Teaching Aptitude Test - 2

Imitation is reared into humans from childhood. Children make their first learning through imitation. It was Aristotle who observed that imitation is natural in human beings since childhood. Imitation is the ability to see others and do what they do. It is an innate ability that gets triggered at birth. 

Childhood is a beautiful phase of life for most of us. It is a period associated with play, fantasy, and innocence. It is the crucial phase in life and involves important aspects of growth and development which are critical for the entire life span. The childhood period can be further classified into four sub-stages:

• Infancy (birth to 2 years)
• Early childhood (2 to 6 years)
• Middle childhood (6 to 11 years)
• Adolescence (12 to 19 years).

Key Points 

Early Childhood- 

• This period is also recognised as a problematic/troublesome age.
• Children like to play with toys. Curiosity is high in this stage.
• Rate of physical development is very fast. It is a 'pre-gang' age. 
• In this stage child's behaviour is usually antagonistic and stubborn.
• Language development starts in this stage, try to speak random words through imitation.
• Emotion like anger, joy, jealousy, sorrow also developed in this stage.
• At the end of this stage child like to interact with other people.

Thus, from above-mentioned points, it is clear that in the period of ‘early childhood' child’s usually have an opponent and stubborn behaviour.

Additional Information 

• Infancy-
  • The infancy period is the shortest period of whole life-span development. It starts from birth to two years. This is the time when fetus comes into the world from the mother’s womb where he lives almost nine critical months.
• Middle Childhood-
  • During middle childhood, children learn the values of their societies. Thus, the primary developmental task of middle childhood could be called integration, both in tams of development within the individual and of the individual within the social context.
• Adolescence-
  • Adolescence is characterized by rapid physical, social, mental, and emotional change. It is also a time of opportunity and risk. it’s a time of “storm and stress".

Childhood is a beautiful phase of life for most of us. It is a period associated with play, fantasy, and innocence. It is the crucial phase in life and involves important aspects of growth and development which are critical for the entire life span.

Key PointsPersonality is a system that has both psychological and physical aspects. This system is composed of interacting elements and the main elements of the system are traits, emotions, intellect, temperament, character, and motives. All these elements are psychological but are based on the neurology and endocrinology of the body.

• Personality in childhood is extrovert. Such children are always wanting to be around others.
• Extroverts are the persons who are more talkative, action-oriented, active, enthusiastic, and friendly.
• Extroverted children are more inclined to social activities. They are gregarious and social by nature. They show more interest in leadership.

Hint

• ​People with a predominance of introversion are self-centered. Such people are idealistic, imaginative, shy, and secluded. 
• Ambiverts exhibit some degree of introversion and some degree of extroversion in their behavior.

Thus, it is concluded that the personality in childhood is Extrovert.

Development is the pattern of progressive, orderly, and predictable changes that begin at conception and continue throughout life. Development is influenced by an interplay of biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes.

• Development is commonly described in terms of periods or stages as it passes through different stages. Each stage of development has certain distinct and specific characteristics.
• Later childhood is the time period from the age of 'seven to twelve years'. The signs of puberty usually begin to appear in this stage. It is also known as troublesome age, gang age, play age, etc.

Key Points

Physical development during later childhood:

• During this stage, bones get longer and stronger.
• Children start developing their new permanent teeth.
• Children tend to get involved in excessive motor activity.
• During these years the child’s preference for left and right hand also develops.
• Children develop fine motor skills such as finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination.

Hence, it could be concluded that the physical development of later childhood is marked by all of the above.

Early childhood education consists of activities and/or experiences that are intended to effect developmental changes in children before they enter elementary school. So in early childhood, the children should be given education through Toys and games and other activities.

Explanation:

• Early childhood education often focuses on learning through the playing-based method.
• Learning through play will allow a child to develop cognitively. This is the earliest form of collaboration among children. In this, children learn through their interactions with others. Thus, children learn more efficiently and gain more knowledge through activities such as dramatic play, art, and social games.
• Early childhood education focuses on “learning through play” by providing a hands-on, interactive atmosphere where children learn about themselves through playing with other children.

