OEP 101: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY - DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD

OEP 101: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD
Main concepts
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling and behavior change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions: physical development, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development.
There is a clear distinction between ‘ growth’ and
‘development’ as used in psychology. Both concepts are based on the fact that during life span individuals are progressing from one stage to a higher stage.
Growth: is used when the changes are quantitatively, ie. An increase or decrease in numbers. A good example is height and weight of a child. In normal circumstances children’s height and weight increases as they progress in years. We expect two years old to be shorter and lighter at this age relative to when they will be in primary school.
Development: is used for qualitative changes.
Development is progressive acquisition of various skills (abilities) such as head support, speaking, learning, expressing the feelings and relating with other people. These are not directly observable but infer some changes within the individual have taken place. A good example is language development. At birth children cannot talk however around two years they begin to speak. Language spoken at the age of two is qualitatively inferior relative to the language used at four or at ten. The changes manifested in language don’t mean that the brain has changed but rather some reorganization has taken place that account for the differences between the stages.
Development a child (students) can be looked at three main areas which are: physical, cognitive
and psychosocial. These areas are interrelated and develop simultaneously. There is quite variation in rate of development as in some group of students of the same age and in the same age in the class and all still growing you find some of them are taller while others are shorter, some are heavy and others are not so heavy, some have language development while others have not. There are also some developmental variations within the individual himself/herself. Some may grow fast in terms of weight but more slowly in height. The implication is that students of the same age are similar in some aspects and different in others.
The periods of child development are classified by psychologists into four periods. Notice that, there is variation on the onset and end of the periods. The periods are:
Infancy: starts from birth to 18 to 24 months. It is characterized by :
- Total dependence on the caregivers at the beginning
- Development of sensorimotor coordination
- Walking
- Language
- Thinking and
- Learning
Early childhood: starts at the end of infancy and extends to 2.5 to 6 years. Early childhood (usually defined as birth to year 8) is a time of tremendous physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and language development. Sometime this is called preschool period. The child is more self-sufficient and has developed some skills related to improved sensorimotor coordination.
Middle to late childhood: extends from 6 to 11 years. Most of children in this stage are in primary schools (elementary schools). They have developed self-control and acquire primary skills of learning such as reading, writing and math.
Adolescence: begins around 11 years and extends to between 18. This is a transitional period from childhood to adulthood that is characterized by rapid body changes that includes the development of sexual organs functions. Also individuals in this stage seek self-independence. Most complete primary school at this stage, and most of secondary school students are in this period.
ROLE OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS
In development there is a constant interaction between
nature and environment (nurture) . The nature component involves the biological processes that start at conception i.e. genetic inheritance formed by the combination of genes of the sperm and those in the ova. The conception process has a major role in determining the rate of growth of the body in terms of weight and height; and the development of brain, motor skills and body changes caused by hormones. Also, there are some human potential that are genetically programmed, including the learning processes, language development and motor coordination.
The environment (nurture) includes physical and social surroundings. Physical environment is essential for the survival of the individual, his/her development in general and learning process. Some studies have indicated that children who had severe
kwashiorkor experienced learning difficulties later in schools (Galler, et al, 1987), and those exposed to lead later on in life experience physiological problems (Patrick, 2006). In physically stimulating environments children were found to be more developed language wise than those in less stimulating environment (UNESCO, 1987). Social environment in form of child’s relationship with other people has great influence on the socio-emotional processes of the child i.e. emotional and personality changes of the child.
As a teacher, you are part of the environment and your aim is to enhance learning and the full development of the students’ abilities and you need to avoid being source of deterring learning potential of the students.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT DURING CHILDHOOD
Brain is the major organ of cognitive processes. The brain is divided into different parts that are involved in different aspects of cognition and learning.
The brain has two halves; called
cerebral hemisphere, which are connected by corpus callosum (The corpus callosum is a thick band of nerve fibers that divides the cerebral cortex lobes into left and right hemispheres. It connects the left and right sides of the brain allowing for communication between both hemispheres).
The two spheres appear to be identical but there are some differences in their functions.
