PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE AND

PSYCHO- SOCIAL CONTEXT

OF STUDENTS
Examining factors that facilitate/challenge students’ learning.
Reflection

 Let us think about all those things that may be

impacting on your students’ learning.

 These factors fall into three broad areas:

 The Physical environment in which teaching and
learning occurs
 The Cognitive level or stage of the learners
 The Psycho-social stage or condition of the learners.
Physical environment
 All tangible things that may impact on the students.
 They include:
 the physical conditions of the school whether good
or bad (lighting, ventilation, type of furniture) etc.
 the availability or unavailability of the necessary
resources. (books, printed materials, reliable
internet.) etc.
 Begin with a general description of the school and then
focus on the classroom or classrooms in which your
students function.

 Location
 Size
 Facilities (including library and information technology
centre, cafeteria )
 Grounds
 Use descriptive words and phrases.
 State in what ways the physical environment of
your classroom facilitates learning or if learning is
hampered by it.
 Give examples in support of your answer.
 In cases where you think the conditions are
inadequate suggest ways to minimize the problems.
Cognitive Factors
 Cognitive factors refer to characteristics of the
person that affect performance. These may include
cognitive functions such as attention, memory and
reasoning.
. Danili & Reid 2006

- The ability of the learner or readiness of the learner.

Cognitive Factors

 In describing the cognitive factors which affect learning, refer to

learning theorists.
 Eg.1. Chall’s stages of reading and writing.

 At what stage are the majority of the students and how does this affect
learning?

 Eg.2 Piaget’s cognitive stages.

 Are they at the concrete operational stage or the formal operational

stage.
Psycho-social Factors
 Psycho-social factors is a combination between psychological
and social factors.

 The psychological environment in the classroom is how

students feel about their learning. Eg. Students react
negatively when they feel things are unfair.
 How do they react to rules?
 Social factors refer to the impact by social influences such as
support from family, are they prepared for class, interaction
with friends at school ,social disruptions.
 How does the home environment affect their learning?
 You may refer to Erik Erikson stages of social
development.

 Eg. Industry vs inferiority stage - ability to

understand and organize

 Identity vs confusion stage – accepting one’s self.

 The artefact should be named with the
corresponding reference LE 1
 The entry should be two pages.

 This is an opinion paper but do not emphasize all

the negatives about the school and students without
highlighting the positives also
ACTIVITY

Write your first draft.

Physical, cognitive and psycho- social context of

students.
 http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1005-9_422

 http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1005-9_1116

 http://
www.yourarticlelibrary.com/learning/7-important-factors-that-may-affect-the-learn
ing-process/6064/

 http://study.com/academy/lesson/learning-environment-in-the-classroom-definition
-impact-importance.html