Pedagogy

Study Questions I

C  C explain child development through insights from biological maturation, environmental learning theory, and the constructivist concept. Tanner, on the other hand, focuses more on how natural variation and genetics affect the physical development of the child. The physical development of the children, as defined by Tanner, falls under the category of biological maturation and Tanners conception of how natural variation affects the physical development of children is seen on the relationship between the environment and the biological changes of children.

Although there are several changes and differences that occur during the Bio-Social Behavioral Shift, the  main issue here is how the new forms of behavior created by the social and behavioral modifications are able to help infants change throughout their life. The biological domain of human development deals with mostly concerns the formation of the brain and its activities. The social domain is a part of the behavioral shift in which the child changes socially in their environment.

Causality cannot be inferred with co-relational findings because one cannot specify the social and cultural aspects of variables such as race, gender and religion. What if the reason behind the correlations deals with cultural or structural factors containing no individual variance C  C will not agree with the findings concerning social issues such as gender because it is believed that every woman in society is affected by gender norms and therefore there is little variance on key independent variable which describes a society rather than individuals.

The early development of the child includes the formation of sensory processes and the initial mechanisms of how the child coordinates with the social world. C  C stresses that the understanding of the early development of the child which involves biological maturation environmental learning, and constructivist developmental change helps in comprehending how behavior develops. According to the biological- maturation perspective, brain formation and activities influences the reflexes of the child as well as his sensory processes. This can be the initial stage of behavior development because the initial capacities of the child to interact with the world starts here. In the environmental-learning perspective, the environment itself shapes learning and behavior. The constructivist developmental change centers on the physical environment of the child and the curriculum of early childhood classroom.

During the middle childhood, the child continues to learn lost of new skills, understand many new concepts and increase his language abilities. According to C  C, the middle childhood is all about the coping with increased freedom and responsibility. The biological developments during this period include the motor, brain and gene mechanisms that greatly affect the formation of a new quality of mind. This new quality of mind deals with a change in the logic of actions influenced by the changes in reasoning. C  C adds that the change in the logical reasoning of the child during this stage is the outcome of the increases in the speed and capacity of memory processing, the combination of memory development and logical stages, and the cultural variations in the environment.Childs knowledge is limited only to concrete and real-life situations during this stage.

The concept of heritability plays a major role in the psychology of individual differences. Heritability can be defined as the proportion of phenotypic variance that is related to genetic variance. Another definition of  heritability is the extent to which genetic individual differences is attributable to  individual differences in observed behavior. Sources of indvidual differences include the heredity and the environment which can be classified into culture, family, group membership and life experiences. Heritability is measured through the genetic and environmental variance. The environmental factors play a crucial role in estimating heritability of intelligence. Such factors include the nutrition which is critical to cognitive development. The heritability of intelligence is around .5 because of the relevant attributes about the estimates of heritability is an abstract concept.

According to Erikson, each stage of the psychosocial development requires the person to confront and master new challenges also known as crises.   In the stages of life cycle, an individual is expected to meet challenges and opportunities that that can make or break his personality. The psychosocial crisis that a person faces at school is the crisis of industry vs. inferiority. Erikson says that from age 6 to puberty, children develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments . Children at this stage initiate projects and feel good about themselves after the completion of the project. If children are encouraged and recognized for their initiative, they start to feel industrious and feel confident about their abilities. If their initiative is not recognized, if it is restricted by parents or teachers, then the children will begin to doubt their abilities and feel inferior.  For C  C, school is a place for socialization and where students face challenges relating general intelligence, academic achievement, cognitive development and self-esteem.  The children may  feel negative effects from school due to individual vulnerability and the emotional and social settings of educational institutions.

Learning can become a predetermined course because it is influenced by the combination of memory development and logical stages. Developmental delay happens when the child has not reached developmental milestones by the expected time period. The delay in cognitive development can be an outcome of  the impact of genetics and the environment to the child. C  C say that prior to learning how to read and do mathematics, cognition is already embedded in the childs mind. The child already formed his own system of cognition before immersing in the challenging world of school. His own system of cognition is created through the metamemory that he had obtained during his early years. When the childs own predetermined system of cognition clashes with the institutional logic of reading and doing mathematics, it creates a delay, and the child tends to adjust to his environment gradually. As the child adjusts to the demands of learning environment little by little, his growth tends to be cumulative.

The issues over the measurement of intelligence include the gross imprecision of the definitions of intelligence and the norm-referred basis of intelligence-test construction. C  C discusses the issue on whether the nature of intelligence is general or specific. Some intelligence tests are constructed on the basis of innate general ability and on what Alfred Binet called  judgment.  C  C assumes that the measurement of intelligence  is surrounded with controversies concerning population differences and nature-nurture concept.

Growth can be a biological process because humans developmental changes maybe strongly influenced by the genetic factors and the events and occurrences that happen during prenatal life. Growth can occur as an outcome of genetically-controlled process modified by the environmental factors, learning and child-rearing. Bettleheim says that collective child-rearing can influence the growth of the child because it destroys the genuine connection between the mother and the child. With the existence of child rearing, parenting stirs the problem of choice because parents are given options on how to raise kids. The problem with the options is that they tend to destroy the very essence of parent-child relationship.

Study Questions II

The concepts of Inhelder  Piaget and C  C suggest that cognitive development of a child involves preoperational and concrete operation stages. During the preoperational stage, the child is considered to have inadequate logically mental operations. Though the child can able to form concepts and reasonings, still, the child has no ability to perform operations. In the concrete operational stage, on the other hand, the child starts to appropriately use logic and reasoning. Some of the processes and operations that the child can do are sorting of objects, recognizing logical relationships, naming and identifying objects, solving simple problems, and others activities that involve reasoning and logic.

Peer is one of the most influential aspect in the life of individuals. This makes sense that aside from heredity, environment is a very strong determinant of the development of the persons. If the peers serve as bad influence to a person, that person might have also the tendency to become delinquent or bad influence to others. Hence, the kind of personality that a person will become depends on the kind of peers that he has in his environment.  

During early middle childhood, the child has intimate relationship with the same age and sex for the purpose of play companionship. Nevertheless, as the child grows, he gradually experiences changes on his relationship with peers. During the pubertal stage, the individual has relationship with the opposite sex which is usually for intimate and physical attraction. This is in line with the changes that are happening during the adolescent period of the individuals.  

The lecturer and C  C believe that the nature and impact of peer influences individuals sense of self and adjustment. Peers really influence the development of the child that is why it is considered that peers contribute to the sense of the child to his self and even in adjustment. Therefore, peers are to be considered as one of the greatest determiner of the sense of the child to his individuality.

C  C stress that self esteem is an essential factor in the adjustment period of the individuals during the human development. It is because self esteem serves as the motivating force of the individuals to become optimistic in life.

Sex differences in peer relations is influenced by the role of hormones which aid in the development if sex-typed behavior. C  C explains the role of hormones by stating the active role of the child in sex role development. Through socialization, the child learns to assume sex roles and model desirable behaviors of his peers. Tanner says that sex differences are greatly felt by children upon seeing bodily changes and this scenario creates much impact on how children relates to their peers.  With this impact comes the tendency of children to positively or negatively react with peers.

According to C  C, peer relationships affect a childs sense of morality because competition and cooperation among peers bring up the childs sense of being and reasoning capacity. Friendship gives the child the feeling of reaffirmation heightened self-esteem. Comparing C  Cs views with those of the lecturers, it can be noted that it is not just the morality that is evident in peer relations, there is the social aggression which influence how the child would react to any pressures or circumstances.

According to C  C, the changes in the childrens cognitive capacities correspond with the social and emotional development of the child.  When the childs cognitive capacities are being changed, he no longer believes in the concrete and real-life structures which he sees. Instead, the child tends to modify or question such structures leading to emotional and social development. In accordance with the lecture, it is viewed that the changing relationships of the child with his environment influence his cognitive capacities. The social and emotional maturity of the child are determined through the way he comply with the changing relationships.

The preadolescence phase is considered to be a separate period in childs development because it marks a significant period in the journey towards adolescence. It is in this phase that the child juggle different and conflicting images of self between the childish self which families see and the maturing self shown to peers.  C  C deal with this phenomena by saying that the preadolescence is an indicator of what the child would become in the adolescence period. C  C also say that preadolescence is the transformative period of the child before he fully conforms with his environment.