Cerebral lateralization is the specialization of the functions of each sphere of the brain. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body while the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. So, if you are right handed you are left lateralized, if left handed you are right lateralized. For most people speech is localized in the left hemisphere. Nonverbal processes such as spatial perception, visual activities and emotions are predominantly localized in the right hemisphere.
However, studies show that the brain is more complicated than that since both atmospheres to some degree are involved in all activities. Complex functions such as logic and creativity involve both spheres of the brain.
The brain has four lobes. Frontal lobe has functions for motor activities and thinking; temporal lobe has functions for hearing; parietal lobe has functions for body sensations; and occipital lobe has functions for vision. The brain lobes are as seen in the diagram below.
In describing cognitive development Jean Piaget (1896-1980) a Swiss psychologist while working with the results of IQ tests of children he noticed that young children’s answers are qualitatively different from those given by older children. He believed that children are actively constructing their world as they respond to what they see, touch or test. For him the way human respond to the environment is not learned but an inherit method of intellectual functioning i.e. a function that is there since birth.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development has four major stages with sub-stages in each stage. Here come some important concepts before discussing the Piaget’s stages.
Schema is a concept or an organized pattern of thoughts or behavior that one organized unit. Riding a bicycle is a scheme (behavior); picture of a dog or a dog is a scheme; and teaching is a
scheme (a complex one). Schemes help us to organize and make sense of our world.
Adaptation is a psychological mechanism used by children to use and adapt schemas in a new experience. This mechanism has two processes, namely assimilation
and accommodation.
Assimilation occurs when a child incorporates new knowledge into existing knowledge i.e. taking in new objects, events and concepts into the existing schemas.
Accommodation occurs when we are changed by what enters into our mental structures. So, through assimilation we transform the environment to fit into preexisting cognitive structures while accommodation changes our cognitive structures in order to accept something new from the environment.
Equilibration is a concept developed by Piaget that describes the cognitive balancing of new information with old knowledge.
...... Equilibration involves the assimilation of information to fit with an individual's own existing mental schemas and the accommodation of information by adapting it their way of thinking.
Organization is when bring together isolated behaviors or ideas into a single more complex behavior or concept. This leads to have smooth functioning cognitive system.
The above processes are fundamental on how children understand their world and adapt it in their mental structures.
All children follow the same sequence but at different rate.
Piaget’s stages
1. The sensorimotor stage
This stage extends from birth to 2 years. The term sensorimotor imply that during this stage the child explores his world by using sensory experiences such as seeing, hearing and touching. It is by coordinating these experiences that the child develops the first schemas and it is the basis of the beginning of cognitive development.
At this stage child’s responses are through reflex actions i.e. unlearned, innate reflexes such as sucking anything he/she touches or grasping any object he touches to his palm of hand.
This stage is then sub-divided into three parts known as primary circular reaction dealing with deliberately repeated actions involve only body e.g. sucking (involves fingers and mouth). The second is secondary circular reaction in which children develops behaviors like holding an object and coordinate several actions to achieve something. The third one is called tertiary circular reaction between 12 and 18 months whereby a child starts experiment with things e.g. deliberately dropping things to see what will happen.
During this stage a child forms the first schemas through
assimilation and accommodation in adapting to his/her world. It is the beginning of the organization process. Development of language (associating sounds with objects or events) is another important aspect in this stage.
Also, they develop sense of object permanence i.e. objects continue to exist even when out of sight. Before then children do not look for objects that are removed or obstructed out of visual field, cannot be seen, heard or touched. The sense of object permanence is very significant since the child’s world becomes organized and predictable. Furthermore, in this stage the child becomes aware that he/she can be the cause of an action. Also, due to development of mobility the child is able to explore objects that are far and consequently new mental abilities.
At this stage children learn to walk, meaning they gain the ability to access the environment around them. Before walking they had to depend on others to bring items to them, now they can move around to the object and explore their surroundings. So in sensorimotor stage children learn through use of senses, actively exploring their environment.
Touch the palm ( the central. region of the front of the hand) ofa child less than 12 months old and observe his/her reactions.
