Educational Psychology: Scenarios and Strategies

New Teachers' Concerns and Teaching Expertise

1. André just graduated from his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education in June and will be meeting his first class of second graders tomorrow at Montreal Elementary School.  His colleague, Henry, is a veteran first-grade teacher with 20 years of experience and who is considered to be an expert teacher by the school board’s administrators, his colleagues, as well as his students and their parents.

 

a. Based on the research Educational Psychology about new teachers, what are likely to be André’s major concerns about his first months of teaching? )

 

b. Based on the research in Educational Psychology, what factors facilitated Henry’s development of his expertise

 

c. Discuss how the two teachers might differ in using achievement results as information about  (a) students’ learning and (b) their own success in teaching.

2. Trip, a seventh-grader, is struggling with the concept of fractions (such as two out of five is 2/5, 3/5 is less than 2/3), and so on.  While his classmates seem to follow most of the examples given by the teachers in class and can solve fraction problems with ease, Trip feels overwhelmed and confused by them.  He is good at other subjects (such as reading and social studies), but he is falling behind rapidly in mathematics.  

 

a. Based on Piaget’s theory, what stage of cognitive development best explains his struggle with fractions? Why?

 

b. How might Vygotsky’s theory explain why Trip is good with reading and social studies, but struggle with fractions.  (2 points).

 

c. Based on Piaget's ideas and suggestions, what teaching strategy or strategies would be useful in making the principles of fractions more understandable to Trip? (3 points)

 

d. Based on Vygotsky's ideas and sugestions, what teaching strategy or strategies would be useful in making the principles of fractions more understandable to Trip? (3 points)

 

 

 

 


3. The Director General of your school board gives a speech regarding the need for "a dollar's worth of learning for every dollar spent…..The children of today are rarely challenged.  Many student with high intellectual abilities are left behind and bored in school.  We need to promote accelerated programs across preschool, elementary and high school levels”, he asserts.  For the next hour, he outlines a plan to introduce algebra in the fifth grade, physics in the seventh grade, reading in the preschool, and skipping grades for any student who scores highly on the provincial achievement test. Some people in the audience look skeptical, others show strong displeasure, but a surprising number appear to agree whole-heartedly.

 

a. Based on the research in Educational Psychology about enrichment for students with advanced abilities, what are the pros and cons for this initiative?

b. From the perspective of Inclusive Education, argue For or Against the proposed program. (4 points).

c. From the perspectives of psychosocial and moral development – Erikson and Kohlberg – argue For  or Against the proposed program.

 

 

4. Mrs. O’Connor, a Grade 4 teacher, notices that many of her students come from diverse linguistic backgrounds, and she is exploring ways to optimize her teaching for all her students.

 

a. Several of her students speak languages at home that are different from the language of instruction in school.  Based on the research on bilingualism, what might she expect in terms of the cognitive impact of learning different languages? (4 points)

 

b. Mrs. O’Connor also noticed that several students speak dialects rather than formal English. Describe appropriate attitudes and approaches for teaching these students effectively.  (3 points).

 

c. Based on the research on teaching linguistically diverse students, what are the teaching strategies that Mrs. O’Connor should consider? (3 points)

 

 

 


5. Adrian is an African Canadian student in Grade 10.   He likes his environmental science course, but is one of only two African Canadian students in the class.  He makes good grades on homework and in-class activities, but seldom volunteers answers.  Mr. Cooke, his teacher, notices that Adrian uses spare time to read about environmental issues, and Adrian told Mr. Cooke about conducting his own small projects out of class.  Mr. Cooke concludes that Adrian has a passion for this area of study, though African Canadian students seldom take the class or succeed in science classes at this high school. Today the class takes the mid-term exam, and Mr. Cooke notices that Adrian acts anxious. He asks Adrian if he’s ready, and Adrian says he’s not sure. During the exam, Adrian continues to act nervous and unsure. He is the last student to turn in his paper.

 

a. What Cultural Factor(s) might help to explain Adrian’s reluctance to participation in class?  (2 points).  What can Mr. Cooke do to help overcome the effects of this/these?  (3 points.)

 

b. What kind of Attributions and mind-set do you think Adrian makes about his own competence and achievement? (2 points).  

 

c. How can Mr. Cooke help to decrease Adrian’s exam-anxiety? (3 points)

 

 

 

6. You are an 8th Grade, Social Studies teacher who plan to implement a teaching unit on the effects of technology on learning and time management.  

