Academic achievement or (academic) performance is the outcome of education the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals.

A term used by Jean Piaget to explain one way in which we confront new information. Accommodation occurs when we are faced with new information that we cannot incorporate in our existing knowledge or schemes. Thus, we must alter our existing knowledge to integrate this new information. Accommodation is a process that works in conjunction with the process of assimilation.

A desire to achieve social status, recognition, and rewards through the accomplishment of difficult goals, competition, and independent effort which has been linked with academic and vocational success.

An ‘advance organizer’ is a cognitive instructional strategy used to promote the learning and retention of new information. These organizers are introduced in advance of learning itself, and are also presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and since the substantive content of a given organizer or series of organizers is selected on the basis of its suitability for explaining, integrating, and interrelating the material they precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies the substantive as well as the programming criteria for enhancing the organization strength of cognitive structure.

The area of mathematics related to the general properties of arithmetic. Relationships can be summarized by using variables, usually denoted by letters x, y, n,… to stand for unknown quantities, whose value(s) may be determined by solving the resulting equations.

(APA) A professional organization of persons holding doctoral degrees in psychology which promotes the clinical practice of psychology (among the many disciplines of psychology), sets ethical guidelines for psychologists, and publishes numerous research journals.

A method of reasoning in which a decision about one thing or event is deduced by the similarity of that thing or event to another belonging to a known class of things or events.

A fearful mood that has A state of uneasiness, accompanied by dysphoria and somatic signs and symptoms of tension, focused on apprehension of possible failure, misfortune, or danger.

The APA formed the Learner-Centered Principles (LCP), which  provide a framework for developing curriculum that emphasizes active and reflective  learning. LCP curriculum should emphasize the  incorporation of the needs, skills, interests and backgrounds of the learners.

The traditional method of learning the specialist skills and knowledge of a trade or a craft. Apprentices were indentured to a master—someone who had mastery of the trade or craft they required to learn—for a period of seven years. This kind of Vocational education and training services are provided in HK in the form of Modern Apprenticeship, which is a short vocational training programme to enable non-engaged youths aged between 15 and 24 to obtain professional trade certificates.

Instead of primarily attempting to convince others, Arguing to Learn help learners to l think critically l articulate their own views l engaged in cooperative explorations of multiple perspectives l negotiate their own thoughts with others’ different perspectives l co-constructed and expand students’ understanding of specific concepts or problems.

The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.

The measurement of a learner’s potential for attainment, or of their actual attainment.

This approach allows pupils a measure of control in their own learning, and one of its central tenets is that assessment should focus on the work, not on the individual. It is based on the belief that it is as important to consider ‘how’ learning takes place as it is to consider ‘what’ has been learned. AfL fosters a sense that it is all right to make mistakes, and thereby it develops risk?taking, one of the ‘soft skills’ which the creativity initiative aims to foster. Weaknesses are therefore handled constructively so that the pupil is helped to identify for themselves how they might improve. At the heart of AfL is the belief that everyone can make progress. Teachers give feedback to, and receive feedback from, pupils; and this feedback should be used to inform future lesson planning in a way that links teaching more effectively to learning.

The assessment method a way of providing evidence that students’ knowledge and learning match the aims of a course.

For an assessment to be reliable, the candidate should be awarded the same result, regardless of which assessor is marking their work. For example, a multiple choice test has a much higher degree of reliability than an essay because the latter may be open to a subjective response from assessors.

A term applied in the assessment of students’ work or performance when the question arises of whether there is enough evidence of successful achievement to allow the assessor to make an informed assessment decision. It is commonly used in assessment for vocational qualifications, where the question might be one of how many successful performances of a specific task constitute a sufficiency of evidence for the candidate to be judged competent to a national standard. Similar questions of sufficiency of evidence can arise over the assessment of written work, where it may be important to ascertain whether the learner can perform consistently at the required standard.

Validity refers to the requirement that assessment measures what it claims to measure. For example, an assessment of a candidate’s driving skills based on their ability to write an essay about driving would be invalid, as would an assessment of a candidate’s knowledge of art history based on their own skill at painting a picture. To be valid, an assessment must measure what it claims to measure.

(1) Absorption or incorporation of information or of a substance, or more generally the act or process of making things similar or alike. (2) In the writings of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980) and his followers, a form of adaptation (3) in which novel experiences are incorporated into existing psychological structures or processes, as when an infant responds to a new toy that is introduced into its environment by treating it like an already familiar object, interpreting it on the basis of past experience as something to be grasped, shaken, put in the mouth, and so on.

Mental experiences consist of elementary sensations when sense organs are stimulated, and ideas are thoughts and memories experienced in the absence of sensory stimulation. Ideas have a tendency to become associated with one another: complex ideas arise from the association of simple ideas, and once two ideas have become associated, it is then difficult to experience one without the other, as when the idea of redness, associated in most people’s minds with warmth, tends to come to mind whenever we think of warmth.

Sustained concentration on a specific stimulus, sensation, idea, thought, or activity, enabling one to use information-processing systems with limited capacity to handle vast amounts of information available from the sense organs and memory stores.

he process whereby an attitude (1) towards a person, object, or issue becomes more or less favourable, usually as a consequence of persuasion.

An enduring pattern of evaluative responses towards a person, object, or issue. According to a frequently quoted classical definition, it is a more or less consistent pattern of affective, cognitive, and conative or behavioural responses (or of feeling, thinking, and behaving) towards a psychological object, but the consistency implied by this definition is a supposition that is frequently unmatched by reality, and it is possible to have an attitude towards something without ever having the opportunity to express it in behaviour.

A theory designed to explain how people perceive, infer, or ascribe causes to their own and other people’s behaviour. Basic research in this area has established that we tend to attribute another person’s behaviour to internal, dispositional causes rather than external, situational causes if the behaviour seems different from how other people would behave in the same situation but characteristic of that person’s behaviour in similar and dissimilar situations in the past; but if the behaviour seems similar to that of others in the same situation but uncharacteristic of that person’s past behaviour in similar and different situations, then we are likely to attribute it to external causes.

Weiner focused his attribution theory on achievement (Weiner, 1974). He identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as the most important factors affecting attributions for achievement. Attributions are classified along three causal dimensions: locus of control, stability, and controllability. The locus of control dimension has two poles: internal versus external locus of control. The stability dimension captures whether causes change over time or not. For instance, ability can be classified as a stable, internal cause, and effort classified as unstable and internal. Attribution theory has been used to explain the difference in motivation between high and low achievers. According to attribution theory, high achievers will approach rather than avoid tasks related to succeeding because they believe success is due to high ability and effort which they are confident of. Failure is thought to be caused by bad luck or a poor exam, i.e. not their fault. Thus, failure doesn’t affect their self-esteem but success builds pride and confidence. On the other hand, low achievers avoid success-related chores because they tend to (a) doubt their ability and/or (b) assume success is related to luck or to “who you know” or to other factors beyond their control. Thus, even when successful, it isn’t as rewarding to the low achiever because he/she doesn’t feel responsible, i.e., it doesn’t increase his/her pride and confidence.

The assignment of causes to behaviour, or the perception or inference of the causes of behaviour, such causes including personal dispositional factors and external situational factors.

Knowledge problems arise from efforts to understand the world. Ideas produced or appropriated are as real as things touched and felt.

An authoritarian style (strict with rigid rules and procedures) can raise achievement, high anxiety levels characterize such classrooms and productivity drops off when the teacher is absent.

One who is self?motivated to learn and is able to do so without direct supervision and prompting. Most educators in the United Kingdom would claim that one of the aims of education is to produce such learners. This is sometimes expressed as helping individuals to ‘learn how to learn’. For autonomous learning to become a possibility, the learner needs to be equipped with appropriate skills, including those necessary for carrying out research, problem?solving, or analysis. For the autonomous learner, the teacher becomes a facilitator of the learning process, rather than a source of information or instruction.

A cognitive consistency theory of person perception and attitude change in which the elements, often depicted as vertices of a triangle, are a person (p), another person (o), and an attitude object (x), the relations between the three elements, represented by the sides of the triangle, being either positive or negative according to p’s attitudes and beliefs. The model represents p’s cognitions, and it can exist in a state of either balance, if none of the relations is negative or if two are negative, or imbalance, if just one of the relations is negative.

A collection of psychotherapeutic techniques aimed at altering maladaptive or unwanted behaviour patterns, especially through the application of principles of conditioning (1) and learning (1), the basic assumptions being that most forms of mental disorder can be interpreted as maladaptive patterns of behaviour, that these patterns result from learning processes, and that the appropriate treatment involves the unlearning of these behaviour patterns and the learning of new ones. Also called behaviour modification.

A school of psychology launched in 1913 by the US psychologist John B(roadus) Watson (1878–1958) with the theoretical goal of the ‘prediction and control of behavior’, representing a radical break with the classical experimental psychology of structuralism (2), which emphasized neither prediction nor control nor behaviour. Watson considered the introspective methods of structuralism to be unscientific, he excluded everything except behaviour from psychology, and he borrowed the doctrine of operationalism from logical positivism, defining the meaning of psychological concepts as literally the operations through which they are measured. According to behaviourism, virtually all behaviour can be explained as the product of learning (1), and all learning consists of conditioning (1). The contemporary work on classical conditioning of the Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936), of which Watson was apparently unaware, added further impetus to the behaviourist movement when it became known in the US. The most influential proponent of neobehaviourism since the 1940s was the US psychologist B(urrhus) F(rederic) Skinner (1904–90), who initiated the study of operant conditioning. As a complete explanation of all forms of behaviour, the doctrines of classical and operant conditioning have lost much of their force in the face of mounting attacks from various sources and the decline of positivist dogmas, but neobehaviourism is still influential in the English-speaking world.

The tendency for equally able schoolchildren to show lower academic self-esteem when attending a school in which the average ability level of the other children is high than when it is low. The effect is believed to result from social comparison processes, and it implies that children tend to have lower academic self-esteem in academically selective schools than in non-selective schools.

The study of living organisms; or a generic term for the life sciences, including botany, zoology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and related disciplines.

A combination of modes of learning. It is currently normally used to describe a combination of e?learning (or some other form of distance learning) and face?to?face student–teacher contact. Thus, a student undertaking a programme of study via a blended learning model of delivery will access much of the learning materials and make regular contact with their tutor and other learners online, but will also attend at least one lesson or tutorial—or perhaps a more lengthy weekend or residential course—where tutor and students can all meet in the same place and at the same time. This represents a blend of asynchronous, distributed learning with traditional synchronous, non?distributed provision. The inclusion of face?to?face contact is designed largely to overcome one of the problems associated with distributed (online) learning, which is that students can come to feel isolated and demotivated, and may miss the social contact and stimulation which traditional attendance with a group of peers can provide.

Bloom’s taxonomy identifies a hierarchy of cognitive skills that can be developed through the process of learning. The classification is as follows: (1) knowledge (simple knowledge of facts, conceptual terms, theoretical models); (2) comprehension (an understanding of the meaning of knowledge); (3) application (the ability to apply knowledge to new situations or a changed context); (4) analysis (the ability to break material down into its constituent parts and identify the connections between them); (5) synthesis (the ability to reassemble the parts into a new and meaningful relationship); (6) evaluation (the ability to judge the value of material using explicit criteria, either developed by the learner or derived from other sources).

