...The Role of Heredity and Environment in Learning Theory The role of heredity and environment in the learning theory is one with varying views. Each view relies strongly on the developmental process of children. Urie Bronfenbrenner posits that a child’s environment plays the biggest role in the child’s development and learning experience (Ormrod, 2014). While Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky believe that a child’s cognitive development is most important to the learning experience (Ormrod, 2014). The purpose of this essay is to explore each of these theories and how they apply to my personal knowledge and understanding of the learning experience. I will begin with an overview of each theory and then move to how aspects of each apply to personal experiences and beliefs. Ultimately coming to the conclusion that no single theory fully represents my understanding of learning. While each theory as many strengths, one cannot have a fully developed understanding of the learning process without aspects of all three theories. According to Ormrod (2014), Bronfenbrenner’s theory of development relies strongly on the “multiple layers of environmental influence” (p. 21). At the most basic level is the child’s family, next is the child’s neighborhood and community, and finally the child’s state and country (Ormrod, 2014). Bronfenbrenner believed that the child’s culture played a significate role in effecting the child’s development in every layer. Furthermore, these layers interact with...
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...Developmental Theories 1 Developmental Theories Tammy Weston Child and Adolescent Development PSY 104 December, 20, 2014 Developmental Theories 2 There is nothing more amazing than the growth and development of a child. Several researchers have dedicated years to the study of child development to help us better understand this amazing time in their lives. Though there are many theorists and different branches of their theories, they are narrowed into three categories, maturationist, environmentalist, and constructivist. These three theories allow us to analyze childhood development and better understand how children grow and learn. Although there are many differences in these theories, there are also some similarities. In this paper I will discuss how these theories relate and differ with regards to a child’s development. How do these theories help us understand our children and how they grow and learn? I will also discuss the importance of physical, emotional and cognitive development, to the overall development of a child and why it is imperative for us to not only understand how they develop but how we can help foster that growth. A child begins to develop while in the mother’s womb. The genetics (the makeup) of the child are already in place. (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, 2008) The child inherits genes from both mother and father. Piaget was probably one of most influential cognitive theorists. Piaget was a constructivist which means basically that learning occurs...
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...Introduction The goal of the life span perspective of development is to understand how and why all different kinds of people, everywhere, and of every age, change over time (Berger, 2011). Developmental psychologists study the constant changes we experience throughout life, including physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Psychologists also study how we are affected by, react to, and process the world around us (Stone, 2011). The first aspect of developmental science is to understand how and why people change. Another aspect of developmental science is to identify universal similarities and differences among people, and then use that information to unify humanity as well as distinguish us as individuals (Berger, 2011). The most important aspect of developmental science is to understand that people change over time. According to Berger (2001), “Change is systematic, ongoing, and dynamic throughout the entire life span.” Explain the life span perspective of development. According to Paul and Margret Baltes, life-span perspective views human development as multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural, multidisciplinary, and plastic. Development is considered multidirectional because change occurs in all directions, in every part of life. Human characteristics can increase, decrease, or remain the same (Berger, 2011). Development is also multicontextual. It can occur in many different physical and social environments. We develop, regardless of where we are...
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...explain the career development process and outline an approach of how to progress through it. I will choose a specific Career Theory from the textbook that fits into my personal beliefs of human behavior and career development. I will provide the main points of this theory and use examples from my life to demonstrate how this theory will be beneficial. I will also identify any potential weaknesses or aspects that I may disagree with. What Is a Career? A career can be defined as the "time extended working out of a purposeful life pattern through work undertaken by the person" (Zunker, 2012). This also includes "activities and positions involved in vocations, occupations, and jobs as well as to related activities with an individual's lifetime of work" (Zunker, 2012). A career should be a job that one benefits from not only monetarily but also in some personal way. People should be careful in choosing a career because most people spend over half of their lives working. If one chooses the right career than they can lead a happier life. So many people have what can be considered job instead of a career. A job where one works only to receive money can lead one to be unhappy and cause quite a bit of stress. Overtime this can have an effect on an individual’s overall health. This is why the idea of career development can be so important. What is Career Development? Career development can be defined as a process in which a person forms their work identity. ...
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...Developmental Delays in Learning Developmental Delays in Learning Abstract After reviewing Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 and the required readings for week 5, I will write a summarization of the impact that developmental delays and the environment have on the learning needs of children. My 6-8 page paper will include three examples demonstrating the impact of developmental delays and the environment on the learning needs of children discussed in the week 2 written assignments. I will also discuss why is it important for educators to understand typical behaviors when planning curriculum and I will provide at least three examples in which I support my claim. I will also describe three specific components in a preschool curriculum that make programs effective. I will include at least two references, in addition to the textbook, to support my ideas. Title of Paper Developmental delays are very important in a child’s life and their ability to learn. Delays in development are delays in development and require early intervention. Children develop at different rates and in many cases delays in mental and physical development will improve. Although some children may have significant developmental delays that may indicate possible future learning disabilities for them making learning difficult. There are many pre- school aged children today that may poses developmental issues and could be demonstrating these delays in one or multiple learning areas. This...
