Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Student Development and Learning as told by Amber Duvall




When developing my personal philosophy on how children learn and develop I felt the need to look at several differing factors in a child’s life as well as theorists.  I believe by taking an eclectic theoretical orientation of child development is best to look at the different stages of life.  This view was also brought out in John Santrock’s book, Child Development (2014).  In my opinion, the eclectic theoretical orientation takes the best route by “select [ing] from each theory whatever is considered its best features” (2014), because there are so many different influences upon a child’s life that have an effect on the child’s development.  There are biological factors, environment, culture, behaviors, and cognitive abilities that need to be considered when looking at student learning and development.

Because a child does not start school at birth, I believe it is important to look at the beginning stages of life and how that influences the learner that will eventually become a student in my classroom.  When a baby is in the womb, he/she is developing the neurochemistry of the brain that will affect the child for the rest of his/her life.  There are many different teratogens that can have an effect on the fetus.  Some hazards that are known are prescription and nonprescription drugs, psychoactive drugs (such as caffeine, alcohol and nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin), incompatible blood types, environmental hazards, and maternal diseases (Santrock, 2014).  Some other influences on the fetus imposed by the mother that can have an effect on her baby is providing enough nutrition, the mother’s emotional state, the age of the mother, paternal factors, and prenatal care (2014).  Once the baby is born there are other variables that affect the development of the child.  Since this information is disclosed to the school, it is important for the teacher to have an understanding of some preexisting conditions that could cause some developmental delay.  Once the baby is born there are other factors that can influence the child.

It is common knowledge that children will mimic certain behaviors.  I once had a young child (3 years old) in class that would go home and use the same facial expressions I was using in class.  He would “pick-up” on whether I agreed with statements and when I disagreed.  I did not realize this was taking place until his mother brought it to my co-teacher’s attention.  This child was modeling after what he learned. He was taking behaviors and relating them outside of the classroom.  Although this was not as big as violence and aggression, it can still serve as an example to the social cognitive theory. Bandura’s social cognitive theory states that, “behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in development” (2014).  His view was that if a child grows up in a home where violence and aggression is present, the child will in turn grow to be aggressive.  This can relate to today’s generation of playing violent video games and listening to certain types of music.  Do those technologies have an effect on the person, behavior, and the environment?  I do believe that those behaviors can influence a child, but they do not have to be a deciding factor.   Parental and other caring adults such as teachers and religious leaders can help influence and detour the negative behaviors.  There are children who are resilient and have positive role models to help them along in life.

I do believe that children are influenced by their environment and culture.  Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory of development “emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development” (Santrock).  Having lived in two different cultures, I can see how culture can influence a young child.  A child born in Asia is not going to have the same knowledge base as a child born in the United States.  For example, a child that has grown up living in rural parts of the United States is only going to know how to travel by car, school bus, bicycle or walking; whereas, a child growing up in a larger inner-city or in Asia might have access to public transportation such as the subway and bus and is able to navigate around on his/her own at around ages of 8 and older depending on the parents discretion.  Or a child born in Africa or an island nation might learn an oral form of communication only whereas children born in Europe, Asia, or the United States learn a written and oral language.  So, culture does play a role in a child’s development.  Also, the environment the child is raised in makes a difference.  The interaction of the caregiver and infant is vitally important to the child’s development.  “Scientists now know that chronic, unrelenting stress in early childhood, caused by extreme poverty, repeated abuse, or severe maternal depression, for example, can be toxic to the developing brain” (Harvard University).   Therefore, positive interaction with a caregiver plays a developmental role in the child’s life.  To help ensure a positive environment for the developing child there are certain practices the caregiver can do to help the development of his/her child.  The University of Maine has compiled a list of some of those activities that include: ensure health, safety and good nutrition, develop a warm caring relationship, serve-and-return, recognize that each child is unique, talk, read, and sing to children, encourage safe exploration and play, use discipline to teach, establish routines, become involved in childcare and preschool, limit television, and take care of yourself (2001, 2011).  These are all important aspects to consider in a child’s life, because these early interactions affect how the child has developed which might affect how the child performs in a classroom only a few short years later.

Even after the child enters school, he/she is still developing in many different areas such as mentally, physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually.   Because these aspects of a child’s life are inter-related we cannot compartmentalize and treat them separately.  For example, a child is playing on the playground and wants another student to play with him.  The other student does not want to join the student asking.  So, the student looking for someone to play with feels rejection.  This could have an effect on the social and emotional areas of his life.  We as teachers must look at the holistic child and be considerate of each student as individuals.  Although, they may for the most part be the same age, the past experiences are brought into the classroom even without us being aware of what some of those experiences may be.  Therefore, with each student comes uniqueness.  One way that each student can be taught is to utilize Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  When our lesson plans include different facets of the intelligences on a daily basis we can see students’ strengths and weaknesses.   We can help build up the areas that are weak and continue to strengthen the stronger areas.  This can help build up the student’s self-esteem and help them to grow into mature learners.  There are techniques which can be incorporated into the classroom to help enhance student memory such as mnemonics devices and songs.  As student’s grow and mature, their thinking skills become more abstract and learning becomes more complex.  We can challenge these students by incorporating higher cognitive thinking skills expressed in Bloom’s taxonomy.  “Nature” vs. “Nurture” is not just for developing babies.  Moreover I believe, as teachers, we can help develop the life skills through nurture that can help the student see his/her full potential.  Nature will take its course, and the student will pass through puberty and into adulthood, but teachers can help to provide nurture that can help the student develop emotionally, mentally, and socially to become active, productive citizens in society.

In summary, there is not a “cookie-cutter” way to look at child development and student learning.  From the beginning stages of life there are multiple factors that can have an effect on the growing fetus.  Once the baby is born there are other influences on development such as environment, culture, behaviors and cognitive abilities.  When looking at the developmental theorists, I believe there is not one specific theory that can be strictly enforced.  In my opinion, we must take the best out of each developmental theory which is what the eclectic theoretical orientation has done.  We must look at each student as unique bringing prior experiences into the classroom.  We can reach the students entering our classroom by utilizing Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  We can challenge students by using critical thinking skills brought out in Bloom’s taxonomy.  Each student has the potential to become someone greater than they are.  We, as teachers, must see this and help nurture the child to greatness.
References

Graham, J., Forstadt, L.A., PhD (2001,2011) Children and brain development: what we know about how children learn.  Bulletin # 4356. Retrieved from: http://umaine.edu/publications/4356e/

Inbrief Series: The science of early childhood development. Center on the Developing Child: Harvard University. Retrieved from: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/briefs/inbrief_series/

Santrock, J., (2014) Child development, fourteenth edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

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