C C describes the adolescence phase as the period of consequences of early and late puberty and the reorganization of of social life. It is in the adolescence that an individual learns to take risks, forms new relationship with peers, engage in sexual activities, and reacts with the changing parent-child relations. According to the lecture, adolescence presents to an individual a variety of opportunities and challenges because the period is accompanied by dramatic physical, cognitive and emotional changes. The drastic changes in this period makes the individual vulnerable to all kinds of lifes risks.

Study Questions III

As regards to the concepts of Inhelder  Piaget and C  C, cognitive development of a child involves preoperational and concrete operation stages. During the preoperational stage, the child is considered to have inadequate logically mental operations. Though the child can able to form concepts and reasonings, still, the child has no ability to perform operations. In the concrete operational stage, on the other hand, the child starts to appropriately use logic and reasoning. Some of the processes and operations that the child can do are sorting of objects, recognizing logical relationships, naming and identifying objects, solving simple problems, and others activities that involve reasoning and logic.

The period of adolescence poses a problem for culture because of the different effects of the environment to the development of the child. Inhelder and Piaget proposed that a child acts on his own environment for learning. This means that environment plays a significant part in the cognitive development of the child. Bettelheim and C  C also stress that environment has a big role in the development of the child just like heredity. During the adolescence period, changes in the physical aspects of the individuals cause serious problem in the culture of the individuals. These changes are becoming big deal in the individuality of the persons. Hence, the person suffers from problem for culture because of the social pressure in the surroundings.

The main characteristics that mark the pubertal development stage of the individuals are the physical changes. Boys and girls have distinct changes to their respective physical appearances. Boys develop muscles, pubic hair on private parts, Adams apple, low voice and the hormone for reproduction. Girls likewise develop breasts, pubic hair on private parts and the hormones for the human reproduction. The lecturer and C  C stress that understanding to these physiological changes would indeed help to understand the developmental stages during puberty. If the individuals, for instance, will have the deep understanding of these changes in the physical appearance of the boys and girls, there would be no problem for culture due to social pressure and the like.  

Females are more affected by the onset of the pubertal stage rather than the males. Based on several studies, when females experienced early pubertal changes, they tend to view these changes in their body negatively. This has something to do with the social pressures about the physical changes that are happening to them. Peers usually view females who undergone early pubertal changes to be indifferent or not normal. This is thus the reason why females are being affected emotionally. Hence, early and late onset of puberty has a great effect to the individuals.

C  C believe that individuals have already the sense of what is right and wrong as early as the start of their childhood. This has in reference with the effects of the environment to the value system of the individuals. The child learns from the grown ups the sense of right and wrong through observation. Bettelheim, however, believes that the sense of the individuals to right and wrong is already inside the totality of the persons. This means that environment only adds to their value system through observation. Hence, even if no one will teach the individual about the right and wrong, they have the natural ability to learn about them.

Erik Erikson stress that humans develop in psychosocial stages. Middle childhood is the time when the child learns to receive praises and recognitions for doing a great job. It is also the time wherein the child realizes if he can fail to a particular task. Adolescence, on the other hand, stage is the beginning of the quest of the individuals to true identities and sense of self. This has something to do with the belief of C  C about the influence of the social aspect to the development of the individual. The sense of self of the child greatly depends on the influence of the environment.

C  C and Erikson theory on identity and sense of self merely lies on the influence of the environment to the development of the individuals. This means that social aspect play significant contribution to the determining of the individuals about who they are and what they will become in the future.

During the early stage of childhood, child is longing for a companionship from same sex for the purpose of playing. This is because the child has no understanding about sexual attraction. The main interest of the child lies to playing and simulation only. Nevertheless, when the child reaches adolescent period, his interest changes. Attraction between opposite sex starts in the developmental stage. This is in line with the changes on the physical attributes of the males and females during the pubertal stage.

During childhood stage, the child is physically and emotionally attached to the parents because his main necessity lies on care and love from the parents. Nevertheless, as the child goes through pubertal stage, physical and emotional attachment from parents gradually decreases. This is because the individuals are physically attracted to the opposite sex or to their peers. They have more activities with their peers and less engagements with the parents as pubertal development starts

C  C believe that the rate of crime in the society is dependent to the proportion of  the population of the adolescents. Described as socially active and aggressive, adolescents are usually perceived as the main catalysts for the problems in the society. This has something to do with the juvenile delinquency of the adolescents. Sometimes, social influence and peer pressure lead the adolescents to commit crimes and delinquencies.