Self-determination Theory Self-Determination Theory (SDT) represents a broad framework for the study of human motivation and personality.

SDT articulates a meta-theory for framing motivational studies, a formal theory that defines intrinsic and varied extrinsic sources of motivation, and a description of the respective roles of intrinsic and types of extrinsic motivation in cognitive and social development and in individual differences. Perhaps more importantly SDT propositions also focus on how social and cultural factors facilitate or undermine peoples sense of volition and initiative, in addition to their well-being and the quality of their performance. Conditions supporting the individuals experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are argued to foster the most volitional and high quality forms of motivation and engagement for activities, including enhanced performance, persistence, and creativity. In addition SDT proposes that the degree to which any of these three psychological needs is unsupported or thwarted within a social context will have a robust detrimental impact on wellness in that setting. The dynamics of psychological need support and need thwarting have been studied within families, classrooms, teams, organizations, clinics, and cultures using specific propositions detailed within SDT. The SDT framework thus has both broad and behavior-specific implications for understanding practices and structures that enhance versus diminish need satisfaction and the full functioning that follows from it. These many implications are best revealed by the varied papers listed on this website, which range from basic research on motivational micro-processes to applied clinical trials aiming at population outcomes. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences What parent can not see gleaming rays of genius in their child? And yet, how many children come to school and demonstrate their own unique genius? There was a time when it might have been a joke to suggest "Every parent thinks their kid's a genius." But research on human intelligence is suggesting that the joke may be on educators! There is a constant flow of new information on how the human brain operates, how it differs in function between genders, how emotions impact on intellectual acuity, even on how genetics and environment each impact our childrens' cognitive abilities. While each area of study has its merits, Howard Gardner of Harvard University has identified different KINDS of intelligence we possess. This has particularly strong ramifications in the classroom, because if we can identify children's different strengths among these intelligences, we can accommodate different children more successfully according to their orientation to learning.

Cognitive Domain The cognitive domain is knowledge or mind based. It has three practical instructional levels including fact, understanding, and application. The fact level is a single concept and uses verbs like define, identify, and list. The understanding level puts two or more concepts together. Typical verbs for this level include describe, compare and contrast. The application level puts two or more concepts together to form something new. Typical verbs at this level include explain, apply, and analyze. Delivery in this domain is typically a lecture/presentation and the evaluation will be subjective and objective test items. Psychomotor Domain The psychomotor domain is skill based. The student will produce a product. The three practical instructional levels include imitation, practice, and habit. The psychomotor domain is steeped in a demonstration delivery and the first level, imitation, will simply be a return of the demonstration under the watchful eye of the instructor. The practice level will be a proficiency building experience that may be conducted by the student without direct oversight of the instructor. The habit level is reached when the student can perform the skill in twice the time that it takes the instructor or an expert to perform. The delivery is demonstration and proficiency building in nature. The evaluation will be a performance or skill test. The content that is needed to be known to do the skill is cognitive and should be treated accordingly. Affective Domain The affective domain is based upon behavioral aspects and may be labeled as beliefs. The three levels in the domain are awareness, distinction, and integration. The verbs for these domains are generally limited to words like display, exhibit, and accept and these apply at all levels. The first two levels are really cognitive; integration is behavioral and requires the learner to evaluate and synthesize. The content in this domain will usually involve discussions. The testing in the first two levels will be cognitive, whereas the third level will require an affective checklist. Problem-based Learning In problem-based learning, the traditional teacher and student roles change. The students assume increasing responsibility for their learning, giving them more motivation and more feelings of accomplishment, setting the pattern for them to become successful life-long learners. The faculty in turn becomes resources, tutors, and evaluators, guiding the students in their problem solving efforts. In result, students involved in problem-based learning acquire knowledge and become proficient in problem solving, self-directed learning, and team

participation. Studies show that PBL prepares students as well as traditional methods. PBL students do as well as their counterparts from traditional classrooms on national exams, but are in fact better practitioners of their professions. Memory The nature of human memory is such that it cannot be pinned down to an exact science. Not surprisingly, cognitive psychologists tend to disagree on many aspects of memory. However, many scientists have come to an agreement that there are three main components of memory. These components are the sensory register, the working (also known as short-term memory) and the long-term memory. The sensory register is where information that is in its original unprocessed form goes. Although the sensory register has a large capacity, it has a limited duration, which means that whatever information gets sent here is not going to stay for very long. In order to be remembered, the information must be moved to the working memory. The working memory is where most thinking is believed to occur. Working memory is where new information temporarily stays will it is being processed. Working memory has a limited capacity, so it doesn't hold very much information at a time. Attention is a vital part of the working memory. Obviously, one cannot remember something that is not paid attention to! Working memory has a subcategory called maintenance rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal is when the act of repetition keeps the new information fresh in your mind. For example, at one point or another every one of us has said a phone number in our head over and over until we get to the phone to dial it. This repetition is called maintenance rehearsal. The repetition and rehearsal helps us maintain or remember the information. The third and final component of memory is long-term memory. Long-term memory has unlimited capacity, so you can never run out of room. Long-term memory has a relatively long duration, but the exact length of time is indefinite. It could be a day, or a week, all the way up to an entire lifetime. Long-term memory is facilitated when one connects new information to something he or she already knows. Information that is in longterm memory can weaken over time and may be forgotten if it is not used regularly. EQ and IQ (Emotional and Intelligence) To be successful and survive in today's society, individuals need to have the necessary communication and organizational skills to make sound decisions and interact with each other. Goleman argues that an individual's success at work is 80 percent dependent on emotional quotient and only 20 percent dependent on intelligence quotient. This is because EQ components are useful in assisting employees with decision-making in areas like teamwork, inclusion, productivity, and communication.

