Learning and development - Blog's presentation

Learning about the human development, especially of children, is key for our formation as primary teachers. We must understand for what our pupils are going through, what is normal or not according to biological and psychological aspects, what is the maximum that we can expect from them according to the psychological process where they are or their age and all that this entails.

  

The usefulness of this work is remarkable as it helps to interiorize the concepts done in class, reflect on them, relate them between them or in my personal experiences, and it will be a source in my hopefully teaching life in a few years.

I had some previous knowledge about some concepts worked in class as I studied psychology for a year in my secondary school, so I will be using the worked done during this year as another reference for this learning portofolio.

Before deepen into children’s development and the importance of its understanding in education, in this case especially for primary education, it is significant to contextualize the development in its general field. Psychology. 

According to the Great Illustrated Encyclopedic dictionary, psychology is a science which studies phenomena emphasized in the conscious and the unconscious phenomena in order to have a better view of the human behavior. This science is closed to other sciences such as biology, as with psychology some biological aspects can be explained -for example, connecting psychology and biology we can be aware that, according to our genetics, girls have an early development of the language skills-, physics and social science -behavior is explained through psychology-. A different definition, this time taken from the new dictionary of the Catalan language, states that psychology is about the soul, its genesis, capacities and functions.

There are already some references about psychology in the Ancient Greece. Plato introduces this science in its dialogue Fedro where he considered that a human being is formed by two compounds: soul and body, but he believed the soul had a divine origin. A few years later, Aristotle proved Plato wrong when he considered the soul as a biological element, so he was saying that, unlike his master, the soul is not an independent element of the body.

In the 17th century, Descartes made a distinction between the volunteers and involuntary acts making here reference to the fact that some actions are automatic and reflexive while others are voluntary, coming from our thinking, behavior and way of acting. But it was Freud who made a great revolution in psychology introducing the term psychoanalysis, stating that humans have an unconscious part that has a big impact on us.

Psychology is divided in different branches. According to José Ignacio Alonso García, exists the general psychology, the experimental, the psychobiology, the evolutionary psychology, the social psychology, the psychology of the thinking, psychology of the learning, differential psychology, cultural psychology and psychology of the genre. Up to now, the branches are more related to the subject are the evolutionary and the psychology of the learning as we are studying the behavioral changes during the vital development and the reasons of that, as well as its influences in the learning process, which is what really interest us as future teachers. 

Block 1: Psychological development. Conceptual and methodological framework

1. Development

This first paragraph includes a definition of the concept, the importance of interacting with people, Vygotsky's premises (ZPD as key element) and the developmental directions

2. Developmental approaches

This second paragraph shows the four different developmental approaches. The psychodynamic theory, whose most known representat is Freud and his psychosexual theory. Pavlov, Skinner and Watson's experiments contextualize the behavioral approach. Piaget and his constructivist theory are the main elements of the cognivist approach. And finally, Bronfenbenner and Vygotsky explain the contextual approach.

3. Education and development

Finally, in this paragraph I relate development and education, highlighting the contribution of education in the development of any child. Also, differences between school and family activities are mentioned.

Development

Development is understood as the process from which we obtain psychological functions mainly through the physical and socio-cultural context which, as development is increased according to our age and biological processes, it increases make it wider. It involves different dimensions such as the cognitive, corporal and the socio-affective.  

Culture and environment have an important role in the development of any child. Culture here is not just what other people do and can be observed by someone, also implies models that children can have in order to imitate some behaviors or on the contrary avoid them, symbolic systems -language, gestures, etc.- and intentional universes. The main idea that can be extracted from this is that development is changed when interacting with people.

Vygotsky has three basic premises about the social development: 

• Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (inter-psychological) and then inside the child (intra – psychological) – Vygotsky, 1978. 
• Society is the main basis according to Vygotsky, stating that children (or maybe we should say students in this context) need interactions, participation in cultural organized activities, they must develop their creativity in order to achieve greater results. It requires the participation of someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, and this person will lead the learner to achieve the hoped abilities. 
• The Zone of Proximal Development is the distance between what a learner can do with the guide of an adult -and sometimes even a peer- and the ability of the learner to do by himself something which he used to need help with. This distance is overcame with scaffoldings which is a help that requires interaction between the learner and the adult. Scaffoldings are not the same for every child. Individual capacities should be taken into account when developing scaffoldings. To make the scaffolding more effective, the kid must be conscious of this help. Education is the main aspect in this ZPD as pushes development. In a school, scaffoldings are a tool for a teacher to provide students the opportunity to expand their actual skills and knowledge. For that, the teacher must engage students’ interest, simplify tasks in order to be more manageable for them, as well as motivate students so they can achieve the established goals.
  When the help comes from a peer, it can improve their relationship and students themselves can be aware of the importance of interaction among equals and the benefits of working with peers. 
  Here is an example of how teachers deal with the Zone of Proximal Development:

One direct from which development is being due is from the biological processes through the conscious elements of our mind and the behavior which we can self-regulate, so a previous planning about our actions is required. It is far from obvious that the biological compounds are a huge influence on our development. When we talk about biology and psychology as interrelated concepts we are making reference to the interaction between heritance, which is what has been transferred to the individual through the genes, and the common elements that every person acquires just by the mere fact of being born. 

Biology can be considered as an easy conception of the development in terms of learning development because we all share the same biological patterns so every child, in general, is capable of the same things in a specific period of their life. For example, a teacher of a classroom of four year old children cannot make them write a review of a book that they have seen as they, biologically, have not developed the enough language skills to do this activity. 

The second element is the dependency, also known as the personal autonomy. Children have an average reading competence at a certain age, but if a child reads regularly just because of the pleasure of it, he can improve this skill and have a better reading competence than his peers.

Environment in this content is understood as skills related to the expression as a general concept, the relation with the elements that surround us, the communication and therefore relationships, representation and explanation, which are some skills that increase progressively during the life of a human being and can be improved or can help its acquiesce through education. 

