Developmental Approach

Developmental

It means a progression from a simpler or lower to a more advanced, mature, or complex form or stage Act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining. A process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage. Approach A particular way of thinking about or dealing with something. Ones viewpoint toward teaching. A Developmental Approach to Teaching 1. Active learning. Unfortunately, this teaching buzz word tends to be illdefined. For Piaget, however, it was simple. Learning involves doing. An infant who puts an object in his or her mouth acquires knowledge that cannot be obtained by watching the object passively. Now, I am not suggesting that you have students chew on their textbooks, but I am suggesting that you have them act on the material in some way. For example, in my developmental psychology class, students can create an infant appropriate toy, write a prenatal development information pamphlet, and design a school curriculum, all of which have been met with terrific enthusiasm. This approach does not permit bystander apathy, and students benefit tremendously by immersing themselves in the material in a way that they cannot do when it is simply presented to them. 2. Fostering intellectual curiosity. Piaget also believed that intellectual curiosity fuels learning. Although typically applied to children, this principle is relevant to the college student. There is little doubt that our students are eager to learn (despite the occasional glazed look in their eyes), but their interests often vary widely. How can we channel individual interests but still meet general course goals? One way is to leave room for personal choice in any given assignment or exam. For their final project, students in my Self and Social Behavior class can explore the main themes of the course via any medium of interest (e.g., collage, sculpture, photo essay, poem/story analysis, film analysis). As part of their final exam, students in developmental psychology are invited to create a question to answer based on their interests (with guidelines to ensure quality control). Students responses to this intellectual freedom have been wildly enthusiastic, and the quality of the work is the highest that I have seen since I began teaching. 3. Learning from peers. Both Vygotsky and Baldwin emphasized the importance of peers in learning. Ideally, students of varying backgrounds and ability levels should collaborate to maximize the learning experience. Collaboration encourages individuals to appreciate a problem from many perspectives and also to learn to communicate their ideas clearly to others. In my Introductory Psychology class, students work in teams to design Pepsi Challenge studies using different research methodologies, and the ideas are then presented to their classmates. Instructors need not fear being passive in this process; they can play a critical role by circulating between groups and using an inductive questioning technique to encourage students to engage with the material at a higher level. 4. Assimilation and accommodation. These Piagetian terms describe the process by which knowledge is acquired and becomes increasingly sophisticated. When new information is encountered, students initially assimilate it or interpret it in reference to their current knowledge base, often leading to a shallow understanding of the material. Eventually, they experience cognitive disequilibrium (defined loosely as the sense that something isnt right) because their superficial understanding of

this material is inconsistent with external evidence. In turn, this leads to accommodation of the current ideology to account for this new information, resulting in a more sophisticated scheme or understanding of a given phenomenon. We must challenge our students current ways of thinking if we are to help them to advance their knowledge. Most of my students enter Self and Social Behavior believing that high self-esteem is a strong predictor of success in life (e.g., in academics). When I presented empirical evidence that challenges this notion, it was met with tremendous resistance initially. As students reconciled the inconsistency between their current way of seeing and the novel evidence, they were motivated to restructure their understanding of this topic, leading to very fruitful discussions about the difference between self-esteem and self-efficacy and the implications for education.

The Cognitive Developmental Approach This approach is called cognitive because it bases values education, like intellectual education, on the active thinking of students about values. It is developmental because it views values education as the movement through stages. These stages define what (a person) finds valuable.how he defines the value, and why he finds it valuable, that is, the reasons he gives for valuing it (Kohlberg 1975, 672). This distinction between structure and content indicates that we are located at a particular stage according to the nature of our reasoning and not its content. For example, two people might justify two completely opposite stances, say for and against euthanasia respectively (different content), and be reasoning at the same stage level (the same structure). The focus of the cognitive theorists is therefore to improve reasoning and facilitate movement through the six stages identified by Kohlberg (1975) towards moral autonomy, rather than to differentiate between right and wrong decisions. Kohlberg (1975) claims that the means of promoting development (movement through the stages) is through the provision of conflict, so the classroom strategy involves the presentation of a moral dilemma story, sometimes called unfinished, open ended or conflict story. It is unfinished because it presents a student-centred dilemma, and asks how the protagonist should solve the conflict. They have great appeal as a strategy in values education because they are so student-centred, and therefore possess a capacity to engage through discussion. There is no established classroom procedure apart from teacher direction of the discussion. Teachers facilitate by asking both questions that clarify substantive issues in the dilemma, and questions that are more generic (Might there be an alternative? Why do you think that? Can you give another example? What might the consequences of that be?), ensuring that the conflict is not so great as to be daunting, nor so slight as to be insufficiently challenging. Teachers avoid imposing their personal views and judging the responses of students. To do so would diminish the presence of conflict the agent of moral growth. They may however ensure that the class is exposed to the opinions of those who are reasoning at the next highest stage, as evidence indicates that when students are exposed to reasoning at one stage above their own stage, they are more influenced by it and prefer it as advice. While teachers may summarise the discussion and delineate suggested solutions, no particular proposal is endorsed as right.

