Children’s Friendships and Learning in School, Essay Example

Introduction

In the teaching field, every grade of study has a course curriculum that the teacher is supposed to follow in order to adequately teach each child. During my observation, I had the opportunity to observe a third grade classroom. Each third grade child is expected to bring along with them some knowledge that the third grade teacher is able to build upon in order to prepare that child for fourth grade. According to curriculum a third grade child should be able to reverse thinking by tracing mental steps that lead them to that conclusion and analyze how to make a better decision. They should be able to manipulate symbols that are related to concrete objects. They should also be able to comprehend multiple aspects of a problem while solving it. In other words, a third grader should be able to add and subtract within the same problem without becoming confuse. Nonetheless, every teacher becomes aware that each child is very different in his/her learning pattern. In any given classroom there will be students who can perform according to the curriculum and those that cannot. Psychologist, Jean Piaget, is created with analyzing how children learn. He developed the theory of how and when child cognitive abilities develop. According to his theory, it was useless trying to teach a child something that he/she was cognitively incapable of learning. This paper examines the observation of a third grade classroom and will analyze the cognitive, moral, and social development of those students.

Cognitive Ability

The first thing that I noticed was the students’ cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities are described as brain bases skills that one uses to carry out any task ranging from simple to complex. Perception, attention, memory, motor, language, executive functions, and visual and spatial processing are all cognitive abilities. Most cognitive abilities can be improved with use. Likewise, some cognitive abilities can decline when they are not used regularly. Recent studies have concluded that in children having friendships can enhance cognitive ability. This comes from the finding that social/interactional relationships are the underpinnings of social development. For example, “Studies that identify relational and developmental advantages of friendship for cognitive developmental advantages of friendship for cognitive enhancement…These studies assert that pairing children on the basis of friendship should be used with greater frequency in the school to promote the pupil’s cognitive enhancement” (Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. 2005). Kutnick and Kington add that when children have friends they are more socially competent than children without friends.  They also convey that children with friends make easier transitions from one stage in school to the next than children who have no friends. They also discuss that children with friends score better academically and specifically do well in creative writing, music composition, and curriculum based creative tasks (Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. 2005). Teachers support this idea in their daily classrooms when they allow students to complete group assignments. Often students are grouped by teachers, but sometimes students are allowed to choose their own partners to complete group assignments. Students learn well from each other.

A child’s cognitive ability affects what he/she retains from one school year to the next. According to Semb, Ellis, and Araujo, the amount of knowledge that students loose is relatively small compared to that which they do remember (Semb, Ellis, and Araujo, 1993).  Nevertheless, the number of practice opportunities a child has had with the concept can affect how much knowledge he/she retains as well. According to Julian Stanley, teachers seem to believe that their students come to them with no prior knowledge of the subject area. According to Stanley, this is a fail-safe strategy (Stanley, 2000).  In other words, the teacher believes that if he/she teaches everything, there will be no option of failure. However, this strategy wastes precious time. When a teacher spends the first two weeks of school teaching information that the child knows already, time has been wasted. Those two weeks could have been used teaching subject matter that the child did not retain from the prior school term. Each teacher must realize that each child is unique and learns in a unique way; therefore, differentiated instruction is the most effective method to use with students. When this is properly implemented, each child is receiving what he/she needs.

Moral Development

I also noticed that many of the students were very mature in their moral development. A child’s moral development begins when he/she knows the difference between right and wrong. According to Kohlberg each child goes through three level of moral development: pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality. By the time a child is in elementary school, he/she should be capable of conventional morality. During this level of moral development, the child will try to live up to the expectations of the people they love and respect-teachers, parents, etc. They will understand concepts of loyalty, trust, and gratitude. At this age, children take the “Golden Rule” literally.  According to John Snarey, culture can have a direct effect on the way a child views these moral dilemmas. As a result, Snarey believes that all levels of moral development cannot be present in each child as a direct result of the child’s culture (Snarey, 1985). This is a concept that teachers must be aware of in their classrooms. When a teacher has a child from a different culture, although he/she may be at the right age to understand a moral concept, cultural biases may prohibit that understanding. So, in order to be fair to all of the children one teaches, each case must be treated differently. Remember, being from a different culture does not necessarily mean that the child is a foreign student. The child can live down the street from the school and be a part of a different culture. A child’s race, economic status, or environment can directly affect the child’s moral development.