Another way to learn is from the direct action with objects which involves a reflexive and experimental phase. Children have to be curious in order to develop more skills and grow, and this can be only acquired if they think about the consequences of an act, by observing their environment and experimenting.  Also the role of the emotions is very important in the development as having a control and an emotional balance eases the development of a child regardless of their way of being at home and in the school, which usually tend to be a little bit different.  

Developmental approaches

Psychosexual Approach

Psychodynamic approach is based on the natural development. This approach is formed basically by three theories. One of them is Bowlby’s attachment theory which states that humans have mechanisms that let them survive. Those mechanisms are not learned, we are born with them. One clear example of this theory is the secure attachment that takes places when looking for a bonding figure in order to feel safe and knowing that you have someone with whom trust.  Erikson also contributes stating that, as we have been already observing, society has an impact on the personality and its development with the psychosocial theory. Learning from the environment is really effective so they have models, but it can provoke contradictions as well with the self way of acting. If what the child is observing an action which is extremely different from how he would react to the same action, it can evolve into a crisis. When the kid overcomes the contradictions is when he constructs his identity. 

Nevertheless, the main representative of the psychodynamic approach is Freud and his psychosexual theory. One of the main elements of this theory, and the one which suggested me more curiosity when I was studying psychology are the stages from which every child goes through in order to develop the personality. Freud was really revolutionary at his time, creating controversy theories such as this one, and that may be the reason why I was so interested in his work.

This theory mainly describes the evolution and development of a child through five stages, each of them inside an age framework that is accomplished when the child has no special need or disability. When all the stages have been accomplished successfully, the child has the expected personality, but if one or more of those stages have not been completed can lead to a fixation which means that the child will be sort of obsessed of what was implied in the theory he could not fulfill. A clear example is when an individual who has a fixation on the first stage, the oral, in which the mouth is the element from which they learn and obtain pleasure, so in their adulthood they can make this up for by smoking, drinking or eating excessively. 

In this table we can observe the identity traits of each stage, and what are the consequences if one stage has not been properly accomplished. 

However, the psychosexual theory just not only focuses on the evolution of a kid during his childhood, but also remarks the fact that the behavior of any human being is controlled by impulses, which generates motivation, and those are unconscious which means that, at a first sight, we cannot identify its origin and are involuntary.

Behavioral Approach

Behavorist approach is based on the learning processes and the social environment. The characteristic theory of this approach is the traditional learning, developed by different intellectuals, which, like Freud’s psychosexual theory, is more concerned about the behavioral changes than the thinking processes. As general concepts, this theory states that people tend to be more motivated if the effectiveness of their actions can be seen by themselves and their good repercussions are quick and affect tem positively in their life.

These theories are based on a stimulus-response framework which allows them to confirm that learning comes from the environment, from which children take models. Social context and observation are key elements for this traditional learning theory. Bandura believes that children learn by copying.

Pavlov’s classical conditioning explains how human beings respond to different stimuli and situations. He was interested in the digestive process. He believed the salivation was a learned process, and to prove it he realized an experiment with dogs in which he first gave food to dogs to provoke salivation. Then, he created a neutral stimulus, concretely the sound of a bell, and that created no response for the dog. After that every time the dog was served food, the bell rang so the dog associated the sound of the bell with the food, and it created the unconditioned response -salivation-. Once the dog had it interiorized, the food was taken out and the only stimulus the dog received was the bell and, the dog associated the sound with the meal so salivation was produced. Therefore, the bell, which at the beginning was a neutral stimulus, became a conditioned stimulus that provoked a conditioned response, which is salivation.

Another author who contributed with a different conditioning is Skinner and this operant condition which is based on the principle that behavior is formed by our actions and their consequences. Skinner was influenced by Thorndike’s study of the known Law of Effect. Skinner’s experiment is similar to Thorndike’s, but he incorporated a reinforcement as any behavior which is reinforced is more likely to be repeated. This reinforcement is given after a desired response of the studied action. He worked with three kinds of reinforcements: 

• Neutral operants which are the responses from the environment that have no repercusion of a behavior being repeated.
• Reinforcers which responses, coming  from the environment, increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.
• Punishers are response from the environment that, on the contrary,  decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. 

Skinner's experiment to prove his theory consisted in placing a hungry rat in a box which he called "Skinner box".  The box was provided with a lever which knocked by the rat, it dropped food. The rat ended up learning what to do to get food. The box contained a lever in the side and as the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever.  This proved that a reinforcement provokes repetition. 

Now that we have seen how the rat responded to a positive reinforcement, Skinner tried to worked by a negative reinforcement with the same animal. In this case, the rat received an elecrtic current every time it moved around the box to get into the lever, so the rat quickly learned to go straight to the lever insetad of walking around. 

In this video, Skinner himself explains the experiment but with pigeons instead of rats. 

We can exemplify Skinner's reinforcements into a school context. For example, if a child smokes in the school and he as friends who encourage him doing it and they are glad for him for smoking, he would repeat this behavior. On the other and, if he is caught smoking by any professional of the school and he ends up being punished or suspended from the school, he would not repeat it again. 

Watson, who is more extreme than Skinner, performed a constroversial experiment called Little Albert along with a graduate student called Rosalie Raynor. In this experiment, he wanted to take Pavlov's work further showing that emotional reactions could be also applied to people and not just to animals.

The subject of the experiment was a nine months old child called Albert B who was exposed to stimuli such as a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and a burning newspapers. Watson and Raynor observed the boy's reactions coming to the conclusion that, intially, he showed no fear to any of the stimuli.

They decided to include new stimuli to the ones already shown to the kid in order to provoke a greater response. This time, when Albert was shown the rat, Watson made a loud noise making the child cry. After repeating this action several times, Albert ended up crying when the rat was shown to him. No more noise was needed for him to cry when seeing a rat.

