Human Learning and Development - Literature review Example

Human Learning and Development In spite of the long history of philosophy and biological sciences, theories human development are comparatively youngand dated the end of the 19th century. For instance, the idea that infants differ from adults and require special care (Goldman, 1993) and learning is only 200 years old, whereas the philosophy of initial human education (primary and secondary education in modern understanding) appeared in the 17th -18th centuries under the influence of Rousseau’s and Milton’s studies. Nevertheless, the psychological side of child education had remained ‘intact’ until the beginning of the 20th century, i.e. until Sigmund Freud developed his psychodynamic perspective. In the present essay, I would like to focus on the newer theories of human cognitive progress, which are: Albert Bandura’s behaviorist approach, Erik Erikson’s psycho-social theory, Jean Piaget’s cognitive perspective, Roger’s humanistic study. It needs to be noted that the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers to great extent correlate with modern developmental searches. The ideas of social education (or, more precisely, education-in-environment ) were articulated in earlier Rousseau’s writings : ”All children are perfectly designed organisms, ready to learn from their surroundings so as to grow into virtuous adults. But, due to the malign influence of corrupt society, they often fail to do so” (Astington et al, 1988, p.56). The most effective path of child education was the removal of the child from “from society (i.e., to a country home) and alternately conditioning him through changes to environment and setting traps and puzzles for him to solve or overcome” (ibid, p.57). Albert Bandura and the other foundators of behaviorism took this idea for their developmental theory. The Social Learning (ibid) approach focuses on the roles of enviromnet and the influences of social on life-span development. From this viewpoint, learning is almost the same as development, as it involves new experiences and activizes them. Human personality and thoughts are a result of experiences the individual faces, so Bandura and Skinner hold that human-being is a product of environment (Gopnik, 1990). Furthermore, Bandura also optimized educational model and adjusted it to behaviorist approach. Operant conditioning, which includes punishment and reinforcement, is considered the most applicable in present-day school settings, as its modus operandi is quite simple and effective in terms of dealing with 6-8-year-old children. Briefly, positive reinforcement involves adding positive stimuli to the child’s perception (praising, rewarding the child with excellent mark). Negative reinforcement is used in case the child behaves neutrally or shows avoidance behavior – in this case, the positive stimulus is removed, but in most cases negative reinforcement is followed by punishment, i.e. by grounding or taking away desirable objects (ibid). This simple scheme is expected to cause a child to follow common rules and be obedient within the frames of school environment. Erik Erikson “was the first to propose that the "stages" of human development spanned our entire lives, not just childhood. His ideas heavily influenced the study of personality development, especially in adolescence and adulthood” (Natsoulas, 1978, p. 907). The school years correlate with critical stages of the young individual’s life: for instance, between 6 and 11, the child is highly dependant upon his/her reference group and at the same time wills to “manipulate objects, learn how things work, leading to a sense of order, a system of rules and understanding of the environment” (ibid). The little individual feels inferior, as he/she has limited access to the objects he/she wished to explore, as adults regard such behavior as mischievous. The period of adolescence is marked with the tension, occurring between the teenager and his/her informal groups, but friends are still perceived by him/her as an authority. Nevertheless, at the same time, the young personality strives to express him/herself in order to be distinguished or at least noticed. The sense of self is still disintegrated and dependant upon the others’ opinion, but the task of self-development is set exactly in adolescence period. The most helpful theory in the sense of child education was Piaget’s cognitive-developmental perspective (Goldman, 1993). The scholar focuses primarily on the progress of cognitive abilities, i.e. logical apparatus, analytical capacities, critical and creative thinking. “Piaget’s is an age-stage theory of development that stresses the action of the mind on the environment. He observed that at different ages, children show qualitatively different levels of comprehension and reasoning. Piaget believed that intellectual development proceeds in an orderly sequence that is characterized by specific growth stages” (Goldman, 1993, p.172). Environment, in the scholar’s view, plays merely an informational role, whereas the child assimilates messages to his/her way of thinking and overall outlook. Regardless of environmental impact, at the period of secondary education, every young individual passes through following stages :concrete operational stage (7-11), which involves the capability of considering the others’ viewpoints and solving specific problems as well as manipulating concrete objects (a 7-year-old child should be assisted with visual materials so that he/she can complete the school assignments, that’s why the related textbooks are designed in the commix form); formal operational stage (11-15) that enables abstract and logical thinking and forces young individual to consider world problems and philosophical issues. The whole set of logical strategies in now available for a teenager (Astington et al, 1988; Goldman, 1993). Humanistic approach was developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow quite a long ago, in the 1960s, but at the present time one might notice the newly-emerged genuine interest in Rogers’ postulates. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as well as Rogers’ enlightening concepts of self-belief and self-actualization (Astington et al, 1988) can be viewed as a framework for human development. “The focus of the humanistic perspective is on the self, which translates into "YOU", and "your" perception of "your" experiences. This view argues that you are free to choose your own behavior, rather than reacting to environmental stimuli and reinforcers. Issues dealing with self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and needs are paramount. The major focus is to facilitate personal development” (Gopnik, 1990, p.90). Furthermore, Maslow’s hierarchy can point to the stages of human development, which means, 7-15-year-old students have a need for self-esteem and for the others’ positive attitude towards them. Furthermore, school-age students also express safety needs (one of the factors contributing to the growth of informal groups), associated with both physical and psychological safety. The most visible evidence of psychological safety need is the typical ‘laziness’ of an 11-year-old student, who tries to protect him/herself from informational tension or at least facilitate cognitive metabolism. Conceptual framework of contemporary education contains the elements of Erikson’s and Piaget’s theories and embraces the strategies and models, developed by behaviorists (Am, 1995). This universalization of educational system to great extent overlook attention to child’s individuality, but at the same time creates effective settings for learning (either forceful or conscious). For instance, as both Erikson and Piaget note (Goldwin, 1993), teachers should produce both cognitive and emotional learning environments in order to address adequately human moral development. Rating system itself is a product of behaviorism, since marks or grades are viewed as additional; stimuli for further learning: if the child gets negative marks, he/she is (allegedly) likely to try harder, whereas excellent rating points to high academic success and encourage student to continue his/her inquiry efforts. On the other hand, behaviorism is in many senses oversimplified – for instance, depending on the student’s temper, he/she can either completely neglect school grades or fall into melancholy and stigmatize him/herself as a looser. Nonetheless, social learning brings optimistic results: for instance, the use of examples and case studies facilitate the concrete-operation-stage understanding, whereas in higher classes certain cases and examples from world literature incite reflections and more profound considerations. Another positive side of the implication of these three models underlies in the overall practicability of manual skills development, which is extremely vital at Erikson’s ‘industry stage’, as it enhances all tactile skills. More progressive schools even devote about 40 per cent of school curriculum to handicraft and related disciplines (Am, 1995), due to the belief in the correspondence between physical and cognitive growths. Nevertheless, in my opinion, humanistic approach should get more extensive access into American education system, especially in terms of open education and liberal arts learning (Toffler, 1990), as there is no harmony between emotional, moral and cognitive developments. “The regulatory system acts as a filter for connecting the environment and internal thoughts to other thoughts or feelings as well as connecting knowledge and feelings to action. The affective/emotional system colors, embellishes, diminishes or otherwise modifies information acquired through the regulatory system or sent from the cognitive system to action” (Am, 1995, p.201). Humanistic educational would effectively address all previously ignored issues, as its basic principles are coherent in terms of present-day human consciousness and acceleration of cognitive development, which, however, is not followed by sufficient progress of emotional reflections. According to this scheme, students will primarily learn what they need to know. Humanistic learning will create an analytical basis, which helps students find their interest areas and direct themselves towards the new inquiries. The existing problem of poor educational motivation would be thus solved. Furthermore, “self-evaluation is the only meaningful evaluation of a students work. The emphasis here is on internal development and self-regulation. While most educators would likely agree that this is important, they would also advocate a need to develop a students ability to meet external expectations. This meeting of external expectations runs counter to most humanistic theories” (Am, 1995, p.204). Feelings thus would be of particular importance, as pure facts have already been proved as poor contributors to knowledge-establishment. Humanistic vision would also help students gain knowledge in most optimal way, because ‘teaching how to learn’ is to great extent overlooked nowadays. To sum up, as a teacher, I would like to make some innovations to my class curriculum and give students more opportunities and freedom. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of time-honored school model and would use behaviorist strategies and Piaget’s recommendations as guidelines. The creation of non-threatening environment would be therefore my key task, as social and reference group tension is very strong nowadays. In general, I would like to introduce more imagination and reflection-based lessons and devote more time to manual skills perfection. Reference list 1) Am, O. (1995). The evolutionary structure of the school system. Stavanger, Norway: Author. 2) Astington, J.W., Harris, P.L., & Olson, D.R. (1988). Developing theories of mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 3) Goldman, Alvin I. (1993). Readings in Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 4) Gopnik, A. (1990). Developing the idea of intentionality: childrens theories of mind. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 20, (1): 89-114. 5) Natsoulas, T. (1978). Consciousness. American Psychologist, 33: 906-914. 6) Toffler, A. (1990). Powershift. New York: Bantam Books. Read More