Any form of information processing that is initiated, guided, and determined by input and that proceeds in sequential stages, with each stage coming closer to a final interpretation than the last, as in computational theories of vision that proceed from raw sensory data to more abstract cognitive operations.

A means of generating ideas, often by a group of people, whereby immediate responses are written down and collected uncritically and without editing so as not to impede the creative process. These can then be explored and considered at more leisure in order to identify what is useful. It can be used as a method for teaching and supporting learning, either when learners are working in small groups and recording their own ideas; or when a teacher is working with a larger group, encouraging all to contribute ideas, and writing them on a board or flip chart.

A thorough observation or analysis of one or a few participations. Case studies can be used as a basis for further research or be employed in situations where a large number of participants are not available. Case studies can also be used in psychological research for clinical applications, such as to investigate the success of different treatments of a disorder.

Human thoughts which seek to delineate a set of causal relations between things and events.

Child?centredness identifies children as unique and special who deserve an education appropriate to their individual needs, rather than a prescribed formal curriculum defined by behaviourist and narrow models of teaching. The following notions are central to child?centred education theories: • education should meet the needs of those being educated; • these needs are best met if identified with the interests of children; • the curriculum should be based on experience and discovery; • rather than being subject? or content?based, educational programmes should focus on activity.

The grouping together of a number of items of information so that they are processed cognitively as a single entity called a chunk, as when the letters c, h, u, n, k, i, n, and g are perceived, interpreted, and easily remembered as a single word, whereas without the key the same letters presented alphabetically as c, g, h, i, k, n, n, u would be difficult to memorize for more than a few seconds. the capacity of short-term memory is about five chunks, but that as the number of elements per chunk increases, the number of chunks that can be remembered decreases slightly.

ne of the two major forms of conditioning (1), being the process of learning (1) through which an initially neutral stimulus (1), such as the ticking of a metronome, comes to elicit a particular response, such as salivation, as a consequence of being paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus, such as food. Also called Pavlovian conditioning

Teachers help to establish a classroom climate that affects interactions. Emotional aspects of teacher–student interactions are important for children. A positive classroom climate that reflects teacher warmth and sensitivity is associated with higher achievement and better self-regulation among elementary students.

The therapy developed by Carl Rogers which assumes that each person lives in a reality of his or her own, has inherent drive to actualize his/her own unique potential, and will do so unless prevented by need for the positive regard of significant other people.

A question to which an answer must be selected from a limited set. Questionnaire items with fixed response categories are closed questions, and questions in interviews or informal conversations can be open or closed. Are you angry about that? is a closed question, because it implies a yes/no answer, whereas How do you feel about that? is an open-ended question, because the range of possible answers is unlimited. Open-ended questions are more effective in breaking the ice or drawing out responses in tense or awkward social situations. Also called a close-ended question.

Someone who provides advice to help a learner improve their performance. For example, a pupil might be provided with coaching to help them improve their examination performance or their game of tennis. The distinction between coaching and mentoring sometimes appears unclear; and on occasion the two terms are used interchangeably. As a rule, coaching suggests a more restricted role than mentoring, often time?constrained and tightly focused on performance.

The mental activities involved in acquiring and processing information (1). Its study includes cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive neuropsychology.

The aptitude for or skill at performing mental tasks such as memory, perception, judgment, decision making, comprehension, attention, reasoning of various kinds, intuition, language, and mathematics. This phrase has become a substitute for the older term intelligence and is usually used in an educational setting.

Cognitive Apprenticeship • supports learning in a domain by enabling students to acquire, develop and use cognitive tools in authentic domain activity • enculturate students into authentic practices through activity and social interaction

A form of psychotherapy based on cognitive therapy and behaviour modification, in which the client or patient learns to replace dysfunctional self-speech (such as I knew I’d never be able to cope with this job) with adaptive alternatives (The job’s not going well, but I am capable of working out a plan to overcome the problems). Its applications include anger control, stress management, coping with anxiety, and developing social skills.

Cognitive Constructivism has its roots in cognitive psychology and biology and an approach to education that lays emphasis on how the individual learner “maker of meanings” and the ways knowledge is created in order to adapt to the world in which the mechanisms of accommodation and assimilation are key to this processing.

The appearance, expansion, and alteration of mental processes from birth until death including sensory and motor perception and control, all types of memory, consciousness, attention, analyzing, solving problems, emotional experience and regulation, counterfactuals, and conscious thought.

Piaget was interested in the nature of thought and the development of thinking, and observed that even young children have skills with regard to objects in their environment. Their explorations—first through sensorimotor activity and at a later stage through formal or hypothetical operations—he described as schemas. He identified a number of specific age–stage developmental activities: sensorimotor (0–2); pre?operational–symbolic (2–7); concrete–logical operations (7–11); and formal abstract operations (12+). Piaget devised a number of laboratory?based experiments to establish children’s cognitive stage of development, and the similarities between children’s actions and responses at certain ages. The experiments included those to test children’s ideas of object permanence (Do I look for it? Where has it gone?); conservation (Is the mass the same if I change its shape?); seriation (Can I group things in order?); and egocentrism (Do I know what it is like to be someone else?). The theory of constructivism, where an individual constructs knowledge through action from within themselves then discards or modifies ideas when faced with new information which has to be accommodated to re?establish the learner’s equilibrium, has been extremely influential in pedagogy at all levels of education.

A mental representation of an environment or locale that is mentally scannable for distance, location, and other relationships of importance to the individual. The term was coined by Edward Tolman to describe the relative ease rats had in fi nding a new route to a reward site after their usual route was blocked.

This term describes a subdiscipline of psychology that examines mental processes involved in perception (both visual and auditory), reasoning and problem solving, language processing, memory, and the processing of various types of information. This field developed from the earlier Gestalt school of psychology pioneered by Max Wertheimer; the work of Jean Piaget, who examined cognitive development in children; and the writings of Noam Chomsky, who initiated the movement toward the study of language in terms of mental processes. Cognitive psychologists seek to understand the mental representations and structures that lead individuals to comprehend, define, and develop knowledge. In the area of memory, researchers seek to understand how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved in the mind. Two main aims in cognitive psychology are, first, to provide a theoretical description of the mind (mental structures or abstract representations, and processes) and, second, to provide experimental and quantitative evidence regarding mental functioning.

A mental representation of some aspect of past experience or some part of one’s general knowledge. Schemas are a basic unit of analysis in some areas of cognitive psychology. It is supposed by cognitive psychologists that schemas are constantly being created, modified, and imposed on perceptions, situations, understanding, and processes.

The interdisciplinary science of mind which includes and attempts to integrate approaches from psychology, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, computer science, and physiology.

A characteristic mode of processing information including perceiving, conscious reasoning, remembering, solving problems, and understanding the world in general. Numerous typologies of mind have been suggested, first by Carl Jung in 1923 and continuing to contemporary ideas such as field dependence/independence, cognitive complexity/simplicity, leveling/sharpening, reflectivity/impulsivity, tolerance/intolerance of ambiguity, and abstract/concrete thinking.

Learning is represented mentally and analogous to computer processing ? select and attend to features of the environment ? transform and rehearse information ? relate new information to previously acquired knowledge ? organize knowledge to make it meaningful

Collaborative learning is an instruction method in which two or more students learn together on a shared assignment toward an agreed-upon goal.

1. The transference of understanding from one individual to another or the transfer of data from one source to another in any of a very large number of natural and artifi cial ways. 2. The message or actual data being transferred in an act of communication.

Communities of practice are “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis.” (Wenger, 2002). “Every group that shares interest on a website is called a community today, but communities of practice are a specific kind of community. They are focused on a domain of knowledge and over time accumulate expertise in this domain. They develop their shared practice by interacting around problems, solutions, and insights, and building a common store of knowledge. The model of situated learning proposed that learning involved a process of engagement in a ‘community of practice’: • be groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly • be everywhere, for instance at work, school, home, or in our civic and leisure interests • be usually unintentional rather than deliberate and continues after graduation.

CSCL is focused on how collaborative learning supported by technology can enhance peer interaction and work in groups, and how collaboration and technology facilitate sharing and distributing of knowledge and expertise among community members.

Any of numerous forms of instruction in which computers are used in addition to more traditional teaching methods to aid the learning of students. Usually individual drill or problem solving geared to a student’s past performance is used to adjust instruction to an individual student’s level of ability. It is also used to present instruction in different formats such as simulations or games.

A mode of teaching and learning in which learning material is presented via a computer, and the learner is able to interact with them.

Setting that includes computer technology used for learning in various ways, including with simulations, computer-based instruction, and hypermedia/multimedia.

Computer-mediated communication CMC) is any form of communication between two or more individual people who interact and/or influence each other via separate computers through the Internet or a network connection – using social software. CMC does not include the methods by which two computers communicate, but rather how people communicate via computers.

A mental representation, idea, or thought corresponding to a specific entity or class of entities, or the defining or prototypical features (1) of the entity or class, which may be either concrete or abstract.

A concept map is a kind of visualization and a kind of diagram, i.e. a graphical representation of some domain knowledge. More precisely, concept mapping is a technique to visualize relationships between different concepts. Concepts are drawn as nodes (e.g. boxes) and relations are drawn with so-called arcs, i.e. lines that are drawn between associated concepts. These arcs are usually labeled (named), i.e. express the kind of relationship, for instance, “results in”. In addition arcs can be directional, i.e. one would use arrows instead of lines.

The process of learning or acquiring a concept, which can be inductive, as by discriminating among particular instances, some of which are examples of the concept and some of which are not, or deductively, as by another person’s verbalization of the construct.

The process by which a concept is acquired or learnt, usually from exposure to examples of items that belong to the concept category and items that do not belong to it. In general, it involves learning to distinguish and recognize the relevant attributes according to which items are classified and the rules governing the combination of relevant attributes, which may be disjunctive, as in the concept of a coin, which may be circular, polygonal, or annular. Also called concept identification or concept formation.

A concept map is • a diagram showing the relationships among concept • a graphical tool for organizing and representing some domain knowledge • a technique for visualizing the hierarchical structure of concepts in which the most general concepts normally are on top

One’s belief/theory about the nature of intelligence (ability) and how it changes over time.

Conceptual change is a process whereby concepts and relationships between them change over the course of an individual person’s lifetime or over the course of history.

A reflex action to a stimulus which originally did not result in the response after a learning period in which the stimulus is paired with another stimulus which does produce the response. Also called a conditioned response.

A response in the presence of a stimulus which did not originally evoke the response but which has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus until the stimulus provokes a response similar to the one originally evoked by the unconditioned stimulus. Thus if a dog hears a bell immediately before being fed, it will come to salivate when it hears the bell without being fed; the salivation to the bell will be the conditioned response.

A stimulus which does not initially provoke a response but begins to do so after repeated pairing with a stimulus which does provoke a response. Thus if a dog hears a bell immediately before being fed, it will start to salivate when it hears the bell without being fed; the bell will be the conditioned stimulus.