This is was Watson and Rayner wrote about the kid's reaction to the rat:
The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the left, fell over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly that he was caught with difficulty before reaching the edge of the table.

In this video we can see how the experiment was developed:

Cognivist Approach

Cognivist approach is based on the maturation of the learning structures. This approach is mainly represented by Piaget and his constructivist theory which is used to explain the way children's act and think at different levels of their development, according to their age. Specifically, it is about what children are interested in and capable at different ages. Children from similar ages share an understanding of the world and a coherent view of it. Piaget differentiates four different stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.

This table explains the stages proposed by Piaget

Piaget's theory have implications in education. First of all, according to Piaget's point of view, teachig is indirect as kids do not only interiorize what the teacher is explaining to them but they also interpret and they compare it to their previous knowledge and experiences. Besides, for Piaget knowledge is not information is not something that the child has to memorize, kids learn from experiences and interaction with the world, people and things. 

Contextual Approach

Socio-historic-cultural approach is based on the context and cultural influences. The bio-ecological theory, developed by Bronfenbenner, considers the environment as the main element for the development of any child, and his interaction with it. According to this theory, we can make a distinction among the systems from which the children should have a close contact. We identify the micro-system -the closest context of the kid such the family, parents, school and neighborhood-; meso-system, which involves the interaction of two micro-systems. For example, a meso-system could be when parents have a meeting with their kid’s teacher in to improve his learning process. The exo-system is the environment with which the child does not have a direct contact with but what happens in those contexts affect him somehow. The working place of the parents or the parents’ friend can be good examples of exo-systems. Finally, the micro-system is formed by the cultural and political values, the economical models, social conditions, etc of the society in which the child is immerse; and the crono-system which is the impact that time has on the previous systems, such as the changes within a family in a period of 7 years. The parents could have been divorced, a child could have been born, a family member could have been died, the families could have moved to another house, the father could have changed his job, etc.

Although Bronfenbenner theory explains perfectly this approach, Vygotsky has a different theory, which I have already talked a little bit about in the previous content of the portofolio, which is more related to the interest ambit of this project, which is education. His sociocultural theory has the main premise that social interaction is the basic element of the human development. 

Education and development

Even though I have already made some connections between education and development, now it is time to focus more on what really concerns us as future teachers. Knowing the link between development and the learning processes is essential to offer a proper education. 

When designing an activity, a lesson or even a school year, the implicates must take into account the development of the children. First of all, it is extremely important to be aware of their innate capacities. This means that, according to an specific age, a child has skills and competences acquired because of genetic reasons. Nevertheless, culture, social status, social interactions, economical position, ethnicity and gender are other elements that can influenciate our educational level. In this subject, we focus on the influences of the environment and the social relationship in the development of a child. 

The aim of education is the promotion of development. This development needs to take into account the previous development and knowledge of the child, trying to improve it to arrive to a further development. By doing this, the child will be progressively acquirin more skills and competences, that will not replace the previous one but it will complement them. Children, with development and the role of education in this growth, is to improve the capacities of a kid. 

Activities elapsed at school must satisfy the needs of the kid according to his development. In order to be differentiated from other activities such as the ones done with the family, have to follow some specific patterns. Another aspect from which educational activities are differentiated from the family activities is that in school activities are evaluated and the child has to fulfill a progress in order to be performing as expected. 

Educative activities must be planned, designes and developed with a clear educative intention. Most of the time, those activities take place is specific buildings created with an educative aim. A school or a faculty are evident examples of it. 

School activities are realized during a specific temporal space, which normally lastes eight or nine months. Knowledge is usually decontextualized meaning that children do not learn what is happening at the moment but what had already happened such as the French Revolution or the discovery of the Americas. 

There are some clear figures in charge of an educating role, and this person easily identified by the pupils. Teachers normally take this role. Their actions are working as a social mediator between the school context and the real context, recreating situations in order for kids will be able to apply the learned knowledge to the real world, and also has de roal to act as a change agent. Here we can observe another difference between school and family activities as in a the family context no one has this specific role to teach the kid. Also, at home, if the father is who normally helps the kid with his homework, this role can be changed when the father is out for a work meeting and during those days the mother has to help the child. In school, one person as a role which cannot change. 

Block 2: Emotional development of school-aged children

1. Emotions and feelings

Definition of both concepts, basic classification of the emotions and how emotions have to be developed in school.

2. Self-regulation

How emotions are developed, the importance of knowing how to regulate one's owns feelings, the consequences that negative states have in education, concepts of self-concept and self-esteem, importance of self-esteem in school performance.

3. Gender differences and construction

Differentiation of gender roles, stereotypes adjusted to each gender, how emotions are expressed according to gender, influences of family and school in the reproduction of gender inequalities, and strategies to overcome gender differences in school.

4. Social interactions 

Definition of friendship and their positive repercussions, explination of the evolution of friendship according to three thesis, examples of friendships, typoology of students in a school according to socialization factors, importance of friendship for children in a school.

Emotions and feelings

Emotions and feelings can be commonly misunderstood and be considered as synonyms. Feelings occur when an emotion becomes conscious by the person who is feeling it. The person itself is able to identify it, classify it and evaluated it if necessary. Feelings tend to be more persistent and linger if the stimulus which provoke them remains. 

Feelings are expressed by different behavioral actions and conducts of search or avoidence which can be observed. They are linked to the motivation and interests of the person whose feelings are experienced or from the situation someone is living. 

According to Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. and Agulló, M. J., an emotion is a mental state which provokes an answer that influences our way of acting in front of a situation. Making a differentiation of emotions according to the fact that they are positive or negative makes no sense as negative emotions. There are no positive or negative emotions. What makes an emotion unpleasent are the consequences that this emotions evokes and if they persist longer than what is desired by the individual who is feeling that way. 

Emotions can be classified by three main types: the basic emotions, the complex emotions and the ambiguous emotions. 

