Editing Educational psychology (section)

===Constructivist===
{{Main|Constructivism (learning theory)|l1=Constructivism}}
Constructivism is a category of learning theory in which emphasis is placed on the agency and prior "knowing" and experience of the learner, and often on the social and cultural determinants of the learning process. Educational psychologists distinguish individual (or psychological) constructivism, identified with [[Piaget's theory of cognitive development]], from [[social constructivism (learning theory)|social constructivism]]. The social constructivist paradigm views the context in which the learning occurs as central to the learning itself.<ref>McMahon, M. (1997, December). Social Constructivism and the World Wide Web - A Paradigm for Learning. Paper presented at the ASCILITE conference. Perth, Australia.</ref> It regards learning as a process of enculturation. People learn by exposure to the culture of practitioners. They observe and practice the behavior of practitioners and 'pick up relevant jargon, imitate behavior, and gradually start to act in accordance with the norms of the practice'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=John Seely|last2=Collins|first2=Allan|last3=Duguid|first3=Paul|date=1989|title=Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning|journal=Educational Researcher|volume=18|issue=1|pages=32–42|issn=0013-189X|jstor=1176008|hdl=2142/17979|hdl-access=free}}</ref> So, a student learns to become a mathematician through exposure to mathematician using tools to solve mathematical problems. So in order to master a particular domain of knowledge it is not enough for students to learn the concepts of the domain. They should be exposed to the use of the concepts in authentic activities by the practitioners of the domain.<ref name=":0" />

A dominant influence on the social constructivist paradigm is [[Lev Vygotsky]]'s work on sociocultural learning, describing how interactions with adults, more capable peers, and cognitive tools are internalized to form mental constructs. "[[Zone of Proximal Development]]" (ZPD) is a term Vygotsky used to characterize an individual's mental development. He believed that tasks individuals can do on their own do not give a complete understanding of their mental development. He originally defined the ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.”<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&user=djqLs50AAAAJ&citation_for_view=djqLs50AAAAJ:umqufdRvDiIC|title=Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes|last=Vygotsky|first=Lev Semenovich|date=1980|publisher=Harvard university press}}</ref> He cited a famous example to make his case. Two children in school who originally can solve problems at an eight-year-old developmental level (that is, typical for children who were age 8) might be at different developmental levels. If each child received assistance from an adult, one was able to perform at a nine-year-old level and one was able to perform at a twelve-year-old level. He said “This difference between twelve and eight, or between nine and eight, is what we call ''the zone of proximal development.''”<ref name=":1" /> He further said that the ZPD “defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state.”<ref name=":1" /> The zone is bracketed by the learner's current ability and the ability they can achieve with the aid of an instructor of some capacity.

Vygotsky viewed the ZPD as a better way to explain the relation between children's learning and cognitive development. Prior to the ZPD, the relation between learning and development could be boiled down to the following three major positions: 1) Development always precedes learning (e.g., [[Constructivism (learning theory)|constructivism]]): children first need to meet a particular maturation level before learning can occur; 2) Learning and development cannot be separated, but instead occur simultaneously (e.g., [[behaviorism]]): essentially, learning is development; and 3) learning and development are separate, but interactive processes (e.g., [[Gestalt psychology|gestaltism]]): one process always prepares the other process, and vice versa. Vygotsky rejected these three major theories because he believed that learning should always precede development in the ZPD. According to Vygotsky, through the assistance of a more knowledgeable other, a child can learn skills or aspects of a skill that go beyond the child's actual developmental or maturational level. The lower limit of ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently (also referred to as the child's developmental level). The upper limit is the level of potential skill that the child can reach with the assistance of a more capable instructor. In this sense, the ZPD provides a prospective view of cognitive development, as opposed to a retrospective view that characterizes development in terms of a child's independent capabilities. The advancement through and attainment of the upper limit of the ZPD is limited by the instructional and scaffolding-related capabilities of the more knowledgeable other (MKO). The MKO is typically assumed to be an older, more experienced teacher or parent, but often can be a learner's peer or someone their junior. The MKO need not even be a person, it can be a machine or book, or other source of visual and/or audio input.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html|title=Vygotsky {{!}} Simply Psychology|website=www.simplypsychology.org|access-date=2019-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805212531/https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html|archive-date=2019-08-05|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Elaborating on Vygotsky's theory, [[Jerome Bruner]] and other educational psychologists developed the important concept of [[instructional scaffolding]], in which the social or information environment offers supports for learning that are gradually withdrawn as they become internalized.<ref name="educational psychology">Seifert, Kelvin & Sutton, Rosemary. ''[http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Educational-Psychology.pdf Educational Psychology: Second Edition]''. Global Text Project, 2009, pp.&nbsp;33–37.</ref>

==== Jean Piaget's Cognitive Development ====
[[Jean Piaget]] was interested in how an organism adapts to its environment. Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with a [[Schema (psychology)|schema]] operating at birth that he called "reflexes". Piaget identified four stages in cognitive development. The four stages are sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage.<ref name=Huitt>{{cite journal|last1=Huitt|first1=W|last2=Hummel |first2=J|title=Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development|journal=Educational Psychology Interactive|year=2003|url=http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/piaget.html}}</ref>