IB Psychology HL - Paper Two - Developmental - Developing as a Learner

Discuss one theory of cognitive development.

• Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory - a child’s cognitive development is based on interaction with others in order to develop cultural tools to understand the world

• Learning tends to precede development

• Vocab: more knowledgable other, zone of proximal development, scaffolding, play, private speech

• Stages of language development: Pre-intellectual speech (crying, babbling, laughing, + gesturing), Autonomous speech (12m) (invented words for objects), Naive psychology (18-24m) (simple words, sometimes sentences, Communicative + Egocentric Speech (3y) (C = convey, E = self-talk)

Nichols - two groups + control, ½ trad vs collab (or reversed) + fully trad for control, pre/post test design to test achievement + self-efficacy, achievement gains higher than control, higher increase in intrinsic motivation vs. just grades, processing strategies better, group 1 decreased in factors when switched to trad

Prior and Welling - elementary school children, condition depends on reading ESRI reading task out loud or to themselves, researcher read 10 questions out loud to test comprehension, +1 researcher for inter-rater reliability, results = younger group showed no difference, but older group did

Vygotsky takes a more holistic approach; lack of empirical support for some aspects of theories

Discuss brain development in developing as a learner.

Neuroplasticity; localization of function; synaptic pruning; maturation theory

Chugani - PET scans to measure areas of brain activity (glucose metabolism in different brain regions), cross-sectional design b/c comparing infants + toddlers of different ages, A baby’s brain develops neuronal connections (white matter) from the back to the front, glucose metabolism 30% lower in babies, window of opportunity = time that glucose metabolism spikes until 3y (peak neural plasticity)

Giedd - MRI scans on healthy children, longitudinal, repeated measures, done every 2y between 6-20 y/o, He found that 95% of the brain structure is formed when the child is around five or six years old, The PFC is the last part of the brain to mature

A reductionist approach to learning; limitations of using brain scan techniques in research; how brain development theory supports other cognitive theories; the ability of researchers to understand what brain activity means in terms of learning; applications of the theory to education

Discuss one or more research methods used in the study of developing as a learner.

experiments (lab design)

Nichols - two groups + control, ½ trad vs collab (or reversed) + fully trad for control, pre/post test design to test achievement + self-efficacy, achievement gains higher than control, higher increase in intrinsic motivation vs. just grades, processing strategies better, group 1 decreased in factors when switched to trad

Prior and Welling - elementary school children, condition depends on reading ESRI reading task out loud or to themselves, researcher read 10 questions out loud to test comprehension, +1 researcher for inter-rater reliability, results = younger group showed no difference, but older group did

Most research is experimental with age being the variable - so research is mostly quasi-experimental.  This leads to correlational findings where cause and effect is difficult to establish; reliability of findings; artificiality and ecological validity

Discuss ethical considerations in the study of developing as a learner.

Ethical considerations include: informed consent, anonymity, right to withdraw, deception, undue stress or harm, and debriefing

Chugani - PET scans to measure areas of brain activity (glucose metabolism in different brain regions), cross-sectional design b/c comparing infants + toddlers of different ages, A baby’s brain develops neuronal connections (white matter) from the back to the front, glucose metabolism 30% lower in babies, window of opportunity = time that glucose metabolism spikes until 3y (peak neural plasticity)

Giedd - MRI scans on healthy children, longitudinal, repeated measures, done every 2y between 6-20 y/o, He found that 95% of the brain structure is formed when the child is around five or six years old, The PFC is the last part of the brain to mature

Any study using children requires parental consent; undue stress or harm: Giedd (2004) the importance of making sure that children are not stressed in the use of MRI; when research is done with children (or any participants!) it is important that their anonymity is kept.  It may be the case that a researcher observes delayed development.  This information would then be conveyed to the parents during the debriefing and the implications discussed