• Basic emotions are related to the survival. We can identify as basic emotions such as joy, anger, fear, sadness and disgust.
• Complex emotions impliy an enhancement to the self and are complex emotions pride, shame, anxiety, jealousy, guilt and envy.
• Depending on the success of the regulation process, ambiguous emotions can help overcome an amotion or situation. Surprise, hope and compassion are ambiguous emotions. 

Having an emotional intelligence and being able to predict and comprehend emotions are fundamental for the educational life. In school, children coexist with other children, some younger, other older and the rest from their same age, and also with adults who have the responsability to provide kids with education and take care of them while they are in the school. 

School must teach some content about emotional intelligence. Students start learning the basic emotions, how to express them and the identification of emotions and body reactions. Once they have acquired those elements and they are older, more complex emotions are introduced, as well as the identification of two emotions at the same time and the identification of the components of an emotional response.

This table shows the contents developed in school during four different stages, based on the classification made by Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. and Agulló, M. J.

Self-regulation

In schools, children need to be conscious of their emotions and know how to regulate them in order to coexist peacefully with peers and adults as, in any other case, education cannot be successfully accomplished by a kid who is not capable to control his emotions and has a harmful behavior.

Nevertheless, to have a successful regulation of the own emotions, the emotional development needs to be understood and interiorized in order to act properly and according to the emotional stage from which the child is immersed. 

Odle defines the emotional development as the emergence of a child's experience, expression, understanding, and regulation of emotions from birth through late adolescence. The context, social and cultural influences play an important role in the emotional development of a kid. 

By now it is unknown when emotions appear. It it true than a child who has just 6 weeks of life can smile, but this smile does not express more emotions until the same kid has six months. Laguther, which is a step further than the smile, is not developed until the child is four or six months old. Negative emotions are believe to be expressed earlier, and anger is more common in infants than sadness.

It is not until the ages of two and three that the kid has emotional comprehension expressed through language and developes empathy. With empahty, the child is able to differentiate the own emotions with other's emotions. Complex emotions are introduced in this stage. 

Once children enter school, they learn more about themselves and what they feel, as well as how specific situation can involve specific emotions. They also understand that the same situation can lead to experience two or more emotions, some of the similar but sometimes they can be opposite feelings. At the age of six children understand that a situation can provoke a determined emotions and, simultaneously another emotion is felt. 

Emotional development is significant as it influences school success. For example, if a student is dealing with negative emotions or has the feeling that is being rejected or has peers problems, this kid can have troubles when concentrating on a task during an activity at school. For that reason, being aware of one's own emotions, sensations and feelings, as well as knowing how to regulate them, are important to perform well at school.

Emotonal regulation occurs when someone is able to recognize and control the emotions. Children should be able to use strategies that help them regulate their emotions as sometimes what they feel can damage their school performance, social interactions and life at home. According to Odle, at the age of four children already learn how to change an emotion in order to be substituted by the emotion that is expected by someone or for a situation. But it is not until the ages of seven to eleven that children learn strategies in order to develop self-regulation. They are aware of emotions can arise in others when we are feeling an emotion. For example, a child from this age is conscious that if he is feeling sad, this sadness can contageous people from his environment and they will end up feeling the same way.

A child can react differently according to how the person with whom he is having a discussion will react. This can be seen mostly in the family context as most of the times children tend to express negative to mothers as they are more permissive than fathers, and also because they know that their fathers tend to react negatively to displays of emotions. Self-regulation is essential to emotional development because it means a progressive ability to regulate emotions according to demands of the situations and social context.

Some strategies to self-regulate the emotions are distraction, favor positive emotions states and reduce negative states. A kid who is having a bad performance at school because of negative emotions has to learn how to amuse those emotions so they do not prevent him to have a successful education. Distraction can be managed by different strategies. Personally, what helps me to distract my emotions and to relax when experimenting harmful feelings is reading. With reading I enter another world. I life someone else's life and my problems seem so far away when reading. That is what children have to learn: what can help them forget for some minutes their situation.

Relaxation is a successful regulatory strategy that can be taught at school and helps keeping negative thinkings away. Children need to comprehend that, by breathing, imagining peaceful and nice places, and having a comfortable positions can help them staying calm and positive.

Self-regulation is dealt at school but has to be promoted by parents as well. 

Self-concept and self-esteem have also an impact in students' performance and are factors to be taken into account when developing emotional regulation. Self-concept is related of the idea of who I am whereas self-esteem implicated the assessment of the person I am. Both concepts are evaluative judgments of how we see ourselves. The idea of myself is not fixed, it can change as yeas go by, according to the context, the experiences lived, etc. However, identity construction is not only a personal point of view, how others see ourselves and they way they treat us contributes positively or negatively in our self-concept and self-esteem.

We start by having a simple and general image of ourselves. We believe that only us are important so we just compare our abilities and capacities to ours. We know we are good at football because this season we are scoring more goals than last year's season, but we never compare ourselves with others. At the age of eight we start to do this comparission with peers, family members, people from our surrounding and normally self-esteem descreases as we notice we are not as perfect as we beleived we were. We are aware that our neighbor is better at painting than us, and this affects negativly our self-esteem.

Self-esteem is constructed by the image that we have of our physical aspect, skills, the realtions with our families, peers, teachers, etc and, in the educational context which is the one that concerns me the most in this portfolio, amadecis are also a huge source of negative or positive influence in our conception of ourselves.

Pygmalion effect is really close to self-esteem. This well-known effect explains teacher's expactations of a student. The way teachers see ourselves has an effect in the way we consider our capacities and abilities. If the teacher believes we can still do great algthough we have failed an exam, we will have the courage to keep studying hard, but if the teacher believes we cannot improve our marks we will consider ourselves as failures and will be no motivated to study.

This graphic explains clearly this effect.