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...the contribution made by Plato. He very clearly explains in his dialogues further on this matter. Psychology originated very simply as a result of the development of the metaphysical approach of the people of different times. In sociology it is an acceptable fact that the prevailing circumstances and state of a particular social milieu make a great impact on a particular matter. This impact varies from place to place time to time depending on the social characteristics. By inferences the aforementioned is the reason why there are different schools in psychology. When we analyses it stands to reason that all psychologists were trying to deal with the same matter. They have seen the same problems or the issues with regard to ‘mind’ in different angels. Among all the schools introduced, there are a few that appears bold. They are namely structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanistic, gestalt’s psychology, cognitive….Here it is rather important that we have a run down on each school separately. When psychology was first established as a science separate from biology and philosophy, the debate...
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...An essay that critically examines the role of practitioners in recognising the socio-cultural influences on the development of children In the development of provision for children, traditional developmental theory has been highly influential: Over the years I have become frustrated by the strident emphasis on developmental theory in early childhood education (Walsh 2005:40) Particular relevance has been held concerning constructivist theory and the work of Piaget (1977) and Vygotsky (1978): The academic understanding of learning that underpins current trends in early childhood education are most significantly based upon principles of social constructivism that are drawn from both Vygotsky and Piaget (Anning et al 2008:153) Typically, traditional child development theory is thought to give order and meaning to a child’s progression in terms of physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development and provides practitioners with a set of normative descriptors from which a child’s development can be measured. However, more recently these notions have been questioned and there has been a growth of theory from a socio-cultural perspective: recent challenges to ways of understanding and living in the world have included issues of difference, identity, culture, intellect, and economy…Early Childhood Educators have responded in various ways to such diversity. Many continue to support the developmentalist notion of the universal child…still others merge a variety...
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...educational psychology is the psychology of learning and teaching, and yet a majority of educational psychologists spend their time studying ways to describe and improve learning and teaching. After reviewing the historical literature in educational psychology, Glover and Ronning (1987, p. 14) suggested that educational psychology includes topics that span human development, individual differences, measurement, learning, and motivation and is both a data-driven and a theory-driven discipline. Thus, our definition of educational psychology is the application of psychology and psychological methods to the study of development, learning, motivation, instruction, assessment, and related issues that influence the interaction of teaching and learning. This definition is broad because the potential applications of educational psychology to the learning process are immense! Today educational psychology is a vital discipline that is contributing to the education of teachers and learners. For example, Jerome Bruner, an enduring figure in educational psychology, recently noted the need to rethink our ideas of development, teaching, and learning and the interactions among them. Specifically, Bruner (1996) urged educators and psychologists to see children as thinkers, and stated: No less than the adult, the child is thought of as holding more or less coherent "theories" not only about the world but about her own mind and how it works. These naive theories are brought into congruence with those...
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...Applying Theoretical Perspective to Curriculum Content ECE315 Language Development in Young Children Victoria Phillips February 20, 2012 Amy Brown There are theorist all who have different views on how children learn and develop. It is important that teachers learn about the different the theories when it comes to educating students. Students learn differently and in different learning environments. Nativist main focus is the acquisition of syntactic knowledge. Noam Chomsky believed that children are born prepared to learn language. “Chomsky proposes that this universal grammar is an innate property of the human mind”(Otto, B. (2010) p.28). “Steven Pinker(1994) contended that language is an instinct, not simply a cultural invention: “Language is a biological adaption to communicate information language is the product of a well-engineered biological instinct”(Otto, B. (2010). The nativist perspective encourages teachers to use a curriculum in a way that will provide opportunities for children to explore language. Syntactic knowledge teaches children about word order and its importance in creating meanings. An activity for syntactic knowledge would be a game of “Bingo”. The teacher must first make sure that the each child understands the rule and the categories of the game. I feel that this should be done in a small group of students. Bingo will help students learn new words, how to pronounce the words and most importantly it teaches them to put words in order....
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...------------------------------------------------- Course Syllabus AAGI0MZ6M0 Child Development Course Start Date: 12/04/2012 Course End Date: 02/24/2013 Please print a copy of this syllabus for handy reference. Whenever there is a question about what assignments are due, please remember this syllabus is considered the ruling document. Copyright Copyright ©2009 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. University of Phoenix© is a registered trademark of Apollo Group, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft©, Windows©, and Windows NT© are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Use of these marks is not intended to imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation. Edited in accordance with University of Phoenix© editorial standards and practices. Facilitator Information Stephanie Jacobs Holder swjacobs@email.phoenix.edu (University of Phoenix) Bailiquinc@aol.com (Personal) 602-738-2059 (MST) Facilitator Availability I am available from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Central Time on most days, but I attempt to reserve Sunday for my family. During the week, I am online most of the time during that 9 a.m.-9 p.m. time frame. On Saturdays, I tend to be...
