adolescence development-introduction

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BEd (Secondary)

ES001: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:

Session 1Introduction to Educational

Psychology, Adolescence and Adolescent Development

LEARNERS AND LEARNING

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Psychology Educational Psychology

Content:• What do you know about it?• What do you need to know about it?• How ed.psy helps teachers and students?

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The Role of Education Psychology

After you got the knowledge, then what are you going to do with it?

• How do we face current situation?• Do we change our practices as often as we should?• How do we know if changes we make are effective?

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AN INTRODUCTION TO

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

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What is it?

Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes.

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that specialises in understanding teaching and learning in educational settings.

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Educational Psychology: A Tool for Effective Teaching

Teaching as Science & Art

As a science, educational psychology’s aim is to provide you with research knowledge that you can effectively apply to your teaching situations.

But your teaching will still remain an art.

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Some Key Areas in Educational PsychologyDevelopment, Learning and Thinking

Development of the Self and Identity

Cognitive Development

Theories about Learning

Complex Cognitive Processes

Intelligence

Individual Variations

Physical, Social, Emotional, and Moral Development

Motivation, Teaching and Learning

Assessment

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ADOLESCENCE

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What is Adolescence?

A period of transition from childhood to adulthood, marked by major physical changes of puberty and important cognitive and social changes

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PERSPECTIVES ON ADOLESCENCE

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Historical Perspective

Early HistoryIn early Greece, the philosophers commented about the nature of youth.

Plato (4th Century B.C.)Aristotle (4th Century B.C.)

In the Middle Ages, children and adolescents were viewed as miniature adults and were subject to harsh discipline.

In the 18th Century, the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau offered a more enlightened view of adolescence.

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Historical Perspective

The 20th & 21st Centuries• G. Stanley Hall’s Storm-and-Stress View• Margaret Mead’s Sociocultural View• The Inventionist View• Further Changes in the 20th and 21st Centuries

–The women’s movement–The dual family and career objectives –Increased use of media and technology by adolescents–Increased diversity

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ADOLESCENTS TODAY

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Activity: Adolescents Today

Note down some of your observations about adolescents today. Share these observations within your group.

The observations can be generic ones relating to any aspects of their lives including fashion, appearances, attitudes and language,

And/ Or characteristics and traits of adolescents which fascinate you.

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Stereotypes of Adolescents

Stereotype: A generalization that reflects our impressions and beliefs about a broad category of people.

All stereotypes carry an image of what the typical member of a particular group is like.

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Stereotypes of Adolescents:

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Some Examples:

• “They are all lazy”• “They don’t want to work”• “They are all sex fiends”• “They are all into drugs”• “They say they want a job, but when they get one, they

don’t want to work”• “The problem with adolescents today is that they all

have it too easy”

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• The negative stereotyping of adolescents is overdrawn. (Benson & others, 2006; Collins & Steinberg, 2006).

• Psychologists now focus on the positive side of human experience and greater emphasis on hope, optimism, positive individual traits, creativity, and positive group and civic values, such as responsibility, nurturance, civility, and tolerance. (Benson & others, 2006; Reinders & Youniss, 2006).

A Positive View of Adolescence

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• Adults’ perceptions of adolescents emerge from a combination of personal experience and media portrayals, neither of which produces an objective picture of how typical adolescents develop (Feldman & Elliott, 1990).


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• It is an enormous error to confuse adolescents’ enthusiasm for trying on new identities and indulging in occasional episodes of outrageous behaviour with hostility toward parental and societal standards.


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Today’s Adolescents in the U.S. and Around the World

"It’s the best of times and the worst of times.”• Televisions, computers, cell phones, and air travel are

often the norm, not the exception. • However, the temptations and hazards of the adult world

descend on adolescents so early that too often they are not cognitively and emotionally ready to handle them effectively.

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Youth Around The World

• Two-thirds of Asian Indian adolescents accept their parents’ choice of a marital partner for them

(Verma & Saraswathi, 2002).

• In the Philippines, many female adolescents sacrifice their own futures by migrating to the city to earn money that they can send home to their families.

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• Street youth in Kenya and other parts of the world learn to survive under highly stressful circumstances. In some cases abandoned by their parents, they may engage in delinquency or prostitution to provide for their economic needs.

• In the Middle East, many adolescents are not allowed to interact with the other sex, even in school (Booth, 2002).

• Cultural differences among adolescents have by no means disappeared (Berry, 2007; Larson & Wilson, 2004; Saraswathi, 2006).

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Rapid global change is altering the experience of adolescence, presenting new opportunities and challenges to young people’s health and well-being.

Around the world, adolescents’ experiences may differ depending on their gender, families, schools, and peers (Brown & Larson, 2002; Larson & Wilson, 2004).

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Brad Brown and Reed Larson (2002) summarized some of these changes and traditions in the world’s youth:

• Health and well-being• Gender• Family• School• Peers

Adolescents’ lives are characterized by a combination of change and tradition.


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ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

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The Nature of Development

Development: The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span.Most development involves growth, although it also includes decay (death and dying).