Gender differences and construction

Gender differentiates among females and males, not by biological aspects but with social and cultural reference. Those are suceptible to change in time and according to specific socities. 

Children, when they are young, can notice the differences related to gender. At the age of two, they are able to recognize how actions, colors, behaviors and material things are more related to one gender. Those stereotypes come from the observation of adults and peers, and how gender segregation and gender typifing are visible. It is not until a few years later that they realize those conceptions are just stereotypes and that this situation is far from the truth, although many people still believe in gender roles. 

Stereotypes state that boys are aggressive, impulsive, creative and active whereas girls are calm, patient, tidy and sensitive. Proved differences among genders prove that at the age of two girls show more shame in front of a shameful situation than boys, and they show more aggressivenes regardless of the socio-economic position and culture. Females at that early age also are demonstrated to be more sensitive as they, with the excpetion of anger, they express more intensively and openly their emotions and feelings to adults and peers. As girls are in contact with emotions since they are that young they have the ability to comprehend other's emotions before boys. This more contact and facility that girls have with emotions and their expressions is translated later as they know how to self-regulate better than boys. Females are conscious of how to attend emotional expressions and how to interact with the situation and environment that created them.

This video shows how boys and girls are expected to react to certain situations according to social impositions.

All these stated differences are produced because of biological influences -girls show a more advanced profile and develop earlier the language skills- and the socialization process. Gender differences tend to increase as the child grows because he adopts the characteristics that are socially atributed to his gender. They kind of lose a part of personal identity in order to become the typical man looked for the social requires of his environment. Kids take behavioral models from their family and friends.

Families and school magnify gender segregation and differences, as they teach children the behaviors and attitudes that are considered adjusted for their gender situation. That is why both families and teachers usually teach boys the resoultion of problems when are girls the ones who need more help with this competence as they have more facilities with language skills but not with intellectual capacities. Girls should be taught resolution of problems more regularly and efficency than boys. 

As a matter of fact, girls have an earlier development of some skills such as language and they have responsibilites at home since they are very young. These are some reasons which explain girls' better general performance at school. It is true that they do not have better results in all subjects -boys tend to have the best grades in intellectual subjects like Maths- but when results are seen in a global point of view, girls have a better educational success than boys.

In school, children interiorize gender indentity through the interaction with their peers. It is in school where they learn how to differentiate between a boy and a girl, and start to reproduce the social stereotypes and adopt the attitudes imposed by society.

Children start to interact differently among them inside the classroom and in the playground. When they start to notice gender differences, they segregate and tend to group with children from the same gender and play with games socially applied to them. For example, during the break, boys are more likely to play football in the football court with an homogeneous group -all boys- whereas girls are in another part of the playground playing all together with dolls or playing jump rope.

Though children themselves differentiate among genders, teachers also makes this segregation when using distinctive adjectives for boys than for girls, and usually positive adjectives tend to be addressed to boys more often than to girls. 

So, as we can observe, school is one of the main factors creating gender differences but, at the same time, with the correct inclusive strategies, those differences can be overcome so gender stereotypes decrease progressively. When differences among boys and girls are taught in class, the teacher should remark that those varied characteristics are not a mean to promote segregation. They must use those qualities related to their gender to promote development and to grow as human beings. Students also need to learn that stereotypes are not fixed and they can be changed according to the demands of the society, so they must be educated through the principles of freedom, justice and ethic values. School also should promote equal groups and mixed interactions -boys and girls should participate in activites and play together-. 

Social interactions

Friendship is understood as a relationship between two or more people who share affective and secure bonds. According to Burbach, friends are people who make you feel good, with whom you can relate, people who would never see you down and will cheer you when facing a problem. Friends are kind, they do nice things for their peers. 

People do not have the obligation to peer with certain individuals, so when they do is because of a reciprocal feeling -both of them feel like being friends, usually because they share common interests. Friends spend good times together, they enjoy their company. 

There are three main thesis which explain why people become friends

First of all, the thesis of active selection states that children select as friends those peers who are similar to them in different aspects. For example, if two boys are good in art they can end up being friends. Boys who play with a ball in the playground can become friends as well. Also, girls who have the same academic results can be friends. The next step is when those children with similar qualities, interests and attributes spend a lot of time together and those aspects that they share are increased as a consequence of mutual influence. Finally, with the last thesis similarities among friends experiment an accentuated process. If what friends share is music taste, talking about the topic and doing things together related to it can increase their love for the same music.

Friends are distinguised from the rest of the peers because frends have positive interactions -they talk more oftne than with other classmates-, they help each other if one of them is having a problem -for example, if one kid does not know how to resolve a math's problem, his friend will help with the resolution-. Friends give comfort, affection and security to each other. Also, the emotional comprehension is easier among friends. It is effortless and accurate to identify the emotions of someone with whom you spend most of the time together and know how this person is more likely to react to specific situations. There is also more confidence with friends than with a regular child from your same age. You do not talk about the same things with the kid who sits next to you than with your best friend. With friends you talk about what you like, what disturbs you, what are your concerns, you look for advices and someone who can understand how you are feeling. 

In school most children find friends and people with whom play and spend time together, but some other kids have to deal with rejection.

If the majority of students of a class are good at physical education, those who have troubles with sports are rejected from the rest of peers during those lessons. When it is time to pick teams they are always the last ones to choose, and sometimes even they are left out or the team do not want them. When playing a sport, they do not usually receive the ball. Rejected kids do not feel part of the team. But rejection can occur for other reasons. A child can be rejected because of physical appearence -if he has a physical disease, if he has to use a wheelchair or even if he has a different hair color such as red-, socio-economic status -if a kid always weares the same clothers and they are ripped and dirty, and smells quite bad he will be left out from his peers-, interests -a child can have different hobbies than his peers and this makes the other see this kid as a freak-, etc. 

