Theorists Handout Essay

Submitted By rumandiu
Words: 1452
Pages: 6
Open Document
Theorists

The use of development charts is only the beginning of the process of understanding a child. Now look at what each theorist has to say about child development.

Theories and approaches

You are ready to make theoretical links when you have found and discussed appropriate child development milestones.
The following pages summarise the main theories of a number of child development theorists.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Piaget is a constructivist. Constructivists think that children learn best by being active and through investigation and exploration.
These are called first hand experiences.

Piaget was a Swiss psychologist whose work has been extremely influential. He developed his theories through observing and testing his ideas on his own children.

The following table show the development stages through which Piaget believed children passed:

Sensory motor 0-2 years

Learning occurs through the senses and movement.
A trial and error approach is taken to solving problems.
The child is egocentric: aware only of his or her own wants and needs.

Pre-operational 2-7 years

The child is egocentric and unable to decentre (see things from another’s point of view).
The child thinks that objects have thoughts and feelings: Animism
The child uses symbols in play.
The child believes what his or her eyes tell him or her – so she or he is unable to converse number, mass or capacity.
Trial and error is still the child’s main way to solve problems.

Concrete operations 7-11 years

The child can play games with rules and can now de-centre.
The child knows that objects do not have thoughts and feelings.
Children can use symbols in mathematics and writing, but need to use objectives to help them, for example, to count.
At this stage children are unable to converse.

Formal operations 11+ years

Piaget suggests that not all of us reach this stage.
Now children can work things out in their heads and are able to work out problems using logic.

Piaget is also important for proposing the notion of a schema.

A schema is a pattern of repeatable behaviour which can be observed in children who seem to be doing the same thing over and over again. For instance:
Putting a toy into a truck and pushing it to a chosen spot and unloading it – a transporting schema.
Putting things into a bag – building blocks, cars – and fastening them up – an envelope schema.
Building towers – a vertical schema.
Making fields for the farm animals – an enclosure schema.

Other schemas include:

Positioning – laying things out in order.
Rotation – turning knobs and wheels.
Connection – joining things together.

Children become deeply involved in making sense of ideas that are interesting to them and, in their play, they are engaged in exploring and thinking them through. Your observations will provide you with insight into their exploration. You will then be able to provide resources and sensitive interactions to support them

Piaget would say that children are in a state of disequilibrium until they have adapted and accommodated new information, gained through their play, which returns them to a state of equilibrium – until the next new idea emerges.

Look for:

Children using symbols in their play (a wooden brick is a cake, a cardboard box is a house or car)
Children talking to dolls and teddies
Babies exploring a toy by handling it and putting it in their mouths
Children who appear to drift from one activity to another or seem to repeat the same thing over again.

B.F Skinner (1904 – 1990)

Skinner is a behaviourist. He thought that children learn because they seek the approval of important adults and peers.

He worked out that children will repeat behaviour that gains them a reward. He called it ‘positive reinforcement’. It could be tangible like a sticker or toy, or intangible, like a smile or praise from an important adult or peer.

Positive reinforcement can also work for children whose behaviour is unwanted. If you reward the child by
Show More

Related Documents: Theorists Handout Essay

Management and Team Essay

Name……………………………….. Handout date: …………………………. Hand in date ……………………. UNIT 9 MANAGING AND DEVELOPING PEOPLE REPORTS ON 1. TEAM WORKING AND 2. TEAM MEETINGS 1. TEAM WORKING Your report will analyse and evaluate a team that you have been involved in. Consider the following: PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE OF TEAMS How and why are teams structured? – Introduce team working generally and general theories about team working. · What is the objective of your team? · How is your…

Words 295 - Pages 2

Psychodynamics Of Chronic Homelessness Analysis

today’s society, it is seen as just a handout. These individuals do not need a handout, they need permanent housing. He mentions in his term he would like “HUD to focus on outcomes, not only inputs.” This means measuring the outcomes of the grants and budget…

Words 1306 - Pages 6

study guide Essay

chapters ahead of time, taken notes or outlined their reading, and attended class regularly to engage in lecture/discussion. My advice to students in preparing for the exam is to focus on key vocabulary from each chapter, key theories, as well as key theorists. Studying your Quiz 1 assignment will also be beneficial since a large portion of the exam questions were pulled from your quiz assignment. There are approximately 75 questions on the exam, and students will have 75 minutes to complete it. Students…

Words 690 - Pages 3

Applying Theories And Principles To Planning And Enabling Learning Assessment

learners and keeping a session interesting for both learners and teacher. (Wilson, 2009: 40-41) This can also help a teacher to recognize how learners learn. Learners learn in different ways and have been researched by many theorists over the centuries. One of these theorists is Aristotle who wrote "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them" (Bynum, 2005) More recently, David A Kolb’s prominent work on his Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) in 1984 and Learning…

Words 2838 - Pages 12

Ptlls L 4 Unit 009 Essay

Using scribes helps quieter learners to feel part of the discussion. * 2.1 Analyse inclusive approaches to learning and teaching * Theorists differ in their emphasis on the most inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. ‘Kolb’ an Experiential theorists would argue that approaches such as essays and journals are the most effective means as they reinforce the ‘idea that the more often a learner reflects on a task, the more often they have…

Words 1357 - Pages 6

Essay on Educational Psychology and Learners

motivated, as there are external factors for responsible for their attendance. An example of this if they are referred by academic staff for additional IT support, or if they are experiencing problems with an assignment involving IT. Social learning theorists such as Albert Bandura believe that observing peers shapes learners’ behaviour and that the social environment can influence personality Zimbardo, McDermott, Jansz & Metaal (p460). This could explain why some students attend because their peers are…

Words 3215 - Pages 13

Mentorship Essay

formulate a teaching plan that would cater for the learners’ learning styles. Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1986) discussed four kinds of learning styles, which are activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatist. I prepared a teaching session, knowing that the learner falls between being a theorist by giving handouts and as being pragmatist I allowed him to be handson and encouraged him to ask questions. Since nursing is a profession where practical and theoretical knowledge needs to be integrated,…

Words 1012 - Pages 5

Adler And Lott Positive Discipline

Theorist Overview Jane Nelson and Lynn Lott are educators who created positive discipline in the classroom with hopes that it would prepare children for responsible citizenship (Nelsen, p. XIII). It must be noted that their Positive Discipline program is based from the works of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. Adler advocated that children should be treated with respect, but did not advocate spoiling a child because that could lead to future issues with behavior. Dreikurs was focused on social…

Words 621 - Pages 3

Essay Morton R100 Handouts 1

Handout 1: The Sociological Perspective Name: ____________________________________ 1. Watch “The Undertaking” where this video examines a family who works in the funeral industry as a window into American feelings on death and dying. Then, respond to the following questions: How do funeral rituals describe by the Lynch family show our cultural values about death and dying? How would a sociologist create a research question to systematically evaluate the claims that the Lynch family makes about death…

Words 4206 - Pages 17

Essay on Learning Styles

participation in order to learn’ The cognitivism theory views the brains learning as such: Information→Processing→Outcome I have observed this style in a humanities lesson on the Olympics, key ideas were constantly referred to and displayed on handouts, students were encouraged to link the information they were given to experiences they had had and link into different scenarios to allow the students to recognise and understand the key ideas of the lesson. This is probably the theory I use most…

Words 4114 - Pages 17