Understanding Language Development: Key Concepts for Students
School
Rehoboth Christian School**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
ENGLISH 200
Subject
Linguistics
Date
Dec 11, 2024
Pages
24
Uploaded by PresidentCrow21082
Unit 5: Language1.Why are biases important for children to learn language from hearing adults speak?So that they assume that the label refers to a class of similar objects. So when a child learns about the rabbit, it naturally assumes that “rabbit” refersto the whole animal (not just its ear).2.What are biases “whole object” and “category” (classification) biases that children seem to use when determining the reference of a new word.Young children think that a new label refers to a whole object, not just a part.They assume that the label refers to a class or similar object. 3.Given that these are universal, are they a nature or nature factor in language development? Both, because naturally children process a whole object and a category by how they developed but reward and correction play a role in helping children learn correct language use. For example, not all small animals are rabbits. 4.What can infants before the age of 1 year perceive and distinguish from the languages of the world that an adult could not?They begin to focus on and practice speech sounds they hear in their environment, and by one year are no longer able to distinguish sounds in al the world’s languages. 5.What explains the fact that by about 1 year, the young child is no longer able to differentiate all the sounds in the world’s language?In the womb the baby is sensitive to rhythms and sounds of language.6.Which speech sounds can a 1-year-old child perceive well?Newborns prefer the sounds of languages that are rhythmically similar to theones they heard in utero.7.Describe perceptual narrowing in the context of phoneme discrimination. Perceptual narrowing is the early selection when a baby can distinguish between languages.
8.What is joint attention and why is it important for language development?Joint attention occurs when a child and caregiver, or teacher, attend to the same object or event at the same time. Often the caregiver will describe it, label it, or ask questions about it. Such interactions promote sustained attention on the part of the infant/child, better comprehension, and faster vocabulary development.9.While children will be capable of hearing and using most of the phonemes in their native language by age 5, some phonemes in English tend to be more difficult to use in speech. Which phonemes arethe last to be mastered by children?L,r, y, s, v, and the consonant blends, sh, ch, ng, zh, and th are the last to be mastered. 10.Contrast receptive and expressive vocabulary. In simple terms, what do these mean with respect to language comprehension and use?Receptive vocab: The words a person can understand in spoken or written words. Expressive vocab: The words a person can speak11.By age 6, how many words can the average child understand anduse in sentences?By age 6, children’s expressive vocabularies will grow to be about 2,600 words, and their receptive vocabularies will be an impressive 20,000 plus words.12.How many words a day are early elementary students probably learning?20 words a day. 13.Contrast the phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics of language. Phonology:-The sounds of language-Receptive: Ability to hear and understand the sounds of language-Expressive: Ability to pronounce the sounds of languageSemantics: -Refers to meaning of words, sentences, paragraphs, etc.
Syntax:-The order or words in phrases or sentences.Pragmatics:-The rules for when and how to use language to be an effective communicator in a particular culture. 14.How do children often overregularize the past tense or irregular verbs and irregular plurals?By applying the rules to everything. Ex. “Our car is broked” or “I eated mylunch”15.Provide some examples of overregularized plurals. Foots or feets, or feetses. 16.What does literacy refer to? Emergent literacy?Literacy refers to reading while emergent literacy is the skills and knowledge, usually developed in the preschool years, that are the foundation for the development of reading and writing. 17.For language learning from birth, compare bilingual children and monolingual children with respect to the timing of the key milestones in their language acquisition. Bilingual children (children who speak two languages), reach the language milestones in both languages on the same schedule as monolingual children (children learning only one language). 18.Is there a critical period for learning a language?There is no critical period that limits the possibility of language learning by adults. 19.Contrast bilingualism and biculturalism.Bilingualism: Adding a second language capability without losing your heritage language. Biculturalism: Having or combining the cultural attitudes and customs of two nations, peoples, or ethnic groups. 20.What are heritage languages? Describe the schools that offer instruction in them. Languages spoken in the student’s home or by members of the family. The German Heritage Language School in Halifax offers classes for adults and children. Lessons once a week for two hours. Chinese Reidmount Saturday School, in Markham, Ontraio is a co-educational school that offers Chinese. There are other schools as well, see page 171. 21.What is academic language and why is learning it important for students?
