Carries motor and sensory nerves to the rest of the body
Give 3 details about the cerebellum
Coordinatesmovement and senso information with motor activity
Has input into language and emotions
Lastpart of the brain to mature
Give 2 details about the cortex
Thinlayer of the brain where thinking goes
Divided into twohemispheres
Give 3 details about the thalamus
Deepinside the brain
Size of a walnut
Hub for information
Distinguish the difference between assimilation and accommodation
Assimilation is new experiences being understood within an existing scheme whereas accommodation is radicallydifferent experiences that cannot be assimilated creating a newschema
Evaluate Piagetstheory
S- Piaget theory has led to a lot of research to test his ideas such as the naughty teddy study and the Hughes policeman doll study. Although they don’t support his theory they help adapt it therefore it is easier to test his ideas and see which aspects are correct
W- Piagets research only involved middle classEuropean children who were from academic families which may not be the case in other classes therefore this theory is not universally applicable
Describe Donaldson’s naughty teddy study
Whether a child’sreaction would be different if there was no obvious change in the row of counters 80 children(4~6yrs)Introduced to naughty teddy who escaped and shown 2 rows of counters then messedup the toys and counters to make one row look smaller children were then asked “is there more here or are they the same number?”41% gave correct answer when deliberately changed 68% gave correct answer when change was accidental Study shows that Piaget underestimated children when testing conservation but there was still an age difference
Evaluate Donaldsons naughty teddy study
W- sample only used primary children who came from oneschool and could have done better due to bettereducatedparents & languagedevelopment affecting the validity of the results
S- ChallengesPiaget and argues that Piaget made his research confusing for the children W- change was notnoticed in the accidentalcondition as they were distracted by the teddy therefore the children were not looking so they were notconserving
Describe Hughes Policeman doll study
Create a test more understandable for children with the egocentrism task. Doll was placed in various positions and asked to hide the boydoll from the policemancorrections were pointedout if they were wrong and then brought out another policeman to account for two different point of views
90% were able to place them correctly 60% of 3yr olds 90% of4yr olds. Hughes study is more realistic than Piagets 3mountains task
Concluded most 3-5 yr olds are not egocentric in their thinking
Evaluate Hughes study
S- Task made bettersense to the children and was moreengaging and meaningful and children were able to show their truecognitiveability compared to Piagets task
W- Person doing the study with the children could be giving subtleclues without realising eg gazing in certaindirections meaning it may lack validity S- challenges piaget as his his designconfusedchildren and idea should be challenged to improveunderstanding
Piagetstheory: Stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor 0-2yrs ~ child can differentiatethemselves from other objects acts intentionally + object permanence develops
Pre-operational 2-7yrs ~ Child begins to talk and cannot think logicallyEgocentric thoughts & lack of ability to conserve
Concrete Operations 7-11yrs ~ can conserve & less egocentric They use logicmentalrules for concrete rather than abstracttasks
Formal operations 11+yrs ~ ability to think hypothetically & they can think of abstractsconceptsmanipulateideasdeductivereasoning and systematicallysolve a problem
Evaluations of Piagets stage theory
W- Underestimated children’s ability researchers tested conservation and egocentrism and found that youngerchildren performed better than Piagetpredicted
W- overestimated what older children are capable of Wason tested undergraduates & they did better in the concrete than abstract task so Piaget was optimistic about what children 11+ can do
S- Basic idea is correct as children go through stages of cognitivedevelopment so Hughes & Donaldson proves children do change as they get older so overall Piaget was correct
Piagetstheory: Application in education
Readiness- educationscripted should be set at an appropriatelevel, wait until the child is ready to learn tasks that are suitable
Piagetstheory: Application in education
Readiness- activities should be set at an appropriatelevel, wait until the child is ready to learn tasks that are suitable children must discoverconcepts for themselves, they should interact with materials to learn, activities need to accommodate currentschemas & teachers should create a stimulatingenvironment for children to askquestions
Individuallearning- children go through the samestage but at differentrates so teachers should arrangeactivities for make groups of children rather than a wholeclass
Evaluate application in education
S- Has had a hugeinfluence in primaryeducation, child centred & active approaches to primary school education therefore Piaget theory in improving the UK education
W- it’s possible to improve with practice so they can get better at logical takes even if they’re ‘not ready’ their practice is moreimportant than readiness and challenges the application of some of Piagets ideas in education
W- discovery learning may not be the best approach Bennet found that explanations and practicingtasks were better in subjects
Dweck’s Mindset Theory of Learning
Fixed Mindset - intelligence & abilities are due to our genes, if you need to work hard to be good at something you can’t really be talented, challenged should be avoided, feedback is taken personally and and give up easily
Growth Mindset - you can always improve your intelligence, talent can be improved if you keep practicing, challenges are an opportunity to grow, feedback is useful & helpful
What is a continuum
Carol Dweck did not believe we had just one of these mindsets but we are a mixture on a continuum/scale depending on situation
Evaluate Dwecks mindset theory
S- research shows that a growth mindset leads to bettergrades Dweck conducted a study where half a group of 12/13yr olds had a training session on how the being is a muscle there the growth mindset can be taught and improvesperformance
W- Praise can be damaging fixed mindsets would base it off ability and growth would work for someone else’s attention so we should be careful when giving praise
S- Relationship fails because they think love should be easy when it becomes difficult they believe it isn’t true love which is fixed mindset
Evaluate learning styles
S- traditional teaching may have focused on verbal methods the general agreement is a mixed learning approach is better therefore use of different learning styles is beneficial for learners
W- No proof that learning styles improve performance. Pashler reviewed studies on learning styles which did not use controlled methods so learning styles are not effective in improving performance
W- There are too many different learning styles. Coffield found 71 different LS making it difficult to discover so LS are not a useful concept
Willingham’s Learning theory
Criticised LS due to a lack of evidence.Believed teaching should be based on the content being taught Praise- unexpected if grades depends on praise it destroys your sense of motivation you try harder to get praise not bc it makes you feel good + students ability to store & retrieve info is more important than how they learnt it Self regulation- children who delay gratification get higher on school tests Neuroscience - learning disorders have been linked with poor function in areas of the brain. If pattern was found this may help providing special help earlier
Evaluations of Willingham Learning Theory
S- all concepts are drawn from scientific research, he is a cognitive psychologist and created his approach on respected scientific research this means we can trust his conclusions as they are objective
W- Real world applications, teachers can use the idea of praise should be unexpected to motivate pupils to promote intrinsic motivation leading to better schl performance
W-diagnosis of dyslexia based in brain difference may not be possible, learning disorders may have a number of causes rather than one cause so W idea could be misleading