M.Ed. Master of Education Educational Psychology and Child Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Operant conditioning's 'negative reinforcement' means:
- Punishing unwanted behavior
- Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a desired behavior (Correct answer)
- Adding an aversive stimulus after a behavior
- Ignoring behavior to extinguish it
Correct answer: Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a desired behavior
Negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus following a behavior, which increases the likelihood of that behavior recurring.
Question 2: Which concept describes a child's ability to understand that quantity remains the same even when its appearance changes?
- Object permanence
- Egocentrism
- Conservation (Correct answer)
- Centration
Correct answer: Conservation
Conservation is the understanding, achieved in Piaget's concrete operational stage, that properties like volume and number do not change when appearance changes.
Question 3: Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that teachers should first address which student needs?
- Esteem needs
- Self-actualization
- Physiological and safety needs (Correct answer)
- Cognitive needs
Correct answer: Physiological and safety needs
Maslow's hierarchy places physiological (food, sleep) and safety needs at the base; these must be met before higher-level learning needs can be addressed.
Question 4: Which instructional approach is most aligned with information processing theory?
- Ignoring prior knowledge
- Chunking information and using mnemonics to aid encoding (Correct answer)
- Presenting all content at once to save time
- Avoiding review and repetition
Correct answer: Chunking information and using mnemonics to aid encoding
Information processing theory supports chunking, rehearsal, and encoding strategies to move information from working memory to long-term memory.
Question 5: A student with a fixed mindset is most likely to respond to a difficult task by:
- Seeking feedback and persisting
- Avoiding the task to protect self-image (Correct answer)
- Asking for more challenging work
- Reflecting on their learning strategies
Correct answer: Avoiding the task to protect self-image
Fixed mindset students believe ability is static, so they tend to avoid challenges that might expose perceived lack of intelligence.
Question 6: Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby, primarily describes:
- How children learn academic content
- The emotional bond between a child and caregiver and its impact on development (Correct answer)
- Social learning through observation
- The stages of moral development
Correct answer: The emotional bond between a child and caregiver and its impact on development
Bowlby's attachment theory explains how early emotional bonds with caregivers shape a child's social, emotional, and cognitive development.
M.Ed. Master of Education Educational Psychology and Child Development 2
Operant conditioning's 'negative reinforcement' means: