Methods, Techniques and Psychological Tactics of Teaching - Research Paper Example

Final Reflection Having learned about the various theories of development, how do you think your own teaching has/will change given the context inwhich you teach? Teaching is an art and its methods, techniques and psychological tactics depend upon the personality of teacher. A teacher having well groomed personality will touch the hearts of students and consequently real learning will be taken place in the class room. Besides, communication capability is a must and a teacher devoid of this ability cannot perform his or her duty of imparting knowledge. Moreover, comprehension of psychological tactics helps to improve teaching as well as the communicative potential of the teacher. In nutshell, teachers can enhance their communication ability, class room control, capacity to influence students and motivational skills by employing the theories of personality development. Theories of personality development are assets of humanity. After keen observation, hard work, thorough research and empirical evidences; philosophers and psychologists of repute developed these theories after pondering many years in isolation. Major theorists of personality development are Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Kohlberg, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Albert Bandura, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Sigismund Schlomo Freud (1856 –1939) was aneurologist by profession but gained popularity as a founding father of psychoanalysis. He presented his famous theory of personality development in 1905 in which five fixed stages of personality development were demarcated. These stages include: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stage. The oral stage ranges first 12-18 months, the anal stage from 18 to 36 months, the phallic stage third year to fifth year, latency stage 5-6 year of age to 11-13 years and the genital stage commences from 11-13 year of age to adulthood. Every stage has different characteristics of personality. Erik Erikson who was a German, eight stages of psychological development cover the whole span of life that begin from cradle and conclude at grave. First stage starts after birth and lasts up to one year having trust and mistrust as focal elements and during the eighth stage, integrity versus despair conflict continues till the last breadth (Erickson 310-355). Other theories and theorists’ include Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development, Kohlberg’s theory of Moral Development, personality theory of Karl Jung, Alfred Adler theory of superiority complex, Albert Bandura’s theory of social learning, Carl Rogers self theory of personality development and Abraham Maslow’s model of motivation. The understanding of these theories will change the teaching techniques of any teacher. He or she will apply the knowledge of these theories for understand the problems surface during the course of teaching and resultantly yield better results. For example, by applying the Maslow’s model of motivation, the teacher will be succeeded to involve students in curricular activities. Moreover, these theories provide help to teachers for understanding the problems of students, their peer relationships and psychological complexes. What are some specific things that have influenced the way you approach teaching or view children and their learning? The understanding of these theories has the potential to change the vision of the teacher towards education and students. Every student is basically a product of nature or nurture. Nature refers to heredity that cannot be changed and nurture means social environment. No power of the world can eliminate the impacts of the nature factor among the lives of the students but nurture factor can be altered to some extent. A knowledgeable teacher cannot waste his or her energy upon unachievable targets and always focus on pragmatic goals. These theories enlighten the teacher about the limitation and scope of teaching methodologies and techniques. 2. What are the ways in which culture influences cognition, language, physical and/or socio-emotional development? Relate this in terms of your experiences in teaching in varied cultures. Culture including material and non-material is a major force behind the socialization of students. It spans from norms, values, beliefs, languages and behavior patterns that have considerable impacts on the adolescent development. Physical Development Although most of the features related to physical development belong to heredity but the role of culture in physical development cannot be marginalized. Puberty is the major stage of adolescence which varies culture to culture. Eveleth and Tanner (1990) found that “the mean age of menarche ranged from 12.0 years (middle-class adolescents from Caracas, Venuzuela) to 18.0 years (adolescents from the Bundi highlands in New Guinea)”. Besides the factor of nutrition, physical exertion and ecological factors contributed early or late menarche in girls across cultures. Cognitive Development Cognitive development is a major subject of cross-cultural studies and research. Piaget’s theory of developmental stages, moral reasoning of Kohlberg and research on intelligence and curricular excellence are relevant to cognitive development of adolescents. Piaget suggests the development of adolescence from concrete operation to abstract operation. The capacity of concrete operation develops from seven to 11 year of age that enables a child to form reasons logically about the physical world. Formal operation stage commences from eleventh year of age and lasts up to early or middle adulthood. “Generally speaking, the qualitative aspects of the theory, such as sequence of the stages, appear to be valid across cultures” (Dasen, 1977). The variation of intelligence due to culture is one of the most controversial topics of the cognition development. Experts like Herrnstein, Rushton and Lynn claim that the people of different cultures have different intelligence level. Many psychologists rejected their claims on moral and theoretical grounds but some components of the culture definitely affect the intelligence level individuals and one of the examples is nutrition. Sigman and Whaley (1998) have analyzed the relationship between nutrition and intelligence. Socio-Emotional Development The socio-emotional development of a child depends upon his or her relationship with siblings, peers and parents. Parents show their warmth through verbal (praise, fondness) and physical gestures (kisses, hugs). Despite universality of parental warmth, its intensity differs across cultures. Parents of developed or industrialized societies show less affection towards their children as compare to the parents of traditional societies. Moreover, the parents of individualistic societies expect autonomous behavior from their children earlier than the parents of collectivist societies. Language Development Children learn language from the sounds of their environment and environment varies from culture to culture and hence it can be deduced that culture has major impacts on the language ability of children. Works Cited Erikson, H. Erik.Children and Society, New York: Norton, 1950. Print. Eveleth, P.B., & Tanner, J.M. (1990). Worldwide variation in human growth. (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. Dasen, P.R. (1977). Piagetian Psychology: Cross-cultural contributions. New York: Gardner Press. Read More