use language to control their behavior -In the marshmallow test, most of the children between ages 4-8 agreed to wait for two marshmallows, but had different methods for waiting -When you talk about your feelings and thoughts, you don't get aggressive because other person stops annoying behavior once you tell them to -Can avoid aggression by telling yourself to calm down. The second you get into school, you tell your teacher; you don't hit someone (no longer acceptable from ages 5-onward) -Language does not causally make you better, but there is correlation Ex. 4 year olds looked at marshmallow, which only served to increase temptation Ex. 6 and 8 year olds used language to help them overcome temptation, either by singing to themselves to remind themselves that if they waited, they would get another marshmallow Ex. The 8 year olds also focused on aspects of the marshmallow that were not related to taste in their songs, reducing temptation -Children used self-talk to help regulate their own behavior *Self-control increased as their linguistic capabilities increased

Brazil Study

-Children were studied who sold fruit, candy, and other products -Although they lacked formal education in mathematics, they were able to make a lot of money by changing prices as a function inn the inflation rate, and could figure out discounts for larger purchases *Shows that culture impacts intelligence, and the types of intelligence you develop

Gifted Definition by Federal Government

-Children who give evidence of high-performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership capacity, or specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to develop such capabilities -Gifted and talented children have so much potential that they, no less than students with low IQ's, warrant special concern---although special school programs are dropped for them when the school faces budgetary issues

Cooperative Learning

-Concept developed around Vygotsky's theories -In which children work together in groups to achieve a communal goal 1) Students benefit from the insights of others, and if they go off on the wrong track, they may be brought back to the correct course by others in their group *Not all children in the group will be equally helpful to members of a cooperative learning group, which is why Vygotsky's approach implies that children benefit most when at least some members of the group are more competent

Control Strategies

-Conscious, intentionally used tactics to improve cognitive processing Ex. School-age children are aware that rehearsal, the repetition of information, is a useful strategy for improving memory, and they increasingly employ it over the course of middle childhood -Similarly, they progressively make more effort to organize material into coherent patterns, a strategy that permits them to recall it better -When remembering a long list of information, they will find effective ways to group the information, such as pnemonics

Rehearsal

-Consistent repetition of information that children wish to remember

Frederick Morrison

-Contradicts traditional idea that children who are younger than majority will suffer in class with slightly older individuals (a year) -He found that children who are among the youngest in the first grade progress at the same rate as the oldest *Although they were slightly behind older first graders in reading, the difference was negligible -It was clear that parents who chose to hold their children back in kindergarten, thereby ensuring that they would be among the oldest in the first grade and after, were not doing their children any favors *These children did no better than their younger classmates *If parents get you ready for school effectively, that's the biggest concern

Cons of Charter Schools

-Critics say that they siphon funds and other resources from traditional public schools, leaving students in those schools with fewer resources -Critics suggest that they may put up barriers for enrollment, either explicitly or implicitly, such as by discouraging the enrollment of low-achieving students or those with special needs -Variable in their effectiveness (some are great and some are awful) because they have different standards (depends on who designed school and curriculum)

Superiority of Code-Based Approaches

-Data suggests that Code-Based Approaches are superior to Whole-Language Approaches -One study revealed that a group of children tutored in phonics for a year not only improved substantially in their reading, compared to a group of good readers, but that the neural pathways involved in reading became closer to those of good readers -The National Reading Panel and National Research Council now support reading instruction using code-based approaches based on this research *This decision may end debate about what approach is better

Intonation

-Tone of voice -School children may have difficulty decoding sentences when the meaning depends on intonation Ex. If the "he" in the sentence "George gave a book to David, and he gave one to Bill," this changes the meaning of the sentence as opposed to if the word "and" is emphasized -Children miss these subtle differences