1 The process of learning (1) through which the behaviour of organisms becomes dependent on environmental stimuli (1). Its two major forms are classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning) and operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning).

1. A theory of learning in which neural connections between stimuli and responses are the basis of learning. 2. In cognitive psychology, an approach to learning and memory in which knowledge is encoded as connections between multiple nodes rather than in a single location or memory entity. This suggests that knowledge is distributed rather than local and is defined by a net of activation that has a particular spread. It includes artificial intelligence programs that use spreading nets of activation to model neural networks.

Any model of information processing based on the conceptual framework of connectionism (1). Also called a connectionist network.

Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process. The learner is an information constructor. People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality. Many cognitive psychologists now believe that humans learn most effectively where new information can be assimilated with previously held knowledge. This philosophy of learning is known as constructivism.

A collection of techniques often used in qualitative research for the systematic and objective description and classification of the manifest or latent subject matter of written or spoken verbal communications, usually by counting the incidence or coincidence of utterances falling into several (usually predetermined) categories.

Any influence of the physical, emotional, or social environment on an organism’s response to a particular thing or event. Any influence of surrounding objects, events, or information on an organism’s response to a stimulus (1), especially on perception and cognition.

A form of state-dependent memory associated with the context in which information is learned and recalled.

The basic principle of Guthrie’s theory, which refers to learning that results from a pairing close in time of a response with a stimulus or situation.

Reinforcement for every response

Assessment of student’s work which takes place throughout the duration of their course, usually through assignments or other coursework. It involves no terminal examination, and is sometimes accused of lack of rigour for this reason. However, continuous assessment may also involve some element of external testing and externally marked assessment, as was the case with General National Vocational Qualifications in the later stages of their development. Continuous assessment may be formative, as well as providing a summative assessment of the student’s attainment.

Cognitive activities that regulate the flow of information through the processing system.

Situation in which a group of students work on a task that is too great for any one student to complete and in which an objective is to develop in students the ability to work collaboratively.

Model who initially demonstrates the typical fears and deficiencies of observers but gradually demonstrates improved performance and self-confidence in his or her capabilities.

The process of helping people make adjustments in normal developmental processes across the life span, including educational, vocational, and marital adjustment and planning; family dynamics; aging; and rehabilitation after disability.

An area of proficiency not currently measured in schools by existing methods of testing or measures of progress, but which might manifest itself in abilities and skills such as self?confidence, risk?taking, resilience, teamwork, questioning, and challenging. These are sometimes referred to as soft skills, which some employers are eager to see acknowledged as part of pupil assessment, and which the Department for Children, Schools, and Families is investigating as a possible area of development in terms of testing and standards. Finding a way to measure these aspects of creativity without extinguishing them, however, clearly presents more substantial problems than the testing of academic ability and understanding.

Walking, language, sensorimotor coordination, and other skills are best learnt at certain ‘critical periods’ in the development of children, and similarly with other animals. Once the critical period is lost, it may be very difficult or impossible to learn the skill with full effectiveness.

A form of problem-centered thinking in which the person consciously reflects on a task and mentally tests potential solutions for their possibility, efficiency, costs, likely problems, and their likelihood of success.

Any research that involves the comparison of two or more cultures on some psychological variable of interest. It is the dominant methodological paradigm in cultural and cross-cultural psychology.

The form of intelligence associated with previously learned material such as deductive reasoning, vocabulary, general knowledge, reading comprehension, and solving analogies. It increases slowly throughout adulthood until the onset of physical decline in elderly people and is associated most closely with the hippocampus.

Any difference between identify able groups of people in their customs, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, personality, norms, behavior, art, and language, and the development, change, and interactions of these with the environment.

The review of a whole curriculum or of specific subjects or cross?curricular themes for the purpose of revising or improving, or even replacing, it. In its widest sense, curriculum development encompasses all those professional activities which teachers, researchers, and other educationalists undertake in order to improve and support the curriculum, from the development of innovative teaching materials or methods, to the formulation of new learning outcomes or syllabuses.

Creating, designing, and organizing a curriculum, either for one institution or on a national level, for example in the case of the curriculum for a nationally available qualification.

The proposition that forgetting is caused by passive degeneration or deterioration of memory traces.

The act or process of choosing a preferred option or course of action from a set of alternatives. It precedes and underpins almost all deliberate or voluntary behaviour. Three major classes of theories have guided research into decision making: normative, descriptive (or positive), and prescriptive theories.

Knowledge that can be recalled or expressed verbally, in contrast to implicit knowledge, which can be used but is difficult to express. Ability to say one’s name is an example of declarative knowledge while being able to use chopsticks is implicit knowledge.

Knowledge that can recalled and expressed verbally in contrast to implicit memory such as how to ride a bicycle, which can be used but is difficult to express.

Process of deriving specific points from general principles.

Deep structure is the underlying hierarchical structure for a sentence generated by phrase structure rules. It is a level of representation proposed in early versions of generative grammar, set up to account for the fact that sentences with different surface forms are nonetheless syntactically related.

A form of classical conditioning in which the duration of the conditioned stimulus is gradually extended until there is a considerable time lapse between the beginning of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov found that eventually the organism delays the conditioned response until near the end of the prolonged conditioned stimulus.

A democratic (collaborative) leadership style is effective. The teacher works cooperatively with students, motivating them to work on tasks, posing questions, and having them share their ideas.

A state of mind characterized by negative mood, low energy, loss of interest in usual activities, pessimism, unrealistically negative thoughts about self and the future, and social withdrawal. Short states of depression are normal after personal losses of various sorts and are considered disorders only when they persist for long periods or significantly interfere with daily functioning as in the various depressive disorders.

Research that has no other purpose than to describe phenomena and is not intended to explain, predict, or control them.(Qualitative Research)

Changes in people over time that follow an orderly pattern and enhance survival.

The branch of psychology concerned with psychological phenomena of all kinds in infants, children, adolescents, adults, and old people, and all the psychological changes that occur across the lifespan. It includes research into the development of perception, cognition, language, skills, moral attitudes, and social relationships.

What an individual is capable of doing given his or her present level of development.

Instruction matched to students’ developmental levels.

Constructivist perspective stating that knowledge derives from interactions between persons and their environments.

Teaching, usually in primary education, through dialogue between teacher and pupils and between pupils themselves, which thereby places an emphasis on speaking and listening as well as on thinking skills, clear lines of enquiry, and pupil engagement. In operational terms this may mean teachers encouraging pupils to give extended, rather than brief, answers and to pose their own questions. It may involve allowing pupils the time to reflect upon questions and answers before responding, and calling upon named individuals for answers, rather than encouraging the classroom ‘bidding’ process of raised hands.

Conversation between two or more persons while engaged in a learning task.

Hearing two verbal inputs simultaneously

Class situation in which all students work on different tasks and materials or methods are tailored to students’ needs.

Information processing task in which participants hear a series of digits and then attempt to recall them in the same order.

Instances of behavior that are observed.

Discourse analysis is the study of the principles underlying the organization of discourse, a unit of language spanning beyond individual sentences. Discourse analysts are predominantly concerned with analyzing language that occurs naturally, rather than language elicited artificially. Methodologically, discourse analysis relies heavily on the transcription of recorded speech and therefore demands careful consideration regarding the way such recordings are to be obtained. Discourse analysis can also be performed on corpora from written sources, including newspapers as well as Internet chat rooms and other such electronic forms of communication. Research on discourse analysis has important applications in areas such as language instruction and human-machine interaction.

An approach to learning in which the learner is allowed to explore and become actively engaged with concepts, objects, or the physical environment in order to develop their understanding of it. In this process, the teacher is a facilitator rather than an instructor, and it is their role to organize a rich or appropriately resourced learning environment and to encourage the learner’s self?directed curiosity and problem?solving skills, rather than to demonstrate or provide ‘correct’ answers or procedures. Discovery learning is a learner?centred approach.

Responding differently, depending on the stimulus.

The stimulus to which one responds in the operant model of conditioning.

Instruction that originates at one site and is transmitted to students at one or more remote sites; it may include two-way interactive capabilities.

Learning that is divided up into sessions, leaving gaps either between trials or between blocks of trials, generally leading to superior recall after a delay relative to massed practice.

Discrete declarative and procedural knowledge structures.

Internal force that energizes and propels one into action.

A graph depicting the rate of forgetting of information. The amount of learned material—originally the number of nonsense syllables—remembered is plotted on the vertical axis against time on the horizontal axis. [Named after the German psychologist Hermann von Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) who introduced it in his book Über das Gedächtnis (On Memory) in 1885]

The branch of applied psychology that studies the mental processes involved in formal education including both learning and adjustment of individuals within the educational system. It includes attempts to apply theory both in individual cases and to groups and school systems as a whole.

The process of expanding upon new information by adding to it or linking it to what one already knows.

Means of presenting instruction in which one begins with a general view of the content, moves to specific details, and returns later to the general view with review and practice.

Deep processing of material that needs to be remembered, involving formation of associations, organization (grouping of material into categories), use of mnemonic strategies, or other forms of cognitive processing.

E-learning is the acquisition of competencies, knowledge, and skills through electronic media, such as the Internet or a institute Intranet.

Media that operate through electronic means including televisions, cell phones, video games, Web social networks, and e-mail.

A transient, neurophysiological response to a stimulus that excites a coordinated system of bodily and mental responses that inform us about our relationship to the stimulus and prepare us to deal with it in some way.

EI refers to the processes involved in perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions to solve emotion-laden problems and to regulate behavior. Perceiving emotion refers to the ability to identify emotions in oneself and others, as well as in other stimuli, including voices, stories, music, and works of art. Using emotion refers to the ability to harness feelings to assist in certain cognitive activities such as problem solving, decision making, creative thinking, and interpersonal communication. Understanding emotions involves knowledge of both emotion-related terms and the manner in which emotions combine, progress, and transition from one to the other. Managing emotions includes the ability to employ strategies that alter feelings, and the assessment of the effectiveness of these regulation strategies.

Learning through actual performance.

Representing knowledge through motor responses.

The idea that retrieval of information from long-term memory is maximized when retrieval cues match those present during encoding.

Constructivist perspective stating that people construct mental structures out of preexisting structures and not directly from environmental information.

The belief that abilities represent fixed traits over which one has little control.

Memory of particular times, places, persons, and events, which is personal and autobiographical. Theoretically, episodic memory is distinguished from semantic memory, but in experimental practice the two overlap significantly.

Participants set forth their ideas and negotiate a fit between personal ideas and ideas of others, using contrasts to spark and sustain knowledge advancement rather than depending on others to chart that course for them. They deal with problems of goals, motivation, evaluation, and long-range planning that are normally left to teachers or managers.

The branch of philosophy that is concerned with the origins, nature, limits, and methods of human knowledge. This is a very important question in any science, which must have an acceptably logical set of reasons for its methods in order to be acceptable as a science.

Equilibration is the central learning mechanism and the motivating force behind cognitive development, which refers to the optimal state of the cognitive structures being really consistent with the external environment. A biological drive to produce an optimal state of equilibrium; it includes the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation.

