Capstone: Educational Psychology in the Classroom

This is Unit Thirteen, part one, the capstone: two arcs that gather the course, individual differences and development, each ending in one classroom. Unit Twelve closed on why validity depends on use. The capstone adds nothing new: every entry restates one taught earlier and names it. Carry one idea through this part: the course's findings work together in a single classroom, and a teacher uses them together. At the end of each arc, one classroom shows how. By the end you will be able to read an IQ score on the normal curve. To trace a student from a teacher's concern to special education services. To respond to individual differences in one classroom as the evidence supports. To place a child's reasoning and moral reasoning in stages. And to use the developmental theories together in one lesson.

Five entries on intelligence and the curve, restating unit eight: differences, theories, two kinds of IQ, and both tails.

Individuals within groups, revisited.

EDP 1201 Individual and Group Differences, Revisited

Individual differences are qualities unique to one person; group differences are shared by an identifiable group, and every group difference describes an average tendency with wide individual variation inside it. Knowing a student's group tells a teacher little about what that student can do, and group categories are convenient but arbitrary.

One ability, or many.

EDP 1202 One Ability or Many

Spearman's g is one general factor, shown by positive correlations among test items; Sternberg names three intelligences, analytical, creative and practical; Gardner names eight, from linguistic to naturalistic, so a dancer's talent is bodily-kinesthetic. Critics find Gardner's intelligences correlate, partly reflecting g, and doubt that practical intelligence is distinct from g.

Two kinds of IQ.

EDP 1203 Two Kinds of IQ

The original ratio IQ divided mental age by chronological age and multiplied by one hundred; the modern deviation IQ places a score among same-age peers on a scale with a mean of one hundred and a standard deviation of fifteen. Average scores have risen about three points a decade, and modern tests report deviation scores.

Reading an IQ score.

EDP 1204 Reading an IQ Score

Reading an IQ score means locating it on the normal curve, with a mean of one hundred and a standard deviation of fifteen: about thirty-four percent of scores fall between the mean and one standard deviation on each side, fourteen percent between one and two, and about two percent beyond. A score of eighty-five is one standard deviation below the mean, a z of minus one, near the sixteenth percentile. A score of one hundred thirty is a z of two, higher than about ninety-eight percent of peers, the traditional threshold for giftedness. An IQ score alone never identifies intellectual disability, which also requires limits in adaptive functioning.

Both tails of the curve.

EDP 1205 Both Tails of the Curve

Intellectual disability requires limits in both intellectual and adaptive functioning, with severity described by levels of support, running intermittent, limited, extensive and pervasive; giftedness, traditionally an IQ of one hundred thirty or above, has broadened to include exceptional talents. Gifted students are not typically socially awkward; that is a myth.

Five entries on differences and services, restating units eight and twelve, ending with the first payoff: one classroom.

Three conditions often confused.

EDP 1206 Three Conditions Often Confused

A learning disability is a specific academic impairment not explained by intellectual, sensory or language factors; ADHD involves persistent inattention or hyperactivity-impulsivity, served under other health impairment; and intellectual disability limits both intellectual and adaptive functioning. A bright student reading far below grade level fits learning disability, and ADHD is not a learning disability.

From concern to services.

EDP 1207 From Concern to Services

The path from a teacher's concern to special education services runs through steps the course has taught. Response to Intervention screens every student, then adds small-group and individualized intervention, monitoring progress at each tier. IDEA guarantees a fair evaluation, and eligibility falls under one of thirteen federal categories. An eligible student receives an individualized education program, with present levels, goals, services and a measure of progress, delivered in the least restrictive environment. A second grader flagged at fall screening moves through Tier 2 and Tier 3 with little progress, is found to have a specific learning disability, and spends most of the day in the regular class with support.

Grouping by ability.

EDP 1208 Grouping by Ability

Within-class grouping brings small benefits, between-class grouping brings almost none, and cross-grade subject grouping, special grouping for the gifted and acceleration raise achievement, with effects that did not vary by ability level. Reading groups within one class help; separate tracks for every subject do not.

Bias in testing.

EDP 1209 Bias in Testing

Tests can be biased through offensiveness, content that stereotypes a group, or unfair penalization, content depending on untaught background experience, like a reading item built on yacht-racing terms; intelligence tests have long been criticized for middle-class norms and for rewarding speed. Some bias claims are themselves contested.

The first payoff: individual differences in one classroom.

EDP 1210 Individual Differences in One Classroom

Here is the first payoff. A single classroom holds the whole range of differences this course has traced. Intelligence can be described as one factor or several, and scores are read on the normal curve, with intellectual disability and giftedness at the tails. Learning disabilities and ADHD are specific conditions, not low intelligence. Grouping helps within classes and for specific subjects, not through between-class tracking, and matching instruction to diagnosed learning styles has virtually no evidence behind it. So a fifth-grade teacher with a gifted student, a student with a reading disability, a student with ADHD and an English learner designs one ecosystems unit with a diagram, a captioned video and a text, lets students show learning in several ways, groups flexibly, and gives each student the supports that student needs. No student is labeled by a learning style, and each is taught as an individual.

