DIDACTICS IUNIVERSIDAD DEL ACONCAGUA
Changes that occur in human beings between conceptions and death.
Can be divided into a number of different aspects:
Physical Personal Social Cognitive
People develop at different rates
Development is orderly
Takes place gradually
Sensorimotor 0-2
Pre operational 2-7
Concrete operational 7-11
Formal 11-adults
Ability to work with symbols
semiotic function Thought is subjective and egocentric
Examples: pretending, miming From 200 to 2000 words Children speak to themselves- collective monologue Fantasy and reality are confused Have a short attention span
Children … …can have sudden temper tantrums …are physically aggressive without a motive …feel insecure and omnipotent …do not know how to wait, which causes frustration …start to be aware of their potential both their
abilities and limitations …play parallel to others …are extremely keen to communicate …are passionate and non systematic in the way they
do things …take other children’s toys as a way of affirming
themselves …interrupt activities to gain attention
Use concrete props and visuals: demonstrate, use props, use stick rods, colored chips.
Visuals should be large Make instructions relatively short Avoid long lectures Be clear about the use of material Be tolerant to invented words Give children hands on practice Provide a wide range of experiences Monitor aggressive behaviour without over reacting Involve body movement Activities should be varied and should develop large
motor movements (running, jumping) and hand eye coordination (cutting out, modelling)
Characteristics Need
Longer attention span Opportunities to engage in tasks that require focus and commitment
Knowledge of the world growing Stimulatione.g. information from internet or cross-curricular
Taking learning more seriously Chances to be independent
Still children Teacher sensitive to their needs and moods
More cooperative with peers Variety of grouping in class i.e. work on own, in pairs, in group, as class
Intellectual, motor and social skills developing
Activities that challenge them
Developing own learning strategies Chance to personalise their learning experience
Piaget coined the term concrete operational to describe “hands on thinking” for this stage.
CHARACTERISTICS Recognition of the logical stability of the
physical world. Realization that things can changed be
changed or transformed and still conserve their characteristics.
Understanding that changes can be reversed.
LOGICAL SYSTEM OF THINKING
IDENTITY
COMPENSATION
REVERSIBILITY
Children are able to classify and do seriation
Thinking is tied to the physical reality
Logic is based on concrete situations that can be:
Organized Classified Manipulated
USE VISUALS SUCH AS: Timeline, three dimensional models Diagrams
GIVE STUDENTS THE CHANCE TO MANIPULATE AND TEST OBJECTS:
Have students bake bread, weave cloth, do crafts.
MAKE SURE PRESENTATIONS AND READINGS ARE BRIEF AND WELL ORGANIZED:
Assign stories or books with short, logical chapters. Break up the lesson, give students the chance to
practice the first step before introducing the next. Use familiar examples to explain more complex
ideas
GIVE STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO CLASSIFY AND GROUP OBJECTS AND IDEAS ON INCREASINGLY COMPLEX LEVELS
Give students slips of papers with individual sentences written on each paper and ask students to group the students to group the sentences into paragraphs.
Compare systems PRESENT PROBLEMS THAT REQUIRE LOGICAL
THINKING
Use mind twisters, brain teasers., riddles
Discuss open ended-questions that stimulte thinking
The child must deal with demands to learn news skills or risks a sense of inferiority, failure, and incompetence.
Erik Erikson“industry vs. inferiority” Important event:school
Make sure students have opportunities to set and work toward realistic goals.
Begin with short assignments and, then move to longer ones.
Teach students to set reasonable goals Give students a chance to show their
independence and responsibilityTolerate honest mistakesDelegate tasks Provide support to students who seem
discouraged
Woolfolk, A. (1980) Educational Psychology.MA: Allyn and Bacon
Brown,D. (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching New Jersey : Prentice Hall