TOPIC ONE: PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.

ORIGIN OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology has its origin/genesis in Greek. The word Psychology has two Greek words i.e.

'Psycho' and 'Logos',

Psycho means soul, life, spirit, the mind or mental process. Logy comes from Greek word logos meaning
the doctrine, theory, science of or study of.

So the term Psychology was defined as the science or study of the mind, soul, life and mental process.
(Webster dictionary, 1980).

This basic definition of the subject has undergone various changes due to changing interpretations of the
nature and focus of the subject itself both in temporal and special sense.

Today given the diversity and tremendous range of issues and concerns addressed by psychologists there
is no single definition differentiating what is and what is not psychology as psychology cuts across all the
disciplines.

In the early stages of the subject 1850's and early 1900 Psychology was commonly defined as the science
of the mind (Krech etal 1982).

For them the subject matter of psychology was taken to be the private experience of individuals to be
studied in the laboratory using the methods of the physical sciences such as biology and chemistry.

This particular school of thought became to be known as mentalism.i.e. The study of mental processes.
They laid their definition on covert behaviors based on unobservable and unmeasured behaviors such as
mind, soul and spirit or science of the mind.

Most of these psychologists who based on mentalism have their roots in German. These Psychologists
were criticized from American Psychologists who defined Psychology as the 'study of human behavior’;
This is because scientific methods are thought to be public and objective in the sense of being replicable
and verifiable by different scientists.

These Psychologists and scientists believed in observable and measurable behaviors involved their own
school of thought known as behaviorism. So by the early 1900's they had convinced themselves that
psychology could be defined as the study of 'human behaviors' restricting itself to overt behaviors
which are observable and measurable such as movement, spoken words etc.

These debates led to the definition of psychology today as the science of behavior and experience.
Therefore most of the Psychologists agreed to define the term Psychology as the scientific study of
human behavior and mental processes.

Branches of Psychology

There are many branches of Psychology which can be distinguished by their distinct area of focus. Some
of these branches are:-

General/comparative/experimental Psychology

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Is a branch of psychology based on laboratory studies of basic human mental processes such as learning,
perception and information processing. It also compares human and animal behavior across species and
cultures.

Industrial organizational psychology

Is the branch of psychology which deals with people in their work places, it deals with the study of such
problems as vocational development, stress in the work place and job satisfaction.

Or is the branch of psychology dealing with the selection of workers, improving their performance, their
working environment and human relations in places of work.

Psychiatry (clinical psychology)

Is the branch of Psychology deals with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and
abnormal behaviors such as madness, aggression, emotional disturbances and self rejections.

Social and personality psychology

Is the branch of psychology which deals with the study of social conditions that influence human
behavior both intra personal and interpersonal relations.

Educational Psychology

Is the branch of psychology which deals with the ways of improving learning, teaching, human
performance, motivations and aspirations.

Developmental Psychology

Is the branch of Psychology which concentrates on what happens to the human creature, from conception
to old age, death and ancestral spirituality.

Measurement and evaluation Psychology

Is the branch of psychology that has perfected the art and science of measuring and evaluating human
characteristics such as intelligence, school learning, motivation, interests and feelings.

Note.

Common mission of all these branches of psychology is that, they all describe, explain, predict and
control human behavior. Common methods used are observation, experimentation, survey, case study,
mental tests and personality scales.

PSYCHOLOGY AS THE SCIENTIFIC SUBJECT

Psychology is regarded as the scientific subject because

 It is valid

 Follows scientific procedures.

 It use scientific methods\techniques of data collection

 It has conclusion of data

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  It has principles and theories

 It is empirical

 It has experiments

 It conducts research

Educational Psychology

Omari (2006) defined educational Psychology as the application of psychology and psychological
methods to the study of human development, learning, motivation, instruction, assessment and related
issues that influence the interaction of teaching and learning.

Or psychology is defined as the application of psychological theories, concepts and methods to the study
and practice of teaching and learning.

Skinner (1958) defines educational psychology as the branch of psychology which deals with teaching
and learning. Or is the application of psychology in the field of education for improving the methods and
products of the teaching and learning process.

Importance of educational Psychology

 Help to understand how teaching and learning takes place.

 Enable to identify different behaviors among learners.

 Helps to understand problems related to teaching and learning process.

 Helps to determine teaching methods to be used.

 Helps in self evaluation of a teacher.

 Helps to predict the behavior of an individual/learner.

 It help to understand how learning process take place among children.

 It help to evaluate the achievements in learning tasks schools level and national level

 It helps to solve problems related to learning process in schools e.g. truancy, emotional
disturbances through punishment, motivation.

 It helps in preparing curriculum according to the age and level of the learners.

 It is the core to other branches

 It helps to determine the type of teaching to be used in order to achieve learning or

educational goals in learning.

Functions of educational Psychology

I. In teaching and learning process. (understanding the learning process),

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 It determine the level of knowledge required by students and hence used as a mechanism for
evaluating curriculum and designing remedial measures in the course of teaching and learning
process.

II. In studying learners behavior

It helps teachers to know different behaviors expected to his/her learners. It help teachers in
correcting learners deviant behaviors and promoting those worth being maintained or
perpetuated.
III. Understanding instructional objectives
It determines what to learn at a particular stage in child development and hence determines what
to teach for children with particular learning ability according to the level of individuals.
IV. Understanding assessment strategies
Educational Psychology provides techniques that teachers can use to determine how successful
students have been attaining new knowledge and skills. This aimed at the teacher to identify
students who need educational or psychological assistance and to provide information to teachers
that will help them develop better instructional programs to facilitate all students optimal
functioning.
V. The use of educational psychology in identifying Mal-adjusted children
Help the teacher to find remedial measures to help impaired children to cope in learning process.

SIMILALITIES TO OTHER BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

 All deals with living organisms

 All use the principles of psychology in their course of operation
 All deal with macro and micro organisms.

DISIMILALITIES TO OTHER BRANCHES

Education psychology deals with education matters related to teaching and learning; other branches deals
with duties of other professions; e.g. medical profession.

tongue( test).

2.0. TOPIC TWO: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOLOGY OF TEACHING

AND LEARNING.

Human development/ child development refers to the development that focuses upon the changes that
occur in the individual’s life span i.e. from the point of conception to death. Child development occurs
physically and mentally. Development takes place in weight, size and length.

2.1. Principles of human development

There are several principles of human development. Among them are:-

i. Development proceeds from the head downward. This is called the cephalocaudle principle.
This principle describes the direction of growth and development. According to this principle,
the child gains control of the head first, then the arms, and then the legs.

ii. Development proceeds from the center of the body outward. This is the principle of
proximodistal development that also describes the direction of development. This means that the

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 spinal cord develops before outer parts of the body. The child’s arms develop before the hands
and the hands and feet develop before the fingers and toes.

iii. Development depends on maturation and learning. Maturation refers to the sequential
characteristic of biological growth and development. The biological changes occur in sequential
order and give children new abilities. Changes in the brain and nervous system account largely
for maturation. These changes in the brain and nervous system help children to improve in
thinking (cognitive) and motor (physical) skills.

iv. There are different individual rates of growth and development. Each child is different and the
rates at which individual children grow are different. Although the patterns and sequences for
growth and development are usually the same for all children, the rates at which individual
children reach developmental stages will be different

v. Growth and development proceed from the general to specific. In motor development, the infant
will be able to grasp an object with the whole hand before using only the thumb and forefinger.
The infant’s first motor movements are very generalized, undirected, and reflexive, waving arms
or kicking before being able to reach or creep toward an object. Growth occurs from large
muscle movements to more refined (smaller) muscle movements.

vi. Growth and development is a continuous process. As a child develops, he or she adds to the
skills already acquired and the new skills become the basis for further achievement and mastery
of skills. Most children follow a similar pattern. Also, one stage of development lays the
foundation for the next stage of development. For example, in motor development, there is a
predictable sequence of developments that occur before walking. The infant lifts and turns the
head before he or she can turn over. Infants can move their limbs (arms and legs) before grasping
an object.

vii. Development is influenced by heredity and environment. Individual differences in growth are
caused by differences in heredity and environment.

2.3. Physical development

2.3.1. The concept of child growth, development and maturation.

Child growth

Refers to the physical changes in a quantitative sense over time. The change is the result of time and
nutrition. Or, refers to the increase in height and weight and other body changes that occur as a child
matures (Omari 2006).

In growth nutrition is the most important factor which may facilitate or dwarf child growth. Therefore
nutrition is a necessary condition for human growth. After the age of 1 year, a baby’s growth in length
slows considerably and by 2 years, growth in height usually continues at a fairly steady rate of
approximately 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) per year until adolescence.

A major growth spurt occurs at the time of puberty. Usually children enter puberty between the age of 8
to 13 years in girls and 10 to 15 in boys. Puberty lasts about 2 to 5 years. This growth spurt is associated
with sexual development which include the appearance of pubic and underarm hair, the growth and
development of sex organs and in girls the onset of menstruation.

Child development
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Refers to biological and physiological changes that occur in human beings between conception and the
end of adolescence as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy

Development changes may occur as a result of genetically-controlled processes known as maturation or

as a result of environmental factors and learning or the interaction between the two i.e. genetics and
environment/ nature and nurture.

Maturation

This is the period where children show the signs of growth of mind and development of the body
naturally, particularly muscles, bones and nervous system. The rate of maturation varies, e.g ejaculation
for boys

Stages of human development

This section discusses stages of human development especially prenatal and post natal stage and factors
affecting those stages.

Pre-natal stage

This is a period from conception to birth. It is the period where by a single cell develops into a highly
complex human being of over 800 billion cells in nine months. This period is divided into three stages.

i. The germinal period.

This refers to the first two weeks following fertilization. The zygote begins the process of cell division
that will eventually produce a human body made up of billions of cells. In the first week the zygote
moves through the fallopian tube to the uterus and rapid division within the first 30 hours. In the second
week, when the fertilized egg reaches the uterus about 7 days adheres to the uterine wall and begins to
form the amniotic fluid.

ii. The embryonic period.

This refers to the period from the third week through eighth week following fertilization. In this period a
recognizable human being emerges. The nervous system develops rapidly, which suggests that the
embryo at this time is in a sensitive period, which is a time when certain experiences have a significant
impact. For example, with the rapid formation of many different organ systems any negative agent such
as drugs, diseases etc can have long-lasting effects. Within four weeks after conception the organism is
already about one fifth of an inch long, 10,000 times larger than the original fertilized egg. It the period
when the brain, kidneys, liver and digestive track appears or begins. Indentation at the top will
eventually become jaws, eyes and ears.

iii. The fetal period.

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This is the period from the eighth week after conception to birth. In this period the major organs have
taken shape. Development shifts from the formation of rudimentary organs to organizing their structure
and establishing their functions.

 By about months after conception the fetus is ready to start life as a fully developed infant.

FACTORS AFFECTING PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT

Most pregnancies follow a normal course of development and most babies are normal. On occasions,
however, a genetic abnormality affects the development of the fetus. Some factors which affect the
prenatal development are:-

 Diseases to expectant mother during pregnancies e.g. HIV/Aids

 Poor quantitative and qualitative dietary consumption on the part of the expected mother may
affect the health of the fetus

 Psychological violence or treatment of the mother received from the husband, relatives e.t.c may
affect the fetus psychologically or emotionally

 Heavy drinking, smoking, cocaine taking by pregnant woman can also have devastating effect on
the offspring

 Accidents or trauma of pregnant woman may affect the fetus

 Excessive use of pain killers like teratogen may severely cause some deformities in the organs of
the fetus.

N.B: The period during birth is known as natal-stage/period.

Post- natal stage

This is a period after birth. The following are remarkable characteristics which manifest
themselves during post – natal development includes:

1. Infant’s physical development in the first two years of life is dramatic. At birth a new
born has a gigantic head that flops around and uncontrollably.
2. In this span of 12 months the infant becomes capable of sitting anywhere, standing,
climbing and walking.
3. During the second year growth decelerates but rapid increases in such activities as
running and climbing take place.
4. As an infant grows, some parts of its body develop more rapidly than others. This brings
about the idea of Cephalo caudal pattern. This idea states that growth always occurs
first in the upper portion of the body (the head) rather than in the lower patterns.
5. At the age of three the child performs new tricks of climbing, skipping and jumping. He
or she is now beginning to be able to make his/her greater sense of self control.
6. In the middle and later childhood, motor development is much smaller and more
coordinated than in early child – hood. Where as a pre – school child can zip cut, latch
and dance; on elementary school more effectively.
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 7. Adolescence stage; It extends roughly around 11 - 12 as a starting period to 18 – 27 as
the end of adolescence. At this period the young person develops sexual maturity
establish as identify as an individual; at this stage some young tends to apart from the
family and faces the task of deciding how to earn living.

Developmental changes during adolescence stage.

Adolescence:-

Is a period transition from childhood to adult hood which is manifested by appearance of

secondary sexual characteristics. E.g. The growth of the breasts, growth of pubic hair, changes of
voice, growth of ampit hair. Etc.

