Changing the way you learn

Development and early childhood

A childs right to development UNCRC 1989
Annotations:
- United Nations Convention Rights of the child - Promotes children's well-being throughout the world. The idea that children are developing and that their development must be protected and promoted is central to articles of the Convention.
- United Nations Convention Rights of the child - The rights of the child to be respected and to be consulted about matters that affect them - Includes 40 articles that covers a range of childrens rights
1. Children
  1. Childhood
    Annotations:
    - Childhood is an important social category which defines children’s activities and experiences: for example the child rights and activities
    - Childhood is shaped by the circumstances in which they grow up, and by the beliefs and attitudes of those who influence them.
    1. Constructed
      Annotations:
      - Children are influenced by the law, parents and teachers. Children negotiate their daily lives, their rights, responsibilities, activities and the choices available about what they do, although how far these choices are possible depends on their circumstances
    2. Re-constructed
      Annotations:
      - status of childhood is seen in changes in law, as for example when school-leaving ages in England were raised to 14 in 1918, to 15 in 1936 and to 16 in 1973. Meanwhile voting ages in England were lowered from 21 to 18 in 1970.
2. 40 Articles of UNCRC
  Annotations:
  - Article 32 is about protecting children from ‘... any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social developmen
  - 27 affirms children’s right to provision of a standard of living ‘... adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development
3. UNCRC roots are based on Western ideas
  Annotations:
  - The vast majority of child development researchers are located within economically rich, Western societies and their studies have mostly been about children growing up in these same societies. Recall that the study of children’s development was established during a period of major social reform affecting children in industrial societies, especially the growth of universal schooling
  1. Child development of different cultures - Beatrice & John Whiting
Discovery of childhood
1. end of 15Cent.
  Annotations:
  - Children were regarded to be different from adults, represented in paintings and pictures
2. Western Society & Industrilisation
  Annotations:
  - created a huge demand for child labour, which led social reformers to question its impact on children’s well-being
3. Schooling
  Annotations:
  - Expectations about children. Childhood became more clearly differentiated from the adult world of work.
4. Interest of studies of the child
  Annotations:
  - studies of children’s development shaped by new theories about human evolution, illustrated by Darwin’s studies of his own son.
  1. Scientific theories
What is child development
1. Growth & Change
  Attachments:
  - Early childhood development
  1. How does development occur 2 theories Nature or Nuture
    1. Nativist Theorist belief
      Annotations:
      - A natural processes of maturation where a genetically encoded development plan unfolds.
      1. Rationalism - knowledge is what we have and born with
        Annotations:
        An approach to human learning originally associated with Plato, which proposes that learning is based not so much on actual experience but on revealing to ourselves knowledge which we already have, and indeed are born with.
    2. Development as experience - Environmentalist’ theories
      Annotations:
      - emphasize the influences of learning and experience
      1. Empiricism - Locke, Berkeley and Hume all knowledge is gained from experience
        Annotations:
        The belief, associated with the seventeenth to eighteenth century philosophers that all knowledge comes from experience.
        Known as Social Learning theory
    3. Development by 2 way interactions through child & environment- KANT
      Annotations:
      - The merging of the two Kant proposed that we are born with certain mental structures that help us to interpret input from our senses in particular ways. He called these mental structures categories of understanding. By themselves, they cannot give us knowledge and it is only through interaction with the environment that these structures order and organize experience. Furthermore, there is an active role for individuals as organizers of experience: no longer are they seen either as passively receiving sensory stimuli (as in empiricism), or passively following some biological programme (as in rationalism or nativism). The major mechanism for development is the continuous, two-way interaction between the child and the environment. In this view, both nature and nurture play an important role in development.
      Attachments:
      - Early childhood development
      1. A 2 way cause & affect - A Transactional Model
      2. Constructivist Theory - Piaget
        Annotations:
        The child’s own role in their development is recognized in constructivist theories, such as Piaget’s stage theory. Interactions between the child and their environment
      3. Social Constructivist Theory
        Annotations:
        Social constructivist theories ask about young children’s guided induction into particular settings, sets of relationships and ways of thinking. They see development as involving social processes of communication, teaching and learning, not just the individual child interacting with their environmen
4 theories of development varied over periods of history, known as the grand theories
1. CONTRUCTIVISM - Natural stages
  Annotations:
  - Piaget saw children as having to construct their understanding of the world for themselves, prompted a massive volume of research activity, which continues today
  1. Jean Piaget
    Annotations:
    - In contrast to the behaviourist view, saw children as an independent agents in their own learning and more important than influences from their parents and teachers. It described in detail a series of four successive stages through which all children were believed to progress
    1. The 4 successive stages of child progression
      Annotations:
      - Piaget believed that children think differently than adults and stated they go through 4 universal stages of cognitive development. Development is therefore biologically based and changes as the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children in the same sequence of stages.
