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CONTENT
CONTENT
CHAPTER 1
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
“Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is something a learner absorbs,
but something learner creates.” – George Courds
LESSON OUTCOMES
CONTENT
C
A. PREPARATORY ACTIVITY
I. Direction: Write TRUE if you agree with the statement and FALSE if
not.
_______________1. Learning is a long-term change.
_______________2. Learning does not include changes that are
physiological like maturation, mental illness, fatigue, hunger or the
like.
_______________3. Learning results from previous experience
_______________4. The cause of the change is the learner’s
experience in the environment rather than fatigue, motivation, drugs,
physical condition or physiologic intervention.”
_______________5. Learning is not an automatic process
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2.Learning helps to solve any problems in one’s life.
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Erickson said, “ Healthy children will not fear life if their elders
have integrity enough not to fear death.”He believed the impact of the
significant others in the development of one’s view of himself, life and of the
world. He presented a very comprehensive framework of eight psycho-social
stages of development. It is Erickson who described the crisis ( expressed
in opposite polarities)that a person goes through; the maladaptation and
malignancies that result from failure to effectively resolve the crisis; and the
virtue that emerges when balance and resolution of the crisis is attained.
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
To better understand some of the things that happen during cognitive
development, it is important first to examine a few of the important ideas
and concepts introduced by Piaget.
The following are some of the factors that influence how children learn and
grow:
SCHEMAS
It is the basic structural units of human mind. A schema describes
both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and
knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and
understand the world.
In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the
process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new
information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing
schemas.
ASSIMILATION
The process of taking in new information into our already existing
schemas is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective
because we tend to modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with
our preexisting beliefs.
ACCOMODATION
Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing
schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation.
Accommodation involves modifying existing schemas, or ideas, as a result
of new information or new experiences.
New schemas may also be developed during this process.
ADAPTATION
Assimilation and accommodation are the two sides of adaptation. It is
the ability of the person to adjust to the environment and to interact with it.
It’s a process that takes place through direct interaction with the
environment. Adaptation occurs as a result of two complementary
processes, Assimilation and Accommodation.
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
TWO SUB-STAGES
1. Preconceptual stage (2 to 4 years): Here, cognitive development
becomes increasingly dominated by symbolic activity. The child can use
symbols to stand for actions; a toy doll stands for a real baby or the child
role-plays mummy or daddy. Language also develops during this stage.
Transductive Reasoning
The tendency of a child in the preoperational stage of cognitive
development to see a connection between unrelated instances, using neither
From birth to 12 months of age, infants must learn that adults can be
trusted. This occurs when adults meet a child’s basic needs for survival.
Infants are dependent upon their caregivers, so caregivers who are
responsive and sensitive to their infant’s needs help their baby to develop a
sense of trust; their baby will see the world as a safe, predictable place.
Unresponsive caregivers who do not meet their baby’s needs can engender
feelings of anxiety, fear, and mistrust; their baby may see the world as
unpredictable. If infants are treated cruelly or their needs are not met
appropriately, they will likely grow up with a sense of mistrust for people in
the world.
As toddlers (ages 1–3 years) begin to explore their world, they learn
that they can control their actions and act on their environment to get
results. They begin to show clear preferences for certain elements of the
environment, such as food, toys, and clothing. A toddler’s main task is to
resolve the issue of autonomy vs. shame and doubt by working to establish
independence. This is the “me do it” stage. For example, we might observe
a budding sense of autonomy in a 2-year-old child who wants to choose her
Once children reach the preschool stage (ages 3–6 years), they are
capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through
social interactions and play. According to Erikson, preschool children must
resolve the task of initiative vs. guilt.By learning to plan and achieve goals
while interacting with others, preschool children can master this task.
Initiative, a sense of ambition and responsibility, occurs when parents allow
a child to explore within limits and then support the child’s choice. These
children will develop self-confidence and feel a sense of purpose. Those who
are unsuccessful at this stage—with their initiative misfiring or stifled by
over-controlling parents—may develop feelings of guilt.
