Growth and Development Theories

• Theories of Growth and Development are covered by Erik Erikson's Development Theory and Jean Piaget's stages of intellectual development.

Erik Erikson Development Theory

• Birth to 12 months: trust vs mistrust depends on needs being met with love, care, food, comfort, and safety.
• Ages 1-3: autonomy vs shame and doubt is the “me do” stage with the need for independence.
• Ages 3-6: initiative v guilt includes exploration, trying new things, and asking questions.
• Ages 6-12: Industry v Inferiority involves intellectual curiosity, school performance, and the need for positive reinforcement and praise.
• Ages 12-19: Identity vs role confusion involves developing a sense of self, influence from peers, and figuring out life after high school.

Jean Piaget Theory

• Birth-2 years: sensorimotor stage characterized by reflexive actions like sucking and grabbing, as well as object permanence.
• 2-7 years: preoperational stage includes pretense, symbolic thinking, language development, egocentric perspectives.
• 7-11 years: concrete operational stage involves concrete, hands-on activities, mental reversal, seriation, sorting, classifying, and understanding conservation.
• Ages 12+: formal operational stage characterized by abstract and critical thinking, hypothesizing, predicting, and understanding metaphors.
• Sensorimotor stage: Infants (0–2 years old) explore through senses and actions, developing an understanding of object permanence and laying cognitive foundations
• Object permanence is the understanding that something still exists even though it cannot be seen or heard.
• Trust versus mistrust stage: Infants learn to rely on caregivers for their basic needs, fostering trust—while inconsistency in meeting these needs can lead to mistrust, suspicion, and anxiety about their environment.
• Autonomy versus shame/doubt stage: The shame and doubt stage involves a child's journey toward independence and decision-making
• Sensory exploration involves activities that engage the senses to help children explore and understand the world.

Preschool Stage

• Erikson: initiative v guilt
• Piaget: pre-operational
• Fine motor skills involve tiny muscles working with the brain and nervous system to control movements in areas like the hands, fingers, lips, tongue, and eyes
• Initiative versus guilt stage: Children between ages three and six display increased assertiveness by taking the lead in play and engaging in social interactions more actively
• Preoperational stage involves symbolic thinking, using symbols to represent words, objects, images, individuals, and concepts.
• Egocentric thinking is demonstrating a cognitive inclination where individuals find it challenging to acknowledge perspectives beyond their own
• Scaffolding occurs when a teacher breaks down complex concepts into manageable steps.

Kindergarten-1st Grade

• Conservation: an understanding that certain physical attributes of objects remain constant even when their appearance or arrangement changes.

Elementary Stage

• Erikson: industry versus inferiority stage, where children become more confident when succeeding.
• Piaget: concrete operational stage involves logical, organized, systematic thinking.
• Reversibility is the ability to mentally reverse actions or procedures.
• Classification the the ability to group objects based on common traits.
• Industry versus inferiority stage: Children between the ages of 5 and 12 develop a growing sense of competence and accomplishment as they develop a greater understanding of their capabilities and limitations
• Concrete operational stage: In children between ages 7 and 11, thinking becomes more logical, organized, and systematic
• Reversibility to mentally undo actions or operations; allows individuals to understand that certain processes can be reversed to return to their original state
• Classification to categorize objects, events, or concepts based on common attributes or characteristics, enabling children to organize and make sense of their environment

Adolescence

• Puberty typically occurs between ages 12 and 17; changes such as the development of secondary sexual characteristics, growth spurts, and alterations in body composition
• Erikson: identity versus role confusion stage
• Piaget: formal operational stage (abstract, complex thinking, hypotheticals, deductive reasoning)
• Identity versus role confusion stage: Adolescents between the ages of 12-17 engage in the exploration and formation of personal identity, including values, beliefs, and aspirations
• Formal operational stage: In adolescents between ages 12 and 17, thinking becomes more abstract, complex, and systematic

Learning Theories

• Learning theories: conceptual frameworks that explain how individuals acquire knowledge, develop skills, and change behaviors over time

Behaviorism

• External influences shape behavior.
• Classical conditioning: children learn by making connections.
• Operant conditioning: behaviors are strengthened or weakened through reinforcement and punishment.
• Behaviorism sheds light on how external stimuli shape behavior, emphasizing the focus on observable behaviors rather than internal mental processes
• Classical conditioning illustrates how associations between stimuli can lead to learned responses
• Operant conditioning demonstrates how behaviors are strengthened or weakened
• Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated
• Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior reoccurring
• Direct instruction is a teacher-led traditional behaviorist teaching strategy.

Cognitivism

• Focuses on internal mental processes like thinking, remembering, problem-solving, and decision-making
• Children build mental schemas: frameworks that help organize and interpret information.
• Cognitivism seeks to understand the internal processes involved in learning, such as perception, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making
• Mental schemas cognitive frameworks that help people organize and interpret information
• Bloom’s revised taxonomy: a framework that categorizes educational objectives into six levels of cognitive complexity: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating
• Information processing theory: a key component of cognitivism that focuses on understanding the mental processes involved in learning and cognition
• Elaboration is the addition of details

Constructivism and Social Constructivism

• Learning occurs through personal experiences and interactions.
• Constructivism: a prominent theory in education combining cognitive and social elements emphasizing active learning, student-centered instruction, and the construction of knowledge through personal experiences and interactions
• Self-directed learning- taking self-directed control of learning, setting goals, finding resources, and solving problems independently
• Discovery learning: learning by exploring and independently resolving challenges, using curiosity and problem-solving skills to discover new ideas and concepts
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the gap between what a learner can accomplish independently and what they can achieve with guidance and support
• More Knowledgeable Other (MKO): a person who possesses more knowledge or expertise than the learner and provides assistance and guidance within the ZPD
• Social constructivism underscores the interplay between individual cognition and social factors in shaping learning; complements the emphasis on social interaction by highlighting the role of observational learning and modeling in knowledge acquisition

Recommending Instructional Techniques

• Regularly assess and update methods

Techniques for Student Retention and Understanding

• Spacing: spread out study sessions.
• Interleaving: mix topics and problems within a single study session to help differentiate and apply knowledge.

3 Categories of Teaching Tools

• Encoding: tools help transfer new information into memory.
  • Acquisition: introduce new content in an attentive and engaging manner using clear explanations, visual aids, etc.
  • Consolidation: process and organize information by linking concepts, summarizing, discussing, and applying.
  • Elaboration: develop understanding by asking how and why questions.
  • Mnemoic Devices: remember information by classification systems
  • Dual Coding: using a combination of visual aids and verbal explanations.
• Storage: maintaining and organizing information in memory over time using chunking and visual aids, includes Short Term(STM) and Long Term Memory(LTM). -Move information helps memory become more stable and organized, making it easier to retreive info later annd connecting new info to existing knowledge
  • Techniques:Summarization, Visualization, association, spaced practice
  • Supportive Enviroment, Physiological Needs, Spaced Content
• Retrieval: recall, self testing, practice quizzes, spaced retrieval, promote long term retention via practice tests, quizzes, and flashcards.

Metacognitive, Motivational, and Social

• Metacognitive: monitor and regulate their own learning processes through self-assessments, goal setting, and reflection.
• Motivational: increase interest and engagement through reward systems and achievable goals.
• Social: techniques involve interaction with others through collaboration, peer tutoring, and group projects.