Tackling Terminologies Part 1

Some important Terminologies that are related to the different Learning Theories:

Assimilation: (Piaget) incorporation of incoming information; the process of a student taking some experience or piece of information and finding a home for it in the student's existing knowledge structure

Accommodation: (Piaget) changing existing existing mental mental structures and concepts to incorporate incoming information experience; students reconstructing information knowledge so that it can be assimilated

• Students seek mental stability-"equilibrium" 
• A balance between assimilation and accommodation that will eventually help student move onto higher level thinking and further analysis 

Adaptation: (Sternberg) Students practicing effective behaviors within a particular social system

• Sternberg mentions adaptation when he talks about his Theory of Successful Intelligence
• Highlights the importance of the correlation between individuals and their environment
• Students strengthening their learning by social interactions with more knowledgable others

Vygotsky's Theory: Within this zone, teachers and peers can foster intellectual growth by providing clear instructions and posing challenges without making them feel like it is impossible. Students are able to perform well if they are given just a little help

Bruner's scaffolding (idea that comes from Vygotsky's ZPD) says teachers build these educational structures/scaffolds to help students advance to the next level, and will eventually take down these scaffolds so students can think and perform tasks on their own)

Schema: mental organizations and existing knowledge structures that help categorize knowledge and skills. 

• Schema Theory mirrors Piaget's Theory and cognitive constructivism 
• Students have these cognitive structures and schemes that can be mental/physical to help attain certain goals and solve problems 

3 Different Types of Schema:

1. Things (objects, materials, identification) 
2. Events (historical events, time line, cause and effect) 
3. Procedures (lab experiments, step to solving a math problem) 

Meta-cognition: Reflective qualities (like having knowledge of various strategies that are applicable in certain situations), knowledge of one's own strengths, weaknesses, being able to learn from mistakes and monitoring one's own learning

• For example, when students have to study for an exam, they usually study in ways that will help them remember and understand the material. Some students find it effective to study in groups, study alone, make study guides and/or create flashcards Therefore, they are practicing meta-cognition. 
• Students can also use chunking methods (group information) and mnemonics (songs, acronyms and using knuckles to help memorize the number of days in each month) 

Self Regulation: student's ability to stay on track, control their emotion/feelings like anger and frustration, behave and adapt to the demands of the classroom

• In Piaget's Theory = "auto-regulation" and natural for students to modify/correct ideas that are new, different and unrealistic (assimilation and accommodation) 
• In Vygotsky's Theory = The 3 Language Functions: 

Communicative and Egocentric speech: forms of "external" speech students use to communicate with others (communicative) and/or themselves (egocentric)

Inner speech: internalized version of egocentric speech
A combination of egocentric and internalized speech promotes better focus, attention and students' behavior

Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP): The distance between the actual development and the level of potential development.



* Reference: James P. Brynes, Cognitive Development and Learning in Instructional Contexts (3rd Edition)