Reversibility

-Developed during the Concrete Operational Period -The notion that processes transforming a stimulus can be reversed, returning the stimulus to its original form Ex. Ice to water, water to ice; clay can be molded from one shape to the next, and then return back to normal -More abstractly, it allows school-age children to understand that if 3 plus 5 equals 8, then 5 plus 3 also equals 8 (also applies to subtraction)

Cons of Binet

-Did not look at other attributes such as social skills or personality characteristics -Only measured children's mental ages, not physical ages *This creates a problem because it can imply that a 6 year old that thinks like an 8 year old is as smart as a 15 year old that thinks like a 17 year old, when really, the IQ formula, by measuring both mental and chronological age, we see the 6 year old has higher IQ than 15 year old

Transition Between Preoperational and Concrete Operational Thought

-During the 2 years before children move firmly into the concrete operational period, they shift back and forth between preoperational and concrete operational thinking -Preoperational children lack the ability to use operations (organized, formal, logical mental processes) -They can only apply logic to concrete problems, problems that they're already familiar with Ex. They can answer conservation questions correctly, but will not be able to articulate how they came to that conclusion (instead, they will just say "because")

Decentering

-During the Concrete Operational Stage, kids are less egocentric and can take take multiple aspects of a situation into account (opposite of centration) Ex. Kid understands that people have different opinions on subjects than he does Ex. Can look into other factors: even though the green car has a shorter route, the orange car may be driving faster, could have more gas, green car might have to stop for gas

Multicultural Education

-Education in which the goal is to help minority students develop competence in the culture of the majority group while teaching culture of other backgrounds

Lexicon

-Everyone has a personal vocabulary -Words you know

Stage 3 of Reading

-Extends from fourth to eighth grades -Reading becomes a means to an end, in particular, a way to learn -Whereas earlier reading was an accomplishment in and of itself, by this point, children use reading to learn about the world -Even at this age, understanding gained from reading is not complete Ex. One limitation children have at this stage is that they are able to comprehend information only when it is presented from a single perspective

Biological Causes for Retardation

-Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (caused by mother's use of alcohol while pregnant) -Down Syndrome (results from presence of an extra chromosome) -Birth Complications (i.e. temporary lack of oxygen)

Public Schools

-Financed by taxes collected by local municipalities -These schools are free to students, and they are staffed by teachers who are certified by the state in which the school is located

Sensory Memory

-First Stage of Memory Storage -Refers to the initial, momentary storage of information that lasts only an instant -Sensory memory records an exact replica of the stimulus

Pros of Charter Schools

-Flexibility and targeted instruction typical of charter schools may serve their students more effectively than the broader curriculum of most public schools Ex. Children's needs and interests may be targeted more directly in charter school environments

Pluralistic Society Model

-Following Cultural Assimilation Model, the Pluralistic Society Model -According to this conception, American society is made up of diverse, coequal cultural groups that should preserve their individual cultural features -It was believed that the Cultural Assimilation Model devalued minority subcultural heritages and lowered those students' self-esteem *They would not learn about important events in their cultures, just important events in the majority's culture -Educators began to argue that the presence of students representing diverse cultures enriched and broadened the educational experience of all students *Pupils and teachers exposed to people from different backgrounds could better understand the world and gain greater sensitivity to the values and needs of others

Most Commonly Spoken Language in U.S. Other than English or Spanish

-French -German -Vietnamese

Most Commonly Spoken Language in U.S. Other than English or Spanish

-German -French -Vietnamese

Stereotypes Regarding Gifted Children/Fallacies of Stereotypes

-Gifted children, particularly those of high intelligence, are seen as unsociable, poorly adjusted, and neurotic -However, most research suggests that highly intelligent people tend to be outgoing, well adjusted, and popular -One long-term study showed that gifted children smarter than average were healthier, better coordinated, and psychologically better adjusted their less intelligent classmates *They also received more rewards, earned more money, and made many more contributions in art and literature than the average person

