EFD 501- ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

AUBREY T. SANO MAED- LT

MIDTERM EXAMINATION

1. How does psychology contribute to education?

Today’s educational system is highly complex. There is no single learning approach that works for
everyone. That’s why psychologists working in the field of education are focused on identifying and
studying learning methods to better understand how people absorb and retain new information.
Educational psychologists apply theories of human development to understand individual learning and
inform the instructional process.
While interaction with teachers and students in school settings is an important part of their work,
it isn’t the only facet of the job. Learning is a lifelong endeavour. People don’t only learn at school, they
learn at work, in social situations and even doing simple tasks like household chores or running errands.
Psychologists working in this subfield examine how people learn in a variety of settings to identify
approaches and strategies to make learning more effective.
Psychologists working in the field of education study how people learn and retain knowledge. They apply
psychological science to improve the learning process and promote educational success for all students.

Psychologists working in education study the social, emotional and cognitive processes involved
in learning and apply their findings to improve the learning process. Some specialize in the educational
development of a specific group of people such as children, adolescents or adults, while others focus on
specific learning challenges such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyslexia. 
No matter the population they are studying, these professionals are interested in teaching
methods, the instructional process and different learning outcomes.
How much the time of day when new information is does introduced influence whether a person retains
that information? What does culture have to do with how we process new ideas? How does age affect our
ability to develop new skills, like language? How is in-person learning different from remote learning
using technology? How does the choice of a media platform make a difference in learning? 
These are all questions that educational psychologists are asking — and answering — in settings as
diverse as government research centers, schools, community organizations and learning centers.

2. How does cognitive, emotional and physical development theory affect diverse learners?

The domains of child development and early learning are discussed in different terms and
categorized in different ways in the various fields and disciplines that are involved in research, practice,
and policy related to children from birth through age 8.

One of the most important discoveries about the developing mind is how early and significantly very
young children, even starting in infancy, are uniting disparate observations or discrete facts into
coherent conceptual systems (Carey, 2009; Gopnik and Wellman, 2012; Spelke and Kinzler, 2007). From
very early on, children are not simply passive observers, registering the superficial appearance of things.
Rather, they are building explanatory systems—implicit theories—that organize their knowledge. Such
implicit theories contain causal principles and causal relations; these theories enable children to predict,
explain, and reason about relevant phenomena and, in some cases, intervene to change them. As early as
the first year of life, babies are developing incipient theories about how the world of people, other living
things, objects, and numbers operates. It is important to point out that these foundational theories are
not simply isolated forms of knowledge, but play a profound role in children's everyday lives and
subsequent education.

People intuitively understand others' actions as motivated by desires, goals, feelings, intentions,
thoughts, and other mental states, and we understand how these mental states affect one another (for
example, an unfulfilled desire can evoke negative feelings and a motivation to continue trying to achieve
the goal). One remarkable discovery of research on young children is that they are developing their own
intuitive “map” of mental processes like these from very early in life (Baillargeon et al., 2010; Saxe,
2013; Wellman and Woolley, 1990). Children's developing theory of mind transforms how they respond
to people and what they learn from them. Infants and young children are beginning to understand what
goes on in people's minds, and how others' feelings and thoughts are similar to and different from their
own.

The characteristics of early learning call for specific curricular approaches and thoughtful
professional learning for educators, but it is also true that less formal opportunities to stimulate early
cognitive growth emerge naturally in children's everyday interactions with a responsive adult. Consider,
for example, a parent or other caregiver interacting with a 1-year-old over a shape-sorting toy. As they
together are choosing shapes of different colors and the child is placing them in the appropriate (or
inappropriate) cutout in the bin, the adult can accompany this task with language that describes what
they are doing and why, and narrates the child's experiences of puzzlement, experimentation, and
accomplishment. The adult may also be using number words to count the blocks as they are deposited.
The baby's attention is focused by the constellation of adult behavior—infant-directed language, eye
contact, and responsiveness—that signals the adult's teaching, and this “pedagogical orientation” helps
focus the young child's attention and involvement. 

