Educational Psychology and Learning Theories
Major theories
You must be able to compare the main learning theories and use them to interpret classroom situations. Behaviourism (conditioning, reinforcement) explains habit formation; cognitivism (information processing, working memory limits) explains how pupils handle complexity; constructivism (Piaget) sees learning as building schemas through assimilation and accommodation; socio-constructivism (Vygotsky) stresses mediation, language and the zone of proximal development; metacognition concerns pupils' awareness and regulation of their own learning.
Concepts to connect
Motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic), self-efficacy, cognitive load, transfer, and formative feedback. Know the difference between development stages and learning stages.
Traps
Questions often invert attributions: Piaget is constructivist, Vygotsky socio-constructivist; reinforcement belongs to behaviourism, not constructivism. Another trap is treating the ZPD as a fixed ability level rather than the gap between what a pupil can do alone and with guidance. Avoid claiming a theory is universally valid.
Worked example
A pupil fails a task alone but succeeds with a peer's hint. This is a ZPD situation: the teacher should scaffold rather than lower the objective. Rule of thumb: match the theory to the observed behaviour, then derive the pedagogical response - never the reverse.