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When planning, designing, and implementing an educational program, as an educator one must carefully consider the characteristics of learners with respect to their developmental stage in life.
The more heterogeneous the target audience, the more complex the development of an educational program to meet the diverse needs of the population.
Conversely, the more homogeneous the population of learners, the more straightforward the approach to teaching.
Growth and development interact with
as well as numerous environmental factors such as
stress, and the surrounding conditions,
These affects a person’s ability and readiness to learn.
Musinski (1999) describes three phases of learning: dependence, independence, and interdependence. These passages of learning ability from childhood to adulthood, labeled by Covey (1990) as the “maturity continuum,” are identified as follows:
• DEPENDENCE is characteristic of the infant and young child, who are totally dependent on others for direction, support, and nurturance from a physical, emotional, and intellectual standpoint.
the ability to physically, intellectually, and emotionally care for himself and make his own choices, including
taking responsibility for learning.
has advanced in maturity to achieve self-reliance, a sense of self-esteem, the ability to give and receive, and when that individual demonstrates a level of respect for others. Full physical maturity does not guarantee simultaneous emotional and intellectual maturity.
Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development
From his observation of children, Piaget understood that children were creating ideas. They were not limited to receiving knowledge from parents or teachers; they actively constructed their own knowledge. Piaget's work provides the foundation on which constructionist theories are based.
Constructionists believe that knowledge is constructed and learning occurs when children create products or artifacts. They assert that learners are more likely to be engaged in learning when these artifacts are personally relevant and meaningful.
In studying the cognitive development of children and adolescents, Piaget identified four major stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Piaget believed all children pass through these phases to advance to the next level of cognitive development.
In each stage, children demonstrate new intellectual abilities and increasingly complex understanding of the world. Stages cannot be "skipped"; intellectual development always follows this sequence. The ages at which children progress through the stages are averages--they vary with the environment and background of individual children. At any given time a child may exhibit behaviors characteristic of more than one stage.
The first stage, sensorimotor, begins at birth and lasts until 18 months-2 years of age. This stage involves the use of motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge is limited in this stage, because it is based on physical interactions and experiences.
Infants cannot predict reaction, and therefore must constantly experiment and learn through trial and error. Such exploration might include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth.
As they become more mobile, infants' ability to develop cognitively increases. Early language development begins during this stage.
Object permanence occurs at 7-9 months, demonstrating that memory is developing. Infants realize that an object exists after it can no longer be seen.
Early
Childhood
The preoperational stage usually occurs during the period between toddlerhood (18-24months) and early childhood (7 years).
In the preoperational stage, children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships between the past and the future.
More complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships, have not been learned. Intelligence is egocentric and intuitive, not logical.
Late Childhood
The concrete operational stage typically develops between the ages of 7-11 years.
Intellectual development in this stage is demonstrated through the use of logical and systematic manipulation of symbols, which are related to concrete objects.
Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events, and involves concrete references.
Adolescent
The period from adolescence through adulthood is the formal operational stage.
Adolescents and adults use symbols related to abstract concepts.
Adolescents can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, can formulate hypotheses, and think about abstract relationships and concepts.
Early Adulthood
Intellectual development in adults involves developing more complex schema through the addition of knowledge.
The Learner's
Stages
of Development
Infancy