Applied Theory to Application With Teachers Term Paper

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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.

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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….....

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