EDU 110 Final Exam Questions Winter 2016 The following questions will form the basis of the final exam in this class. There are 6 questions here....

EDU 110 Final Exam Questions Winter 2016

The following questions will form the basis of the final exam in this class. There are 6 questions here. Three of these will be chosen at random to appear on the exam during the final exam on TUESDAY, MARCH 15 from 1-3 pm. You may use these questions to prepare, drawing on any and all resources you deem appropriate (although you are NOT expected to draw on resources other than those provided within the course). Come to class on the day of the exam prepared to individually answer these questions WITHOUT notes or aids of any kind. You will not need a blue book as the forms for answering the questions will be distributed in class. Each question is intended to need approximately 2-3 paragraphs to answer. You will not need to specifically cite lectures, readings, etc. in a formal way, but to the extent possible you should say things like, “as described in the book How People learn, blah blah blah”.

As you will notice, each question has a factual component and an application component. In grading your answers we will weigh these two parts equally. For the application component it will be particularly important for you to LINK the factual aspects of the question to the example you are providing. Although the connections may seem to you to be self-evident they are not to the reader and so you must be quite explicit about how you see the connections. So, for example, you cannot say something like: “the idea of metacognition is illustrated in the example of Johnny monitoring his own learning” and expect that to stand on its own. Rather, you need to be clear and explicit by saying something like “the principle of metacognition, the idea that learners can monitor their own state of understanding, is illustrated when we see Johnny identify the ways in which his knowledge and that exhibited by the teacher are incompatible. He then sought out additional resources to add to his emerging conceptualization of the ideas until he felt satisfied that his ideas were complete in comparison with what the instructor was saying. Thus, he not only monitored his own state of knowledge, but actively sought solutions when he saw a mismatch.”

Please spend some time with these questions and your notes/readings from the course before you come to class on Monday, March 14. This session is an OPTIONAL review and will be time during that class to get clarification on anything that is confusing. You may also attend office hours or ask specific, targeted questions via email.

1. Explain what is meant by the term scaffolding. How is it related to the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development? Provide one example of how a teacher might scaffold students’ reasoning to help them extend beyond their level of actual development.
   

2. In the Blackwell et al article (on smartsite in readings folder) they distinguish between those who “believe that intelligence is more of an unchangeable, fixed ‘entity’ (an entity theory)” and those who “think of intelligence as a malleable quality that can be developed (an incremental theory)”. The incremental theory is also sometimes referred to as a “growth mindset”. Explain the distinction between entity and incremental theories and why the incremental theory is more productive by connecting it to the concept of intrinsic motivation. Provide a specific example of how a teacher might foster the incremental theory/growth mindset for his/her students.
   

3. Describe some key ways that we learn from others. Develop these ideas by contrasting two “group work” tasks that might be given in a high school class: one that is a productive group task and one that is not. Explain why one is more productive than the other in terms of one or two concepts related to social learning.
   

4. Consider the statement “we do not encode what we do not attend to”. Explain, using our model of learning why this idea is so important in understanding learning. Do this by choosing a major conceptual area from the class (scaffolding, differences between experts and novices, social learning, development, culture, language, or motivation) and relate it, using a real life example, to our model of learning highlighting the relationship to attention. (the model of learning is the diagram that appears on lots and lots of slides)
   

5. On p. 148-149 of the Scientist in the Crib reading (from week 6, development) the authors discuss two possible ways to explain cognitive development using an analogy to a “caterpillar” and a “dinner bell”. Discuss how these analogies fall short of explaining how we learn from infancy. Connect the analogy of Ulysses boat (later in that same chapter) to the ideas of ideas of Piaget (assimilation/accommodation) or Vygotsky (ZPD) to explain why this third analogy provides a more satisfying view of how learning and development might proceed.
   

6. Consider your own experiences in school up to this point. Describe something about the education system you have experienced that you think is a problem. Discuss why this issue is problematic in terms of an idea or two we have discussed in the course. Develop an idea for how that problem might be addressed, supporting your solution with links to your understanding of how people learn. (Please note that you MUST make explicit connections to course concepts in both your identification of the problem and your solution.)