Dyadic Cooperative learning is an approach to organizing classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. It differs from group work, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence." Students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively toward academic goals. Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively capitalize on one anothers resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating one anothers ideas, monitoring one anothers work, etc.). Furthermore, the teacher's role changes from giving information to facilitating students' learning. Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. Ross and Smyth (1995) describe successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding, creative, open-ended, and involve higher order thinking tasks. Five essential elements are identified for the successful incorporation of cooperative learning in the classroom.

Cooperative learning is another teaching method that is considered highly effective when done correctly. With cooperative learning, students are put in small groups to work together. They are usually not grouped by ability, but put in a group with children at a variety of levels. The students are then given tasks to accomplish together. Teachers may need to monitor these groups carefully, to make sure they are staying on task and that all students are participating. This form of instruction also lends itself well to differentiation, because the teacher can assign specific tasks to children at different ability levels.

Elements

1. Positive interdependence Students must fully participate and put forth effort within their group Each group member has a task/role/responsibility therefore must believe that they are responsible for their learning and that of their group 2. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction Member promote each others success Students explain to one another what they have or are learning and assist one another with understanding and completion of assignments 3. Individual and Group Accountability Each student must demonstrate master of the content being studied Each student is accountable for their learning and work, therefore eliminating social loafing 4. Social Skills Social skills that must be taught in order for successful cooperative learning to occur Skills include effective communication, interpersonal and group skills i. Leadership ii. Decision-making iii. Trust-building iv. Communication v. Conflict-management skills 5. Group Processing Every so often groups must assess their effectiveness and decide how it can be improved In order for student achievement to improve considerably, two characteristics must be present a) Students are working towards a group goal or recognition and b) success is reliant on each individuals learning

a. When designing cooperative learning tasks and reward structures, individual responsibility and accountability must be identified. Individuals must know exactly what their responsibilities are and that they are accountable to the group in order to reach their goal. b. Positive Interdependence among students in the task. All group members must be involved in order for the group to complete the task. In order for this to occur each member must have a task that they are responsible for which cannot be completed by any other group member.

Cooperative Learning Techniques

Think Pair Share Originally developed by Frank T. Lyman (1981), Think-Pair-Share allows for students to contemplate a posed question or problem silently. The student may write down thoughts or simply just brainstorm in his or her head. When prompted, the student pairs up with a peer and discusses his or her idea(s) and then listens to the ideas of his or her partner. Following pair dialogue, the teacher solicits responses from the whole group.

Jigsaw Students are members of two groups: home group and expert group. In the heterogenous home group, students are each assigned a different topic. Once a topic has been identified, students leave the home group and group with the other students with their assigned topic. In the new group, students learn the material together before returning to their home group. Once back in their home group, each student is accountable for teaching his or her assigned topic. Jigsaw II Jigsaw II is Robert Slavin's (1980) variation of Jigsaw in which members of the home group are assigned the same material, but focus on separate portions of the material. Each member must become an "expert" on his or her assigned portion and teach the other members of the home group. Reverse Jigsaw This variation was created by Timothy Hedeen (2003) It differs from the original Jigsaw during the teaching portion of the activity. In the Reverse Jigsaw technique, students in the expert groups teach the whole class rather than return to their home groups to teach the content. Reciprocal Teaching Brown & Paliscar (1982) developed reciprocal teaching. It is a cooperative technique that allows for student pairs to participate in a dialogue about text. Partners take turns reading and asking questions of each other, receiving immediate feedback. Such a model allows for students to use important metacognitive techniques such as clarifying, questioning, predicting, and summarizing.It embraces the idea that students can effectively learn from each other. The Williams Students collaborate together to answer a big question that is the learning objective. Each group has differentiated questions that increases in cognitive ability to allow students to progress and meet the learning objective. STAD (or Student-Teams-Achievement Divisions) Students are placed in small groups (or teams). The class in its entirety is presented with a lesson and the students are subsequently tested. Individuals are graded on the team's performance.