      1. Schemas
        Annotations:
        A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.
        Piaget believed that newborn babies have some innate schemas - even before they have had much opportunity to experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into environment.
        For example babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget therefore assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema'
        Intrinsic Motivation
        Annotations:
        The desire to spontaneously apply existing schemas to new situations.
        Accommodation
        Annotations:
        This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation
        Assimilation
        Annotations:
        Using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation
        Equilibration
        Annotations:
        Equilibrium is occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation
    2. Piaget suggest that individuals developed mental representations of the environment based on their own actions and the consequences of these. PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT
      1. Object Permemance
        Annotations:
        The understanding the object still exists when it can no longer be seen. This idea of ‘centring’ – the sense of the baby feeling herself to be the centre and the moving force of her world – runs through much of Piaget’s theory, Centration particularly the ideas of centration and egocentrism. The tendency of infants to The tendency to focus or ‘centre’ on a single aspect of a situation illustrates the complete focus exclusively dominance of their own perceptions. For example, when an object disappears on a single aspect from their sight and they behave as if the object has ceased to exist, they are of a situation. ‘centring’ on their own perception
        According to Piaget the more the baby experiences repetitive actions and their affects, babies will then understand that actions will have consequences
        Summary Object Permanence
        Annotations:
        The findings that Piaget originally produced have proved remarkably robust although the interpretations he placed upon them have been strongly challenged by subsequent researchers. Some studies have shown that infants of 5 months of age behave in ways that are consistent with an understanding that things continue to exist even when they are no longer visible. The findings of investigations with younger infants are ambiguous but suggest that children as young as 2 months have some appreciation of the properties of objects. While infants may have some idea of the permanence of objects, keeping track of objects which move from place to place is a more difficult problem since it makes demands on various parts of their still developing cognitive system. Children’s apparent lack of ‘object permanence’ can also be explained in terms of the development of short-term memory abilities. 　　　　
      2. Piaget’s observations baby immations
        Annotations:
        Piaget’s report that in early imitation, infants would only produce actions that were already in their repertoire In the case of tongue-poking, the baby is able to see the original behaviour but not their own attempt. It was Piaget’s proposition that this form of ‘unseen imitation’ is a more sophisticated development
        Summary of immation
        Annotations:
        Research sheds light on imitation, experimental techniques and theories of the nature of childhood. Piaget took the view that knowledge of the world is constructed as a result of the interaction between infants and their environments. Other theorists are inclined to the view that infants are born with much more comprehension than Piaget allowed. Piaget’s original studies suggested that the development of imitation is a lengthy process which is not complete until 9–12 months. Subsequent investigations reported by Meltzoff and Moore presented counter-evidence that infants in the first days of life have the capacity to imitate behaviours demonstrated by an adult. Evidence also showed that infants of 6 weeks can store a ‘to-be-imitated’ action and perform it 24 hours later.
      3. how representations are symbolized and stored 2 kinds
        Procedural
        Annotations:
        Procedural representations are ‘know how’ kinds of knowledge – all those things that one knows how to do, but that are difficult to explain. An adult example would be something like riding a bicycle. Early infant knowledge of behaviours like reaching or grasping is said to be of this kind.
        Declarative.
        Annotations:
        Declarative knowledge is the description given to the kind of knowledge that you have represented and that is available to your conscious thinking (e.g. 2 +2=4). As it is available to you in this way, it is possible for you to tell others of your knowledge and to pass it on. Because of its flexibility and power, developmental psychologists have been very interested in the origins and development of declarative knowledge.
        Summary of representation
        Annotations:
        The ability to hold in mind and understand representations is essential to be able to carry out planned actions. These representations can take many forms including words, numbers, gestures and expressions. A great deal of development in the understanding of representations occurs in the first year of life, including the understanding of the existence of objects which are out of sight and the ability to hold in mind and replicate actions performed by other people. There are also significant developments which occur later in life including the understanding of models as representations of the real world.