The entire range of language used in elementary, secondary, and university-level schools, including words, concepts, strategies, and processes from academic subjects. Learning it is important because it includes the general words and concepts used in many subjects such as analyse, evaluate, or summarize, etc. 22.Explain why students who are newcomers, both immigrants and refugees, might have difficulty in school even when they speak English quite well. How is the cultural deficit model used to explain this?Because a word might have two different meanings in different fields. Academic language is associated with abstract, higher-order, complex concepts. 23.Contrast ELL, ESL, and EAP.English Language Learning program (ELL): Students who are learning English when their primary or heritage language is not EnglishEnglish as a Second Language (ESL): The classes devoted to teaching ELL students in English. 24.Why might ELL students with disabilities often be denied special education services?Because it is hard to tell because the student’s language is limited. They are difficult to diagnose.Unit 6: Culture and Diversity1.Define the term culture.The knowledge, rules, traditions, attitudes, and values that guide the behaviour of a group of people and allow them to solve the problems ofliving in their environment. 2.Discuss the danger of stereotyping students based on their culture.Stereotyping can reinforce conformity and stifle assertiveness. It can also make students feel “foreign” oven in the country of their birth.3.Contrast social class and socioeconomic status (SES)Social class: Status held in society based on wealth, power, and prestige. It is not always consistent. For example, a very wealthy person may not have a high social class. Socioeconomic Status: Relative standing in the society based on income, power, background, and prestige. In contrast to social class, most people are not conscious of their SES designation. SES is usually ascribed to people by researchers.
4.Which one is determined through a more complex, formal categorization process, and what factors are included?SES is more complex because there are different formulas to determineSES. No single variable, not even income, is an effective measure of SES. Family income, parents’ occupations, and parents’ education are an overall indicator of SES.5.Describe how social class and SES are related to school achievement.Social class-if a family is rich or socially more outgoing, that will benefittheir child and they child will learn those traits as well. Poor families and those who lack stable homes suffer. SES-If parents have a lack of education, this could cause children to suffer as well. 6.What does resistance culture refer to and how might it affect a student’s learning?Group values and beliefs about refusing to adopt the behaviours and attitudes of the majority culture. This can affect student learning because in order to maintain their identity and their status within the group, low-SES students must reject the behaviour that would make them successful in school. 7.How might summer vacation adversely affect students in poverty? It sets them back about three months. This is because they have limited access to books, museums, trips and libraries and spend more time watching TV. 8.How could students in poverty be affected by tracking?Tracking is assigning a student to different classes and academic experiences based on achievement. Some people think tracking is harmful because it makes the student give up and not be able to reachother goals in higher grades. 9.How many residences in Canada were born outside of Canada?6.8 million10.What percentage of people living in Canada are members of a visible minority group? 20%11.Describe and compare the terms ethnicity and race.Ethnicity: A cultural heritage shared by a group of people. It refers to a group’s shared common cultural characteristics such as history, homeland, language, traditions, or religion. Race: A group of people who share common biological traits that are seen as self-defining by the people of the group. Race on the other
hand is defined as a category composed of men and women who sharebiologically transmitted traits that are defined as socially significant. 12.Contrast a person’s ethnicity with their citizenship. Only citizens can vote or hold government office. A permanent residenthas the right to work in Canada, attend school, a benefit from social programs like healthcare. A person could be a Canadian citizen of Italian heritage or ethnicity. 13.What was the residential school system? A network of boarding schools for Indigenous Peoples who were then educated outside of their communities.a.When did the last residential school close?1996b.How can integrated schools still lead to a form of segregation through the use of tracking?Focus lessons on Indigenous history and culture. 14.Describe prejudice and explain how it is a form of prejudgement about and individual.Prejudgement, or irrational generalization about an entire category of people. 15.When does racial prejudice seem to develop and what does this imply about how it is “acquired”? Is direct influence or teaching from adults required? Racial prejudice is pervasive, and it starts early. By about age 6, close to 85% of students in a Canadian sample had significant pro-white anti-African Canadian biases. Two popular belief’s that young children are innocently colour-blind and that they will not develop biases are appealing, they are not supported by research. a.What preferences do infants as young as 3 years old show for faces?16.Describe the natural tendency of humans to form social categories and recognize in-group and out-group members. Explain how this is one factor that affects the formation of prejudice. We tend to see members of the out-group as inferior and different fromus. In fact, infants as young as 3 months show a preference for faces oftheir own race if they have had not experience with other races. 17.Why are negative prejudices typically the ones of concern? How might a positive prejudice create incorrect and perhaps harmful expectations of a person? Because they leave people out, making them feel worthless. For example, in the early 21stcentury, people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds were seldom the “heroes” on films.
