Child Developmental 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 Introduction to Developmental Psychology, Blackwell. 2) Richards, J. C. (1994) Educating Second Language Children, Cambridge University 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 functioning of a person due to biological, individual, and environmental influences. It studies children’s development, and the development of human behavior across the lifespan, from a variety of different 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 intervene between the different ages and stages of childhood; Maturation primarily under generic control, and which are relatively uninfluenced by the environment.

Concepts of Human Development 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 oriented, 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 interacting with the environment, and therefore helping to shape its own development. (Piaget: accommodation and assimilation) The integrated structural features of the organism. The parts making up the whole become reorganized 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 development 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 organismic 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 psychologist subscribing to an organismic viewpoint is to determine when different psychological stages operate and what variables, 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 reducible 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 increases, decreases, and changes in behavior.

Organismic world view  Biological organism Mechanistic World View  Behaviouristic view.

Questions In your opinion, which theory do you believe in the more than the other? Try to explain your opinion using the theory you prefer the most relating it to your own experience.

Discussion points Think of differing views that parents have about rearing their children. Think of differing views that teachers teach their students Consider the difference between organismic and mechanistic theories of development. How might these different perspectives be helpful in understanding different areas of development?

Linking this understanding to ELT. How this understanding of developmental theories can be applied in ELT?

Ways of studying development

Designs for studying age-related changes Cross-sectional designs people of different ages are tested once. Longitudinal designs  people are tested repeatedly as they grow older. Both cross-section and longitudinal designs

Time between measures Sequential designs Cohort effect 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 effect A 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 designs Use of the two (cross-sectional, longitudinal) designs and had cohort effect.

Research Methods Observational studies Baby biographies Time and event sampling The clinical method Experimental methods: Why do infants grasp pictures of objects (9m old response more on the real picture than drawings of an object)

Psychological testing Can test scores predict later development? Uses of tests Correlational studies Concurrent studies Predictive 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.