3. Why student development matters?

Students’ development matters for teachers, but the way it matters depends partly on how schooling
is organized. In teaching a single, “self-contained” grade-level, the benefits of knowing about
development will be less explicit, but just as real, as if you teach many grade levels. Working exclusively
with a single grade (like, say, a third-grade classroom) highlights differences among students that happen
in spite of their similar ages, and obscures similarities that happen because of having similar ages. Under
these conditions it is still easy to notice students’ diversity, but harder to know how much of it comes
from differences in long-term development, compared to differences in short-term experiences.
Knowledge about long term changes is still useful, however, in planning appropriate activities and in
holding appropriate expectations about students. What changes in students can you expect relatively
soon simply from your current program of activities, and which ones may take a year or more to show
up? This is a question that developmental psychology can help to answer.

If you teach multiple grade levels, as often is true of specialists or teachers in middle school or high
school, then your need for developmental knowledge will be more obvious because you will confront
wide age differences on a daily basis. As a physical education teacher, for example, you may teach
kindergarten children at one time during the day, but sixth-graders at another time, or teach seventh-
graders at one time but twelfth-graders at another. Students will differ more obviously because of age, in
addition to differing because of other factors like their skills or knowledge learned recently. Nonetheless,
the instructional challenge will be the same as the one faced by teachers of single-grade classes: you will
want to know what activities and expectations are appropriate for your students. To answer this
question, you will need to know something not only about how your students are unique, but also about
general trends of development during childhood and adolescence.
 Note that developmental trends vary in two important ways. The first, as indicated already, is in their
generality. Some theories or models of development boldly assert that certain changes happen to
virtually every person on the planet, and often at relatively predictable points in life. For example, a
theory might assert that virtually every toddler acquires a spoken language, or that every teenager forms
a sense of personal identity. Individuals who do not experience these developments would be rare,
though not necessarily disabled as a result. Other theories propose developmental changes that are more
limited, claiming only that the changes happen to some people or only under certain conditions.
Developing a female gender role, for example, does not happen to everyone, but only to the females in a
population, and the details vary according to the family, community, or society in which a child lives.

The second way that developmental trends vary is in how strictly they are sequenced and
hierarchical. In some views of development, changes are thought to happen in a specific order and to
build on each other—sort of a “staircase” model of development (Case, 1991, 1996). For example, a
developmental psychologist (and many of the rest of us) might argue that young people must have
tangible, hands-on experience with new materials before they can reason about the materials in the
abstract. The order cannot be reversed. In other views of development, change happens, but not with a
sequence or end point that is uniform. This sort of change is more like a “kaleidoscope” than a staircase
(Levinson, 1990; Lewis, 1997; Harris, 2006). A person, who becomes permanently disabled, for example,
may experience complex long-term changes in personal values and priorities that are different both in
timing and content from most people’s developmental pathway.

4. How do you plan to encourage your students to be inclusive of their entire classmate?
Describe a strategy or activity that promotes the learning and well-being of others in the
classroom. Why do you believe this strategy would be successful?

Promote a Positive Classroom Climate: Whether our classes are in a physical or virtual space, a
positive climate can have a powerful and constructive effect on students’ engagement and learning. We
can start the process on the first day of class and provide a welcoming atmosphere for all students, no
matter their ethnicities, social-economic backgrounds, or educational preparedness. In addition to having
a “welcome message” in our syllabus, we can set the tone by making a habit of arriving to class at least 10
minutes before it is scheduled to begin to greet students (by name, if possible) as they enter the
classroom. This technique also affords opportunities to chat briefly with small groups of students about
school or other topics. The greeting can be as simple (and obvious) as “How was your weekend?” or
“How are your classes going?” These informal conversations can lead to more in-depth conversations and
personal relationships as the semester moves along. Having a personal connection with students can
increase class participation and enthusiasm based on a greater mutual respect between professor and
students.

