Erin E. Martin
PhD Psychology
"Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge" - Prov. 23:12
Information Processing
Erin Martin, PhD
Psychology
When I was growing up in Taiwan, my dad had jet black hair and my mom had very blonde hair. It was difficult to spot my dad in a group of men, yet it was very easy to spot my mom in a group. If I knew my parents were together in a crowd somewhere, and I needed to talk to them, I would simply look for my mom - it was quicker and easier. It took more attention, effort, and concentration to find my dad. Of course, with my thick, bright red hair, they could easily spot me in a crowd anywhere. This is an example of purposeful filtering of information that my senses and mind are receiving. I would purposefully overlook everyone without blonde hair.
Perception involves learning and learning involves perception. The filters that a person utilizes will determine what information/stimulus they pay attention to, and what stimulus/information they do not pay attention to (DeGloma & Friedman, 2005; Sternberg, 2009).
Memory Processes – Learning New Information
Erin Martin, PhD
Psychology
As a teacher, there are many strategies I learned during my teacher education and student teaching for students in their process of learning and remembering information. To assist with encoding and storage of information, anticipatory activities are developed to activate the students’ prior knowledge of the topic. Sternberg (2009) stated that entering information into long-term memory can be assisted by “making connections or associations between the new information” and old information (p. 220). K-W-L is a strategy in which the students have three columns: what they Know, what they Want to know, and what they Learned. At the beginning of the lesson the students fill out the Know section on what they can recall from memory about that topic. The Want section is also done prior to learning so they can pay attention to the information that may answer what they want to know. After the lesson, students fill out the Learned section of what new information they now understand after the lesson.
Family Structure and Student Success
Erin Martin, PhD
Psychology
Research has indicated students from intact families have greater parental involvement, increased college aspirations and grades, lower stress levels, more time and resources for each child, more effective parenting strategies, and greater academic achievement. Adolescents from single and blended families tend to have less parental involvement, lower college aspirations and grades, higher stress levels, less time and resources for each child, and more permissive and authoritarian parenting styles. However, there remains an important gap in the literature regarding younger students from same-sex family structures.
Social Economic Status and Achievement
Erin Martin, PhD
Psychology
Santrock (2009) discussed that in many studies it is difficult to separate ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) with their influences on school achievement. He further discussed how when controlling for ethnicity in analysis, the differences in achievement can be explained through SES. Students of middle and upper SES show greater achievement than those from lower SES backgrounds; middle and upper income backgrounds (regardless of ethnicity) understand that failure is a lack of effort (Santrock, 2009). Students of minority ethnicity and lower SES have to overcome the values of their neighborhood, lack of high-achieving role models, as well as poor schools - even if they are highly motivated to achieve (Santrock, 2009). What I find interesting is that African-American and Latino minority achievement is not the same as Asian American achievement. Asian Americans are a minority group, yet they are more likely to be enrolled in advanced math and science classes than White Americans.