TABLE OF CONTENT

LESSON 1
Basic Concepts and Principles in Psychology of Human Growth
and Development….2i

LESSON 2
Pre-natal and Peri-natal Human Development……28
LESSON 3
Sex Determination in the Developing Foetus……..43
LESSON 4
Domains of Human Development…….49
LESSON 5
Domains of Human Development…….99
LESSON 6
Moral Development and Morality in the Classroom…106
LESSON 7
Environmental threats to human growth and development……122
LESSON 8
Concepts of learning and learning styles: VA K learning model and
educational implications………………158
LESSON 9
Kolb’s learning and educational implications……….171
LESSON 10
Motivation and reinforcement…………………. 193
LESSON 11
Distinctive Characteristics of teachers in the specialisms……. 212

1
 LESSON ONE:
BASIC CONCEPTS AND
PRINCIPLES IN PSYCHOLOGY
OF HUMAN GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT

MEANING OF PSYCHOLOGY
 PSYCHOLOGY: It is from two Greek
words psyche (mind & soul) and logos
(study of something or a word). It became
broadly defined as the systematic and
scientific study of behaviours and
mental processes.
 Psychology is the scientific study of the
mind (cognitive processes) and its
functions, especially those affecting
behaviours in a given context.
 It embraces all aspects of conscious and
unconscious experience as well as
thought.
2
  Scientific because it follows a
sequential, controlled process of
acquiring knowledge (problem
identification, hypothesis, data
collection, analysis, conclusion)
 Behaviour refers to observable actions
or responses in both humans and
animals. Eg. Include eating, speaking,
laughing, running, reading, and
sleeping etc.

Educational Psychology
 Deals with the problems, processes and
products of education.
 Studies the behaviour of learners in
relation to their needs and environment.

3
 The focus of educational psychology
therefore is to study individuals and
their learning environments in order to
provide desirable experiences that could
modify their behaviour to enable them
adjust to communal life and contribute
to its growth and preservation.
 Scope of educational psychology
 Teachers: Teachers’ role in behaviour
modification
 Learners: Understanding the
individuality and personality of learners.
 Learning process: Principles, techniques
and strategies for selecting experiences
and activities appropriate/suitable for
learners specific stages
 Learning environment: Creating a
conducive and appropriate milieu that
would generate relevant stimuli
 Learning resources: Provision of
suitable learning resources that would
4
 elicit required responses in order to bring
about expected learners outcomes
 Learning process: Principles, techniques
and strategies for selecting experiences
and activities appropriate/suitable for
learners specific stages
 Learning environment: Creating a
conducive and appropriate milieu that
would generate relevant stimuli
 Learning resources: Provision of
suitable learning resources that would
elicit required responses in order to bring
about expected learners outcomes
 Human Development is the scientific
study of how and why human beings
change over the course of their life.
The nature of human Development
At every age and every stage in the course
of its life the human organism is constantly
changing. Sometimes the changes are
obvious, visible, or easily noticeable; at
5
other times the changes are quite subtle
(delicate) and very difficult to identify.
Such changes are either physical or
psychological. Physical changes in the
human organism is more easily noticed than
psychological changes. This is because
physical changes in the human organism
result from quantitative increase in
structure while psychological changes
emanate from the acquisition of various
abilities and competences by which the
organism adjusts to its environment.
Physical and psychological changes do not
occur in isolation from each other; they
are integrated processes in the course of the
organism’s life and culminate (climax) in
the overall maturation by means of which
the individual interacts adequately and
satisfactorily with its environment.

6
 Basic Concepts in Human Development
Three major processes take place in the
course of the life of the organism, which
interact and integrate to enable it to satisfy
its needs. The processes can be identified as
Growth, Development and Maturation.
What is Growth?
The word growth is usually used
synonymously or interchangeably with
development. (Eg. language ability or mental
growth). In reality, they are different even
though they are inseparable in the sense that
neither takes place alone.

GROWTH:
 Growth refers to quantitative biological
changes-that is, increase in size, volume,
weight, height and in general terms
structure. The child does not become large
physically such as gaining increase in
height and weight but the size and
7
 structure of the internal organs as well
as the brain also increases. As a result of
the growth of the brain, the child has a
greater capacity for learning, for
remembering and for reasoning as well as
increasing physically.
 Growth takes place through metabolic
processes from within. The organism
takes them in a variety of substances,
breaks them down into their chemical
components, and then reassembles them
into new materials to be used by the body.
 Growth is a progressive increase in
volume, size, weight number or other
visible and measureable attributes. The
word measurable is the clue to the
difference between two processes.

8
Characteristics of growth
 Growth is indicative (i.e. Increase in
body, size, weight etc.)
 Growth is quantitative (i.e.it is
measurable)
 Growth is the physical change
 Growth stops at certain stage

According to Lefrancois (2000) growth refers

to quantitative physical changes such as
increase in weight and height. Fundamentally
growth refers to increment of the body
tissues, organs and structures. In its true
sense according to Rudwick (2004), however,
growth is a progressive increase in volume,
weight, number and has a measurable
attributes. It must be noted, however, that
growth is a subsidiary of development.

9
What is Development?
 Development is the orderly and
sequential changes that occur with the
passage of time as an organism (human)
moves from conception to death.
 Development includes traits and
characteristics, which can be observed and
evaluated (good or bad, right or wrong)
but not measured by absolute standards or
yardstick (eg. Attitude, prejudice,
integrity, dignity).
 Development is an integrating process, is
an all-inclusive, unifying concept,
bringing all the patterns of change that
involve the organism as a whole.
 The process of development is usually
unnoticed except its result or product (e.g.
competencies (the ability to do something
successfully or efficiently), abilities,
speaking, walking etc.) Infants do not

10
 develop in a haphazard manner. Their
development follow consistent patterns
and is governed by principles that are well
understood. For example, it is a fact that a
child crawls before he walks.
 Development is therefore defined as the
orderly and sequential changes that occur
with a passage of time as an organism
moves from conception to death.
 It is not independent of quantitative
growth (It has some quantitativeness
attached to it. Eg, growth is used to
measure development eg, size,
proportion qualitative and quantitative
changes in muscles, skin, hair and glands.

Characteristics of development
 Development is qualitative in nature
 Development is a psychological
change

11
  Development is internal in nature
 Development is continuous, orderly
and progressive
 Development is functional

THE CONCEPT OF MATURATION

One of the factors involved in the gradual
unravelling of the heredity potential of an
individual is maturation. Maturation may be
defined as the process of gradually bringing
the various parts of an individual’s
physiological and psychological features to
full development. We may for instance speak
of maturation of the sense organs or the
nervous system, or of secondary sex
characteristics or of psychological ability or
of intellectual functions, or of emotional
reactions.

12
 According to Woolfolk et al (1980) the term
maturation refers to the changes that occur
naturally and spontaneously and are to a
large extent, genetically programmed. The
ability to sit, crawl and walk depends on
maturation of the brain.

EXCEPTS FROM MATURATION

 It is the culmination of both
physiological and psychological changes
in relevant organs that enable an
organism to achieve readiness or the
ability to accomplish or perform a
developmental task (e.g. the ability to
walk resulting from appropriate nerves,
bones and muscles (NBM); ability to
speak first word resulting from
maturing of relevant speech organs-
teeth, tongue, larynx, palate, etc.).

13
 It is also the unfolding of genetically
prescribed/preprogrammed patterns of
behavior such as crawling, walking and
running, etc.
 The point at which an organism becomes
ready to perform a task.
 Maturational changes are not independent
of environmental events.

MATURATION AND LEARNING

For teaching to be purposeful and for
educational programmes to be meaningful,
they must be related to or in line with the
natural trends of maturational changes. Lack
of maturation in the general bodily
development of muscles, physical feature,
nerves, and the nervous system determine
the child’s physical endurance and
intellectual performance. Likewise, sitting
positions in school and periods for
14
 standing and for physical activities should
be planned to suit the age and degree of
maturation of the child.
A child’s of attention and his ability to
do complex intellectual work increase with
the development of the sense organs as well
as the brain. It is important for teachers to be
aware of this in making their plans for
teaching particular subjects. Such plans
involve activities that are within the
capabilities of the pupils.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH AND

DEVELOPMENT
These are common features/characteristics that
are observed across the life course of human
development.
1. Growth is continuous: Human beings
grow all the time in spite of the different
peaks of development at different periods.
15
 It is gradual, progressive, orderly and
sequential. There are no clear cut breaks
in development;-stages of development
are not separate but follow one from the
other. We usually assign ages in the
developmental sequence, but these are all
approximations –Eg at age six the milk
teeth are expected to fall off but it may be
early or later and these occurs with other
features of development; as one stage
progresses another begins.
2. Growth is asynchronous: this implies
that there is varying rate of growth.
There are intra (within) and inter
(between) varying rates of growth and
development. Intra means the different
rate of development of certain aspect
within a particular individual.

16
 E.g. i. A girl may develop language
acquisition faster than mathematical
concepts (intra)
ii. Two girls (“girl A” attaining
puberty at the age of ten whereas “girl B”
may attain puberty at the age of thirteen,
this therefore means organ systems and
functions do not proceed at the same rate
throughout development)
iii. Although growth is orderly and
continuous in it sequence, the rate of growth
differs to another – and from one organ and
system to other eg; there is very rapid physical
growth in the first three years of life – the
development of the genital organs may slow
down but vary rapid during adolescence. The
brain grows (increases in size) very rapidly
during prenatal and postnatal stages

17
 iv. There is sharp increase in
acquisition of vocabulary and motor skills
during pre-school years

3. Growth is Directional: Two main

directions in growth have been
established. Human beings grow from the
head region and downwards to the
tail/toe and it is said to be
Cephalocaudal).
I. Cephalocaudal simply means
growing from the head to the toe
when the zygote attains the fetal
stage, the head take half of the
proportion of the body.
Growth also proceed from the Centre and
works gradually to periphery (from heart
region to the ends of the figures), this
directions of growth is termed as
proximodistal. There is the general growth

18
from “head-to-tail” direction and this is called
cephalocaudal development.
II. Proximodistal simply means the
type of development from the
central part of the body toward the
outer direction or trunk to the
limbs

4. Growth Orthogenetic: This means that

growth and development are characterized
by differentiation and integration. A
human start off as a single cell, then
become billions of highly specialized cells
such as blood cells, liver cells etc. These
differentiated cells would then become
organized and integrated into functioning
systems in our body such as digestive
system or the brain. What this means is
that at stage one in development certain
aspect of human are general. At stage 11

19
 the general things becomes differentiated
and specific. For example, at fusion, the
zygote is general but with time certain
specific characteristics develop. Finally,
the whole thing comes together to form an
integration. For instance when a child is
born his language is undifferentiated, eg
‘ba’, ‘da’. With time he says “dada’’,
“eat”, etc. With time again the child
integrate this words and comes out with
sentences like “Dada I will eat”.

5. Growth is characterized by critical

(prime) periods: Humans need certain
things at certain periods of their life
course. If he does not get them he become
dysfunctional. For example during
pregnancy the mother needs more
nutrition, if she does not take nutritious
meal the fetus can adversely be

20
 affected. Again if the mother contract,
say German measles during the first
trimester of pregnancy it will affect the
child’s sight and hearing. In the same
way emotions start developing during the
first six months after birth. If the child is
denied positive emotions upon which he
will develop his own emotions, it affects
his life later.

6. Growth is Epigenetic: This means new

features develop from the existing ones.
This means new features develop from
the existing ones. As one grows several
physiological and intellectual
characteristics develop along that line.
For example, puberty occurs after late
childhood and enters the adolescence
stage. Also there is intellectual
development such as Piaget’s stages of
21
 cognitive development (sensory motor,
preoperational, concrete operational and
formal operational)
7. Growth is influenced by Maturational
Readiness: The law of readiness state that
the organisms will participate in a given
behavior only when it has developed
sufficiently to be ready for that behavior.
For example if a child has not attained
readiness for walking no amount of trying
with a wooden walker or practice with a
baby walker will help.

8. Growth is influenced by environmental

factors: heredity provides the blue print
and sets limits to growth but it’s the
environment that constructs it and
facilitates achievement. E.g. Socio
economic background may influence
language acquisition. In sum therefore, it

22
is generally believed by all psychologist
one’s biological make up, genetic code
and then the experiences he derives from
the environment as well as his own self
initiatives determine the trend of his
growth and development.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROWTH

AND DEVELOPMENT
 While growth can be observed
(seen) and measured; development,
although can be observed, cannot
be measured.
 Growth is quantitative but
development is both qualitative and
quantitative in nature.
 Growth can be measured in
centimeters and grams but
development can be felt and
inferred from.

23
  Growth is spontaneous in occurring
but development is gradual in
nature.
 Growth is outward, open, and
covert; whilst development is
internal, hidden and overt in nature.
 
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TO
THE CLASSROOM TEACHER

1. Knowledge of individual differences will

help teachers to recognize that children
have different capabilities and potentials
so that provision can be made for every
child
2. Knowledge of the principles of
development is useful in realizing that it is
not useful to blame a child for what he

24
 cannot help because of his developmental
pattern
3. A teacher who understands growth
pattern will be able to make use of each
phase by providing teaching materials,
methods, companions, incentives and
opportunities for the expression of
behaviour appropriate to each phase of
development
4. With the knowledge of the importance of
a rich environment to the child’s total
growth and the realization that both
teachers and parents form part of the
environment, they would have to
manipulate the environment to the
advantage of the child.
5. The understanding that development in
different parts of the body takes place at
different rates ensure that head teachers
and parents are not unnecessarily alarmed

25
 at the least unusual change occurring in
the child.
6. Tasks involving physical activities should
be assigned considering stature and
strength. provide physical activities
7. Caregivers and ECEs should take note of
what infants and toddlers eat and advice
parents
8. Teachers should create a conducive
environment for learners
9. Teachers should provide enough and
relevant TLMs to appeal to most senses
10. Learning should be arranged orderly and
sequentially to proceed from the known to
the unknown

26
 LESSON 2
PRE-NATAL AND PERI-NATAL HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Introduction: How Human Life Begins
• Human beings, so complex in their
behaviour, so different from their fellows,
developed from the fusion of male sex cell
(sperm) and the female sex cell (ovum to
form a zygote).
• The development from a single fertilized
cell. The sex determination occurs at the
time of conception; this depends on the
type of male sex cell (spermatozoa) that
unites with a female sex cell (ovum) to
initiate the development of a new life
(marks the period from fertilization to
birth).

27
The Developmental process.
The human organism is divided into three
major phases namely:
 The Pre-natal Phase

 The Peri-natal Phase

 The Post-natal phase

THE PRE-NATAL

PHASE OF DEVELOPMENT
Pre-natal period refers to the growth and
development of the fertilized human cell
(Zygote) in the womb of the mother before it
is born. This period normally lasts for 266 or
280 days. The prenatal development proceeds

28
in a predictable sequence and can be divided
into three basic stages or periods: the
germinal or zygote period, the embryonic
period, and the foetal period.
Pre-natal development refers to the process by
which the organism develops inside the
mother’s womb. It begins from conception and
lasts between 36 and 40 weeks (Llewellyn-
Jones, 2008).
The Pre-natal Phase of development is
also characterized by three (3) stages
namely:
• The Germinal Stage
• The Embryonic stage
• The Fetal stage

29
1. THE ZYGOTE. As the
GERMINAL/ZYGOTIC/OVUM
STAGE: During the first week of
uterine life, there is fusion of the egg
cell and sperm. This is made up of a
group of tiny cells. After the fusion, it
takes three to five days for the fertilised
human egg to travel down from the
fallopian tube to the uterus if
unperturbed. This fertilised egg is the
zygote, attaches itself to the uterine

30
 wall, which is called implantation.
Much of the future personality
including facial features, colour of the
hair and eye, texture of the skin and
shape of the finger nails is determined.
This is the whole pattern of physical
growth put in motion of human life.
During this period the fertilized egg or
zygote undergoes mitosis (cell division)
beginning sometimes during the first
day after conception. This single
fertilized cell divides into two, these cells
divide to produce four, those four divide
into eight and so on – with an identical set
of chromosomes. By day four, the new
organism consists of 60 to 70 cells.

