Educational Psychology & Learning Theories Flashcards
7 cards from real MAT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Educational Psychology & Learning Theories flashcards as text
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs suggests that a student who comes to school hungry will have difficulty learning because:
Answer: Basic physiological needs must be met before higher needs like learning can be addressed
Maslow's hierarchy places physiological needs at the base; until these are satisfied, higher-level needs such as esteem and self-actualization cannot be effectively pursued.
Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan) identifies three core psychological needs that support intrinsic motivation. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
Answer: Extrinsic reward
SDT posits that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are the three innate needs; extrinsic rewards can actually undermine intrinsic motivation.
Carol Dweck's research on mindset found that students with a growth mindset believe that:
Answer: Effort and persistence can develop abilities over time
Growth mindset students view intelligence as malleable and see challenges and effort as pathways to improvement.
The 'spacing effect' in cognitive psychology suggests that teachers should:
Answer: Distribute practice over multiple sessions with gaps between them
Spaced practice (distributed over time) consistently produces better long-term retention than massed practice (cramming).
Research on retrieval practice (the 'testing effect') indicates that:
Answer: Actively recalling information strengthens memory more than re-reading
The testing effect shows that retrieving information from memory (even through low-stakes quizzes) produces stronger retention than passive review.
Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller) recommends that teachers reduce 'extraneous' cognitive load by:
Answer: Eliminating unnecessary information that does not support the learning goal
Extraneous load is caused by poor instructional design; removing irrelevant information frees working memory capacity for germane (learning-relevant) processing.
Which learning theory best explains why a student who learned to fear math after repeated failures may generalize that anxiety to all school subjects?
Answer: Classical conditioning and stimulus generalization
Classical conditioning explains how a neutral stimulus (math) becomes associated with fear, and stimulus generalization explains how that response spreads to similar contexts.