Applied Theory to Application With Teachers

¶ … Human Development and Education Theory

Behavioral psychologists and developmental theorists have traditionally categorized various periods of childhood and adolescence that correspond to VERY specific stages of cognitive and emotional development. While various experts differ widely in their characterization and analyses of the human developmental stages, modern educators recognize the importance of certain elements of behavioral and emotional development as equally important to early education as age-related cognitive stages of purely intellectual growth.

Traditional primary and secondary education programs are based on teaching methods and concepts designed in the nineteenth century and earlier. While the academic curricula expanded considerably during the course of the last hundred years' of American education, many of the methods still relied upon by modern educators mirror the principles designed primarily just to teach elementary reading and writing skills, which was the main (if not the sole) focus of the early education even well into the twentieth century. Consequently, they are hardly suited to incorporate principles of students' social and emotional well-being, nor do they necessarily promote or inspire independent or creative thinking abilities beyond rote memorization.

Modern education theorists recognize the interrelationships between the various stages of human psychological development and intellectual or learning potential of students corresponding to the different periods of childhood and adolescent development. Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University School of Education, for example, has experimented with educational programs based on his completely new theory of Multiple Intelligences (Smith, 2002). Gardner and other innovators in the field have long promoted a complete restructuring of education in America, integrating the most ambitious elements of several successful experimental programs.

Even without a comprehensive (and likely cost-prohibitive) top-to-bottom redesign of primary and secondary education, the notion of incorporating modern understanding of human developmental stages is not necessarily an "all-or-none" prospect. Many different practical techniques are available to enable individual educators to circumvent some of the potential limitations inherent to particular developmental stages, as well as to encourage independent thinking and emotional well-being conducive to maximizing learning potential.

The beginning of formal academic education corresponds to the end of late childhood, at about six years of age, because this period marks the transition from pre-operational thinking processes to concrete operational thinking, a prerequisite to academic learning (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2001). Nevertheless, pre-school educators and parents) can introduce activities and discussions in pre-school to facilitate the earliest possible transition to concrete operational thinking.

Childhood psychological development proceeds in an ongoing and very gradual manner rather than suddenly, at a precise age. Likewise, different students may vary by as much as a full year in their individual development and many researchers believe that early exposure to the principles of critical thinking facilitate childhood intellectual progression (Smith, 2002). In all likelihood, children in the relative middle of the polar ends of the developmental continuum would benefit the most from pre-school activities and discussions promoting concrete operational thinking at this stage, but without harm, either to their more or less precocious peers.

Pre-school teachers are usually in the perfect position to asses and monitor the imminent transition between the stages of childhood intellectual and social development. Common diagnostic tools (such as testing the classic ability to identify relative quantities of fluid in various containers and quantify the actual numbers of objects arranged in different spacial configurations) are quite easily adapted for use as learning modules. Pre-school lessons designed to promote early intellectual development employ the same materials and tools as the diagnostic tests from which they are derived, in conjunction with the crucial addition of a teacher-directed discussion of the principles involved. On the one hand, students not yet on the verge of the stage transition are neither benefited appreciably nor harmed by premature exposure; on the other hand, students beginning the stage transition might easily be accelerated to more concrete operations by such an approach. Ideally, these methods would be introduced after diagnostic testing pinpoints the stage where the largest segment of each class is likely to benefit from their inclusion in the pre-school curriculum.

The other main issue capable of being addressed in early childhood education concerns the general process of ongoing socialization and emotional well-being of children. Modern behaviorists now regard some traditional notions of childhood socialization as antiquated, particularly those related to gender role identification.

Children gravitate quite naturally toward stereotypical gender-based preferences, which need not be supplemented by cues from teachers' specifically encouraging or directing their students toward stereotypical roles. Similarly, pre-school teachers can employ simple and readily available traditional tools such as self-portraits in crayons to transmit beneficial messages as to the trivial nature of differences in skin color to promote positive racial diversity and attitudes about other cultures.

By late middle school and high school, students master the formal operational stage of human development, enabling them to reach their full intellectual and learning potential. Erikson refers to the central role that defining one's identity occupies in the emotional lives of middle and high school students in conjunction with hormonal influences and their need to balance internal urges with parental or family expectations and their need for independence and peer group approval (Gerrig (Zimbardo, 2001). Kohlberg also recognizes the importance of this period but focuses more on what he refers to as the adolescent morality stage, characterized by tensions related to defining their personal understanding of morality and learning to accept the appropriate boundaries and rules of order imposed by authority figures and institutions (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2001).