Erikson’s Psycho-Social Theory of Development deals with a person’s personality and behavior. It became a basis for broad or complex discussion and analysis of personality and behavior, and also for facilitating personal development-of self and others. It can help the teacher in becoming more knowledgeable of and at the same time understand the various environmental factors that affect the students’ personality and behavior. In this way, Erikson’s theory is useful for teaching, parenting, self-awareness, managing and coaching, dealing with conflict, and generally for understanding ourselves.
Social Learning theory of Albert Bandura states that people can learn by observing the behavior of others and the results of those behaviors. That’s why we should explain the consequences of behavior to effectively increase the appropriate behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones. Thus, a teacher must model appropriate behaviors and take care that they do not model inappropriate behaviors. To promote effective modeling, a teacher must make sure that the four essential conditions exist; attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation as Bandura mentioned these four conditions that are necessary before an individual can successfully model the behavior of someone else. Another one is to expose students to a variety of other models for them to differentiate things and able to draw value judgments.
Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development involves a continuous effort to adapt to the environment in terms of assimilation and accommodation. In connection, we (soon to be teachers) should use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges. We can provide them activities or situations that engage learners and require adaptation to facilitate their cognitive development. It is also important to note our learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities. This is for a child to learn easily.
The key theme of Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural theory of Development is that social interaction plays a very important role in cognitive development. Knowing this, it is crucial to assist our students by scaffolding. Scaffolding should involve the judicious assistance given by the adult or a teacher so that the child can achieve the desired skill level; when done appropriately can make a learner confident to accomplish a task independently without any need for assistance. We can then, greatly help to make them independent learners. I also agree with Vygotsky in the essential role of activities in learning, that’s why I will provide students with hands-on activities because they learn better rather than passive listening.
According to Kohlberg’s Moral Development theory, children form ways of thinking through their experiences which includes understandings of moral concepts such as justice, rights, equality and human welfare. This will help me to provide the students with a sense of belongingness to a group which is responsive to individual needs; and where they are able to practice moral reasoning and are able to learn from other perspectives. In this manner, I am helping them to realize better things in the real life situations. I have also realized (in his theory) that I must listen closely and understand a student’s reasoning in order to help the student to the next level of reasoning.
The theories of these prominent people are teaching us on how to teach and deal with people, most especially with students. As soon to be teachers, it is essential to note these things and know their implications because they hold golden knowledge that is very useful for teaching-learning process.
-CCB
No comments:
Post a Comment