 

a. Based on what you know about learning objectives, identify 2 Gronlund’s objectives and 2 Mager’s objectives that you would include in this teaching unit (2 points).

 

b. You have recently attended  a professional development workshop and learned many interesting ideas about cooperative learning in the classroom.  Therefore, you decided to approach this teaching unit using cooperative learning. What factors will you consider in regard to group assignments and membership?  Explain and justify your answer (5 points).

 

c. How will you evaluate your students’ learning?  What type of assessment would be best to do so?  Explain and justify your answer (3 points).

 

 

 


7. Reid is a student in Ms. Long’s Grade-10 class. Reid loves to read and always has several library books checked out, but he believes that he “has a bad memory”. He believes he is incapable of remembering what he has studied and therefore does poorly in tests.  He is struggling in History class, and even misses school sometimes when there is a test.  When he write a test/exam, he feels that by the time he writes an idea down, he  “forgets” the other ideas that he has.  In Grade 7 and Grade 8, he had History courses, and he failed them with very low grades.  He is now seriously at-risk to fail Grade-10 History, which worries him because he would not receive his high-school graduation certification if he does not pass this course.

 

a. Based on Albert Bandura’s theory on self-efficacy expectations, what makes Reid believe that he has a “bad memory”?  What are the  probable sources of Reid’s low self-efficacy for History course?  (2 points).  

 

b. If you are Reid’s teacher, what learning and memory strategies would you teach him  (4 points).  Explain how each strategy works and why it would be useful in History.  

 

c. Based on the model of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), how would you accommodate, support and evaluate Reid’s progress in History?

 

 

 

8. Ellen's face is twisted in an angry sneer and her body is visibly shaking. "I'm not going back to my seat!" she screams at Mr. Fournier (the ninth-grade Spanish teacher). "You're always picking on me. I've had it with being the one who's told to do everything." Mr. Fournier is taken aback but stands his ground, and says, "Ellen, return to your seat right now." "I'm not going to," Ellen replies, "No way, I won’t."

 

a. Based on the principles of classroom management, what steps would you take next in dealing with Ellen, if you were Mr. Fournier? .

 

b. Would Mr. Fournier's initial response be classified as assertive, hostile, or aggressive? Provide a rationale for your answer. (3 points).

 

c. Discuss how Gordon's "no-lose" method could be used in attempting to resolve the problem with Ellen. Identify the specific steps of the model in your answer. (4 points).

 

 


 

9. Howard Williams teaches a college course in Educational Foundations to children in the

Education program. The course is intended to expose students to the historical roots of education, key philosophers, and current issues in teaching and education.   The grading scheme that he proposed is:  (1) 90 percent of students' grades in his course are determined by a midterm and a final exam, both consisting of 75 multiple-choice questions, (2) 10 percent for attendance.

 

The typical kinds of questions that he puts on the midterm, for example, were:

“The first normal school in Canada was established in . . .": and

“The philosopher identified with the progressive movement was . . .".  

 

In the course evaluations, students often described his course as "easy exams, but meaningless."  Dr. William is seeking advice on how to better assess his students ability to apply knowledge, to construct knowledge and to be critical thinkers.

 

a. Given that Dr. Williams will probably continue to use at least some multiple-choice testing, suggest some guidelines regarding how multiple-choice items could be constructed to improve their content validity for course objectives? (4 points).  

 

b. What other types of evaluations would you recommend? How could you ensure that these types of evaluations can also graded objectively when assessing students’ learning?
 

c. Identify how authentic testing could be used in a course of that type.  Specifically, what types of authentic "performances" might be evaluated and how could they be evaluated?  Explain what is an “authentic assessment”, and provide specific suggestion to Dr. William.


10. The use of Intelligence tests generate much debate.  Some psychologists and educators believe that intelligence is a good indicator for academic success, and it continues to be used to evaluation students with exceptionalities.   

 

a. Based on research in Educational Psychology about human Intelligence, discuss whether intelligence has genetic and/or environmental sources.

 

b. In our society, intelligence is often an important source of Expectation Effects.  Describe the two types of expectation effects that can occur in the classroom. How can these expectation effects influence student learning?

 

c. As an educator, what can you do to combat the potential negative impact of Expectation Effects, and promote the positive effects of these expectations?