What is Development?

neurogenesis - the production of new neurons

continues into adulthood,especially in the hippocampus
The term developmentin its most general psychological sense
refers to region.

certain changes that occur in human beings (or animals) between axons and dendrites long arm - and branch-
conception and like fibers to connect with other neuron cells.
death. Axons sends messages and dendrites receives
messages.
ASPECTS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. Physical development,- as you might guess, deals with changes Synapses -tiny spaces between axons and
in the body. dendrites where neurons share informationby
2. Personal development- is the term generally used for changes using electrical signals and by releasing
in an individual’s chemicals that jump across it
personality.
Synaptic Plasticity - connections
3. Social development- refers to changes in the way an individual
relates to others.
between neurons become stronger with use or
practice and weaker when not used
4. Cognitive development refers to changes in thinking, reasoning,
and decision
The Developing Brain: Neurons
making.
Glial Cells - white matter of the brain. they
Maturation refers to changes that occur naturally and
spontaneously and that greatly outnumber neurons. Glial cells appear to
are, to a large extent, genetically programmed.
have many functions, such as fighting infections,
controlling blood flow and communication
General Principles of Development among neurons, and providing the myelin
coating around axon fibers.
1. People develop at different rates.

2. Development is relatively orderly. Myelination, -the coating of axon neuron

3. Development takes place Gradually
fibers with an insulating fatty glial covering,
influences thinking and learning. This myelin
BRAIN AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT coating makes message transmission faster and
Cerebellum - coordinates and orchestrates balance and more efficient.
smooth, skilled movements
2 Kinds of Overproduction and
hippocampus- is critical in recalling new information Pruning Process
and recent experiences

amygdala- directs emotions 1. experience-expectant because synapses

are overproduced in certain parts of the brain
thalamus- is involved in our ability to learn new during specific developmental periods, awaiting
information, particularly if it is verbal
(expecting) stimulation

2. experience-dependent. Here, synaptic

The Developing Brain: Neurons
connections are formed based on the
neurons, the specialized nerve cells that individual’s experiences. New synapses are
accumulate and transmit information (in the formed in response to neural activity in very
form of electrical activity) in the brain and other localized areas of the brain
parts of the nervous system. (gray matter)
Developing Brain: Cerebral Cortex
Physical Motor Cortex

Complex Senses (vision & hearing)

Frontal lobe (higher order thinking)

Temporal Lobe (emotion, language, &

Judgement) develops until high school years or
later

lateralization, or the specialization of the PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE

two hemispheres of the brain
DEVELOPMENT 4 factors that Interact
Left Hemisphere - is a major factor in to Influences Changes in Thinking

language processing, and the right hemisphere 1. MATURATION, the unfolding of the
handles much of our spatial-visual information biological changes that are genetically
and emotions (nonverbal information). programmed.
Right Hemisphere - is better at figuring 2. ACTIVITY, With physical maturation comes
out the meaning of a story, but the left side is the increasing ability to act on the environment
where grammar and syntax are understood and learn from it.
Adolescent Development and the 3. SOCIAL TRANSMISSION, or learning
Brain from others.

During adolescence, changes in the brain 4. EQUILIBRATION—the act of searching for

increase individuals’ abilities to control their a balance. The actual changes in thinking take
behavior in both low-stress and high-stress place through this process. *disequilibrium
situations, to be more purposeful and
Basic Tendencies in Thinking
organized, and to inhibit impulsive behavior.
“high horse power, poor steering” ORGANIZATION—the combining, arranging,
recombining, and rearranging of behaviors and
Limbic System -develops earlier; it is
thoughts into coherent systems
involved with emotions and
rewardseeking/novelty/risk-taking/sensation- Schemes are the basic building blocks of
seeking behaviors. thinking. They are organized systems of actions
or thought that allow us to mentally represent
Prefrontal Lobe -takes more time to
or “think about” the objects and events in our
develop; it is involved with judgment and
world.
decision making.
ADAPTATION -- the tendency to adapt to their
Putting It All Together: How the environment.
Brain Works
Assimilation- takes place when we use our ❑ compensation, the student
existing schemes to make sense of events in our knows that an apparent change in
world. one
Accommodation- occurs when we must
direction can be compensated for
change existing schemes to respond to a new
by a change in another direction.
situation.
❑ reversibility, the student can
mentally cancel out the change
that has

been made.