This stage is characterized by rapid physical growth of an individual. It is a period of several

changes particularly changes related to biological (maturation) process and other changes.

- Adolescence varies from one individual to another but it comprises of physical

changes, emotional, social and intellectual changes.
- In principle adolescence is based on physical changes but the changes affect other
domains of development (emotional, social, personality)
- It is a period of self – identification; one identifies weakness and strength.
- Adolescence period also is a period of creating identity (sex identity) boys
identify as man and girl as a woman. Adolescence from 11 – 13 for girls to 12 –
25 for boys as a starting age and extend to 18 – 20 – 25.
- Adolescence is a period of problems:-
 Because of hormone released in the body. This body imbalances results to
embracement to an individual. Can create unpleasant motions one feels
depressed or becomes easily angered.
 If their body morphology is not admired by the social group they experience
depression.
- They are easily temped because of Ignorance of adult hood.
- They experiences strong sexual desire which if not properly handed may lead to
pregnancies or sexual transmitted disease (TSD’S)
 They lose interests in studies
 They face a problem of isolation which load to formation of “gangs” which in
most case lead to undesirable behavior such as drug as drug abuse and other ant
– social behavior.
 Adolescence is a period of disharmony between adolescents and parents, adult
guardians, teachers etc
 Among other adolescence can suffer from Isolation depression and delinquency
(an accepted behavior)
 Adolescence is a period when an individual attain social recognition. Think of
the culture which conducts special ceremony.
 An individual establishes self concept if she/he is mistreated can establish
negative self concept. Psychological view of oneself is based on Physical,
achievement.

EARLY AND LATE ADOLESCENCE;

- Some individuals experience adolescence early or late of their actual age.

(i) Early Adolescence

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 These are boys and girls who experience development of secondary sexual
characteristics before their time.

(ii) Late Adolescence

These are boys and girls who experience development of secondary sexual
characteristics after their normal time has passed.

NB: Environmental and heredity factors are the main factors that influence early and
late adolescence.

A: EARLY ADOLESCENCE

(i) Adolescence can be subjected to social responsibilities beyond his/her ages.

She/he can be given extra – activities by parents or teachers that rely are
beyond his ability. Is she fails she can be despised; also early marriage.
(ii) Adolescence in this situation is likely to be treated with confusion.
Sometimes they treated as adults and sometimes are treated as kids.
(iii) Others suffer from superiority complex. They need to be identified as adults.
(iv) They are psychologically affected however boys experience early
adolescence as a positive event, while girls experience it negatively.
This is because male gender is characterized by becoming more masculine
(strong, giant) for boys early adolescence in a lack opportunity.

B: LATE ADOLESCENCE

(i) They suffer from inferiority complex as they regard as it they are not
gifted.
(ii) They lose self concept they regard themselves as abnormal. They despair
and leave everything to those they regard. They create negative self
concept.
(iii) They normally with draw from the pear (age mates) and Isolation to go in
group below their age (low social class). This because they are despised by
their age mates (Refers plays like “Michezo ya kitoto”
(iv) They suffer from Psychology problems. Late Adolescence girls experience
later adolescence better than boys. This is because the girls tend to be
proud of youngness and tendencies.

ASSISTING ADOLESCENCE THEIR PROBLEMS

Before doing anything to assist adolescence, one has to investigate the needs of that
adolescent. Adolescence by its nature is biological and social. Hence their needs are based on the
two.

The following are some of the needs of adolescents

- Adolescents need status, they want to be respected and treated as adults. They
want to be respected and treated as adults. They wish to be regarded as people
with worth.
- Adolescents need achievements. They want to achieve their expectation/goals.
- Adolescents need a satisfying philosophy of the life.
They ask several questions and investigate to reveal the philosophy of life.

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 - They need to fill all gaps of knowledge which exist.
- A satisfying philosophy/set of beliefs tends to provide him/her psychological
security.
When need exists and is unsatisfied the adolescent became restless and tense. He/she seeks some
goals which will reduce the state of Imbalance that exist within him/her e.g. Resort in drinking
drug abuse as temporal solutions.

- When the need is satisfied the adolescent establishes a state of equilibrium.

- In adolescent period most of the needs remain unsatisfied that is why adolescents
experience frustration or difficult situation of stress and storm.
- Frustration to adolescents can be aroused from block goals or incompatible goal.
Unsatisfied needs or blocked goals or incompatible goals can lead to lead to suicide
(A most common problem of adolescents)

THEIR PROBLEMS (HOW TO ASSIST ADOLESCENTS)

1. Provide guidance and counseling service to the adolescences. This service should be provided
before, during and after the period of adolescence to minimize the tension. The provided
before, during and after the period of adolescence to minimize the tension. The provision of
information or advice helps an adolescent to make wise decision.
2. Teach the adolescents defensive and life skills so that they can defend themselves from risk
situations. Adolescents should know how to defend make reasonable arguments and
negotiate. They can also use defensive mechanism wisely if well taught.
3. Encourage the adolescent to observe moral values. Teach them religious teaching as they
address against ant – social behaviors. (evil doing) e.g. Moral values (religious) do not allow
adultery or sex before marriage.
4. Encourage cleanliness as part of sex education/reproductive health. They should be well
taught about reproductive health and changes which are likely to happen e.g. unwanted
pregnancies and STD’s can be transmitted by sex.
5. Treat them with respect and provide constructive advice rather than ridiculed or
condemning.
6. Give them freedom and involve them in decision making do not over protect them.
7. Keep the adolescent away with physical and mental activities so as to suppress their sexual
drives. Being busy will not let them engage in unnecessary, anti – social doings.
8. Encourage boys and girls to relate as brothers and sisters. Give their freedom to interact with
one another.

Summary of the stages of development in post-natal

i. Infancy (0-2 years) or from birth to 2 years
The majority of a newborn infant’s time is spent in sleeping and crying. Their language usually is
associated cooing and babbling. Cooing sounds like vowels appears during the second month
while at the age of 7 and 8 months sounds like syllables appear eg dada, ba ba ba. Babbling
produces vowels and consonant sounds.
ii. Early childhood 2-3 years
Children attempts to become independent at this stage. They walk, talk and self control begins to
develop.
iii. Preschool, nursery school (4-5 years)
When children attend preschool they broaden their social horizons and become more engaged
with those around them.

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 iv. Middle childhood (6-11 years)
Children go through the transition from the world at home to that of school and peers. They learn
to make things, use tools and acquire the skills to be a worker or a potential provider.
v. Adolescence (12-18 years)
Is the period of life between the onset of puberty and the full commitment to adult social roles as
a worker or a citizen.
vi. Early adulthood 19-34 years
The person most learns how to form intimate relations both in friendships and love. Relationships
become central concerns of the lifespan.
vii. Middle adulthood 35-64 years
Major responsibility may include care of children, growing community involvement etc. Women
in this age experience menopause. In general at this age persons may feel a sense of contributing
to the next generation and community.
viii. Late adulthood or old age 65+ years
This is the age when persons reflect on their lives and either feels a sense of accomplishment or
failure.

COGNITIVE DELOPMENT
Is the development of a child’s mental abilities in reasoning, problem solving, recalling, language
perception, understanding etc. the key to cognitive development of the child lies in his constant
interaction with an adaptation to his physical and social environment. The task of such adaptation
is carried out through the process of assimilation and accommodation. n.
Jean Piaget, a Swiss Psychologist and biologist (1896-1980) suggested that children proceed
through a series of four separate stages in a fixed order that is universal across all children.
PIAGET COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and
developed) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. Therefore Cognitive development
was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and
environmental experience.

Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between
what they already know and what they discover in their environment.

Three Basic Components to Piaget's Cognitive Theory

1. Schemas (building blocks of knowledge)

2. Processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation, and
accommodation)

3. Stages of development; Sensor motor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete operational stage,
& Formal operational stage

Schema

A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to
understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we store these mental representations and
apply them when needed.

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Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing
knowledge. It is useful to think of schemas as “units” of knowledge (or mental structures), each relating
to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e. theoretical) concepts.

Processes that enable the transition from one stage to another

Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This
happens through:

Assimilation

Means using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation. For example sucking everything
of the child when is given something to eat.

Accommodation

This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with
a new object or situation. For example, chewing habit of the child instead of sucking when given
something to eat.

Equilibration

The tendency to strive for equilibrium (balance) among cognitive elements within the organism between
it and the outside world

Piaget’s four stages of Cognitive Development

i) Sensory-Motor stage (from birth – 2years)
Piaget’s called the first stage of intellectual development the sensory-Motor stage because it is
characterized by the absence of language and limited to direct sensory and motor interactions with the
environment. The infant interacts with the world through sensory and motor activities. The infant also
learn that an object exists even when they are not visible.
ii) Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
The child represents objects with words and mental images. Also the child fails to perform reversal
activities, clarifying and conservation operations. Again the child shows egocentrism i.e. inability to think
of events or objects from another person’s point of view. The Pre-operational stage can be further sub-
divided into pre-conceptual phase ( 2 – 4 years) and intuitive phase (4-7 years).

Pre-conceptual phase (2 – 4 years). This is the period of rudimentary concept formation and is
characterized by the following features: In the early part of this stage, children seem to identify objects by
their names and put them into certain classes. Their mode of thinking and reasoning is quite illogical at
this stage. For example, they think all men are daddy; all women are mommy, etc.

Intuitive phase (4-7 years). The child’s thinking is clearly reflected in the absence in him of the
two main cognitive characteristics namely reversibility (ability to reverse) and conservation ability to see
an object permanent. The thinking of operational children at the intuitive stage is marked by an inability
to conserve in terms of quantity as well as number.

iii) Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)

His thinking becomes more logical and systematic. He can now make use of inductive and deductive
approaches in terms of reasoning and arriving at conclusions. The child shows more logical thinking. The
child now learns to deal with concepts and ideas that exist only in mental terms. He can now think about

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things and figure out discrepancies and relationships. He begins to think in terms of a set of interrelated
principles rather than single bits of knowledge. As a result he can think in terms of systems.

iv) Formal operational stage (11+ years)

Children can reason abstractly, concrete objects no longer need to be present. Children begin to think
logically about the world in abstract terms. They can think in a number of ways, test hypothesis and deal
with problems that are not physically present in their environment.

Contribution of Piaget’s Theory in the field of education

o It helps in understanding one’s intelligence as the function of one’s ability to adapt or adjust to
one’s environment.

o It provides a suitable frame work of the learning experiences in view of the cognitive
development of children and the needs of the society.

o It explains us with the thought processes of children at a particular level of their maturation or
chronological age.

o It helps in emphasizing the organization of optimal conditions for an individual’s learning and
development in the light of the processes of assimilation accommodation and equilibration.

o It emphasis the need for tailoring the education of a child according to the level of functioning of
his cognitive structure.

o It provides valuable information and advice on curriculum planning and structuring the schemes
of studies.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

While children grows physically and having their perceptual abilities, they are also developing socially.
The nature of a child’s early social development provides the foundation for social relationships that will
last a life time.

The main agents of social development are families, peers and schools.

Assignment for discussion

Search from the library/ internet or any other sources;-

1. The meaning of social development and its importance to the learners

2. Meaning of sexual health, drug abuse, street children, women empowerment,

irresponsible sexual behavior, equity and equality

3.

Social-cultural factors that influence sexual behavior during adolescence

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 i. Peer pressure: this is defined in different context, but the common definition lies on the
influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her altitudes,
value, or behavior in order to conform to group norms.
ii. Traditional attire: refers to clothes that are used by some tribes when dancing for
example the young Zulu maiden who wears traditional attire which is used during festival
or dancing ceremonies. Such clothes specifically those worn by women may influence
adolescent (boys and girls) to imitate adult sexual act.
iii. Traditional dance: traditional dances come in the variety of style and differ from one tribe
to another. Amayaga and other “ngoma” performed during initiation ceremonies which
are performed at late hours influences the adolescents to engage themselves in sexual
behaviors. In most cases those “ngoma” performed at night adult tend to misbehave thus
adolescents start to imitate adult acts.
Effects of irresponsible sexual behavior
 It can lead an adolescent to early parenthood.
 An individual is exposed to danger of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as
gonorrhea, syphilis and the most dangerous infection i.e. HIV/AIDS.
 Negligence towards study/occupation.
 Mental tension. i.e. when affected by problems associated with irresponsible sexual
behaviors.
 Early marriage which deprive adolescents the right to live according to their age as they
become responsible in taking care of the family instead of being taken care as other
children.
 Increased sexual desire and sexual contacts with multiple partners.

MORAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Meaning of moral and emotional Development

Morals, means values of the society which identifies what is good and what is bad according to the
social perspective.

Moral Development, means an individual’s development on the knowledge of what is right and what is
wrong. OR Is the increase of an individual’s ability to know what is good and what is bad according to
the social perspective.

Emotion means a strong feeling such as love, fear, or anger; i.e. the part of person’s character that
consists of feelings.

