Classroom Observation, Essay Example

Abstract

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. Third grade is no different. 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 guides, 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 credited 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 discusses and analyzes some of the cognitive, moral, and social development of third grade students.

Introduction

It is a difficult job being a teacher in the midst of the accountability era. There is more focus on reading achievement than ever before. The passage of No Child Left Behind in 2002 placed higher demands on teachers to be accountable for what their children learned while in their classes (Hill, & Barth, 2004). Schools that did not meet standards were in fear of sanctions and government take-overs. Classroom schedules were altered to accommodate strengthening reading by increasing instructional reading time, which decreased the amount of time students would spend other classes. These expectations made teachers feel compelled to ensure that all of their students scored high on state mandated achievement tests. These high demands left teachers to analyze many ways of teaching. In any given classroom, a teacher can have several learning styles, learning disabilities, and developmental issues. Trying to meet the demands of NCLB has led teachers to co-teach and differentiate lessons in order to ensure reaching every child. General education teachers are now pairing with special education teachers to deliver lessons to one class. One lesson can be taught a variety of ways when differentiation is used. All of these strategies are linked to a child’s cognitive, moral, and social development.

Cognitive Ability

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 the 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. Stanley goes on to convey that 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

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 (Snarey, 1985).  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).  The study conducted by Downer, Kaufman, & Pianta conveys that 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.

Social development also allows students to make needed adjustments when they enter school. Susan Nichols discusses a scenario that she experienced while observing a kindergarten class. A young girl named Rose had spent much of her time playing with a little boy name Henry because their parents were friends. When she entered school, Henry was the only friend she had.  However, she wanted to play with some of the other girls in the classroom. Rose did not realize that the class was gender specific. In other words, girls played with girls and boys played with boys. Rose and Henry had to adjust to playing with each other at home and only friends of their own sex at school (Nichols, 2004).  Had Rose and Henry been unable to make this adjustment, surely their academics would have been affected.

Conclusions

Cognitive, moral, and social development has been a topic of concern in the educational field since the early 1920s when Piaget introduced his theory (Hill & Barth, 2004). It has been a central part of the development in many new teaching strategies being used in classrooms today. Increases attention has been paid on these three areas due to decline in reading scores in recent years. Teachers have been placed under great expectations to teach students according to their abilities. Nonetheless, this is not a new practice, teachers in the one room school houses differentiated instruction long before researchers gave the strategy a name.  Cognitive ability is the major predictor of overall academic performance, but moral and social development plays an integral role as well. Often students have the cognitive ability to be excellent academic students, but due to lack of adequate moral or social development they fall short. Student who act out in class are not always failing academically. Sometimes these students are just bored from lack of academic challenge. These students will complete their assignments and disrupt the rest of the class. Likewise, students who are in environments that have little moral value of education may disrupt class as well. In order to have a well-rounded student, the child must have a balance of cognitive, moral, and social development. Teachers must maintain a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. Students need to be actively engaged in challenging curriculum.

References

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.

Hill, D.M. & Barth, M. (2004). NCLB and teacher retention: Who will turn on the lights? Education and the Law 16 (2-3).

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.

Nichols, S. (2004). Literacy learning and children’s social agendas in the school entry classroom. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, 27(2), 101-113.

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.