Erik Erikson's Stages of Development

Erik Erikson developed eight stages that humans go through. The first stage is trust vs. Mistrust. In this an infant must learn a fundamental sense of trust towards the world.

This picture shows the infant receiving love and care, which helps the infant develop trust in this stage.

            Erikson’s second stage is autonomy vs. Shame. In this stage they learn a sense of independence. 

I chose this picture because it shows that the infant is starting to do things on his own.

            His next stage is initiative vs. Guilt. In this stage they begin to have the initiative to take care of themselves.

I thought that this photo demonstrated this stage because in this stage the child would begin to do things to take care of themselves, like brushing their teeth.

            His next stage is industry vs. inferiority. This is the elementary stage.

I thought that this photo represents this stage because in this stage children are most curious about the world.

            His next stage is identity vs.  identity confusion, where people ask themselves “who am I?”. 

This photo demonstrates the fundamental question asked at this stage. Wondering where you fit in, and experimenting with different yous is all a part of this stage.

            The next stage is intimacy vs. isolation, which is the stage where relationships become important to an individual.

This photo shows the importance of a romantic connection in this phase.

            The next stage is generativity vs. self-absorbtion. In this stage the individual might want to do more with their life.

This photo demonstrates that the individual might want to start making a difference by helping others at this stage.

            Erikson’s final stage is integrity vs. despair. At this stage people ask themselves the question “can I be proud of my life?”.

This photo shows a couple that might be looking back on their life and feeling proud of the family that they created.

Piaget vs. Vygotsky

In class we discussed the theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. They both present theories on cognitive development. As I discussed in my previous blog, Piaget uses four stages to explain cognitive development; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Vygotsky believes that learning is not rooted in a developmental process. His theory of scaffolding states that knowledge builds on previous knowledge.

            While I think that Piaget’s theory can apply to a lot of children, I think that it is to general. His theory is structured around the idea that all children go through his four stages at the same ages. Many children most likely transition at roughly those ages, but there is also many children that will go through the stages at very different times in their lives. This is why I don’t think that Piaget’s theory should be considered as much as Vygotsky’s.

            I think that Vygotsky’s theory of scaffolding is a more realistic theory when it comes to children’s cognitive development. In his theory he says that learning is not isolated, or not rooted in a developmental process. In saying this he is not making a generalization that all children develop in the same way. By saying that later knowledge is built on previous knowledge he is allowing room for children to develop at different paces. Not every child will develop exactly according to Piaget’s four stages. Some might develop at a slower pace, while some may develop at a faster pace.

            Overall, I think that Vygotsky’s theory is more realistic to apply in a classroom. As a teacher, it is important to consider that every child in the class learns in different ways and at different speeds. We have to be able to adapt our lessons and teaching strategies to the different students in the classroom.

Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development

In class we discussed Jean Piaget and his four stages of cognitive development, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. We were asked to imagine each of these stages in action.

Piaget’s first stage, the sensorimotor stage, is where children from birth to age two interact through their senses and movement. An example of this stage is visible when looking at the type of toys made for infants at this age. Toys geared towards this age of children are aimed at developing new skills through their senses. Toys like building blocks contribute to this goal, by helping infants learn and grow through their senses.

            Piaget’s second stage, the preoperational stage, is where children from age two to seven begin symbolic thinking. An example if this is that a child is now able to imagine an object to represent something else, like using a stick to represent a wand. This stage includes geocentricism, which means that the child doesn’t realize that everyone else is experiencing something different from their own experience. An example of this that I found on the internet would be to show a child a three dimensional model, and then ask them to choose a picture of what they saw. Then ask them what they think someone else saw. In this stage they would almost always pick the one they chose.

            Piaget’s third stage is the concrete operational stage, which is when we start to see operational thinking. On the same website I found an example of this stage. The example that this website uses says that in the concrete operational stage a child should be able to recognize that their dog is a golden retriever, and that a golden retriever is a dog, and that a dog is an animal.

            Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development is the formal operational stage. In this stage children can now think logically in their heads. An example of this would be a child doing a math problem in their head. In previous stages they might have required a visual aid like blocks to complete the problem, but now they can think about the problem logically in their head.

http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/p/concreteop.htm
This is the website that I attained some of my examples from.

The importance of being a wise consumer of information

In class we discussed the importance of being a wise consumer of information about educational psychology. I think this is a very important part of becoming a teacher. Teachers are presented with all kinds of different information about children from all kinds of different studies. I think that as a teacher, I’m going to need to be careful about not generalizing my students. I am also going to need to be careful about the kind of information that I use. Just because a study was done that proved something doesn’t mean that it is true or applicable.

I chose two videos, one that focused on using behaviourism in the classroom, and one that focused on using constructivism in the classroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8xMsq11-hs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXUJMNtZh_s

These two videos demonstrate the idea that there are all sorts of information being presented to teachers about how they should teach. A teacher shouldn’t just watch one of these videos and decide that that is the right way to teach, but should instead research and think about different ways to teach and make an informed decision. Maybe behaviourism is more effective and maybe constructivism is more effective, or perhaps a collaboration of the two, but we can’t make this decision based on one study that was done.