Emotional Development means development of an individual’s level of responding to different stimuli

in the course of living. E.g frowning when insulted

Terms related to moral & Emotional Development.

• Altruism means the fact of caring about the needs and happiness of other people more than your
own. It involves personal willingness (sacrifices) of an individual to incur any cost for the welfare
or benefit of others

• Egotism is a selfish tendency of putting forward the personal interests before other people’s
interests.

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 • Guilt, is the unhappy feeling caused by knowing or thinking that you have done something
wrong. It is associated with self-moral criticism.

• Empathy Is a state of experiencing another person’s painful emotional state.

• Drives, means a psychological expression of inner needs e.g. thirsty, hungry & sexual drives

PIAGET & KOHLBERG’S THEORIES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

 Both Piaget and Kohlberg shared the belief that the nature of moral Cognition changes in stages
like fashion.

 They believe that the quality of moral judgments changes in regular and predictable ways as
person matures and interacts with others.

PIAGET STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

 Piaget came up with two basic moralities in childhood. The stages are:-

A. Morality of constraints/ moral realism

B. Morality of cooperation.

Morality of constraints/moral Realism

 At this stage children passive all adults as superior. They generally think of moral behavior in
terms of consequences rather than intention.

 They equate good behavior with conformity to adult rules. Children think that what interest adults
are right and what annoys them is wrong.

 The child thinks whoever breaks the rule must be punished regardless the rationality of breaking
the rule. This is operative until the child is about 7 or 8 years.

Morality of cooperation

 At this stage the child realizes or recognizes or understands and reflects the morals (rules
and regulations). The child becomes aware that morality is a complex function of both
intentions and consequences.

 The child may break the rules for a sound reason. E.g. the school rule prohibits jumping
through the window, but seeing a snake in the class the child can jump through the
window. The stage operates over the age of 8 and lasts through adolescence.

Sub-stages of moral development according to Piaget

i. Egocentricity/ egocentrism (birth-02 years). Here the idea of morality is not established.
Children think on themselves and don’t care about others.

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 ii. Moral realism (02-04 years)

Is the stage where by right or wrong is determined by adults. In this stage the child believes that
is said by adults is a good moral value.

iii. Reciprocity (04-09 years)

Is the stage when the child knows that moral values are determined by people and can be modified or
changed.

iv. Equity (9-adolescence)

Is the highest stage (reasoning) whereby the child starts to apply fairness. It involves critical thinking
of moral values. An individual can obey or disobey the moral values depending on the stand or
stability of the adult.

KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Kohlberg has analyzed moral development under three main levels, each level is identified with some
stages. The levels are:-

i. Pre conventional level

ii. Conventional level

iii. Post conventional level

Pre conventional level

 Is the period when the child complies or agrees with the authority because he or she fears the
consequence of not obeying to the morals.

 It is this level whereby the moral values are really determined by external factors or forces e.g. a
child responds or obeys only because of fears from the adults.

 This level comprises stage one and two of moral development according to Kohlberg.

Stage 1. Punishment obedience orientation

 In this stage physical consequence determine what is good or bad, hence a child focuses much on
the consequences of rewards and punishment from the authority or parents.

Stage 2. Instrumental relativism orientation

 In this stage individuals show an awareness of peers and associates or use them for personal gain
to avoid authority’s favor when occasion permits or allows. In this stage therefore what satisfies
one’s own needs is good.

Conventional level
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 Is the time when a child identifies with the authority i.e. a child behaves or responds in a way that
pleases the figure of authority. This level covers stage 3&4.

Stage 3. Good boy nice girl orientation.

Individuals attend to rules and regulations of selected groups with which they identify and from
which they try to get support and recognition. The child starts to identify rules and regulations
basing on the interests of the group i.e. what pleases or helps others are good.

Stage 4. Law and order orientation

 Individuals show a concern for perceiving society as a whole. Maintaining social order is viewed
as a more goal of high priority (law and order).

 In order to be accepted in the society they need to obey law and order. Those who disobey or
break the law are incompatible to a particular society.

Post conventional level

Is the level where by a child internalizes the moral values and accepts them after thinking
critically and logically. In this level individual becomes completely aware of good and right. This
level covers stage 5 and 6.

Stage 5. Social contract orientation.

An individual defines right and wrong by contracting with human relations. A society is the
proper originator and modifier of laws which define what is morally acceptable. Laws are
considered flexible.

Stage 6. Universal ethical principle orientation

An individual is governed by universal principles (laws) formulated and imposed by the society.
What is right is a matter of conscience in accordance with universal principles.

JAMES LANGE THEORY OF EMOTION

The theory states that “you are afraid because you run”. From the theory, running caused bodily
actions to occur and then you become aware of your fear.

 You are not aware of a specific emotion until after you have reacted.

 According to this theory emotions are the awareness of bodily changes.

 The kinds of emotions you feel, play a large part in how you get along with others and how you
get along with yourself. A person who experiences mostly unpleasant emotions is likely to be

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 unhappy person. Likewise a person whose emotions are mostly pleasant will lead relatively
happy life.

Effects of morals & emotions on learning behavior and learning

 Morals and cognitive developmental processes often seen to go hand in hand. E.g. a morally
enriched home environment, educational opportunities or some combination of these factors lead
to cognitive as well as moral development

 Evidence shows that, moral development can be controlled by factors that teachers can control.
The extent to which a teacher can succeed in improving the child's personality depends upon
whether or not the teacher wins the child’s confidence and respects.

 Children do not copy the examples of everyone they meet. The more they like and admire their
teacher and the longer they are with him or her the more they will be influenced by their teacher’s
standards and attitudes

How to enhance/promote morality among Learners or students

There are four main ways of promoting morality among students.

a. Through punishment.

Punishment promotes moral behavior by extincting unwanted behavior. This is deliberately done
by a teacher to his or her students to them reverse unpleasant behavior or learn in socially
acceptable ways.

b. Through provision rewards and motivation.

Students who do well at school, especially on discipline matters are to be encouraged by giving
them rewards. This will convince others to behave in a disciplined manner. Hence promote good
morals. Therefore rewards & motivation in moral training is given to make ethically and socially
acceptable behavior.

c. Through unconscious imitation

The child learn some moral values without knowing just by imitating others especially elders.
The child is in constant relationship with people whose moral behaviors he or she witnesses right
from the early childhood. Therefore the role of parents, guardians and teachers is to provide a
good model for their children to imitate.

d. Constructive reflecting thinking.

The child needs to think and reason about why certain modes of behavior are socially and
ethically acceptable while others are not. Many delinquents and criminals know what is right and
wrong. They know the law and punishment for wrong behavior. They may not have acquired the
ability to engage in constructive reflective thinking about moral behavior.

SUMMERY

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  Moral and emotional development affects the way people relate to themselves and others.

 Our morals and emotions change with age as we relate in varying ways to other people and our
environment.

 Moral and emotional development will help you to respond to various issues related to mankind
behavior particularly emotions including fears, love, anxiety, anger and jealousy.

Advantages of moral & emotional development in learning institutions

 Helps learners to adopt principles, value and norms of the society.

 Helps to develop the personality of an individual.

 Helps an individual to be socialized.

 Helps an individual to respond to different stimuli as well as be able to control emotions.

 Helps a child to believe according to his society.

Disadvantages

i. May socialize a child to the morals which are outdated

ii. A child may develop a hatred behavior between himself and the teacher or his fellow learners

iii. May lead to conflict among the learners themselves and learners with their teacher.

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

MEANING OF PERSONALITY

When psychologists talk about personality they are primarily concerned with individual differences i.e.
the characteristics that distinguish one individual from another. Durojaiye defined personality as the sum
total of what a person really is.

Personality can also refer to the characteristics and qualities of a person seen as a whole. It may also mean
the qualities that make some body different and interesting.

Again Allport (1937) defined personality as the dynamic organization within the individual of the
psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.

CATEGORIES OF PERSONALITY

Personality is categorized into two major categories i.e. public personality and private personality.

PUBLIC PERSONALITY

Is the type of personality which can be observed by others. It include expressive features and mannerism
for example speech pattern, the way you carry yourself, your general dispositions, the way you react to
threatening situations and the attitudes you express.
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PRIVATE PERSONALITY/HIDDEN PERSONALITY

Is the personality which includes fantasies, thoughts and experiences that you do not share with others.
We all have had some experiences we have never told anyone about; we have had wishes that we think
childish or embarrassing to reveal and dream that remains one alone.

Psychologist tend to focus on the public personality because the private personality is difficult to study
as is concerned with covert behaviors which is difficult to measure.

Broad areas often used to describe personality are

 Physical characteristics

 Temperament

 Intelligence

 Interests

 Moral values

 Social attitudes e.g. groups, peers e.t.c.

 Expressive and stylistic traits such as aggressiveness, submissiveness, talkativeness, shyness,

Sociability e.t.c.

Characteristics of Personality

 Is dynamic, growing and changing entity.

 It starts with heredity.

 It includes what we can see and what we cannot see.

 It is capable for numerous modifications

 It manifests itself in the social surroundings of human group relations.

The determinant of personality

The major determinants of personality are:-

 Heredity (genetic factors)

 Environment (environmental factors)

HEREDITY

It includes genetic factors which influence personality development of an individual. Inheritance appears
to play an important role in the determination of intelligence and other behaviors of an individual. It

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provides bases for personality development which can be affected by the type of environment in which an
individual may grow.

Some traits can be modified while others cannot for stance height and body morphology of a person
cannot be modified.

ENVIRONMENT

Environment also plays a great role to personality development of an individual. It includes the following
ways:-

 Social determinants i.e. the home and school.

 Cultural determinants

Social determinants i.e. the home and school

The home

Man is a social animal. A child is born into a family which is a social set-up. All families share certain
common beliefs, customs and values. Therefore the home plays a very significant role in the development
of one’s personality. In the home the, the child interacts with family members and develops his likes,
dislikes stereotype about people, expectancies of security and emotional habits.

In the home, the child interacts with family members and develops his likes, dislikes stereotype about
people, expectancies of security and emotional habits. These experiences are decisive determinants of
personality in later development.

Research shows that children from families with good morale patterns tend to be more independent and
adjusted than of those from home with low morale patterns. The economic level of the parents also
influences personality development.

The poverty of parents and their lack of money to provide for the needs of children lead to certain kinds
of frustration.

The school

The school environment plays a very important role in molding the child's personality.

The child spends a significant part of his life in the school where the process of personality development
continues. His likes, dislikes, stereotypes, expectancies and emotional behavior continue to be molded.

In the school environment the teacher substitutes for the parents. His behavior is significant in that it
provides a model for the child to imitate.

The school also provides new problems to be solved, new taboos to be accepted into the superego and
new models for imitation and identification. All these experiences contribute much to the shaping of the
child's personality.

Other social determinants

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Includes the language used by the society and individual’s self concept. Once the child learns the
language of his society his personality is subsequently shaped by the process of interaction with other
members of the society which takes place through language.

On the other hand individual’s self concept influences personality development through positive and
negative attitudes that other people have towards the individual. Other significant people may create
feelings of worthiness and which result in the use of self defense mechanisms such as withdrawal from
social situations.

Culture influences personality development in the following ways

Through the process of learning, the child acquires and internalizes the values, ideas, beliefs and customs
of his culture. Learning can occur directly and sometimes indirectly through the methods of training,
imitation and identification.

Through institutionalization of learning, where by aspects of culture is taught as part of the formal
curriculum.

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Psychoanalytic Theory by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

This theory holds the view that much of human motivation is unconscious and must be inferred indirectly
from behavior. He believed that conscious experience was just the tip of our psychological makeup and
experience.

The theory focuses on the unconscious motives that direct behavior. Freud described personality to
consists of three elements or system namely the Id, the ego and the superego (sometimes known as the
structure of personality)

Structure of personality

According to Freud the Id operates on the pleasure principle i.e. always seeking for gratification (pleasure
after satisfaction) of biological impulses. Its purpose is to reduce tensions created by primitive drives
related to hunger, sex, aggression and irrational impulses and maximization of satisfaction.

The ego

The ego obeys the reality principle. It strives to balance the desires of the Id and the realities of the
objectives outside world. We can say the ego is the executive of personality as it makes decisions,
controls actions and allows thinking and problem solving of a higher order than the Id’s capabilities
permit.

The superego

The superego according to Freud is the final personality structure to develop; it is essentially the
conscience (part of your mind that tells you whether your actions are right or wrong). It imposes moral
standards on the individual i.e. represents social rights and wrong as taught and modeled by a person’s
parents, teachers and other significant people.

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The superego has two components i.e. the conscience and the ego ideal. The conscience prevents us from
behaving in a morally improper way by making us feel guilty if we do wrong and The ego ideal
represents the perfect person that we wish we were; motivates us to do what is morally right.

The superego helps us to control impulses from the Id and makes our behavior less selfish and more
virtuous.

FREUD STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Freud believed that during the first five years of life an individual progresses through several
developmental stages that affect personality, he advocated that an individual goes through five psycho-
sexual stages of development that are biological programmed. The theory is unique in focusing each stage
on the major biological function that Freud assumed to be the focus of pleasure in that stage.

