Educational Psychology lecture notes (academic year 2023/2024)
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Course
Educational Psychology
Institution
Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Comprehensive summary of all seven lectures. All topics are clearly described, in some cases information from the literature added to clarify when, in my opinion, the course was too short of a curve.
The corresponding book chapters and/or articles are listed at the top.
Lecture 1, introduction to human learning, 3 September.
H1, H2,
Kirschner, P.A. & van Merriënboer, J.G. (2013) Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in
Education, Educational Psychologist, 48:3, 169-183, doi: 10.1080/00461520.2013.804395
- Learning succes depends on a scala of factors, including effort, motivation, IQ, prior knowledge, study
habits, social environment amongst others.
- These cover cognition, non-cognitive skills and emotional personality (e.g. coping style).
- Educ. Psychology focusses on the (human) learning process.
- To understand learning, we have to understand the person who is trying to learn. This goes back to,
amongst others, non-cognitive factors (e.g. age). What they are learning (e.g. prior knowledge). How they
are learning (e.g. group v solitude learning). Effect of learning (e.g. near v far transfer).
- Innate learning refers to automatic learning, most popular example is language.
- Formal learning is the educational taught learning.
- Not acknowledging this difference can lead to the misperception that learning by error is most effective in
both cases. Where walking is more fruitful, learning mathematics by doing the wrong thing is not.
- There are a lot of misconceptions about learning, (e.g. see article), which can hinder the most optimal
learning experience.
- It is therefore important to research and understand what does work as well as what does not work.
- Brain research is based on post mortem investigation, brain damage / lesions, imaging (EEG, fMRI, PET)
and stimulating (TMS).
- There is some laterization in the brain, though minimal. Biggest one is the motor control over the body.
- The brain is highly plastic.
- On neural level, learning is best described as the changing connections between neurons. Meaning
strengthening existing connections, creating new connections and deleting old connections.
- In the earlier years of life synaptogenesis, followed by synaptic pruning, that makes the brain extremely
efficient at learning. Pruning starts to kick in at around the age of 2. The pruning is dependent on stimuli
from the environment.
- For the basic human abilities, we know critical and sensitive periods. Where critical periods have to be
met with the right stimulation to develop in a healthy manner, sensitive periods are less prone to be
definitive (though there will most likely still be a significant deficit).
- Experience-expectant means critical (brain expects a certain stimulation). Language and vision are good
examples.
- Experience-dependent means sensitive (brain is more dependent during a certain time and stimulation to
develop). Social-emotional development is a good example.
- There are some areas in the brain that are more catered to certain functions.
, - Neuronal recycling refers to kicking out/moving functions to make place for newly learned functions.
- Neural consolidation can be short term, on the synaptic level (eg remembering the phone number at hand),
and long term, system consolidation (eg learning a new piano piece).
- Retrieval practice seems to rekindle knowledge and re-consolidate it and thus making it stronger. Lot of
learning happens outside of the active studying, during sleep.
- Other factors that aid consolidation are physical activity and nutrition. Making SES a huge influencing
factor in neural development.
Educational psychology, lecture 2, behaviorism
H3, H4
- BF Skinner hypothesized that people have no true free will. Change their environment and you will
change their behavior.
- Behaviorism is one of the earlier streams of psychological ideologies. It criticized the genesis of
psychology, think of Wilhelm Wundt, in that it focused too much on introspection (e.g. consciousness)
rather than objective behavior and therefore could never become a true scientific discipline.
- One of his Wundt’s students tried to systematically study consciousness by analyzing what people
reported on experiencing.
- Behaviorism does have degrees to its extremity:
- Radical behaviorism: The classical stream, inner states are completely irrelevant, one must only look at
what thou can observe to determine mental states.
- Methodological behaviorism: The revised stream, observable behavior kept being studied, but cognition
was acknowledged to be the hidden drive behind the behavior. From this, psychological theories arose.
- Practical behaviorism: Applying behaviorism to understand and influence behavior.
- Within behaviorism there are certain assumptions that are made, they are as follows:
- Equipotentiality: Learning principle applies to ALL organisms (EXAM QUESTION ABOUT THIS)
- No internal explanation of behavior
- Learning is defined as altered behavior. No change means nothing has been learned.
- Tabula rasa. Learning is the result of interaction with the environment
- Parsimonious. Explanations must be simple.
- Pavlov invented classical conditioning. This is a process of associating different stimuli (contiguity) to
redirect the trigger for a certain respons. In his most famous experiment, this was triggering the saliva
reflex with the sound of a bell.
- For this example, it is imported that the bell is rung right before the food is offered. Doing it the other way
around won’t trigger the learning respons.
- When the neutral stimulus has become conditioned, and this CS does not grant the food (in this example),
the conditioned respons (salivating) will diminish, this principle is called extinction.
- On the other hand; when the CS is not presented for an x amount of time, the response can be re-ignited,
this principle is called spontaneous recovery. Here it seems that a new association has been made parallel
to the conditioned stimulus, so when the food is presented, it triggered the previously made association.
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