2. Behaviourism referred to as learning theory is the emphasis of behaviour is on how we learn to behave in certain ways
  Annotations:
  - This approach sees child development arising from specific forms of learning, based on the idea of the child as a passive recipient of environmental influences that shape behaviour
  - The behaviourist approach considered how the environments that people live in influence their behaviour
  1. Development as in DISCIPLINE - Generic term for behaviourism is conditioning- reward and punishment
    Annotations:
    - which emphasizes how external factors, such as reward and punishment, affect behaviour
    1. 2 forms of conditioning - Classical & operant
      1. Classical
        Annotations:
        The learning of an association between a reflex behaviour and a previously unrelated environmental stimulu
        This is a ‘reflex’ response; it is unlearned and ‘built-in’ to the nervous system, like knee-jerking if the knee is tapped Next the bell is regularly rung just prior to the food being presented. After a period of time the bell alone will elicit the salivation reflex in the absence of food. The bell has now become a conditioned stimulus and the salivation a conditioned response. This association can be weakened if the bell (conditioned stimulus) is regularly presented without the food (unconditioned stimulus). This process is called extinction
        Behaviourist viewpoint John B. Watson (1878–1958) - by changing the environment can affect the behaviour - Little Albert - conditioning of fear
        Annotations:
        the behaviourist viewpoint that not only can behaviour be explained by examining the environment, but that by changing the environment the person’s behaviour can be altered. Watson’s particular interest was the study of emotions. Together with Rayner he conducted an experiment into the conditioning of fear with an 11-month-old infant Albert B
        When initially presented with a white rat, Albert showed no fear. Subsequently, the rat was shown to him four times. Each time a metal bar was ‘clanged’ behind Albert’s head. On the fifth presentation the rat was shown but without the noisy ‘clang’. Although there was no noise, Albert still whimpered and moved away. He had learned to associate fear with the presence of rats through the process of classical conditioning. This response generalized to other previously neutral stimuli that were similar to the rat and which he previously had liked. He now also showed fear of furry toys, a fur coat and a Father Christmas mask. It should be noted that this study pre-dated ethical concerns about the potential of research to impact negatively on an individual’s well-being
      2. Operant conditioning
        Frank Skinner - the causes and actions of its consequences
        Annotations:
        Skinner conducted experiments on animals, called the skinner box
        The skinner box experiment on rats - reinforcing & punishment
        Annotations:
        Changing the way of behaviour by reinforcement to get the desired way of behaviour
        Positive reinforcement
        Annotations:
        The more the hungry rat presses the lever the more the rat is rewarded with food. Therefore the rat repeat the action time and time again.
        ABA
        Annotations:
        ABA is way of teaching in small chunk bites and at each step appropriate behaviours are reinforced. At each step the child has support to ensure success. Which is positively reinforced consequences that are reinforced for the child. Gradually reinforcement and support is reduced over time
        Early interventions programmes for children with learning difficulties potentially produces positive changes in development can reduces the need for later intervention. In many instances parents are trained in ABA programmes therefore becoming the trained primary therapist, this enabling the child to receive 1-2-1 tuition at home. Evidence has shown that children who have autism that has received intervention in this way has helped them to be successful in mainstream school
        Negative reinforcement
        Annotations:
        for eg. a rat would receive an discomfort from the electric shock every time when placed in the Skinner box. When the rat touched the lever the current is switched off. Soon the rat learnt to go direct to the lever to stop the current
        Punishment is to weaken a response. eg deducting Pocket money
        Annotations:
        Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it. Like reinforcement, punishment can work either by directly applying an unpleasant stimulus like a shock after a response or by removing a potentially rewarding stimulus, for instance, deducting someone’s pocket money to punish undesirable behaviour.
        Researches outtake for punishment to be affective
        It must be immediate (contingent), severe and consistently applied
        Annotations:
        However, outside of the laboratory, it is virtually impossible to achieve such aims: adults cannot supervise the behaviour of children continually and be in a position to intervene immediately with appropriate punishment every time a child misbehaves. In the absence of these conditions, punishment as a means of behavioural control is, at best, short lived.
        Attachments:
        Early child development 2
3. Social Leaning AS IN EXPERIENCE this theory in contrast to BEHAVIOURISM
  Annotations:
  - The social learning model thus recognized the more active part that a child can play in learning from their environment. It also stressed the significance of ‘role models’ in children’s development
  1. Challenges behaviourism, children learn from observation and imitation
    Annotations:
    - Supported by research that showed how aggressive behaviour was often imitated by children who observed others engaging in it.
    1. Bandura Theory 4 related factors to immitate
      Annotations:
      - Attend to relevant aspects of the ‘model’ and their behaviour Retain what they have seen, through appropriate encoding and rehearsal. Be physically able to reproduce the behaviour. Be motivated to perform the new skill, through the presence of reinforcement and punishment in the settingImportantly, he acknowledged the role of observing others experiencing reinforcement and punishment, but argued that its role was in influencing which behaviours children attend to in the first place, and also in affecting children’s motivation to reproduce a behaviour. 　　
