Key Psychological Theories in Education and Child Development
Psychological Theories in Education
Humanist Theory
Empirical Learning Theories
Carl Rogers created a climate conducive to educational focus, in order to take over itself, creating positive attitudes to integrate better in all areas and strata, get greater tolerance for unpleasant and frustrating situations, and achieve better overall adaptation. Rogers distinguished two types of learning:
- Rote Learning (traditional education, cognitive or empty)
- Existential Learning (true learning, experiential or important)
Student-centered teaching is subject to a number of assumptions and principles: You cannot teach another person directly; you can only facilitate learning. The student may have difficulty, and the student can get help.
Statements about learning: Humans have a natural ability to learn. The goal is related to their personal projects that produce meaningful learning. Learning that threatens the self is facilitated when external threats are minimal. Learning in action is beneficial. Student responsibility in the learning method is important. Learning that engages more deeply penetrates and is retained longer. Self-criticism and freedom are fundamental.
Conclusions: Significant or experiential learning is important. Rogers was more concerned with training the person than intelligence. He preferred techniques that facilitate learning and education. The teacher facilitates learning. Ever-changing spontaneity is always present in any formation and evolution of the individual.
Learning to Learn
It could be argued that learning is a more or less permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice (Kimble, 1971; Beltran, 1984). Learning strategies are those processes or techniques that help to perform a task appropriately. Nisbet and Shucksmith (1987) defined them as integrated sequences of processes or activities chosen to facilitate the acquisition, storage, and/or use of information or knowledge.
Therefore, learning to learn means:
- The learning and appropriate use of cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and conceptual models (scaffolding of learning and thinking).
- Equipping the individual with tools to learn and thereby develop their potential for learning (learning opportunities you own).
- Teaching thinking as an integral part of the curriculum itself.
The ultimate goal is to educate the adult learner to achieve autonomy, independence, and critical thinking, all mediated by a sense of reflection.
Constructivist Theories
According to Piaget, intelligence has two major attributes:
- Organization: Consists of the knowledge structures or stages that lead to different behaviors in specific situations.
- Adaptation: Adapting as assimilation (acquisition of new information) and as accommodation (how the new information fits).
Piaget’s Stages of Intellectual Development
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
The child’s behavior is essentially motor. There are no internal representations of external events or thought through concepts. The child moves from sensorimotor intelligence to representative intelligence. Objects and phenomena are internally represented, developing the ability to solve problems cognitively. The child mentally sees the solution to problems presented. The ability to represent absent objects increases. The ability to predict cause and effect relationships develops, along with feelings of likes and dislikes for others.
Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
This is the stage of thought. Language graduates the ability to think symbolically, manipulating symbols or objects that represent the world. Children are not yet able to solve mental operations. They combine words to form short sentences at 3 years. They can identify objects they have seen and manipulated. The development of this stage is represented by:
a) The limitation set (limitation of objects and behavior)
b) Symbolic play (using a piece of wood like a locomotive)
c) Drawing (between 8-9 years, they represent the reality of things; before this age, drawings are confused)
d) Mental images (obvious symbols of experience with past perceptions)
e) Language (words used as symbols of objects, e.g., at 2 years, “father” and “mother”)
This stage is good for mind games; they help to capture mental agility and develop language.
Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
This stage is important for pedagogical actions, as it almost coincides with primary school. The various forms of development that occur (concrete operations) may or may not influence the child’s learning behavior. The child has not yet developed the necessary mental models to do so. The child’s reasoning processes become logical (internalized system of actions and reversible logical operations). The child is less egocentric and more social in their use of language, becoming truly social for the first time.
The term “concrete” is significant. While the child clearly develops logical operations, they are useful in solving problems that include actual concrete objects and events, observable in the immediate present. They cannot yet apply logic to hypothetical problems that are exclusively verbal or abstract. The essence of the concrete operational stage is a transition between pre-logical thinking (pre-operational) and the completely logical thinking of older children.
Formal Operational Stage (12-16 years)
Logical reasoning is not limited to data from real practical experience but has a range of formal operations that allow the projection of thought by earlier experiences applicable to the present. Thinking is more advanced than observed concrete knowledge. Inductive reasoning and deductive logic are used to construct and test theories. Through logical reasoning, the individual can seek solutions to hypothetical problems and derive conclusions.
Constructivism means that the subject, through physical and mental activity, will advance intellectual progress in learning. The child will build their own knowledge. Piaget wanted to demonstrate that learning is not caused by the accumulation of knowledge but because there are internal mechanisms of assimilation and accommodation.
Summary of Piaget’s Thinking on Learning
- Learning is a process of active construction by the subject.
- Through physical and mental activity, the subject determines their reactions to environmental stimulation.
- Reactions depend not only on external stimulation but also on the subject’s level of development.
- Learning is a process of cognitive reorganization.
- Social relations are conducive to learning if they produce contradictions that compel the individual to restructure their knowledge.
- Physical experience is a prerequisite for learning to occur but is not sufficient; mental activity is also needed.