2. THE EMBRYONIC STAGE: (15th day-

6/8weeks) Nature prepares a thick soft

31
bed inside the uterus on which this tiny
cell mass now called the embryo rests
itself. At this place in the lining, the organ
called the placenta begins to grow and it is
implanted in the inner wall of the uterus.
The placenta is a disc-shaped, slightly
raised and it is covered with a transparent
membrane. Blood from the mother
circulates in it and so does that of the
foetus. It therefore serves as a 2-way filter
between the bloodstreams of the mother
and the embryo. The immature organism
is getting hungry so it dissolves some of
the mother’s tissues the uterus and feeds
on them (Anderson, 2000 pp8-9). The
waste products of the foetus carried
through the arteries of the umbilical cord
into the placenta where they are
exchanged for oxygen and nutrients from
the mother.

32
3. THE FETAL STAGE (from the 9th
week to birth): Once the basic structure
of a human being has been established in
the embryonic period, prenatal
development moves into its final and
longest stage – the foetal period (9th week
of pregnancy to about the birth of the
baby usually 30 weeks later. During the
first trimester, the uterus begins to stretch
gently to make room for the growing
embryo. During this time, the vital organs
–heart, lungs intestines, brains, ears, and
skeleton are formed. Around 20 weeks,
the mother begins to feel the movements
and doctors will hear the baby’s heartbeat.
Bones grow, arms and leg joints are
forming, and so are his or her teeth well
started. By the final trimester, the baby

33
 gains strength and weight and kicks and
moves about.
Research shows that the human foetuses are
able to memorize sounds from the external
world by the last trimester (7-9 months) of
pregnancy with particular sensitivity with
melody-both music and language with high
pitch and intonation, repeated, short in
sequence.

PERI- NATAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Peri-natal period of human development
refers to the time during which the baby is
moving through the birth canal. It is the time
of birth. It starts from the time of birth and
ends when the baby lands down. Peri-natal
stage is the period immediately before birth,
during and after birth. Immediately before,
during or immediately after delivery, the baby
34
can sustain some injuries which can affect this
stage negatively. Below is a table of some of
the bound problems before, during and
immediately after birth and its effects on
birth injury during the Peri-natal stage.
PROBLEMS EFFECTS

1. Difficult labour 1. Bruising the head

and face of the
baby

2. Because of small
2. Difficulty passing
pelvic or use of
through the birth
forceps and use of
canal because the
bone fracture (Baby
birth canal may be
Centre, 2015)
under developed.
Oxygen deprivation
Baby may be too
can lead to brain
large and could be
damage in the baby.
in a breech
(Andrew, 2007)
Position (coming
leading to
out with the
conditions such as
buttocks instead
cerebral palsy.
of the head).
35
3. Infections in the 3. Risks of HIV on the
genital tract at new born baby is
the delivery mitigated by
stage the baby providing
may be exposed antiretroviral
to the maternal therapy during
blood and other pregnancy and
fluids in the immediately after
vaginal area birth by caesarean
which may be section, no
hosts to sexually breastfeeding,
transmitted antiretroviral
diseases, HIV prophylaxis in
and candida infants born to
mothers with HIV.

36
POST NATAL PHASE OF
DEVELOPMENT
For the purposes of our level post-natal stage
can be defined as the period after birth or
during childhood. There are some problems
associated with this stage which could be child
abuse or neglect

Problems associated with post natal phase

of development
Abuse may come in the form of hitting the
head with a cane or knocking (as teacher’s
parents or caregivers do) to any part of the
body, falls without proper treatment, and
pulling the ears, improper treatment of
burns and the likes. It also includes
environmental toxins, diseases and
accidents.

37
Below is a table of some of the problems
and its effects on the baby after birth.

SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME Many

Immediately after birth, babies have weak babies
neck muscles and often struggle to affected
support their heavy heads so if a baby at die and
this stage is forcefully shaken, the
His fragile brain moves back and forth survivors
inside the skull. This causes bruising, have
swelling and bleeding. partial or
total
blindness,
developm
ental
delays,
learning
difficultie
s,
behaviour

38
 disorders,
intellectu
al
disabilitie
s and
seizure
Disorders
(Mayo
clinic,
2017)

POISONOUS SUBSTANCE Brain

At this stage inhalation of medicines, damage
insecticides, perfumes, paints, insects
and cleansing agents and some auto
lubricants can result in poisoning of
the brain cells

39
ENCEPHALITIS
An acute inflammation (swelling up) Neurological
of the brain resulting either from problems
viral infection or when the body’s and hearing
own immune system mistakenly loss
attacks brain tissues
MENINGITIS Neurological
Disorders
It is an inflammation of the lining
around the meninges which is the
protective coverings of the brain and
the spinal cord.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION OF
PRE-NATAL PERIOD TO THE
STUDENT TEACHER AT STS/ THE
CLASSROOM:
• The Uterine environment plays a
significant role in shaping the course of

40
 development during pregnancy and after
birth.
• The presence of teratogenic agents in the
environment the uterine environment has
the most profound consequences on the
child. A teratogenic is an environmental
agent such as drug, chemical, virus,
atomic radiation or other factor that
produces a birth a birth defect.
• The timing of exposure to a teratogenic is
important. At some state of prenatal
development, exposure may have minimal
effect, at some other stage, exposure may
have profound effect. For instance, the
child’s brain is most susceptible to
teratogen from fifteen (15) to twenty (25)
days after conception.

41
 Lesson3
Sex Determination In The Developing
Foetus
In every baby, sex is determined by the
twenty-third pair of chromosomes, the
chromosomes in this pair are called,

42
appropriately, the sex chromosomes. There
are two types of sex chromosomes: x-shaped
and y-shaped. In females, the twenty-third
pair of chromosomes is a double x, and in
males it is an x and y. Each ovum carries one
X-chromosome, and each sperm carries either
an x or y chromosome, half of the twenty-third
pair. At conception, if an x-bearing sperm
fertilizes the ovum, the twenty-third pair of
chromosomes in the foetus becomes xx,
female. If a y-bearing sperm reaches the ovum
first, a xy combination produces a male. It is
the sperm, then, that ‘decides’ the sex of the
child. In other words it is the father who
determines whether he has male or female
children though of course he has no control
over it.

43
44
• Every month, a mature egg is released
from one of a woman’s two (2) ovaries;
which is known as ovulation. Ovulation
takes place within two weeks from the
(1st) day of the last menstrual period.
• During ‘mating’ or copulation an average
ejaculation discharges forty million
(40,000,000) to one hundred and fifty
million (150,000,000) sperms which
eagerly swim upstream towards the
fallopian tube with a mission to fertilize
an egg (ovum).
• Fast swimming sperms can reach the egg
in half an hour, whiles others may take
days.
• The sperm can live up to 5 days within the
female reproductive system. Only a few
45
 hundred will even come close to the egg,
due to the many natural barriers and
hurdles that exist in the female
reproductive tract. After travelling
through the vagina canal, the strongest
sperms make it to the cervix partly by the
movement of their tails and partly by the
action of uterus. The sperm present in the
semen travel a long way from the vagina
through to the cervix, and then to the
uterus into the fallopian tube.

• Actually, when fertilization happens,

changes occur on the
• Very month, a mature egg is released
from one of a woman’s two (2) ovaries;
which is known as ovulation. Ovulation
takes place within two weeks from the
(1st) day of the last menstrual period.

46
• The genetic make-up is complete, this
includes the sex of the child. They contain
forty-six (46) chromosomes are the
hereditary materials of life or genetic
materials. The chromosome also carries
genes, which determine heredity or
inheritance.
• The chromosome also determines the sex
of the child. The mature ovum contains
twenty-two (22) matched chromosomes
‘XX’ and one unmatched which may be
an ‘X’ or a ‘Y’ chromosome. The first
twenty-two pairs are called autosomes.

• The chromosome also determines the sex

of the child. The mature ovum contains
twenty-two (22) matched chromosomes
‘XX’ and one unmatched which may be
an ‘X’ or a ‘Y’ chromosome. The first
twenty-two pairs are called autosomes.
47
 Lesson 4
Domains of Human Development
(I) PHYSICAL AND MOTOR
DEVELOPMENT
Physical development refers to the changes in
height, weight, bone thickness, brain, sense
organs, teeth, muscles, and hair and sex
characteristics of the child as it grows to full
maturity. Motor skills such as learning to walk
and to write, catch and throw a ball are all part
of physical development.There are in fact,
three, main areas in which this occurs. These
are:

a. Increase in the size and strength of the

body.
48
 b. Increase in the ability to control the gross
muscles of the limbs as well as the finer
muscles of the hands and fingers.
c. Changes in the proportions of the body
parts as well as the shape of the body
especially with regards to sexual
differences.

It must be stressed however, that for each

child, the physical characteristics that occur,
the rate of development of these characteristics
as well as the physical structure that would be
finally attained at maturity would depend upon
what he has inherited genetically as well as the
strength of the supporting environmental
factors. The important environmental factors
that are needed for a proper physical
development include the following.

49
 i. The child needs to take a healthy and
balanced diet, which would supply all
the essential nutrients, required for a
good physical growth;
ii. The sanitary environment of the child
must be clean to reduce the possibility
of disease and infections, which can
retard the proper development of the
child.
iii. Regular physical exercises are also
important to enable a free flow of blood
through the body to allow the various
parts expand freely.

Let us now examine the physical and motor

development of the child from the infancy
through childhood to adolescent stages.

50
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
Motor refers to motion and motor development
is the infants growing ability to use his/her
body for purposeful, voluntary motion.
Purposeful is the key word here, because
newborns have little conscious control over
their bodies. Many of their movements are
reflexive and even though they can lift a foot
or move a hand, they lack willful control over
their muscles, and their movements appear
jerky and random.
There are two kinds of motor skills
activity. These are gross motor skills and fine
motor skills. Gross motor skills refers to
voluntary body movements that involve the
large muscles in the various parts of the body
such as the arms, legs, thighs in performing

51
activities like catching and throwing a ball,
jumping, running, hoping etc.

Fine motor skills on the other hand refers to

voluntary body movements that involve the
small muscles of the body such as the hands
and finger muscles to perform activities
smoothly and with precision such as tying or
lazing a shoe, writing letters of the alphabet,
buttoning shirt etc.

MAJOR PHYSICAL GROWTH AND

CHANGE DURING INFANCY

Physical Growth and changes during infancy

(birth - 2 years)
The main physical characteristics during
infancy include the following:
 At birth, the average infant weight about
3.4kgs and measures about 50 cm in

52
 Length. The bones are soft and flexible
because they are made up of cartilage.
Cartilage is a strong flexible substance
which surrounds the joints in the body.
 Generally, boys are taller and heavier at
birth than girls. Growth during the first two
years of life is more rapid than at any other
time in life. For example, by the fourth
month, the baby may have doubled in
weight and height.
 At birth, infants can already see and hear
but without as much accuracy as adults. The
sense of smell is well developed at birth and
the ability to distinguish odours is present.
Infants show a preference for sweet liquids
and less sensitivity to pain than older
children. All the senses of the infant
develop rapidly and reach adult levels by
the end of the infancy period.

53
 Motor skills such as siting, crawling,
creeping, walking, running and jumping are
accomplished by the end of infancy.
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT DURING
INFANCY
New burns have little conscious control over
their bodies. Many of their movements are
reflexive. Even though they can lift a foot or
move a hand, they lack wilful control over
their muscles, and their movements appear
jerky and random.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT DURING

CHILDHOOD (2-11Years)
Childhood begins at approximately the age of
two years and extends to the time when the
child becomes sexually mature at
approximately eleven years for the average girl
and twelve years for the average boy.

54
Childhood is divided into three separate
periods, early, middle and late childhood.
The rapid growth of infancy slows down
during the early childhood (pre-school) years.
Children can be termed ‘pre-schoolers’ when
they are between three and six year of age.
During the preschool years the sequence in
which all children develop motor skills is
generally the same, though some gain skill
faster than others. The other most visible
difference from infancy is the change in body
shape and proportion. Two-year-olds still
have the short-limbed, large heads, pot-bellied
look of infants, out over the next 3 to 4 years,
arms, legs and torso grow quickly, becoming
longer in proportion to the head. By age 5 or
6, children’s body proportions are nearly the
same as young adults. Throughout the pre-
school years, boys are slightly taller and
heavier than girls, a difference that continues,

55
until adolescence, when girls, who mature
earlier physically, shoot ahead of boys. At this
stage their legs and trunk grow faster than their
heads. The centre of gravity i.e. the point in
the body around which weight is eventually
distributed begins to move lower allowing
children to become steadier on their feet and
capable of movements that were impossible
when they were too-heavy infants and
toddlers. They are able to run, jump, climb
and hop. Most of these movements develop
naturally if the child has normal physical
abilities and the opportunity to play. During
this period children also develop a preference
for one side of their body. Which can be
observed when they use one hand more
frequently than other. Most children will
favour their right hand, but those who show a
preference for their left should not be forced to
change.

56
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT DURING PRE-
SCHOOL YEARS
The major physical accomplishment for pre-
scholars is increased control over gross and
fine motor movements or skills. Gradually,
pre-schoolers leave the clumsiness of toddler
hood behind as co-ordination and agility
continues to increase. Maturing gross motor
skills improve children’s ability to jump,
climb, run etc. By age 3, children can run in a
straight line and leap off the floor with both
feet. Four-year-olds can throw objects and
catch a large ball with both hands. They can
skip, hop and pedal a bicycle on their own.
Five-year-olds resemble adults more than
toddlers because their bodies have lengthened
and become less top-heavy. A five-year-olds

57
balance has improved, her muscles have
grown stronger, and she can ride a bicycle,
swim and do acrobatics. Many of these
changes reflect stronger muscles, greater
physical co-ordination, and improved balance
seeming from better body proportions.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS, which include

smaller, more precise and delicate movements,
improve markedly as well. Three-year-olds
struggle with bottoms, zippers and shoelaces,
but by age, 5 children can usually dress
themselves and manipulate a variety of tools
as well. The increased co-ordination of small
muscles and manual dexterity allow children
to cut out shapes with scissors, use rulers,
draw more precisely and begin to write. By
the end of preschool period most children can
easily perform self-help tasks such as
buckling, buttoning, snapping, and zipping.

58
They can go up and down steps with
alternating feet, they can perform fine motor
skills such as cutting with scissors and using
organs to colour a predefined area.

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT DURING

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
By the time children enter the primary grades
they have developed many of the basic motor
skills needed for balance, running, jumping
and throwing. During the primary years gross
and fine motor skills are improved through
practice. As development progresses, children
can switch from using oversized pencils to
regular-sized ones, and from activities like
finger painting that use awkward whole-arm
movements to building intricate models using
delicate finger movements to play the plans
and stringed instruments. In addition, the
eyesight of the children often improves during
this period. Many pre-schoolers tend far
59
sightedness, but as the eye changes shape
during the early primary grades, this condition
improves.