    2. Bandura's experiment
      Annotations:
      - Bobo doll research: Bandura conducted a series of experimental studies into children’s tendency to imitate. In these experiments pre-school children watched adult models act either non-aggressively or aggressively towards an inflatable doll called a Bobo doll. The children were subsequently observed to see to what extent they imitated what they had seen
    3. Children & Television violence
      Annotations:
      - Bandura bobo doll experiment prompted other researchers to look at imitation on violence. One researcher looked at the implications on the influence of TV violence Bandura also explored the idea of televised aggression may have on children's behaviour and considered some of the variables that a child will imitate.
      - Bandura also explored the idea of televised aggression may have on children's behaviour and considered some of the variables that a child will imitate. eg a child is more likely to copy if the model is the same age and gender of the child and if the model is attractive and has desirable characteristics.
4. SOCIAL CONTSTRUCTIVISM is learning by social interaction and not by observation
  Annotations:
  - This theory sees children as active participants in their own development, but in addition stresses the roles that other people and the culture the child grows up in play in fostering development.
  1. Vygotsky
    Annotations:
    - Vygotsky’s perspective was that human history is created through the construction and use of cultural tools. Cultural tools are ways of achieving things in the world, acquired in the course of development and passed on to subsequent generations 　　 Cultural tools are ways of achieving things in the world, acquired in the course of development and passed on to subsequent generations 　　　　 Cultural tools are ways of achieving things in the world, acquired in the course of development and passed on to subsequent generations
    1. Thought and Language reasoning
      Annotations:
      - Vygotsky (1986) however, proposed that language has two functions: inner speech, used for mental reasoning, and external speech, used for communication with other people. 　　
    2. Teaching & Learning ZPD
      Annotations:
      - Vygotsky proposed that through contact with other, more able people children appropriate new ways of thinking and doing. Indeed Vygotsky saw learning as best supported when there is a degree of inequality in skills and understanding between two people. People of different abilities working together can create what Vygotsky termed a zone of proximal development (ZPD): ZPD supports the child’s cognitionZPD supports the child’s cognition
      1. Applied to Deaf/Blind education
        Annotations:
        Application by simple basic teaching eg child feeding itself with support of an adult and stimulating aspects of the environment. 2nd - task is to develop language with hand gestures eg mimicking eating with other finger movements so that there is distinction bewteen food to eating outdoors. This then moves the child to a symbolic form of communication. Finally the child is taught to the associations of the words to the equivalent spoken words by touching the face and throat of their teacher while she speaks, and eventually trying to produce the same movements and sounds themselves 　　
    3. The metaphor of Scaffolding
      Annotations:
      - The support provided by a more able partner allows the less able to tackle a new task, which in turn encourages development into a new level of competence. The social interaction and situation that create the ZPD supports the child’s cognition The metaphor of a scaffold, which is gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes able to work with less support, stresses the significance of social support in learning and development
Psychologist contribution to children's education
1. Behaviourism & Education
  1. Classical conditioning
    Annotations:
    - take for example, take the case of a girl working individually in a quiet room, who produces a good piece of writing and is praised by her parents as a result. In this case the antecedents would be working on her own and being in a quiet place, the behaviour is the production of good work, and the consequence is the praise from her parents.According to this approach, both the antecedents that prompted the behaviour, and the consequences of the behaviour, determine whether the behaviour will be produced again in the future. So the girl in our example, in having received praise for her good work in the past would be motivated to try to do the same again, but would also need to have access to the same environmental conditions as before (i.e. being able to work alone somewhere quiet).
  2. Operant conditioning
    Annotations:
    - The child is given some information to learn. The child’s knowledge of that information is tested through a question. If the correct answer is given, the child’s behaviour is reinforced through a reward, such as praise. If an incorrect answer is given, the original information is repeated, or presented in a simplified form.
  3. Summary of Behaviourism in education
    Annotations:
    - Behaviourism is a theoretical approach to learning that emphasizes the role of external, environmental factors on an individual’s behaviour. The principles of operant conditioning have been used to develop an approach to teaching known as ‘programmed instruction’ in which information is presented, knowledge about it is tested and feedback is immediate. Principles of operant conditioning are also reflected in more recent computer-based instructional systems. Behaviourist approaches to education have been criticized for downplaying the role of interpersonal communication in effective learning, for being unresponsive to children’s spontaneous interests and desire to learn, and for being difficult to operationalize effectively.
