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MASTER OF ARTS (EDUCATION) 1st YEAR

January 2022

&

July 2022

MES – 013: LEARNING, LEARNER AND DEVELOPMENT

Assignment 03:

a) Explain Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development and discuss its educational implications. (500 words)

Ans :- Erik Erikson was an ego psychologist who developed one of the most popular and influential theories of
development. While his theory was impacted by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's work, Erikson's theory centered
on psychosocial development rather than psychosexual development.

• Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

• Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
• Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt
• Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority
• Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion
• Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

Each stage in Erikson's theory builds on the preceding stages and paves the way for following periods of
development. In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in
development.

if people successfully deal with the conflict, they emerge from the stage with psychological strengths that will
serve them well for the rest of their lives.3 If they fail to deal effectively with these conflicts, they may not
develop the essential skills needed for a strong sense of self.

Erikson also believed that a sense of competence motivates behaviors and actions. Each stage in Erikson's
theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life.

If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of mastery, which is sometimes referred to as ego
strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy in
that aspect of development.

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

The first stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development occurs between birth and 1 year of age and is
the most fundamental stage in life. Because an infant is utterly dependent, developing trust is based on the
dependability and quality of the child's caregivers.
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At this point in development, the child is utterly dependent upon adult caregivers for everything they need to
survive including food, love, warmth, safety, and nurturing. If a caregiver fails to provide adequate care and love,
the child will come to feel that they cannot trust or depend upon the adults in their life.

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

The second stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development takes place during early childhood and is
focused on children developing a greater sense of personal control.

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt

The third stage of psychosocial development takes place during the preschool years. At this point in psychosocial
development, children begin to assert their power and control over the world through directing play and other
social interactions.

Children who are successful at this stage feel capable and able to lead others. Those who fail to acquire these
skills are left with a sense of guilt, self-doubt, and lack of initiative.

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority

The fourth psychosocial stage takes place during the early school years from approximately ages 5 to 11.
Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities.

Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while
failure results in feelings of inferiority.

Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion

The fifth psychosocial stage takes place during the often turbulent teenage years. This stage plays an essential
role in developing a sense of personal identity which will continue to influence behavior and development for
the rest of a person's life. Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability
to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation

Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong
relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation. This stage covers the period of early adulthood
when people are exploring personal relationships.

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation

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Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by having children or creating a positive
change that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure
results in shallow involvement in the world.

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

The final psychosocial stage occurs during old age and is focused on reflecting back on life.

At this point in development, people look back on the events of their lives and determine if they are happy with
the life that they lived or if they regret the things they did or didn't do.

b) Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and its educational implications.

Ans :- From his observation of children, Piaget understood that children were creating ideas. They were not
limited to receiving knowledge from parents or teachers; they actively constructed their own knowledge.
Piaget's work provides the foundation on which constructionist theories are based.

The first stage, sensorimotor, begins at birth and lasts until 18 months-2 years of age. This stage involves the use
of motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge is limited in this stage, because it is based on physical
interactions and experiences. Infants cannot predict reaction, and therefore must constantly experiment and
learn through trial and error. Such exploration might include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth. As
they become more mobile, infants' ability to develop cognitively increases. Early language development begins
during this stage. Object permanence occurs at 7-9 months, demonstrating that memory is developing. Infants
realize that an object exists after it can no longer be seen.

The preoperational stage usually occurs during the period between toddlerhood (18-24months) and early
childhood (7 years). During this stage children begin to use language; memory and imagination also develop. In
the preoperational stage, children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships
between the past and the future. More complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships, have not been
learned. Intelligence is egocentric and intuitive, not logical.

An important implication of Piaget's theory is adaptation of instruction to the learner's developmental level. The
content of instruction needs to be consistent with the developmental level of the learner.

The teacher's role is to facilitate learning by providing a variety of experiences. "Discovery learning" provides
opportunities for learners to explore and experiment, thereby encouraging new understandings. Opportunities
that allow students of differing cognitive levels to work together often encourage less mature students to
advance to a more mature understanding. One further implication for instruction is the use of concrete "hands
on" experiences to help children learn. Additional suggestions include:
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Provide concrete props and visual aids, such as models and/or time line

Use familiar examples to facilitate learning more complex ideas, such as story problems in math.

Allow opportunities to classify and group information with increasing complexity; use outlines and hierarchies to
facilitate assimilating new information with previous knowledge.

Present problems that require logical analytic thinking; the use of tools such as "brain teasers" is encouraged.

Huitt and Hummel (1998) assert that "only 35% of high school graduates in industrialized countries obtain
formal operations; many people do not think formally during adulthood". This is significant in terms of
developing instruction and performance support tools for students who are chronologically adults, but may be
limited in their understanding of abstract concepts. For both adolescent and adult learners, it is important to use
these instructional strategies

• Use visual aids and models.

• Provide opportunities to discuss social, political, and cultural issues.
• Teach broad concepts rather than facts, and to situate these in a context meaningful and relevant to the
learner.

c) Describe the features of a cooperative learning environment. Select a topic and design a cooperative
learning environment for teaching the topic to your students.

Ans :- Cooperative Learning shares a lot of characteristics with communicative language teaching in which
interaction between students and communicative and speaking skills are regarded as the key concepts and
teacher’s role is just as facilitator and guider. Students interact with each other in an environment with law
stress and high autonomy that also allows promoting personal responsibility and social relations among them.

There are 5 key components of Cooperative Learning that differentiate it from other methods:

1. Positive interdependence: it refers to the fact that students should work together in order to achieve
the goal. In this case they can also learn from each other.

2. Individual accountability: each member is responsible for the group success and responsible for their
own learning.

3. Promotive interactions: it refers to the students’ interactions to achieve the goal. They interact verbally
in a group that can also results in their own learning of speaking and communicative skills.

4. Interpersonal and social skills: constructive feedback that students receive in a group can help them
build their interpersonal and social skills.

5. Group processing: it requires group members to assess their functions in a group with the focus on
positive behavior and actions.

Cooperative learning involves students working together to accomplish shared goals, and it is this sense of
interdependence that motivate group members to help and support each other. When students work
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cooperatively they learn to listen to what others have to say, give and receive help, reconcile differences, and
resolve problems democratically.

Placing students in small groups and telling them to work together does not guarantee that they will work
cooperatively. Groups need to be structured to ensure that members will work interdependently if they are to
reap the academic and social benefits widely attributed to this approach to learning.

The role the teacher plays in establishing cooperative learning in the classroom is critically important for its
success. This involves being aware of how to structure cooperative learning in groups, including their size and
composition the type of task set; expectations for student behavior; individual and group responsibilities; and
the teacher’s role in monitoring both the process and the outcomes of the group experience.

Cooperative Learning is an instructional method in which students work in small groups to accomplish a
common learning goal under the guidance of the teacher.

Cooperative learning strategies offer students the possibility to learn by applying knowledge in an environment
more similar to the one they will encounter in their future work life.

Teachers get the chance to work on core competencies and on students’ communication and soft skills, which
are valuable for students’ success in life and work, integrating them in school curricula.

Cooperative learning strategies are content-free structures that can be reused in different school contexts and
we are going to learn how to use some of them.