18.How are normal thinking processes for schema formation related to forming stereotypes and then prejudices. Prejudice is difficult to combat because it is part of our thinking processes. Children develop schemes, or schemas-organized bodies of knowledge about objects, events, and actions. We have shemas that organize out knowledge about people we know and all our daily activities. We can also form schemas about groups of people. When asked to list the traits most politicians, college students, athletes, etc, you would generate a list. That list would show that you have a stereotype-a schema-that organizes what you know about that group. 19.What is discrimination and how is it related to prejudice? Treating particular categories of people unfairly. It’s based off prejudices that we make. First comes the prejudice and then the discrimination. 20.What is stereotype threat? Who experiences it? Why?The extra emotional and cognitive burden that one’s performance in anacademic situation might confirm a stereotype that others hold. Minority-group college students are put in a situation that induces stereotype threat; their performance suffers. Girls might be put in that situation when competing against boys in a math competition. This decreases their performance dramatically. 21.What are the possible effects of stereotype threat on academic performances?Reduced ability to perform. It depresses the performance of students from lower-SES backgrounds, elderly people, and white males in college. Girls do better than boys onthe stereotype threat test.Short-term affects: Test performance suffersLong-term effects: Disidentification. They may withdraw, claim not to care, exert little effort, or even drop out of school. 22.Contrast gender and sex.Gender: The sense of self as male or female as well as the beliefs one has about gender roles and attributes. Sex: A complex combination of belief’s about gender roles and sexual orientation. 23.Discuss the three components of a person’s identity with respect to one’s gender and sex: gender identity, sexual orientation, and one’s behaviours or interests with respect to a culture’s view of gender roles.Feeling different: Beginning around age 6, the child may be less interested in the activities of other children who are the same sex.
Some children may find this difference troubling, and fear being found out. Other do not experience these anxieties. Feeling confused: In adolescence, as they feel attractions for peers of the same sex, students may be confused, upset, lonely, and unsure of what to do. They may lack role models and may try to change themselves by becoming involved in activities and dating patterns thatfit heterosexual stereotypes. Acceptance: As young adults, many individuals sort through sexual orientation issues and identity themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. They may or may not make their sexual orientation public but might share the information with a few friends. 24.What does the abbreviation LGBTQ+ refer to?Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer or questioning. 25.How have gender-role expectations changed in Canada since the end of World War II? Women work in jobs that were previously only reserved for men. Political, police officers, etc. 26.When do children start to develop a clear sense of gender differences? Relate that to the concept of gender schemas.As early as age 2, children are aware of gender differences, they know whether they are girls or boys and that mommies are girls and daddiesare boys. Through the interactions with family, peers, teachers, toys, and the environment in general, children begin to form gender schemas, or organized networks of knowledge about what it means to be male or female. So a young girl whose schemas for “girls” includes “girls play with dolls and not trucks” will pay attention to, remember, and interact more with dolls than trucks. 27.In general, boys often show lower academic achievement than girls in Canada and other countries. Also, there are now more women (57%) attending university in undergraduate programs in Canada than men (43%). Are these signs of gender bias?No, it’s just the way gender works. 28.What else might explain these differences?Gender biases: Different views of male and females, often favouring one gender over the other. Girls gender traits overlap with boys in the way that girls can be more active but seldom do boy traits overlap with girls. Schooling expectations do not fit the way boys learn.Boys sabotage their own learning by resisting school expectations and rules to display their masculinity and get respect.