During the elementary school stage (ages 6–12), children face the
task of industry vs. inferiority. Children begin to compare themselves with
their peers to see how they measure up. They either develop a sense of
pride and accomplishment in their schoolwork, sports, social activities, and
family life, or they feel inferior and inadequate because they feel that they
don’t measure up. If children do not learn to get along with others or have
negative experiences at home or with peers, an inferiority complex might
develop into adolescence and adulthood.
In adolescence (ages 12–18), children face the task of identity vs. role
confusion. According to Erikson, an adolescent’s main task is developing a
sense of self. Adolescents struggle with questions such as “Who am I?” and
“What do I want to do with my life?” Along the way, most adolescents try
on many different selves to see which ones fit; they explore various roles
and ideas, set goals, and attempt to discover their “adult” selves.
Adolescents who are successful at this stage have a strong sense of identity
and are able to remain true to their beliefs and values in the face
of problems and other people’s perspectives. When adolescents are
apathetic, do not make a conscious search for identity, or are pressured to
conform to their parents’ ideas for the future, they may develop a weak
When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle
adulthood, which extends to the mid-60s. The social task of middle
adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation. Generativity involves finding your
life’s work and contributing to the development of others through activities
such as volunteering, mentoring, and raising children. During this stage,
middle-aged adults begin contributing to the next generation, often through
childbirth and caring for others; they also engage in meaningful and
productive work which contributes positively to society. Those who do not
master this task may experience stagnation and feel as though they are not
leaving a mark on the world in a meaningful way; they may have little
connection with others and little interest in productivity and self-
improvement.
LEV VYGOTSKY
He attended Moscow State University, where he graduated with a
degree in law in 1917. Lev Vygotsky was a seminal Russian psychologist
who is best known for his sociocultural theory. He believed that social
interaction plays a critical role in children's learning. Lev Vygotsky was born
November 17, 1896, in Orsha, a city in the western region of Russia and
died at the age of 37 on 11 June 1934 because tuberculosis.
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Sociocultural theory is an emerging theory in psychology that looks at
the important contributions that society makes to individual development.
This theory stresses the interaction between developing people and the
culture in which they live. Sociocultural theory also suggests that human
learning is largely a social process.
Sociocultural theory grew from the work of seminal psychologist Lev
Vygotsky, who believed that parents, caregivers, peers, and the culture at
large were responsible for developing higher-order functions. According to
Vygotsky, learning has its basis in interacting with other people. Once this
has occurred, the information is then integrated on the individual level.
Vygotsky was a contemporary of other great thinkers such as Freud,
Skinner, and Piaget, but his early death at age 37 and the suppression of
his work in Stalinist Russia left him in relative obscurity until fairly recently.
As his work became more widely published, his ideas have grown
increasingly influential in areas including child development, cognitive
psychology, and education. According to Vygotsky, children are born with
basic biological constraints on their minds. Each culture, however, provides
"tools of intellectual adaptation." These tools allow children to use their
abilities in a way that is adaptive to the culture in which they live. For
example, while one culture might emphasize memory strategies such as
note-taking, another might use tools like reminders or rote memorization.
SCAFFOLDING
In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques
used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and,
ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. The term itself
offers the relevant descriptive metaphor: teachers provide successive levels
of temporary support that help students reach higher levels of
KOHLBERG'S THEORY
This theory is a stage theory in other words, everyone goes through
the stages sequentially without skipping any stage.
However, movement through these stages are not natural. that is
people do not automatically move from one stage to the next as they
mature. in stage development, movement occurs when a person notices
inadequacy in his or her present way of coping with a given moral dilemma
According to the stage theory, people cannot understand moral
reasoning more than one stage ahead of their own. for example, a person
in stage 1 can understand stage 2 reasoning but nothing beyond that.
THE ID
The id, the most primitive of the three structures, is concerned with
instant gratification of basic physical needs and urges. It operates entirely
unconsciously (outside of conscious thought). For example, if your id walked
past a stranger eating ice cream, it would most likely take the ice cream for
itself. It doesn’t know, or care, that it is rude to take something belonging
to someone else; it would care only that you wanted the ice cream.