The eight ages of man or epigenetic stages in the development of self described by Erik Erikson: (1) The oral-sensory stage, in which the infant must make sense of the world and decide the degree to which it is sufficiently predictable so as to sustain continuing social relationships, which is called basic trust. (2) The anal-muscular stage, in which the young child learns to control its body and decides on the degree to which he/she has the capacity to exercise control over the self rather than relying on external controls, which is called autonomy. (3) The locomotorgenital stage, in which the child learns to control its abundant energy and channel it into socially defined roles and decides the degree to which her/his energy can be used in socially approved ways, which is called purpose. (4) The latency stage, in which the child applies her/his energy and abilities to learning the skills, tasks, and roles which the culture deems appropriate for her/him and decides the degree to which he/she can succeed within the culture, which is called industry. (5) The puberty and adolescence stage, in which the teen begins to think for himself/herself using a larger social frame of reference and begins switching the identification of self from a relatively narrow one of family and the short term to society as a whole and lifelong goals, often undergoing a crisis in self-understanding whose resolution is called identity, which is a commitment to sexual, group, economic, and moral roles. (6) The young adult stage, in which the individual seeks a sexual/procreational partner and establishes a long-term emotional, social, and economic partnership with him/ her for the purpose of creating a family, whose completion is called intimacy. (7) The stage of adulthood in which the individual applies his/her skills and creative abilities to the tasks of supporting himself/herself and family through accomplishing work in a varied set of roles which both sustain and change the culture as a whole, whose accomplishment is called generativity. (8) The stage of maturity in which the self must accept the limitations of one human lifetime with a psychohistorical perspective and accept death while maintaining interest and commitment to life, whose achievement is called ego integrity.

A form of operant conditioning in which an organism learns to move away from an aversive stimulus. Thus if a person is given a shock on the seat after a bell rings, he or she soon learns to leave the seat when the bell rings.

A form of operant conditioning in which an organism learns to move away from an aversive stimulus, eventually avoiding it altogether. Thus if a person is given a shock on the seat after a bell rings, he or she soon learns to leave the seat when the bell rings and soon will not sit in the same seat at all.

Constructivist perspective stating that the acquisition of knowledge represents a reconstruction of structures that exist in the external world.

Psychological theory postulating that behavior is a function of how much one values a particular outcome and one’s expectation of obtaining that outcome as a result of performing that behavior.

The word experiential essentially means that learning and development are achieved through personally determined experience and involvement, typically in group, by observation, listening, study of theory or hypothesis, or some other transfer of skills or knowledge

A study in which an investigator systematically varies conditions (independent variables) and observes changes in outcomes (dependent variables).

A person who has attained a high level of competence in a domain.

Computer system that is programmed with a large knowledge base and that behaves intelligently by solving problems and providing instruction.

Type of advance organizer that introduces new material with concept definitions and generalizations.

Deductive teaching strategy in which material is presented in an organized and meaningful fashion with general ideas followed by specific points.

Decrease in intensity and disappearance of a conditioned response due to repeated presentations of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.

Extrinsic cognitive load is caused by the manner in which the material is presented or the activities required of the learner.

Engaging in a task as a means to the end of attaining an outcome (reward).

A distorted or fabricated memory sometimes produced in situations in which demands are made to remember events or details of events not actually experienced, as in cases in which clients are expected by therapists to remember incidents of childhood sexual abuse and witnesses are led or pressured by the police or an attorney to produce evidence.

The tendency to avoid an achievement goal that derives from one’s belief concerning the anticipated negative consequences of failing.

A technical term taken from communication theory which, when applied in an educational context, refers to a formal response from teacher to learner about their work or progress; or from learner to teacher in answer to a question, problem, or task which has been set. In the first case, a teacher’s feedback to the learner can take the form of either a spoken or a written appraisal of the learner’s performance, including advice on what areas need to be improved and which should be regarded as strengths. This may be referred to as formative assessment. In the second case, learners who have been set a task, individually or in groups, may be asked to ‘feed back’ their findings or conclusions to the teacher and the rest of the class, for the purposes both of providing the teacher with an opportunity for the assessment of students’ learning, and also of providing an opportunity for peer learning, where students learn from one another. This process is also known as debriefing. If learners are asked to evaluate a lesson or module or course, their spoken or written responses are again referred to as ‘student (or learner, or pupil) feedback’.

Study conducted where participants live, work, or go to school.

A theory of attention proposed in 1958 by the English psychologist Donald E(ric) Broadbent (1926–93) according to which there exists a central processor (2) with a limited capacity that can select only one sensory input channel at a time and can switch between input channels no more than about twice per second, information in an unattended channel being held in short-term memory for a few seconds.

A vivid episodic memory of an emotionally significant event in which the person subjectively believes he or she remembers an unusual number of minor details with clarity although research suggests the clarity is illusory and the details are often supplied by semantic memory.

A procedure in behavior therapy in which an individual is confronted with the thing he or she fears most, either in imagination or in real life under safe circumstances. Eventually the person becomes habituated to it, and the initial fear responses gradually diminish and disappear. Also called exposure therapy.

In measurement and statistics, a lower limit of a variable which skews the distribution of scores. Thus a test with a floor effect is too difficult for the sample on which it is being used, as many scores accumulate at the bottom end of the range of scores and make impossible a discrimination among the low scorers on the characteristic being measured.

The ability to adapt to new knowledge or information and think in flexible ways. Fluid intelligence also includes the ability to understand and make conceptual relations. Often tested on intelligence tests, fluid intelligence includes examination of inductive reasoning and complex problem solving skills. Research suggests a decline in fluid intelligence throughout adulthood.

A temporary decline in the thinking ability of people who are using a foreign language in which they are less proficient than in their native tongue.

Loss of information from memory or inability to recall information due to interference or improper retrieval cues.

Fourth of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, encompassing roughly ages 11 to adult.

Assessment which is designed to provide feedback to the learner in order that they may improve their performance. In this sense it helps to ‘form’ the learner. Its very purpose demands that formative assessment be part of the learning process rather than a terminal assessment event which takes place at the end of the course of study. Continuous assessment, for example through assignment work, is formative, as are week?by?week teacher assessments of class work and homework. The key feature of effective formative assessment is that it provides the learner with clear constructive feedback.

Retrieval of information from memory without the help of cues (3), and hence often contrasted with cued recall. The term is also used for retrieval of a number of items of information in any order, in contradistinction to serial recall.

The property of a drive or habit that has become detached from the goal that originally motivated it and operates independently. A classic example is the drive or habit associated with making money, initially to buy goods and services that improve the quality of one’s life, but often becoming an end in itself. Many compulsions such as hand-washing manifest functional autonomy.

Any doctrine that emphasizes utility or purpose, especially the school of psychology. Instead of analysing the structure of mental experience, as was conventional in structuralism (2), functionalism examined both mental experience and behaviour from the standpoint of their functional value in adapting the organism to its environment, in a deliberate attempt to introduce evolutionary ideas into psychology. Conscious experiences were interpreted as phenomena that arise when automatic, reflex behaviour is inadequate to meet the needs of an organism, as when a person who is learning to ride a bicycle eventually ceases to be conscious of every movement when conscious awareness is no longer needed. The early practitioners of functionalism were the first to use non-human animals in psychological experiments. During the 1920s and 1930s, functionalism was gradually swallowed up by behaviourism.

The hypothesized portion of ability in any specific task that is associated or correlated with most or all other intellectual tasks. Following the theories of Francis Galton, Robert Spearman hypothesized that the ability to accomplish all tasks is composed of task specific abilities, which he designated as s, plus a general ability, which he designated g for “general ability.”

Activity that creates an enjoyable learning context by linking material to sport, adventure, or fantasy.

A term used to differentiate between males and females resulting from social and cultural influences as opposed to purely biological ones. Increasingly the use of the term is taken to be inclusive of issues that relate especially to boys and men as well as to those which relate mostly to girls and women. There is a wide range of issues in education which are gender?related. They apply not only to students, but also to everyone else involved, including teachers, governors, and policy?makers.

Any usual or statistically significant variance of a trait or other characteristic between those who identify as men and those who identify as women within a particular culture. These frequently include differences in available social roles, careers, economic motivation and style of achievement, communication styles, person versus task orientation, aesthetic sensitivity, and sexual motivation.

The beliefs about differences between men and women and differences in what is appropriate for each that are generally held within a culture. Some cultures hold these beliefs more rigidly than others and tend to be punitive toward those who do not conform to the stereotypes while other cultures are neither rigid nor punitive toward nonconformists.

Skill applying to many domains (e.g., goal setting).

Occurrence of a response to a new stimulus or in a situation other than that present during original learning. See also Transfer.

A secondary reinforcer that becomes paired with more than one primary or secondary reinforcer.

Problem-solving strategy in which one generates (thinks of) a possible problem solution and tests its effectiveness.

A school of thought in psychology that focused on perception and emphasized the organization of experience into wholes that were more than the sums of their parts. It developed the Gestalt laws of perceptual organization and applied them to other areas of psychology. It also was the first modern point of view that emphasized creative insight in problem solving.

The behavior (outcome) that one is consciously trying to perform (attain).

Reasons for engaging in academic tasks

Process of establishing a standard or objective to serve as the aim of one’s actions.

A method of teaching and learning where learners discuss a given topic. This may be done as a whole group, led by the teacher; or may take the form of small?group discussion at the conclusion of which each group feeds back its ideas to the class as a whole.

The formation of a group from individual components. In perception, this usually involves Gestalt formation. In research design, it involves assigning subjects to experimental conditions. In everyday life, it is the placement of things, such as furniture, in a group or noticing that some things appear together.

A technique used in cognitive behaviour modification for helping a client to recall the steps that led to a particular instance of feeling anxious or depressed, with a view to locating potentially changeable elements in the client’s thinking patterns.

Opposite of the Lecture method, guided discussion method enables the instructor to query the student on a certain topic

An ordering of human needs according to their relative importance to human beings suggested by Abraham Maslow. In this hierarchy physical needs such as oxygen, warmth, water, and food are most important. Second are needs for safety. Third are needs for social connection. Fourth are needs for self- and social esteem. Fifth and last is a set of growth needs, which vary unpredictably from one individual to the next and frequently include beauty, harmony, knowledge, and order. When one level of needs is satisfied, the next level begins to have the same urgency, as do lower needs when they are unsatisfied. So when the lower four levels of needs are satisfied, the growth needs can be just as compelling as are the needs for food or shelter when they are not fulfilled.

Complex psychological abilities mediated by the cerebral cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex, involved in complex cognition, such as reasoning, problem solving, thinking, decision making, and self-awareness.

A learning procedure in which the conditioned stimulus from one set of trials is used as the unconditioned stimulus for a second set of trials in which a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus. If a bell has been paired with food so that it produces drooling, then a flashing light or other stimulus can be paired with the bell and can be made to produce drooling with food never paired with the light.

The tendency to approach an achievement goal that derives from one’s subjective estimate of the likelihood of succeeding.

1. The impact of human capacities, needs, and limitations on the functioning of a system. 2. The study of the design of systems which accommodate human needs and optimize them for use by human beings. Also called ergonomics.

