Chapter 2: The child - psychological and pedagogical considerations

 

1.   Child development and learning: some considerations

Development means many different things to different people, and whatever definition we give, it will not be universally accepted. So, development refers a) to the changes in the structure and properties of behaviour which take place in the course of a life time; b) in part to the way individual endowments, circumstances, events, and encounters interact to provide for various routes to maturity and beyond; c) to a series of qualitative transformations, as though the developing person at different points functions in completely new ways and for others the same principles govern behaviour at all ages, and that development is simply the accumulation of additional skills.

 

Growth and development occurs unevenly yet concurrently in the physical/motor, psychosocial, cognitive, and language domains. Inherent in much of this growth and development is the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the academic domains of literacy, math, science, social studies, and the arts. Recognizing this, professional early childhood educators take a whole-child perspective that observes and facilitates growth, development, and learning in all these areas. For this, they must pay attention to the fact that, although there are major similarities in the cognitive capacities and in the personality characteristics,  we may find significative differences between boys and girls concerning mathematics, visual, spatial and verbal competencies, as well as in aggression (Maccoby e Jacklin,1974; cited in Neto, A. and all, 2000) . It seems that it is more difficult for girls to be competent in the spatial field but they have greater analytic and speech capacities (Cândido, Joaquim, 2002). These differences, that can be observed in children, around two years old, when choosing toys and activities, vary in two inverse tendencies with the age. In fact, girls aged four or five years don’t show new typified tendencies but, on the contrary this doesn’t happen to boys whose performances become more and more stereotyped. This is important, since three to four years old  children know much about their gender characteristics and act according to them.

 

We can be based on the assumptions (Puckett and Black, 2000) that young children: a) have an innate need to know and, therefore, are competent, eager to learn, and trustworthy learners; b) can initiate and direct their own learning’s, within a supportive and enriched setting; c) construct knowledge while interacting with adults, one another, and with meaningful materials and realia; d) develop physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually at different rates. However, at the same time, we should take into account their sex, as children tend to prefer playing with children of the same sex. This is more evident at the age level of four to five years (Silva, A. and all, 2000). In fact, until four years old children learn the characteristics tied to each gender, from four to six years old   children develop more complex associations about the information of its own gender but from six years on each child learn relevant associations to the other sex (Martin, et all, 1990).

 

The first eight years are critical ones in total development so it is important to implement quality and appropriate teaching for young children. So as all learning has its foundations in early childhood, it is vital to assume that there are different intelligences involved in learning: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and naturalistic (Gardner, 1993). Learning proceeds from the concrete to the abstract through (1) active exploration and inquiry (2) enriched learning environments, (3) social contexts that encourage interaction among learners, and (4) adult or older child scaffolding. The mind must be engaged if learning is to occur, either dealing with a boy or a girl. Considering the Gender Problem, and related with the above mentioned process of (1) active exploration and inquiry, we must refer to the E. Rostand sentence: «The fact of having played with dolls or with lead little soldiers is so important as the hormones in the psychic differentiation between man and woman» (cited by Tap, P., 1985). As for the referred (3) social contexts that encourage interaction among learners, we may mention the research undertaken by Christine Morin (in Acioly-Regnier  and all, 2001), who concluded that boys had significative better results when they worked in a mixed group, than when they were in a homogeneous group of boys. This effect was not observed in the girls. So, the author concluded that the “mix factor” was clearly positive for boys, but not for girls. Also Elena Belloti (cited by Tap, P., 1985).  reflected on the girls development process, when she noticed that two years boys and girls were very similar, liking and doing the same things, but that three years latter each sex group already followed the social rules.

 

In synthesis it is possible to affirm that a) knowledge is rooted in language, beliefs, and customs of different cultures; b) different kinds of knowledge exist: physical, logical-mathematical, and social-conventional (Piaget, 1952); c) both products and processes are important to the acquisition of knowledge; d) problem solving supersedes rote memory of facts if knowledge is to be meaningful and sustained; e) new knowledge  builds on prior knowledge and experience and is influenced by the individual’s perceptions; f) knowledge is more efficiently acquired in meaningful contexts; g) the acquisition of knowledge is a lifetime process; h) boys and girls neither behave themselves nor learn in the same way  not even  develop the same interests.

 

Surprising advances in recent years in the fields of neuroscience and technology have resulted in new knowledge about the brain and how it develops, and  have revealed that the human brain becomes “wired”, at an astounding rate during the early months and years of development, and is dependent on specific types of experiences during certain developmental time periods. Findings from this research have focused attention on the importance of the early childhood period -particularly the first three years- in fostering this development. Plasticity is greatest during this period. The first three years are critical, and until about age ten the brain continues to create complicated neurological connections (Caine and Caine, 1994, Shore, 1997; Sylwester, 1995). During the early years the brain produces more connections than it needs, and those that are not used are eliminated. This creates both opportunities for learning in a variety of areas and vulnerability to impoverished and adverse environmental conditions.

 

So it is essential to create specific types of experiences during certain developmental time periods, the “windows of opportunity”. For example, in the age of one to five, in the domain of mathematical and logical thinking, are crucial

·         playthings and curriculum materials that encourage mathematical and logical thinking: i.e.., manipulative materials that can be arranged, rearranged, sorted, grouped, sequenced, counted, and use to create and construct in a variety of ways;

·         adult- child interaction that employs inquiry, reason, logic and analytic thinking;

·         many and varied opportunities to solve “real-life” problems; formulate hypotheses; experiment with solutions; challenge answers;

·         daily/weekly schedules and routines that are predictable.

Taking into account the fact that girls are more curious and logical themselves.