MAJOR PHYSICAL GROWTH AND

CHANGE DURING CHILDHOOD (2-
11years)
Physical Growth and Changes during
Childhood:
The main physical characteristics during the
childhood stage include the following:
 Growth during early childhood proceeds at
a slower rate as compared with that of the
infancy period.
 Head growth during middle childhood is
slow, but limb growth is rapid. The face of
girls usually has fine features and is less
rugged than that of boys. Children at this
stage are very active with their limbs and
can perform a lot of motor skills. The first

60
 permanent teeth develop at about six years,
and girls tend to get their second teach
earlier than boys. Children at this stage are
very active with their limbs and can perform
a lot of motor skill.
 There is slow and relatively uniform growth
during late childhood until the rapid growth
that leads to puberty begins. During this
time, growth speeds up markedly. To
refresh your mind, puberty is the stage in a
child’s life when he or she starts to change
physically from a child to an adult. By the
onset of puberty, the child normally has 28
of his or her 32 permanent teeth.
 In motor development, boys are generally
superior to girls in gross motor activities
such as running, jumping, climbing and
throwing. Generally, children at this state
run and jump and climb with increasing
smoothness and variety. They can perform

61
 certain activities accurately. For example,
balancing on one foot.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT DURING

ADOLESCENCE (11-18 years)
 Adolescence is the period of one’s life
during which he or she develops from
being a child into an adult. In other words
adolescence is a period of transition from
childhood to adulthood. Adolescents
develop all the physical characteristics of
a mature man or woman including the
capacity to reproduce. These physical
transformation are collectively called
puberty. Puberty is a series of
physiological changes that render the
immature organism capable of
reproducing. Nearly every organ and
system of the body is affected by the

62
 changes. Five major changes during
puberty according to Marshall (1978)
cited by Steinberg et al (1991) are:
Rapid growth and weight gain
 Further development of the gonads, or sex
glands. In males, the testes become able to
release sperm, in females, ovaries begin
releasing ova, or egg cells.
 Development of secondary sex
characteristics – These characteristics
include changes in the genitals and breasts,
the growth of pubic, facial and body hair, a
deepening of the voice in males, and further
development of the sex organs.
 Change in body composition. Specific
changes in the quantity and distribution of
fat and muscles.
 Changes in the circulating and respiratory
systems. Strength and stamina increase.

63
HORMONES, Chemical substance that act on
specific organs and tissues, trigger all these
physical changes. In fact no new hormones
are produced at puberty. Instead there is an
increase in the production of certain hormones
that have been present since before birth. In
boys a major change is the increased
production of testosterone, a male sex
hormone, while girls experience increase
production of the female hormones
oestrogens. And in both sexes, a rise in
growth hormone produces the adolescent
growth spurt.

THE GROWTH SPURT –This is the period

of pronounced increase in height and weight
that marks the first half of puberty. At the peak
of adolescent growth spurt, teenagers grow at
the same rate as toddlers: for boys a little over
4 inches per year (10.5 centimetres); for girls

64
about 3.1/2 inches (9.0centimetres). The spurt
for girls occurs about 2 years earlier than for
boys.
Much of the height gained stems from a
Lengthening of the torso rather than the legs.
At this stage young teenagers may feel
awkward as some parts of their bodies are out
of proportion to others. This is so because
different parts of the body tend to spurt at
different times: First the hand and feet, then
the arms and legs, finally the torso and
shoulders.
Accompanying the spurt in height is a gain in
weight and in heart and lung capacity.
These increases are different for boys and
girls. For instance, muscle tissue grows faster
in boys, while fat increases more in girls.
Compared with girls, boys also develop larger
hearts and lungs relative to their size, which
means that blood is pumped more forcefully

65
and more oxygen is delivered to their blood
streams. These differences between the sexes
help explain why by the end of adolescence,
boys on average have an advantage over girls
in many sports.

BECOMING A SEXUAL BEING – The

most dramatic physical changes of puberty
involve sexuality: Internally, through the
development of primary sex characteristics,
adolescents become capable of sexual
reproduction.Externally, as secondary sex
characteristics appear, girls and boys begin to
look like mature women and men. In boys
primary and secondary sex characteristics
usually emerge in a predictable order, with
rapid growth of the testes and scrotum
accompanied by the appearance of pubic hair,
coming first. About a year later, when the
growth spurt begins, the penis also grows

66
larger, and pubic hair becomes coarser,
thicker, and darker. Later still come the growth
of facial and body hair, and a gradual lowering
of the voice. Increased sweat gland
development and a roughening of the skin are
other changes of later adolescence. Around
mid-adolescence internal changes begin
making a boy capable of producing and
ejaculating sperm. The first ejaculation of
semen usually occurs about a year after the
beginning of accelerated penis growth.
In girls, sex characteristics develop in a
less regular sequence. Usually, the first sign of
puberty is a slight elevation of the breasts,
known as the breast buds, but sometimes this
is preceded by the appearance of pubic hair.
Pubic hair changes as it does in males- from
sparse and downy to denser and coarser.
Concurrent with these changes is further breast
development. After the bud stage the nipple

67
and area around it (the areola) become distinct
from the breast and projects beyond it. In the
final stages, the areola recedes to the contour
of the breast and only the nipple is elevated.
The female breast undergoes these changes
regardless of breast size. In fact changes in the
shape and definition of the areola and nipple
are far better indicators of sexual maturation
than is breast size done.
In teenage girls, internal sexual changes
include maturation of the uterus, vagina, and
other parts of the reproduction system.
Menarche, the first menstrual period, happens
relatively later not at the start of puberty, as
many people believe. Further, regular
ovulation and the ability to carry a baby to full
term usually follow menarche by several
years. It is possible, however, for a girl to
become pregnant at any time after her first
menstruation.

68
MAJOR PHYSICAL GROWTH AND
CHANGE DURING ADOLESCENCE
Physical growth and change during the
adolescence period: After eleven or twelve
years, the child enters the adolescence period
when growth again becomes rapid.
 During the early years of adolescence, boys
are heavier than girls, but girls mature
earlier;
 During this period, the body gets to its
maximum height but may not reach its
maximum weight;
 Adolescents grow hair at different parts of
the body.
 Boys develop deep voice;
 Girls develop breasts around age 11, and
this is followed by expanded hips and
rounded body contours.
 Girls enter puberty earlier than boys.

69
 Children find comparison with peers very
important. This comparison is used as basis
for self-evaluation;
 The adolescent is concerned about his or her
changing body and its attractiveness or
otherwise. For example, they may worry
about their hair, nose, pimple on cheeks,
etc.;
 The adolescent child is able to perform
activities that require the use of both gross
and find muscles with increasing
smoothness and accuracy.

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF
THE CHILD
Intellectual domain is the same as cognitive
domains. It focuses on how children process
their surroundings and solve problems.
Counting and math skill, organisation,
imagination and creative thinking fall into

70
this domain. Intellectual development may
also be called cognitive or mental
development. It affects the child’s ability to
understand what is taught and to cope with
the activities given them in the classroom.
Generally, intellectual development refers
to the improvement in the children’s
thinking process as they develop or grow.
Cognitive also refers to thinking and
memory processes and cognitive
development involves changes in these
processes (cognitive processes and
abilities). It is therefore important to first
examine a few of the important ideas and
concepts introduced by Piaget. Many of our
ideas concerning intellectual development of
the child come from the experiments and
writings of Jean Piaget, a Swiss
Psychologist, who studied cognitive
development and theorized that an infant’s
71
way of knowing the world is different from
a child’s, an adolescent’s or adult’s. He
stated that cognitive development progresses
through a series of stages, and at each
succeeding stage we understand the world in
more complex, more sophisticated ways.
What we could not understand at age 3, or
what we “understood” incorrectly or
partially is easily grasped at age 8, not just
because we know more, but because the way
in which we understand and think about the
world has become more advanced. Piaget
observed that the child went through four
main stages in his intellectual/cognitive
development. These are examined below:

THE SENSORI-MOTOR STAGE (0-

2YEARS)
During this period a baby begins to
understand an object by tasting, touching,
72
seeing, hearing and smelling it; by bumping
into, grasping it, lifting it, and dropping it.
Because it is based on the senses and on
motor actions, Piaget used the term sensor-
motor to describe this first period of
cognitive development. Babies and young
children at this stage depend on their senses
i.e. what they can see, touch, or hear and
their motor skills in exploring their world.
As they move through the sensori-
motor period infants gain three basic
cognitive abilities. First, they gradually
understand that they are separate from other
things and people in their world. There is
self and there are others. Infants gradually
extend their activity and awareness beyond
the boundaries of their own body. Paiget
called this process decentration meaning
moving away from centering, or focusing
on their physical selves.

73
 The second basic skill babies gain
during the sensori-motor stage is the ability
to plan and co-ordinate their actions, from
ages eight to twelve months, the infant
begins to direct more attention to his
physical environment in order to attain
specific goal – goal directed behaviour.
The new and very rudimentary skill is called
intentionally i.e. purposeful co-ordination
of activity towards a goal.
Finally, by the end of the sensori-motor
period, infants begin to understand that even
when they cannot see, hear, smell, or feel
something it still exist. Piaget called this
object permanence – the notion or
understanding that objects exist even though
it must have disappeared from sight. The
child will for example, look for a toy that he
has seen hidden.

74
 When children develop this notion of
object performance, they have taken a step
toward somewhat more advanced thinking.
Once they realized that things exist out of
sight, they can start using symbols to
represent these things in their minds so that
they can think about them. By the end of the
sensori-motor period, children are able to
remember objects of play; initiate activities
and use words to represent things as they
begin to learn language.

PRE – OPERATIONAL STAGE (AGE 2-

7 YEARS)
This is the period of transition from
sensorimotor intelligence to rule-governed
thought. Piaget named this period pre-
operational because the child has not yet
acquired the logical operations
characteristics of later stages of thought.

75
The quality of thinking of the child is
transformed. Children are no longer tied to
their immediate sensory environment but
rather start to develop some mental images.
Hence this stage has been described as a
stage at which children learn to mentally
represent things. According to Piaget,
young children thought intuitively
(understanding without conscious reasoning
or study) and conceptually but not logically.
This stage is therefore sub-divided into two
stages – Perceptual and intuitive stages:

a. PRE-CONCEPTUAL STAGE (2-

4YEARS): The child at this stage has the
ability to think about things, and can use
symbols to mentally represent objects; for
instance, the letter “a” can stand for “apple”
or for a sound.Children’s language and
concepts develop at an incredible rate. Yet

76
much of their thinking remains surprisingly
primitive. When they try to explain why
things happen, it becomes clear that they
have limited understanding of cause and
effect. The child develops immature
concepts that Piaget called pre-concepts.

b. INTUITIVE STAGE (AGE 4-7): This

stage is called intuitive because children’s
beliefs are generally based on what they
sense to be true rather than on what logic or
rational thought would dictate. In other
words, this is the stage in which children
appear to make judgements without
conscious mental steps in their formulation.
Piaget’s research also suggested that
children see the world from their own point
of view, without considering other people’s
perspectives or view point. Thus their
action is descried as egocentric.

77
 Children at this stage i.e. pre-schoolers’
thinking can also be characterized as being
irreversible. Reversibility simply means
the ability to change direction in one’s
thinking so that one can return to a starting
point, or that objects can be arranged and
then rearranged to return to the same starting
point. As adults, for example, we know that
7 + 5 = 12, then 12-5 =7, if we add five
things to seven things and then take the five
things away (reverse what we have done),
we are left with seven things. Such
reversible mental routines are called
operations i.e. actions carried out through
logical mental process.Piaget then
discovered that children within this stage
tend to think in one direction only.
Another characteristic of the pre-
operational child’s thinking is its focus on
states. They pay attention to the state of

78
something in its present form – a limitation
in thinking about states and
transformations. These are concepts
involved in understanding that objects and
states can be transformed and rearranged.
For instance, when something is going
through some changes from one state to
another, these children cannot see the
changes from where it started to the end.
Pre-schoolers will ignore the processes or
stages and focus only on the beginning state
and the end state.
One characteristic of the pre-
schoolers’ thought that helps explain their
inability to think about state and
transformation as well as error in
conservation is centration. Centration
means paying attention to only one aspect of
an object or situation. During this period
children are not able to comprehend more

79
than one aspect of a problem. Piaget refers
to this cognitive limitation as failure to
decentre. The inability of the child to
decentre (i.e. paying attention to several or
different aspects of an object or situation
explains why they have problem in thinking
about states and transformation.
Another aspect of pre-schoolers’
thought is that it is egocentric. This is the
belief that everyone see the world exactly as
they do. In other words they generally
perceive the world only in terms of their
own perspective or view point. This explains
why children within the preoperational stage
will not listen or take adult’s correction
whenever they go wrong or make mistakes.
They always believe that what they know or
have done is the correct thing.

80
 Another characteristic of the pre-
schoolers’ thought is their inability to
recognize how objects are alike or
different. When a number of objects made
up of different colours and shapes are mixed
together, they cannot group them according
to their shape or
Colour. Piaget calls this classification.
Classification therefore refers to the
cognitive ability to understand how things fit
into categories and how these categories can
be arranged relative to each other. In simple
terms classification is the grouping of
objects or things according to certain
characteristics they possess in common.
Piaget also discovered that pre-
schoolers also had problem with ordering
or seriation. This involves the ability to
compare and then arrange objects according
to some order such as size or height. For

81
instance, when children were given a
collection of items such as pieces of wood,
tins and bottles, and were asked to line them
up ranging from the smallest to the biggest,
they fumbled. He concluded that they had
not achieved seriation.
One of Piaget’s earliest and most
important discoveries were that young
children lacked the principle of
conservation. Conservation is the
realization or knowledge that quantity or
amount remains the same when nothing has
been added to or taken away from an object
or collection of objects, although there may
be changes in form or spatial arrangement.
Thus we can talk of conservation of number,
of length, of substance, of area and of
volume. The following are examples of
activities that can be used to check
children’s ability to conserve.

82
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE (7 -
11 YEARS)
According to Piaget this is the stage of
development between ages 6 -12 when
children acquire the mental schemes of
seriation, classification and conservation
that allow them to think logically about
‘concrete’ objects i.e. things that can be seen
and touched and not abstract. They develop
skill of logical reasoning and conservation but
can use these skills only when dealing with
familiar situations because children’s cognitive
“actions” are applied to concrete objects or
events. An operation is an action that is
represented mentally. Concrete operation
children think logically about observable
concrete objects or events but have difficulty
reasoning about hypothetical (i.e. not real)
situation until they reach early adolescence
and the stage of formal operations.

83
 Children at this stage are no longer quite
so egocentric, but are beginning to see things
from another’s perspective. They can now
perform mental operations – they begin to pay
attention to and remember several features of
an object i.e. they can decentre. They can
infer changes in objects even if they do not see
these changes.
One important talk that children learn
during the concrete operation stage is to
arrange things in order according to one
attribute such as size, weight or colour. For
instance, lining up sticks from smallest to
largest. This is called seriation. Piaget claimed
that only children in the concrete operational
stage could understand seriated orders. Part of
the problem, he believed is that children must
first understand dimensions, such as size, and
rules of progressive change. Before children
can create seriated array, they need both

84
decentration and reversibility, that is to say
they need to be able to observe different
aspects or features of an object and be able to
reverse their thinking.
Children at this stage have developed a
classification scheme. They can now group
objects according to shapes or colours or
according to some characteristics the objects
possess in common. They can now recognize
relations between sets and subjects, between
the whole and parts within the whole.
Another concrete operation that children
acquire between the ages of 7 and 11 is
transitivity. Now they willl know that if we
order sticks A,B and C from largest to smallest
so that A is greater than B and B is greater
than C, then A must be greater than C. This is
a logical conclusion based on transitive
relation. Transitivity rests on understanding of
relationships between objects, it requires the

85
mental arrangement and comparison of
objects.
They develop the ability to make two
mental transformations that require
reversible thinking. The first of these is
inversion (the notion that + A is reversed by –
A), and the second is reciprocity (A < B is
reciprocated by B > A). These kinds of logical
inference are important in such subjects as
Mathematics and Science so lessons for
elementary school children in these subjects
must take into account the children’s newly
developing skills of logic.
A final ability that children acquire
during the concrete operational stage is class
inclusion. They have the ability to think
simultaneously about a whole class and a
subordinate class i.e. a set and a subset. They
can make comparisons within a class. For
instance, if we have a class of birds made up

86
of fowls, ducks, and turkey’s concrete
operational children can compare and group or
categorisee these into sub-classes of fowls,
ducks, and turkeys without mixing them.
They can do this because of their additional
tools of thinking.
Concrete operational children no longer
suffer from irreversibility of thinking and can
now recreate a relationship between a part and
the whole. Secondly their thought is
decentred, so that the child can now focus on
two classes simultaneously; their thought is
also no more egocentric etc. However, for
children to be able to achieve these abilities as
well as understanding of school work properly,
one thing is crucial. That is, the child must be
involved in some concrete experience such as
an activity, experiment, excursion or an
encounter with teaching aids. For instance,
ask a child of about 7 years of age to add 2

87
single unit numbers together. You will notice
that the child first counts his fingers or begin
to collect some stone or some counters to find
the answer. This shows that the child first
translates the abstract numbers into something
which can be seen and touched.