CONFLICT WITHIN THE MIND:
According to Freud, the job of the ego is to balance the
aggressive/pleasure-seeking drives of the id with the moral control of the
superego.
THE SUPEREGO
The superego is concerned with social rules and morals—similar to
what many people call their “conscience” or their “moral compass.” It
develops as a child learns what their culture considers right and wrong. If
your superego walked past the same stranger, it would not take their ice
cream because it would know that that would be rude. However, if both
your id and your superego were involved, and your id was strong enough to
override your superego’s concern, you would still take the ice cream, but
afterward you would most likely feel guilt and shame over your actions.
Freud believed that the id, ego, and superego are in constant conflict
and that adult personality and behavior are rooted in the results of these
internal struggles throughout childhood. He believed that a person who has
a strong ego has a healthy personality and that imbalances in this system
can lead to neurosis (what we now think of as anxiety and depression) and
unhealthy behaviors.
Freud believed that the nature of the conflicts among the id, ego, and
superego change over time as a person grows from child to adult.
Specifically, he maintained that these conflicts progress through a series of
five basic stages, each with a different focus: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and
genital. He called his idea the psychosexual theory of development, with
each psychosexual stage directly related to a different physical center of
pleasure.
Across these five stages, the child is presented with different conflicts
between their biological drives (id) and their social and moral conscience
OEDIPUS COMPLEX
The most important aspect of the phallic stage is the Oedipus
complex. This is one of Freud's most controversial ideas and one that many
people reject outright.
ELECTRA COMPLEX
For girls, the Oedipus or Electra complex is less than satisfactory.
Briefly, the girl desires the father, but realizes that she does not have a
penis. This leads to the development of penis envy and the wish to be a
boy.
The girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and
substituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby. The girl blames
THE MICROSYSTEM
This is the layer closest to the child and contains the structures with
which the child has direct contact. The microsystem encompasses the
THE MESOSYSTEM
This layer provides the connection between the structures of the
child’s microsystem (Berk, 2000). Examples: the connection between the
child’s teacher and his parents, between his church and his neighborhood,
etc.
THE EXOSYSTEM
This layer defines the larger social system in which the child does not
function directly. The structures in this layer impact the child’s development
by interacting with some structure in her microsystem (Berk, 2000). Parent
workplace schedules or community-based family resources are examples.
The child may not be directly involved at this level, but he does feel the
positive or negative force involved with the interaction with his own system.
THE MACROSYSTEM
This layer may be considered the outermost layer in the child’s
environment. While not being a specific framework, this layer is comprised
of cultural values, customs, and laws (Berk, 2000). The effects of larger
principles defined by the macrosystem have a cascading influence
throughout the interactions of all other layers. For example, if it is the belief
of the culture that parents should be solely responsible for raising their
children, that culture is less likely to provide resources to help parents. This,
in turn, affects the structures in which the parent’s function. The parents’
ability or inability to carry out that responsibility toward their child within the
context of the child’s microsystem is likewise affected.
THE CHRONOSYSTEM
Definitions of Learning:
1. Gardener Murphy: “The term learning covers every modification in
behaviour to meet environmental requirements.”
2. Henry P. Smith: “Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour or the
strengthening or weakening of old behaviour as the result of experience.”
3. Crow & crow: “Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge &
attitudes. It involves new ways of doing things and it operates in individuals
attempts to overcome obstacles or to adjust to new situations. It represents
progressive changes in behaviour. It enables him to satisfy interests to attain
goals.
NATURE OF LEARNING
1. Learning is Universal. Every creature that lives learns. Man learns
most. The human nervous system is very complex, so are human reactions
and so are human acquisition. Positive learning vital for children’s growth
and development.
2. Learning is through Experience. Learning always involves some kind
of experience, direct or indirect (vicarious).
GENEREAL DIRECTION:
Write what you remember most about the ideas of the following theories.
Focus on what you think are their most important ideas about the
development of learners.
Sigmund Freud
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Eric Erickson
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Jean Piaget
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Lawrence Kohlberg
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Urie Bronfenbrenner
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