CHILD DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Week 1 Kang, Nam Joon.

CHILD DEVELOPMEN-TAL PSYCHOLOGY

Week 1 Kang, Nam Joon

Objectives

To understand how children in different ages think

To understand how children in different ages learn.

To find better ways to teach children English. Students will understand more about with what

kinds of activities and topics children in different ages would have optimal learning outcomes.

So we will read

1) Slater, A. & Brenmer, G. (2007) An In-troduction to Developmental Psychology, Blackwell.

2) Richards, J. C. (1994) Educating Second Language Children, Cambridge Univer-sity Press.

3) Wood, D. (1993) How Children Think and Learn., Blackwell

4) Articles.

Developmental psychology

Attempts to describe and explain the changes that occur over time in the thought, behaviour, reasoning, and func-tioning of a person due to biological, in-dividual, and environmental influences.

It studies children’s development, and the development of human behavior across the lifespan, from a variety of dif-ferent perspectives.

Studying changes with age

Infancy (0~ 18months) Toddlerhood (16 ~ 48 months) Preschool Childhood Childhood Adolescence Adulthood

Is it results of age?

Increasing age, by itself, contributes nothing to development.

Maturation and experience that inter-vene between the different ages and stages of childhood;

Maturation primarily under generic con-trol, and which are relatively uninflu-enced by the environment.

Concepts of Human Devel-opment Our own understanding of how children

grow and of how we should rear children always affect our own teaching.

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

Break his will now, and his soul will live, and he will probably bless you to all eternity.

All sweetness and light: like begets like

If children live with criticism they learn to condemn If children live with hostility they learn to fight If children live with approval they learn to like

themselves If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

Break his will now, and his soul will live, and he will probably bless you to all eternity.

Direct Error Corrections, physical punishment, drill like repetitions, explicit learning in a strict manner, test ori-ented, accuracy focused.

All sweetness and light: like begets like Encouraging motivation using cognitively motivating

topics, activities Indirect error corrections or fluency focused methods,

task oriented, project completion

Organismic world view A person is represented as a biological organism

which is inherently active and continually interact-ing with the environment, and therefore helping to shape its own development. (Piaget: accommoda-tion and assimilation)

The integrated structural features of the organism. The parts making up the whole become reorga-

nized as a consequence of the organism’s active construction of its own functioning, the structure of the organism may take on a new meaning; thus qualitatively distinct principles may be involved in human functioning at different point in life.

Rare reversibility in human development

Depending on the temperature, these qualitative changes in the state of water are easily reversed, but in human devel-opment the qualitative changes that take place are rarely, if ever, reversible– that is, each new stage represents an advance on the preceding stage and the individual does not regress to former stages.

Piaget, the best example of an organis-mic theoriest

Cognitive development occurs in stages and that the reasoning of the child at one stage is qualitatively different from that at the earlier and later stages.

The job of the developmental psycholo-gist subscribing to an organismic view-point is to determine when different psy-chological stages operate and what vari-ables, processes, and /or laws represent the differences between stages and the transitions between them.

Mechanistic World View A person can be represented as being like a machine (such

as a computer). Which is inherently passive until stimulated by the environment. Ultimately, human behavior is reduc-ible to the operation of fundamental behavioral units (e.g., habits) which are acquired in a gradual, cumulative manner.

According to this view the frequency of behaviors can increase with age due to various learning processes, and they can decrease with age when they no longer have any functional consequence or lead to negative consequences (such as punishment).

The developmentalist’s job is to study the environmental factors, or principles of learning which determine the way organisms respond to stimulation, and which result in in-creases, decreases, and changes in behavior.

Organismic world view Biological organism

Mechanistic World View Be-haviouristic view.

Questions

In your opinion, which theory do you be-lieve in the more than the other?

Try to explain your opinion using the theory you prefer the most relating it to your own experience.

1. Discussion points

1. Think of differing views that parents have about rearing their children.

2. Think of differing views that teachers teach their students

3. Consider the difference between organ-ismic and mechanistic theories of de-velopment. How might these different perspectives be helpful in understand-ing different areas of development?

Linking this understanding to ELT.1. How this understanding of developmen-

tal theories can be applied in ELT?

Ways of studying develop-ment

Designs for studying age-related changes

Cross-sectional designs people of dif-ferent ages are tested once.

Longitudinal designs people are tested repeatedly as they grow older.

Both cross-section and longitudinal de-signs

Time between measures One must decide what intervals to use .., at what ages

the children are to be tested or how often repeated tests will be administered.

Cohort effectA serious design problem, which is particularly relevant

for studies covering a large age range involves cohort effects. (the effects caused by changes that occur through many influences, e.g., height, attitude, Leisure activities etc.)

Sequential designsUse of the two (cross-sectional, longitudinal) designs

and had cohort effect.

Research Methods

Observational studiesBaby biographiesTime and event sampling

The clinical methodExperimental methods: Why do infants

grasp pictures of objects (9m old re-sponse more on the real picture than drawings of an object)

Psychological testingCan test scores predict later development?Uses of tests

Correlational studiesConcurrent studiesPredictive studies

Choosing the method of study. Observational versus experimentation

Homework

Read the chapter two of book 1 Answer to the question 2, 3, 4, and 5 of

the discussion points in this chapter. P. 63 in a written form.