FORMAL OPERATIONS STAGE (11 – 15

YEARS)
Sometime around the onset of puberty
children’s thinking begins to develop into the
form characteristic of adults. According to
Piaget, this is the stage at which one’s thinking
is based on theoretical, abstract principle of
logic. It is the final period of intellectual
development and coincides pretty with the
adolescent period. The formal operational
child begins to be able to think abstractly i.e.
his thinking is not tied to observable things
and to see possibilities beyond the here-and-

88
now. These abilities continue to develop into
adulthood.
With this stage also comes the ability to
think in hypothetical terms. Thinking through
hypotheses is the ability to consider all the
logical consequences of a possible situation.
For instance “; if this is true, then x or y must
be true as well. The ability to think through
hypotheses is a powerful tool. It allows a much
deeper understanding of causes and
consequence and also enables adolescents to
argue more effectively and also plan ahead and
to make decisions.

89
 The abilities that make up formal
operational thought- thinking abstractly,
testing hypotheses, and forming concepts that
are independent of physical reality are critical
in the leaning of high-order skills. For
instance, learning algebra or abstract geometry
requires the use of formal operational
thoughts, as does understanding of difficult
concepts in science, social science and other
subjects. The development of formal
operations enables the adolescents to transfer
understanding from one situation to another
situation.
Piaget, however, stresses that when a child
reaches the formal operational stage, it does
not mean that no intellectual growth takes
place beyond adolescence. He argues that the
foundation has been laid and no new structures
need to develop; all that is needed is the
addition of knowledge and the development of

90
more complex schemes. In spite of the fact
that children at this stage begin to deal with
abstract concepts and ideas and can perform
operations like adults, they still need a lot of
practical work or practical experiences to
support their thinking.This underscores the
importance of the use of teaching and learning
materials (T.L.Ms) as teachers

IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGET’S STAGES

OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

The issue discussed with respect to the

intellectual development of children has a
number of important implications for the
classroom. These include the following:

1. The level of children’s reasoning

should determine the content, the

91
 method, teaching materials and pace
of work.

2. The teacher should be aware of the

development stage at which each
child is functioning and each should
be taught only what the child is ready
to learn at the present stage of
development.
3. The instructional method employed
should take into consideration the
ability and skills already acquired.

4. The curriculum should be planned

with the level of cognitive operations
and structures that children have
successfully attained.

5. Teachers should take every

opportunity to point out similarities,

92
 equivalents, opposite, relationships
and other group structures if they
want their pupils to acquire the art of
generalization and skill in handling
concepts in increasing complexity.

6. Teachers should act as guides

working with each child as he
interacts with the environment,
ensuring that experiences are
appropriate for the developmental
stage at which the child is
functioning.

7. Teachers should employ activity

method of teaching and other
methods that lay stress on the
importance of children manipulating
objects with widely differing
properties of texture, colour and

93
 shape. This together with discovery,
collection, classification construction
and analysis of materials are essential
for the natural development of
cognitive skills such as perceptions,
conception, memory, language,
reasoning and creativity.

The following are some of the factors that

influence how children learn and grow:

• Schemas: a schema is a kind of mental or

cognitive structure, which the child uses
as he interacts with the outside world. A
schema contains all ideas, memories and
information about a specific object that
the child associates with.
• Schema also describes both the mental
and physical actions involved in
understanding and knowing. Schemas are
categories of knowledge that aids to
interpret and understand the world. It
develops as a result of our interaction with

94
 the environment. Once the Schema is
developed. It will be applied to other
situations.

A schema
In Piaget’s view, a schema takes account of
both a category of knowledge and the process
of obtaining the knowledge. As experiences
transpire, this new information is used to
modify, add to or change previously existing
schemas. For instance, a child may be having a
schema about a type of animal, such as a dog.
If the child’s sole experience has been with
small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs
are small, furry and have four (4) legs. In case
that the child encounters a huge dog; he or she
will take in this new information, modifying
the previously existing schemas to include
these new observations.
Assimilation
Assimilation: It is the process of taking in new
information into our already existing schemas
known as assimilation. The process is a bit
subjective for the reason that we intend to
modify experiences and information slightly to
fit in with our pre-existence beliefs. In the
95
example above, seeing a dog and labelling it
“dog” is the case of assimilating the animal
into the child’s dog schema
Accommodation
• Accommodation: - 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 result of new information or new
experiences
Equilibration
1. Equilibration: Piaget believed that all
children try to strike a balance between
assimilation and accommodation, which is
achieved through a mechanism he called
equilibration. As children progress
through the stages of cognitive
development, it is important to maintain a
balance between applying previous
knowledge (accommodation). Equilibrium
helps explain how children can move
from one stage of thought into the next.

96
PIAGETIAN STAGES OF
COGNITIVE/INTELLECTUAL
Development

97
 Lesson 5
Domains of Human Development
(II) PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
By Erik Erikson
Erikson viewed human development as a
progression of eight psychosocial stages in
which the child faces a wide range of human
relationships as he grows up and has specific
problems to resolve at each of these stages.
How well the child resolves his problems at
any one stage may determine how adequate a
person he will become later and how well he
will cope with new problems. Each stage
corresponds in time to some of Freud’s
psychosexual stages. Erikson’s theory is
termed psychosocial theory because of the
initial strong influence of social circumstances
on the development of internal emotional
feelings (intrapsychic state).
Erikson identified and described the ego
qualities which emerge during critical periods
of development. These are paraphrased here
from his portrayal of the eight ages of man.

98
Stage 1: Basic Trust Versus Mistrust (Age:
0 – 18 months)
Erikson’s first stage is the stage of basic trust
versus mistrust. This period corresponds to the
oral stage of Freudian Psychosexual state of
development. Infants develop a basic trust or
mistrust of others through their relationship
with their parents. If their parents respond to
their needs, (feeding, sleep and relaxation of
their bowels) they develop social trust and
they become reluctant to let their mothers out
of sight without undue anxiety, or rage. The
degree of trust which infant develops will
depend upon the quality of the parent – child
relationship. If the child fails to develop basic
trust during this stage, a distrust of other
people may lead to unhappiness and
considerable personality difficulties in later
life.
Parents play the major role in helping the
child to form a sense of basic trust. Not only
should the parents feel and care for the child,
but they should also work to build an
affectionate and warm relationship. The child
must develop autonomy for healthy ego and
personality development to continue.
99
Stage 2: Autonomy versus Doubt or Shame
(Age: 18 months – 3years)
During this stage, children start to develop
autonomy and confidence in their abilities
when they are taught how to master tasks or do
things for themselves. If the child is made to
feel that independent efforts are wrong, by
their parent’s criticisms, then shame and self-
doubt develop instead of autonomy. This
period corresponds to Anal State of Freud’s
Psychosocial Stage.

Stage 3: Initiative versus Guilt (Age: 3 – 6

years)
Children at this stage no longer rely on others
to provide tasks for them. They initiate actions
on their own and begin to do them themselves,
and ask for help only when they need it. If
they receive encouragement and praises from
their parents they develop positive feelings and
guilt will be avoided. If their parents respond
by discouraging children’s initiative,
criticising it or ignoring the children when
they ask for help they develop a sense of guilt
about performing tasks. The guilt, if it
100
remains, can cause individuals to become
considerably over-controlled and excessively
inhibited. This period is roughly equivalent in
time to phallic stage of Freud’s psychosexual
stage.

Stage 4: Industry versus Inferiority (Age: 6

– 12 years)
This sate begins at about the age of six and
lasts until onset of puberty. Children enjoy
projects and activities involving concrete
object e.g. collecting, making and studying
objects. If their activities are approved and
regarded as worthwhile, praised and rewarded,
they develop a sense of self-worth and positive
feelings about becoming involved in activities.
One the other hand, if their projects and
activities are viewed by others as meaningless
they develop a feeling of inferiority and
negative feelings about becoming involved in
other activities. This period corresponds to
Latency Stage of Freud’s psychosexual stage.
The conflict between industry and inferiority
becomes especially strong among school
children who are often in competition with
their peers.
101
State 5: Identity versus Roles Confusion
(Age: 12 – 18 years)
This stage spans through puberty to young
adulthood and corresponds to genital stage of
Freud Psychosexual stage. Adolescents seek to
establish a realistic perception of themselves
by integrating all they know about themselves.
If their peers accept them as they are,
individuals achieve a realistic and satisfactory
self – identity. If peers reject them unless they
conform to the peers perceptions, individuals
become confused and are unable to discover
realistic and satisfactory self – identities
especially in terms of selecting a vocation or
future career.

Stage 6: Intimacy versus Isolation (Age: 18-

35-Young Adulthood)
This stage extends from early adulthood until
early middle age. Individuals at this stage seek
stable interpersonal relationships with a
spouse, friend or colleague or through
marriage. If individuals are able to share with
others and care about others and if others
respond, similarly, the individuals achieve the
102
benefits of intimate relationship. On the other
hand, if individuals are unable to care or share
or are afraid of becoming too close to others or
if the others in their life are unable to establish
intimate relationships, individuals become
isolated from close human contact.

Stage 7: Generativity versus self –

absorption or stagnation (Age: 35-50-
Middle Adulthood)
This stage corresponds to middle adulthood.
By generativity Erikson means expanding your
love and concerns beyond your own
immediate group to include society and future
generations. The concept of generativity refers
to one’s effort to be creatively productive and
useful to other people. Stagnation refers to
becoming pre – occupied with one’s own
material and physical well – being and having
no concern for society or the next generation.
At the seventh stage of Erikson’s psychosocial
development, individuals organise their
perception of the world and establish their
societal role. If they view the world as a
worthwhile place in which to live, they interact
with it and actively work to make it better for
103
succeeding generations. If they view the world
as an ugly place in which to live, they criticise
it and withdraw from it, becoming engulfed by
personal needs.

Stage 8: Ego Integrity versus Despair (Age:

50 Above-Late Adulthood)
This stage coincides with old age or later
adulthood. Individuals view their life’s
accomplishments. A life perceived as well –
spent will result in a sense of well-being and
integrity. If they perceive their past as a series
of mistakes, fruitless lives filed with lost of
opportunities they feel despair for they cannot
live life over again.

104
 LESSON 6:
MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND
MORALITY IN THE CLASSROOM
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
The expression ‘moral’ is derived from the
Latin word ‘mores’ which implies customs,
manners and folkways. Very often the terms
“moral” and “immoral” are used anyhow to
the extent that their actual meaning and
significance are often ignored.

Morality or Conscience means conformity to

a set of conventional rules for determining
one’s social actions and which has been
internalized. The concept moral development
can therefore be defined as a process of
building up a value system necessary for
making personal decisions on interpersonal
relationships. These decisions, it must be
emphasized, should not be prescriptive as is
often the case (i.e. nobody should tell do this
or don’t do that) but should help the
individuals to form personalities which

105
determine how they should behave in familiar
as well as non-familiar situations.

MORAL BEHAVIOUR
Moral behaviour means any behaviour in
conformity with the moral code of a given
social group. Usually, moral behaviour is
controlled by moral precepts. These are rules
of behaviour which members of the culture
have become familiar with over the years and
which determine the expected behaviour
patterns of all the group members.
Immoral Behaviour
Any behaviour that does not conform to the
expectations of the social group can be
referred to as immoral behaviour. Such
behaviour is not due to ignorance of what the
society expects from the individual but rather
due to disapproval of social standards.

Unmoral behaviour
Oral behaviour or non-moral behaviour is due
to ignorance of what the social group experts
rather than intentional violation of the group’s
standards. Some of the misbehaviour of
children is unmoral rather than immoral. Very
106
young children usually have no standing of the
right and wrong and cannot differentiate
between them. Their actions are therefore
described as amoral.
Young children are ignorant about the mores
set by their various societies hence cannot be
expected to behave in a truly moral way.
Members of the social group expect that by the
time the young child reaches the adolescence
stage, he should be in a position to behave in
accordance with the mores of the group. When
the adolescents fail to according to social
standards, it is not because they are ignorant of
the group expectations but generally they do
not want to conform. When behaviour is
referred to as “true morality”, then it means
that:
(a) It conforms to social standards.
(b) Individuals or members of the group carry
it out voluntarily.

107
 We shall also look at the similarities and
differences of Piagetian and Kohlberg
Moral development theories

Stages of Moral Development (Piagetian

view)
Piaget (1965) is of the view that moral
development occurs in two basic stages.
1. The “stage of moral realism” or morality by
constraint”.
2. The ‘stage of autonomous morality” or
“morality by cooperation or reciprocation”
The stage of moral realism: under this stage,
children automatically obey the rules and
regulations without reasoning or judgment.
They see their parents and other adults in the
society as people who have all the powers and
authority in this world and follow the rules and
laid down by them without questioning.
Children at this level think of the
consequences that follow a “right” or “wrong”
act. For example, an act is regarded as
“wrong” because it results in punishment from
other human beings or from natural or
supernatural forces.
108
The second stage of moral development in
Piaget’s view usually begins at age seven or
eight and extends to about age twelve or
twelve pls. since this stage confirms to
Piaget’s “stage of formal operations”, the child
can reason better and therefore judge’s
behaviour in terms of its underlying intent.
Children at this stage may ask why they should
do this or why they should not do that. They
begin to modify the rigid and inflexible
notions of right and wrong they learn from
their parents.
For instance, at the age of four-and-a half or
five a child may see lying or stealing as bad or
justified as simply “bad”, but an older child
may see lying or stealing as bad or justified
depending on the circumstances surrounding
the whole issue. An adolescent may see a lie
told to save a situation as justified whereas a
five-year-old child will see it as “bad”
irrespective of the circumstances surrounding
the situation.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Kohlberg (1975) after a series of studies on
moral development gave a new dimension to
how children develop morally. Kohlberg’s
109
research findings revealed that people cannot
be grouped under compartments and labelled,
“Honest” “cheats” or ‘rebellious’. Rather he
found out that moral character follows a
developmental trend. In other words moral
character develops.
He also discovers that moral development
occurs in a specific sequence of stages
irrespective of culture or subculture, gave a
new dimension to how children, continent or
country. Moral character is not a fixed trait. It
develops as the individual moves from one
developmental stage to the other. Literature
on the stage theory reveals that each
developmental stage is more qualitative than
the previous stage. It has a more
comprehensive mental restructuring and it is
age-related.

KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF MORAL

DEVELOPMENT.
After a critical analysis of Piaget’s two stages
of moral development Kohlberg decided to
look at moral development from three levels.
Each of these levels contains two stages. In
110
effect, he identified six stages of moral
growth, each being quite different from the
other. He derived the stages by studying the
system of thinking people actually employ in
dealing with moral questions. He posed certain
questions or moral dilemmas to the people
with different backgrounds and of different
ages to respond. His findings revealed that
their responses or answers to the questions
posed fell into six judgmental systems he
therefore based the stages of moral
development on these.
Some of the moral dilemma questions that
Kohlberg asked have been modified below to
suit our situation.
Question one
A man by name Kweku Asimanyi had a
beautiful and a caring wife. This wife suddenly
became ill with a type of sickness that could
kill her within a couple of days. The doctor,
however, told Asimanyi that, there was only
one drug that could save the wife and that drug
could be obtained from only one pharmacy
shop in the whole Region. With haste
Asimanyi went to the pharmacy shop. The
drug was there but the price was twenty
111
million cedis (gh.₡ 200,000. 00) on him. He
went back with the view to raising some loan
from his friends to purchase the drug but his
friends and other acquaintances could not help
him. He therefore went back to the druggist
and backed him to collect the two hundred
thousand cedis and gave him the drug so as to
settle the difference latter but he refused. The
pharmacist actually bought the drug in
question at only one hundred and twenty
thousand cedis (₡120,000.00) but because he
was the only one who had it in his shop and
because the drug was an important drug, he
decided to sell it at a “cut throat” price. After a
frantic effort to raise money to buy the drug or
to convince the druggist to sell on credit had
failed he became desperate and broke into the
man’s store during the night and stole the drug
for his wife who used it and got cured.
Now, the question is, should the husband have
done that?
Question Two
Kofi wanted to attend a musical festival. The
gate fee was one hundred thousand cedis
(₡100,000.00).

112
He told his father about it and the father said
Kofi could work in some factories in the
vicinity to raise one hundred thousand, then he
can use it to buy his ticket.
Later, the father had a change of mind and
demanded that after the work, Kofi should
hand over all the money to him after the work
Kofi realized one hundred and twenty
thousand cedis (₡120,000.00). He told his
younger sister Esi that even though he had that
much he will lie to the father that he has only
twenty thousand cedis (₡20,000.00) and keep
the rest for his gate fee and that was exactly
what he did. The question is, should Esi tell
their father about what Kofi had done?
One can realize that these problems are
complex and their answers are debatable
depending on the individual’s level of moral
development. It is the individual’s level that
will guide him to justify a behaviour.

113
Kohlberg’s level of Moral Development are:

(1) Pre-conventional morality:

Stages One and Two

At the pre-conventional level, the individual
makes decisions which are based on
consequences. People think of their own needs
as well as rewards and punishment. An
individual at this level can decide to seal in
order to satisfy a need. He can also decide not
to steal in order to avoid punishment if caught.

Stage 1. Punishment and Obedience

Orientation
In stage one, the individual avoids breaking
rules because it might lead to punishment.
There is a complete obedience to rules. Other
people’s interests are not taken into
consideration by the individual at this stage.

Stage 2 Instrumental Change or

Marketplace Orientation
Under this stage actions that satisfy one’s own
needs are seen as right actions. Occasionally,
other people’s needs are considered but then,
114
the help given is considered as a debt to be
collected later on. It is not done as a favour
that will yield nothing. The idea is to figure
out what is good to make trades and exchange
favours. It’s like “you scratch my back and I’ll
scratch yours”. The individual here always
tries to come out a little bit ahead on each
trade so that the feeling of “you owe me” will
be there all the time. Genuine empathy is
lacking. Stage II thinking represents a more
adequate method of problem solving but only
when compared to stage I
(2) Conventional Morality

Stages 3 and 4
The most important characteristic of the
conventional level is conformity. Maintaining
the expectations of the individual’s family,
group or nation is perceived as valuable in its
own right. The individual exhibits loyalty. An
individual here can steal if he thinks everyone
in the society is doing it. He can also decide
not to steal if he reasons that it is against the
rules of the society.
Stage 3 Conformist, or “Good Boy, Good
Girls”, Orientation
115
At stage III the individual makes moral
judgments in order to do what is nice and what
pleases others

116
117
Egocentrism is pushed to the background and
others are given a helping hand for approval.
There is empathic understanding at this stage.
Behaviour conforms strictly to what is
acceptable in the society and affection plays a
strong role.

Stage 4 Law-and Order Orientation

People under this stage show respect for
authority and try to maintain the social order.
Right behaviour consists of doing one’s duty
in addition to the above. In every society, there
are laws, rules and regulations.
These laws are put in place so as to set the
same standards of conduct for all citizens.
Moral judgments are made by individuals in
accordance with these laws and rules.
A person thinking at this level does not
consider exchanges or following the crowd in
stages II and three respectively but rather
makes decisions that are in line with the
society’s legal codes.

118
(3) Post-conventional Morality
Stages 5 and 6
People in the post conventional level make
moral decisions on the basis of individual
values. These values are internalized,
individualized and not dependent on one’s
membership in any particular group. They
behave according to their own values. An
individual here can steal because he thinks
stealing to save a wife from death will be an
achievement.
Another person may decide not to steal but
rather study hard in science, particularly
chemistry so as to become a pharmacist, open
a pharmaceutical company to help people who
may find themselves in Mr. Kweku
Asimanyi’s situation.
The individual under this stage behaves
according to a social contract. People respect
themselves as well as others in the community.
Written documents such as a country’s
constitution can be interpreted to help resolve
conflicting laws and dilemmas.

119
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle
Orientation
Stage six is the highest stage of moral
development or moral reasoning. The
individual here behaves according to a
universal principle such as justice. A right or
correct behaviour is defined as a decision of
conscience in accordance with self-chosen
ethical principles that are logical, universal
and consistent. Moral thinking or judgments at
this stage are complex, abstract and
comprehensive. Stage five and six are so close
to each other that most of the time distinctions
are difficult to be drawn.

120
The Teacher’s Role in Pupils’ Moral
Development
The teacher can assist pupils in their moral
development through the following:
1. The teaching of subjects on the timetable
which contain a lot of moral issues. For
example, Religious/Moral Education.
2. Formation of rules and regulations to guide
the behaviour of children.
3. Children should be encouraged to form and
join clubs and societies because social
relationships are important in moral
development.
4. Exposure of children to moral, or religious
issues at school, morning assembly and
worship periods.
5. Assigning leadership roles and positions of
responsibility to pupils.
6. Organization of talks and symposia on
topics which are related to moral issues.
7. Use of rewards and punishment. Rewards
and praises should be offered for good moral
conduct; rebuke and reprimand for poor
conduct. Punishment could be offered in
serious cases.

121
8. The teacher should serve as a role model.
9. Encourage children to read books, which
contain moral issues.
10. The use of guidance and counselling could
also be useful

122
 LESSON 7:
GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL
THREATS TO HUMAN GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT

GENETIC/HEREDITRYTHREATS
THE RHESUS FACTOR: This is a serious
but treatable problem that may occur during
pregnancy. This result not from a disease but
from the mother’s immune system treating the
foetus’s blood cells as if they were foreign
bodies. The Rh factor is a protein produced
by a dominant gene found on the surface of
red blood cells. Individuals with Rh factor are
said to be “Rh positive”, while those without
the Rh factor are Rh negative. Problems arise
if the father is Rh positive but the mother is Rh
negative. Their blood in this case is
incompatible. This incompatibility does not
affect a first child but may affect a second

123
child. If the first child inherits the dominant
gene, some of its Rh-positive blood cells cross
the placenta into the mother’s blood stream
just before or during birth when the infant’s
blood normally mixes with its mothers. The
mother’s body reacts by producing antibodies
to the Rh-positive cells. If a second child is
also Rh-positive, the mother’s antibodies,
which remain in her bloodstream, cross the
placenta and attack the foetus’s blood cells. If
they are ‘successful’ the baby may be born
deaf or with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, mental
retardation or may die or still birth.

PREVENTION: Treatment of the immune

response focuses on preventing the destructive
antibodies from forming. One technique is to
vaccinate the mother with Rh Immunoglobin
serum three days after the birth of her first
child or three days after termination of

124
pregnancy whether by miscarriage or abortion.
This serum destroys the Rh-positive cells that
pass from the infant’s to the mother’s
bloodstream, inhibiting the development of
antibodies that would otherwise attack the next
foetus carried.That is the vaccine prevents the
formation of Rh antibodies in the mother’s
blood and frees future pregnancies from the
risk of Rh incompatibility.

2. METABOLIC DISORDERS: This is the

inability of the body to breakdown food
nutrients for absorption into the blood stream.
The build-up of these becomes poison to the
brain. For instance, we have a condition
known as galactosemia. It is a carbohydrate
disorder and a recessive condition
characterized by inability to metabolize
galactose, a form of sugar found in milk, into
glucose, Manifestations of the syndrome can

125
include retardation, liver and kidney
dysfunction.
Another and the most common of the
genetic/metabolic disorder is a condition
known as phenylketonuria (PKU). This is a
metabolic disorder caused by a double dose of
a recessive gene. If a child inherits this gene
from both parents, his or her body will not
produce the enzyme that breaks down the
amino acid phenylalanine. High levels of this
amino acid circulating through the
bloodstream kills nerve cells, causing
irreversible brain damage. It is frequently
associated with aggressiveness, hyperactivity,
destructiveness and other disruptive
behaviours.

PREVENTION: To prevent this, couples

should have genetic counselling to prevent
their children from inheriting a disorder.

126
There should also be prevention of
consanguineous marriage i.e. marriage among
close relations. The child can also be on a
phenylalanine-free diet (this eliminates milk
and other high-protein foods).

3. CHROMOSOMAL ABNORMALITIES:
The cells of normal offspring have 46
chromosomes, 23 from each parent. In some
abnormal situations the offspring may have a
missing chromosome or an extra chromosome
or the chromosome may be 46 but not properly
arranged. Two common conditions or
abnormalities are:

DOWN’S SYNDROME: This is probably

the best-known genetic disorder (named for
the physician who first described its
symptoms). Down Syndrome children have a
distinctive appearance coupled with marked

127
mental and physical handicaps.The cause of
Down syndrome has been traced to the twenty-
first pair of chromosomes. The Down child
has an extra twenty-first chromosome, or a
piece of one. (The technical term for this is
trisomy 21, or three twenty-first
chromosomes). In rarer cases, the third twenty-
first chromosome, or part of it, is attached to
another chromosome. The real cause of
trisomy 21 is the failure of one pair of
parental chromosome to separate at
conception, resulting in the child having 47
chromosomes. The condition has been found
more often in children born to older mothers,
but some specific deleterious factors have been
suspected of causing trisomy 21 including
medication and drugs, exposure to radiation,
chemicals, or hepatitis virus, and the possible
absence of a mechanism in the mother to abort
the foetus spontaneously. Down syndrome is

128
frequently associated with specific physical
characteristic including the following:

 Short stature
 Flat, broad face with small ears and nose
 Short, broad hands with curving fingers
 Small mouth and short roof, which may
cause the tongue to protrude and may
contribute to articulation problem.
 incomplete or delayed sexual development
 Their mental development is much slower
than normal never reaching average adult
levels. Typically, their eyes are almond-
shaped, with a downward-sloping skin fold
at the inner corners.
 Heads tend to be small and rounder than
other children’s.
 Their noses are flatter
 Limps are short, and the children walk with
an awkward and flat-footed gait.

129
 They show a high rate of heart defects.
 They are more susceptible to a variety of
physical diseases and disorders including
leukemia, respiratory infection, and eye and
ear problems.
As a result of all these Down Syndromes
children run a high risk of early death.
However, this risk decreases if they survive
the first years of life.

a. TURNER’S SYNDROME: This is a

genetic disorder of females. Actually it is
hereditary disorder caused by a missing x
chromosome in females. It is also known as
gonadal aphasia. In other words girls with
Turner’s syndrome have only one x sex
chromosome. Girls with this condition are
usually small and often have extra folds of
skin on the neck, making it appear webbed.
No secondary sex characteristics develop at

130
puberty. Hence at adolescence, they do not
develop breasts or begin to ovulate and
menstruate. There may or may not be
accompanying physical signs like bow-
leggedness and abnormalities of the kidneys
and heart. A substantial number of individuals
with this problem who survive the prenatal
period and reach the new-born stage have
developmental difficulties and mental
retardation. However, hormonal treatment can
stimulate the development of secondary sex
characteristics and a more normal female
appearance but cannot cure these women’s
sterility.

C, KLINEFELTER’S SYNDROME: This is

also a hereditary disorder caused by an extra x
chromosome in males resulting in an xxy
genotype, instead of the normal male xy
genotype. In childhood, these youngsters are
phenotypically normal; that is they look like
131
normal boys but during adolescence they do
not go through the routine changes of male
puberty. They do not develop facial hair; their
voices do not become lower, their penises and
testicles do not grow. Often they develop
female curves (breast enlargement and
rounded, broad hips). They may be taller than
average, but they do not appear masculine.
Moreover, they are sterile. Hormone
treatments can make these men appear more
typically male but cannot make them fertile.

SICKLE-CELL ANEMIA: Sickle - cell (red

blood cells bent in the shape of a sickle)
provide protection from malaria, so in the
tropical regions of Africa, Central America,
and the Caribbean, where malaria is common,
the trait is adaptive. People who inherited the
sickle -cell gene from only one parent stood a
better than average chance of avoiding

132
malaria, surviving childhood, and bearing
children .Some of their children inherited the
trait, passed it on to their children, and so on
down many generations,
As a result the sickle -cell gene is
common in groups that live or once lived in
the tropics. Heterozygotes, who have inherited
the sickle-cell gene from only one parent, have
some normal and some sickled red blood cells.
The sickled-cell provides protection from
malaria, and the normal cell ensure that
sufficient oxygen is carried through the system
to various organs. But for homozygotes, who
have inherited the gene from both parents, the
gene is not adaptive at all. A double dose
causes painful disabilities. All the red blood
cells are bent in the sickle shape, move slowly,
and carry very little oxygen. The effects of a
double dose of sickle - cell vary from
individual to individual. In severe cases,

133
sickle - cells cause frequent crises, during
which the individual’s joints are painfully
swollen, heart and kidneys fail, and early death
result. In milder cases, the person experiences
frequent shortness of breath and fatigue.
Those affected can lead relatively normal life
although certain situations (especially
pregnancy and surgery) create special
complications for them.

134
PRE-NATAL ENVIRONMENTAL
THREATS

1. MATERNAL DISEASES: Foetal infection

can occur from maternal disease since the
foetus receives its nourishment from the
mother through the placenta and umbilical
cord. Disease contracted during or even before
pregnancy can act as teratogens (Any
substance, influence, or agent that cause birth
defects).The placenta protects the foetus from
most bacteria, but it cannot protect the
developing baby from viruses. These diseases
include:

I. VENERAL DISEASES: Some of the

most serious risks to the foetus are posed by
venereal, or sexually transmitted
diseases such as Gonorrhoea, syphilis, Aids
and Chlamydia. Syphilis and gonorrhoea are

135
caused by bacteria which can cross the
placenta and infect the foetus. Many people do
not develop or recognize the symptoms of
syphilis. If the disease is not detected, or if the
pregnant woman contracts syphilis in the
fourth month of pregnancy, the foetus may die.
It it lives, the baby may suffer blindness,
deafness, mental deficiency, and/or other
deformities. This can be treated by penicillin
which cross the placenta to kill the bacteria in
the foetus. It can also be prevented if a man
and a woman are both tested for syphilis
before conceiving a child.

Chlamydia is also another bacterial sexually

transmitted disease that can cause or harm
foetus during birth. The foetus of a woman
who has contracted the disease can become
infested while moving through the birth
canal.Conjunctivitis (an eye inflammation) or

136
pneumonia can result. Chlamydia also
increases the risk of prematurity and stillbirth.
The disease can also leave the woman
sterile.All these consequences can be avoided
by diagnosis followed by treatment with
specific antibiotics.
Another disease that has devastating
effects on the foetus is rubella (German
measles). If the mother contracts this virus
early in her pregnancy, her baby may suffer
from mental retardation, heart defects,
deafness, blindness and skull deformities.
Vaccinating women who have not had the
disease to stimulate the production of
antibodies, preferably at least six months
before becoming pregnant can prevent this
disease (i.e. Sterile).The disease that can be
avoided by diagnosis followed by treatment
with specific antibiotics.