Five entries on development, restating unit three: its big questions, Piaget's stages, Vygotsky's zone, and two constructivisms.

Three questions about development.

EDP 1211 Three Questions About Development

Development raises three recurring questions: continuous or discontinuous change, critical or sensitive periods, and how nature and nurture interact, since neither acts alone. Language has a sensitive period, easiest early but still possible later with effort: if later experience can still produce a change, the period was sensitive.

Piaget's four stages.

EDP 1212 Piaget's Four Stages

Piaget described four stages taken in a fixed order, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational, and preoperational children fail conservation because of centration and irreversibility: poured into a tall thin glass, the same juice seems like more to a four-year-old. The ages are approximate; the order is the firm claim.

Placing reasoning in a stage.

EDP 1213 Placing Reasoning in a Stage

Placing a child's reasoning in one of Piaget's stages depends on what the reasoning rests on, not on the answer or the age. Thinking tied to action and the senses is sensorimotor; symbolic thought marked by centration is preoperational; logic on concrete objects, using reversibility and decentration, is concrete operational; reasoning about hypotheses, one variable at a time, is formal operational. A nine-year-old who says there are more animals than dogs is concrete operational; a teenager who varies one factor at a time to test a pendulum is formal operational. Ages vary, and a rote answer is not an operation, so ask why.

Vygotsky's zone, and scaffolding.

EDP 1214 Vygotsky's Zone and Scaffolding

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between what a learner can do alone and with guidance; a more knowledgeable other scaffolds the learner inside that zone, then withdraws support as the learner takes over, as when a classmate's questions help a student finish long division. Teaching aims inside the zone.

Two constructivisms.

EDP 1215 Two Constructivisms

Psychological constructivism, Piaget's, has each learner construct knowledge individually, so teachers provide a rich environment and provoke disequilibrium; social constructivism, Vygotsky's, has learning happen through interaction, so teachers provide rich dialogue and scaffolded talk. Social constructivism describes classroom teaching more completely; psychological constructivism helps sequence instruction.

Five entries on language, identity, morality and gender, ending with the second payoff: development in one classroom.

Language milestones.

EDP 1216 Language Milestones

Language follows a broadly universal order: babbling around seven months, holophrases around the first birthday, telegraphic speech, then overregularization as grammar emerges, as when I goed shows a child applying a rule where English makes an exception. Acquisition comes most readily early, and the sequence, not the exact age, is dependable.

Erikson and identity.

EDP 1217 Erikson and Identity

Erikson's school-age crisis is industry versus inferiority and his adolescent crisis identity versus role confusion; Marcia added four identity statuses from exploration and commitment, diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium and achievement, so committing to a family plan without exploring alternatives is foreclosure. Trying on roles is normal identity work, not indecision to be corrected.

Kohlberg in a classroom dilemma.

EDP 1218 Kohlberg in a Classroom Dilemma

Kohlberg scored the justification for a moral decision, not the decision, across three levels: preconventional reasoning looks to punishment and self-interest; conventional reasoning to approval, relationships, and law and order; postconventional reasoning to revisable social contracts and universal principles. Discussing whether to report a friend who cheated, one student says no, you'd get beaten up, which is preconventional; another says yes, because rules keep the school fair, which is conventional; a third says fairness to everyone matters more than loyalty to one person, which is postconventional. Keep asking why until the reasoning shows.

Gender identity and gender roles.

EDP 1219 Gender Identity and Gender Roles

Gender identity is a person's psychological sense of their gender, distinct from sexual orientation; between ages three and six children develop gender constancy, with rigid stereotypes that loosen at about eight or nine, as a four-year-old insists that only girls can be nurses. Sex, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation do not always correspond.

The second payoff: development in one classroom.

EDP 1220 Development in One Classroom

Here is the second payoff. The developmental theories describe different parts of one child, and a teacher uses them together. Piaget describes reasoning changing through four stages, constructed through activity and disequilibrium. Vygotsky describes development running through other people, inside the zone of proximal development. Erikson describes the crisis of each period, industry versus inferiority in the school years and identity versus role confusion in adolescence. Kohlberg describes moral reasoning by its justification. A seventh-grade science teacher opens a unit on forces with carts and ramps for students who still need concrete demonstrations, scaffolds pairs with questions inside their zone, offers roles such as designer, tester and reporter so students can try on identities, and listens for the justification in a discussion of a hidden safety flaw. No theory explains the whole child, and none licenses teaching by age alone.

Look at what you can now do. You can read an IQ score on the normal curve by its distance from one hundred in standard deviations. You can trace a student from a teacher's concern through screening, evaluation and an IEP to the least restrictive environment. You can respond to individual differences in one classroom: design for variety, group flexibly, and never label by learning style. You can place a child's reasoning in Piaget's stages and moral reasoning in Kohlberg's levels. And you can use the developmental theories together in one lesson. Part two gathers the testing and behavioral arcs.