2. Preoperational stage
This stage extends from 2 to 7 years. According to Piaget
operations are actions that we perform mentally including knowing an object, thinking and manipulating ideas. A good example is when we compare things mentally to discover their similarities and differences. So, in preoperational stage the child is not yet able to manipulate things mentally through s/he has started to use language. In this stage a child’s mental functioning is mainly characterized with the use of symbols.
The child gains the mental ability to represent an object that is absent, a demonstration of thinking. The use of language expands rapidly; they engage in pretending plays whereby an object (let’s say a piece of wood) may represent a house, a car or person. In the play they assume that the innate objects (not endowed with life or spirit )are alive and conscious, referred to as animism (is the belief that everything has a soul or spirit).
Another characteristic of this stage is egocentrism (is the inability to differentiate between self and other. ...). this is the inability to know and recognize that other people see objects from their point of view and instead they think that the other person is seeing the object as s/he is seeing it from his/her position.
Because of this characteristic a child at this stage may need company of other children but normally each one engage in his/her own play and monologue.
Do not waste your time forcing a child in this age to see things from your point of view.
Centration refers to child’s tendency of concentrating and focusing on only one aspect of an object and disregarding the other aspects although they are important features of the object.
Children in preoperational stage also lack conservation i.e. the ability to realize that properties of an object remain the same although its shape might change. For adults a volume of liquid remains the same even when put into a container of different shape or size. Due to lack of conservation a child thinks that water poured into a narrow container is more than when it was in broad container. This is caused by irreversibility i.e. the child being unable to reverse mentally the procedures or his/her thinking.
Therefore, in this stage of preoperational children learn by experiencing real objects in their surroundings. They use symbols and images in constructing knowledge about their world. Children are egocentric and cannot understand other people’s point of view.
3. Concrete Operational Stage
This stage extends from 7 to 11 years. In this stage children overcome the limitations of the preoperational stage by using reasoning that involves concrete operations i.e. they can deal with real concrete situations but are unable to deal with abstract situations.
The child now has establishes conservation since s/he can reverse mental actions and take into account several aspects of the object or event instead of focusing only on one aspect.
Egocentric thinking diminishes too. A child in this stage makes addition by counting real things, mostly fingers. The problem comes when the sum is more than ten and they are wearing shoes! This is why children at this stage seem to carry bottle tops in a string to school for making calculations.
This stage is characterized by a number of behaviors like:
Classification i.e. to sort out things from a big group and put them in sets or categories based on their similarities. Also, they have the ability to know an object can be classified into different groups, eg. one woman at the same time can be a daughter, mother, sister, wife and grandmother.
Seriation this is an ability lacking in the preoperational stage where children cannot compare more than two objects at the same time. Due to seriation they can reason about relationships and come up with logical conclusions ( transitivity) . They can conclude that object “C” is taller than object “A” upon realization that “B” is taller than “A” and “C” is taller than “B”.
Spend some time in lower classrooms in a primary school i.e. standard one and two. Make observations of the characteristics of children in preoperational stage.
4. Formal Operational stage
This is the fourth and last stage in Piaget’s cognitive theory. It starts at about 11 and 12 years (during adolescence). In the previous stage a child is only able to conduct concrete operations by using real objects. However, in this stage the adolescent demonstrates the ability to think in abstract, idealistic and logical ways. They solve problems presented to them verbally and they can express themselves without relying on concrete objects.
One of their characteristics is that they can differentiate the real from the possible and can think about the future. They have developed hypothetical-deductive reasoning whereby they think abstractly in systematic manner that involves developing hypothesis and means of testing them.
In their plans they gather all possible information and study possible combinations of solving the problems.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORY TO TEACHERS
Teachers have knowledge on developmental psychology especially on cognitive development.
Teachers get to understand that children are mentally qualitatively different from adults and among themselves depending on their cognitive stage of development (individual variations)
Enable teachers to recognize and understand that children’s answers are not ‘wrong’ or ‘weird’ ( weird -a miujiza, sio kawaida; -a kuogofya, -a ajabu, mtu mwenye tabia ya pekee. ) but statements indicating the state of their mental functions.
Guide teachers to observe the mental functions of their students basing on important key factors.
Help the curriculum developers to develop the curriculum that suit the learners with their environment and level of cognitive development.
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