Social Development

Social development can directly affect a child’s ability to perform academically. Teachers are very aware of the behavioral problems a child may have. These behavioral problems can offset the entire environment of the classroom and hinder the learning process. Having students actively engaged is the key to true learning. The day has passed and gone when teachers lectured to students sitting in straight rows. When walking into the average third grade classroom today one can expect to see moving from station to station, talking to peers, cutting and pasting, coloring, and working in collaboration to complete a common task. Often, students who have behavioral problems cannot actively engage without causing a disruption. These behavioral problems can be brought on by numerous underlying problems-mental issues, reading problems, anxiety, etc. According to Jason T. Downer, Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, and Robert C. Pianta, “Ideal classroom settings create frequent and sustained opportunities for behavioral engagement in learning. When children participate in activities, raise their hands in response to a question, show attention toward the teacher or are actively involved in a reading or writing exercise, they are showing evidence of behavioral engagement” (Jason T. Downer, Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, and Robert C. Pianta, 2007). According to the study they conducted this type of engagement is critical to cognitive development and school success. Reading aloud or quietly has been associated with positive academic achievement. Every teacher wants this model in their classroom. However, every teacher is trying to figure out how he/she is going to pull off a lesson with active engagement when they have one or more behavioral problem children in their rooms. Jason T. Downer, Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, and Robert C. Pianta point out some risk areas and how to best remedy those problems. They convey that some strategies pose challenges for children who have behavioral problems because it requires them to use self-regulatory skills or cognitive abilities beyond their capabilities (Jason T. Downer, Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, and Robert C. Pianta, 2007). When this happens the child will be off task and disruptive. The teacher must plan for those children as well. These children need differentiated instruction. This is a time when teachers may want to co- teach or elicit the help of the special education teacher to assist. More importantly, these students need tasks that are not above their cognitive or academic abilities.

ELL Students

English language learners are faced with many challenges in the content area. Most of those challenges are faced in reading literature in English classes because literature is mostly based upon culture. When teachers expect students to have prior knowledge about genres, which is not always the case for non-native English speakers. In most cases they have had no experience with fairy tales, myths, legends, or tall tales that American students have. If the teacher fails to provide prior knowledge and build a background, ELL students will not understand the text. In many cases the students can read the words, but they do not understand the text. “One reason that has bearing on the achievement gap between ELs and non-ELs is socioeconomic; that is, ELs frequently live in poverty. ELs often attend schools that serve students living in poverty, as defined by eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch” (Advocating for English Learners).

Getting Parents Involved

Getting parents involved in elementary and middle school student’s academics is quite different. During elementary school, parents are more involved because the children encourage their parent’s involvement. However, as students transition to middle school, parental involvement is less welcomed. Getting parents involved in student’s education can prove very difficult, especially when students reach middle school and high school. Students at this age tend to rebel against authority figures. For example, “Interestingly, a majority of discipline problems from kindergarten through 12th grade occur in middle school (6th, 7th, and 8th grades). These three grades, less than 25% of the grade levels, actually represent the majority or near majority of discipline problems” (Teaching Middle School Students). These students often become less interested in pleasing their teachers and teachers find themselves trying to entertain the students in order to teach them. For example, “It takes creativity to keep the attention of these students. Use humor, bring in strange objects, tell stories, and ask intriguing questions”(Teaching Middle School Students).  Parents of ELL students often face more barriers than non-ELL students when it comes to being involved. Accordingly, “ Some barriers that tend to inhibit EL parental and familial involvement include English language proficiency of families, parents’ educational level, differences between school culture and parents’ home culture, and logistical challenges such as securing childcare, finding transportation, and taking time off from work”(Advocating for English Learners)  First of all, teachers need to get to know their parents. One can start with an orientation meeting at the beginning of the school year, and do a follow up home visit for those parents that couldn’t make it to the orientation. This is a chance for the teacher to get to know the child’s family and a chance for them to get to know the teacher. This helps families realize that teachers are real people. This also gives the teacher a chance to observe that home culture. This can be helpful when planning lessons that meet the needs of all students. Parents are more likely to get involved if they fell welcomed.