Enrichment

-Gifted students are kept at grade level, but are enrolled in special programs and given individual activities to allow greater depth of study on a given topic -In enrichment, the material provided to gifted students differs not only in the timing of its presentation, but also in its sophistication -Thus, enrichment materials are designed to provide an intellectual challenge to the gifted student, encouraging high-order thinking

Binet's Contributions

-He had a pragmatic approach to the construction of intelligence tests, because he did not have theoretical preconceptions about what intelligence was: he simply gave the kids takes and evaluated how they did it *No biases based on preconceived notions *Test developers today use this method who wish to avoid having a singular definition of intelligence -His procedure for constructing an intelligence test ensured that intelligence--defined as performance on the test--and school success would be virtually one and the same *Therefore, modern tests are similarly accurate indicators of intelligence -Binet provided a procedure of linking intelligence test scores with a mental age, the age of children taking the test who, on average, achieved that score *If a 6 year old girl received a score of 30, and this was the average score of 10 year olds, her mental age would be 10 years

How has Vygotsky Influenced Modern Day Teaching Methods

-He has influenced the development of several classroom practices based on the proposition that children should actively participate in their educational experiences -In this approach, classrooms are seen as places where children should have the opportunity to experiment and try out new activities -Vygotsky thought that education should focus on activities that involve interaction with others

Vygotsky's View on Intelligence

-He suggested that to assess intelligence, we should look not only at those cognitive processes that are fully developed, but also at those at are currently being developed -To do this, Vygotsky contended that assessment tasks should involve cooperative interaction between the individual who is being assessed and the person who is doing the assessment--a process called dynamic assessment *In short, intelligence is seen as being reflected not only in how children can perform on their own, but also how well they perform when helped by adults -Vygotsky argued that intelligence needed to be evaluated by looking at culture *What would be considered intelligent behavior would be demonstrated in different ways depending on the culture in which a person lived

Robert Steinberg's Theory of Intelligence

-He suggests that intelligence is best thought of in terms of information processing -In this view, the way in which people store material memory and later use it solve intellectual tasks provides the most precise conception of intelligence -Rather than focus on the various subcomponents that make up the structure of intelligence, information-processing approaches examine the processes that underlie intelligent behavior

Naturalist Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Ability to identify and classify patterns in nature

Intrapersonal Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Knowledge of the internal aspects of oneself; access to one's own feelings and emotions

Interpersonal Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Skills in interacting with others, such as sensitivity to the moods, temperaments, motivations and intentions of others

Logical Mathematical Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Skills in problems solving and scientific thinking

Musical Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Skills in tasks involving music

Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Skills in using the whole body or various portions of it in the solution of problems or in the construction of products or displays, exemplified by dancers, gymnasts, athletes, etc.

Linguistic Intelligence

-Howard Gardner -Skills involved in the production and use of language

Flynn Effect

-IQ has increased over generations (score is increasing)

Profound Intellectual Disability

-IQ scores are below 20 or 25 -Such people produce little or no speech, have poor motor control, and may need 24 hour nursing care -Still, the need for relatively high levels of care continues throughout the life span, and most individuals with severe and profound intellectual disabilities are institutionalized for most of their lives *Probably not even in school (someone at home helping you out)

What do IQ Scores Mean in the Long-Run?

-IQ scores are reasonably good predictors of children's school performance -However, IQ scores are not necessarily linked to income and later success in life -Frequently inaccurate when it comes to predicting a particular individual's future success

Severe Intellectual Disability

-IQ's rating from 20-40 -Such people produce little or no speech, have poor motor control, and may need 24 hour nursing care -Some are capable of learning basic self-care skills such as dressing and eating *May become partially independent as adults -Still, the need for relatively high levels of care continues throughout the life span, and most individuals with severe and profound intellectual disabilities are institutionalized for most of their lives *Probably not even in school (someone at home helping you out)

