Activity 2.1 Learning Theories

Important Characteristics                   Developmental psychology is the “maturation of cognitive skills (or thinking) follows a sequential progression” (p. 137). The maturational/ developmental level is the basis of the instructional methods for each child. (1) Developmental Variations: Each child has different rates of growth for various abilities in their development. (2) Piaget’s Maturational Stages of Development: “cognitive growth occurs in a series of invariant & interdependent stages” (p. 139). -       Sensorimotor stage: Birth to Age 2. Children learn through the environment by interacting with it using their senses. Children learn about the manipulation of them with objects. -       Preoperational stage: Age 2-7. Children are intuitive, build relationships, use language, and gain perceptions of the world through concrete objects/symbols. -       Concrete operations stage: Ages 7-11. Children begin to understand the consequences of acts (perception), think through relationships and use logical reasoning. They use prior knowledge/experience to bridge concrete objects. -       Formal operations stage: Age 11. Children use abstract knowledge and logical conceptualizations, building upon on real world or basic understanding of concepts. (3) Stages of Learning: The sufficient amount of time for children to know/ comprehend a concept (p. 143). -       Stage 1: Exposure. Student exposed to knowledge and needs support/ direction by teacher. -       Stage 2: Grasping the Knowledge. Student grasps knowledge, but needs a lot of practice. -       Stage 3: Independence. Student completes task independently. -       Stage 4: Application. Students applies concept to other situations and real world experiences. (4) Implications of Developmental Psychology for Learning Disabilities and Related Mild Disabilities: Immaturity does not correlate with disabilities. - Birth-date effect (younger children in earlier grades have more referrals for learning disabilities services). - Educational environment requires cognitive abilities beyond development. - Readiness of knowledge must be at the state of maturational development and number of strengthening prior experiences. - Being a sensitive teacher helps students acquire readiness abilities.

Examples from my classroom -       I have a student who displays maturational levels of a five-year-old. He is six-years-old, but is struggling to use words about understandings. He also has a short attention span (5-10 minutes). -       Student retained in Kindergarten (current 1st grader) because she lagged readiness to perform at given stage. -       Most of my first grade students think I am only a teacher. When seeing me in “non-teacher clothes” and outside of school and church environment, they often are confused and don’t know why I am there. -        By the end of first grade, some of my students begin to recognize objects or situations for word problems in math without physically counting or touching them. -       I instruct the new material, then guide students through concepts, and use informal observations through participation, for example, to support students needs. I use seatwork and centers to reinforce and grasp knowledge. I assign homework for students to demonstrate knowledge of concepts independently. Students use new concepts in real word tasks, such as field trips. - Student retained in Kindergarten due to readiness of knowledge within maturational development.