Embrace Students’ Diversity: We must value and embrace diversity—not just diverse talents, but
diversity in ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, language, socioeconomic backgrounds, and
even academic readiness for college. Failing to do so can have a negative impact on students’ learning, on
the development of their talents, and, in turn, on their retention and persistence. The topics of diversity
and inclusion can and should be part of all college classes. As Neuberger, Gerber, and Anderson (1999)
explain, “Given the political, economic, social, and educational interactions that are part of our global
society, people must develop cultural competence in a world that is increasingly multicultural. That
competence includes knowledge of how culture influences stereotypes, perceptions, and actions, along
with the ability to communicate across cultures” (p. 107).
Increase Our Own Cultural Competence: One way that professors can increase their own cultural
competence is to read both nonfiction and fiction material that addresses issues around multiculturalism,
diversity, inclusion. Furthermore, part of increasing our own cultural competence also means that we
need to engage in self-reflection about our own experiences with diversity and “unpack” any unconscious
bias that we may have. “Most of us do not wish to be viewed as bigots or as individuals harboring
prejudice, but we simply lack the confidence and expertise to deal with issues of diversity” (Watson et al.,
2002, p. xi). Attending conferences or workshops that focus on diversity issues in the classroom and
culturally responsive teaching practices can help us face our deficits and biases and increase our
sensitivity and skills.

Encourage Student Interactions: The more academically and socially connected students feel to their
college or university, the more likely they are to persist. Faculty can help support an institution’s student
engagement efforts by providing opportunities for students to meet and connect with each other. This
includes helping them learn each other’s names and stretching their comfort zones by having them move
to different seats and sit with different small groups. The benefits are far reaching—from increasing
attendance to building a positive rapport and respect among all those in class. Because most college
students are accustomed to choosing where they want to sit, often staying in roughly the same location
each class, it is important to share with them why they are being asked to sit in different places
throughout the semester. The goal is that our students will have thoughtful interactions and
conversations with people from different backgrounds and life experiences.

Foster a Community of Learners within Our Classes: We can foster a community of learners in several
ways. First, we can encourage students to collaborate and cooperate with their classmates. As our
students start experiencing the benefits of being part of a classroom community, they are more likely to
participate and will become more involved in learning the course content. Secondly, we can also confirm
and support students by using academic validation practices to foster a community of learners because
such practices can give students a sense of belonging, a vital component for improving retention and
persistence rates. The concept of validation does not assume that students know how to make
connections and get involved, or even know how to ask for help. Traditionally underserved students may
also be afraid to talk to their professors, participate openly in class, or even ask questions in class for fear
of looking incompetent. As professors, we can make purposeful attempts to actively use validation
practices help our students build confidence in their own learning and their capacity to learn. Validation
practices can also motivate students to respond to our expectations and the academic rigor of our
courses.

Calm Classroom is the largest provider of school-wide mindfulness programming in the

Philippines. Our mission is to empower students and educators to cultivate peaceful, engaged school
communities through the regular practice of trauma-informed mindfulness techniques that support
mental and emotional well-being.

As the global dialogue is focused on “leaving no one behind” innovative multi-sectorial approaches
are explored to ensure inclusion and equity in education. However we still have a long way to go: 262
million children and youth are still not in school and poverty, gender inequality, ethnicity, remoteness,
language barriers, disabilities, and natural disasters as well as conflicts and humanitarian crisis and
displacement are still obstacles to inclusive education.
 5. Discuss the following Developmental Theories:
5.1Freud’s psychoanalytic Theory.

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory Oedipus complex: A critical study with reference to D. H.
Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers” Sigmund Freud and his Oedipus complex are among the most often
discussed critical and contentious issues of modern psychology and literature. Freud has brought lot of
controversies in the field of modern psychology and literary trend through his theory Oedipus complex.
Contrariwise, in some other assessor’s notions his concept of Oedipus complex deserves a great deal of
appreciation. Nonetheless, prominent English novelist D.H. Lawrence is one of those modern writers who
are greatly influenced by Freudian theories and have been promoting Freud’s notions through their
works. His “sons and lovers” are considered as one of the most modern as well as controversial novels of
the twentieth century.