The effectiveness with which tasks or purposeful activities are carried out or accomplished by people in the workplace, sports arena, or elsewhere.

Humanists emphasize the role of individual: People act with intentionality and values.

An approach to psychology that became popular in the 1960s, influenced by existentialism and phenomenology, stressing individual free will, responsibility, and self-actualization.

Theory emphasizing people’s capabilities to make choices and seek control over their lives.

Multimedia

Sensory memory for visual inputs.

Representing knowledge with mental images

In cognitive psychology, a hypothesized very brief memory store for visual information which contains all or nearly all of the information taken in a single glance or moment of perception which lasts less than a second. This contrasts with short-term memory, which can last up to 30 seconds and has a capacity limit of about seven items. Also called very short term memory and iconic memory.

To understand an idea is to understand the ideas that surround it, including those that stand in contrast to it – creating a rich environment for ideas to evolve into new and more refined forms.

Copying the observed behaviors and verbalizations of others.

Learning from the environment rather than from what is being taught. Thus a child of highly punitive parents might learn that might makes right instead of whatever particular rules the parents are trying to teach the child.

Participants work continuously to improve the quality, coherence, and utility of ideas. For such work to prosper, the culture must be one that people feel safe in taking risks- revealing ignorance, voicing half-baked notions, giving and receiving criticism.

Measurable variance on any dimension among persons or organisms in a group.

1 The practice of allowing students to learn at their own pace and according to their own preferred learning style, and to cover those areas of the syllabus or lesson which are necessary to their learning. It is an approach which necessitates the teacher having a clear understanding of the starting point and learning needs of each student, and is part of the wider practice of differentiation. In this approach, which is widely used in the teaching of basic skills, for example, students may have their own individual action plans and learning objectives. 2 The practice of encouraging pupils to work separately on individual tasks, for example using work cards, rather than working as a group or class. This alternative meaning does not necessarily imply the practice of differentiation.

A form of reasoning, also called empirical induction, in which a general law or principle is inferred from particular instances that have been observed.

Reasoning from premises to conclusions; or a conclusion arrived at by this process. When the premises are particular observations and the conclusion a general law or principle, then the mode of inference is called induction (1); when the premises are axioms, postulates, or assumptions and the conclusion a logical inference or theorem, then the mode of inference is called deduction.

1 An area of the curriculum concerned with the uses of technology. Although it is sometimes used interchangeably in schools with the term information technology, ICT is widely recognized as denoting the study of the applications and use of the technology, for example through the exploration and creation of electronic toys and models, and through the production of electronic music. Since the introduction of the national curriculum, ICT has been a compulsory subject for all pupils. 2 Also used to refer to resources for supporting learning, such as computers, televisions, or audio equipment.

Cognitive functioning or cognition interpreted with the help of concepts borrowed from computer science. It includes all of the processes studied within cognitive psychology, such as attention, perception, learning (1, 2), memory, thinking, problem solving, decision making, and language.

In Pavlov’s theory, a type of neural excitation that works antagonistically to an excitation producing conditioning and that diminishes the conditioned response in intensity or extinguishes it.

Inquiry learning is a student-centered approach to engage, motivate and challenge students in active learning whereby they discover meaning of newly attained knowledge and increase their deep understanding of encountering problems, topics, or issues that are solved through a systematic method of collecting and analyzing information.

Socratic teaching method in which learners formulate and test hypotheses, differentiate necessary from sufficient conditions, make predictions, and decide when more information is needed.

A sudden perception, awareness of a solution, or transformation from an unlearned to a learned state.

Learning that occurs by means of a sudden reorganization of mental elements so as to make a solution obvious. Such learning usually takes place after extended periods of experimenting with solutions and incubation.

Instructional Quality The degree to which instruction is effective, efficient, appealing, and economical in promoting student performance and attitude toward learning.

Usually defined as a measure of cognitive skill and the ability to solve problems

Any test that claims to measure general abilities or capacity to learn. The best known intelligence tests are the Wechsler scales of intelligence and the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. Both are individually administered tests which measure a variety of skills and make inferences about likely educational achievement and capacities to learn.

The reduction in learning or remembering caused by the learning or remembering of other information. 2. The interaction of two or more waves such that a new additive wave pattern is created. 3. Noise which makes signal detection more difficult.

Transforming information acquired from the social environment into mechanisms of selfregulating control.

International collection of computer networks.

Reinforcement is contingent on the first response being made after a specific time period.

Situation in which interviewer presents questions or points to discuss and respondent answers orally.

Intrinsic cognitive load depends on the unalterable properties of the information to be learned and is eased only when learners acquire an effective cognitive schema to deal with the information.

Engaging in a task for no obvious reward except for the activity itself (the activity is the means and the end).

Type of self-analysis in which individuals verbally report their immediate perceptions following exposure to objects or events.

A cooperative technique designed to reduce prejudice and conflict in racially mixed groups of children. In the original research, children were arranged in six-member groups, and the day’s lessons were divided into six sections, each section being assigned to a different child, with every child having essential information that, like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, was necessary for completing the task and had to be learned and taught to other group members to achieve the common goal of receiving good marks. Evidence suggests that, compared to traditional classes, jigsaw groups tend to manifest less prejudice and stereotyping, increased liking among group members both within and across ethnic boundaries, increased self-esteem, better scholastic performance, and greater enjoyment of school.

Mnemonic technique in which one generates an image of a word sounding like the item to be learned and links that image with the meaning of the item to be learned.

Any internal information, understanding, or capacity to accomplish tasks which has been learned. It is sometimes divided into declarative knowledge (knowing some fact like that water is wet), procedural knowledge (knowing how to do something like ride a bicycle), and acquaintanceship knowledge (recognizing your mother’s face).

Knowledge building represents an attempt to rebuild our classroom in a fundamental way, in which students • work collectively to investigate questions and knowledge problems and advance them through collective efforts of community • create knowledge which may not new to the world, but has been recognized as the contributions to the advancement of the community and an enabling effect on future knowledge creation

Knowledge Forum is a commercial tool for knowledge-building communities, used in industry, education and other organizations. It supports what instructional designs like the knowledge-building community model. Knowledge Forum provides university students and teachers with a unique collaborative space in which to organize course materials, analyze research results, discuss texts, and cite reference material. Science, literature, psychology, and language departments all over the world are finding that Knowledge Forum’s referencing tools and shared workspace environment build vibrant intellectual communities across the curriculum.

Knowledge Integration is an instructional design model to enhance science teaching in school classrooms.

The encoding and storage of knowledge in computational models of cognition. It is a major branch of artificial intelligence and is also studied in cognitive psychology, logic, computer science, and linguistics. The representation of informal and intuitive human knowledge is one of its major unsolved problems.

In sociology, the idea that when a label is attached to a person within a social group, the individual begins to behave according to her/his label, thus enacting a self-fulfilling prophecy

Study conducted in a controlled setting.

Language is the implicit system that links an external linguistic signal, acoustic or written, and the message carried by that signalLanguage is the implicit system that links an external linguistic signal, acoustic or written, and the message carried by that signal. .

The acquisition of phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of a languageThe acquisition of phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of a language. .

Learning that occurs from environmental interactions in the absence of a goal or reinforcement.

Learning (unlearning) occurs through repetition (non-repetition) of a response. Eventually discarded by Thorndike. Learning (unlearning) occurs through repetition (nonrepetition) of a response. Eventually discarded by Thorndike.

Psychological state involving a disturbance in motivation, cognition, and emotions due to previously experienced uncontrollability (lack of contingency between action and outcome).

An approach to teaching and learning in which the learner, their interests, enthusiasms, and aspirations are taken as the starting point of the education process, and the learner is credited with taking responsibility for their own learning.

An enduring change in behavior or in the capacity to behave in a given fashion resulting from practice or other forms of experience. An enduring change in behavior or in the capacity to behave in a given fashion resulting from practice or other forms of experience.

Most types of learning difficulty can be categorized as either specific or non?specific. Specific learning difficulties most commonly include conditions such as dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; dyscalculia, verbal dyspraxia, and dysphasia also belong to this category. Specific learning difficulties affect a particular aspect of learning rather than the overall abilities of students. A dyslexic student, while experiencing significant difficulties with reading and writing, may also enjoy high levels of academic achievement in a range of subjects. It is important not to assume that a student with a specific learning difficulty is less able than others. There are those students who underachieve and are simply classed as less able and as having special needs. These are the students whose learning difficulties might be classed as non?specific or general. The impact on development and progress can result in social immaturity, which impedes the ability to develop age?appropriate friendships, problems with written and spoken language, difficulty in grasping new concepts, poor concentration, which makes listening and acquiring new skills difficult, and poor organizational skills. Most types of learning difficulty can be categorized as either specific or non?specific. Specific learning difficulties most commonly include conditions such as dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; dyscalculia, verbal dyspraxia, and dysphasia also belong to this category. Specific learning difficulties affect a particular aspect of learning rather than the overall abilities of students. A dyslexic student, while experiencing significant difficulties with reading and writing, may also enjoy high levels of academic achievement in a range of subjects. It is important not to assume that a student with a specific learning difficulty is less able than others. There are those students who underachieve and are simply classed as less able and as having special needs. These are the students whose learning difficulties might be classed as non?specific or general. The impact on development and progress can result in social immaturity, which impedes the ability to develop age?appropriate friendships, problems with written and spoken language, difficulty in grasping new concepts, poor concentration, which makes listening and acquiring new skills difficult, and poor organizational skills.

A goal of acquiring knowledge, behaviors, skills, or strategies. A goal of acquiring knowledge, behaviors, skills, or strategies.

Organized set of intellectual skills. Organized set of intellectual skills.

Specific procedure or technique included in a learning strategy and used to attain a learning goal.

A form of discrimination learning in which subjects must learn a general approach to problems in order to be successful. As an example, in a rat maze problem the rat may have to learn that red crosses and blue circles are rewarded and no other combination is rewarded. Acquiring the learning set allows faster and more accurate discriminations in the future. Also called learning set. A form of discrimination learning in which subjects must learn a general approach to problems in order to be successful. As an example, in a rat maze problem the rat may have to learn that red crosses and blue circles are rewarded and no other combination is rewarded. Acquiring the learning set allows faster and more accurate discriminations in the future. Also called learning set.

A method of teaching used mainly in higher education, where students are taught in large groups, often in specially designed lecture theatres, which are tiered so that all students have a view of the teacher (or lecturer) and whatever resources or visual aids are being used. The advantage of the lecture is that it allows a large number of students to be taught in a relatively short length of time. It is therefore cost?effective in terms of human resources. From an educational point of view, however, it does have some disadvantages, including the fact that the lecture format does not easily allow for student–teacher dialogue, and that it requires students to possess sophisticated note?taking skills if they are to benefit fully from the process. The very term ‘lecture theatre’ itself goes some way towards setting expectations of the respective roles of lecturer and students, since it implies that the lecture will be a performance on the part of the lecturer, thereby casting students simply as an audience.

Conceptualization of memory according to the type of processing that information receives rather than the processing’s location. Conceptualization of memory according to the type of processing that information receives rather than the processing’s location.