Cons to Immersion Approaches

-Immersion can make it more difficult for students to learn new skills if those skills are being taught in a second language -Need to understand the difficulty for children learning a new concept in a new language -Learning in one's native tongue is associated with higher self-esteem in minority students -Many linguists contend that universal processes underlie language acquisition, which means that instruction in a native language may enhance instruction in a second language *For this reason, linguists believe everyone should learn a second language

Pros of Homeschooling

-In most localities, children have the right to participate in extracurricular activities in the public schools, homeschooled children can participate with other children in social activities, avoiding the potential isolation of homeschooling -Homeschooling works in the sense that children who have been homeschooled generally do as well on standardized tests as students who have been educated in schools -In addition, their acceptance rate into college appears to be no different from that of traditionally schooled children

Culture and Education

-In the U.S. and most other developed countries, primary school education is both a universal and legal requirement *Virtually, all children are provided with a free education through the 12th grade -160 million of the world's children do not have access to primary school education -Another 100 million children do not progress beyond a level comparable to our elementary school education -Nearly 800 million adults are illiterate throughout their lives -Fewer females get formal education than men (this is true even in developed countries) *These differences reflect widespread and deeply held cultural and parental biases that favor males over females -In the U.S., education is basically equal, especially in the early years of school

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

-In which a person's expectation is capable of bringing about an outcome Ex. Physicians have long known that providing patients with placebos can sometimes cure them because patients expect pills to work

Cultural Assimilation Model

-In which the goal of education is to assimilate individual cultural identities into a unique, unified American culture -In practical terms, this meant, for example, that non-English-speaking students are discouraged from speaking their native tongues and were totally immersed in English

Where was Piaget Wrong with Concrete Operational Thinking?

-Increasing evidence suggests that Piaget underestimated children's abilities in part of the limited nature of the mini-experiments he conducted

Variations in Measuring Intellectual Retardation

-It is difficult to gauge children's limitations in other areas besides IQ -This imprecision leads to a lack of uniformity in the ways experts apply the labels "intellectual disability" and "mental retardation" -It has resulted in significant variation in the abilities of people who are categorized as experiencing intellectual disability *Ranges from those who can be taught to work and function with little special attention to those who are virtually untrainable and who never develop speech or such basic motor skills as crawling and walking

Ethical Problems with Studying Intelligence

-It is impossible to design a definitive experiment than can determine the cause of differences in IQ scores among members of different groups -One cannot ethically assign children to different living conditions to find the effects of environment, nor would one wish to genetically control or alter intelligence levels in unborn children

How to help kids with ADD in Schools

-Kids do badly in school that are intelligent because they don't know how to sit still -Teachers need to help them because kids feel bad about themselves (teachers can give ADD kids a picture of an ear to say "ears don't talk, wait your turn" example of behavior inhibitor that works because overtime, they will internalize ear and will know now is not the time to talk

Benefits of Bilingualism

-Knowing more than one language offers several cognitive advantages -Because they have a wider range of linguistic possibilities to choose from as they assess a situation, speakers of two languages show greater cognitive flexibility *They can show greater creativity and versatility

Stage 0 of Reading

-Lasts from birth to start of first grade -Children learn the essential prerequisites for reading, including identification of the letters in the alphabet, sometimes writing their names, and reading a few very familiar words (such as their own names or "stop" on a stop sign)

Difference in IQ Scores Based on Race and Ethnicity

-Many educators argue that that traditional measures of intelligence are subtly biased in favor of White, upper and middle class students, and against groups with different cultural experiences -Most developmentalists believe that racial differences in measured IQ can be attributed to environmental differences between the races -When economic and social factors are taken into account simultaneously, mean IQ scores of Black and White children turn out to be actually quite similar Ex. Children from similar middle class backgrounds, regardless of race, had similar IQ's

Cognitive Elaboration

-Mental images are linked with information that someone wants to recall Ex. Using an image of a pilgrim to remember that Cape Cod is on the tip of Massachusetts

