PSC 140 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Mathematics Education, Numeracy
School as a Context for Development
● Formal education: the most structured type of explicit education, through which adults
instruct the young in the specialized knowledge & skills of their culture
● Apprenticeship: a form of education in which a young person learns a craft or skill by
spending an extended period of time working for an adult master
● Emergent literacy: knowledge, skills, & attitudes that provide the building blocks for
learning to read and write
● Emergent numeracy: knowledge, skills, and attitudes that provide the building blocks for
learning how to do math
● Decoding: the process of translating units of print into units of sound
● Bottom - up processing: an approach to education that starts with teaching basic skills
and, once they have been mastered, moves on to more complex tasks
● Top - down processing: an approach to education that focuses on using skills to
accomplish specific, meaningful tasks
● Instructional discourse: a distinctive way of talking & thinking that is typical in school but
rarely encountered in everyday interactions in the community or home
● Reciprocal teaching: a method of teaching reading in which teachers and children take
turns reading text in a manner that integrates decoding & comprehensions skills
● Realistic mathematics education: an approach to mathematics education that focuses on
developing the student’s understanding of how math can be used to solve real - world
problems
● Playworld practice: a type of classroom activity that is based on theories regarding the
importance of play in intellectual development & involves students enacting & discussing
various themes in children’s literature
● Specific learning disabilities: a term used to refer to the academic difficulties of children
who fare poorly in school despite having normal intelligence
● Academic motivation: the ability to try hardd & persist at school tasks in the face of
difficulties
● Mastery orientation: a way that children approach school tasks in which they are
motivated to learn, to try hard, & to improve their performance
● Performance orientation: a way of approaching school tasks in which students are
motivated by their level of performance, ability, & incentives for trying
● Entity model of intelligence: the belief that intelligence is a quality of which each person
has a certain fixed amount
● Incremental model of intelligence: the belief that intelligence is something that can grow
over time as one learns
● School - engagement: the thoughts, behaviors, and emotions that children have about
school and learning
● School - cutoff strategy: a means of assessing the impact of early education by
comparing the intellectual performance of children who are almost the same age but
begin schooling a year apart because of school rules that set a specific cutoff birthday
date for starting school
Document Summary
Formal education: the most structured type of explicit education, through which adults instruct the young in the specialized knowledge & skills of their culture. Apprenticeship: a form of education in which a young person learns a craft or skill by spending an extended period of time working for an adult master. Emergent literacy: knowledge, skills, & attitudes that provide the building blocks for learning to read and write. Emergent numeracy: knowledge, skills, and attitudes that provide the building blocks for learning how to do math. Decoding: the process of translating units of print into units of sound. Bottom - up processing: an approach to education that starts with teaching basic skills and, once they have been mastered, moves on to more complex tasks. Top - down processing: an approach to education that focuses on using skills to accomplish specific, meaningful tasks.