1. The predictable, multidimensional changes an individual goes through over the course of growth from an infant, through childhood, adolescence, and across the adult years to senescence and death. 2. The study of psychological development across the whole life span with an emphasis on adult change. 1. The predictable, multidimensional changes an individual goes through over the course of growth from an infant, through childhood, adolescence, and across the adult years to senescence and death. 2. The study of psychological development across the whole life span with an emphasis on adult change.

A cognitive style or personality trait characterized by a generalized expectancy about the relationship between behaviour and the subsequent occurrence of reinforcement (1) in the form of reward and punishment. People with internal locus of control tend to expect reinforcements (1) to be the consequences of their own efforts or behaviour, whereas people with external locus of control expect them to be the consequences of chance, luck, fate, or the actions of powerful others. Between these two extremes lies a continuum of intermediate cognitive styles. A cognitive style or personality trait characterized by a generalized expectancy about the relationship between behaviour and the subsequent occurrence of reinforcement (1) in the form of reward and punishment. People with internal locus of control tend to expect reinforcements (1) to be the consequences of their own efforts or behaviour, whereas people with external locus of control expect them to be the consequences of chance, luck, fate, or the actions of powerful others. Between these two extremes lies a continuum of intermediate cognitive styles.

Long term memory effectively stores all of our knowledge and skills on a more-or-less permanent basis. Long-term memory provides humans with the ability to vastly expand this processing ability. This memory store can contain vast numbers of schemas—cognitive constructs that incorporate multiple elements of information into a single element with a specific function.

The simple repetition (without elaboration) of items that need to be remembered in order to prevent them fading from short-term memory, as when a person repeats a telephone number over and over while searching for a pen and paper to write it down. It develops spontaneously in children at 6–7 years of age.

Learning technique in which one identifies important ideas and specifies how they are related.

A systematic instructional plan that has as its objective students demonstrating high achievement and that includes the components of defining mastery, planning for mastery, teaching for mastery, and grading for mastery.

Model who demonstrates faultless performance and high self-confidence throughout the modeled sequence.

Effectance Motivation

Learning of ideas, concepts, and principles when material is presented in final form and related to students’ prior knowledge.

The ability to recall information, experiences, and feelings accurately; or to copy or re?enact procedures correctly. As well as enabling formal learning to take place, memory is the means by which the individual creates a coherent story of their life and experiences, and may therefore be said to be part of what constitutes the self. In both its narrow and wider sense, therefore, memory is central to the learning process.

A child’s performance on a test of mental ability expressed as the average age of children who achieved the same level of performance in a standardization sample. Thus a 10-year-old child who achieves the same score as the average 12-year-old child in a standardization sample has a mental age of 12.

Situation involving the teaching of skills and strategies to students or other professionals within advising and training contexts.

Metacognition plays an important role in student’s learning strategies which refers to the conscious controlling, regulating and monitoring of all sorts of cognitive processes. Deliberate conscious control of one’s cognitive activities.

Mnemonic technique in which information to be remembered is paired with locations in a familiar setting.

A type of learning method that makes to-be learned material meaningful by relating it to information that one already knows.

The process by which humans develop a code of values and ethical principles that guide decisions about right and wrong social behavior.

Motivation to acquire new knowledge, skills, and strategies, rather than merely to complete activities.

1. The hypothetical physio-mental force that leads humans and other animals to act. 2. In learning theory, any situation which acts to punish or reinforce particular behavior. 3. A willingness to make an effort in the pursuit of a goal. 4. The process or action of convincing others to make an effort in the pursuit of a goal.

A complex neural connection that includes emotions, cognitions, and behaviors.

A complex neural connection that includes emotions, cognitions, and behaviors.

Technology that combines the capabilities of computers with other media such as film, video, sound, music, and text.

Multimedia learning as learning from words and pictures (Mayer 2009), • The words can be printed (e.g., on-screen text) or spoken (e.g., narration). • The pictures can be static (e.g., illustrations, graphs, charts, photos, or maps) or dynamic (e.g., animation, video, or interactive illustrations).

People have a unique blend of intelligences which are rarely operate independently. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences as a model of intelligence labels these units intelligences, each with its own observable and measurable abilities, rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability.

A longstanding and on-going debate about the extent to which people are shaped by genetic factors or by the impact of the world around them, such as their upbringing. There is a wide range of perspectives in this debate, ranging from those who see genetic make-up as determining a person’s characteristics to those who see the influence of the surrounding environment as crucial. The debate continues and its ramifications are ever-present in social work. This can be illustrated by assuming that the extreme point on the nature end of the nature versus nurture continuum is correct. If that were so, in the case of a parent abusing a child there would be little point in working towards the child remaining with the parent. Most adopt a position in the debate that both nature and nurture contribute.

A stimulus that, when removed by a response, increases the future likelihood of the response occurring in that situation.

Prior learning that makes subsequent learning more difficult.

A person who has some familiarity with a domain but performs poorly.

Means of analyzing learning by comparing behaviors and reported thoughts of skilled individuals (experts) with those of less-skilled persons (novices) and deciding on an efficient means of moving novices to the expert level.

Any form of learning that occurs through observation without practice and is not observable until elicited by an appropriate task situation. Thus children frequently learn by watching their parents but without actually practicing the observed behaviors.

Is the delivery of interactive training and educational material via an organization’s internal computer network (Intranet) or the World Wide Web (Internet). [See computer-assisted instruction.]

The study of origins, including the origin of existence, of knowledge, and of reality. Originally ontology focused on metaphysical speculation but in recent years has focused on questions about the meaning of questions about existence deriving from existential philosophy and hermeneutics.

A form of questioning which requires more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, and does not restrict the choice of answer to one of a list, as in multiple?choice testing. It requires students to articulate answers in their own words, and thereby it tests their skills of comprehension and synthesis rather than, or as well as, their memory. Open?ended questioning may be used verbally by teachers in class as part of a question?and?answer session to check student progress and understanding; or it may be used in a written form in tests and exams. In some contexts, for example in questionnaires, such questions are known as open questions. The assessment of answers to open?ended questions is usually open to more subjectivity than that of closed questions to which there is an agreed objective answer of the factual or true–false kind. Because an open?ended question may have no one definitive or final answer it has a wider range of uses in teaching than simply that of testing students’ knowledge. It may be used to encourage learners to draw upon their own tacit knowledge; to make connections between previous and current learning; to hypothesize or theorize; or to create and invent.

Presenting reinforcement contingent on a response emitted in the presence of a stimulus to increase the rate or likelihood of occurrence of the response.

Through operant conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence.• Operant to refer to any “active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences • Conditioning refers to “the strengthening of behavior which results from reinforcement”

Definition of a phenomenon in terms of the operations or procedures used to measure it.

Verbalized questions or answers to questions.

Decrease in intrinsic interest (motivation) in an activity subsequent to engaging in it under conditions that make task engagement salient as a means to some end (e.g., reward).

Recalling the response of a stimulus–response item when presented with the stimulus.

Paper-and-pencil tests in psychology are sometimes referred to as questionnaires, inventories, surveys, rating scales, or checklists. They are designed so that a person taking the test (respondent) is required to answer (endorse) one or more questions (items) on a paper form.

Model for research

A model of knowledge representation and information processing according to which items of knowledge are represented by patterns of connections of varying strengths between locations within a network model, information processing taking the form of parallel processing of collections of activated connections. The term is almost synonymous with connectionism (1).

All aspects of behavior by adults with children intended to protect, nurture, teach, discipline, and guide them.

Learning to refrain from emitting a particular response in order to avoid punishment in operant conditioning.

The process of learning to refrain from emitting a particular response in order to avoid punishment in operant conditioning.

Teaching, as a professional practice and as a field of academic study. It encompasses not only the practical application of teaching, or pedagogic, skills, but also curriculum issues and the body of theory relating to how and why learning takes place. Because it derives from a Greek expression referring to the education of the young, pedagogy is sometimes taken to be specifically about the education of children and young people, in which case the more recently coined term ‘androgogy’ is used in relation to the education of adults. ‘Pedagogue’, once an alternative term for ‘teacher’, has come to have overtones of pedantry, and is sometimes used now in a pejorative sense. Either ‘pedagogic’ or ‘pedagogical’ may be used as an adjective.

Learning that occurs when students work together and their social interactions serve an instructional function.

1. Any social collectivity in which the members share a common characteristic. 2. A small group of friends or colleagues with shared interests, activities, and values. 3. Individuals belonging to the same age group (especially in childhood and adolescence), especially friends but also members of the same age cohort within a youth subculture. 4. A group of individuals of roughly the same status.

The social exchanges that occur between individuals with the same status. Peer group interaction usually refers to the interactions of children and adolescents within groups of their own age.

A numerical evaluation of an individual by other members of an identifiable group to which the person belongs.

Any relationship between individuals who regard themselves as equals or who are identifiable as similar on some important dimension.

The process of scientific review in which researchers read and critique each other’s work, usually prior to publication or as a precondition to publication.

Situation in which a student who has learned a skill teaches it to one who has not.

Belief that one can influence task engagement and outcomes.

The total of an individual’s conceptualizations about herself or himself which affect interpretation of sensory stimuli about the self and others’ reactions to the person.

Ability to achieve desired results. Perceived self-efficacy includes beliefs about one’s ability or competence to bring about intended results.

Process of recognizing and assigning meaning to a sensory input.

A clear statement of what the candidate must achieve in order to be deemed successful in an assessed task, assignment, or examination. The criteria will normally specify what areas of knowledge, skills, and understanding must be demonstrated, and to what level. They are often used as a way of breaking down the learning outcomes or objectives into more detailed and specific guidance for the student, and may be used by the teacher or assessor as a checklist when marking or assessing. When assessment feedback is given to the student, either written or spoken, it should be related to the performance criteria in order to convey clearly where these have and have not been met. The use of performance criteria was integral to the original General National Vocational Qualification, and was seen by some academics and teachers as being very closely related to the use of statements of competence.

A goal of completing a task

A test of ability requiring manipulation of objects rather than simply verbal or written responses.

The sum total of the behavioural and mental characteristics that are distinctive of an individual. Also, informally, the personal qualities that make a person socially popular, as in Princess Diana had a lot of personality, but this sense is avoided in careful psychological usage.

The act or process of inducing another person or persons to change their ideas, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings about some topic or topics.

A set of ideas developed by the Swiss physiologist Jean Piaget, who suggested that the human mind develops in a set of stages, which he called the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, operational, and formal operational stages, whose order is invariant across culture. The awareness of the continuous existence of an object when it is outside our sensory field develops during the sensorimotor period and is called object permanence. During the preoperational stage the child is self-centered and unable to see things from nonsensory points of view although rudimentary language and number concepts are learned. In the stage of concrete operations the child begins to think objectively about both the world and himself/herself and begins to use operations such as reversibility, conservation, and categorization about specific objects and situations. In the stage of formal operations these are extended into abstract thinking, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, and mature moral reasoning.

Of or relating to the person, ideas, or works of Jean Piaget, a Swiss researcher who developed many theories about human epistemology and especially the structure and development of mind.