In this fiction, the protagonist Paul’s extremely emotional dealings with his mother are the
illustration of Doctor Freud’s psychological theory Oedipus complex. Nevertheless, this paper aims to
critically analyse the facts lying with the hallucination of Oedipus complex as it is presented in “Sons and
Lovers”. The evaluation is conducted liberally and objectively as well as through comparisons between
the central characters of Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers” and Sophocles’ King Oedipus. This attempt also
tends to judge the universality of Freud’s claim particularly sexual theory with the help of modern
biological experiments and the result of relevant laboratory tests, conducted by eminent psychologists
and psychiatrists. In short, the critique ultimately endeavours to find out a factual solution for the
controversies, raised by Oedipus complex, with the help of logic, fact and scientific researches.

5.2Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development

Instructional management focuses on planning, execution and evaluation of learning experiences.

For teachers in pre-secondary schools to plan, execute and evaluate learning experiences effectively, they
need to have good understanding of the process of cognitive development in children. Piaget has
postulated that children progress through a series of four stages beginning with rudimentary reflex
responses and achieving full maturity with the attainment of formal deductive reasoning.

Piaget’s theory also postulates that a child is an active investigator who acts upon his environment
with reflex responses during infancy and then with more complex responses that emerge from early
interactions. Piaget views interaction as a two-way process, one of which is accommodation and the
other is assimilation. In accommodation the child’s knowledge of the environment is modified to
incorporate new experiences which are adaptive to the broad aspect of cognitive demands imposed by
the environment. In assimilation, the child incorporates new experiences into an existing structure.
Accommodation and assimilation are reciprocal and their interaction generates cognitive growth.
Understanding and application of Piaget’s Theory is important in the effective enhancement of teaching
and learning process at pre-secondary school level. Consequently, teacher trainers, trainee teachers and
practicing teachers need to keep abreast of Piaget’s theory of intellectual development.
 5.3Erickson’s Psycho- Social Theory of Development.

Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory revolutionized developmental thought (Hoare, 2002). 
He was one of the first to propose a lifespan model of human development which included eight successi
ve psychosocial stages. Each stage is associated with an inherent conflict or crisis that the individual 
must encounter and successfully resolve to proceed with development. 
It is worth noting that Erikson (1968) used the term crisis “in a developmental sense to connote not a thr
eat of catastrophe, but a turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened 
potential”  The assumption is that each psychosocial stage has both a successful and unsuccessful 
outcome (e.g. trust versus mistrust, initiative versus guilt, intimacy versus isolation). 
Resolution of earlier stages is believed to directly affect the resolution of later stages (Marcia, 1993). 

Erikson’s psychosocial theory is composed of eight developmental stages which span throughout 
the course of life. Each stage presents the individual with an inherent task or conflict that they must 
successfully resolve to proceed with development. Erikson placed a great deal of emphasis on socio
cultural factors because he believed these strongly influence development. Such factors are especially 
relevant in the  process of identity formation. 
Erikson believed that childhood identifications lay the groundwork for identity formation in adolescence.
The process of forming an identity involves creating a coherent sense of self and who one is in relation to
the world. Adolescence represents an optimal time foridentity development due to a variety of physical, 
cognitive, and social factors. 
Although Erikson believed identity was largely “fixed” by the end of adolescence, he did suggest that iden
tity 
continues to evolve throughout adulthood. Unfortunately, he did not give great detail on what this proces
s looks like. 

Research shows that identity development continues to be an ongoing process throughout 
adulthood.  Just as in adolescence, vocations, ideologies, and relationships continue to remain important 
identity issues. Several studies have been presented to support this notion. 
Much like forming an identity reviewing the literature on this 
nebulous topic is no small task. As discussed earlier, researchers use a 
variety of terms and phrases when describing the process of identity  development. It is also difficult to 
find continuity with regards to developmental periods and associated ages. 