137
2. MATERNAL NUTRITION/DIET: The
foetus depends directly on its mother’s food
intake through the placenta and umbilical cord.
Follows that development deficiencies can
occur when the mother has an inadequate and
poor quality diet. Both anatomical and
behavioral evidence also indicate that nutrition
affects brain developmentIt.During the first 6
months of pregnancy the most important
aspect of brain development is cell division-the
multiplication of brain cells. We are born with
all the brain cells we will ever have, and the
mature human being has about 100 billion
cells. During the last 3 months of pregnancy
(and the first 2 years of life) brain
development consists of cell growth.
In several studies, autopsies of malnourished
children revealed that their brain cells were
both small in number and in size (Brown,
1966; Naeye, Diener, &Dellinger, 1969).

138
Malnutrition during gestation or the first six
months of life hinders the development of
brain cells and can lead to as much as a 40%
deficit in their number (Smith et al 1994).
Malnourished pregnant mothers tend to have
children that weight less at birth. Premature
births, stillbirths, anaemia, threatened and
actual miscarriages are all associated with
malnutrition during pregnancy.In addition,
fetal malnutrition may disrupt hyalinization,
the process by which nerves become insulated
by a layer of myelin, which forms a fatty
sheath. Myelination increases the speed and
efficiency of neural transmission, the passage
of nerve impulses from nerve to nerve
throughout the body. Lack of such insulation is
one reason that fetal malnutrition is associated
with subsequent mental retardation.

139
2. MATERNAL ABUSE OF DRUG AND
ALCOHOL/ TERATOGENS:
Teratogens are substances that may cause
birth deficits via a toxic effect on an
embryo or foetus. E.g. Thalidomide,
mercury, alcohol, pencil lead, and paints.
Any drug taken by the mother may pass
through the placenta into the foetus’s
bloodstream. Drugs that may be good for
the mother such as the antibiotic
streptomycin and tetracycline, or meatless
of certain vitamins- can be harmful to the
foetus. Particularly drugs such as
marijuana, heroin, cocaine, thalidomide
and sedatives taken by pregnant women
are very hazardous: the drugs may impair
or damage the foetus’s central nervous
system and hence result in mental
retardation. Babies of mothers who use
heroin are themselves addicted to the drug

140
 at birth. These babies who survive go
through withdrawal symptoms similar to
those seen in adults: Restlessness,
sleeplessness, irritability, tremors and
convulsions. These symptoms make the
infants “problem babies “who are difficult
to feed, bathe, calm or cuddle.

Thalidomide, a drug which used to be

prescribed for women in the early 1950s and
the late 1960s, who had problems with
sleeplessness and nausea during the early
months of pregnancy, was found to cause
phocomelia, a physical malformation in which
the arms and/or legs do not develop and the
hands or feet grow directly from the body.
Because their mothers had taken the drug,
8000 babies were born with serious
malformations (Schardein, 1976).

141
Scientists now know that alcohol and nicotine
are teratogens, and, like heroin they affect a
child’s behaviour as well as physical
development. In recent years, evidence has
mounted that both heavy and moderate
drinking of alcohol on the part of the mother
may affect her child. Alcohol cross the
placental membrane almost immediately,
enters the blood stream and remains there for a
considerable period, depressing central
nervous system activity. Babies of alcohol
mothers often suffer from foetal alcohol
syndrome fas) which refers to a collection of
troubling problems that includes:
(a) Mental retardation, poor motor
development, hyperactivity, and limited
attention span.
(b) Retarded growth, both before birth and
throughout childhood even with an adequate
appetite.

142
(c) Atypical facial appearance, including
short eyelids, low nasal bridge, short nose,
narrow upper lip, small chin and trooping
eyelids.
In general, the effect of a drug depends on
TIMING, on when during gestation the
embryo or foetus is exposed. There are critical
periods for the development of the various
physical structures and organs. These are times
when these structures are most vulnerable to
drugs (teratogens). Drugs are generally most
dangerous in the embryonic period, when the
basic structure of the baby is developing.
During this period drugs can lead to
spontaneous abortion, deformed arms or no
arms, deformed legs or no legs.

4. AGE OF MOTHER: Studies show that

the ideal time for mothers to give births is
between ages 20 – 35. Child mortality rates

143
 are higher if mothers are below 20 and
over 35 years. Complications in either
labour or pregnancy could be due to the
inadequate development of the
reproductive system in some younger
women and to progressive decline in the
reproductive functioning in some older
women. Older women normally give birth
to smaller babies whose weights are far
below normal. Women approaching their
menopause in their late forties frequently
have endocrine disorders slowing down the
development of the embryo and foetus
causing such developmental irregularities
as mongolism, cretinism and heart
malformation.
5. IRRADIATION: Exposure to high levels
of radiation cause dangerous and lethal
(death) chromosome damage and cancer in
unborn children. Miscarriages and

144
 stillborn babies are other consequences of
exposure to high levels of radiation. Even
low levels of radiation, such as dental x-
rays, are risky, and pregnant women should
avoid them.
Studies conducted after atomic bombs were
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945 provide the proof. It was discovered
that not one of the pregnant survivors who
were within a mile of the blast gave birth to
a live infant. Seventy-five percent of those
within 4 miles of the explosion had
miscarriages or stillborn babies, and many
surviving infants suffered serious
deformities and leukaemia (Steinberg et al
1991).

6. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS: It has

also been found that environmental teratogens
that come from industrial pollutants such as

145
mercury and lead, especially in large amounts,
can cause severe birth defects. Infants of
pregnant women who were
exposed to mercury pollution suffered from
extreme deformation and mental retardation
along with other neurological impairments.
Lead had long been known to be toxic to
children and adults. Lead poising can cause
damage to the central nervous system resulting
in cerebral palsy and mental retardation. Other
effects of lead poisoning include
gastrointestinal disturbances such as
vomiting, anorexia (an eating disorder in
which young people may starve themselves)
convulsions, drowsiness and irritability.

7. ATTEMPTED ABORTION: A woman

may resent her pregnancy due to a number of
reasons: economic difficulty, interference with
educational or vocational plan etc. In view of

146
this she may decide to abort the pregnancy
using orthodox and unorthodox means.If the
abortion fails it can have deleterious effect on
the developing baby especially if it occurs
within the embryonic period of pregnancy
when the major organs such as the brain, the
spinal cord are developing. Attempted
abortion can therefore result in brain damage
leading to mental retardation, physical
deformity, visual impairment etc. and can even
result in barrenness’ on the part of the woman
due damage to the womb or uterus.
8. MOTHER’S EMOTIONAL
STATE/ANXIETY. It has been found that a
woman’s emotions could affect her
pregnancies. Anxious women are more likely
to have pregnancies marked by pronounced
vomiting, toxaemia (illness affecting pregnant
women, causing water retention, high blood
pressure and if not treated, death) and other

147
problems. Anxious women have a higher risk
of premature deliveries and their new-borns
may be as nervous as they are – they fidget,
irritable and difficult to soothe. The questions
one can ask are; how can emotions influence
the baby’s development and postnatal
behaviour? And how is the mother’s anxiety
transmitted to the foetus? One possibility is
that anxiety may cause chemical changes in
her mother (increased adrenaline, flow or
example) and that these chemicals may pass
through the placenta to the foetus.
Another possible explanation to the above
questions is that the same genetic factors that
cause here baby to be anxious during
pregnancy may also cause her baby to be
irritable at birth. The baby inherits
nervousness from her mother). A third
explanation is that the environmental stresses
such as poverty, poor marriage, no marriage,

148
or other conflicts that made her anxious may
affect the baby as well.

149
9. SMOKING: Evidence that smoking has
harmful effects on the embryo and foetus
began to build in the 1940s and 1950s. Women
who smoke excessively increase their risk of
spontaneous abortion or stillbirth by 30 to 50%
and even full-term babies of smokers have
lower than average birth weights.
 Like alcohol, nicotine in cigarette has
long-term effects on children’s
behaviours.
 Maternal smoking is also found to be
associated with poor intellectual and
social development at age seven years.
 Studies also reveal that amount of
cigarette the pregnant mother smoked
during pregnancy was related to levels of
hyperactivity at age 7 (children who are
usually restless and unable to focus on any
given activity for long) at age seven and
also affects the attention of children born
to such mothers.
 Smoking by pregnant mother has again
been discovered to increase the chance of
the placenta separating from the womb
too soon thereby causing miscarriage.

150
  Many people who disapprove of alcohol
and cigarettes may think of having a cup
of coffee to increase energy, but the
caffeine in coffee (as well as in tea,
chocolate, and colas) is just as much a
drug as the nicotine in cigarettes.
Although caffeine does not cross the
placenta as it does in alcohol, it is found
in the urine and plasma of newborns.
However, there is no evidence at present
that caffeine causes birth defects in
newborn babies.
 New evidence suggests that the amount of
coffee a woman consumes before she
becomes pregnant can affect her child.
Jacobson,(1983) found that the more
coffee a mother had consumed, the more
likely that her newborn will be low in
birth weight and alertness, and high in
arousal and irritability.

PERI- NATAL THREATS

Peri-natal threats refer to a number of
problems during the delivery of a baby that

151
may cause damage or result in any form of
deformity. They include the following:

 INAPPROPRIATE OXYGEN
SUPPLY: One of two general types of
problems during birth that can result in
mental retardation or death of the baby is
anoxia or asphyxia. This refers to lack
of oxygen in the foetus. Hence in anoxia
the baby is deprived of adequate oxygen
supply for a period long enough to cause
brain damage, thereby reducing mental
functioning. Anoxia can also be the result
of lack of oxygen to the pregnant woman
due to mere drawing, accidental
suffocation, carbon monoxide poison and
abnormal foetal presentation.

UNUSUAL BIRTH PRESENTATION:

Inappropriate birth presentation of the foetus

152
can result in physical trauma or mechanical
injury and anoxia. Physical trauma refers to
some occurrence during birth that injures or
damages the baby so as to impair mental
functioning causing mental retardation.
 When labour begins the most favourable
position is head first and the face of the
baby turning towards the mother’s back.
Both mechanical injury and anoxia can
result from abnormal foetal presentation.
One well-known abnormal position is
breach presentation, which occurs when
the buttocks rather than the head present
first.
 The transverse position is another
abnormal foetal position presenting severe
problems including mechanical injury and
anoxia. In this presentation the foetus lies
across the birth canal. Here again oxygen

153
 deprivation can happen if delivery is not
completed quickly.

PREVENTION
Preventive measure against each of the threats
above should include the following.

1. PERSONAL HYGIENE: Parent should

practise personal hygiene, especially
during pregnancy to avoid contracting
certain virus borne diseases which are
difficult to control and which can affect
the embryo or the foetus. This point is
worth considering since an unhealthy
mother will give birth to unhealthy baby

2. QUALITY DIET: Balanced diet is a

prerequisite for proper growth and
development. Therefore the quality and
quantity of the mother’s diet during

154
 pregnancy is very essential. Pregnant
mothers must be fed on balanced diet or
diet sufficiently rich in food nutrients and
in sufficient quantities. Since the embryo
or the foetus receives its nourishment from
the mother through the placenta, it stands
to reason that if the mother’s diet contains
rich food nutrients it will enhance proper
growth and development of the foetus.

3. GENETIC COUNSELLING: Genetic

counsellors are physicians, usually
obstetrician/ gynaecologists, who advise
couples on the likelihood that they will
conceive a child with a genetic
defect.Couples who already have a child
with a genetic disorder, whose relatives
have a genetic disorder, who come from an
ethnic group known to be at risk, or who
have suffered spontaneous abortions are

155
 advised to seek genetic counselling. The
counsellor begins by taking the couple’s
family histories, including causes of death
of close family members. If there is reason
to suspect that a genetic defect runs in one
or both families, the counsellor will
recommend tests to determine whether
these individuals are carriers. Tissue
samples from the would-be parents are
used to produce a profile of each spouse’s
chromosome, called karyotype. Carrier of
sickle-cell anaemia, Tay-Sach haemophilia
and other disorders can be identified
through chromosomal test conducted on
the couples. Based on the test genetic
counsellors can inform a couple of their
risk of bearing a child with a genetic
disorder.
.

156
4. PRESCRIBED DRUGS: Since many drugs
are harmful and dangerous to the embryo or
foetus, pregnant women should abstain from
self-medication, especially during the three
months of pregnancy, unless the drugs is
essential to their health. To avoid putting their
children at risk, pregnant women should only
take in drugs that have been prescribed by a
qualified physician and go strictly by the
prescription.

5. REGULAR VISIT TO ANTENATAL

CLINIC: Pregnant women should be visiting
antennal clinic regularly or periodically to
check on the state of their pregnancy and for
any necessary advice or recommendation that
can be helpful to the woman. For instance,
medical personnel recommend a drug or kind
of food the pregnant woman should eat at
certain time of pregnancy.

157
6. PHYSICAL EXERCISE: Mothers should
engage in physical exercise to strengthen them
for childbirth. Physical exercise ensures
healthy body, which in turn fosters easy and
safe birth.

FOOD TABOOS: In certain cultures it is a

taboo for pregnant women to eat some kind of
food items, which incidentally happen to be
highly nutritious. These taboos should be
discouraged.

LESSON 8:
CONCEPT OF LEARNING AND
LEARNING STYLE; VAK LEARNING
MODEL AND EDUCATIONAL
IMPLICATIONS
158
THE CONCEPTS OF LEARNING AND
LEARNING STYLES
THE CONCEPT OF LEARNING:
According to Kolb (1984), learning is the
process whereby knowledge is created through
the transformation of experiences. Knowledge
results from the combination of grasping
experience and transforming it. Kolb (1984,
pg. 41)
What are learning styles?
The term “learning styles” speaks to the
understanding that every student learns
differently. Technically, an individual’s
learning style refers to the preferential way in
which the student absorbs, processes,
comprehends and retains information. For the
purpose your level, this lecture will be too
limited to only VAK learning styles.
In other to understand VAK learning styles
better, let me pause to study the images below.

VAK learning styles

159
FIG. 1

160
FIG. 2

FIG. 3

161
FIG. 5

VAK LEARNING MODEL AND

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
The VAK learning styles forms a model of
learning designed by Walter Burke Barbe and

162
later developed by Neil Fleming. The VAK
learning model divides people into three
categories of learners:
1. The Visual
2. Auditory
3. Kinesthetic learning styles model
provides a simple way to explain and
understand learning styles. The VAK
learning style uses the three main sensory
receivers (Vision Auditory, and Kinesthetic)
to determine a person’s dominant or
preferred learning style.
Visual learners absorb information by
sight. Auditory learners absorb
information by sound while kinesthetic
learners absorb information by tactile
learning where student carries out physical
then listening to a lecturer or watching
demonstrations.
People predominantly learn using one style –
whether vision, auditory or kinesthetic.
163
Though every learner often incorporates
elements of the other two styles, they are
likely to achieve maximum benefits from
learning by focusing on their primary style.
In other words no one has exclusively one
single style or preference. Learners use all
three methods to receive information.
However, one or more of these receiving styles
is normally dominant. This preferred style
defines the best way for a person to learn or
receive information by determining what is to
be learned. But this style may not always be
the same for some tasks. The learner may
prefer one style of learning for one task, and a
combination others for a different task.
According to the VAK model, most people
possess a dominant or preferred learning style.
However, some people possess a mixed and
evenly balanced blend of the three styles.
According to VAK theorists, we need to
present information using all three styles. This
allows all learners the opportunity to become
164
involved, no matter what their preferred style
may be.
VAK LEARNING STYLES
Learning Style Description
Visual Seeing and reading
Auditory Listening and
Kinesthetic speaking
Touching and doing

DISTICNTIVE CHARACRISTICS OF
VISUAL LEARNERS
(Learn By Seeing and Writing)
Visual learning style involves the use of seen
or observed things, including pictures,
diagrams, demonstrations, displays, hand out,
films, flip-charts etc. Visual learners absorb
information primarily by seeing it or by
visualizing it mentally- They
 Are imaginative and can easily picture
complete scenarios, images or ideas
without reference

165
 Enjoy art, aesthetics and the written
words.
 Are excellent at spelling
 Take frequent notes
 May struggle with verbal instructions
 Revise well using colour coordination,
mind maps and flash cards.
 Love graphs, maps, diagrams, flow chats
and written instructions
 Find themselves easily distracted by
visual stimuli such as sitting beside a
window or being bombarded with pop ups
on a computer.
 Relate most effectively to written
information, notes, diagrams and pictures.
 Can be verbal (see words) or pictorial
( see pictures)
 Remember faces but not names
 Think in pictures, use colour
 Resort to facial expression to show their
emotions.
 May be good writers, journalists, graphic
design.

