Possible Exam 2 Questions1. a) A student currently attributes her failure to an internal/stable cause. Give an example of an internal/stable cause to which the student might attribute her failure. Explain how that is an internal/stable cause. b) How might a teacher convince the student to attribute her failure to an internal/unstable cause instead? In answering this question, use a specific example of an internal/unstable cause. 2. Ms. K. wanted her students (at least most of them) to induce how to add fractions with common denominators. So she presented her students with a number of such problems answered correctly and a number of such problems answered incorrectly. Ms. K. identified which were answered correctly and which were not. She then asked her students to figure out how to correctly solve such problems by looking at the examples she presented. Very quickly her brightest student raised her hand and described how to solve these problems. Ms. K. repeated the student's explanation and expanded on it to make sure the rest of the class understood.
3. A friend of yours comes up to you and says, "I'm pretty smart. Do you think that's because of how I was raised?" How would you answer your friend? 4. a) For an individual teacher, when does the research suggest using within-class ability groups would be most valuable? Briefly explain. b) For a school or district, when does the research suggest using between-class ability groups might be most valuable? Briefly explain. c) According to the research, why is heterogeneous grouping preferable to homogeneous grouping in most circumstances? 5. Name a specific concept you expect to teach in school. a) Describe how you could help students distinguish the defining attributes from the variable attributes for that concept. b) Will the method of instruction you described in a) lead students to construct their own meaning about the concept? Explain. 6. a) Explain how problem-based learning is more of a constructivist approach than more traditional forms of problem-solving. b) Although problem-based learning is student-centered, explain how structure provided by the teacher is critical to the success of such constructivist methods. 7. a) How has culture shaped the way we think about and measure the concept of intelligence? b) What difficulties do educators encounter by thinking of intelligence as a single construct or idea? 8. Pick a specific form of cooperative learning described in the text. Be sure to address the specific form of cooperative learning you chose in your answer. a) Explain how that particular form of cooperative learning can promote constructivist learning. b) Explain how that particular form of cooperative learning can accommodate individual differences among students. 9. a) Explain how expectancy theory would suggest that the level of a person's motivation is dependent upon the attributions that person makes for his past success or failure. b) Explain how a person's level of self-efficacy for a task is also dependent upon the attributions that person makes for his past success or failure on that task. 10. For this question:
11. a) Why is it often difficult to teach to a student's "level"? b) According to the research, has identifying and using a student's learning style been helpful in addressing individual differences? Explain. 12. a) Explain how two strategies discussed in class for promoting a mastery orientation toward learning are similar to strategies given in the text for increasing intrinsic motivation. b) Briefly explain how one of the two strategies would help promote a mastery orientation. Briefly explain how the other strategy could help increase intrinsic motivation. 13. Someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, you took an Ed Psych course, didn't you? Maybe you can help me. We have quite a few Hispanic-Americans living in one section of our town. I don't have anything against them, but their kids' test scores are bringing down the whole average of the town, and we don't look quite as good against other communities around here. I know it is probably a hopeless case, but is there anything we can do?" Use research in Chapter 4 to support an answer to this person. You do not have to cite specific research or authors' names, but you should make reference to the findings of the research. 14. a) Is deductive learning or inductive learning more consistent with constructivism? Why?
15. a) How might a student's attributions for her success and failure in school be different if she has a mastery orientation towards learning than if she has a performance orientation towards learning? b) How might a student's orientation (mastery or performance) towards learning be related to his fixed or flexible beliefs about intelligence? 16. Describe how you constructed your current understanding of the concept "inductive learning" from when you first heard it in this class to where your understanding of the concept is now. You can include diagrams in your answer if you like. Avoid being too superficial. 17. a) What does it mean to focus on the process of learning rather than the product of learning? b) Should focusing on the process of learning promote a more flexible or a more fixed view of intelligence in students? Explain. c) Give an example of a specific strategy or technique that a teacher could use that would promote more of a focus on the process of learning in students. |