1. What is brain plasticity? Why is it important for development? How does it relate to the environment (including experience-expectant and dependent-processes) and specifically to learning? What benefit does it serve for adaptability? Think of as many examples as you can (at least 4).

2. Describe compensation and modifiability. Why are they important? Imagine that a young child experiences a brain injury. How would these processes facilitate her recovery? Think of as many examples as you can (at least 4).

3. What does brain maturation involve? What are synaptogenesis, synaptic pruning, and myelination? How do these processes influence physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development? Think of as many examples as you can (at least 4), especially for specific types of skills like gross motor movement, sense of self, emotion regulation, language/communication, etc.4. What is serve & return? How is it related to brain development? How is it connected to attachment? Why is it important for children’s development? How might it impact later academic outcomes/contribute to education gaps? Think of as many examples as you can (at least 4).

5. What are emotional regulation self regulation and why are they important, especially for learning? What helps children develop better regulation skills? Provide explicit examples (at least 4) of things that contribute to self- and emotion regulation in children. Why do they improve with age?

6. What are temperament and goodness of fit? How do they relate to each other? How can caregivers support goodness of fit that helps children be more adapted to their environments? How could educators provide good fits for all of their students? Think of as many examples as you can (at least 4).

7. We spent some time talking about Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of development. Try to think about how different systems contribute to different academic patterns. Using this model provide as many examples as you can (at least 4) for how each system that could explain:

a. Why Latino students do not attend college at the same rate as Asian American and Caucasian students.

b. Why children from low-income families enter kindergarten with fewer academic skills (number and letter knowledge, fewer social skills, etc.) than higher income children.

c. Why different levels/amounts of bullying exists in different schools