29.Are any and all differences between the genders necessarily due to bias? No30.Describe multicultural education. Education that promotes equity in the schooling of all students. 31.Describe culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching. CRP: Excellent teaching for students from visible minorities that includes academic success and development/maintaining cultural competence and critical consciousness to challenge the status quo.CRT: similar approach that uses the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performances styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them.32.What are participation structures, and what are some of the rulesor conventions in a typical Canadian classroom that regulate how students and their teachers interact? Fostering resilience and diversity in the classroom.
Unit 7: BehaviourismReading:Chapter 7: Behavioural Views of LearningQuestions:1.Define learning and contrast learned behaviours with those that are not learned. 2.Describe classical conditioning and explain how stimuli trigger responses. 3.Describe operant conditioning. a)Differentiate positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment. Explain why negative reinforcement is not the same aspunishment. b)Describe the schedules of reinforcement and discuss the advantages of some with respect to persistence.c)Describe behavioural strategies and how they can be used in the classroom. 4.Discuss some criticisms of behavioural theories of learning and the instructional methods they support. Key Terms:Learning- the process through which experience causes permanent change inknowledge or behaviour. Behavioural learning theories- explanations of learning that focus on externalevents as the cause of changes in observable behaviours. Contiguity- Association of two events because of repeated pairing. Ex. Relating “south” to “South Dakota” or “South Carolina”.Classical Conditioning- learning of involuntary emotional or physiological responses such as fear, increased muscle tension, salivation, or sweating. Ex.What we picture when we close our eyes and think of French Fries. Stimulus- event that activates behaviour Neutral Stimulus- Stimulus not connected to a response. Ex. Dog’s salivating when their here their owner coming vs. the first time their owner comes, andthey don’t know they are getting food.
Unconditioned Stimulus- Stimulus that automatically produces and emotionalor physiological response. Conditioned Stimulus: stimulus that evokes an emotional or physiological response after conditioning. Conditioned Response: Learned response to a previously reutral stimulus. Respondents- Responses (generally involuntary) elicited by specific stimuli. Operants- Voluntary behaviours emitted by a person or an animal.Operant conditioning- Learning in which voluntary behaviour is strengthened or weakened by consequences or antecedents. Sequence-Consequences-Reinforcement schedules-Continuous Presenting a reinforcer after every appropriate response.Intermittent Presenting a reinforcer after some but not all responses. Extinction- The disappearance of a learned response. Stimulus control- Capacity for the presence or absence of antecedents to cause behaviours. (Bank robber robbing a bank but then getting caught because they automatically stopped at a red light. The stimulus of the light had come to have automatic control. Effective instruction delivery (EID)- Instructions that are concise, clear, and specific, and that communicate an expected result. Statements work better than question.Cueing- Providing a stimulus that “sets up” a desired behaviour. Applied behaviour analysis- The application of behavioural learning principlesto understand and change behaviour.Behaviours modification- Systematic application of antecedents and consequences to change behaviour. The Premack Principle: Named for David Premack (1965). A high-frequency behaviour can be an effective reinforcer for a low-frequency behaviour. Sometimes referred to as grandma’s rule, “First, do what I want you to do, and then you may do what you want to do”.
Shaping- Reinforcing each small step of progress toward a desired goal or behaviour.Successive approximations- Small components that make up a complex behaviour.Unit 8: Cognition and LearningSkim Read: Chapter 8Reading Elements of the Cognitive Perspective1.What is studied in cognitive psychology and the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science? The scientific study of memory and cognition-“the mental events and knowledge we use when we recognize an object, remember a name, have an idea, understand a sentence, or solve a problem.”2.What does the cognitive view of learning involve? How does this view conceptualize learning in humans? Actively choosing to practise, pay attention, ignore, reflect, and make many other decisions as they pursue goals. Ex. Students building their understanding as they try to construct models and solve problems. The Importance of Knowledge in Cognition3.How is a learner’s prior knowledge relevant and important for learning new things? Because what we already know is the foundation and frame for constructing all future learning. Knowledge determines to a great extent what we will pay attention to, perceive, learn, remember, and forget. 4.Contrast domain-specific from (domain-) general knowledge. Domain-specific knowledge: Information that is useful in a particular situation or that applies mainly to one specific topic.General knowledge: Information that is useful in many different kinds of tasks and applies to many situations. Read Cognitive Views of Memory5.How is the information processing view of memory (and cognitive generally) based on a metaphor of the mind functioning as a computer?