A preliminary version of a research project intended to test the practicality of the intended measures and procedures in the project and to suggest modifications to be used in the actual study.

Candidates for competence?based qualifications may be required to compile and present evidence of their achievement in the form of a portfolio for the purposes of assessment. This is particularly the case where the candidate is claiming accreditation for prior experience or learning. The portfolio might contain evidence such as witness statements of the candidate’s competence, photographs of completed work or artefacts, and certification of qualifications already gained. In art and design courses a student’s portfolio will contain examples of their work.

Warmth, caring, and acceptance toward another individual, which is often regarded as a necessary condition for optimal human growth and development of self-worth in children and in therapy clients.

1. A reward or rewarding circumstance following an action which leads to the action’s being more likely to be repeated. 2.

A stimulus that, when presented following a response, increases the future likelihood of the response occurring in that situation.

Positive regard that derives from self-experiences.

A reduction in the effort or time necessary to learn something due to similar previous learning. Thus learning to conjugate one verb in a foreign language may make it easier to learn to conjugate other verbs in the same or similar languages.

Cognitive activities engaged in subsequent to goal setting.

Cognitive activities involved in making decisions and setting goals.

Tendency to recall the initial items in a list.

A situation in which one is trying to reach a goal and must find a means of attaining it.

One’s efforts to achieve a goal for which one does not have an automatic solution.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional method of hands-on, active learning • centered on the investigation and resolution of – real-world problems – open-ended and ill-structured problems with no one “right” answer • placing students in the active role of problem solvers – Students work as self-directed, active investigators and problem-solvers in small collaborative groups – Teachers adopt the role as facilitators of learning, guiding the learning process and promoting an environment of inquiry.

The successive phases that can be observed in the process of problem solving. According to the most influential scheme, proposed by the English psychologist Graham Wallas (1858–1932) in his book The Art of Thought (1921), the stages are preparation, incubation, illumination or insight (2), and verification. According to the US philosopher John Dewey (1859–1952) in his book How We Think (1933), the stages are suggestion, translation of a difficulty into a well-defined problem, framing of a hypothesis, reasoning, and testing.

Knowledge of how to do something: employ algorithms and rules, identify concepts, solve problems.

Being able to do something that one has previously learned to do. This usually involves long-term retention of nonverbal information.

The continuation of a teacher’s professional development beyond their initial training, qualification, and induction. This may take many forms, including attendance on short courses for updating skills or knowledge; longer programmes of study such as diplomas and postgraduate degrees in education; staff development events held within the teacher’s own institution; conferences; mentoring; and peer assessment.

Programmed instruction is the name of the technology invented by the behaviorist B.F. Skinner to improve teaching. It typically consists of self-teaching with the aid of a specialized textbook or teaching machine that presents material structured in a logical and empirically developed sequence or sequences.

Project Based Learning (is) a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and task.

Withdrawal of a positive reinforcer, or presentation of a negative reinforcer contingent on a response, which decreases the future likelihood of the response being made in the presence of the stimulus.

Descriptive term for Tolman’s theory emphasizing the study of large sequences of (molar) goal-directed behaviors.

Learning to refrain from emitting a particular response in order to avoid punishment in operant conditioning.

Study characterized by depth and quality of analysis and interpretation of data through the use of methods such as classroom observations, use of existing records, interviews, and think-aloud protocols.

Situation in which respondents are presented with items or questions asking about their thoughts and actions.

Concerns about race bias in testing are centered on the fact that specific ethnic groups consistently obtain lower average scores on traditional intelligence tests (as well as some other psychological tests).

A process of deciding which subject or group in a study is included in which treatment condition such that all subjects or groups have an equal prior probability of being assigned to any particular treatment.

Verbalized questions or answers to questions.

Evaluations of students on quality or quantity of performance.

A schedule where reinforcement is contingent on the number of responses.

The doctrine that knowledge derives from reason without the aid of the senses.

A numerical result from a measurement in the first form in which it is recorded before it is summarized, normalized, or converted into any other form.

What children are capable of doing or learning at various points in development.

Reading to learn, also referred to as Reciprocal teaching developed by Palincsar and Brown (1984), is an instructional approach that features “guided practice in applying simple, concrete strategies to the task of text comprehension”

Mental processes involved in generating and evaluating logical arguments.

To remember specific information, as opposed to recognizing appropriate choices when they are presented. 2. n. The capacity to remember specific information.

Interactive dialogue between teacher and students in which teacher initially models activities, after which teacher and students take turns being the teacher.

Teachers can learn from their own teaching experience in order to develop their pedagogic skills by reviewing specific incidents in their professional practice and reflecting upon them in order to draw conclusions about how they might improve their own performance as teachers.

Thoughtful teacher decision making that takes into account knowledge about students, the context, psychological processes, learning and motivation, and self-knowledge.

Repeating information to oneself aloud or subvocally.

Reinforcement is responsible for response strengthening—increasing the rate of responding or making responses more likely to occur.

Extent that an individual has been reinforced previously for performing the same or similar behavior.

Anything which can be used to increase or decrease the likelihood of the appearance of a behavior when appropriately associated with the behavior in time and space.

The stimulus in the operant model of conditioning that is presented contingent on a response and increases the probability of the response being emitted in the future in the presence of the discriminative stimulus.

The doctrine that all forms of knowledge are justifiable because they are constructed by learners, especially if they reflect social consensus.

The degree to which a measure of a psychological characteristic gives similar results under different conditions.

The encoding and storage of knowledge in computational models of cognition. It is a major branch of artificial intelligence and is also studied in cognitive psychology, logic, computer science, and linguistics. The representation of informal and intuitive human knowledge is one of its major unsolved problems.

1. The use of any one thing to stand for another thing. 2. In cognitive psychology, the mental or encoded form of information which stands for some sensation, perception, object, or other idea external to itself. 3. In psychoanalysis, the use of a symbol to substitute for an unconscious idea, impulse, or object.

Systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Previously learned behaviors of observers are prompted by the actions of models.

Process of forming new schemata.

Storage of information in memory.

The act or process of retrieving anything, especially (in psychology) the act or process of recovering encoded information from storage in memory and bringing it into consciousness.

Process of controlling task elements that are beyond the learner’s capabilities so that the learner can focus on and master those task features that he or she can grasp quickly

Any organized system for arranging items or values in a progressive series, usually related to magnitude or amount.

When reinforcement is applied.

Theory explaining how people develop schemas (organized memory structures composed of related information).

A cognitive structure that organizes large amounts of information into a meaningful system.

The branch of psychology focused on the problems of schoolchildren and education, usually in primary and secondary schools. Testing is the primary function of school psychology, and it is also involved in learning theory and curriculum development, program assessment, and the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of behavioral problems of schoolchildren.

An individual usually with an advanced degree in psychology or educational psychology who applies the findings and methods of psychology in the field of education, usually working in schools. Testing is the primary function of the school psychologist, and they tend also to be involved in diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of behavioral problems of schoolchildren.

A theoretical mental representation of an outline of acts and their order and permutations which are entailed in a complex behavior, such as eating in a restaurant, going on a date, or having a marriage or career. 2. A theoretical structured mental representation of the semantic relationships in everyday human situations. Also called script schema.

Words and other features of language that are used by humans to communicate and that can become conditioned stimuli.

Process whereby a behavioral consequence (e.g., money) becomes reinforcing by being paired with a primary reinforcer (e.g., food).

The focus of attention on some stimuli and not on others, resulting in a greater processing of the stimuli upon which the individual is focused.

1. The perception of one’s self, including bodily sensations, actions, and mental processes, as an object of observation and analysis. 2. The understanding that one exists as an individual, separate from other people, with private thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

One’s collective self-perceptions that are formed through experiences with, and interpretations of, the environment and that are heavily influenced by reinforcements and evaluations by significant other persons.

The extent that one believes one can produce results, accomplish goals, or perform tasks competently (analogous to Self-Efficacy).

Motive aimed at developing competence, which begins as undifferentiated but eventually differentiates into specific areas.

Personal beliefs concerning one’s capabilities to organize and implement actions necessary to learn or perform behaviors at designated levels.

One’s perceived sense of self-worth; whether one accepts and respects oneself.

Process involving self-judgments of current performance by comparing it to one’s goal and self-reactions to these judgments by deeming performance noteworthy, unacceptable, and so forth.

Standards people use to evaluate their performances.

In a learning setting, discriminative stimuli that are produced by the individual and that set the occasion for responses leading to reinforcement.

Instructional procedure that comprises cognitive modeling, overt guidance, overt self-guidance, faded overt self-guidance, and covert self-instruction.

Comparing one’s current performance level with one’s goal.

Changes in behaviors, thoughts, and affects that derive from observing one’s own performances.

Observation and control of expressive behaviour and self-presentation. High self-monitors regulate their expressive self-presentation and are highly responsive to social and interpersonal cues to situationally appropriate behaviour, whereas low self-monitors lack these abilities or motivations.

Deliberate attention to some aspect of one’s behavior, often accompanied by recording its frequency or intensity.

Changes in one’s beliefs and behaviors after judging performance against a goal

(Self-Regulated Learning) The process whereby students personally activate and sustain behaviors, cognitions, and affects that are systematically oriented toward the attainment of learning goals.

The process whereby individuals, after performing a response, arrange to receive reinforcement that increases the likelihood of future responding.

Any information gathered that reflects individuals’ opinions about themselves. Attitude scales and most personality tests use self-reports as their data source, as do scales which measure personal reactions which are not observable by others, such as pain scales and taste preferences.

People’s judgments and statements about themselves.

Manifestation of enduring goals, aspirations, motives, and fears, which includes cognitive and affective evaluations of ability, volition, and personal agency.

Perceptions of one’s value, grounded largely in beliefs about ability.

A theoretical mental transformation of experiential data into nodes or units of meaning, as opposed to perceptual characteristics.

Memory of general information and concepts available in the environment and not tied to a particular individual or context.

Of or relating to the portions of the cortex that process and integrate information from the senses with motor impulses guided by feedback.

First of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, encompassing birth to roughly age 2.

State of information processing concerned with receiving inputs, holding them briefly in sensory form, and transferring them to working memory.

Any task that requires learning a list and recalling it in the correct order, as actors must learn their lines in correct order.

A U-shaped graphical representation showing the relative frequency with which items in different positions on an item list are recalled. It usually has the position of an item on the horizontal axis and the likelihood or frequency with which it is remembered on the vertical axis.

The observation that the fi rst and last items in a learned list of items tend to be more accurately recalled than those in the middle of the list.

Recalling stimuli in the order in which they are presented.

The normal item capacity of short-term memory. That is, most people can remember about seven items at a time for several seconds, although in some cases they will remember as many as nine and as few as five. Also called magic number seven.

Differential reinforcement of successive approximations to the desired rate or form of behavior.

Working memory (short term memory) is extremely limited in both capacity and duration. Only a limited amount of information can be held in WM, transferred to LTM, rehearsed, and so forth

Real or imaginary situation that cannot be brought into a learning setting.

A model of learning first proposed by Jean Lave and Étienne Wenger, which suggests that learning is a social activity which arises from our engagement with our daily lives. They describe this process as one of participating in a community of practice, and argue that such communities are found everywhere, whether we are engaging with work, school, home, our civic or social involvements, or our leisure pursuits. In some communities of practice we are central players, while in others our role may be more peripheral. As we engage in these activities, we interact with others and with the wider world in terms of our socio?historical and economic context; and in so doing we necessarily adjust and tune the ways we relate. We can call this process ‘learning’. It is a collective enterprise, and results in practices and behaviours which reflect our collective pursuits and are ‘owned’ by the ‘community’ which has been created by this shared endeavour. These might include, for example, learning undertaken in ‘real’ environments appropriate to the subject, such as horticulture taught in a garden or greenhouse, or field trips organized to engage learning with practice in the ‘real world’. However, as a model it calls into question several widely held assumptions about education and the learning process. For example, it challenges the idea that learning is an individual activity—something undertaken by individuals. It also challenges the idea that learning or education is a process which is separate from our everyday lives, and that it has a start and end point. Perhaps most of all, this approach calls into question the assumption that learning is always a result of teaching.

An operant conditioning chamber containing a lever or key which a small animal can operate in order to obtain food from an automatic device and sometimes another device as well.

Of or relating to the operant conditioning theories of B. F. Skinner.

Operant conditioning in which an organism learns to operate on the environment in order to obtain reinforcement, which may be obtained through a variety of actual behaviors as long as they accomplish a specified task, rather than engaging in a behaviorally specific response, as is true in classical conditioning.

The assignment of people to social categories on the basis of skin colour, clothing, speech style, or other signs or indications of group membership, and the consequent stereotyping of group members according to the supposedly typical characteristics of members of those categories.

Cognitive theory that emphasizes the role of the social environment in learning.

Process of comparing one’s beliefs and behaviors with those of others.

1. A hostile or antagonistic clash between different social groups. 2. Any opposition of the interests of two or more social groups whether or not there is any actual overt conflict.

Constructivist perspective emphasizing the importance of the individual’s social interactions in the acquisition of skills and knowledge.

The gradual acquisition of language, interpersonal understanding, and culturally appropriate behavior patterns which make up cultural competence in a given society.

1. The set of abilities which allow an individual to adapt to the people around him or her through experience so as most easily to meet their needs and contribute to the well-being of the society of all people. 2. Emotional intelligence, which includes the capacities to perceive, appraise, and express one’s own emotions effectively as well as to understand others’ emotions and make use of that information in guiding one’s own behavior.

Any process of mutual or reciprocal action or influence among organisms, including but not limited to cooperation, competition, conflict, simple recognition, status influence, role playing, and group processes.

As an approach to education this theory emphasizes the importance of the location of learning within a particular sociocultural environment, as well as the belief that learners are instrumental in constructing their own knowledge and understanding. Social interactionists adhere to the wider constructivist theory of learning, and place an emphasis on the role which language plays as a medium of learner interaction, pointing out that it is through language that cultural and philosophical ideas are shared and developed. The contextualized and situational nature of learning is, according to the interactionists, a key element in driving cognitive development. This view takes account of the diversity of individuals within any learning group, particularly in the way they interpret or make sense of the world, and suggests that interaction between learners and between learner and teacher provide an important stimulus to learning, which would be missing in an objectivist learning environment, where learners are passive and compliant recipients of learning. Pupils’ self?concept—the view each of them has of herself or himself as an individual—is formed largely through interaction with others, and will change and develop according to the way they see themselves reflected in those interactions. This can affect pupil motivation and confidence, for example, if the view that is reflected back to them is a negative one in terms of their ability or attainment. This is one example of how the individual constructs their own meanings from their own interpretation of their social interactions. Learning based on an interactionist approach, therefore, presupposes a collaborative relationship between teacher and learner, rather than a relationship of learner dependency; and is likely to involve built?in opportunities for learners to discuss, collaborate, and become actively involved with the learning process. This model is above all predicated on the belief that meaning is created by the learner, rather than simply received unquestioningly from the teacher.

1. The processes by which an individual acquires the capacities and knowledge necessary to cope with life successfully in a particular culture. 2. In learning theory, the process of acquiring socially effective behaviors including through observational learning.

The processes by which social influences alter people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. The earliest social learning theories, put forward in 1950 by the US psychologists John Dollard (1900–80) and Neal E(lgar) Miller (1909–2002) and in 1954 by the US psychologist Julian B(ernard) Rotter (born 1916) were simple operant conditioning theories based on reinforcement (1); more recent versions assign a major role to cognitive processes. In 1969 the Canadian-born US psychologist Albert Bandura (born 1925) argued that imitation and modelling sometimes occur without reinforcement, through simple observational learning, as in an experiment by Bandura and two colleagues in 1961 in which children who observed the actions of an aggressive adult towards an inflatable five-foot BoBo doll tended later, after they were subjected to mild frustration, to imitate the hostile behaviour they had observed.

Learning influenced by aspects of the sociocultural environment.

Social-cultural Constructivism focus on social nature of cognition, suggests an approach that • Gives learners the opportunity for concrete, contextually meaningful experience through which they can search for patterns, raise their own questions, and construct their own models. • Faciliates a community of learners to engage in activity, discourse, and reflection • Encourages students to take on more ownership of the ideas, and to pursue autonomy, mutual reciprocity of social relations, and empowerment to be the goals.

(SES) Descriptive term denoting one’s capital (resources, assets).

Skill applying only to certain domains (e.g., regrouping in subtraction).

Building on prior knowledge by presenting the same topics at increasing levels of complexity as students move through schooling.

Sudden recurrence of the conditioned response following presentation of the conditioned stimulus after a time lapse in which the conditioned stimulus is not presented.

Activation in long-term memory of propositions that are associatively linked with material currently in one’s working memory.

A raw score from which the mean of scores has been subtracted and the result divided by the standard deviation of scores.

A test that is uniformly administered, scored, and interpreted according to defined standards. Generally, scores are norm-referenced (using a representative sample) to provide a basis for comparing test results. Because the test is administered, scored, and interpreted according to specific guidelines, the results can be effectively compared across a range of populations, settings, and times. As such, standardized testing is commonly used in academic, vocational, and clinical settings.

A fixed pattern of behavior that does not alter with differing circumstances, as is characteristic of some forms of bigotry and compulsive acts in humans and is usual with instinctive behavior in other animals.

Stereotyping refers to the use of stereotypes to judge other people.

Learning theory emphasizing associations between stimuli and responses.

A prolonged state of psychological and physiological arousal leading to negative effects on mood, cognitive capacity, immune function, and physical health.

Theories positing that development consists of changes in mental structures.

Doctrine postulating that the mind is composed of associations of ideas and that studying the complexities of the mind requires breaking associations into single ideas.

A subject-matter expert (SME) or domain expert is a person who is an expert in a particular area or topic.

A process of training an organism to perform a particular behavior by reinforcing behavior that is closer to the desired behavior than was past behavior and requiring a closer approximation for each successive reinforcement.

Method of studying text that stands for Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review; modified to SQ4R with addition of Reflection.

Surveys involve systematically gathering information by asking questions.

Native state of a learner (blank tablet).

The amount of effort, use of resources, and likelihood of failure associated with a particular piece of work.

Motivational state characterized by viewing learning as a goal and focusing on task demands rather than on oneself.

Being focused on and motivated to accomplish a particular piece of work. 2. Having the character trait of preferring work to other activities, including persistence, endurance, and goal-oriented effort, as well as valuing the expected products of those activities.

The designs and environments that engage learners.

A form of state anxiety aroused by the event or prospect of taking a test or examination. Also called examination anxiety.

Research procedure in which participants verbalize aloud their thoughts, actions, and feelings while performing a task.

The basic operant model of conditioning: A discriminative stimulus sets the occasion for a response to be emitted, which is followed by a reinforcing stimulus.

Altering behavior by introducing the cue for the undesired response at a low level and gradually increasing its magnitude until it is presented at full strength.

Pattern recognition of stimuli that occurs by forming a meaningful representation of the context, developing expectations of what will occur, and comparing features of stimuli to expectations to confirm or disconfirm one’s expectations.

This essential concept for appreciating learning concerns the benefit of, or impairment from, what has been learned on later performance. When there is resulting improvement, transfer from the past experience is positive, when impairment, the transfer is negative. The same learned knowledge or components of skill may transfer to be helpful (positive) in some situations, but may impair (be negative transfer) in other situations, or for some other skills.

Learning by performing a response and experiencing the consequences.

Modification and refinement of schemata as they are used in various contexts.

A situation in which one or more persons serve as the instructional agents for another, usually in a specific subject or for a particular purpose.

Conceptualization of memory as involving stages of processing and having two primary areas for storing information (short- and long-term memory).

Attitudes of worthiness and acceptance with no conditions attached.

The response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

A stimulus that when presented elicits a natural response from the organism.

Class situation in which all students work on the same or similar tasks and instruction uses a small number of materials or methods.

Classroom having few activities that address a limited range of student abilities.

Theory postulating that all information is represented in long-term memory in verbal codes.

The use made of parsed sound patterns (e.g., store in memory, respond if a question, or seek additional information).

A statistical indicator of the extent to which a measure accurately reflects the target construct or phenomenon, or the extent to which logical conclusions can be drawn from the available data. In essence, validity examines whether a test, assessment, or study effectively measures what it was designed to measure. If a measure is valid, it is assumed that it is also reliable, although the converse is not true. While there are a number of types of validity, all emphasize various threats to the meaningfulness of the measurement and the conclusions drawn from it.

The ability to learn language including vocabulary and grammar and to use it effectively in communication, memory, understanding, and problem solving. This is one of the two main factors measured in traditional tests of intelligence and an important component of crystallized intelligence.

Any acquisition of knowledge about language, its content, forms, and uses. This phrase is often used by learning theorists attempting to describe or explain language from a purely observational point of view using only the ideas of operant conditioning without reference to mental processes or modern linguistic theory. 2. The study of a limited aspect of memory, including that for word lists, nonsense word lists, and paired word associates and occasionally for solving word problems.

A computer software tool which enables teachers to permit controlled access to the materials, processes, and administrative systems that support their programmes, to track students’ progress on them, and to develop communications networks with (and among) students, fellow teachers, and support specialists for feedback and guidance. It is a means by which e?learning may be delivered and supported. Institutions may build their own platforms for virtual courses, or engage commercial companies to develop appropriate systems. All learners’ details would then be entered onto a central database, from which tutors would enrol chosen students onto specific courses. One of the chief benefits of a VLE is that students can study using any computer with Internet access, allowing online or blended learning. A virtual learning environment can also be a subsystem of a managed learning environment.

Step-by-step problem solution that may include diagrams.

Problem-solving strategy in which one starts with the goal and asks which subgoals are necessary to accomplish it, what is necessary to accomplish these subgoals, and so forth, until the beginning state is reached.

Problem-solving strategy in which one starts with the beginning problem state and decides how to alter it to progress toward the goal.

WM) See Short-Term Memory

A term introduced in 1931 by the Russian psychologist Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896–1934) to denote the distance between a child’s ‘actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving [and the higher level of] potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers’.