Teaching and Learning free essay sample

Cognitive Jean Piaget was a biologist when he started but by the time he was 21 moved to the development of children’s understanding, through observing them whilst he set them tasks. He has given us a better idea of how a child’s mind works and how they grow up. Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a persons thought processes. It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world. When a child is born it goes through various stages of this development by understanding their environment from birth they can also process all the information around them using their developing thinking skills this then grows with age. People have always believed that there are 4 stages of cognitive development: * Sensorimotor stage. In infancy knowledge of the outside world is very limited but children learn through interacting with family and experiences when visiting other environments like the outdoors. We will write a custom essay sample on Teaching and Learning or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Pre-operational stage In early childhood your child will develop these skills and start to use more language and as the brain grows so will their memory, holding more information, they can then start to use their imagination through play. Although will still confuse fact with fiction. * Concrete operational stage In this stage, cognitive development uses intelligence to think through logical problems in relation concrete objects. Their basic math skills will be developing and they can now sort items into categories and think about two things simultaneously. * Formal operational stage This is late teens into adulthood and this is when they start thinking logically and abstractly including thinking of what might happen in the future. They can now transfer information from one situation to another and can solve complex problems in their head. * Psychoanalytical This is where according to scientists the mind can be split into two parts. The conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is when we are aware of things that are happening and are able to control them through our senses and emotions but the unconscious however is described as when you have unresolved issues that you think are resolved the mind can pick them out at any moment when you least expect them which can cause confusion. The basic tenet’s of psychoanalysis include the following: 1. Human behaviour, experience and cognition are largely determined by innate and irrational drives. 2. Those drives are usually unconscious. 3. Attempts to bring those drives into awareness meets psychological resistance in the form of defence mechanisms. 4. Beside the inherited constitution of personality a persons development is determined by events in childhood 5. Conflicts between conscious view of reality and unconscious( repressed)material can result in mental disturbances such as neurosis neurotic traits anxiety depression etc.. 6. The liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the consciousness (via for example skilled guidance). Sigmund Freud was the founder of this type of psychology and his approach was to get an understanding of a person’s behaviour and emotions rather than locking people away that had mental health problems or treating them with drugs. Since Sigmund Freud’s day it has changed a lot and ideas have been revolutionised coming up with new theories which help us with all types of treatment for psychology. * Humanist Abraham Maslow believed in 5 needs of a person. The physiological needs, the needs for being safe, the need for belonging, the needs for esteem and the need actualize the self in that order. * Physiological These include the needs we have for oxygen, water, salt, sugar, calcium and other vitamins. The need to maintain a PH balance and keep at a good temperature. We also need to rest, sleep, get rid of body waste and avoid pain. * Safety This includes feeling safe and secure in our environment and feeling the need for protection. * Belonging and Love This is when you feel the need for friends, lovingness towards family and having a sweetheart even feeling fondly at being part of a community. * Esteem This includes respect for others, needs for status, fame, glory, recognition, attention, reputation, appreciation and dignity. Self actualization This involves the desire to fulfil potential and to be all that you can be. Abraham Maslow was one of the pioneers in the movement to bring the human being back into psychology and the personality back to the human. Social Learning Albert Bandura believed that aggression in adolescents was made from the environment they came from including the beha viours of the person/s they live with. After 100’s of case study’s he came up with general principles. The principles of social learning are: 1. People can learn by observing behavior. 2. Learning can occur without change in there behavior. 3. Social learning has become cognitive in human learning over the past 30 years. 4. Social Learning theory can be a transition between behaviorist learning and cognitive learning theories. Learning this way can be done through watching television, reading books listening to the radio and watching all around us. An example of this is when you have an idol or someone that you really look up to that behaves in a certain way you will start to watch and copy how they move and behave. * Operant conditioning Burrhus Frederic Skinner describes the effects of consequences of a particular behaviour on the future occurrence of that behaviour. We use or see examples of this in everyday life. At school a teacher may say whoever completes their homework can get a sticker this is giving a reward for good behavior. Or at home when you ask a child to pick up the toys off the floor and the child refuses and you sit them on the step for time out this is punishment for bad behavior. If the boundaries are set before hand then they have a choice in how they behave. Concepts of operant conditioning include: 1. Positive reinforce- using praise. 2. Negative reinforce-The removal of something they like. 3. Positive punishment-to reduce the behavior. 4. Negative punishment-to remove something until their behavior gets better. A distinctive part of B. F. Skinners theory is that it attempted to provide explanations for a large range if cognitive examples. He accounted for verbal and language learning within the operant condition paradigm but was strongly dismissed by other physiologists. * Behaviorists This came from the works of John B. Watson who claimed that psychology was not concerned with the mind or with human consciousness but with behaviour itself this way we could be studied objectively. This is the idea that behavior is learned through conditioning. There are 2 types of conditioning: Classical conditioning- this is a technique used in behaviour training. A natural stimulus is paired with a response. Operant conditioning-A process of behaviour modification in which the likelihood of a specific behaviour is increased or decreased through positive or negative reinforcement each time the behaviour is shown, so that the person comes to associate the positives or negatives of the reinforcement with the behaviour.