166
 DISTICNTIVE CHARACRISTICS
OF AUDITORY LEARNERS
(Learn by listening)

Auditory learning styles involve the transfer of

Information through listening to the spoken
word, of self or others of sound and noises.
Auditory learners absorb information primarily
by hearing it. They:

 Love verbal instructions and follow them

easily
 Are sensitive to tone of voice, pitch and
rhythm
 Understand and process information by
talking it through
 Would rather record a lesson or lecture
than take notes
 Are good at oral presentations
 Learn better with music on provided that
it is not distracting
 Thrive in group and panel discussions

167
  Are easily distracted by auditory stimuli
such as background noise or being spoken
to.
 Learning from spoken instruction
 Written information has little meanings
until it has been heard.
 Write lightly and it is not always legible.
 Talk while they write
 Remember names and forget faces
 Get distracted by noise
 Remember by listening especially with
music
 May be good speakers, and specialize in
law or politics.

DISTICNTIVE CHARACRISTICS OF
KINESTHETIC LEARNERS (Learn by
doing)
Kinesthetic learning involves physical
experience -touching, feeling, holding, and
doing practical hands-on experiences.
Kinesthetic learners absorb information

168
primarily through movement in a physical
way. They;
 Are good at hands -on problem solving.
 Are physically coordinated and good at
sports.
 Enjoy expressing themselves physically
and may engage in performing arts or
dance.
 Struggle with overly abstract or
conceptual topics
 Have a good sense of direction
 Excel at practical subjects such as
construction, cooking and engineering
 May be restless or fidgety in the
classroom.
 Learn through touch and movement in
space
 Remember what was done not seen or
talked about.
 Enjoying physical games

169
VAK LEARING STYLE: THEIR ROLE IN
EDUCATION
The best way of lesson planning for a
successful class should ideally incorporate
activities that facilitate all three learning styles
to cater for the needs of all pupils. For
instance, reading textbooks and writing notes
to satisfy the visual learner, explaining a topic
aloud to the class for auditory learners and
practical activities for the kinesthetic learners.
If possible combine all three styles into
activities.
As every pupils learns by using all three styles;
not just their dominant one, providing for all
three in your lessons will create a rich
educational environment for your pupils.

LESSON 9
170
KOLB’S LEARNING AND
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
KOLB’S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
THORY
David A. Kolb, a professor of Organizational
Behaviour at Case Western Reserve University
is credited with launching the learning style
movement in the early 70s and is perhaps one
of the most influential learning models
developed. He published his model in 1984.
He was inspired by the work of Kurt Lewin,
who was a gestalt Psychologist in Berlin.

Kolb’s learning theory sets out four distinct

learning styles, which are based on a four -
stage learning cycle. In this respect Kolb’s
model differs from others because it offers
both a way to understand individual learning
styles, which he named as “learning style
inventory (LSI), and also an explanation of a
cycle of experiential learning which applies to
all learners.

Thus, Kolb’s Learning Theory works on two

levels: a four - stage cycle of learning and

171
four separate learning styles. Kolb’s theory
has a holistic perspective which includes
experience, perception, cognition and
behavior.

BASIS OF KOLB’S EXPERIENTIAL

LEARNING MODEL
NOTE: Experiential means relating to or
resulting from experience while experimental
means relating to or based on experiment.
Kolb uses the term “Experiential” as his theory
is based more on reflection of experiences.
While others use “experimental- base
techniques that requires learners to test
hypothesis (experiment) about content
knowledge. Kolb’s learning model is based on
two continuums that form a quadrant.

172
 Feeling
Continuum

Doing Processing Continuum

Watching
Perception

Thinking

173
  Processing Continuum: Our approach to
a task such as preferring to
learn by doing or watching.
 Perception Continuum: Our emotional
response, such as preferring to
learn by thinking or feeling.

KOLB’S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

CYCLE
This matrix provides a learning cycle that must
be present for learning to occur. Note that this
part of Kolb’s model is more useful in the
sense that rather than trying to pinpoint a
learning style, he provides a model of learning
programme. Kolb called this experiential
learning style since experience is the source of
learning and development (1984). Each ends
of the continuums (modes) provides a step in
the learning process.
174
 Concrete
Experience
Feeling
Continuu

Active
Reflective
m

Experimentatio Processing Continuum

Observation
n
Watching
Perception

Doing

Abstract
Conceptualizatio
n
The learning cycle basically involves
Thinking four
stages namely concrete learning, reflective
observation, abstract conceptualization and
175
active experimentation. Effective learning can
be seen when the learner progresses through
the cycle. The learner can also enter the cycle
at any stage of the cycle with logical sequence.

The first stage is concrete learning, where the

learner encounters a new experience or
interprets an existing experience. This is
followed by the next stage called reflective
observation, where the learner reflects on the
experience on a personal basis. After then
comes abstract conceptualization, where the
learner forms new ideas or modifies existing
abstract ideas based on the reflections arising
from reflective observation stage. Lastly, the
active experimentation stage is where the
learner applies the new ideas to his
surroundings to see if there are any
modifications in the next appearance of the
experience. This second experience becomes
the concrete experience for the next cycle,
beginning at the first stage. This process can

176
happen over a short or long time. This process
can be seen from the diagram bellow.

Concrete experience

Active Experimentation
Reflective Observation

Abstract
Conceptualization

Kolb’s experiential learning style theory is

typically represented by a four-stage learning
cycle in which the learner “touches all the
bases”

177
1. CONCRETE EXPERIENCE: A new
experience or situation is encountered, or are
interpretation of existing experience
2. REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION OF
THE NEW EXPERIENCE: Of particular
importance are any inconsistencies between
experience and understanding.
3. ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALIZATION:
Reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a
modification of an existing abstract concept
(the person has learned from other experience)
4. ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION: The
learner applies the idea (s) to the world around
to see what happens.
Effective learning is seen when a person
progresses through a cycle of four stages: (1)
having a concrete experience followed by (2)
observation of, and reflection on that
experience which leads (3) to the formation of
abstract concepts (analysis) and
generalizations (conclusions) which are then

178
(4) used to test hypothesis in future situations,
resulting in new experiences.
Kolb (1984) views learning as an integrated
process with each stage being mutually
supportive of and feeding into the next. It is
possible to enter the cycle at any stage and
follow it through its logical sequence.
However, effective learning only occurs when
a learner can execute all four stages of the
model. Therefore, no one stage of the cycle is
effective as a learning procedure on its own.
KOLB’S
LEARNING STYLES
Kolb’s learning style theory (1984) sets out
four learning styles which are based on a four-
stage learning cycle described above. Kolb
explains that different people naturally prefer a
single different style.
According to Kolb, various factors influence a
person’s preferred style. For example, social
environment, education experience or basic

179
cognitive structure of the individual are some
of the factors that have been found to influence
a preference for a particular style.
Whatever influences the choice of style, the
learning style preference itself is actually the
product of two pairs of variables or two
separate “choices” that we make, which Kolb
presented as lines of an axis, each with
conflicting “modes at either end
A typical presentation of Kolb’s two
continuum is that the west -east axis is called
the “processes continuum” (i.e. how we
approach a task), and the north-south axis
called the perception continuum (i.e. our
emotional responses, how we think or feel
about it)
Kolb believed that we cannot perform both
variables on a single axis at the same time (e.g.
think and feel). Our learning styles are a
product of these two choices decisions.

180
 Kolb theorized that the four combinations of
perceiving and processing determine one of
four learning styles of how people prefer to
learn. Kolb believes that learning styles are not
fixed personality traits, but relatively stable
patterns of behavior based on their background
and experiences. Thus they can be thought of
more as learning preference rather than styles.
Concrete
Experience
Feeling

Diverging
feel and
Active watch
Continuu

Experiment
Active Done
Reflective
m

Experimentatio Processing Continuum

Observation
n
Converging Watching
Perception

Doing
Think and do
Assimilating
think and
watch

Abstract
Conceptualizatio
n
Thinking

181
LEARNING STYLE DESCRIPTION
Knowing a person’s (and your own learning
style) enables learning to be oriented
according to the preferred method. Here are
brief descriptions of four Kolb’s learning
styles.
1. DIVERGING: (Feeling and Watching)
[Concrete Experience +Reflective
Observation]
 These people are able to look at things
from different perspectives
 They are sensitive. They prefer to watch
than do, tendering to gather information
and use imagination to solve problems
 They are best at viewing concrete
situations from several different
viewpoints. Kolb’ called this style
divergent because people perform better
in situations that require ideas generation,
for example brainstorming.

182
  People with a divergent learning style
have broad cultural interest and like to
gather information
 They are interested in people, tend to be
imaginative are emotional, and tend to be
strong in the arts.
 People with divergent learning style prefer
to work in groups, to listen with open
mind and to receive personal feedback.

ASSIMILATING: (Watching + Thinking)

[Abstract conceptualization-Reflective
Observation]
 The assimilating learning preference
involves a concise, logical approach
 Ideas and concepts are more important
than people.
 These people require good, clear
explanation rather than a practical
opportunity
 They excel at understanding wide ranging
information and organizing it in a clear
logical format. ``

183
 People with an assimilating learning style
are less focused on people and more
interested in ideas and abstract concepts.
 People with this learning style are
attracted to logically sound theories than
approaches based on practical value.
 This learning style is important for
effectiveness in information and science
careers.
 In formal learning situations, people with
this learning style prefer readings,
lectures, exploring analytical model, and
having time to think things through.

CONVERGING: (Doing + Thinking)-

[Abstract Conceptualization+ Active
Experiment]

184
 People with converging learning style can
solve problems and well use their learning
to find solutions to practical issues.
 They prefer technical tasks, and less
concerned with people and interpersonal
aspects.
 People with converging learning style are
best at finding practical uses for ideas and
theories.
 They can solve problems and make
decisions by finding solution to questions
and problems.
 People with converging learn style like to
experiment with new ideas, to stimulate,
and to work with practical applications.
 People with converging learning style are
more attracted to technical tasks and
problems than social or interpersonal
issues.
 A converging learning style enables
specializations and technological abilities.

185
ACCOMMODATING (Doing + Feeling)-
[Concrete Experiment + Active
Experiment]
 The accommodating learning style is
‘’hands-on” and relies on intuition rather
than logic.
 These people use other people’s analysis
and prefer to take a practical experiential
approach.
 They are attracted to new challenges and
experiences, and to carrying out plans
 They commonly act on “gut” instinct
rather than logical analysis.
 People with accommodating learning style
will tend to rely on others for information
than
 They are attracted to new challenges and
experiences, and to carry out plans
 -They commonly act on “gut” instinct
rather than logical analysis.
 -People with accommodating learning
style will tend to rely or others for
information than carry out their own
analysis
186
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Kolb proposes that experiential learning has
six main characteristics. Leaning is best
conceived as a process, not in terms of
outcomes. Learning is a continuous process
grounded in experience.
The following are some characteristics of
experiential learning:
 Learning is best conceived as a process,
not in terms of outcomes.
 Learning is a continuous process
grounded in experience.
 Learning requires the resolution of
conflicts between dialectically opposed
modes of adaptation to the world (learning
is by its very nature full of tension)
 Learning is a holistic process of
adaptation to the world.
 Learning involves transactions between
the person and the environment.
 Learning is the process of creating
knowledge that is the result of transaction
187
 between social knowledge and personal
knowledge.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF
THE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
THEORY
Are that Experiential Learning Theory:
 Helps teachers develop more appropriate
learning opportunities for target learners.
 Helps teachers design activities that will
give opportunity to learners to learn in
ways that suit the learner’s learning style;
and
 Focuses on activities that enable learners
to go through each of the four stages of
the experiential learning cycle.

Concrete experience

188
Active Experimentation
Reflective Observation

Abstract
Conceptualization

ADVANTAGES OF EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING
Experiential learning is an active, learner-
centric methodology where learners put
knowledge and skills to use in a meaningful
and relevant fashion. It is not enough to have
knowledge, you have to understand how, when
and why to use it. Here are five distinct
189
advantages that experiential learning has over
traditional classroom, instructor-centric
methods.

1. Ability to immediately apply knowledge:

Experiential learning is an opportunity for
leaner’s to apply what they have been taught to
solve real- word challenges. Learners test their
understanding of underlying principles,
process and procedures and can experiment
and adapt their practice to achieve best
outcomes.

2. Access to real-time coaching and feedback:

Achieving expertise requires practice and
focused coaching based on what is observed
during practice. Every experiential learning
activity should include a debriefing session
where learners receive feedback and watching
from experts and fellow team members.
3. Promotion of Teamwork and
communication skills.

190
4.Accomplishment are obvious: Learners can
improve and know they have improved, in as
little as an hour because of the feedback loop
created by problem solving, feedback and
practicing again. In a traditional classroom
setting, learners often do not know if they are
in the path to success until they take an exam
and get a score.

4. Development of Reflective Practice

habits: The gold standard in education
is the person who can self-monitor the
effectiveness of his plans, anticipate
outcomes and develops contingency
plans. We often refer to these people as
experts because they have had more
experiences and have received more
coaching than a non-expert and have
incorporated certain thinking disciplines
into everyday practice.

LESSON 10
MOTIVATION AND REINFORCEMENT
191
MOTIVATION IN LEARNING:
DEFINITION: The term motivation is
derived from the Latin verb “motere” which
means, “to move” Accordingly it is concerned
with the question “What moves man” why do
we behave the way we do? Motivation can
therefore be defined as an urge or drive that
pushes us to behave the way we do.
It is process of inducing or arousing
activity in a person.
It is the driving force behind all human
activity or behaviour and it pushes us to
behave in a particular way.
It explains why one child works hard
at many things and continues to work
even in a face of difficulty whereas
another child is lazy and has little interest
and fails to work in the face of difficulty.

192
 Motivation to a large extent
determines the direction and efficiency of
learning.

Motivation has three important

characteristics:
i. It energizes i.e. activations and sensitises
the organism towards certain stimuli.
ii. It directs the organism’s behaviour
towards certain goals.
iii. It reinforces behaviour that is effective
in the attainment of desired goals.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION
There are two main types of motivation that
can be used to promote learning in the
classroom. These are: (a) intrinsic and (b)
extrinsic motivation
1. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: - Intrinsic
motivation unlike extrinsic one goes deep

193
down into our personality. They are those
factors that help the individual to learn without
any external force. The individual does
something not because of any external
influence but because of the satisfaction, he
drives from that activity. Intrinsic motivation
has its emphasis on interest and excitement.
The pupil tends to learn without external push
just interested in the learning. It makes
learning enjoyable and has more effects that
are lasting even after school.
Intrinsic motivation works better with adults
than with children. For instance, a sixth former
whose ambition is to become a medical doctor
in future will be more interested and serious to
study subjects like chemistry and biology
without necessary being told or advised to
learn. The fact that he cherishes the medical
profession is enough to cause him to learn
persistently until he has written and passed the

194
examination with grades that will enable him
to pursue medicine at the University.