Furthermore, good listening habits and skills are integral components of EQ, and carry the elements of self-awareness and control, empathy and social expertness. When a manager at AT&T Bell Labs was asked to rank his top performing engineers, high IQ was not the deciding factor, but instead how the person performed regarding the answering of e-mails, how good they were at collaborating and networking with colleagues, and their popularity with others in order to achieve the cooperation required to attain the goals. This is just one example of the benefits of high EQ regarding communication skills, time management, teamwork, leadership skills and business acumen. After all, we've often heard of the "genius" with no personality, and the brilliant surgeon with a horrible bed-side manner. Theory of Inquiry An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of inquirybased learning. Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge. "Inquiry" is defined as "a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge -- seeking information by questioning." Individuals carry on the process of inquiry from the time they are born until they die. This is true even though they might not reflect upon the process. Infants begin to make sense of the world by inquiring. From birth, babies observe faces that come near, they grasp objects, they put things in their mouths, and they turn toward voices. The process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses -seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Meaningful learning and Retention Learning Ausubel's Meaningful Reception Theory is concerned with how students learn large amounts of meaningful material from verbal/textual presentations in a school setting. Ausubel proposed that learning is based upon the kinds of super ordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure on a non-verbatim basis. Meaningful learning results when new information is acquired by linking the new information in the learner's own cognitive structure. A major instructional mechanism proposed by Ausubel is the use of advance organizers. Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different from overviews and summaries which simply emphasize key ideas and are presented at the same level of abstraction and generality as the rest to the material. Organizers help to link new learning material with existing related ideas. Ausubel indicates that his theory applies only to reception (expository) learning in school

settings. He distinguishes reception learning from rote and discovery learning. Rote learning does not involve subsumption and discovery learning requires the learner to discover information through problem solving. Ausubel believed that children have a natural tendency to organize information into a meaningful whole. Children should first learn a general concept and then move toward specifics. Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning involves the transfer of an established physiological response to a stimulus to another stimulus that does not normally produce the response, by repeated pairings of the new stimulus with a stimulus that already produces the response. After a number of such pairings, the previously neutral stimulus will produce the response when presented alone. Psychosocial Theory of Development According to Sigmund Freud, personality is mostly established by the age of five. Early experiences play a large role in personality development and continue to influence behavior later in life. Freud's theory of psychosexual development is one of the best known, but also one of the most controversial. Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages during which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. This psychosexual energy, or libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior. If these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality. If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixation can occur. A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain "stuck" in this stage. For example, a person who is fixated at the oral stage may be over-dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through smoking, drinking, or eating. Social Learning theory of Albert Bandura People learn through observing others behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences Attachment Theory It describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally.

Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study encompassing the fields of psychological, evolutionary, and ethological theory. Infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them, and who remain as consistent caregivers for some months during the period from about six months to two years of age. When an infant begins to crawl and walk they begin to use attachment figures (familiar people) as a secure base to explore from and return to. Parental responses lead to the development of patterns of attachment; these, in turn, lead to internal working models which will guide the individual's perceptions, emotions, thoughts and expectations in later relationships. Social Constructivist Theory Constructivism learning theory is a philosophy which enhances students' logical and conceptual growth. The underlying concept within the constructivism learning theory is the role which experiences-or connections with the adjoining atmosphere-play in student education. The constructivism learning theory argues that people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. Two of the key concepts within the constructivism learning theory which create the construction of an individual's new knowledge are accommodation and assimilation. Assimilating causes an individual to incorporate new experiences into the old experiences. This causes the individual to develop new outlooks, rethink what were once misunderstandings, and evaluate what is important, ultimately altering their perceptions. Accommodation, on the other hand, is reframing the world and new experiences into the mental capacity already present. Individuals conceive a particular fashion in which the world operates. When things do not operate within that context, they must accommodate and reframing the expectations with the outcomes. Social Constructionist Theory Constructionism is both a theory of learning and a strategy for education. It builds on the "Constructivist" theories of Jean Piaget, asserting that knowledge is not simply transmitted from teacher to student, but actively constructed in the mind of the learner. Learners don't get ideas; they create ideas. Moreover, constructionism suggests that new ideas are most likely to be created when learners are actively engaged in building some type of external artifact that they can reflect upon and share with others. Constructionism supports the constructivist viewpoint--that the learner is an active builder of knowledge. However, it emphasizes the particular constructions of external artifacts that are shared by learners. Although learners can construct and present knowledge or meanings without producing external products, the processes of construction are more evident when learners produce through social interaction with others and share representations of their understanding and thoughts.