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Development ProcessesDevelopmental Changes are a Result of Biological, Cognitive,

and Socioemotional Processes

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Development Processes

Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes

Biologicalprocesses

Physical changes within an

individual’s body.

(Continued from previous slide)

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CognitiveprocessesChanges in

thinking andintelligence.


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SocioemotionalprocessesChanges in

relationships, emotions, personality,

and social contexts.


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Periods of Development (Santrock, 2008)

Period Age Range Characteristics

Infancy birth to 18 to 24 months

Extreme dependenceThe beginning of many activities

Early Childhood (pre-school years)

2-5 years More self-sufficientInteraction with peersDevelopment of school readiness skills

Middle and Late childhood

elementary school years (6-11 years)

Self-control increasesMastery of fundamental literacy and numeracy skillsAchievement is a central theme in lifeInteraction beyond the family

• Prenatal Period

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Periods of DevelopmentPeriod Age Range Characteristics

Adolescence• Early Adolescence• Late Adolescence

10-21 years Transition from childhood to adulthoodPubertyIndependence and identityDevelopment of cognitive functions and complexity in thought

Early Adulthood Early 20s-30s Work and love are main themes in life

• Middle Adulthood• Late Adulthood• Old Age

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Processes of Development

Biological Processes

Socioemotional

Processes

Cognitive Processes

Periods and Processes of Development (Santrock, 2008)

Periods of Development

Infancy Early childhood Middle & Late Childhood Adolescence Early adulthood

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Developmental Issues

• Nature vs. Nurture

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity

• Early vs. Later Experience

• One Course of Development or Many?

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1. Maturation and Experience (Nature vs. Nurture)

• Nature: An organism’s biological inheritance.

• Nurture: Environmental experiences

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The Nature Vs. Nurture Controversy

• The nature proponents: Biological inheritance is the most important influence on development.

• The nurture proponents: Environmental experiences are the most important.

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• How is our intelligences?Is it nature or nurture?

• How about our body proportional?Nature or Nurture?

• How about our learning style?

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2. Continuity and Discontinuity

• Continuity of development• The view that development

involves gradual cumulative change from conception to death

• Discontinuity of development• The view that development

involves distinct stages in life span

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3. Early and Later Experience

• Focuses on the degree to which early experiences (especially in infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of the child’s development.

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4. One Course of Development or Many?

• The same sequence of development for all children?• Or do different contexts, and unique combinations of

genetic and environmental circumstances result in different paths of change?

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Evaluating the Developmental Issues

• It’s unwise to take an extreme position on developmental issues

• Nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, and early and later experience all affect our development throughout the human life span

• The above consensus has not meant the absence of spirited debate

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Social Contexts of Development

• Contexts are the settings in which development occurs.

• Contexts are influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors.

• Adolescent development occurs against a cultural backdrop that includes family, peers, school, church, neighborhood, community, region, and nation (Berry, 2007; McLoyd, Aikens, & Burton, 2006; Parke & Buriel, 2006; Shirev & Levy, 2007).

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Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner’s theory focuses on the social contexts in which people live and the people who influence their development.

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Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory cont’dMicrosystem: Direct interactions with parents, teachers, peers, and others.

Mesosystem: Linkages between microsystems such as family and school, and relationships between students and peers.Exosystem: Experiences in settings in which a child does not have an active role influence the child’s experiences.

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Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory cont’d

Macrosystem: The broader culture in which students and teachers live.

Chronosystem: The sociohistorical conditions of a student’s development.

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Sid’s father left his family years ago and provides no support for them. Sid and his three siblings live with their mother in a public housing project for low-income families. They receive public assistance in the form of reduced rent, money to live on, and participation in a food program. Sid and his siblings receive free school lunches, and do not have to pay the standard book rental fee. In addition, they receive free medical care when ill or injured, but Sid’s mother considers the care they receive to be substandard. Recently, she contacted legal aid about obtaining child support from her children’s father

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory Theory into Practice

Q.1: What aspects of Sid’s microsystem are discussed in the example? Explain.

Q.2: What aspects of Sid’s exosystem are discussed in the example? Explain.

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Sid’s father left them years ago and provides no support for the family. Sid and his three siblings live with their mother in a public housing project for low-income families. They receive public assistance in the form of reduced rent, money to live on, and participate in a food program. Sid and his siblings receive free school lunches, and do not have to pay the standard book rental fee. In addition, they receive free medical care when ill or injured, but Sid’s mother considers the care they receive to be substandard. Recently, she contacted legal aid about obtaining child support from her children’s father.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory Theory into Practice

Q.3: How is the mesosystem currently operating for Sid? Explain.

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Bronfenbrenner’s Theory in the Classroom

• Think about children embedded in several environmental systems and influences

• Attend to connections between school and families

• Recognize the importance of community, culture, and socioeconomic status

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Development and Education

• Understanding children’s development enables teachers to know the level at which it is appropriate to teach their students

• Importance of developmentally appropriate teaching practices

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Development and Education

• Developmentally appropriate teaching takes place at a level that is neither too difficult and stressful nor too easy and boring for the child’s developmental level.

• Challenges of ‘splintered development’ (Horowitz, et. al., 2005)