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... This essay will discuss why it is important for very young children to be reared in environments which support and nurture their growth and development. Child development is a major focus of research in psychology for a long time. Current approaches to explain how children grow and develop have been addressed in several theories, but rarely rest on any theory exclusively. The Topic focus will be based on four child development theories which came out as a product of major research in psychology. Those four theories are: social learning theory, cognitive-developmental theory, psychosocial theory and ecological theory. Social Learning theory was developed by Burrhus Frederic Skinner who formulated nurture or environmental approach. He argued that development, for the most part, is a series of learned behaviors based on an individual’s positive and negative interactions with the environment. But the most influential theory of learning and child development was social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura. In his theory social element was added as a very important argument where new information can be learned by watching others. It is known as a modeling, imitation or observation (Berk, 2003). The following steps are in the observational and modeling process: attention to be able to learn attention needs to be paid. If there is detraction there would be a negative effect on observational learning. Retention is very important for children, they need to be able...
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...Human Development Mindy Donaldson PSY 280 April 26, 2015 There are quite a few different theories about human growth and development, and why people do the things that they do. In this paper I will discuss and summarize three theories and how each is related to human growth and development, identifying one influential theorist for each. In addition this paper will include many views of the lifespan perspective followed by an explanation of how nature and nurture effect human development. Developmental theory can be defined as a conglomeration of ideas about achieving a good change in one’s society. Such theories draw on a variety of science disciplines and approaches that can provide a framework to understand how and why people evolve throughout their lifespan. Theorists in an attempt to make sense out of their observations try and design concepts that can outline a person’s development throughout life from one’s start as an infant all the way through adulthood (Berger, 2010). The influential theorists in this paper that I will discuss are: Sigmund Freud, John Watson, and Jean Piaget. Psychoanalytic theory is a theory of personality organization and the dynamics of human development that holds that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior (Berger, 2010 p. 17). (Berger, 2010) According to Freud, development occurs over three stages during the first six years of life, each stage being characterized by sexual...
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...Psychological Perspective Paper Introduction Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior. There are various perspectives within psychology and the upcoming paragraphs deal with 6 psychological perspectives: Behavioral, Cognitive, Biological, Developmental, Psychodynamic, Sociocultural and Evolutionary. Psychological Perspectives All six perspectives seek to explore and examine human behavior and makes use of varying techniques in order to do so. Each perspective tries to search for answers to different questions, which exist about behavior. Each of these perspectives is different hence they have there own reasoning and explanation. Among the perspectives of psychology, many have been accepted some whereas others have had difficulty in being accepted. Behavioral Behavioral Psychology is a branch is psychology that claims that all behavior is learned through conditioning. The field is also known as behaviorism. The idea behind it is that all people acquire their behavior by interacting with their environment through classical condition or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the involuntary, or automatic, response to a stimulus (i.e. fight or flight response) where as Operant conditioning is that of a learned behavior through positive/negative reinforcement (consequences) or positive/negative punishment. (What Is Behavioral Psychology, 2011) Cognitive Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how...
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...Developmental theories in psychology are efforts to comprehend the stages of one's growth and development. We recognize the stages throughout a child's lifespan to adulthood and the effects of environmental and social influences. These theories name the sources of growth, language and learning skills. The big debate in psychology is are these emotions caused by nature or nurture. It is impossible to tell which one is right. However both play an important role in a person's lifespan influencing the person we grow to be. All developmental theories have good points and can be the base to research and forming educated analyzes. They help us to better understand child development and social growth. Piaget's cognitive stages of development proposes that during each stage of a persons life from adolescence to adulthood new skills are learned. As a person develops in age their skills and abilities also progress. Piaget's theory consist of fours major developmental stages. They are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth to the age of two. In this developmental stage children use simple motor activities such as looking, listening and touch understand and learn about their surrounding environment. The second stage preoperational stage ranges from ages 2 to 7. In this stage children mentally represent events and objects with figurative play. At this age children are unable to look at situations from other peoples...
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...Vygostsky’s cognitive developmental theories in a practical classroom environment Piaget and Vygotsky have antonymous beliefs when dealing with the concepts of cognitive development. Vygotsky believes in development through social behaviour whilst Piaget believes in individuals acquiring knowledge on their own. Both however, believe that the interaction between development and learning hold significant implications for a child’s growth. This essay discusses some of the philosophical beliefs of each theorist in regards to a scenario based in the classroom of a year five teacher named Ann. Ann reinforces classroom lessons through the outdoor environment, exemplifying Piaget’s theories of constructivist based learning as well as teaching methods that cater to the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. Ann also displays Vygotsky’s cognitive theory involving the zone of proximal development and peer to peer or teacher-peer scaffolding within a group environment. The essay will examine Ann’s teaching methods and how they relate to these cognitive developmental theories. Ann’s socially-constructive pedagogical approach as described by Howell (2012) will help children build their knowledge base through collaborative learning as well as independent work, known as scaffolding. Ann would apply the technique of scaffolding by providing assistance and offering feedback relating to new information (Woolfolk, 2004). Vygotsky (1978) put forward a theory in which one only develops...
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