Eed108+s1+2012+lecture+01+week+1

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

EED108 Session 1, 2012Gerald Wurf (Bld 27 Rm 203)

Consultation: Monday 10:00-12:00; Thursday 10:00-12:00md

Wayne Parkins (Bld 27 Rm 201)Consultation: Monday 2:00-3:30;  Wednesday 12:00-1:30pm

Subject aims EED108

AITSL (2011) National Graduate Teacher Standards, Elements 1 & 7) “Know [primary] students and how they learn” & “Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community”

Explore a range of topical issues and typical/atypical development

Apply the content of the subject to primary education (including an investigation of sex/gender differences)

Understand the effects of broader developmental processes on learning

Today

Introduce the subject and some of the major debates in child development

Use a model of three interacting processes to describe development (biological, psychological & cognitive)

Describe major theories that explain child development and how they relate to primary classrooms

Learning community (rules: noise, mobile phones, “off task” behaviour, teachers’ responsibilities, prompts & seating plans)

Workshops & Lectures

Workshops & lecture content will follow the schedule on p. 5-6 of the Subject Outline.

PowerPoint handout of Lecture will be available on Interact > resources

Text complements workshop/lecturesSantrock (2011). Expected to have read the associated

chapter for the weekly topic. A text is in closed reserve at the library (2 hour, within library only loan)

Student consultation timesGerald Wurf (Bld 27 Rm 203)

Consultation: Monday 10:00am-12:00mdThursday 10:00am-12:00md

Wayne Parkins (Bld 27 Rm 201)Consultation:  Monday 2:00pm-3:30pm

Wednesday 12:00pm-1:30pm

Assessment Tasks

Assessment item 1 (Research item - 50%)

Workshop activities and data entry Week 4 (5%)

Written research report due 18/04/2012 (45%)

Assessment item 2 (Final Exam in Week 15/16 – 40%)

20 multiple-choice questions (20%)

1 essay question (10%)

1 case study question (10%)

Assessment item 3 (Workshop presentation 10%)

5 minute chapter review in allocated workshop

Debates: Nature or Nurture?

Is development primarily influenced by nature or nurture?

Maturation (Nature) – Biological inheritance is most important.

Experience (Nurture) – Environment and experience is most important.

Research

To answer the nature/nurture question we can use systematic research (a “scientific” approach)

different types of research: case studies (n = 1), observational studies, interviews and experiments.

Case studies of “feral children”/extremely neglected children – What happens if we raise a child without “nurture”?

Victor (Itard, 1801), “Genie” (1970) & Oxana Malaya Oxana video

Interactionist position: Developmental Processes

Biological neural and physical changes

Cognitive changes in thought, intelligence and language

Socio-emotional changes in relationships, emotions and personality

Child Development Processes

(Santrock, 2011, p. 16)

1 Stage Theories: Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory / Erikson’s Psychosocial TheoryI. Freud proposed children move through stages:

I. Oral

II. Anal

III. Phallic

IV. Latency

V. Genital

II. Erikson extended Freud’s stages and focused on psycho-social development (rather than sexual development) – First stage Trust Vs Mistrust

2 The Behavioural Theories (+ Social –Cognitive-Behavioural Theories ) Traditional behavioural theories stressed

environmental conditioning (nurture)

Conditioning works by:pairing of events (e.g. eat bad prawns > food

poisoning > avoid prawns rewards and punishments

Watson’s (classic) behavioural position

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select–doctor, lawyer, artist merchant chief and, yes, even beggar-man or thief –regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing so for many thousands of years“ (Watson, 1924/2009, p. 82).

Think-Pair-Share: Examples of behavioural tradition in schools?

Behavioural Theories (continued) Examples in schools:

direct instruction (DI)/explicit teaching. (e.g. Accelerated Literacy, Jolly Phonics, Ants in the Apple, SRA)

behaviour/discipline systems (levels/ merit certificates/rewards & punishments - typically taking away privileges)

Lovaas’ program for students with autism - Applied Behaviour Analysis

Modern behavioural theories include cognitive/social processes) Bandura’s “Bobo” doll experiments (modelling). Later work on

beliefs about success (self-efficacy) Tend to be more teacher-centred approaches

3 Cognitive Theories: The constructivists (Piaget + Vygotsky) Piaget proposed children actively “construct” their thinking by

interacting with the environment and through maturation (stage theory). School examples: discovery learning inquiry-based learning (science) problem-based learning (PBL)

Vygotsky also believed children construct knowledge but by interacting with the social world (i.e. social constructivism). School examples: ZPD and teacher scaffolding (Bruner) reciprocal teaching cooperative learning

Tend to be more learner-centred

Cognitive Theories: Information Processing Theories Another example of cognitive theories

Focus on processes like perception, attention, memory and recall

School examples Cognitive (+ meta-cognitive) strategy

instruction IQ (tests to determine additional resources

e.g. aide support) memorisation strategies (times

tables/spelling)

4 Ecological Theories (Bronfenbrenner’s model) Focus on interacting environments

individual (biology) immediate family/school/neighbourhood

systemsmass media, government services, legal

systemsculture time

School examples: whole-school approach (bullying interventions) home/school/community link/partnership

programs

Summary

Development a complex interaction between biological, cognitive and socio-emotional processes

A range of research strategies are used to study child development and learning

Psychoanalytic, behavioural, constructivist, IP and ecological theories introduced to explain child development

References

Santrock, J. W. (2011). Child Development (13th ed). New York, NY: McCraw-Hill.

Watson, J.B. (1924/2009). Behaviorism. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers .