Friday, April 12, 2013

Development


Chapter 3
(3.1) Personal and social development can have a major influence on both individual student
learning and the learning environment as a whole. Identify a case from the CSEL guidelines*
that you would like to address in your paper. Then, examine the possible developmental
factors that could be influencing your target student(s) or classroom in the case study. Consider
all dimensions of personal and social development, including cognitive, language, social,
emotional, and moral development. *CSEL guidelines can be found under CSEL Artifact. Cases
are included at the end of the document. Choose the case that best suits your desired grade level.


Elementary Education:
You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations. 

Some issues in development that Lisa might be facing could be that her social development is not as developed as her peers. She might react to certain situations or comments made by her classmates in inappropriate ways because she just hasn't reached the same level of development as they have. Things like her perspective taking and information processing might not be up to par, resulting in aggressive behavior. She also might not be as cognitively developed as her peers. Her level of understanding of the assignment, etc. might not be there, so she may misunderstand and be confused, causing frustration and bad behavior. As for language development, Lisa may not have the capability to express everything that she wants to, resulting in miscommunications and frustration within her group. Lastly, Lisa's emotional and moral development  may not be at the same level as her peers. Due to this difference, Lisa may say things or act a certain way, which is not appropriate. She might realize this afterwards, though, causing Lisa to feel a sense of shame or guilt. All of these are possibilities for Lisa's misbehavior. The teacher would have to closely monitor Lisa and speak with her to figure out what the problem was. It would be a good idea to do a functional behavior assessment to try to pinpoint the triggers/causes of Lisa's behavior so you can more effectively reduce Lisa's poor behavior. 

(3.22) Check out tables 3.1 (p. 75), 3.2 (p. 83) and 3.3 (p. 91) with particular attention to the age
ranges you are interested in teaching. Identify your personal favorite ways that an educator can
promote a child’s sense of self, perspective taking, and moral reasoning skills.

For sense of self, I would like to "provide sufficient scaffolding to make success possible." For perspective taking, since I am a huge reading advocate, would like to "ask questions about thoughts, feelings, and motives during storybook readings; encourage students to share and compare diverse perspectives and inferences." This is a great way to make your activities cross-curricular, as well. You could read a science book, but tie these developmental ideas in, too. For moral reasoning skills, when student misbehave I would like to "give reasons that such behaviors are not acceptable, focusing on the harm and distress they have cause others." I think if you can guide a child to be sympathetic or even empathetic, they will have a greater sense of others and develop much better social skills.


2 comments:

  1. Well said Kelsey! It sounds like you have Lisa figured out. You really hit all of the possible issues Lisa could be having. I also said I liked reading as a way to help students learn how to take perspective. I really think reading is a great way for students to empathize and see other peoples point of view.

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  2. You made a great point about being able to use the strategies to integrate other classes into your own. That is definitely something that I have seen as important in all of my education classes.

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