​Additional Information

Other Learning activities may include-

• In Class: competition/quiz show concept mapping cooperative learning debate demonstration fishbowl group discussion guest speakers guided-discovery learning interactive lecture jigsaw just-in-time lecture-laboratory panel discussion poster session rubric design simulations storytelling.
• Both INSIDE and OUTSIDE of Class: artistic expression brainstorming case studies collaborative learning consulting critique drill and practice event production interviewing journaling peer assessment planning presentations/skits problem-solving projects research reviewing role-playing self-assessment/ reflection self-validation student teaching supplemental instruction/tutoring surveys team building technology videos writing.
• Outside Class: clinical field trips job shadowing portfolio building reading scavenger hunt self-study service learning

Hence, we can conclude that In early childhood, children should be given education through Toys and games.

Some problems faced by children are extreme shyness, fearfulness, aggression, attention-getting, hyperactive, excessively dependent, daydreaming, lying and cheating, stealing, etc. Many of these problems of children can be handled by the teacher-parent by using rewards such as adult praise: treats and trinkets and parents-teachers can be trained to engage children with such problems in appropriate behaviors to earn these rewards. 

Key Points

Childhood aggression refers to the behavior of children where they display anger and discontent arising from various factors. Such behavior is quite common in children. Even though it’s common, the parents, teachers, and other caregivers should analyze this behavior.
 

Types of aggression displayed by children:

• Overt: Children displaying this kind of aggression harm others through physical injury and also threaten others with physical injury. Young males often display overt aggression as compared to female peers. 
• Relational: Displaying aggression through damaging social relationships for instance spreading rumors, shunning e.t.c. are categorized as relational aggression. Mostly displayed by females. 

 

Hint

• Verbal abuse is a common part of overt and relational aggression.
• By the age of 6 most children learn to reduce their aggression and develop sympathy and empathy towards peers.
• It is up to the caregivers to diagnose the cause of aggression and help the child in dealing with it. This can be achieved by providing emotional support. 
• In summary, we note that aggression is a common behavior among kids peaking around the age of 4.

Additional Information
Let’s explore other options:

• Thoughtfulness: Kids are not thoughtful in the early stages due to the dominance of animal instincts. Since kids cannot empathize in the early stages of life so they are not thoughtful.
• Discipline: It is the ability of a person to obey directions and behave in a decent and civilized manner. Boys and girls don’t display such characteristics during childhood. 
• Understanding: Kids don’t try to understand the emotions and feelings of others. There is a degree of selfishness.

Here the conclusion is that during Childhood, boys and girls seem to be more aggressive.

According to Piaget's cognitive development:

Middle childhood corresponds to the age range of 9 to 11 years. The children become more aware of the language and its uses.

• During the pre-operational stage (up to 7 years of age), the child’s speech is mostly ego-centric, which means there can be repetitive phrases or repetitions of phrases, heard in toddler speech, or it can be a monologue of ideas that requires no listener. Eg- A child age 5 to 7 might be heard describing what his toys are doing.
• Socialized speech includes conversations and questions and answers with other people around the child.

Hence, we conclude that in middle childhood, speech is more socialized rather than ego-centric.

The proper age for the admission of the children in pre-primary school is Three and a half year

Pre-primary school

• Pre-primary education is defined as the initial stage of organized instruction, designed primarily to introduce very young children to a school-type environment, that is, to provide a bridge between home and a school-based atmosphere.
• A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or playschool, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school.
• Age -- Class
  3.5 years -- Nursery
  4 years -- LKG
  5 years -- UKG
  6 years -- Standard I
• Different Types of Pre-Primary Schools

1. Kindergarten School.
2. Montessori School.
3. Nursery School.
4. Pre-primary School.
5. Balwadi.
6. Anganwadi.
7. Integrated Child Development Service Programme.

Observe the Educational Perspectives of the below Philosophers: 

• Jean Jacques Rousseau: He was one of the prominent naturalistic philosophers of education. His ideas on education have been written in his famous publications like; ‘The Progress of Arts and Science’, ‘Social Contract’, ‘New Heloise’ and ‘Emile’. Rousseau’s naturalist philosophy shows in three forms: Social Naturalism, Psychological Naturalism, and Physical Naturalism.
  • He was a strong critic of the traditional system of education. He was against feeding knowledge to students without understanding. He believed that the child has his own ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing. They should not impose principles or methods to be followed. They should be free to understand and study the content the way they like.
  • He suggested that the aim of education should be to achieve the bodily, sensory, mental, social, and moral development of the individual.
  • According to him, Nature, Human and Physical environment are the sources of education. Learning by doing and getting experience is the best learning. Education is the gardening of children. As plants develop through care and nutrients and human development through education.
  • He suggested meaningful education for infancy, childhood, adolescence, and youth.
  • At the infancy stage, he suggested allowing the child to freely engage in playing and exercising his body and remaining active. To train the instinct, the child should be made free to experience and indulge in good things.
  • At the childhood stage, he suggested learning through experience and observation. He suggested that the development of a sense of organs is the aim of education at this stage.
  • At the adolescence stage, Rousseau suggested that the aim of education should be to develop adolescent personality through hard work, guidance, and study.
• John Dewey: He is a great philosopher, educationist, and thinker of the modern age. His concept of education is based upon the philosophy of pragmatism. Dewey believed that knowledge is resultant of action.
  • According to him, change is the reality of the world. Defining education, he said, ‘Education is the continuous reconstruction of experiences’. His major concept of education has been written in his book ‘Democracy and Education’.
  • Dewey considers knowledge gains through inquiry, reflective thinking, experimentation, and fact-finding. There is no ultimate truth of knowledge. More and more scientific inquiry gives birth to new knowledge.
• John B. Watson (1878 - 1958)  started believing that learning was a process of conditioning reflexes (responses) through the substitution of one stimulus for another. According to him, humans are born with a few reflexes of land emotional reactions of fear, love, and rage. The rest of human behaviour is established by building new Stimulus-Response connections through conditioning. 
• E.L. Thorndike, one of the well known American learning theorists propounded a theory called connectionism. Thorndike posited that learning was a process of "stamping in" or forming connections between a stimulus and a response. He formulated connectionism and more specifically the laws of learning" by studying the effect of "reward on animals".

Hence, we conclude that Rousseau gave the idea that education should be based on the principles of human development.

Growth is the product of the Interaction of the organism and its environment. Heredity is considered as the sum total of Inborn Individual traits. The environment includes all those forces which act upon the individual.

• Heredity is defined as the totality of bio-logically transmitted factors that influence the structure of the body and the environment is the totality of conditions that serve to stimulate behaviour or act to bring about a modification of behaviour. Both heredity and environment are important in the life of an individual; both are the determinants of development. 

Key Points

Educational implications of the study of heredity and environment:-

• It helps the teacher to provide a better learning environment in the school.
• It helps the teacher to study the behaviour of the children under different situations.
• It helps to provide proper guidance to his children in the field of educational, vocational, and personal.
• Knowledge of heredity and environment helps the teacher to identify the needs and abilities of the children.
• It helps the teacher to organize various curricular and co-curricular programmes for the best benefit of the children.
• It helps the teacher to know the principle of individual differences and arrange the educational experience accordingly.
• It helps the teacher to classify the students as gifted, normal, or slow learners and arrange different types of education for them.
• The knowledge of the relative role of heredity and environment is very important on the part of the teacher so that he can help his students In learning concepts better.
• The knowledge of both the factors will help the teacher in finding out the individual differences among his students in learning either Mathematics or English as well as in adjusting his teaching methods and techniques accordingly, like project method and communicative teaching techniques.
• The study of heredity and environment enables the teachers to understand the causal factors of individual differences.
• The teacher must plan to provide better education and a better environment. By providing a computer laboratory and adequate library facilities in each subject. He should study the child, his/her abilities, as well as his environment, and he/she must prepare a scheme for the development.
• In this context, Sorenson has rightly remarked that to the teacher, knowledge, relative effect of the forces of heredity and environment on human development and their inter-relationship is of great significance. The high degree of scholastic achievement depends upon the school climate.
• The school should aim at providing enriched programs of curricular and co-curricular activities for the children like quizzes and literary competitions. They may have better educational, vocational, personal guidance, and counselling and personality development programs.

Thus, from the above-mentioned points, it is clear that the educational implication of the study of heredity and environment is the study of heredity and environment enables the teachers to understand the causal factors of individual differences.