Educational Psychology / Unit 13 EDP 1220 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Development in One Classroom
The idea
The developmental theories in this course describe different parts of one child, and a teacher uses them together. Piaget describes how reasoning changes through four stages in a fixed order, from sensorimotor to formal operational, with the child constructing knowledge through activity, disequilibrium, assimilation and accommodation. Vygotsky describes how development runs through other people: what a child can do with guidance inside the zone of proximal development becomes what the child can do alone, as a more knowledgeable other supports and then withdraws. Erikson describes the psychosocial crisis of each period, industry versus inferiority in the school years and identity versus role confusion in adolescence. Kohlberg describes moral reasoning, scored by its justification, from preconventional through conventional to postconventional. Language develops in a broadly universal order, and development throughout reflects nature and nurture together.
In practice
Worked example: a seventh-grade science teacher plans a unit on forces. Some students still need concrete demonstrations, so the unit opens with carts and ramps, respecting Piaget's warning against pushing reasoning a child cannot yet construct. Students then work in pairs, with the teacher's questions scaffolding each pair inside its zone of proximal development. Because these students are working through identity versus role confusion, the teacher offers roles, such as designer, tester and reporter, that let students try on different identities. A class discussion of whether a company should hide a product's safety flaw invites moral reasoning, and the teacher listens for the justification rather than the verdict.
Where people slip
No single theory explains the whole child, and none licenses teaching by age alone: stage ages are approximate, and Piaget's tasks underestimated what young children could do when the tasks were made clear. The theories differ on the teacher's role, not on whether the teacher matters. Using them together means asking what a student can reason about, what the student can do with help, what the student is working out about identity, and how the student justifies moral choices.
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