Classification depends on a
student’s abilities to focus on a
single

characteristic of objects in a set

Four Stages of Cognitive (e.g., color) and group the objects
Development according to that characteristic.
Sensory Motor- object permanence, the
Formal Operations -A mental system for
understanding that objects exist in the
controlling sets of variables and working
environment whether they perceive them or
through a set of possibilities is needed. The
not. goal-directed actions, Learning to reverse
focus of thinking can shift from what is to what
actions is a basic accomplishment of the
might be.
sensorimotor stage
—hypothetico-deductive/inductive reasoning
. Preoperational semiotic function, This
ability to work with symbols to represent an ---infer relationships between
object that is not present. Conservation is the
adolescent egocentrism.- Unlike
principle that the amount or number of
egocentric young children, adolescents do not
something remains the same even if the
deny that other people may have different
arrangement or appearance is changed, as long
perceptions and beliefs; the adolescents just
as nothing is added and nothing is taken away.
become very focused on their own ideas. This
*centering and decentering
leads to what Elkind (1981) calls the sense of an
Four Stages of Cognitive imaginary audience—the feeling that everyone
Development is watching.

identity, the student knows that if

nothing is added or taken away, the

material remains the same.

3 Themes in Vygotsky’s Theory level of performance that the child could
achieve with adult guidance or by working with
1. The Social Sources of Individual “a more fully developed child” (p. 202). It is a
dynamic and changing space as student and
Thinking co-constructed during shared activities
teacher interact and understandings are
between the child and another person. Then
exchanged. This is the area where instruction
these co-constructed processes are internalized
can succeed
by the child and become part of that child’s
cognitive development. Piaget
Ex. A six-year-old has lost a toy and asks
Believed that cognitive development has to
her father for help. The father asks her
come before learning—the child had to be
where she last saw the toy; the child says
cognitively “ready” to learn. He said that
“I can’t remember.” He asks a series of
“learning is subordinated to development and
questions—did you have it in your room?
Outside? Next door? To each question, the
not vice-versa” He believed that the main goal
child answers, “no.” When he says “in the
of education should be to help children learn
car?” she says “I think so” and goes to how to learn, and that education should “form
retrieve the toy. (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, not furnish” the minds of students
p. 14)
Vygotsky Vygotsky
2. Cultural Tools and Cognitive
believed that learning is an active process that
Development TECHNICAL TOOLS does not have to wait for readiness. In fact,
IN A DIGITAL AGE (Is student learning “properly organized learning results in mental
harmed or helped by these technology development and sets in motion a variety of
supports?) developmental processes that would be
impossible apart from learning” Vygotsky
PSYCHOLOGICAL TOOLS
believed that the main goal of education was
In Vygotsky’s theory, language is the most the development of higher mental functions,
important symbol system in the tool kit, and it is not simply filling students’ memories with facts.
the one that helps to fill the kit with other *Imitative, Instructed, Collaborative
tools.And Vygotsky believed that language in
the form of private speech (talking to yourself)
guides cognitive development

*Private Speech

*Inner Speech

3. The Zone of Proximal

Development

The area between the child’s current

performance (the problems the child can solve
independently without any support) and the
Chapter 3: James Marcia’s work on identity statuses
Achievement – work the options *
Personal, Social, and Foreclosure – if you say so
Moral Development Diffusion – I’m confused
Moratorium – I’m working on it

The Work of Erikson

Psychosocial theory of development

Developmental crises
Eight stages

Erikson’s Stages: Preschool Years

Trust/Mistrust: birth to 12–18 months—
feeding How does this tie to Paiget’s
sensorimotor stage?Is This World A Place I Can
Trust? (CD clip)
Autonomy/Shame & Doubt: 18 months to
3 years (toilet training, dressing, feeding)

Initiative/Guilt: 3 to 6 years independence

Activity without guilt
Erikson’s Stages : Elementary and
Adolescence

Industry/Inferiority: 6 to 12 years
school

Identity/Role Confusion: adolescence

Peer relationships
“Who am I?”
Consistent image of self