Ignored children are those who are neither rejected nor accepted. They are there but no one notice their presence. They play alone, do not have people with whom work together. In brief, there is no peers interaction for ignored children. On the other hand, there are the popular kids who are accepted by everyone, are nice to their peers, always trying to solve conflicts. Every child wants to be friend with this popular kid as he has a high social impact. Rejected and ignored kids look up to the popular one. They dream about being like them.

In school can be found a mix of popular and ignored children who are labelled as controversial. Controversial children are those who express positive and negative social behaviors, they do not have any interest in being part of a group and usually tend up being rejected without being aggressive, which is one of the most charactersitics aspects of rejected kids.

This conceptual map summarizes the types of kids that can be found in a school:

It is important to have friends during the school-ages as it has been proved that a lack of friend can provoke emotional and mental diffitulties in the years that follow by. Having freinds provides you with a healthy development. When having friends, children do not only learn how to play cooperative but also social skills -communication, cooperation, solving problems-, they practice self-regulation when being with friends and are able to identify emotions on friends and helping them with its resolution.

This is why children should look for friends. Some advices that can facilitate the search of similar peers are being comfortable with youself and with the people with whom you want to be friends, be nice to others, look acceptable to other's eyes, have a positive attitude -smile regulary and laugh when someone is making a joke-, and never judge people before knowing them. 

References

References used to develop Block 1 and Block 2:

Reader's Digest (1978). Gran Diccionari Enciclopedico Ilustrado (page 3488)

Alonso García, J. I. (2010). Psicología. Batxillerat (pages 11 and 17)

Unknown. Lev Vygotsky's Social Development Theory

http://www.k-state.edu/musiceducation/eportfolio/cexum/images/Images%20File%20for%20Eportfolio/Lev%20Vygotsky%20Social%20Development%20Theory%20Class%20Hand%20Out.pdf

Cherry, K. Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/psychosexualdev.htm

Shuell, T. (2013) Theories of Learning

http://www.education.com/reference/article/theories-of-learning/

Cherry, K. Pavlov's Dogs - How Ivan Pavlov Discovered Classical Conditioning

http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm

McLeod, S. Skinner - Operant Conditioning 

http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

Cherry, K. The Little Albert Experiment

http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment.html 

Ackermann, E. Piaget's Constructivism, Papert's Constructionism: What's the difference?

http://learning.media.mit.edu/content/publications/EA.Piaget%20_%20Papert.pdf

Orengo, Janette. Teoría Ecológica

http://www.suagm.edu/umet/biblioteca/reserva_profesores/janette_orengo_educ_173/urie_bronfenbrenner.pdf

Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. and Agulló, M. J. (2007) Una propuesta de contenidos para desarrollar la conciencia y la regulación emocional en la Educación Primaria. Cultura y Educación, 19 (1), 47-59.

Sylwester, R. (1994) How Emotions Affect Learning
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct94/vol52/num02/How-Emotions-Affect-Learning.aspx

Odle, T. (2013) Emtional Development
http://www.education.com/reference/article/emotional-development/

Heredia Reyes, M. T, (2009). La igualdad de género desde la escuela
http://www.eumed.net/rev/ced/01/igualdad_genero_escuela.htm

Burbach, C.What is friendship? About friendship
http://friendship.about.com/od/Types_of_Friendships/a/What_Is_Friendship.htm

Ferrer, M. and Fugate, A. The Importance of Friendship for School-Age Children
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy545

Annex

Individual activities done until now in the "Learning and development" subject. I attach the activities in two different links in case one of them does not work.

1. First reading about the biological, social and cultural basis of the process of human development.
Frist link
Second link

2. Second reading about emotions and feelings.
First link
Second link

3. A situation created by us (Clara Girona, Carla Pretel, Judit Serra, Helena Vilella and I) and its consequenty emotional regulation.
First link
Second link

4. Individual questions prepared for a classroom debate about gender segregation.
Frist link
Second link

5. Activity about friendship and rejection.
First link
Second link

Block 3: Psychomotor skills for school-aged children

1. Development of psychomotor skills and the construction of the body scheme

In this first paragraph psychomotor skills are contextualized quoting the main element that take part in the process of developing those abilities, stating as well the ages in which each faculty should be achieved according to biological and cultural factors. 

2. Psychomotor education 

The second paragraph cites the skills which are important for every school-ages children and its utility. Also states some activities from which psychomotor skills can be worked in a school.

3. Development of the graphic gestures

The third paragraph reflects the importance of drawing during childhood, how the graphic gesture is developed during the early years along with the psychomotor skills, and what children want to transmit with their drawings. 

Development of psychomotor skills and the construction of the body scheme

The psychomotor skills are understood as the integration of the cognitive, emotional, symbolic and sensorimotor skills applied in a psychomotor context. This context is related with self-control of our psychomotor capacities as well as the motion and strength of our body. The maturation process is linked with the environment. For instance, two kids from the same age may not have the same psychomotor abilities due to the characteristics of their culture and the interaction they have. Nevertheless, in some cases there could be differences in the psychomotor development of two kids from the same culture. In this case the variances are due to genetic inheritance and stimulation that the child receives in order to develop skills. 

Although the individual and cultural context has an impact on the development of the psychomotor skills, there are few aspects which depend on our genetic and biology so every one of us go through this process at some point or another of their life as it is part of our nature. We are talking about the cephalocaudal law and the proximodistal law which are clearly explained and exemplified in the table underneath. 

The ontogenetic changes are five stages that involve the first three years of life for which every child goes through because it is also part of the human being, but the development and achievement of each stage is different in every kid because of the culture and specific needs of the individual.

This video explains the development the psychomotor skills of a child which bears out the information in the table below and also goes into more details. It is easier to understand the theory with this video as we can observe how the child’s skills are evolving in time. 