Because like a computer, the human mind takes in information, performs operations on it to change its form and content, stories the information, retrieves it when needed, and generates responses to it. a.What is the basic way information flows into the mind and then getsprocessed and acted upon?When information flows into the mind, some information is encoded and moves to short-term memory. Short-term memory hols informationvery briefly, combines it with information from long-term memory and with enough effort, moves some information into long-term memory storage. Sensory Memory6.Contrast sensation with perception.Sensation: A physical feeling or perception resulting from somethingthat happens to or comes into contact with the body. Perception: Interpretation of sensory informationa)Provide a few examples and describe what the body senses and what the mind perceives. Body senses auditory, visual, touch, etc. For example, when you pinch yourself you only feel it for a few moments, you don’t remember what it felt like or can feel the sensation later on. Mind perceives things like letters, numbers, coding, etc. 7.How is top-down processing influenced by knowledge?It makes sense of information by using context and what we already know about the situation.a)Which memory store provides knowledge for top-down processing.Long-term memory, working memory, and sensory memory. Working Memory8.What is working memory, and how is it used?The information that you are focusing on at a given moment. This is where new information is held temporarily and combined with knowledge from long-term memory to solve problems or comprehend alecture. a)Unless they are actively rehearsed, how long do memories in WM last?15-20 seconds.
b)Describe the two modes of information that are processed in WM in the Baddeley model.Working and long-term memoryc)How is the central executive involved in WM processes?It controls attention and other mental processes.Retaining Information in Working Memory9.What is maintenance rehearsal? How is it related to the duration limit of WM?Keeping information in working memory by repeating it to yourself. 10.How can the actual amount of information in WM be increased even though WM capacity is considered to be fixed for an individual? Describe chunking and give some examples. Chunking: Grouping individual bits of data into meaningful larger units.It can be increased because the number of bits of information, not the size of each bit, is limitations for working memory, you can retain moreinformation if you can group individual bits of information. Return to Sensory Memory subsection, and read: The Role of Attention, Attention and Multitasking, and Attention and Teaching.11.What is selective attention and why is it important given the limits of working memory? Paying attention to selected stimuli and ignoring others. It is important because otherwise we would take into much, causing like to be very overwhelming. 12.How does the development of automaticity for many tasks free up attentional resources and working memory?Automaticity is the ability to carry out complex behaviour with little mental effort. Cognitive Load and Retaining InformationThree Kinds of Cognitive Load13.How is cognitive load related to working memory? Which refers to the requirements of a task and which to the processing ability of an individual?
Cognitive load is the volume of resources necessary, mostly working memory, to compete a task. 14.Why should extraneous load be minimized?Because it involves dealing with a problem that is not directly related to the learning task. Ex. Trying to get your roommate to quit interrupting you or struggling with a disorganized lecture or poorly written textbook. 15.Why should germane load be promoted though limited to a reasonable amount? Because it is directly related to high-quality learning. Ex. Organizing and integrating the material with what you already know and forming new understandings. Forgetting16.What does forgetting mean in the context of working memory; when it happens during conscious processing or problem-solving? Information may be lost from working memory through interference or decay. Processing new information interferes or gets confused with old information. 17.Why is forgetting actually useful-required-for the normal functioning of WM? What would happen if nothing was forgotten from our limited WM?Without forgetting, people would quickly overload their working memories and learning would cease. Read Long-Term Memory18.What is long-term memory, and what does it store? Long-term memory is permanent store of knowledge. It holds the information that is well learned, such as the names of all the people you know. 19.Contrast WM and LTM.WM: The “workbench” of the memory system, the interface where new information is held temporarily and combined with knowledge from long-term memory to solve problems. LTM: Divided into explicit and implicit memory.
20.Contrast implicit and explicit knowledge. Provide examples of each. Explicit is knowledge from long-term memory that can be recalled and consciously considered. Implicit is knowledge that we are not conscious or recalling, but that influences behaviour or thoughts without our awareness. Explicit Memories: Semantic and Episodic21.Describe semantic knowledge: Knowledge or memory for meaning, including words, facts, theories, and concepts. a)What is a simple proposition? The smallest unit of knowledge that can be judged true or false. 22.What are concepts, and how do they differ from simple facts?Concepts are categories used to group similar event, ideas, objects, or people. They differ from simple facts because they are abstract, they do not exist in the real world. Ex. Talking about a group of students. Weare categorizing students. a)Provide some examples of everyday ones and ones that are academically important. Ex. Categorizing students as a group that is learning or there are 7.5 million differences in colours. By mentally categorizing these colours into some dozen or so groups, we manage to deal with this diversity quite well. Schemas23.What are schemas and how do they, and story grammars, allow us to understand complex relationships among concepts? Basic structures for organizing information; concepts. It guides our perception and helps us make sense of our experience based on what we already know and what we expect to happen. Return to the Cognitive Views of Memory section and find the Cognitive Load and Retaining Information subsection. Read Retaining Information in Working Memory and Levels of Processing Theory. 24.What is elaborative rehearsal and how is it used when learning?Keeping information in working memory by associating it with something else you already know. Ex. If you meet someone at a party whose name is the same as your brother’s, you do not have to repeat the name to keep it in memory.
25.Describe the levels of processing theory. How does the level or depth of processing information typically affect learning.Theory that recalls of information is based on how deeply it is processed. Ex. If you are asked to sort pictures of dogs based on the colour of their coat, you might not remember. But if you are asked to rate them on how likely they would be to attack you, you will pay attention to details in the pictures. Implicit Memories (In the Long-Term Memory section)26.How are schemas and scripts similar?Scripts are action sequences or plans for actions stored in memory. Sequence of steps in a common event such as buying groceries or ordering pizza. Retrieving Information in Long-Term Memory27.How are memories connected and how does spreading activationaffect retrieval? The size of the network in long-term memory is huge, but only small parts from it are activated at any one time-in fact, as you saw earlier, some psychologists say the smaller activated par of long-term memoryis working memory. 28.Explain forgetting with respect to long-term memory. Describe how forgetting occurs in LTM. Decay and interference. Information appears to be lost from long-term memory through time decay and interference. One explanation for this decline is the neural connection, like muscles, grow weak without use. It can be that after 25 years, memories are still somewhere in the brain, but they are too weak to be reactivated. Physiological deterioration comes with age as well, which account for decline, as some neurons simply die. Finally newer memories may interfere with or obsure older memories, and older memories may interfere with memory for new material. Read Teaching for Deep, Long-Lasting Knowledge: Basic Principles and Applications29.How do organization and imagery affect learning?Organization: Material that is well-organized is easier to learn and to remember than bits and pieces of information, especially if material is complex or extensive.