Pros of Private Schools

-Offer smaller classes and more programs for their students than public schools, schools tend to be smaller overall -Because they are able to select who attends, they can weed out students who might be disruptive

Disadvantages of Delaying Children from School based on Age (being younger than other classmates)

-One longitudinal study examined adolescents who entrance was delayed by a year -The children showed no ill effects from the delay during elementary school, but during adolescence, a surprising number of these children had emotional and behavioral problems -ULtimately, age should not be a critical indicator of when children begin school; instead, general overall developmental readiness should determine when kid enters school

Public School Cons

-Parents often have little or no choice over what school their children attend -Some schools are underfunded and therefore do not have the materials or programs necessary to provide a good education experience for all those attending -Furthermore, children with special needs (gifted or with learning disabilities) may not get the attention that they need

Relative Intelligence with Gifted and Talented people

-People say Talented and Gifted is considered for either in one domain, or IQ (Debate about definition) *Also depends how you perform relative to others (IQ of 156 vs. IQ of 179) *Easier to define lower end of spectrum than higher end of spectrum

Moderate Intellectual Disability

-People whose IQ scores range from 35-55 -Around 5-10% of intellectually disabled population -Easier to identify at a younger age than Mild Intellectual Disability -The are slow to develop language skills, and their motor development is also affected -Regular schooling is usually not effective in training people with moderate retardation to acquire academic skills because generally they are unable to progress beyond the second-grade level -Still, they are capable of learning occupational and social skills, and they can learn to travel independently to familiar places -Typically, they require moderate levels of supervision

Where was Piaget Right with Concrete Operational Thinking?

-Piaget was a virtuoso observer of children -His theories have powerful educational implications, and many schools employ principles derived from his views to guide the nature and presentation of instructional materials -Piaget was likely right that Concrete Operational Stage was universally reached, given that people from other cultures could understand conservation when they were trained, or if the interviewer understands the language/customs of the culture, and can use reasoning tasks to help the children reach this stage *Although school-age children in some cultures may differ from Westerners in the demonstration of certain cognitive skills, the most probable explanation of the difference is that the non-Western children have had different sorts of experiences from those that permit children in Western societies to perform well on Piaegetian measures of conservation and concrete operations *Must understand culture to understand child

The Concrete Operational Stage

-Piaget's Third Stage, which occurs between the ages of 7-12 years old -Concrete Operational thoughts involves applying logical thinking to concrete problems Ex. When asked conservation questions, they can use logical thought to come to the correct answer, rather than be influenced solely by appearance -Because they are less egocentric, they can take multiple aspects of a situation into account, known as decentering -Concrete thinking also helps children understand the relationship between time, speed, and distance, comprehending that an increase in speeds can compensate for greater distance in a a journey

Organization

-Placing material into categories to better remember them

Charter Schools

-Private public school (private school that receives substantial public funding; some may have tuition to help; receives governmental funds but not to financial aid) -They are often small and sometimes, have a particular focus like art, sciences, etc. -They are meant to be alternatives to traditional public schools, and because they are supported by public funds, enrollment is free to their students -They are typically in high demand and may accept students through lottery systems

Cons of Private Schools

-Private schools tend to be less racially and ethnically diverse than public schools -Moreover, teachers in private schools may lack the qualifications of public school teachers

Daniel Goleman

-Psychologist that argues that emotional literacy should be a standard part of the school curriculum -He points to several programs that succeeded in teaching students to manage their emotions more effectively Ex. In one program, children are provided with lessons in empathy, self-awareness, and social skills Ex. In another program, children are taught about caring and friendship as early as the first grade through exposure to stories

Whole Language Approaches to Reading

-Reading is viewed as a natural process, similar to the acquisition of oral language -According to this view, children should learn to read through exposure to complete writing--sentences, stories, poems, lists, charts, and other examples of actual uses of writing -Instead of being taught to sound out words, children are encouraged to make guesses about the meaning of words based on the context in which they appear -Through such trial and error approach, children come to learn whole words and phrases at a time, gradually becoming proficient readers

