DIDACTICS IUNIVERSIDAD DEL ACONCAGUA

Changes that occur in human beings between conceptions and death.

Can be divided into a number of different aspects:

Physical Personal Social Cognitive

People develop at different rates

Development is orderly

Takes place gradually

Sensorimotor 0-2

Pre operational 2-7

Concrete operational 7-11

Formal 11-adults

Ability to work with symbols

semiotic function Thought is subjective and egocentric

Examples: pretending, miming From 200 to 2000 words Children speak to themselves- collective monologue Fantasy and reality are confused Have a short attention span

Children … …can have sudden temper tantrums …are physically aggressive without a motive …feel insecure and omnipotent …do not know how to wait, which causes frustration …start to be aware of their potential both their

abilities and limitations …play parallel to others …are extremely keen to communicate …are passionate and non systematic in the way they

do things …take other children’s toys as a way of affirming

themselves …interrupt activities to gain attention

Use concrete props and visuals: demonstrate, use props, use stick rods, colored chips.

Visuals should be large Make instructions relatively short Avoid long lectures Be clear about the use of material Be tolerant to invented words Give children hands on practice Provide a wide range of experiences Monitor aggressive behaviour without over reacting Involve body movement Activities should be varied and should develop large

motor movements (running, jumping) and hand eye coordination (cutting out, modelling)

Characteristics Need

Longer attention span Opportunities to engage in tasks that require focus and commitment

Knowledge of the world growing Stimulatione.g. information from internet or cross-curricular

Taking learning more seriously Chances to be independent

Still children Teacher sensitive to their needs and moods

More cooperative with peers Variety of grouping in class i.e. work on own, in pairs, in group, as class

Intellectual, motor and social skills developing

Activities that challenge them

Developing own learning strategies Chance to personalise their learning experience

Piaget coined the term concrete operational to describe “hands on thinking” for this stage.

CHARACTERISTICS Recognition of the logical stability of the

physical world. Realization that things can changed be

changed or transformed and still conserve their characteristics.

Understanding that changes can be reversed.

LOGICAL SYSTEM OF THINKING

IDENTITY

COMPENSATION

REVERSIBILITY

Children are able to classify and do seriation

Thinking is tied to the physical reality

Logic is based on concrete situations that can be:

Organized Classified Manipulated

USE VISUALS SUCH AS: Timeline, three dimensional models Diagrams

GIVE STUDENTS THE CHANCE TO MANIPULATE AND TEST OBJECTS:

Have students bake bread, weave cloth, do crafts.

MAKE SURE PRESENTATIONS AND READINGS ARE BRIEF AND WELL ORGANIZED:

Assign stories or books with short, logical chapters. Break up the lesson, give students the chance to

practice the first step before introducing the next. Use familiar examples to explain more complex

ideas

GIVE STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO CLASSIFY AND GROUP OBJECTS AND IDEAS ON INCREASINGLY COMPLEX LEVELS

Give students slips of papers with individual sentences written on each paper and ask students to group the students to group the sentences into paragraphs.

Compare systems PRESENT PROBLEMS THAT REQUIRE LOGICAL

THINKING

Use mind twisters, brain teasers., riddles

Discuss open ended-questions that stimulte thinking

The child must deal with demands to learn news skills or risks a sense of inferiority, failure, and incompetence.

Erik Erikson“industry vs. inferiority” Important event:school

Make sure students have opportunities to set and work toward realistic goals.

Begin with short assignments and, then move to longer ones.

Teach students to set reasonable goals Give students a chance to show their

independence and responsibilityTolerate honest mistakesDelegate tasks Provide support to students who seem

discouraged

Woolfolk, A. (1980) Educational Psychology.MA: Allyn and Bacon

Brown,D. (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching New Jersey : Prentice Hall