Praxis 5622 Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) Grades K-6 Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering foundational theories, theorists, instructional strategies, assessment methods, exceptionalities, and legislation for the Praxis 5622 Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) Grades K-6 exam.

Jean Piaget

A foundational cognitive theorist who proposed that cognitive development is a reorganization of mental processes resulting from biological maturation and environmental experience, progressing through four distinct stages.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development ($0-2$ years) where children understand the world through sensory and motor experiences; key hallmarks are object permanence and separation anxiety.

Pre-operational Stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development ($2-6$ years) where children identify and use symbols for objects, engage in pretend play, and display egocentrism, but lack the ability to apply logical reasoning.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development ($7-12$ years) where logical reasoning about concrete objects emerges; hallmarks include conservation, reversibility, serial ordering, and cause-and-effect relationships, though thinking is still limited to concrete objects.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development ($12$ years to adult) characterized by abstract thinking, logic, deductive reasoning, comparison, and classification.

Schema

A cognitive framework or prior knowledge that learners use to organize, interpret, and make sense of new experiences and concepts.

John Dewey

An influential educational theorist who advocated for learning by doing through hands-on, inquiry-based, and experiential learning in real-life contexts.

Jerome Bruner

A constructivist theorist who viewed learning as an active process where learners construct new ideas based on current and past knowledge, emphasizing inquiry, discovery, and a spiral curriculum.

Spiral Curriculum

A curriculum design where topics and skills are revisited repeatedly at increasing levels of depth and complexity over time.

Lev Vygotsky

A theorist who emphasized the fundamental role of social interaction and community in cognitive development, known for formulating the Zone of Proximal Development.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The distance between a learner's actual developmental level determined by independent problem-solving and their potential developmental level achieved through problem-solving under adult guidance or peer collaboration.

Scaffolding

Temporary instructional supports provided by an educator or more capable peer to help a student accomplish a complex task within their ZPD, which are gradually removed as competence increases.

Albert Bandura

A psychologist known for social learning theory, which asserts that individuals learn through observing, retaining, replicating, and emulating modeled behaviors.

Modeling

The instructional practice of demonstrating a process, behavior, or skill explicitly so that learners can observe, retain, and replicate it.

Lawrence Kohlberg

A theorist who outlined moral development across three sequential levels and six stages, evaluating how individuals make ethical decisions when faced with moral dilemmas.

Preconventional Morality

Kohlberg's first level of moral reasoning (ages $5-10+$), where behavior is governed by perceived individual consequences such as avoiding punishment (Stage 1) or obtaining rewards and self-interest (Stage 2).

Conventional Morality

Kohlberg's second level of moral reasoning (ages $10-15+$), where moral decisions are driven by the expectations of others, social approval (Stage 3), and adherence to laws and social order (Stage 4).

Postconventional Morality

Kohlberg's third level of moral reasoning (age $15+$), where decisions are grounded in abstract principles, social contracts balancing rights with laws (Stage 5), and universal ethical principles of justice and equity (Stage 6).

Bloom's Taxonomy

A hierarchical framework used to classify educational objectives into levels of cognitive complexity, ranging from lower-order thinking like remembering to higher-order thinking like analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

Edward Thorndike

An early behaviorist who proposed connectionism theory and outlined three primary laws of learning: the Law of Effect, the Law of Readiness, and the Law of Exercise.

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle stating that behaviors followed by positive reinforcement are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors followed by negative reinforcement are deterred.

John Watson

A behavioral psychologist who demonstrated classical conditioning in humans through the 'Little Albert' experiment, showing that reflexes and emotions can be conditioned by environmental stimuli.

Classical Conditioning

A passive learning process in which a learner associates an involuntary reflex or behavior with a specific environmental cue or conditioned stimulus.

Abraham Maslow

A humanist psychologist who developed the Hierarchy of Needs, asserting that lower-level physiological and safety needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs like esteem and self-actualization can motivate behavior.

B.F. Skinner

A behaviorist who formulated operant conditioning theory, maintaining that learning is a change in overt behavior resulting from environmental stimuli, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement.