The sequence he proposed explains how experiences and difficulties during a particular childhood stage
might predict specific characteristic in adult personality.

SUMMERY OF THE STAGES

STAGE AGE MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS

1.Oral 0-2 Interest is in oral gratification from sucking, eating, mouthing and biting.
stage years. Pleasure centers on the mouth through sucking, chewing, mouthing and biting.

2.Anal 2-4 The greatest pleasure of the child is in the anus (gratification from expelling and
stage years. with holding feces), coming to terms with society’s controls relating to toilet training.
3.Phallic 4-6 Interest of the child is in genitals, coming to terms with Oedipus complex
stage years i.e. child’s desires to be sexually involved with parents of the opposite sex.
Oedipal conflict for boys(boys desires to their mother) and Electra conflict for girls
(Girls desires to their father).

4.The 6-12 Sexual is largely concerned un important. They are less concerned with
latency (End of their bodies and turn their attention to the skills needed for copying with
stage childhoo the environment. The child represses all interest in sexuality and develops
d). social and intellectual skills instead as discovered that sexuality is a private affair.

5.Genital Adolesc Reemergence of sexual interest and establishment of mature sexual relationships.
stage ence to Young people begin to turn their sexual interests towards others and to love
adulthoo in a more mature way.

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 d

According to Freud after puberty there are no more new development sexually as an individual can
procreate at this stage as manifested in menstruation for girls (menarche) and ejaculation for boys (sperm
ache) .

Defense mechanism

These are normal behaviors that help people or an individual to cope with anxiety. Anxiety is an
unpleasant inner state that people seek to avoid. Anxiety acts as a signal to the ego that things are not
going right. It all work unconsciously. They do so by either denying or distort the reality in
unconsciously level.

Denial

Is probably one of the best known defense mechanisms, used often to describe situations in which people
seem unable to face reality or admit an obvious truth. E.g. in relationship matters a girl friend tells a
boyfriend that she is pregnant and a boyfriend disagree upon the statement and doesn’t want to hear
anything about it.

Projection

This is one of the most common defense mechanism which is concerned with attributing an acceptable
desires and impulses to others. E.g. when a student fails examinations he/she always attribute to a teacher
without considering other factors.

Displacement

Is also a common defense mechanism concerned with shifting impulses from a threatening object to a
suffer or weaker object. E.g. when a father or mother is threatened by his boss at work but is not able to
show his anger to the threatening object (boss), he/she may shift his anger to weaker objects (children) to
suffer the consequence.

Rationalization

Is concerned with explaining away the failures to justify a specific behavior or it justify a course of a
certain outcome. E.g. job advertised then applied for it but not selected and you end up justifying that
after all I didn’t want it to rationalize the pain and not suffer from it.

Sublimation

This is a situation where people divert unwanted impulses into socially approved thoughts, feelings or
behavior. E.g A person with strong feelings of aggression becomes a soldier.

Regression

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Is a situation where people fail to act as they are expected. Some people can find that is hard to manage
with life and start to drink as a matter of solving their problems or smoking. So these people regress to
lower levels of expectation of behavior e.g. frustration.

For example a boss has a temper tantrum when an employee makes a mistake.

Compensation

Is a way of doing things with the reason behind. In life there are compensatory mechanisms, Freud found
that where people fails a certain situation, they look for alternatives. E.g. supplementary tests, resetting
e.t.c.

Fantasy

Is an imaginative dreaming of ideals e.g. thinking if I were, I wish I was somebody like this. Some people
live in dream realistically. E.g. If I were a bird I would fly.

Introjections

This is the situation where by people take in the feelings or problems of others and put them into their
shoes. E.g. counselors may empathize with the client in the course of seeking or looking for solution for a
certain problem that he or she has encountered.

 Telling lies is also a way of defense mechanism.

WEAKNESS OF PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY

• He based on biological factors in personality development of an individual and ignored social

environmental factors.

• He made generalization and approximation of the age without considering the differences in the
environment where an individual is found.

• He did not explain what goes on in personality development of an individual after adolescence.

• In his fourth stage he argued that an individual is driven by plays but he did not talk of the
disabled individual to participate or not.

ERRICKSONS THEORY OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT (PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF

PERSONALITY)

Psychosocial theory of personality development is attributed to Erick Erickson who started as an

anthropologist and had a psychoanalytic training. He developed a totally different theory from that of
Freud.

The theory emphasized on the interaction of the child with the society and also concerns with:-

 The impositions of social controls,

 The acquisition of what is expected and

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  The way the world will treat the child and how the child will respond to the world.

Erickson suggested that a person goes through eight stages in the process of development from infancy to
old stage and contrary to Freud those stages depends on social interaction but not on the body. The stages
are:-

1. Trust v/s Mistrust. Infancy (0-2 years)

Erickson proposed that the first phase of development centers on how much trust the child can give to the
environment. E.g. If the child’s bodily needs are met on time and peacefully he will develop trust in the
world (mother first and then the rest later)

But if they are not readily met the child will tend to acquire a bitter and negative outlook to the world i.e.
a view that the world cannot be trusted, instead of gratification the child will suffer deprivation and
frustration. The effects on later development will depend on the degree of the trust or mistrust that
established.

2. Autonomy v Shame & Doubt Early Childhood (2-4 years)

Erickson suggested that the second stage begins when the child learns that he can control the environment
to some extent e.g. toilet training and control of bladder and bowels and hand activities like grasping,
holding, manipulation e.t.c. These activities will push the child towards autonomy without feeling shame
or doubt about its performance.

But adult treatment of the child will give rise to feelings of shame and doubt if the child is told
verbally to be ashamed of an activity for example wetting himself, Laughed at or ridiculed concerning
manual skills and experiences. Excessive criticisms for failure will in turn lead to the child doubting his
own body, intelligence and competence.

If this problem is not worked out, the person will never have adequate self confidence and ego strength.
He will always learn on others or he may develop uncontrolled approach to life as a defense mechanism
to conceal his lack of inner control of his fate

3. Initiative v Guilt pre-school, nursery.

Initiative indicates that the child now feels sure enough of himself to undertake positive actions of his
own, for example dress oneself, feed one self, put on shoes e.t.c. Failure to solve problems at the stage of
autonomy will delay initiative or may even destroy it.

The negative aspect of this developmental stage is guilty. Whereas shame may be felt because of words
and attitudes of others guilt is from within-it is self imposed.

4. Industry v Inferiority School Age

Industry here refers to purposeful or meaningful activity. It's the development of competence and skills,
and a confidence to use a 'method', and is a crucial aspect of school years experience.

Inferiority is feeling useless; unable to contribute, unable to cooperate or work in a team to create
something, with the low self-esteem that accompanies such feelings.

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 5. Identity v Role Confusion’ To be oneself (or not to be)' Adolescence

Identity means essentially how a person sees himself in relation to their world. It's a sense of self or
individuality in the context of life and what lies ahead. Role Confusion is the negative perspective - an
absence of identity - meaning that the person cannot see clearly or at all who they are and how they can
relate positively with their environment.

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation Young Adult

Intimacy means the process of achieving relationships with family and marital or mating partner(s).
Erikson explained this stage also in terms of sexual mutuality - the giving and receiving of physical and
emotional connection, support, love, comfort, trust, and all the other elements that we would typically
associate with healthy adult relationships conducive to mating and child-rearing.

Isolation conversely means being and feeling excluded from the usual life e.g. experiences of dating and
mating and mutually loving relationships. This is characterized by feelings of loneliness, alienation, social
withdrawal or non-participation.

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation Mature Age

Generativity derives from the word generation, as in parents and children, and specifically the
unconditional giving that characterizes positive parental love and care for their offspring. Caring for
children is the common generativity scenario, but success at this stage actually depends on giving and
caring - putting something back into life, to the best of one's capabilities.

Stagnation. Is an extension of intimacy which turns inward in the form of self-interest and self-
absorption. It's the disposition that represents feelings of selfishness, self-indulgence, greed, lack of
interest in young people and future generations, and the wider world. Stagnation and/or Self-Absorption
result from not having an outlet or opportunity for contributing to the good or growth of children and
others, and potentially to the wider world.

8. Integrity v Despair old age…

This is a review and closing stage. Integrity means feeling at peace with oneself and the world. No regrets
or recriminations. The linking between the stages is perhaps clearer here than anywhere: people are more
likely to look back on their lives positively and happily if they have left the world a better place than they
found it - in whatever way, to whatever extent. There lies Integrity and acceptance.

Despair and/or 'Disgust' (i.e., ejectives denial, or 'sour grapes' feeling towards what life might
have been) represent the opposite disposition: feelings of wasted opportunities, regrets, wishing to be able
to turn back the clock and have a second chance.

This stage is a powerful lens through which to view one's life - even before old age is reached.

Importance of studying personality

Feldman R. S (1989), Denis Child (2004) and others have discussed few advantages such as;-

27
 • It helps in knowing why people react the way they react, and how to help them

• Help in understanding the diversities in learning hence apply proper remedial procedures.

• Helps in understanding oneself

• Helps in knowing causes of school performance for different students.

SIGMUND FREUD AND ERICK ERICKSON COMPARISONS AND DIFFERENCES;-

A.COMPARISON

 All touched biological factors that act as the main influence of personality of an individual.

 All tell us about problems at a particular stage which led to conflict on inability to pass through
future/next stage easily.

 Both deals with personality of an individual.

 Both believe that individual development occur in progressive series of stages.

C. DIFFERENCES;-

 Freud come up with five stages of personality started with oral stage and end up with genital
stage, While, Erickson come with eight stages of personality development started with Trust Vs
Mistrust and end with Integrity Vs Despair.

 Freud believed that personality of an individual is influenced by biological factor (LIBIDO) to

adolescence stage and social factor to adulthood While Erickson believed that personality is
influenced by social interaction.

 Freud said that personality of an individual end – up at the period of adolescence. While,
Erickson covers all life span of an individual from childhood to adulthood.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

 Guide educators in their educational practices such as when deciding on which teaching method
to use and on which teaching resources to use.

 Guide educators in the development and implementation of the curriculum.

 Provide points of thought reference especially in situations where our teaching is ineffective

 Assist educators to explain the behavior of their learners.

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 TOPIC THREE: LEARNING THEORIES

THE CONCEPT OF LEARNING

Learning is a relative permanent change in behavior, attitude etc which occur through experience or
practice. The change of behavior is caused by acquisition of new knowledge, attitudes and skills.
Learning is opposed to some of the reflexive action and maturation which are attained naturally.

The main aspects in the definition of learning are;-

 Change in behavior

 The change should be a product of experience and practice.

 The change must be relatively permanent i.e. It should last fairly for a long period.

Learning domains

Learning domains according to Blooms taxonomy. (Categories of learning)

As a teacher, it is important to prepare your teaching before real classroom interaction. During
instruction, you will require to develop either knowledge, skills, attitudes or all. Special domains are to be
developed. By analyzing the type of learning domain, or outcome that you want, you can determine
which activities, assessments, and representation modes (face to face, video, online, or multimedia) which
are optimal based on the learning outcome desired. Psychologist Benjamine Bloom (1956) identified
three major domains of educational activities namely cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.

COGNITIVE DOMAIN is the domain which involves intellectual or mental capability of an individual. It
is highly concerned with thinking, reasoning, analyzing, judging and the like. What goes on in the brain is
the central focus of the domain.

Levels of cognitive domain

1. Knowledge. It refers to the ability to recall the learned materials, specific facts, concepts etc. It is
simply based on the process of remembering and reproducing the facts or materials as they are. This is the
lowest level of cognitive domain. Example of the question;- Mention the name of the first president of
Tanzania.

2. Comprehension. This refers to the ability to understand or grasp the meaning of different materials of
different ideas. It is concerned with the ability to express an idea by using one’s own language E.g. How
do you understand by the term Equatorial regions?

3. Application. Refers to the ability to transfer and use the learned material in a new situation. It can be a
new situation or similar situation in another context. E.g. how would you apply, what is the use of …......

4. Analysis. Is the ability to break down materials into its small components, so that its organization
structure can be well understood. E.g. Write an essay on teaching strategies.

5. Synthesis. Refers to the ability to put different parts together to form a new whole. E.g. Read the
passage and suggest the heading of the passage. This is the opposite of analysis.

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6. Evaluation. It refers to the ability to judge the value of certain materials/things. For example evaluate

NB: Since the levels are arranged in the hierarchy, the higher level comprises the lower levels.

AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

Is o the Domain of learning which is concerned with the aspect of attitudes, feelings and emotions of the
learner. It deals with the aspects that are based on habit or appreciation or interest in a particular
phenomenon. It can be measured through observation.

Levels of affective domain

1. Receiving. Refers to the learners willingness to attend to a particular phenomena or stimuli e.g.,
classroom activities, music, games, etc. It is based on holding and directing the learner’s
attention.