Teacher Collaboration

Collaboration between teachers has been proven to improve student success. Nevertheless, collaboration between elementary teachers is more prevalent than collaboration between middle school teachers. In my opinion, more collaboration is needed during middle school years because students are not as easily reached as middle school students. For example,

“Teaching middle school students is perhaps one of the hardest jobs out there – it is, at least, oftentimes the most difficult teaching job. Elementary school students generally respect their adults and view their elementary school teachers as wonderful people who not just teach, but entertain them, as well” (Teaching Middle School Students).  Many teachers do not have the skills needed to adequately teach ELL students. For example, “only 20 states require that all teachers have training in working with ELs” (Wright, 2010). Both teachers and the school benefit from collaboration. Research supports the fact that lower turnover rates for beginning teachers in schools where collaboration is fostered. Also, teachers felt a sense of personal satisfaction when they were involved in decision making. School leaders who foster collaboration between new and veteran teachers will improve teacher retention and teacher satisfaction.  Historically, teachers have worked in isolation. There was always one teacher in the classroom. That one teacher was responsible for all the needs of the students the class. In the past several decades, that picture has changed drastically. Wright added, “Indeed, they need English to succeed in school and in life in the United States. ELL programs must therefore provide systematic and direct ESL instruction that is (a) tailored to the linguistic needs of the ELLs students, (b) designed to help them improve their English language proficiency each year, and (c) designed to help them ultimately be redesignated as fluent English proficient. Language and literacy instruction goes beyond the cognitive processes of individual students and their acquisition of discrete skills” (Wright, 2010).

Reflection

Due to my observation, I know that collaboration is very important to student success. Teachers, literacy coaches, principals, parents, and administrators must put their heads together to decide what is best for the students. Today, the general education and special education teachers work side by side in one classroom and that proves very effective. Also, it seems that there needs to be more connection between parents and teachers of middle school age students.  This can be a stressful task. I believe that this observation allowed me to see first-hand the many challenges that teachers face in the classman. One specific thing I noticed was that students in elementary school often had more hand-on activities throughout the day, while middle school students were expected to sit working on the same tasks for long periods of time. For example, the article Teaching Elementary said “A hands-on approach is sometimes used by elementary school teachers where they can use props and other forms of visual learning. They may also ask students to work in groups to discuss problems together. Elementary school teachers make sure that students interact with one another and are able to logically work their way through problems.” For some reason, middle school teachers must believe that this changes as the students get older. Finally, I agree with the article Teaching Elementary School that states that the Common Core standards helps students to become thinkers rather than just doers.

References

Advocating For English Learners

Downer, J. T., Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., & Pianta, R. C. (2007). How Do Classroom Conditions and Children’s Risk for School Problems Contribute to Children’s Behavioral Engagement in Learning? School Psychology Review, 36(3), 413-432.

Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. (2005). Children’s friendships and learning in school: Cognitive enhancement through social interaction? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(4), 521-538.

Semb, G. B., Ellis, J. A., & Araujo, J. (1993). Long-term memory for knowledge learned in school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(2), 305-316.

Snarey, J. R. (1985). Cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of kohlbergian research.Psychological Bulletin, 97(2), 202-232.

Stanley, J. C. (2000). Helping students learn only what they don’t already know. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 6(1), 216-222.

Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing