Educational Psychology and Human Development
What this domain tests
Applied theory. You are given a learner's behaviour or a teacher's move and must name the theory, explain it correctly, and state the classroom implication. Definition recall alone earns little.
Development
Piaget: four stages - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational (about 7–11), formal operational (11+). Key processes: schema, assimilation (new information fits an existing schema), accommodation (the schema changes), equilibration. SHS learners are expected to reason hypothetically and systematically, but formal operations is not guaranteed; it is promoted by schooling that demands abstraction.
Erikson: SHS sits mainly in identity versus role confusion (adolescence), moving toward intimacy versus isolation in early adulthood. Implication: safe exploration, recognition of competence, opportunities to take responsibility.
Kohlberg: most SHS learners reason at the conventional level (good-boy/good-girl, law and order); post-conventional reasoning is not the norm.
Vygotsky: learning is social. The zone of proximal development is the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with support; scaffolding is graded assistance withdrawn as competence grows. Language is the tool of thought; private speech becomes inner speech.
Bruner: enactive, iconic and symbolic representation; spiral curriculum; structured discovery. Ausubel: the most important single factor is what the learner already knows; advance organisers bridge old and new content.
Learning and motivation
Behaviourism: Pavlov (classical conditioning), Skinner (operant conditioning - positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, shaping, schedules). Bandura: observational learning, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, self-efficacy. Information processing: attention, working memory (limited, roughly 7±2 chunks), encoding, long-term memory; use chunking, rehearsal, elaboration, spaced practice. Motivation: Maslow's hierarchy; intrinsic versus extrinsic; self-determination (autonomy, competence, relatedness); expectancy-value; mastery versus performance goals.
Worked example
A teacher gives SHS1 students a partly completed table of digestive organs and asks pairs to complete it, then withdraws the prompts over three lessons.
Reasoning: the completed portion is a scaffold inside the ZPD - support is graded, the task is social, and withdrawal builds independence. It is not Ausubel's advance organiser: an organiser is presented before new content to link it to prior knowledge, whereas this is partial help with the task itself.
Traps that cost marks
- Reversing assimilation and accommodation.
- Treating the ZPD as 'easy work' - it is work the learner cannot yet do alone but can do with help.
- Applying Erikson's intimacy stage to SHS1 learners.
- Assuming all SHS students have reached formal operations.
- Confusing negative reinforcement (removing something unpleasant, which strengthens behaviour) with punishment.