A strong effort has been made to use terminology that connects Erikson’s work with more recent 
empirical studies in a manner that is understandable and coherent. It would be wise for future 
researchers to use agreed upon terms and 
definitions so as not to confuse readers and fellow colleagues. No matterwhat you call it, identity develop
ment is a major psychosocial task and one that appears 
during many phases of life. Although Erikson may not have been clear regarding identity development be
yond adolescence, we will always be indebted to him for the great deal of discussion and 
conversation hehas stimulated on this intriguing topic.

Erikson (1968) summarizes with the following statement: 
I shall present human growth from the point of view of the conflicts, inner and outer, which the vital pers
onality weathers, remerging from each crisis with an increased 
sense of inner unity, with an increase of good judgment, 
and an increase in the capacity ‘to do well’ according to 
his own standards and to the standards of those who are significant to 
him. 
Erikson goes on to say “The use of the words ‘to do well’ of course points up the whole question of 
cultural relativity” which highlights the emphasis he placed on sociocultural factors.
Erikson continues to receive a great deal of credit for recognizing the influence of culture on 
development .He was the first to illustrate how the social world exists within the psychological makeup 
of each individual. Erikson (1959) believed that the individual cannot be understood apart from his or 
her social context. “Individual and society are intricately woven, dynamically related in continual change
This is a theme that permeates throughout all of Erikson’s eight developmental stages and is especially 
relevant to the fifth psychosocial stage (identity versus role confusion) which occurs during adolescence. 
Before examining this developmental task, it is important to recognize what Erikson meant when he used
the term “adolescence.”

5.4 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.

Lawrence Kohlberg's work on moral judgment posits a typology of six hierarchical stages which
form a Piagetian developmental sequence. The last two stages have occasioned luidespread controversy
in developmental psychology because of their rarity and the claim that they represent morally and
structurally higher forms of reasoning. John Gibbs distinguishes between naturalistic and existential
themes in modern psychology and outlines the empirical criteria that identify a naturalistic or Piagetian
sequence. He then argues that the first four stages of Kohlberg's typology meet the criteria for a
naturalistic developmental sequence but the higher stages instead appear to be existential or reflective
extensions of earlier stages. The conclusions Gibbs reaches have considerable significance for clarifying
the relationships between the highest forms of moral and social thought and development, experience,
and education.

Kohlberg's theory of moral development has been criticized because it predicts greater
consistency in moral reasoning than has been observed. This prediction follows from Kohlberg's
conception of stages, which also entails a view of the process of reasoning as the application of a moral
principle to a dilemma to derive a solution. Although Kohlberg emphasized the importance of perspective
taking in moral reasoning, his view of stages is inconsistent with this position. A modification of
Kohlberg's conception of stages drawing on Piagetian theory would result in a view of moral reasoning as
a process of coordinating all perspectives involved in a moral dilemma. For various reasons this ideal
process may be constrained, restricting an individual's ability to fully consider all other perspectives
involved and, thus, leading to inconsistency in reasoning.

5.5 Vygotsky’s Socio- Cultural Theory.

The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in
cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as
sociocultural theory. Sociocultural theory views human development as a socially mediated process in
which children acquire their cultural values, beliefs, and problem-solving strategies through
collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society.

Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of
cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of
"making meaning." Unlike Piaget's notion that children’s' development must necessarily precede their
learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing
culturally organized, specifically human psychological function" (1978, p. 90). In other words, social
learning tends to precede (i.e., come before) development.

Vygotsky has developed a sociocultural approach to cognitive development. He developed his

theories at around the same time as Jean Piaget was starting to develop his ideas (1920's and 30's), but
he died at the age of 38, and so his theories are incomplete - although some of his writings are still being
translated from Russian. No single principle (such as Piaget's equilibration) can account for
development. Individual development cannot be understood without reference to the social and cultural
context within which it is embedded. Higher mental processes in the individual have their origin in social
processes.