University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines

Alubijid | Cagayan de Oro | Claveria | Jasaan | Oroquieta| Panaon

Claro M Recto Avenue, Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City
Tel. Nos (088) 856-1738/856-1739 Telefax (088) 856-4696
College of Science and Technology Education

The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

1st Semester, SY 2021-2022
Disclaimer
No reproduction of any part of the module may be used, sold or distributed for commercial
purposes or be changed or included in any other Colleges and Universities, work or publication,
whether in print or electronic, including sending, publishing or incorporating them to another
module unless prior permission has been granted.

TASK 1. SHARE Your Thoughts

Unit 1: Basic Concepts in Child and Adolescent Learners

Name: JORRY HINES A. HUBAHIB Course & Section: BSED MATH - 1B

Program: BS MATH ED TOTAL POINTS: 100

A. Choose your stand. Choose a topic that you want to discuss. Explain your stand in
not more than 2 paragraphs. (20 points each)
1. Nature vs Nurture
2. Continuity vs Discontinuity
3. Stability vs Change

NATURE VS NURTURE

Nurture is more concerning than nature in a person's existence. This is because

nature is only responsible for the person's biological and physical aspects. Nurture, on
the other hand, is responsible for a person's development spiritually and mentally as it
is the environment where a person can be influenced while growing up.

Nurture includes the environmental variables that shape a person. This

encompasses their childhood experiences, how they were raised, their social
interactions, and their surrounding culture. According to Brennan (2021), good mental
health can improve your physical health. In consequence, poor mental health can have
a negative impact on physical health. Also, Sage Life (2022) stated that spirituality may
strengthen family and friendship relationships while also assisting people in coping
with emotional or physical suffering and other life stresses. When the spiritual and
mental state of a person is greatly influenced and affected, it will also affect the person
physically. With this, I can say that nurture is more concerning than nature in a person's
journey in life. It is also best for a person to be in an environment where they can be
influenced positively for the betterment of their well-being.
 CONTINUITY VS DISCONTINUITY

According to the continuity viewpoint, change and development occurs

gradually. While the discontinuity viewpoint sees development more as abrupt—a
series of transitions that create various behaviors during different age-specific life stages.
With these statements, development is not abrupt and it is more on the continuity
viewpoint because as children grow bigger and older, they become more skilled at
thinking, speaking, and behaving.

When studying children and mobility, it is possible to recognize continuous

development. As children grow older, they begin crawling, then sitting, then standing,
then balancing, and lastly walking. Also, according to Reslock (2017), Dr. Dilip Jeste
claimed that wisdom is among the most valuable abilities we may have at any age, yet
it does not come automatically. It’s how we use our experiences in appropriate ways that
comes with aging from being a child to adult. These were all continuous steps that
improve from one another. This viewpoint frequently implies that development and
learning can last throughout one's life. Thus, even adults can continue to improve and
grow gradually.

STABILITY VS CHANGE

Stability indicates that personality qualities developed throughout childhood

persist throughout life. Change theorists, on the other hand, claim that interactions with
family, experiences at school, and cultural integration shape personalities. In my
perspective, I am in favor in the change of personality because of my personal experience
in life.

When I was a child, I am very timid and introverted. I was like that from
kindergarten to elementary, and I always get comments from my teachers that I am a
very timid pupil. However, when I got into high school at Gusa Regional Science High
School – X, I discovered that being timid and shy is highly discouraged if you want to
survive in that school. My experiences in junior high school shaped and molded be to
become more confident, bolder and stronger. I became an extrovert person after those
experiences for four long years. I now get to participate in every oral recitations,
leadership roles and I even did public speaking when I was given the chance to deliver
a speech during our graduation in senior high school at Liceo de Cagayan University
last May 2022. Personalities in others might not be the same as mine—as I believe all of
us have different experiences in life, but, this is my stand and claim as I have undergone
change in personality.
B. Below is an interesting article titled “How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of
Your Life” from the October 4, 2010 Issue of Time Magazine. Read, analyze then answer
the following questions: (20 points each)

1. Does the article agree that heredity, environment, and individual’s choice are the
factors that contribute to what a person may become? Why or why not? State the
paragraph that tells so.