In order to have a proper development of our psychomotor skills we must construct our body scheme. Its image it is described as a conscious perception of our body in a global and segmentary approach. The process of construction of the body scheme is developed by the information we receive of our body from the interactions between our body and the context. The image we have about our body is constructed by three main aspects:

The first boy image we develop is the perceptual image which is close related with a representation of about body provided by the size and shape of our body. In this way, we have a subjective image about our body but this conception is near to the reality. Once we achieve the perceptual image we develop a cognitive image based on the beliefs and thoughts that we have about our own body. The cognitive image is constructed by self-messages we send to ourselves accord to how we see and consider our body. Those messages answer the question of what do we think about our body. The next and final step to have a proper body image is the emotional image which gathers the information provided by ourselves in the first two images but applied in the emotional field. That means that in this emotional image we develop a level of satisfaction or displease with our shape and size based on the experiences we have had during the first years of our life. When we have the capacity to observe our body from its parts and not just as a whole we can have a positive image about our body but we can be resigned about a specific part of our body because we do not like its shape or because they do not have the utility we want to give them. For example, a girl can be satisfied with her body in a global perspective but can hate her fingers because are too short to play properly the piano and she does not like how rings look on her fingers.  

Therefore, we construct an image about our body since we are in a very young age because when we are still a baby we have an earlier contact with our body than with the environment as we are not able to move so we cannot explore the context. We only know what we are able to see an in the first months of our live we can only observe ourselves. Then, this scheme is developed during childhood firstly by looking at our body in a global way and later by exploring it from the parts that involve the body. Once we have a complete image of our body we develop its identity which means that we start being conscious about our capabilities according to the shape, movement and coordination of our body. When we integrate this corporal self it increases our level of autonomy as we know our abilities and limits, and we can plan what we want to do. This anticipation can be explained in the school context when a child intends to reach a book form a shelf which is taller than him. When he is younger than seven years old he knows that the shelf is in a higher position than him but he tries to grab it anyway. However, when this same child is a older he is aware of his height and the length of his arm and legs so he knows if he has a chance to reach the book on his own because of the proportions of his body or he needs an external help such as the teacher or a stair to take the book. This awareness should be fully developed during preadolescence (11-12 years old). 

Psychomotor education

As we have just seen, we must learn to regulate the motor skills and control them in order to be autonomous and have a proper image of our selves, which can also contribute to a positive self-esteem. One of the frameworks in which this regulate can be worked is in schools. Psychomotor education needs persistence, involvement and systematic education taking into account the paces and rhythms of the students. In school children will work with physical attitudes such us muscular resistance, flexibility and agility. For example, learning about voluntary muscular tension can help them to control their tension when are nervous and their emotions at the same time so this education is not only useful to have a significant control of our body but it also helps us to regulate other aspects of our live such as the emotions as I have just explained. 

Other faculties that are worked in psychomotor development are the body equilibrium, the coordination and the independence in terms of availability to move one part of the body without having to move it all which can be properly developed by the age of eight. An example of this independence is produced when the child writes in a paper without having to be doing something else with his body while he is writing. In previous stages that same child was writing while he had his tongue out of his mouth, but when he is mature enough to develop independence he does not have the need to take his tongue from his mouth.

Independence can be as well related with the muscular tone and its progress when we compare a kid who is four years old cutting a paper with scissors with a nine-year-old-kid who is doing the same task. The younger child could be pressing his hand on the table while the other one is cutting the paper whereas the older one is coordinating both hands to cut the paper: one hand is moving the scissors throughout the paper surface while the other is holding the paper to make the cutting process easier. A different example can be given in the field of physical activities. For instance, if a child has to catch a ball and through it to another kid during a Physical Education session he is likely to grab the ball with both hand and throw it like the needs all the strength that his body can proportionate to perform this task, but when a child has a correct and fully developed body scheme, independence, coordination and muscular tone he knows exactly the strength he has to use and throws it with just one hand, the one he dominates better. 

To develop the skills that I have just listed there are several psychomotor activities that can be done in the school that may help children to have a major control of their body:

Activities can be supported by music as we have just seen in some of the activities. In this case, a teacher is singing a song and her students are dancing a choreography they have learned previously. Children need to remember the movements and do them properly. Their movements should be coordinated.

This other video shows a psychomotor class in which students are asked to go through a circuit with different activities to develop in the same activity different skills.

Development of the graphic gestures

I am quite familiar with children’s drawings as my research project from 2n de bachillerat was about a personality test based on the drawings of a house, tree and a person from children. I spend almost a year readings books about the topic and I analyzed more than a hundred drawings, so I felt more interested about this subject than the others related with the psychomotor skills development as, through the development of the graphic gestures, I can understand the process of drawing during the early ages and how kids develop a graphic scheme. Even though I worked the drawing topic from a more emotional perspective, having more knowledge about other aspects related with the paintings of children are useful to upgrade the previous information I had about children and drawings. 

The importance of drawing is reflected in its significance. In a graphic representation is reflected the reality of the person who did it. Emotions have an important role in this subjective reality. We draw according to our experiences, to our values and beliefs, feelings. Culture is as well a key factor to understand the representation of a kid as he is most likely to represent what is on his mind according to cultural aspects related with his environment. 

If we relate the graphic representation of the reality within a child we must take into consideration that a kid can only draw what he is familiar with, what he knows and perceives, what he is interested in, and also the drawing is influenced by his motor skills. Concretely, the skills bounded with drawings are the development of the thumb and the pincer grip , perpendicular movements (flexion-extension) and rotary movements so they can draw circular forms. 

The drawing of any child goes through noticeable faces. Scribbles are the main element in a drawing of a child who has no more than two years old. In this first stage the child draws automatically what comes to his mind without planning it. Therefore, first comes the action and then the thinking. 

There two distinct kinds of scribble. The uncontrolled scribble involves disorganized lines done in a paper using a high pressure of the motor skills used, in this case the hand which holds the pencil with strength as the kid has not developed the pincer grip yet, without controlling with the sight what the hand is doing, moving the whole arm and shoulder to do the draw and in some cases even the whole body. Gradually the kid would learn to draw with the movement of the elbow, then using just the hand and finally the fingers. During this stage the child has no representative intention so his scribbles are done because of a pleasure issue more.