2. Responding. This refers to active participation of the learners to a particular phenomena or

events. At this level a learner does not only attend a particular phenomenon but also react actively
in a certain way or some ways.

3. Valuing. This is concerned with the worth or value the learner attach to a particular phenomena
or behavior. An individual give the importance of the material (phenomena). This ranges in
degree from simpler acceptance of value to the more complex level of commitment. Valuing is
based on the internalization of a set of specified values.

4. Organization. Is concerned with putting together different values, resolving conflicts between
these values and beginning to build an internal consistent system values. In an organization the
emphasis is on comparing, relating and synthesizing values

5. Characterization (internalizing value). At this value of affective domain an individual has a

value system that controls his/her behavior. Instructional objectives that are concerned with
student’s behavior (personal, social, emotional) fall under this category.

PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAINS

This is a domain which is concerned with the manipulation of skills and ability of the learners; they are
concerned with handling and manipulating of materials and apparatus in learning process. Simpsom
(1972) categorized seven levels of Psycho-motor domain;-

1. Perception. This is concerned with the use of sense organs to obtain cue (a signal to do
something) that guide motor activity. This category ranges from sensory stimulation (awareness
of stimulus) to translation (relating cue to perception in performance).

2. Set (settings). It refers to readiness to take a particular action. It is the willingness act to perform
a certain task. It includes mental, physical and emotional aspects (mental set, physical set,
emotional set etc).

3. Guided response. It refers to early stages in learning complex skills, it include imitation
(repeating an act) demonstrated by a instructor and trial and error (using a multiple response
approaches to identify an appropriate respond).

4. Mechanism. It is concerned with the performance acts where the learned response have become
habitual. The movement can be performed with some confidence and proficiency.
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 5. Complex overt response. It is concerned with the skillful performance of motor acts that involve
complex movement pattern. Proficiency is indicated by quick smooth accurate performance
requiring minimum of energy. This category includes resolution of uncertainty (performing
without hesitation) and automatic performance (movement are made with ease and good muscle
control). Learning outcomes at this level includes highly motor coordinated activities E.g.
Acrobatics

6. Adoption. It is concerned with skills that are well developed in such a way that individual can
modify movement patterns to fit special requirement or to meet the problem/ situation.

7. Originality. It refers to the ability to create a new movement problem pattern that reflect a certain
situation. Learning outcome at this level emphasize creativity based on manipulation of motor
skills.

Deductive and inductive learning

Deductive learning. Refers to a generic term to denote learning that follows the traditional model of a
teacher-student relationship, where the teacher is the expert communicator of knowledge and the student
the recipient.

In this context of learning; lectures, are norm of the day whereby instructive and preaching languages are
excessively used. It is commonly used in higher education such as higher learning institutions like the
Universities.

Inductive learning. Is the learning which emphasizes knowledge construction whereby individuals
actively constructs and reconstructs their own reality in an effort to make sense of their experience.

In this context, new information is filtered through mental structures (schemata) that incorporate the
student’s prior knowledge, beliefs, preconceptions and misconceptions etc. methods involved includes
inquiry, problem based, project based, case based and discovery which helps the learner to construct
his/her meaning.

LEARNING THEORIES

Meaning

A theory is a set of assumption or a system of belief that explain event that happened in the past as well
as predicting events that will happen in the future.

Learning theories are reasoned suppositions put forward to explain behavior of an individual in relation
to learning and teaching process E.g. Behaviorism, cognitive learning theories etc.

IMPORTANCE OF HAVING LEARNING THEORIES

• They are used to let scholars predict what will happen in the future. These theories can predict the
outcome of learning at a certain learning condition.

• They are sued to control and guide learning processes.

• They are used to organize knowledge or ideas of a certain learning condition, theory organize all
ideas related to learning.

Behaviorist learning theories

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Behaviorism was the first learning theory that comes about as a result of scientific research. They focused
on observable behavior. The behaviorist an explanation of what learning is was based on experiments and
findings by Pavlov, Thorndike and Skinner the end of 18 th century and at the beginning of the 19 th
century.

Pavlov did his experiments with dogs, Thorndike with cats and skinner with rats and pigeons. Pavlov's
experiment developed a theory known as classical conditioning while Thorndike and Skinner's
experiments developed operant conditioning.

Behaviorists believed that learning is a change of behavior resulting from experience.”The theory
advocates environmental factors i.e. The “Stimulus” and “Response” The theory emphasized that learning
is based on observable characteristics; learning is only possible when the environment is made to affect
the learning process.

Classical Conditioning

Learning is explained to be the change in behavior caused by conditioning. Conditioning here is pairing a
natural stimulus with a conditioned stimulus to produce a response. After sometime the conditioned
stimulus alone produces the response.

In Pavlov's experiment, a dog salivates when food is brought. When bringing food is preceded by a bell
and this is repeated for some time, the dog salivates when it hears the bell even if there is no food. This
finding was used to explain human learning also.

Diagram showing Pavlov Experiment

Descriptions of the diagram

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This illustration shows how a dog can learn to salivate to the sound of a tuning fork or a bell, an
experiment first carried out in the early 1900s by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. For conditioning to
occur, the pairing of the food with the tuning fork (step 3 in the illustration) must be repeated several
times, so that the dog eventually learns to associate the two items.

Important concepts &Principles of classical conditioning in learning

The theory of classical conditioning emphasized by Pavlov and Watson gave birth to a number of
concepts and principles in the field of learning such as, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus
generalization, and stimulus discrimination.

Extinction. This refers to the gradual disappearance of the conditioned response or the disconnection of
the S-R association. Or a previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually
disappears. E.g. In classical conditioning, Pavlov noted that if the conditioned stimulus (ringing the bell)
is presented alone a number of times without the food, the magnitude of the conditioned response of
salivation begins to decrease and so does the probability of its appearing at all.

Spontaneous recovery. Means the reappearance of the conditioned response after an interval in which the
pairing of conditioned stimulus has not been repeated. Or is the reappearance of a previously
extinguished response after time has elapsed without exposure to the conditioned stimulus. This shows
that learning is suppressed rather than forgotten.

Stimulus generalization. Means a conditioned response follows a stimulus that is similar to the original
conditioned stimulus. Or Means responding to a stimulus in such a generalized way with a particular
stage of learning behavior in which once conditioned to respond to a specific stimulus is made to respond
in the same way in response to other stimuli of similar nature.

Stimulus discrimination. This is the opposite of stimulus generalization. An individual react differently
in different situations. Organism learns to differentiate among stimuli.

IMPORTANT TERMS USED IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Stimulus;- Is anything that arouse response. Or Anything that attracts attention of an individual to
response . Or Is an energy that produces a response in a sense organ.

Response;- Is a reaction towards stimulus (e.g. Saliva)

Unconditioned stimulus (ucs). Is a stimulus that arouses the response naturally. A stimulus that evokes a
response without being learned/conditioned. Refers to unlearned stimulus.

Neutral stimulus (ns). Anything that does not elicit the response e.g. Bell to a dog.

Or is a stimulus that before conditioning there is no effect on the desired response.

Is anything that has no power to evoke a particular response.

Conditioned stimulus (cs);- Is any stimulus that previously was a neutral stimulus but has acquired a
power to elicit a response. Is a stimulus that previously had no effect through a desired response but has
gained power/ability to evoke (elicit) a response after conditioning.

Is a neutral stimulus that has been paired with unconditioned stimulus to bring about a response formally
elicited only by unconditioned stimulus after conditioning.

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Conditioned response (CR);- Is a response that after conditioning, follows a previously neutral stimulus
that has gained ability to evoke/elicit a response after conditioning. Is a reaction that follows conditioned
stimulus.

Unconditioned response (UNR) Is a natural response that follows a natural stimulus and does not need
learned/conditioning.

Application of classical conditioning in classroom situation

• Encourage the tendency of repetition in teaching and learning process.

• Following the school time table

• Assist teacher to use teaching aid when teaching. E.g. through association.

• It assists teaching from simple to complex.

• It encourages the use of participatory methods.

• Learning needs conducive environment

• Objectivity in the classroom situation.

Operant conditioning

Learning is explained as a change in behavior caused by reinforcement in the form of practice and
rewards. It occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. This is a simple feedback system, if a
reward or reinforcement follows a response it becomes more probable in the future.

In the law of exercise it is explained that the more certain behavior is practiced the stronger it is
established. Thorndike established this principle out of his experiments with cats. He put a hungry cat in
a small chamber or cage that he called “puzzle box” where it had to find its way out or find a way of
getting a piece of fish for food by pressing a lever or stepping on a platform for the door to open.

The cat has to use trial and error method to solve the problem. The first time it took a long time to find the
solution. But when the procedure was repeated several times, the cat spent a shorter time to solve the
problem.

This means that as the cat repeated the exercise it learned how to solve the problem and this is why it
spent a shorter time to solve it. Thus the law of exercise means that practice makes a newly learned
behavior more permanent or in other words practice reinforces behavior.

From this experiment, Thorndike established (formulated) three laws governs the process of learning;
these are;-

I: Law of effect. This law state that; - Behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthen, where as
behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened. OR, the response that is accompanied or closely
followed by satisfaction are more likely to happen again, while responses accompanied or closely
followed by discomfort will be less likely to re – occur.

Example; When a student performs excellently in a certain subject he/she is likely to concentrate much on
learning subject rather than subjects which she/he score below average (poorly).

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II: Law of practice (exercise). This law states that; - The relationship between stimulus and Response is
strengthening or improved by practice. In learning improvement will occur after repetition. Repetition is a
mother of studying. “Practice makes perfect” is well known proverb which supports this idea.

III: Law of readiness. This law state that; the willingness of an individual to do something will lead to
better or successful performance. The idea of readiness in learning process basically is established in an
individual’s mind, and it is likely to gain more and achieves better understanding than the one who has no
readiness of learning.

APPLICATION OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

• It helps in controlling aggressive behavior so as to reduce conflict between parents and

adolescents.

• It helps in copying with depression.

• It helps elderly individual functioning more independently.

• Its positive and negative reinforcement techniques can be very effective in treatment of human
disorders e.g. anti –social behavior.

• Useful in that teacher can use reward and punishment of student’s behavior in order to suppress
or encourage it.

DIFFERENCES and COMPARISON BETWEEN CLASSICAL and OPERANT

CONDITINING

• While Operant conditioning focuses on what happen after a response is made; Classical
conditioning emphasizes what occurs before a response is made.

• While the key connection in classical conditioning is between two stimuli; in operant
conditioning it is between the organism’s response and its consequences.

• While Operant conditioning mainly involves voluntary behavior, classical conditioning involves
involuntary behavior.

• However both of them deal with promoting learning through conditioning.

• And both of them have been generalized through experiments done on animals.

Weakness of behaviorism

• Does not account for all kinds of learning since it disregards the activities of the mind.

• Does not explain cognition of new language patterns by young children for which there is no
reinforcement mechanism.

• Animals adapt their reinforcement pattern to new information.

Question for discussion.

Go to the library/ internet search for the following concepts

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 i) reinforcement,

ii) punishment and

iii) Schedules of reinforcement.

N.B. more details on this will be discussed in topic four.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORIES.

Are theories which based on the development of the mental abilities in reasoning, problem solving,
recalling, language perception, understanding, e.t.c

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

According to David Johnson and Roger Johnson (1999), cooperative learning exists when students work
together to accomplish shared learning goals. Is the learning that consists of a range of concepts and
techniques for enhancing the value of student-student interaction. Cooperative learning offers teachers
ideas for helping group activities succeed. It occurs when students work in small groups to help each
other learn.

Group activities places students at the centre of attention, offering them one means of taking on more
right and responsibilities in their own learning. Cooperative learning allows the importance of positive
interdependence. Positive interdependence helps students feel support and belonging at the same time,
that they are motivated to try hard to assist the group in reaching its goals.

The purpose of cooperative learning in schools

i. To make each student a better individual learner through social interaction with others and active
participation in the assigned task.

ii. Cooperative learning tends to improve academic learning results of students as it enhances long-
term memorizing of knowledge.

iii. It promoting understanding.

CONTEXTUAL LEARNING

Contextual learning occurs when teachers relate subject matter to real world situations. Students are
motivated to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members,
citizens, and workers.

The application of contextual learning was first proposed (at the turn of the 20th century) by John Dewey
who advocated a curriculum and a teaching methodology tied to the child's experiences and interests.
Dewey deplored the separation of education into mind and body, and of school programs into academic
and occupational tracks.

It is the learning in a macro context which helps students develop usable knowledge (generative learning
as emphasized by constructivists). Constructivists believe that using generative learning results in the
development of more usable knowledge that will increase transfer of learning. New information becomes
a useful tool for functioning in the large context. Evaluation is done in relation to the completion of the
overall task.

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 Strategies for Contextual Teaching and Learning

i. Recognize the need for teaching and learning to occur in a variety of contexts such as home,
community, and work sites

ii. Attach teaching in students' diverse life-contexts Emphasize problem-solving

iii. Encourage students to learn from each other and together

iv. Teach students to monitor and direct their own learning so they become self-regulated learners

Piaget cognitive development theory ref. chapter two page 18.

Bruner’s theory of Cognitive Learning

He defined cognitive process as the means where by organisms achieve, retain and transform information.
His major theme is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas /understanding
based on past knowledge (http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2720/Jerome-Bruner.html.). The
emphasis is laid on the teacher’s role in the instructional and learning process. Brunner in his theory of
instruction places particular emphasis on instructional environment and also recognizes the importance of
mental structure.

The focus on learning is on the attainment of mastery of concepts that will enable the learner to find the
answer on their own. The teacher should try and encourage students to discover principles by themselves.

This theory depends on three related conditions;-

 Modes of learning
 Functions of categorization
 Principles of instruction
A: MODES OF LEARNING

There are three modes of learning;-

 Enactive mode of learning in which leaning is by doing, acting, imitating and

manipulating objects.
 Iconic mode of learning; which involves the use of images and pictures in the
learning process.
 Symbolic mode of learning which is through verbal and written word.

B: FUNCTION OF CATEGORIZATION

Categorization is the process of organizing and integrating information with other information
that has been learned earlier. Categorization helps to simplify the environment, to find
similarities, to eliminate the need for constant learning, allows us to elicit given behavior under
many different behaviors and to improve our ability to relate objects and events.

C: PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION

Four principles of instruction are;

Principle of motivation which emphasized the learner’s state of readiness;

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Principle of structure which stresses that learning can be increased by selecting modes of learning
that fit the learner’s level of understanding;

Principle of sequence which refers to the ordering of units and subunits within and across subject
area and

The principle of reinforcement which emphasizes that responding favorably to a person affects
that person’s later behavior.

Bruner in his work he presents four themes in education process.

1. The role of structure in learning and how it may be made central in teaching.
2. Intuitive and analytical thinking, both be encourage and rewarded. He believed that intuitive
skills were under-emphasized and be reflected on the ability of experts in every field to make
intuitive leaps.
3. Readiness for learning and spiral curriculum. He believed that any subject could be taught any
stage of development in a way that fit the child’s cognitive abilities.
4. Motive for learning. He felt that ideally interest in the subject matter is the best stimulus for
learning. Bruner didn’t like external competitive goals such as grades or class.

APPLICATION

a) Bruner emphasized four characteristics of effective instruction which emerged from his
theoretical constructs.
 Personalized: instruction should relate to learners' predisposition, and facilitate interest toward
learning.
 Content structure: content should be structured so it can be most easily grasped by the learners.
 Sequencing: sequencing is an important aspect presentation of material.
 Reinforcement: reward and punishment should be selected and paced appropriately.
b) It supports active engagement of the learner in the learning process
c) There is higher motivating as it allows individuals the opportunity to experiment and discover
something for themselves.
d) It makes them responsible for their own mistakes and results.
e) It develops a sense of independence and autonomy.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

 Bruner does acknowledge that learners go through various stages of development but he does not
specify learner’s age at which these stages will take place as Piaget does in his theory of Genetic
Epistemology. Bruner concentrates more on how knowledge is represented and organized as the
child develops (http//psychology-4a.com/cognitive-development.htm).

 Bruner and Piaget agree that learner must find the lesson useful and relevant. Piaget learners
progress from one stage to the while Bruner’s learners must extrapolate from the known to the
unknown (Overbought, 2004).

 Unlike Piaget and his concept of readiness that suggests we should only teach abstract concepts
when the child has the mental apparatus to cope, Bruner believes any topic can be taught in a
meaningful and helpful manner to any child.

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  Bruner presents his three modes of representation and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
in what he calls the spiral curriculum. In teaching a subject teachers begin with an intuitive
account that is well within the reach of the student, and then circle back later to a more formal or
highly structured account, until, with however many recycling are necessary the learner has
mastered the topic or subject in its full generative
power(http://principlesandmethods.blogspot.com/2007/10/jerome-bruners-educatioal-
theory.html)

Ausubel’s Meaningful Theory of Learning

In Ausebel’s meaningful learning, the learner receives verbal or written information and links it to
previous acquired knowledge. Ausubel explains learning in terms of what goes on within the
cognitive structure of a person after he/she is exposed to verbal or written stimuli.
The new information and the previous are recognized to give it a special meaning. But the rate at
which a person learns depends on the relationship between the old and the new material and the
nature of that relationship.
Assimilation is therefore the process by which new ideas are stored in linked relationship to
correspondingly relevant existing ideas in the cognitive structure. Assimilation can ensure
learning in three ways;-
 By giving added meaningfulness to the new idea
 By reducing the likelihood that the information will be forgotten or lost
 By making the new idea readily available for retrieval.

Three factors that aid meaningful reception learning are;-

 The subject to be presented must be potential meaningful
 The learner must build a meaningful learning set.
 The form in which the new material is presented
CONTRAST BETWEEN AUSUBELS’S AND BRUNER’S COGNITIVE THEORIES OF
LEARNING;-

Ausubel emphasizes the cognitive structure of a person after exposure written or verbal stimuli
i.e. what happens inside individuals as they relate it to what they already known While Bruner
placed emphasis on the instructional environment, how the new material is presented and the
teacher’s role in the instructional process.

MEANINGFULL LEARNING AND ROTE LEARNING;

I: Meaningful Learning; is the type of learning whereby an individual experience deep

understanding of knowledge/skills and attitude or phenomenon. Deep understanding enables an
individual to apply the knowledge, skills and attitude she/he attain in real life situation.

An individual should be able to put into practical the learning package. In meaningful learning
there is transfer of knowledge from one situation to another.

II: Rote Learning; - Is the type of learning whereby an individual experience a surface of
understanding phenomena. In rote learning an individual does not understand clearly and fail to
make application of knowledge he/she has in real situation (in solving problems) Rote learning is
associated with memorizing and cramming. In rote learning there is no connection between
learning and solving problem in real situation of life.

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In promoting meaningful learning and eradicate rote learning, participatory method of
learning/learner centered approach are highly encouraged to use in teaching and learning
process. The role of teacher/instructor should create a good environment and guidance that will
enable the learners to construct the meaning themselves.

HOW TEACHER’S CAN PROMOTE MEANINGFUL LEARNING IN CLASSROOM

SITUATION;-

1. By using teaching and learning aids in the process of teaching and learning
2. By using interactive methods of learning
3. By integrating theory and practical in the process of teaching and learning
4. By selecting the type of question to be asked

Vygotsky’s theory of learning

Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory postulates a modern thinking about teaching and learning process.
In contrast to Piaget, Vygotsky did not assign much importance to stages of cognitive development at
which a child might be. In particular, the importance of instruction is emphasized. Vygotsky argues that
external and social activities are gradually internalized by the child as he comes to regulate his own
intellectual activity through interaction with more experienced peers. According to Vygotsky, children
have to discover how to regulate their own activities in order to learn i.e. learning how to learn. Its focus
is the active, goal-setting child in a socio-cultural context. Its emphasis is on how social interaction with
adults can fulfill a child’s potential for learning; the theory has therefore important implications for
education. According to Vygotsky, adults like you must direct and organize a child’s learning before a
child can master and internalize it.

Vygotsky came up with the idea of ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) referring to the “gap” that
exists for an individual between what is able to do alone and what he can achieve with the help from one
or more knowledgeable or skilled person than himself. According to Vygotsky, Scaffolding is the
temporary support that parents or teachers give a child to do a task.

Application of Vygotsky’s theory in teaching and learning

i. Use of ZPD helps in teaching as teaching begin towards the zone’s upper limit where the student
is able to reach the goal only through close collaboration with the instructor.

ii. Use of scaffolding helps students move to a higher level of skill and knowledge

iii. Use of more skilled peers as teachers helps students to benefit from the support and guidance of
more skilled students in their learning process.

iv. Encourage collaborative learning and recognize that learning involves community of learners i.e.
both children and adults engage in learning activities in a collaborative way.

v. Consider the cultural context of learning. An important function of education is to guide

students/ learners in learning the skills that are important in the culture in which they live.

Constructivism

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 It refers to the idea that learners construct knowledge for themselves. Constructivists argued that each
learner individually and socially constructs meaning as he/she learns. To them constructing meaning is
learning, they argued that learners come into a new subject with past pre-conceptions, which may be
strongly held and difficult to change. One strategy to help those with wrong pre-conceptions is not to
force them memorize the correct facts alone, but provide them with opportunity to test their conceptions
experimentally or through rational reasoning.

Constructivists perceived children as intellectually active learners already holding ideas which they use
to make sense of their everyday experiences. Learners actively make sense of the world by constructing
meaning. Social interaction particularly between a learner and more knowledgeable others is their major
concern which are optimal in learning process.

Some guiding principles of Constructivist Thinking

i. Learning is an active process in which the learner uses sensory input and constructs meaning out
of it. The learner needs to do something; that leaning is not the passive acceptance of knowledge,
but the learner needs to be engaged to the world.
ii. People learn to learn as they learn. Learning consists both constructing meaning and constructing
system of meanings.
iii. The crucial action of constructing meaning is mental. It happens in the mind.
iv. Leaning involves language ; the language we use influences learning i.e. people talk to
themselves as they learn
v. Learning is a social activity. Our learning is intimately associated with our connection with other
human beings
vi. Learning is contextual. We must learn to use and apply the knowledge in our own situations and
environment.
vii. One needs knowledge to learn. Efforts to teach must be connected to the state of the learner based
on learner’s previous knowledge.
viii. It takes time to learn. We need to revisit ideas, ponder them, try them out, play with them and
use them
ix. Motivation is key component in learning.
 Question for discussion
What are the educational implications of constructivist ideas in
teaching and learning process?
Learning theory according to Robert Gagne
Robert Gagne in his theory emphasized five major categories of learning namely; verbal
information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. To him, different
internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of learning. For example for
cognitive strategies to be learned, there must be a chance to practice developing new solutions to
problems, to learn attitudes, the learner must be exposed to a credible role model or persuasive
arguments.
According to Gagne, learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in a hierarchy
according to complexity; i.e. stimulus recognition, response generation, procedure following,
use of terminology, concept formation, rule application and problem solving.
The primary significance of the hierarchy is to identify prerequisites that should be
completed to facilitate learning at each level. Prerequisites are identified by doing a task analysis
of a learning/ training task. Learning hierarchies provide basis for the sequencing of instruction.
Gagne identified nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes as follows;-
1. Gaining attention (reception)
2. Informing learners of the objective (expectancy)
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)
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 4. Presenting the stimulus (selective perception)
5. Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
6. Eliciting performance (responding)
7. Providing feedback (reinforcement)
8. Assessing performance (retrieval)
9. Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)
These events should satisfy or provide the necessary conditions for learning and serve as the basis
for designing instruction and selecting appropriate media.

TOPIC FOUR

LEARNING IN SCHOOL SETTING

.MOTIVATION

Meaning;-

Motivation is a need, drive, motive or desire that serves to energize behavior and direct it towards a
certain goal. OR, Is a process of arousing action giving direction and sustaining the activity in progress
and activity is goal direct For example, promotion is motivation to hard work in the work place and
passing exam in nations is motivation to attend all classes.

Motivation can therefore, be said to be having four elements (functions) namely;-

 It directs behavior towards an action to achieve a goal.

 It energize an organism to act.

 It sustains one’s activity toward a goal.

 It regulates one’s behaviors.

TYPES/SOURCES OF MOTIVATION

I: EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION

This originates from outside the learner and encourages the learner into achievement of
learning goals. It encompasses all external drives such as prizes, praises, degree, jobs, wife/husband etc.

II: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION;

Is the driving force from within the learner and usually regulated by the learner – cognitive drive.

It involves internalized attributes by the individual such as attitudes needs values, personality
for example “Ah ! I get it” i.e internal feeling of satisfaction.

TEACHER’S ROLES IN MOTIVATION

Motivation in learners can be enhanced and accomplished. The teacher can play several roles to
facilitate and make students motivated by;-

 Treating learners as colleagues by involving them in several issues eg. Decision making.

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  Rewarding performance of students through incentives such as recognition, privileges, praise,
attention etc.

 Teachers being good models who can be modeled by students.

 Matching instruction to their cognitive and skill level etc.

I REINFORCEMENT

Reinforcement is any stimulus/anything that increases the probability of a certain demonstrated

behavior to re – occur. For example providing a reward to a child who did well increases the behavior to
reoccur.

TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

Reinforcement are divided into two types;-

 Positive reinforcement

 Negative reinforcement

A. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT.

Is any pleasant stimulus presented to increase the probability of a behavior to re – occur eg. Reward,
positive comments, encouragement etc. In positive reinforcement the frequency of a response increases
because it is followed by a pleasant stimulus. Something pleasant follows a desired behavior. Eg. A child
might learn to master specific content in order to receive praise.

B : NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT

Refers to withdrawal or removal of unpleasant or noxious stimulus with an intention to increase the
probability of demonstrated behavior to re – occur. Is the removal of aversive or noxious stimulus which
increases the probability of desirable behavior to re – occur in the future. In negative reinforcement the
frequency of a response increases because the response either removes an unpleasant stimulus or lets the
individual avoid the stimulus. Negative reinforcement An unpleasant event or circumstance is removed
following a desired behavior. This increases the probability of the behavior occurring again.Eg. The same
child may learn to master the content in discussion just to avoid being scolded for not mastering it.

Other terminologies used in reinforcement

PRIMARY REINFORCEMENT

This is the stimulus based on natural or basic needs. They are the unlearned things like food,
water and sex.

SECONDARY REINFORCEMENT

This is the one which is learnt through association with other reinforces E.g. Money, examination,
praise, good grades, promotion, positive comments. Etc.

SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

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the pattern which shows the frequency and timing of providing reinforcement following the occurrence of
a desired response (behavior).OR, Refers to the procedures for reinforcing a given response only some
proportion of time it occurs OR Refers to the procedures for reinforcing a given response only some
proportion of time it occurs. OR, Is like a time table which can show frequency and timing (when or after
what duration) the reinforcement has to be given.

Reinforcement schedule can be provided into two ways;-

I: CONTINUOUSLY REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE.

Every occurrence of behavior is reinforced. Through this type;the change of behavior is speed up and
when reinforcement is not given the behavior becomes extinct.

II: INTERMITTENT SCHEDULE/PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT.

Is when the desirable behavior is not always rewarded. Reinforcement is given intermittently. It is more
effective in maintaining a behavior for longer periods of time when reinforcers are rare or non existent
though it tends to slow down learning.This schedule is divided into four;-

(a) Fixed Interval schedule

Reinforcement is given after a regular duration of time.Eg.A learner may accelerate the study
program on the eve of examinations in order to get good grades and be rewarded.

b) Variable interval

This presents reinforcement at a variable rate. E.g cats are administered to learners without
warning, the unpredictably surrounding the schedule ensures that learners are kept on their toes as
they never really know when the test will be given.

C. Fixed Ratio schedule

Reinforcement is given only after a fixed number of responses. Eg a teacher may give
assignments to learners and only be interested in completion of the assignment rather than the
quality or how much has been learnt.

(d)Variable Ratio schedule.

Reinforcement comes after an unpredictable number of responses. When one does not know exactly when
they will be reinforced but they expect that reinforcement will eventually come they keep responding.
Animals on this schedule tend to respond frequently, consistently and without long pauses.

ADVANTAGES OF REINFORCEMENT

 Increase active participation in learning

 Reduces bad behavior in school

 Encourage freedom of expression to learners

 Learners become creative

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  Memory permanence to learners

DISADVANTAGES

 It may led to inferiority to some learners.

 May create gap/hatred among learners.

 May create enemity among learners and teacher.

II: PUNISHMENT:

Refers to unpleasant, or painful stimuli that decrease the probability that the preceding behavior will
occur again. OR Is a consequence that occurs after unwanted behavior and decreases the chance that the
behavior will occur again. Or stopping to provide biscuits to a child who is not greeting elders.

Circumstances of punishment

 Disobey authority.

 Come late to school.

 Mistreating other people.

 Disturb teaching activity.

 Committing crimes.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOL/HOW CAN A TEACHER MAKE

PPUNISHMENT WORK;-

 It should be fair with regard to offense.

 It should be provided immediately after the offense.

 The punishment should control the emotions.

 It should be accompanied with explanation of the offense to show the desired behavior.

 It should not be severe.

 Be consistent; apply punishment when the rule is broken.

ATTITUDES OF LEARNERS/STUDENTS TOWARDS PUNISHMENT

Nelson (1978) agreed that punishment to the learners creates the following attitudes;-

 They see the punishment as unfair (feel unfair)

 Learners develop a tendency to revenge what the punisher did.

 It creates enemity between teacher and learners

 Learners tend to establish rebellion attitude and lead to do completely opposite.

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  Other withdraw and their self esteem (positive) is distorted

CORPROL PUNISHMENT

Is the punishment which directly causes physical pain to the offender eg. Strokes, flog, jumping,
push – up. OR, the one which creates pain to an individual who misbehaves.

ARGUMENT ON PUNISHMENT (COPROL PUNISHMENT)

 Corporal punishment is time effective but it is not effective because some times it does not
achieve the intended goal (elimination of inappropriate behavior)

 Corporal punishment increases the effect to the do of the offense but the more corporal
punishment is administered the less effective it becomes.

 Corporal punishment prepares children to punish the younger ones.

TYPES OF PUNISHMENT

1. Reprimand; you call a student who misbehave and tell him or her mistakes and the impact of it
in a friendly way.

2. Response cost; It involves removing or restricting to do something which the learner likes it
very much until he/she changes the behavior eg. those who likes watching TV, games or movies.

3. Time out; You tell a student to go out of the class while you are teaching.

There are two types under time out;-

(a) Isolation;-

Remove the child physically from the reinforcing situation. Eg. If a child admires most a certain
subject and the teacher prohibit him/her to attend the period at a particular time then that will be an
Isolation punishment.

(b) Exclusion;-

Is the situation of removing the child from the ongoing situation while watching what is going on.
Eg. When a good football player is not included in a list of a particular team during playing

The teacher can ignore minor misbehavior for example to student who makes noise.
4. Ignoring the behavior
the teacher can ignore minor misbehavior for example to student who makes noise.
5. Detention.
Is a state of keeping a student in a lockup for few minutes and then remove him or her.

6. Suspension.
When a problem is too critical the student can be sent home for a certain time e.g. a week etc.

MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

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Maslow hypothesized five levels of needs (motivation) which are placed in the frame work referred to as
the hierarchy of needs because of different levels of importance.

Maslow states that if all of a person’s needs are unsatisfied at a particular time satisfaction of more
predominant needs is more pressing than the others.

Those that come first must be satisfied before the higher level need come into play.

Example;- A person who is need of food and respect will strive first to meet the need of food before
she/he strive for respect.

PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS

It consists of human body’s primary needs such as food, water, air, sex etc.

II: SAFETY NEEDS;-

It includes needs for protection, security, secure and stability, house etc.

III: NEED FOR BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE

(social needs)

It include to be loved, accepted, having a sense of attention and good relationship with others.

IV: NEED FOR SELF ESTEEM

It includes needs for respect and human dignity is a need for feeling of confidence and prestige before
others.

V: NEED FOR SELF – ACTUALIZATION;-

Is a need for self fulfillment and realization of one potentials.

THE APPLICATION OF MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS (MOTIVATION) IN SCHOOL

SETTINGS

 Children will work harder at tasks when they feel the result is important to them.

 Moderate competition among children seems generally to increase their output of work.

 Telling pupils that a certain task is likely to contribute to success in life is likely to stimulate
them.

 Praise is often used as an incentive. Both children and adults are likely to work harder if they feel
that their efforts are appreciated.

 Children tend to exert themselves more when a standard of attainment has been set.

TEACHER’S ROLES IN MOTIVATION

Motivation in learners can be enhanced and accomplished. The teacher can play several roles to facilitate
and make students motivated by;-

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  Treating learners as colleagues by involving them in several issues eg. Decision making.

 Rewarding performance of students through incentives such as recognition, privileges, praise,

attention etc.

 Teachers being good models who can be modeled by students.

 Matching instruction to their cognitive and skill level etc.

MEMORY

Memory refers to the processes by which people and other organisms encode, store, and retrieve
information. Encoding refers to the initial perception and registration of information. Storage is the
retention of encoded information over time. Retrieval refers to the processes involved in using stored
information. Whenever people successfully recall a prior experience, they must have encoded, stored, and
retrieved information about the experience. Conversely, memory failure example, forgetting an important
fact reflects a breakdown in one of these stages or processes of memory.

Processes involved in memory.

From information processing perspective there are three main stages in the formation and retrieval of
memory:

* Encoding or registration (receiving, processing and combining of received information)

* Storage (creation of a permanent record of the encoded information)

* Retrieval, recall or recollection (calling back the stored information in response to some cue for use
in a process or activity)

TYPES OF MEMORY

Information

a. sensory memory

b. working memory

c. long term memory

In this information-processing model of memory, information that enters the brain is briefly recorded in
sensory memory. If we focus our attention on it, the information may become part of working memory
(also called short-term memory), where it can be manipulated and used. Through encoding techniques
such as repetition and rehearsal, information may be transferred to long-term memory. Retrieving long-
term memories makes them active again in working memory.

Sensory Memory

Sensory memory refers to the initial, momentary recording of information in our sensory systems.

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Is the type of memory where information is registered. When sensations strike our eyes, they linger
briefly in the visual system. This kind of sensory memory is called iconic memory and refers to the
usually brief visual persistence of information as it is being interpreted by the visual system.

Echoic memory is the name applied to the same phenomenon in the auditory
domain: the brief mental echo that persists after information has been heard.

Short-Term or Working Memory

Psychologists originally used the term short-term memory to refer to the ability to hold information in
mind over a brief period of time. As conceptions of short-term memory expanded, to include more than
just the brief storage of information, psychologists created new terminology. The term working memory is
now commonly used to refer to a broader system that both stores information briefly and allows
manipulation and use of the stored information.

LONG TERM MEMORY

Is a type of memory which keep the information if not to be used at a short time after being registered.
The information is sent to a long term memory to be used during future time.

Eg. Learners/students keep the learned materials in a long term memory

in order to be used during final examination. The materials kept in a long term memory should be brought
first in a working memory (short term memory) in order to recall.

FACTORS FOR RECALLING/REMEMBERING (FACTORS WHICH PROMOTE MEMORY)

1. The use of Mnemonic aids;- This is any short word technique used to recall.

Eg. To remember branches of Psychology one may use the aid CHIPESO, CLIED CODE INDEX.

2. Association – one relate the environment with the learned materials in order to recall.

Eg. An individual recall the concept by remembering what happened during learning that concept.

3. 3.Meaning of information;- If the information is very important, an individual remember

easily

4. Sufficient time to recall

5. Repetition/Practice; towards learned materials

6. Memorization;- ie forcing the information stick (get) in the mind regardless level of understanding.

7. Recence/Frequency;- Duration of time taken since the materials have been learned

TEACHER’S ROLE IN IMPROVING MEMORY

 Use of mnemonics; the teacher should use the mnemonic aids which can assists the learners to
remember easy; ie they provide easy retrieval.

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  A teacher should help students to make practices of what they have learnt from time to time.
Practice can be in class or distributed.

 A teacher should give full participation to students to do things they have learnt.

 Over – learning i.e. Helping students to continue to study beyond the first practice. Students
could read and do more work beyond the teaching.

FORGETTING

Meaning;-

Forgetting is a failure or inability to remember knowledge or material learned.

OR – Is inability of an individual to retrieve/retain the previous learned materials or experiences.

FACTORS WHICH CAUSE FORGETTING

 Interference of the information

 Fading or decaying memory with time

 Fear and anxiety

 Insufficient time to recall

 Change of environment

 Accident which cause damage of the sense organs Eg. Brain

 Drug abuse – cause an individual to be in a subconscious state.

TEACHER’S ROLES IN REDUCING FORGETTING

For teachers to reduce forgetting of what students learn; they can;-

 Make learning meaningful to students by using effective teaching strategies.

 Use varieties of and relevant teaching aids that will help from mental picture.

 Provide conducive learning environment

 Reduce proactive and retroactive obstacles such as rebuking and punishing students

 Provide opportunity for active participation and practice by students.

 Analyze factors which affect memory and learning.

2.Identify different techniques which can be used to improve memory.

3. Describe how memory helps the learning of new concepts.

4. Explain the meaning of memory and differentiate three types of memory.

5. Describe the meaning of motivation and reinforcement.

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6. Explain the significance of motivation and reinforcement in the teaching

and learning process.

7. Identify simple ways of motivating and reinforcing students’ behaviors

and achievement.

8. Evaluate the use of negative reinforcement and punishment in the teaching

and learning process.

9. Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, its application in education and its significance in daily life.

TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Specific Objectives

By the end of this sub-topic, the student teacher should be able to:

a) Identify different types of transfer of learning

b) Describe practical applications of theories of transfer of learning.

c) Appraise the way each kind of transfer of learning affect learning.

MEANING

Is the process whereby previous learned materials affect the acquisition of the new knowledge or
materials positively or negatively. However in other circumstance the new knowledge can affect the
mastery of the previous learned knowledge in positively or negatively way.

CONDITIONS FOR TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE (LEARNING) TO TAKE PLACE;-

 There must be an ability to perceive similarities existing between the previous and the new
knowledge.

 There should be a motivation for transfer. There should be a reason or a need that necessitate to
an individual to transfer knowledge.

 There must be a good mastery for previous learned materials.