- Yes, I believe the article agrees that heredity, environment, and individual’s
choice are the factors that contribute to what a person may become. This is
because the main idea of this article is how we as fetus were affected by how our
mothers took care of us during the nine months of conceiving. Also, it is because
of the claim that is shown in paragraph number three.

It stated that there’s a powerful source of influence we may not have considered
which is our life as a fetus. The nutrition we received in the womb; the pollutants,
drugs and infections we were exposed to during gestation are factors that shaped
us as a baby and continue to affect us to this day.

2. Read the 4th paragraph again. Focus your attention on the highlighted word
PERMANENTLY. Does the word PERMANENTLY convince you that we are what our
first experiences have made of us? Explain your answer in not more than 2 paragraphs.

- Yes, I am convinced that permanently, we are what our first experiences have
made us. The thesis statement and supporting details of the article is informative
enough to convince me that the choices of a mother while conceiving her child
will have long-term effects as the child grows older that might stay permanently.

In addition to support that claim, according to the study of Branwen Hennig, of

the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, their results have shown that
a mother's nutritional well-being at the time of conception can change how her
child's genes will be interpreted, with a lifelong impact. Thus, this supports how
I am convinced that our first experiences in life impact us of what we are now.

How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of your Life

What makes us the way we are? Why are some people predisposed to be anxious,
overweight or asthmatic? How is that some of us are prone to heart attacks, diabetes or
high blood pressure?
 There’s a list of conventional answers to these questions. We are the way we are
because it’s in our genes. We turn out the way we do because of our childhood
experiences. Or our health and well-being stem from the lifestyle choices we make as
adults.

But there’s another powerful source of influence you may not have considered:
your life as a fetus. The nutrition you received in the womb; the pollutants, drugs and
infections you were exposed to during gestation; your mother’s health and state of mind
while she was pregnant with you – all these factors shaped you as a baby and continue
to affect you to this day.

This is the provocative contention of a field known as fetal origins, whose

pioneers assert that the nine months of gestation constitute the most consequential
period of our lives, PERMANENTLY (Underscoring, mine) influencing the wiring of
the brain and the functioning of organs such as the heart, liver and pancreas. In the
literature on the subject, which has exploded over the past 10 years, you can find
references to the fetal origins of cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies, asthma,
hypertension, diabetes, obesity, mental illness. At the farthest edge of fetal origins
research, scientists are exploring the possibility that intrauterine conditions influence
not only our physical health but also our intelligence, temperament, even our sanity.

As a journalist who covers science, I was intrigues when I first heard about fetal
origins. But two years ago, when I began to delve more deeply into the field, I had a
more personal motivation: I was newly pregnant. If it was true that my actions over the
next nine months would affect my offspring for the rest of my life, I needed to know
more.

Of course, no woman who is pregnant today can escape hearing the message that
what she does affects her fetus. She hears it at doctor’s appointments, sees it in the
pregnancy guidebooks: Do eat this, don’t drink that, be vigilant but never stressed.
Expectant mothers could be forgiven for feeling that pregnancy is just a nine-month slog,
full of guilt and devoid of pleasure, and this research threatened to add the burden.

But the scientists I met weren’t full of dire warnings but of the excitement of
discovery – and the hope that their discoveries would make a positive difference.
Research on fetal origins is prompting a revolutionary shift in thinking about where
human qualities come from and when they begin to develop. Its turning pregnancy into
a scientific frontier: The National Institutes of Health embarked last year on a multi-
decade study that will examine its subjects before they’re born. And it makes the womb
a promising target for prevention, raising hopes of conquering public-health scourges
like obesity and heart disease through interventions before birth.
Time Magazine, October 4, 2010