Operant Conditioning

An active learning process in which voluntary behaviors are shaped, increased, or decreased through the application of reinforcements or punishments.

Positive Reinforcement

A behavioral technique that strengthens and increases the likelihood of a desired behavior by adding a favorable stimulus or reward immediately following the behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

A behavioral strategy that increases the likelihood of a desired behavior by removing an unpleasant or undesired stimulus when the behavior is performed.

Constructivism

An educational philosophy asserting that learning is an active, constructive process in which learners build new knowledge upon their prior knowledge and personal experiences in authentic contexts.

Metacognition

The awareness, monitoring, and regulation of one's own cognitive processes, commonly described as 'thinking about your own thinking.'

Transfer

The cognitive process of applying learned knowledge, skills, or strategies to a new task, context, or real-world environment.

Self-Efficacy

An individual's personal belief in their own capability to successfully execute behaviors and accomplish a specific goal.

Self-Regulation

The ability to monitor, control, and direct one's own thoughts, emotions, and actions to achieve learning goals and navigate environments.

Inductive Reasoning

A cognitive reasoning process that moves from specific observations or concepts to form a broad, general rule or conclusion.

Deductive Reasoning

A cognitive reasoning process that moves from a general premise, principle, or rule to a specific conclusion or application.

Cognitive Dissonance

A state of mental discomfort experienced by a learner when confronting new information or beliefs that contradict their existing schema or attitudes.

Intrinsic Motivation

Internal motivation to engage in an activity for its own inherent satisfaction and purpose, driven by autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation to perform an activity or complete a task driven by external incentives, tangible prizes, grades, or the avoidance of punishment.

Attribution Theory

A motivation theory exploring how individuals explain the causes of their successes and failures along dimensions of locus, stability, and controllability.

Reciprocal Determinism

Bandura's concept stating that a person's behavior, personal cognitive factors, and environmental influences continuously operate as interacting determinants of each other.

Vicarious Learning

Learning that occurs indirectly by observing the actions, consequences, and rewards experienced by others in the environment.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

A federal law ensuring a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE) for eligible children with disabilities, requiring the formulation of an Individualized Education Program (IEP).

Individualized Education Program (IEP)

A legally binding, written agreement developed by an interdisciplinary team that outlines specific educational goals, services, and accommodations for an eligible student with exceptionalities, reviewed every $12$ months.

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

The legal mandate under IDEA requiring students with disabilities to be educated with their non-disabled peers in the general education setting to the maximum extent appropriate.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

A civil rights law protecting individuals with disabilities from discrimination in federally funded programs, providing accommodations to ensure equal access to education even if students do not qualify for special education under IDEA.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

A broad civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all public areas, including physical school environments, facilities, transportation, and extracurricular activities.

Accommodation

A support, adaptation, or service that changes HOW a student accesses instruction or demonstrates knowledge without lowering or altering grade-level standards and learning expectations.

Modification

An alteration to the curriculum or assessment that changes WHAT a student is taught or expected to learn, altering the learning standard or cognitive level.

Pre-production Stage

The initial 'silent period' of second language acquisition where English language learners absorb the language through watching and listening before speaking.

Code Switching

The linguistic practice of alternating between two languages (L1 and L2) within a single conversation, sentence, or piece of writing.

Acculturation

The social, psychological, and cultural process in which a learner adjusts to and adopts aspects of a new culture while maintaining their original cultural heritage.

Assimilation

The process occurring when an individual wholly abandons their heritage culture to adopt a new dominant culture.

Backwards Design

An instructional planning method where the educator starts with state standards to define desired outcomes, designs aligned assessments next, and finally develops instructional activities.

Scope

The breadth, depth, and specific content areas to be taught within a curriculum.

Sequence

The chronological and developmental order in which instructional content and skills are taught across a unit, school year, or grade levels.

Vertical Alignment

The organization and coordination of curriculum standards and learning objectives from one grade level to the next to build continuous mastery.

Horizontal Alignment

The coordination and integration of curriculum goals and standards across different academic disciplines within the same grade level.