How Reading Impacts Brain

-Reading produces significant changes in the wiring of the brain -It boosts the organization of the visual cortex of the brain -It improves the processing of spoken language

Familial Intellectual Disability (Familial Retardation)

-Retardation in which no cause is apparent, but there is a history of intellectual disability in the family

Bicultural Identity

-School systems should encourage children to maintain their original cultural identity while they integrate themselves into the dominant culture -This is why Bicultural Education is encouraged; at the same time, the school conducts a program of multicultural education for all students, in which teachers present material on the cultural backgrounds and traditions of all the students in the school *Such instruction is designed to enhance the self-image of speakers from both majority and minority cultures -This can diminish pluaralistici society model: because bicultural people will take what they want from each culture (minority and majority)

Private Schools

-School where parents pay tuition -More than 6 million students are enrolled in private elementary, middle, and high schools in the U.S. -Some are affiliated with religious organizations, but others are nonsectarian

Short-Term Memory (working memory)

-Second Stage of Memory Storage -Information is stored for 15-25 seconds according to its meaning -Short-term memory capacity improves significantly Ex. Short-term memory capacity improves: children are able to hear a string of digits and then repeat the string of digits in reverse order; in the beginning of the preschool period, they can only remember and reverse two digits; by middle childhood, they can remember and reverse six

How is IQ Seen: Nature or Nurture

-Seen as the product of both nature and nurture interacting with one another in a complex manner -Rather than seeing intelligence as being produced by either genes or experience, genes are considered to affect experiences, and experiences are viewed as influencing the expression of genes Ex. Psychologist Eric Turkheimer has found evidence that although environmental factors play a larger role in influencing the IQ of poor children, genes are more influential in the IQ of affluent children -Rather than worry about whether nurture or nature has more influence, we should worry about creating an enriching environment that children can excel in

Why Children Have Difficulty with Conservation?

-Some developmentalists think that children's trouble with conservation problems may stem from memory limitations -They argue that young children simply may not be able to recall all the necessary pieces of information that enter into the correct solution of conservation problems

Illiteracy Rates (Ranked from Lowest Illiteracy Rates to Highest Illiteracy Rates)

-South America, Central America and Asia -Higher levels in India, and areas in Africa -No data for North America, Australia, and Europe

Most commonly spoken language in U.S. other than English (Ranked)

-Spanish -French

IQ

-Stands for intelligence quotient -Measures children's mental ages and chronological age *This solves Binet's mental age problem because his intelligence test can imply that a 6 year old that thinks like an 8 year old is as smart as a 15 year old that thinks like a 17 year old, when really, the IQ formula, by measuring both mental and chronological age, we see the 6 year old has higher IQ than 15 year old -Average is 100: below is below average, above is above average *Anything below 85 is developmental delay

Immersion Approaches (language)

-Students are immersed in English as quickly as possible, teaching solely in that language, and providing only minimal instructions in a student's native language -People argue that initially teaching students in the language other than English hinders students' efforts to learn English and slows their integration into society

Studies about Retrieving Intelligence

-Studies reveal that people with higher intelligence levels differ from others not only in the number of problems they ultimately are able to solve, but in their method of solving the problems -People with high IQ scores spend more time on the initial stages of problem solving, retrieving relevant information from memory *In contrast, those who score lower on traditional intelligence tests tend to spend less time on the initial stages, instead skipping ahead and making less informed guesses -This indicates that the processes used in solving problems, then, may reflect important differences in intelligence

Pnemonics

-Techniques for organizing information in a way that makes it more likely to be remembered Ex. KHDUDCM (remember units of measurement and their relationships to each other)

Binet's Efforts in Intelligence

-Tested kids through a trial-and-error process in which he would ask kids complete certain tasks: tasks that differentiated between smart and less smart kids were kept, tasks that did not discriminate between the two groups were discarded