Imagery: Can support memory if the information to be learned lends itself to images. We know it is easier to form an image for car than internal combustion, for example. 30.Describe distributed practice and massed practice. Which is generally better for learning? Distributed: Practice in brief periods with rest intervals.Mass: Practice for single extended periods. a)What is cramming the night before an exam an example of? Mass practice which leads to cognitive overload, fatigue, or lagging motivation. Unit 9: Complex CognitionRead Metacognition1.What is metacognition and why is it a higher-order process? Metacognition is knowing about our own thinking process. It is a higher-order process because if involves managing your own cognitive processes such as comprehending and problem solving. 2.What are some types of metacognitive processes one might engage in,especially students? Judging if they have the right knowledge to solve a problem, deciding where to focus attention, determining if you understood what you just read, devising a plan, etc. 3.What are the three essential processes involved in metacognition?Planning, monitoring, and evaluating. a.How would these be used by students to self-regulate their own learning? Planning: deciding how much time to give to a task.Monitoring: real time awareness of “how I’m doing.” Asking, “Is this making sense”, “Have I studied enough”.Evaluating: making judgements about the processes and outcomes of thinking and learning. “Should I change strategies? Get help? Give up for now?Read Learning Strategies4.What are learning strategies? How are thy related to “learning how to learn”? A special kind of procedural knowledge-knowing how to approach learning tasks. For ex. using acronyms or flashcards to remember
things. “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos” for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.a.How is learning strategy different from a procedure for solving a specific problem?Learning strategies are broader. If you cannot use learning strategies to know what they subject is about, you will not be able to solve a problem concerning that subject. b.How are learning strategies really very similar to study skills?Studying is a learning task, and therefore, when using learning skillsto study, they are very similar to study skills. Some include: planning and focusing attention, organizing and remembering, comprehension, cognitive monitoring, and practice. Applying Learning Strategies5.Why do some students not use learning strategies when they would be useful? This is called production deficiencies. It is especially a problem for students with learning disabilities. For these students executive controlprocesses such a planning, organizing, or monitoring progress, and making adaptions, often are underdeveloped. Read Problem Solving6.What is the problem space search metaphor for problem-solving?A problem has an initial state, a goal, and a path for reaching the goal. a.Explain the terms initial state, goal state, and paths to a solution. Initial state: the current situationGoal: the desired outcomePath for reading a solution: the operations or activities that move you toward the goal.7.Contrast well-structured and ill-structured problems. Well-structured: Most arithmetic problemsIll-structured: Finding the right University major or career, because many different solutions and paths to solutions are possible. Life presents many ill-structured problems. 8.Contrast domain-general and domain-specific problem-solving. Domain-specific: the debate that argues the problem-solving strategiesare specific to the problem are or domain. Ex. Strategies in math are unique to math,
Domain-general: There are some general strategies that can be useful in many areas. Ex. Identifying the problem, setting goals, exploring possible solutions, etc. 9.Describe the common “steps” or aspects of problem-solving (you may way to answer this after completing the sections about identifying, representing, and finding strategies for solving problems). Also, see Figure 9.4: “The Problem-Solving Process.”See figure 9.4 pg. 321Identifying: Problem Finding10.What is involved in identifying the problem?Since problem solving is not always straightforward, finding a solvable problem and turning it into an opportunity is the process behind many successful inventions. Ex. The tenants who complained about the elevator being too slow, stopped complaining when mirrors were installed on each floor. Defining Goals and Representing the Problem11.Why must students attend to the right information about a problem?Because otherwise they will get the wrong answer.a.What does ignoring irrelevant information mean and why is it important? Irrelevant to solving the problem. Often irrelevant information throws you off. Having only the relevant information makes it much easier to solve the problem. 12.What is meant by problem translation?Begin by directly teaching the necessary schema using demonstrations, modeling, and “think-alouds.”a.How are schemas related to translating a problem? How can the right schema focus attention on the right information and direct a student to ignore irrelevant information? When students lack specific knowledge in domains, they try to solvethe problems using general strategies such as looking for key words or applying rote procedures. But these approaches put great strain on working memory-too much to keep in mind at once overloads memory. In contrast, worded examples chunk some of the steps, provide cues and feedback, focus attention on relevant information, and make fewer demands on memory, so the students can use
cognitive resources to understand instead of searching randomly forsolutions. b.What are the surface features of a problem, such as a word problemin math? How can students misrepresent problems on the basis of these features?Surface features are the real-life structures used in the example for examples a boat or airplane. Students often focus on the surface and when their test comes, which has a different surface example, they don’t know how to do it. c.How can misunderstanding at the level of keywords often limit students’ understanding of the problem?One way to overcome this tendency is to have students compare examples or cases so they can develop a problem-solving schema that captures the common structure, not the surface features, of thecases. 13.What are worked (-out) examples and how do the help some students learn how to represent and solve problems? Worked examples reflect all the stages of problem-solving-identifying the problem, setting goals, exploring solutions, solving the problem, and finally evaluating the outcome. Searching for Possible Solution Strategies14.Contrast algorithms and heuristics.Algorithms: Step-by step procedure for solving a problem. Prescription for solutions. Heuristics: A general strategy that might lead to the right answer. a.Which guarantees a correct solution if implemented correctly?Algorithms. b.Provide examples of algorithms and heuristics.Algorithms: To find the average of an arithmetic problem, you add all the scores, then divide by the number of scores. Heuristics: Breaking a task into subgoals to help arrive at the goal. Ex. Writing a 20-page term paper can be broken down into tasks like: 1. Selecting a topic, 2. Reading and organizing the information, etc.c.Describe the following general heuristics for problem-solving: means-ends analysis, working backwards, and analogical thinking. Means-ends analysis: goal is divided into subgoals. Working backwards: Starts with the goal and moves backward to solve the problem.
Analogical thinking: limiting the search for solutions to solutions that are similar to the one at hand. 15.Why should students be encouraged to anticipate the results before they execute a procedure to solve a problem? Why should computed results be compared with “approximate estimates”?Because otherwise they could come up with a wrong answer, especiallyif they are using calculators, and wouldn’t know where they made theirmistake. Factors that Hinder Problem Solving16.What is functional fixedness?The inability to use objects or tools in a new way. 17.What is a response set? How does this relate to problem representation?Rigidity or the tendency to respond in the most familiar way. 18.What are some problems with using heuristics and how can thesebias our thinking?We use our biases or stereotypes to make an outcome instead of what is more likely. For example, think of the question about the slim, short stranger who would most likely be a truck driver or a professor. You need to think about the likelihood of each and not just your idea of what a professor or truck driver should look like. 19.Describe the representativeness and availability heuristics.RH: Judging the likelihood of an event based on how well the events match your prototypes-what you think is representative of the category. AH: Judging the likelihood of an event based on what is available in your memory, assuming those easily remembered events are common.20.What is confirmation bias and how does it affect our search for and analysis of information?Seeking information that confirms our choices and beliefs, while disconfirming evidence. Expert knowledge and Problem Solving21.How do experts differ from novices and how does that affect howthey represent and solve problems? Be sure to include each of the following:Experts have background knowledge about the topic or area. a.Attending to what is importantThey know where to focus their attention.
b.Knowledge organization pattern recognitionThey organize their knowledge around certain principles.c.Domain-specific knowledge that is easily retrieved and acted uponExperts know what to do next and can do it. d.The greater amount of time planning and monitoring relative to the overall time spent problem-solving. Experts spend more time analyzing problems, drawing diagrams, breaking large problems down into subproblems, and making plans. Critical Thinking and Argumentation22.See Table 9.3: What is a Critical Thinker? There are a lot of aspects to being a critical thinker listed there. They are also stated in very general way-they could be applied to anything. Do you think critical thinking is domain-general or domain-specific? Domain general, because they don’t focus on one possible answer. 23.What are the three historical thinking skills studied by Nokes and colleagues? Describe each. 1. Sourcing2. Corroboration3. ContextualizationPg. 333Point/Counterpoint: Should Schools Teach Critical Thinking and Problem Solving?24.Why should students learn these skills?Because they will need them for daily life. IDK25.Why should the skills taught be domain-specific and not a set of general thinking skills? Because each subject has different techniques to problem solving. Argumentation26.What are some of the main characteristics of argumentation? What does forming an argument imply.Constructing and critiquing arguments and debating claims. It implies supporting your position with evidence and understanding and then refuting your opponent’s claims and evidence. 27.Why might children and even adolescents have difficulty creatingsound arguments and in anticipating and refuting the arguments madeby others?
Children do not pay very much attention to the claims and evidence of the other person in the debate. Both children and adults tend to focus on their own positions because it is too demanding to remember and process both their own and their opponent’s claims and evidence at the same time-the cognitive load is just too much. 28.What is transfer? Influence of previously learned material on new material.