An Ecological Perspective to Understanding Exceptionality

Márcio Padilha

EDUC 205 – Meyerhoeffer

College of Southern Idaho

Spring 2007

Learning and Development do not happen in vacuum Contemporary thinking views children and

adults as part of a larger social scheme

They influence and are influence d by circumstances and environment

Such context is referred to as “ecology”

Ecology

Looks at the interrelationship and interactions of individuals within environments

Considers behavior as a function of person-environment interactions

Attempts to understand the relationships between the immediate environments in which an individual develops the larger context of those setting

Ecological Perspective

Professionals must have an appreciation for the student’s total environment and social context

Home School Community Larger Society Individuals encountered within those various settings

According to Bronfenbrenner…

The contexts in which a person develops are nested one inside another, analogically similar to a set of Russian stacking dolls

According to Bronfenbrenner…

The environments in which people develop are: Microsystems

Immediate environments in which individuals develop

Mesosystems Relationships between various microsystems

Exosystems Social structures that influence the development of the individual

with or without the individual’s direct role in the social system

Macrosystem Ideological, cultural and institutional contexts in which the preceding

systems are embedded

Summing it up

The ecological context provides the contemporary view that an individual’s family is a system within other systems

The ecological context provides a framework for understanding the world of children and young adults

The ecological context asserts The importance of professionals seeing each student within the

context of his/her family

The importance of seeing that family’s interrelations and interactions with other larger social systems