Elementary School Observation, Research Paper Example

Development refers to physiological, social, psychological and cultural changes and adjustments that individuals experience from the time that they are born till death. Social changes experienced by children are more likely to be affected by, age grade, social clock and age norms. Age groups can be socially classified in terms of pre-determined statuses, roles, privileges and responsibilities; collectively this is referred to as age grades.

On the other hand the society expects an individual to have certain behavior predispositions according to ones age, this is called age norms. Finally we have social clock that dictates an individuals senses regarding what and when things are supposed to be done depending on ones age norms (Davies, 2010).

The changes taking place in the society goes hand in hand with changing times, social environment can be understood better by evaluating implications of progress in time. Social development is influenced directly by the cultural environment (Valsiner, 1988).Thus to better understand early childhood development we must evaluate the implications of social and cultural environments on an individual child and impact they have on his behavior.

I intend to give first hand account of childhood development patterns in terms of behavior and the effect this has on their learning capability. I will also analyze various factors that influence a Childs performance in the context of interactions between peer groups and analyze the relationship between learning and play at this early stage of childhood.

Play helps the children to develop and understand concepts that eventually help them to think in the abstract. In educating older children play would be unnecessary means as they have already developed abstract thinking.

Some children in Mrs. Browns classroom seemed egocentric. The teacher had given each of them a toy all of them resembling a human figure but of distinct sizes and shapes. She had randomly selected various groups of twos each and when the children were asked to identify a toy that was deemed to be the strongest, each child would choose they toy they had contrary to the right answer.

The children only identified the right toys in these criteria when the differences were clearly pointed out to them. This shows that some were in the preoperational stage of development that occurs between the ages of 2 to 7. This stage denotes a child’s inability to properly identify the differences as evidenced by the senses. There was also the issue of child development through accommodation. This is where existing ideas are discarded when new information is introduced. The children were able to redefine their understanding of the term strong when issues of weight, texture and color were explained to them to enable them make proper judgment based on objectivity rather than being egocentric. A child should not be rushed through any of this stage as this could affect a child’s performance at school and his relationship with peers (Valsiner, 1988).

By observing children on recess play hide and seek, use of logic is evident in the way some of the kids disguise themselves with the intention of fooling their colleagues. For instance, a certain girl instead of running and hiding herself like the rest goes to a group of girls skipping rope, removes her cardigan and pretends she is one of the and the boy seeking her gets a hard time doing it and the girl is able to succeed in her mission. This girl aged between 7 and 11 indicates that she is in concrete operational stage where she is able to apply logic and reasoning to have it her way. Children at this stage are able to use symbols in their minds to conceptualize abstract ideas. These children have cognitive capabilities that help them to be more creative.

Play is different from studying in that a child’s mental faculties improve through assimilation as opposed to learning which requires replacement of old information with the new a process called accommodation. However it enhances learning by exposing the child to various situations that require problem solving. These situations are a symbolic representation of varying scenarios that enhance learning for example after lunch, I saw two girls feeding dolls as though they were real children. This scenario was a symbolic replication of what had happened during lunch break, and it is seen that the girls begin appreciating at an early stage the roles played by their guardians and parents. In my observation, I also happened to come across this two boys playing with toys, one was a dog and the other one was a robot. The boy having a robot from, what I had them tell each other had a particular dislike for dogs because he thought they were vicious. The other boy had different sentiments because at home they had a dog which they kept as a pet and he plays with him before he goes to bed. From this scenario the fearful boy is most likely to have his views about dogs changed and he is likely to be less fearful in future and thus the virtue of courage and self confidence is instilled in him at an early stage through interaction with others and through play.

During tea break, there was this boy who was feasting on some cereals and he would pause occasionally to try and fly his spoon through the air as though it was an airplane. This explains children’s wild imaginations which make inanimate objects seem to be alive, a condition called animism. They experience difficulties in understanding the world from other perspective, a condition called egocentrism and they have a tendency of looking at situations from a single aspect, a condition we call cent ration. In explaining the implications of this three conditions, one can picture a scenario like the one above where the children use items for all the right reasons, the play with them, this helps them distinguish the difference between imagination and reality (Davies,  2010).

In the play field I came across two girls playing dress up, one of African-American decent and the other a Hispanic, their mode of interaction led me to conclude that play can facilitate a vital role of eliminating geocentricism by inculcating in the minds of children a sense of common purpose not dictated by racial differences.  The child becomes aware of each others needs as well as goals and interests. Through play children learn through imitating adults thus bringing together into reality between the experiences they assimilate from the environment and the class work. In playing, the children use symbols that simulate the state of their minds. Children do not understand much of spoken or written communication as they would from first hand experience that they get through play. By seeing, touching and smelling, the children’s memory records the experience permanently during play as these senses are connected directly to the memory. This helps them understand better in class by facilitating assimilation of information as well as accommodation.

The children tended to bombard the teacher with questions, the reason for this was to get teachers attention so that she could interact with them, this helped them determine what manner of behavior they should have when socializing, the children seemed so busy all the time and I had to select certain instances in order for me to explain a certain point.

Children get to learn about each others difference of characters in terms of tastes and preferences by interacting through play. Social-cognitive development for an individual child is enhanced by peers through play which helps them understand that other players are unique in character.

Observing children play in a gym revealed that there were some children who were more active in gym than in class. This better illustrates the difference between competence and performance.

In conclusion, racial prejudice among children of this age group is inconsequential to their development as they tend not to give much attention to their skin color and other distinct attributes. Social environmental factors and the cultural settings that a child relates with tend to have a lot of influence on his psychological and emotional development during the early stages of his life. The child’s attachment to his peers and the teacher plays a major role as it forms a major part of social environment of a child as well as the cultural environment and must be understood as a vital basis of understanding a child.

References

Valsiner, J. (1988). Child Development Within Cultural Structured Environments. Parental Cognition and Adult –Child Interaction, 1(3), 23-30.

Davies, D. (2010). Childhood development: A practitioner’s guide. (3rd Ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.