Cons of Homeschooling

-The apparent academic success of children schooled at home does not mean that homeschooling is effective because parents who choose to homeschool their children may be more affluent or have the kind of well-structured family situation in which children would succeed no matter what kind of schooling they had *In contrast, parents in dysfunctional and disorganized families are unlikely to have the motivation or interest to homeschool their children, which would make the structure of school good for them -The social interaction involving groups of children that is inherent in classrooms is largely missing for homeschooled children -You also lose diversity of different kinds of people, cultures, races, etc. -Homes will lack the sophisticated science and technology that is available in many schools -Most parents do not have the preparation of well-trained teachers, and their teaching methods may be unsophisticated, especially since science *Parents may be successful in teaching subject areas in which their child is already interested, but they may have more difficulty teaching subjects that their child seeks to avoid

Fluid Intelligence

-The capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge

Intelligence

-The capacity to understand the world, think with rationality, and use resources effectively when faced with challenges -Parts of the difficulty in defining intelligence stems from the many, and sometimes, unsatisfactory, paths that have been followed over the years in the quest to distinguish more intelligent people from less intelligent ones

Teacher Expectancy Effect

-The cycle of behavior in which a teacher transmits an expectation a child and thereby brings about the expected behavior -May inappropriately base expectations about a child's ability based on previous school records, physical appearance, gender, and race (whether knowingly or not) Ex. In experiments, when teachers were told in advance that certain children had above average intelligence (not true), the teachers treated them differently, and those kids got higher test scores

Encoding

-The first stage of Memory in the Information Processing Model -The child initially records the information in a form of usable memory *Children who never learned something will not be able to remember it, because the information was not encoded in the first place

Bilingualism

-The proficient use of two languages -It is increasing in commonality

Pragmatics

-The rules governing the use of language to communicate in a given social setting -Children become more competent in using pragmatics Ex. Children will begin having deeper conversations in which they begin to respond more to each other, rather than turn-taking (i.e. you speak, I speak) in which they say random, unrelated things in response to the other

Pragmatics

-The rules governing the use of language to communicate in a given social setting -Children become more competent in using pragmatics Ex. Children will begin having deeper conversations in which they begin to respond more to each other, rather than turn-taking (i.e. you speak, I speak) in which they say random, unrelated things in response to the other Ex. Same word can have different meaning in different settings

Storage

-The second stage of Memory in the Information Processing Model -Information must be encoded, and maintained in the memory system

Emotional Intelligence

-The set of skills that underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions -Elementary schools are encouraging this set of skills -The goal of emotional intelligence training is to produce people who are not only cognitively sophisticated, but also able to manage their emotions effectively

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

-The test (which stems from the Adult version) provides separate measures of verbal and performance (or nonverbal) skills, as well as a total score -Works well with children, uses a lot of non-verbal and non-verbal tasks -The verbal tasks are traditional word problems that test skills such as understanding a passage, whereas typical nonverbal tasks include copying a complex design, arranging pictures in a logic order, and assembling objects -The separate portions of the test allow for easier identification of the child's strengths and weaknesses

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

-The test consists of a series of items that vary according to the age of the person being tested -The test is administered orally, and test-takers are given progressively more difficult problems until they are unable to proceed

Retrieval

-The third stage of Memory in the Information Processing Model -Through retrieval, material in memory storage is located, brought into awareness, and used

Problems for Gifted People

-The verbal abilities that allow the eloquent expression of ideas and feelings can equally permit the expression of glib and persuasive statements that happen to be inaccurate -Teachers may sometimes misinterpret the humor, novelty, and creativity of gifted students, and find them disruptive or inappropriate -Some children hide their intelligence to fit in -Gifted kids lose motivation if they're not being challenged: need to be accelerated

Long-Term Memory

-Third Stage of Memory Storage -Information is stored relatively permanently, although it may be difficult to retrieve

Deviation IQ

-This score allows it so that the degree of deviation from the score of 100 permits the calculation of how far you are from the average; can be compared with others kids DQ's Ex. Deviation IQ shows that approximately 2/3 of all people fall within 15 points of the average score of 100

G Factor

-Today, IQ tests are based on the idea that intelligence is a single factor, a unitary mental ability -This one main attribute has commonly been called g *G=general intelligence (Problems with g: intelligence can be broken down into different components) -The g factor is assumed to underlie performance on every aspect of intelligence, and it is the g factor that intelligence tests presumably measure -Many theorists, however, dispute the notion that intelligence is one-dimensional, and suggest that two kinds of intelligence exists: fluid and crystallized

Biases of IQ Tests

-Traditional intelligence tests may discriminate against minority groups who have not been exposed to the same type of environment that majority group members have experienced -Most traditional intelligence tests are constructed using White, English-speaking, middle-class populations as their test subjects *As a result, children from different cultural backgrounds may perform poorly on the tests--not because they are less intelligent, but because the tests use questions that are culturally biased in favor of majority group members -These results can be serious because a study showed that Mexican Americans were 10 times more likely than Whites to be placed in special-education classes -Some IQ tests, such as the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment, have been designed to be equally valid regardless of the cultural background of test-takers, but no test can be completely without bias

Stage 2 of Reading

-Typically around second and third grades -Children learn to read aloud with fluency -They do not attach much meaning to the words, however, because the effort involved in simply sounding out words is usually so great that relatively few cognitive resources are left over to process the meaning of words

Phonemes

-Units of sound -By middle childhood, children have mostly mastered phonemes, except for th, j, v, and zh (this will develop later)

Reciprocal Teaching

-Used by Vygotsky -A technique to teach reading comprehension strategies -Students are taught to skim the content of a passage, raise questions about its central point, summarize the passage, and predict what will happen next -A key to this technique is its reciprocal nature, its emphasis on giving students a chance to take on the role of teacher, so that they can understand it better -Once the children get through the ZPD's (Zone of Proximal Development), they will not need the teachers to lead them through the comprehension strategies

Mastering the Mechanics of Language in Middle Childhood

-Vocabulary Increases -Children's understanding of syntax expands (rules that determine how words and phrases can be combined to form sentences) -Using more conditional and passive voice in sentences

Keyword Strategy

-When one word is paired with another that sounds like it, as a way of remembering information -This can help children learn vocabulary words from foreign languages, state capitals, etc. Ex. Saiorse like inertia

Creating an Atmosphere that Promotes School Success

1) Promote a literacy environment *Parents should read to their children and familiarize them with books and reading *Adults should provide reading models so that children see that reading is an important activity in the lives of the adults with whom they interact 2) Talk to children *Discuss events in the news, talk about their friends, and share hobbies *Getting children to think about and discuss the world around them is one of the best preparations for school 3) Provide a place for children to work *This can be a desk, a corner of a table, or an area of a room -Important that it's a separate, designated area 4) Encourage Children's Problem-Solving Skills *To solve a problem, they should learn to identify their goal, what they know, and what they don't know; to design and carry out a strategy; and finally, evaluate their result

Why Parents Choose Homeschooling

1) Some parents feel their children will thrive with the one-to-one attention that homeschooling can bring, whereas they might get lost in a larger public school -Other parents are dissatisfied with the nature of instruction and teachers in their local public schools and feel that they can do a better job teaching their children -Some parents engage in homeschooling for religious reasons, since they may wish to impart a particular religious ideology (and avoid exposing their children to aspects of the popular culture and values in which they disagree) that would be impossible to convey in a public school

Scaffolding and Culture

Scaffolding makes difference: with training, Aborigines reach Urban Australians in terms of intelligence -Whereas wihtout training, Aborigines do not reach same level as Urban Australians. Culture matters