Vocabulary

-accommodation (ch. 2): the process of creating or revising a scheme to fit a new experience
-adaptation (ch. 2): [described by Piaget as] the process of creating a good fit or match between one's conception of reality and one's real-life experiences.
-aptitude tests (ch. 15): tests intended to give educators some idea of the level of knowledge and skill a student could acquire with effective instruction. -assimilation (ch. 2): the process of fitting a new experience into an existing scheme.
-attention (ch. 8): the selective focusing on a portion of the information currently stored in the sensor register.
-behavior modification (ch. 7): the use of operant conditioning techniques to modify behavior, usually by making reward contingent on certain actions (also called contingency management).
-between-class ability grouping (ch. 6): assigning students of similar learning ability to separate classes based on scores from standardized intelligence or achievement tests.
-cognitive constructivism (ch. 10): a form of constructivist learning theory that emphasizes the role of assimilation and accommodation in constructing an understanding of the world in which one lives.
-cognitive domain (ch. 11) (aka Bloom's Taxonomy): a classification scheme of instructional outcomes that stresses knowledge and intellectual skills, including comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
-collaborative learning (ch. 11): activities for which groups of learners combine their individual talents and areas of expertise to navigate problems, negotiate ideas, generate knowledge, and design products.
-conservation (ch. 2): the recognition that certain properties stay the same despite a change in appearance or position.
-constructivism (ch. 2): the view that meaning learning is the active creation of knowledge structures, rather than a mere transferring of objective knowledge from one person to another.
-cooperative learning (ch. 5): an approach that uses small heterogeneous groups for purposes of mutual help in the mastery of specific tasks.
-cultural pluralism (ch. 5): a set of tenets based on 3 principles--every culture has its own internal coherence, integrity, and logic; no culture is inherently better or worse than another; and all persons are to some extent culture-bound.
-deficiency needs (ch. 12): the first levels [physiological, safety, belongingness or love, and esteem), in Maslow's hierarchy of needs--these needs cause people to act only when they are unmet to some degree.
-diagnostic test (ch. 15): a single-subject achievement test intended to identify the source of a problem in basic subjects and perhaps in study skills.
-direct instruction (ch. 11): an approach to instruction that emphasizes the efficient acquisition of basic skills and subject matter through lessons and demonstrations, extensive practice, and corrective feedback.
-discrimination (ch. 7): a process in which individuals learn to notice the unique aspects of seemingly similar situations and thus learn different ways of responding.
-dual coding theory (ch. 8): a theory of elaboration that states concrete words and objects are remembered better than abstract information because they are coded in memory as both visual images and verbal labels, whereas abstract words are only encoded verbally.
-educational psychology (ch. 1): the branch of psychology that specializes in understanding how different factors affect the classroom behavior of both teachers and students.
-egocentrism (ch. 2): a characteristic typical of young children, in which they have difficulty taking another person's point of view.
-empirical learning (ch. 2): the use of noticeable characteristics of objects and events to form spontaneous concepts, a form of learning typical of young children.
-epigenetic principle (ch. 2): the notion that a child's personality develops as the ego progresses through a series of interrelated stages, similar to the way the human body takes shape during its fetal development.
-equilibrium (ch. 2): the tendency to organize schemes to allow better understanding of experiences.
-ethnic group (ch. 5): a collection of people who identity with one another on the basis of such characteristics as ancestral origin, race, religion, language, values, political or economic interests, and behavior patterns.

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