2. Constructivism in Education - Piaget
  Annotations:
  - At the heart of Piaget’s theory is the idea that intelligence derives from the coordination of action in the child’s environment. Through such action children come to explore and build personal representations of how the world ‘works’. These representations become progressively less dependent on physical experience as rules are abstracted, ultimately leading to the ability to make predictions about aspects of the environment without needing to have had direct experience of them. The development and education of the intellect are thus a matter of active discovery of reality
  - Intellectual development is therefore a process of self-regulation and adaptation to one’s environment. It is this sense of children reinventing and constructing knowledge for themselves that gives this approach the name ‘constructivism’
  1. Piaget ideas
    Annotations:
    - Piaget’s ideas also gave rise to notions of ‘readiness’ where it was suggested that to learn effectively, educational experiences need to be matched to a child’s current level of understanding and acknowledge that children’s interests and ways of learning are diverse and subject to change. This view may now seem to be rather obvious, however it was not a common view at the time when Piaget was proposing it.
    - Many attempts have been made to develop educational approaches that apply Piaget’s ideas to classroom activity. An excellent example of such an application is the work of Constance Kamii (1985, 1994, 2004) who has applied Piagetian ideas to the teaching of mathematics. She argues that children need to rediscover and reinvent mathematical principles for themselves, but that the ways in which numbers are represented (by digits) and the mathematical procedures that are taught inhibit children’s ability to do so.
    1. Piaget view is that children are inwardly focussed and remains relatively egocentric for a period of time until the childs thinking and behaviour becomes socialised
  2. Summary of Constructivisim
    Annotations:
    - Piaget’s approach to child development, referred to as constructivism, emphasizes the cognitive processes that underpin learning and sees the child as actively constructing their own learning, independently of adults. Constructivism leads to an emphasis on learning rather than teaching in classrooms. Activities from which children are able to develop their own strategies and ideas are valued. Peer interaction is seen as important in leading children to overcome egocentric ways of reasoning. Kamii has demonstrated that a constructivist approach to teaching mathematics promotes greater understanding of mathematical concepts than traditional approaches. Constructivist approaches have been criticized for emphasizing learning as an individualized process, thereby downplaying the social and cultural context it occurs within.
    1. Child constructs own learnng independent of adutls
    2. Emprahis is on learning rather than teaching in the classroom
    3. Peer interaction is seen as leading children to overcome egocentrism
    4. KAII suggests that constructivist approach to teaching mathematics promotes understanding of math concepts than the normal approach
    5. Downside: have been criticized for emphasizing learning as an individualized process, thereby downplaying the social and cultural context it occurs within
  3. Peer Interaction & Egocentrism
    Annotations:
    - The egocentric child, he suggested, does not understand other points of view, and takes his or her own view for reality. This egocentrism limits moral thinking and communication in fairly obvious ways, but it also limits cognitive development in other more subtle ways. Since children cannot appreciate that the first thing that strikes them about a problem might not be the only way the problem can be thought about, they cannot reflect on alternatives or understand how different factors might interact with one another. Importantly, Piaget saw this egocentrism of children’s thinking as being overcome through social experience of a particular kind.
    - Piaget regarded children’s relations with adults (whether parents or others) as inherently asymmetrical, and the difference in power and status was such that children could not balance their own views against those of adults. However, in more symmetrical relationships between the child and his or her peers, differences of viewpoint could provide the foundations for intellectual progress. When children interact with one another on more or less equal terms there are opportunities for a divergence of views and also a social need to reach a resolution of this difference of view. Thus, peer interaction was seen to hold a very special potential for helping egocentric (‘pre-operational’) children to overcome their egocentrism and make progress towards higher level (‘operational’) thinking.
3. Vygotsy - Social Constructivism
  1. See interaction with others then the child becomes aware of self withthe capacity for reflection development proceeds from the social to the individual
    1. cultural tools becoming part & parcel of the childs mental resources - LANGUAGE
      1. Discussion, interaction and argument become internalized as the basis for reflection and logical reasoning
      2. Consequently, meanings constructed through social interaction become embedded in individual thought processes.
    2. Vygotsky saw interaction with adults as a key element of successful mental development
      1. ZPD -The difference between what a child can do unaided, and what the same child can do with the help of more able others.
        The term ‘scaffolding’ is used to refer to the support given to a child by a more able person.
      2. Mercer 1995 - Vygotsky ideas in classroom practice
        elicit knowledge from students,
        Teachers can see what students already know and understand and so that the knowledge is seen to be ‘owned’ by the students as well as teachers
        Teachers response to students with feedback to gather students contributions to construct generalised meanings
        describe the classroom experiences that they share with students in such a way that the educational significance of those joint experiences is revealed and emphasised.

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Development and early childhood

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