Direct Instruction

A teacher-led instructional delivery model that provides straightforward, sequential, and explicit teaching of skills, content, or processes.

Indirect Instruction

A student-centered instructional approach where the teacher establishes an environment for learners to explore, observe, infer, and construct meaning through problem-solving and inquiry.

Reciprocal Teaching

An interactive instructional strategy where students facilitate their own learning and take turns leading discussions by cycling through predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing.

Socratic Seminar

A formal, text-based collaborative discussion where a facilitator and students ask open-ended questions to think critically, examine perspectives, and construct deeper meaning.

Jigsaw

A cooperative learning structure where individual students or small groups specialize in analyzing a portion of text or content and then rejoin other groups to share their pieces, assembling the whole concept.

Think-Pair-Share

A collaborative learning routine where students think individually about a prompt, pair up with a peer to discuss their thoughts, and finally share their conclusions with the wider group.

Flexible Grouping

An instructional practice of regularly grouping and regrouping students according to specific learning targets, instructional activities, and ongoing assessment data.

Heterogeneous Grouping

The practice of forming student groups composed of diverse academic abilities, backgrounds, and interests.

Homogeneous Grouping

The temporary placement of students who share the same instructional level or skill deficit together to provide targeted, short-term intervention.

Wait Time

A deliberate pause of $3-5$ seconds after a teacher asks a question, and again after a student responds, allowing cognitive processing, reflection, and deeper participation.

Proximity Control

A non-verbal classroom management technique where the teacher moves physically closer to disruptive students to refocus their behavior without stopping instruction.

Positive Behavior Support (PBS)

A research-based approach that aims to prevent problem behaviors by teaching positive social and behavioral skills, setting clear expectations, and modifying the learning environment.

Diagnostic Assessment

A pre-assessment administered prior to instruction to identify learners' prior knowledge, prerequisite skills, preconceptions, and misconceptions.

Formative Assessment

An ongoing, informal or formal check for understanding administered during the instructional process to monitor student progress and adjust teaching in real time.

Summative Assessment

An evaluation administered at the culmination of a learning unit or instructional period to measure student mastery of learning objectives and curricular outcomes.

Criterion-Referenced Assessment

An evaluation designed to measure a student's performance against a predetermined set of criteria, objectives, or state standards rather than against the scores of other test takers.

Norm-Referenced Assessment

A standardized assessment designed to compare an individual student's performance to the performance of a predefined, representative norm group, reported as a percentile rank.

Performance-Based Assessment

An authentic assessment that requires students to apply knowledge and higher-order skills by performing a task, conducting an experiment, or creating a tangible product.

Holistic Rubric

A scoring tool that assesses a student's entire work or performance as a whole, providing a single overall score based on general criteria.

Analytic Rubric

A scoring guide that evaluates student work across multiple distinct components and criteria independently, providing detailed diagnostic feedback on specific strengths and weaknesses.

Validity

The degree to which an assessment tool measures what it is designed and intended to measure accurately.

Reliability

The consistency and dependability of an assessment to produce similar, stable results under identical measurement conditions over time.

Raw Score

The actual number of items or questions a student answers correctly on an assessment prior to mathematical conversion or weighting.

Percentile Rank

A norm-referenced score indicating the percentage of students in the comparison group that scored at or below an individual's score.

Professional Learning Community (PLC)

A collaborative team of educators who meet regularly to review student data, share expertise, conduct action research, and improve classroom instruction.

Action Research

A disciplined, ongoing process where classroom teachers collect and analyze formative and summative data to test instructional strategies and solve specific problems of practice.

Mandated Reporter

A legal designation requiring school personnel to report any suspected instances of child abuse or neglect directly to child welfare authorities immediately.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

A federal law that protects the privacy and confidentiality of student education records and grants parents access rights, which transfer to the student at age $18$.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

A landmark United States Supreme Court ruling that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson by declaring that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, mandating school integration.

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

A landmark Supreme Court case affirming that students do not shed their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate, provided expression does not disrupt learning.