PRINCIPLE #2: The teacher understands how children learn
and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their
intellectual, social, and personal development.
KNOWLEDGE
Each
student varies in his or her ways of knowing, learning, recalling, and
synthesizing; this makes the teacher’s task one not centered on tapering the
student to the material, but rather tapering the material to meet each
student. As students construct
knowledge, through the development of schema, and the implementation of memory
skills to recall data, they can become aware of the processes that govern their
unique configuration of data processing.
Younger students need more concrete examples to work with, things that
are to be manipulated to show the correct result. Older students can work with abstract
principle to arrive at a goal state that resides not so much externally as it
does internally. As each learner is
pulled through his or her phases of accommodation and assimilation, they each go
through a progression of stages to reach adulthood (Piaget).
As
the individual learns several patterns become evident, and those who observe
the change witness the come and go of various behaviors, temperaments,
etc.. As the individual grows, she or he
will undoubtedly gather together bits and pieces with which to wrap their
selves; ultimately, the arrival of a functioning adult occurs. Each stage of development brings moral and
intangible experiences that influence the learner. As the individual develops further, the
patterns become internalized and the overall pattern of behavior is
established. Along the way, the
individual gathers together skills and abilities; tones its likes and dislikes,
and begins to follow the “programming” that has accumulated over the years
(Kholberg, Erikson, Cole & Cole).
Cole & Cole provide an excellent summation of Eriksonian, Piagetian,
and Vygotskian frames of reference regarding the developmental stages of the
learners. The basic ideas being that
learners occupy certain levels and stages of development and that in each stage
and substage he/she becomes able to utilize new factors in the environment and
in themselves for the quest of knowledge.
Each learner passes through the various stages associated with growth;
according to Piaget these were sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete
operational, and formal operational stages of cognitive development. From the Eriksonian point of view, as each
learner progresses through Piaget’s four stages, they will go through stages of
moral growth too. Vygotsky wrote about
zones of proximal development that are somewhat similar to assimilation,
disequilibrium, and accommodation (Piaget).
The teacher, whether adult or child, is the vehicle by which the learner
is stretched through this zone of struggle to reach the level of internalization
or accommodation. Vygotskian learning
theory relies heavily on the environment as a means by which to explain this
learning process. That is, the internal
and external environments that the learner occupies is a major component in the
internalization of knowledge. I
structure my teaching methods to take into account the various learning
theories and adapt my techniques and style to the individual learners with whom
I work.
As
the teacher begins to plan for the year, organization of material should bear
the signs of a well-thought cohesion attuned to the developmental abilities
congruent with the age levels represented.
Previous assessment should be given careful examination and discussions
should ensue between old and new teachers.
The teacher should be able to explain why any specific portion of the
material is appropriate for grade level.
It
is within the parameter of this PRINCIPLE that the teacher should consider the
many ways in which the student can come to appreciate living as an individual
in a larger society. From the learner
with no experience to the well-seasoned learner, teachers should be aware of
how to develop self-confidence and competence.
Creating experiences that bolster the growing pride in a student is
desirable. Yet, every student will
encounter an experience that challenges his/her sense of self-worth, these
experiences are the ones that are the learning experiences that will support
their already well described strengths.
It is on these experiences that the teacher should design instruction
that meets the current need’s of the student.
These situations are what I imagine when contemplating the zones of
proximal development (Vygotsky). It is
the student and teacher who reach a new level that will ultimately benefit
society.
During
a skit project developed to coincide with Art and Science lessons I have asked
the students to reflect on their specific skit and identify in writing where
each point in the script coincided with specific materials or notes. These experiences allowed the students to ask
themselves about the types of methods they employ in the construction and
representation of the lesson materials.
They were instructed to engage with any and all materials and notes during
this final writing assignment. In this
fashion, they will all be able to link, and see the links, that support their
positions. The students learn critical
thinking and personal communication skills while developing their individual
understandings of how they learn. This
skit project engaged the students in their concrete operational modes of
learning. By asking them to reflect on
their skits and write individual reflection pieces, the students were engaging
in experiences designed to elicit thought about operations thought and carried
out in the presence of the objects and actions in the mind. This ability to combine, separate, and
transform objects in the mind is central to the recognition of concrete
operations.
EVIDENCE
Classroom
discussions
Skit
performances
Written
experiences
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