Bài giảng Human Development 2e - Chapter 6 The middle years of childhood

Chapter 6The middle years of childhoodWhat is special about middle childhood? Beginning: traditionally the transition to schoolEnd: puberty or move to secondary schoolingChildhood is not clearly marked by ages.During this stage children are learning to become members of their societies.It is an important period for progress to maturity and a path to independence.Transition to formal schoolingIt is important to have similarities in the child's learning that can transfer from early childhood to school.Teachers and parents have important roles in the transition.Children from Pacific families and the transition to schoolSauvao, Mapa and Podmore (2000) studied six families from each country: Cook Islands, Nuie, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga.Schools did not support Pacific culture and languages in the same way that homes did.Parents wanted schools to focus on literacy, respect, maths and sharing tasks at home.41% of children in the study reported experiences of bullying.Coping with pressures to succeed at school: Erikson and beyondErikson: children go through a crisis of 'industry versus inferiority' at primary school.Children make social comparisons between themselves and others.The New Zealand Competent Children project found learning and achievement variances between different cultural groups.Children need to feel good about themselves so they can cope with issues in later life.In Māori culture, a child's self-esteem is the responsibility of the whānau/family.Cognitive development in social contextDifferent theorists have different ways of describing the first years of compulsory education.Piaget focused on the physical and social world.Erikson focused on the emotional challenges.Vygotsky focused on children learning about themselves and others, and objects in cultural contexts.Concrete operations: basics of the physical world (Piaget)This stage is between the pre-operational and formal operations stages.The focus is on specific, observable ('concrete') aspects of reality.Conservation of physical propertiesUnderstanding that properties, such as volume, remain the same even though appearances may changeClassificationUsing categories with subcategoriesSeriationUnderstanding ordering in a sequenceIs Piaget's theory universally relevant?Questions from cross-cultural researchersCultures differ in the ages likely for various stages. (Berry, Poortinga, Segall & Dasen, 1992)Questions about Piaget's tests for determining stages Artificial testing conditions may underestimate children's understandings.Test conditions may fit some cultural settings better than others.Learning with the support of other people: VygotskyKnowledge is co-constructed.Knowledge is created together by the children and people around them as a two-way process where younger and older people learn from each other.Socio-cultural theory: the culture we live in shapes the knowledge available to us.We interpret our worlds through language and cultural practices with our families, friends and wider social networks.Items such as textbooks and flip charts are important components of the zone of proximal development.Development of literacy: from sounds to co-constructionNew Zealand longitudinal research found groups of children who continued to have reading difficulties from age 10 to 16.Parental education can help children's literacy.Girls also tended to do better at reading and writing atage 14.Do some cultures give more encouragement to the literacy skills of girls?Development of literacyStruggling readers may also have difficulties understanding phonemes (links between letters and sounds).New Zealand's Reading Recovery program (Clay, 1991) gets children to use their knowledge to help their literacy learning.Literacy emerges from the parallel cultural activities of listening, speaking, telling stories and reading.Learning more about yourselfThe child's understanding of self increases in this period, especially ethnicity and gender.Piaget might suggest that:Young children cannot conserve gender and ethnic identity.Vygotsky might suggest that:Societies focus on gender, often organising different experiences and knowledge for girls and boys.Children subtly pick up power dynamics and status of groups in their society (e.g. racism and bullying).New development of 'tween': children between childhood and teenage years (7–12 years)Getting along with othersLack of friends can be detrimental to children's learning (Alton-Lee & Nuthall, 1992).Children's understanding of other people is an aspect of building friendships.Piaget's theory suggests that children focus on concrete qualities of friends (e.g. toys owned, friendliness).Children, like older people, may be biased towards more tolerant, positive views of friends compared to non-friends.Thomas (1975) found that Pacific children had higher skills in sharing and cooperation, ahead of others.Emotional control in social lifeChildren gain increasing control over emotional outbursts.US study (Underwood, Mayeux & Galperin, 2006) found that:Boys learned to mask their emotions more in childhood.Across age, children learned to hide anger from adults more than from other children.Children develop more coping skills, such as 'thinking of something else' or asking for help.Self-control and social relationshipsThe development of delaying gratification (the way children wait) is an important skill for fairness and turn-taking.Children who have learning difficulties might be expected to have problems in relating with others and the social world.Learning social rules: moral developmentLawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development follows Piaget's framework.Harassment and bullying in primary schoolAn Auckland study found parents were concerned about effects of violence in the media on their children (Eagle, de Bruin and Bulmer, 2002).Most popular after-school activity for 8- and 10-year-olds was watching television (Wylie et al., 2001).New Zealand children experience high levels of bullying (Maxwell and Carroll-Lind, 1997).Several New Zealand Ministry of Education programs have been designed to reduce bullying (see Sullivan, 2004).Example: Eliminating Violence programA bigger picture for children of school ageChanging times: in the twenty-first century children are more likely to be under the supervision of adults.Television has become a popular activity for children. Children are increasingly being exposed to violence on the internet and television.Children's rightsIn most countries children's rights are relevant for all children to age 18.The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child were agreed by most countries in 1989. Main issues are:children's right to be provided for by adultschildren's right to be protected from harmchildren's right to participate in decisions that affect their lives.The removal of parents' right to use physical force to discipline children came from New Zealand's agreement to the UNCRC.Transitions in later childhoodThe New Zealand Competent Child study found that children experienced transition between the ages of 8 and 10 years.This is evident in the classroom where there is more 'proper work' expected (Higgins, 2001).Each country and culture has its own transitions specific to schools and social structures.