Chapter 4 – Applying What We Know about Children’s Learning

Age related change that results from an interaction between biological maturation and physical and/or social development occurs as children grow, adapt, and change in response to various experiences.

A change in knowledge or skill that results from experience or instruction.

Development can lead to learning, such as when a baby develops the ability to grasp and put things in their mouths. This allows the baby to learn about the world around them.

Learning can drive development because as children learn new things, their cognitive development is affected.

Derives from a hypothesis. An explanation of how information and observations are organized and related to one another.

Theory that assumes that the sequence of changes in abilities and behavior is largely predetermined by children's biological growth processes rather than by their experiences or learning.

It absorbs information like a sponge. The more stimulation a child's brain has, the more connections can be made, increasing brain size.

Understanding development and learning help early childhood professionals such as: -Setting/evaluating goals that are achievable for most children within a certain age group.-Interpreting children's behavior to determine what is appropriate or in need of early intervention-Knowing predictable sequences of development/learning to plan curriculum and adapt to individual needs-Predicting interesting/meaningful topics/experiences for children-Using information about typical/atypical development to identify/diagnose possible delays

-Early experiences change/organize brain structure-Negative experiences threaten healthy brain development, early intervention is often required-Positive experiences allow for best brain development-As children learn/grow, brain becomes more connected

Trust v. Mistrust (Birth-18 months): Acquiring a sense of security/some control over environment. Autonomy v.

Doubt (18 months-3 years): Awareness of growing competence and seperateness as human being.Initiative v. Guilt (3 years-6 years): Exerciseing a growing sense of power and ability to act on own withour undue risk-taking.Industry v. Inferiority (6 years-12 years): Finding satisfation in school achievement and mastery of new skills.

A view that behavior and learning are motivated my a hierarchy of needs. Physical needs must be met first, then psychological safety & security, love, self-esteem, and finally self-actualization.

Assumes that children actively build their knowledge from firsthand experiences in stimulating environments.

A child is born with a scheme or schema which is the organization of mental structures used to think or guide behaviors that develops and changes with experience. Assimilation and accomodation result in adaption of the information.

The mental process of altering concepts (schemes) in response to experience, which occurs in two ways, through assimilation and accomodation.

When new experience is understood in connection with prior knowledge.

When new information or experience doesn't fit within an existing concept, the child modifies it or constructs a new scheme.

Disequilibrium- an imbalance in thinking that occurs when new information cannot be understood; the information cannot be assimilated.

Equilibrium- Process where humans try to make sense of new experiences by creating new schemes or adapting existing ones.

Understanding how onjects move and function in space and how the physical world works

The relationships that are constructed in our minds between objects and concepts.(ex.child playing with friend, realizing friend has more legos than him)

The culturally agreed upon names and symbols that need to be transmitted to the learner directly.

(ex. alphabet)

Sensorimotor (Birth-2 years)Preoperational (2 years-7 years)Concrete operational (7 years-11 years)

Sensorimotor- Child learns through senses and physical movement, gradually moving from reflexes to conscious activity. Babies lack object permenance or the idea that an object ceases to exist when it is out of their visual field. Egocentrism-process by which young children see everything in their own view (intellectual and emotional).Preoperational- Children can learn through symbols, thinking is controlled by perception more than logic.

Children lack conservation- or the ability to understand that quantity of objects stay the same regardless of changes of appearance.Concrete operational-children are able to think and solve problems more logically.

Major transition in cognitive abilities that gradually occurs between 5 and 7 years old, resulting in increased ability to think logically, self-regulate, and solve problems.

Children learn from social interaction within a cultural context.

Zone of proximal development- distance between actual developmental level an individual has achieved, and the level of potential development that she could achieve with help from adults or other children.

Scaffolding- Assistance/guidance that a teacher provides to a child to help accomplish a task or learn a new skill within their ZPD.Co-construction-children learn together by solving problems with teacher support.

Thinking allowed becomes thinking to oneself when the child gets older.

Ability to control one's own behavior, emotions, or thoughts.

Ability to control emotions, focus attention, plan and think ahead, and monitor cognitize processes.

Theory that learning is a change in behavior that is controlled by the consequences, either positive or negative, that follow the behavior.

Operant conditioning and Shaping Behavior.

The process of using pleasant or unpleasant consequences in the form of reinforcers to control behavior. Reinforcers increase or strengthens a behavior.Positive reinforments are consequences that immediately follow a behavior, causing it to be repeated.

Negative reinforcements are consequences that are avoided is the person performs a desired behavior more frequently.When a conditioned behavior diminishes and eventually disappears when reinforcers are removed it is called extinction.

Teaching a new skill or behavior by rewarding each step or successive approximation toward the goal.

Teacher must observe the successive approximations or behaviors that are reinforced that are not the actual desired behaviors, is a behavior close to the goals.

People can learn efficiently from observing the consequences of another person's behavior.Modeling- Or the teacher showing children a skill or behavior, children imitating behavior of others.Vicarious learning- learning based on the effect of other people's behavior, rather than experience rewards or punishments directly.Self-regulated learning-People not only learn by modeling other's behaviors, but observing/evaluating their own.

1.Attention-Paying attention2.Retention-Behavior is modeled and individuals are given a chance to practice it3.Reproduction-Behavior is attempted by individual4.

Motivation-Behavior is completed because knowledge of reward is known.

Active, intrinsically motivated, and free of external rules. Dominated by the players, and is meaningful to the players.

Functional- A child focuses on object and people who use the objects with them.

Constructive-Begins with functional play and becomes more symbolic as children use objects to create new ones.Symbolic-Using one object to stand for another.Games with Rules-Games that have a specific set of regulations on how to play

Helps develop motor skills, primary vehicle and indicator of mental growth, improves social skills, works off excess physical energy and releases tension, allows children to master anxieties and conflict, used to explore and test behavior, learning oppurtunity, makes learning enjoyable.

Value play. Provide a safe, comfortable, friendly environment. Make play area the child's domain.

Play with them

Child centered, teacher stays with same multi-age group for 3 years, parents, teachers, and children are all deeply involved in schools, teachers use children's interest to guide curriculum, artwork displays evidence of the child's learning, projects are important, documentation of children's progress occurs daily.

Sociodramatic-Each child has role in a scenario, there may be a leader.Solitary- child plays by themself.Parallel- children play next to but not with eachother