The satisfaction one derives from an

activity can be grouped into:

i. Inborn patterns of behaviour - curiosity,

interest, anxiety etc.
ii. Biological needs – the need for food,
water, rests etc.
iii. Psychological needs – the need for safety,
social recognition, esteem, affection etc.
iv. Cognitive need – the need for knowledge
and understanding.

When taking about motivation just

like any other factor in learning there is no
hard and fast line separating the two. The
two fall along the line of a continuum and
a particular behaviour could be more or

195
 less inclined towards one side. What is
more importance for our purpose is to
understand that children learn better when
they are sufficiently motivated or aroused.
Motivation is therefore central to all
purposeful learning. No learning is
possible without adequate motivation. So
teachers should use the best technique
they can think of to ensure maximum
motivation

2. EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION: - This is

the one that is externally generated by
teachers, parents, siblings and other adults
by making use of both tangible and
intangible items. Particularly in the
school, the most common externally
imposed motivation is the use of rewards
and punishment. When wisely used, both

196
can be effective and stimulating. Rewards
can be of many kinds. Some teachers give
tangible items like books, sweet etc. to
their children for good work. Some offer
praises or write word s of commendation
in their exercise books or in their school
reports. In the same way, punishment can
take many forms. Corporal punishment,
however, should be avoided as this
normally leads to antagonising attitudes.
But non-physical punishment such as
verbal rebukes, giving a child extra duties
in and around the school, withholding of
privileges can also be used.
Two principles to be observed are
first that external motivation should be
based on a good teacher-pupil
relationship, and secondly, that rewards
and punishment should be appropriate to
the age and character of the individual.

197
For instance, tangible items such as toffee
etc. serve better with primary school
children and work better with children
from low social-economic background.
Conversely, there is no point in giving
those tangible items to adult students who
despise them and it is doubtful if a
straightforward beating will have any
effect upon a child already hardened to
physical punishment. The use of rewards,
however, should be judicious and sparing
in the sense that if they become
superfluous they lose their value.

TECHNIQUES TO MOTIVATE
CHILDREN: - Learning is a difficult task
and presents a burden to the learner or
pupils. To lessen the burden of learning
and to encourage the learner to learn,

198
 teachers have to device ways of
motivating children to learn. The
following are some of the ways by which
the learner can be motivated to learn.

 INTEREST: Teachers should make their

lesson more interesting so as to arouse the
curiosity or the interest of their pupil/
students. This will give them intrinsic
desire to learn
 PARTICIPATION: - Teachers should
encourage their pupils to participate in
their lesson. It means that children should
be activity involved through
dramatisation, experiments and other class
exercises.
 ATTENTION: - Teachers should arouse
the attention of pupil/ students by starting
the lesson with something new or unusual,
maintain this attention through a variety

199
 of ways-stimulus variation (eg. Changing
voice, picture etc.)
 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: -
Teachers should provide for individual
differences by making room for different
level for aspiration and encourage
students to strive for levels of
performance suitable for their abilities.
This can be achieved through the use of
differentiated materials, activities and
project for student of different abilities,
interest and ambitions.
 COMPETITION: - Use group and team
competition as incentives rather than
individuals competition against each other
in class. Why do you think this is so?
 REARRANGEMENT: - Teachers should
offer praises and encouragement often,
particularly for average and lower

200
 students as well as introverts who lack
self-assurance and self-confidence.
 FEEDBACK: - Teachers should inform
pupils/ student regularly on how they are
doing in the course of teaching after
pupils have been given assignments, class
exercises, projects etc. The teacher should
use positive comments as much as
possible.
Reinforcement
This is an event the occurrence of which
increases the probability that a stimulus
will, on subsequent occasions, evoke a
response. The procedure of pairing
conditioned stimulus (CS) and
unconditioned stimulus (US) in Pavlov’s
experiment is called reinforcement because
any tendency for the conditioned response
(CR) to appear is facilitated by the
presence of the US and the response to it.

201
 Reinforcement can be positive or
negative.

A positive reinforcer is a stimulus, like a

piece of food or a sum of money that is
given when a desired response from an
organism is produced. A positive reinforcer
when presented in a given situation
increases the likelihood that a response will
reoccur.
A positive reinforcer strengthens or
maintains the response.

There are primary and secondary positive

reinforcers. Primary positive reinforcers
are based on drives such a warmth, food
and water which are very important for the
individual’s survival. Secondary positive
reinforceer include socially derived

202
motives such as money, prestige, self –
esteem, and so on.

A negative reinforcer is a stimulus which

the learner will readily terminate if given
the opportunity to do so. Negative
reinforcer strengthens response if it is
removed or withdraw from a given
situation when the response occurs. Simple
escape training, for example, is a clear case
of negative reinforcement at work. The
individual does something to avoid
something.
Similarly, social disapproval or
condemnation by members of a peer group
is another example of negative
reinforcement. Negative reinforcer
generally include unpleasant (aversive)
stimuli such as loud noise, very bright
light, extreme heat or cold.

203
 Negative reinforcer is not the same as
punisher, punisher is an unpleasant
stimulus which follows a response and
decreases the likelihood of a response
being repeated whereas negative reinforcer
precedes the response and forces its
occurrence to terminate the unpleasant
condition. For example, if disapproval or
other annoying stimulation (unpleasant
condition) follows immediately after
behaviour, punisher has taken place. In
contrast, when disapproval or scolding is
directed at an individual in an effort to
force behaviour to occur and the individual
behaviour can terminate this disapproval,
negative reinforcer has been used.

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES
Schedules of reinforcement are very
important because they affect learning,
204
forgetting and extinction. The teachers
should therefore be aware of these effects.
There are two main types of reinforcement
schedules namely non intermittent and
intermittent. Non intermittent consists of a
continuous schedule where every response
is reinforced, and extinction schedule
where no response is reinforced as
demonstrated in Skinner’s operant
conditioning experiment with hungry rat.
An Intermittent Schedule may call for
reinforcement at either regular or variable
intervals of time. Another pattern is to
reinforce only after so many responses
have been made.

There are four basic intermittent schedules

namely Fixed Interval (FI), Variable
Interval (VI), Fixed Ratio (FR) and
Variable Ratio (VR).

205
 Fixed Interval (FI)
Reinforcement is given only after a fixed
time interval. This kind of schedule has a
particular effect on previously learned
behaviour. When an animal becomes
accustomed to a fixed interval of
reinforcement say, pressing a lever, its
behaviour becomes stable. Other examples
include students attending classes at certain
fixed hours of the day; going to work at
specified time of the day, and so on.

Variable Interval (VI)

Reinforcement is presented on an average
variable intervals of time. For instance,
after an organism has learned a particular
response, we might present reinforcement
after ten seconds, 30 seconds three
minutes, etc.

206
 Fixed Ratio (FR)
Reinforcement is given upon the
occurrence of responses. For instance, the
ration of non – reinforced to reinforced
responses of 10 to 1 means that the
organism makes 10 responses and it is
reinforced only once. Similarly, the child
solves 8 sums and he gets a loaf of bread; a
labourer is paid after completing certain
amount of work, are examples of Fixed
Reinforcement schedules.

LESSON 11
DISTINCTIVE
CHARACTERISTICS OF
TEACHERS IN THE
SPECIALISMS INTRODUCTION

207
 The lesson seeks to explore the
distinctive features that distinguish
early grade, primary and Junior High
School teachers. This is meant to enable
student teachers identify and appreciate
characteristics that make them different
from other teachers at other levels.
Student teachers provide them with the
knowledge and competencies required
to teach and support the learning of
learners across the three levels.

LEARNING OUTOME
Student teachers should be able to
identify and demonstrate characteristics
of teachers teaching at either the early
grade, primary or JHS to enable them to
support the learning of all learners at
that level (NTS 1f, 2d, e, 3d).

Key Features of Distinctive

Characteristics of Teachers in the
Specialism

Distinctive Characteristics of:

Early grade teachers
208
Upper Primary Teachers
JHS teachers
Misconceptions about Teaching at the
Various Grades

How to address the various

misconceptions

Distinctive Characteristics of Early

Grade
Many people have the interest to work
in the education sector, but it takes a
special kind of educators to work with
young children in their first eight years
of life. These teachers are tasked with
supporting basic cognitive, behavioral,
social and physical developmental
milestones. Passion, Patience,
Creativity, Communication skills,
Flexibility and understanding diversity
are some of the characteristics posses
by the early grade teacher.

A PASSION FOR EARLY

CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

209
 Education is not a field that just
anyone can go into and be both
successful and fulfilled in their career.
Prospective educators must have a
passion for teaching young children.
This enthusiasm should reach beyond
playground fun and focus on helping
young children to meet developmental
milestones.

PATIENCE AND A SENSE OF

HUMOR
Young children are full of energy and
curiosity. Early childhood educators
should bring a great deal of patience
and a dose of humor to the classroom to
keep children engaged in the day’s
lessons.

CREATIVITY
Reaching children and helping them
learn requires creativity while guiding
students in connecting the dots and
relating lessons to their current stage of
210
development. Early childhood educators
should be able to adapt lesson plans to
concepts that children can understand.
Incorporating learning games and other
teaching techniques can keep children
engaged and focused throughout the
day.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Children are sponges at this early age,
but they are also new to learning. Early
childhood educators must be able to
communicate with young learners on
their level, including being able to break
complex topics into easily digestible
pieces. They must be able to offer
details about classroom progress to
parents so they are aware of their
children’s performance and
achievement level. Communication
helps parents identify teachable
moments in everyday situations and
boost their children’s kindergarten
readiness.

FLEXIBILITY
211
Even the best early childhood teachers
will go off course throughout the day
due to unforeseen circumstances or
learning hiccups. While creating a
lesson plan to outline important
concepts that should be addressed in
curriculum is important for any
classroom, even the best plans
sometimes don’t happen the way we
hope. Being flexible can help lessen
stress levels and keep things on track.
UNDERSTANDING DIVERSITY
Children come from different home
environments and backgrounds, which
can lead to different learning styles.
Early childhood teachers should be able
to accept these differences and be
willing to work with varied learning
styles to ensure all students leave the
classroom having achieved the
identified learning objectives.

Upper Primary Teachers

Primary School Teaching can be
incredibly rewarding and raises its own
unique challenges compared to teaching
212
in high school environment. Teaching at
the primary level needs this amount of
characteristics.

The Patience
They say patience is a virtue, when
working with young children it’s more
like a requirement! There will be
messes, tears and tantrums, the things
that invariably follow when you gather
a lot of young children together. A good
primary teacher needs to be able to take
all these in their stride.

Confidence Building
For a lot of children going to school is
the first time that they find out their
potential: what they are good at and also
what they are not so good at. It is
important for a good primary teacher to
encourage pupils and help them
improve in all areas. They need to have
confidence to stick at things that they
may initially find difficult.
Caring

213
 When working with primary-aged
children, there is a good chance that you
might be the most important adult in
their life outside of their parents. A kind
word and a smile can make a child’s
day. Caring about the children in your
class will not only make it easier for
you to connect teaching them but will
also make your job that much more
fulfilling as you watch them develop
and grow in your class.

Passionate
The best primary school teachers tap
into the natural enthusiasm that most
children have at that age with engaging
lesson plans. If you teach with real
passion, not only will the children’s
learning rate be improved, the job will
also be more fulfilling for you.
Sense of Humour
When you work with children, a good
sense of humour is a must! It is not
good to be irritated around young
children, so no matter how bad things
are going a good Primary Teacher can
214
greet the situation with a smile and not
take things too serious.

Organized
All students need attention in the class
so good organization skills are
incredibly important. Having your
lessons well planned out in advance
means you can focus on what the day
brings and prepare adequately towards
it.

JHS teachers
Middle school teachers are the trained
professionals who teach basic seventh,
eighth and nine students. They do not
only help students retain what they
learned in elementary school, but also
help prepare them for the difficult
classes they are required to take in
senior high school. Successful middle
school teachers are an asset to the
educational system because of their
unique and meaningful characteristics.

215
 1. Desire to Work With This Age
Group
When individuals pursue an
education degree with an emphasis on
middle school education, they know
what grades they’ll be teaching and
desire to work with students of this age.
Based on the premise that a happy
employee is a successful employee, a
teacher who chooses middle school
students is going to find his or her work
rewarding, which will make learning
exciting and fulfilling for the student.
Through much research, the Association
for Middle Level Education has
determined that middle schools are
extremely beneficial to young students
at a time in their lives when they are
changing physically, mentally and
hormonally.
3. Ability to Accommodate Students
Despite the fact that the teacher is in
charge of the students, a good teacher has
the ability to connect with his or her
students not only as a group but also as
individuals. In a classroom full of
216
 students, teachers find that each student is
different, and each has different needs.
When asked what they want most in a
middle school teacher, the National
Middle School Association listed the
teacher willing to accommodate students
with different needs and educational
levels, according to the Houston
Chronicle. If a teacher fails to
accommodate students for who they are
and what they are and guide them, it may
allow a trouble student to fall and not
reach his or her academic potential.
4. An Effective Teaching Style
In order to be an effective JHS teacher,
the students must not only be motivated
but well disciplined. If even one student is
behaving inappropriately and disrupting
the classroom, the other students are not
going to reap the benefits of what the
teacher is offering. JHS students are at age
where they are exploring the options as
adolescents and may misbehave. JHS
students taught by a great teacher know
their boundaries as well as what is
expected and what will not be tolerated.
217
 The good teacher also develops a teaching
style to match his or her own personality.

5. Willing and Able to Put in Required

Time
Being a good JHS teacher often requires
going the extra mile for the students.
Students often have needs that go beyond
the school hours. Teaching involves more
than just time spent in the classrooms.
Parent/teacher meetings typically take
place outside of school hours. JHS
teachers often meet with parents to
discuss the student’s academic
achievements as well as any difficulties
that student may be having and provide
timely intervention for those who may
need it.

5. Psychological Skills Required

JHS students may be dealing with
psychological or emotional issues, so the
teacher must have the psychological skills
to not only help the student but also
218
 recognize that the student may need
additional help. Parents often look to the
teacher for advice and possible
recommendations. The correct training
helps the JHS teacher learn the different
traits each student possesses and the best
way to keep them.

Misconceptions about Teaching at the

Various Grades
1. Lower grade teachers are considered to be
dumb (less intelligent).
2. They are also considered to lack control in
English Language (not fluent in English).
3. They are perceived to be lazy
4. People also believe that any body at all
can teach the lower grade irrespective of
their academic background.
5. Lower grade teachers are perceived to
take low salary hence they are poor.
6. It is assumed that teaching at the lower
grade is mainly meant for female teachers.
7. Upper primary teachers are considered to
be intelligent.

219
8. They are also perceived to be more
interested in subjecting students into
caning.
9. Male teachers at JHS are perceived to be
humanizers.
10. JHS teachers are perceived to more
intelligent than primary school teachers.
11. People also believe that they are more
fluent and have command over the
English Language than primary school
teachers.

How to Address the Various

Misconceptions
1. Early grade teachers should be given the
opportunity to lead some public
progrmmes of the school like speech and
prize given day to clear public
misconceptions about them on fluency.
2. Public education should also be given that
early grade requires special skills and
knowledge and not just any other person
can teach the early grade classes.
3. There public should be made aware that
all teachers have the same qualification
irrespective of the class they teach.
220
4. Any trained professional can effectively
teach the lower grade irrespective of the
gender.

COMPILIED BY ATRACO
(ACCRA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION)

221