Six months later, the child keeps drawings and therefore he improves his skills. The kid begins by giving shapes to the prior uncontrolled lines. He is aware of the outcome that results from the movement of his hand on a paper with the pencil. If the previous stage was pleasant for the child, in this controlled scribble he has even more enthusiasm for the graphic gesture as they notice of what they are capable of doing with their hands. The student has visual-motor coordination and therefore he already has a representative intention with his drawings. As he is aware of the power of their motor skills, he plans what he wants to represent and he does. 

At the age of three the kid start giving a name to his drawings which means that he is able to explain and identify every aspect of his drawing even though for someone else’s eyes the drawing itself has no sense or meaning. Consequently, the representative intention is strongly increased as they draw elements that are part of their world. Related with the graphic development, during this third stage they are able to do closed shapes, such a square, and circular shapes like a Sun. They even use colors according to the reality. In previous stages the kid could have drawn a tree with purple leaves but at the age of three the child is susceptible to draw accordingly to the reality. Children even may plan what they are going to draw before doing it. One year later starts the pre-schematic stage in which the representations are more comprehension for external agents. The shapes are known and recognizable. Increasingly, the child is capable of drawing what he knows and remembers instead of just what he is able to see at the moment and the adherence of details is more significant such as the movement represented by some horizontal lines.   

Each time the kid draws and experiments he will perfect and improve his skills. During all faces, communication is an essential aspect as the child is mostly proud of his work and is excited to show it to some adult or peer, and explain what he has drawn. A positive interaction can cause a positive effect in the kid’s self-esteem and willingness to keep polishing his skill.

Block 4: Cognitive and linguistic development

1. Basic Cognitive Processes
The first paragraph states the definition and description of the basic cognitive processes – sensation, perception, attention and memory-.

2. Thinking and Language Processes
The second paragraph explains their relation, description on how language is developed, Piaget and Vygotsky’s statements about language, importance of schooling in langue development.

Basic cognitive processes

A cognitive process is understood as a set of mental operations and processes which are produced due to the reception of stimuli and its respective answer. 

The basis of any cognitive process is set on sensations as our first reaction to an unknown object, concept or image is to perceive it through our senses –sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste- and its corresponding response according to our innate stimuli. Once we integrate the sensation produced in the brain starts the following process which is the perception. To perceive an object means that we can give to the sensation a meaning based on our previous experiences and knowledge. Therefore, perception is understood as an understanding of the environment and context that surround us that involves stimuli and their answers. However, we do not perceive everything that our senses perceive. Actually, we tend to perceive what we expect to observe according to our previous experiences or what fits in the patterns already created about what is relevant for us. 

The process of perceiving involves three phases. The first step is to organize the information. The truth is that we do not perceive everything that our eyes have seen, only the elements that have been organized meanwhile the rest is forgotten and remains unaware for us as our brain considered it irrelevant according to our interests. Afterwards, we give meaning to the organized information which is basically the process of contextualizing the information with the moment where we perceived it, we relate it with past experiences, etc. so it can be easier to be conscious of having the information and it is easier to remember it. Finally, we make the information ours by representing it. 

In order to perceive we must pay attention. In order to pay attention we must feel motivated so our senses are all involved in the task that we are doing. Therefore, the more motivated you are, the more able you are to achieve the agreed goals as attention lets us reach the goals established for a task. Just as like as perception, attention involves as well a few phases so it can be fully and successfully developed. According to the information sensed and perceived, we select the information that we believe is more useful. In order to be fully attentive we must avoid irrelevant information and distractions, prevent distraction and direct the cognitive activity to just one source of information and ignore the rest so we can be completely focused. 

There are five main types of attention:

The voluntary attention is linked with the acquisition of language (LINK FOLLOWING POST) as in the first years of life the child pays attention to what the parents are telling him and as the child grows and is able to point with the finger and then he can communicate them with words as he learns how to use language, he will be able to direct his attention to the adults, the opposite process compared to what happened in the first stages of life. 

The final process is memorization. Memory is the process from which we remember the information that has been codified, storage and retrieval. Therefore, the first step we must achieve in order for an information to be kept in our memory is to codify and register the information in a way that can be later used. It has been stated that the more complex the codification is, the longer the information will remain in our brain as when we do not only codify the information but we also construct it we are capable of remembering it more. This information later needs to be storage so we cannot lose it, and the final step is retrieval which is the faculty of take the information back what in order words mean is that we can find the information storaged, we are conscious of it and its usefulness, and we use them.

There are six main types of memory:

• Instant memory: Information that is accessible in the current moment that wants to be used. It is the information that is usually used in the daily life and allows the realization of different tasks at the time. 
• Specialized memory: Sort of memory close to the instant and long-term memory, and involves a memory specialized in one subject such as language. 
• Short-term memory: Involves the memory treated in the last process of codification and storage. It is a small amount of information that can be used during a short period of time. 
• Medium-term memory: Information that is held for a relative long time. The information ca be obtained either directly or because it is in relation with other information that is as well storaged in the memory. 
• Long-term memory: Memory that has a long duration and it does not really involve knowledge but essential characteristics of our selves and concepts such as justice, equality, freedom and respect. 
• Visual-emotional memory: Is the recall of a lived emotion. We do not remember emotions directly but we can remember the situations and states that created them and be able to reproduce and remember it. 

As memory is the ultimate step to remember information and involves the three first phases – sensation, perception and attention – it is important to use significant strategies to develop a correct and useful memory. First of all, me must contextualize the information and include it in a referent frame which can make it easier to remember the information as it is related with aspects that are important for our selves and our lives. The memory can be maximized if we relate it with other’s memories in a group and it is also useful to improve social interaction.