 There should be a conducive atmosphere/environment (means to be free from other factors in

reasoning/ thinking)

 There should be a reasonable time to allow positive transfer

TYPES OF TRANSFER OF LEARNING

There are four main types of Transfer of Learning.

a) Positive transfer, Negative transfer and Zero transfer

b) Retroactive and Proactive Transfer

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 c) Vertical and Horizontal Transfer

d) General and Specific Transfer

POSITIVE TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Is a situation whereby previous learned knowledge facilitate the acquisition of a new knowledge.
Eg. If an individual has a background knowledge of typing can experience easier to learn
computer.

NEGATIVE TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Is a situation whereby the learned knowledge has detrimental effect in the acquisition of new
knowledge

ZERO TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Is a situation whereby the previous learned knowledge or experience has no any effect from the learning
or acquisition of the new knowledge.

Retroactive and Proactive Transfer

 Retroactive transfer of learning occurs if the learning activity affects the understanding or
memory of a previously learned task.

 Proactive transfer of learning occurs if one learning task influences the learning of a later task.

Vertical and Horizontal transfer

 Vertical transfer is the positive or negative effect that two tasks, differing in level of complexity,
have on each other. For example, mastery of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division facts will certainly have positive effects on learning to solve ratios.

Horizontal transfer

 Horizontal transfer is the positive or negative effect that two or more tasks similar in complexity
have on each other. For example, observing the effects of a speech unit on class participation
shows a concern with horizontal transfer. In this case, a teacher uses activities that differ in
subject matter rather than complexity. Horizontal transfer is very important because the more
subjects areas are integrated, the more likely it is that new content will be meaningful and will be
retained.

Theories of transfer of learning

 Formal Discipline Theory. This states that difficult mental activities such as the study of logic,
advanced mathematics and so on could strengthen students mental faculties and increases their
ability to learn other things.

 Identical elements Theory. Introduced by E.L.Thorndike. It states that how much one learning
situation affects another depends on how alike the stimuli of the two situations are.

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  Generalization theory. It states that transfer between two learning situations depends on how
many the rules and principles that governed these situations were alike.

The proponent of this theory believe that no knowledge about the general
elements of two learning situations is more important than the knowledge about identical elements.

 Transposition theory. An individual is the one who must see the relationship between two events
before can take place.

 Learning set theory. The theory believes that transfer depends on the sets or learning abilities that
we gain through practice. Sometimes this theory is known as learning to learn. What is
transferred from one task to another task is a persons’ ability to learn how to learn.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THEORIES OF TRANSFER OF LEARNING

 Similarity of stimulus and response can enhance transfer of learning.

 If learners can use similar or the same methods of conserving knowledge in the two tasks, the
better will he/she be in learning the second task. Hence enhance transfer of learning.

 Variety of methods and principles examining the same problem can also enhance learning.

 Helps learners to grasp new concepts easily

TOPIC FIVE

DIVERSITY IN LEARNING

5.0. LEARNERS WITH EXCEPTIONALS IN LEARNING.

Exceptional children

 these are children whose performance deviates from normal, either below or above to the extent
that special educational programming is needed.

The deviation could be in intellectual, physical, social, emotional, sensory or communication ability.

Handicap : is a condition that significantly restricts an individual’s participation in activities as a result of

disability or society’s attitudes towards disability. It prevent the fulfillment of roles that are appropriate
according to the age, gender etc .

 Special education: it is an individually planned, systematically implemented, and carefully

evaluated instruction to help learners with personal self-sufficiency and success in the present and
future environments (Heward,1996)

The aim of special education is to assist the person to cope with their current and future

Children with special needs : Are those whose abilities and performance differ from those of average
children of the same age in developmental norms such as physical, social, cognitive etc.

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CATEGORIZATION OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Visual impaired, Hearing impaired, Physical impaired, mental impaired, Students with learning
Disability, Children with emotional and behavioral difficult, Gifted/talented.

4. STUDENTS WHO ARE GIFTED AND TALENTED

Are those students who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual,
creative, artistic, leadership capacity or specific academic fields and who require services or activities not
ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such abilities

 Gifted: is usually used to refer to high general intellectual ability, while,

Talented is used for high performance in specific area.

Creative children are those having ability to think in new ways and produce original ideals and useful
products.

IDENTIFICATION OF GIFTED & TALENTED STUDENTS

 Public law 91-230 state that gifted and talented children are to be identified using multiple
criteria. These may include:

i)Evaluation by teachers.

The teacher will nominate certain students in her class and refer them for further testing using
standardized intelligence tests.

ii) Evaluation by peers or classmates.

Peers and classmates are at times called upon to identify students who could be described as outstanding,
clever, smart, demonstrating leadership qualities and likeable as friends or study mates.

iii)Evaluation by parents and other important people. The drawback to this approach is that the judgment
of children may be done on the basis of obedience and submissiveness especially by scout masters and
pastors.

iv) Self-evaluative data. Essays and child heroes can be used as potential sources for the expression of
values.

v) Achievement scores

vi)Creativity

Learning characteristics and academic achievement

 Learn quickly and easily when motivated.

 Posses power to learn, apply and retain.

 Are basically curious and asking questions.

 Are none conformist and show independence and thinking.

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  Posses an intensive desire to know and understand.

 Are noticeably creative and inventive

 They have self directed interests.

 Some of them write poorly because their thoughts come faster than they can write.

 They enjoy studying challenged subject

Education programming for gifted and talented students

 Special classes/schools: Gifted children are removed from the regular classroom/schools for
special instructions, so the classes are more or less like resource rooms.

 Ability Grouping: The ability grouping is used widely in many schools systems where children
are divided according to there abilities. The groups are homogeneous and are arranged to enable
students to participate in a given group.

 Acceleration: It provides gifted and talented students learning experiences that are usually given
to older children. It places them in classes ahead of their peers in one or more academic subjects.

 Enrichment: gifted and talented children remain in the regular classroom but are given
opportunities and special materials to undertake other activities apart from ones the class is doing.
The aim is to expose the children to the variety of materials, views so as to expand their
knowledge.

School system should implement the enrichment component by:

i)encourage teachers in the regular grades to challenge the gifted children with additional
reading, extra assignments, and participate in other than class activities.

ii) Grouping gifted children in a class and challenge their abilities with problems requiring
independent research and thought rather than memory process.

iii) Offering additional learning such as the study of foreign language etc.

iv) Encouraging teachers to hold high standards of achievement for the gifted children and to
help them develop habits of independent work and creativity.

Byrum state that a curriculum for the gifted and talented students should assist them to:

 Add breadth and depth to present knowledge.

 Utilize many instructional media, especially those which free the student from the limited content
bond.

 Develop and utilize critical thinking skills.

 Develop and utilize creative abilities.

 Apply principles and theories to solve life problems.

 Develop a personal set of values.

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  Develop self-discipline and a sense of social responsibilities.

5.2. Students with Physical and Health Impairment.

 This category includes students whose health problems interfere with school attendance or
learning to the extent that special training , equipment, materials or facilities are required.

 The categories of physical and health impairment may include:

 Neurological impairment: this involves damage to the central nervous system. Their behavioral
include mental retardation, perceptual-motor dysfunction, paralysis, seizures, etc.

 Musculoskeletal condition: it involves problems of the joints, legs, arms, or spine that affect the
child's ability to walk, stand, sit, use his/her hands.

 Congenital malformations: it involves distortion of organs. Malformations can be caused by

genetic makeup. Most of these happen during pregnancy and during birth.

Accidents and other physical conditions: accidents such as falling, burning, poisoning and
mishaps during movements are some of the ways people acquire disabilities.

Educational considerations

 When physical disability is severe two effects may rise:-

i. The child may be deprived of educationally relevant experience.

ii. The students may not be able to manipulate educational materials and respond to educational
tasks as the other children do.

What should schools do with physical impaired students.

 Ensure accessible location for the classroom and place for the teacher to meet with the student.

 Provide extra time to get from one class to another.

 Provide special seating in classrooms.

 Extra time for assessments due to slow writing speed.

 Accessible parking in close proximity to the building.

 Adjustable laboratory tables or drafting tables for classes taught in lab setting

 Lab assistance.

 Customized physical education class activities.

 Test accommodation (extended time, separate place, scribes, access to word processors etc).

5.3. Students with learning Disability

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 Learning disability is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language; spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect
ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mechanical calculations.

Causes of learning disabilities

 Learning disabilities can be caused by:-

i. Brain damage.

ii. Hereditary factors

iii. Educational factors which includes inappropriate T/L materials.

iv. Environmental factors such as lack of nutrition, accident etc.

Characteristics of students with learning disabilities:

 Slow acquisition rates for learning new skills.

 Difficulty in generalizing and maintaining new learned skills

 Severe deficits in communication skills.

 Infrequent constructive behaviour and interaction.

 Deficits in self-help skills.

Classroom management for students with learning disabilities

 Briefly review the previous lecture/lesson.

 Use visual aids such as overheads, diagrams, charts, etc.

 Allow the use of tape recorders.

 Emphasize important points, main ideas, key concepts.

 Face the class when speaking.

Explain all technical terminologies

 Briefly review the previous lecture/lesson.

 Use visual aids such as overheads, diagrams, charts, etc.

 Allow the use of tape recorders.

 Emphasize important points, main ideas, key concepts.

 Face the class when speaking.

Explain all technical terminologies

5.4. STUDENTS WITH LANGUAGE PROBLEMS

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  Language disorders include problems in the comprehension and use of a language for
communication, regardless of the symbol system used (Hallahan & Kauffman).

 Causes of Language problems:

 Congenital or early-acquired deafness.

 Hearing loss.

 Mental retardation.

 Brain injury due to oxygen deprivation.

 Lack of language stimulation.

 Interrupted language development.

 Physical trauma and infections.

Indicators of language problems:

 Limited use of vocabulary

 Incorrect grammar.

 Frequent hesitation in responding to questions.

 Word substitution problems.

 Problems of understanding multiple word meaning

Classroom management of students with language problems

i. Use beneficial music to improve language, such as storytelling, singing, as part of language
learning.

ii. Use games that require receptive and expressive languages.

iii. Teacher should teach listening skills and encourage students to listen.

iv. The classroom should be arranged well to allow effective interactions.

5.5. Students with hearing impairment.

 Students with hearing impairment experience hearing loss significant enough to require special
instruction, training and adaptation. This category includes both the deaf and the hard-of-hearing.

Causes

Common causes of hearing impairment are

Prolonged delivery resulting in oxygen deficiency to the baby’s brain, heredity, prematurity birth
Low birth weight, complications of pregnancy, Venereal diseases, meningitis, malaria, measles,
Misuse of drug, Misuse of delivery instruments Accidents that affect the fetus and that affects

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 brain and head injury in general, Long and constant exposure to loud sounds or noise, Exposure
to poisonous Old age.

Types of hearing problems:

i. Conductive hearing loss. Complications in the middle and outer ear can cause prevention of
sound waves to reach the inner ear.

ii. Sensory-neural hearing loss. Can occur due to problems in the inner ear. Sound waves do not
reach the brain for processing or the sound waves are distorted before they reach the brain.

iii. . Mixed hearing loss. This involves problems of conduction of waves in both the inner ear and the
outer or middle ear.

Characteristics of learners with hearing impairment

• They frequently ask for repetition of what has been said

• They have frequent ear infections

• They have poor articulation of sounds

• They have difficultly participation in group discussion especially noisy surrounding

• They cannot able to control their voice and hence speak either loudly or softly

• They cup the ear in the direction of the sound

• They have poor vocabulary for their

Classroom management of students with hearing impairment/intervention

 Let them seat in front of the classroom.

 Use written supplement to oral instructions, assignment, and directions.

 Use visual aids as often as possible.

 Sound amplification system arranged properly in the classroom.

 Reduce excess noise as much as possible to facilitate communication.

 Use oral and written activities

 Face them when talking

 Learn and teach child to use communication skills such as sign language, lip reading

5.6. Students with visual impairment

 Visual impairment: Is the visual loss in which the students can not successfully use vision as a
primary channel for learning, or has a reduced acuity or visual field that process information
visually in significantly inhibited and specialized materials

Visual impairment can be classified as :-

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 Totally blind Individual does not have ability to use vision.

Low vision: Individual has partial vision which can be corrected by low vision devices to allow
him/her to use vision as a channel for learning

Causes of Visual impairment

Visual impairment can be caused by:

• Heredity factors

• Diseases such as rubella, German measles, trachoma , diabetes, venereal diseases such as syphilis

• Inadequate nutrition especially vitamin A

• Accidents

• Poison

characteristics of visual Impairment

 Visual impairment can identified by :-

 They are generally slow in movement

 Red or watery eyes.

 They hold objects close to their eyes or move close to the objects

 Tilts or turns head to focus on objects.

 Headache after close visual tasks.

 Frequent confusion of similarly shaped letters, numbers and words.

 They do not pay attention to visual objects.

 Frequent blinking and frowning.

 Rub eyes frequently.

 Snellen chart, in which a child is expected to read various letters, numbers or symbols from a
distance of 20 feet.

Orientation and mobility of visual impaired students

 Mobility, which is the capacity or facility of movement, has two components:

i. Mental orientation. Is the ability of an individual to recognize his surroundings and their
temporal or spatial relations to himself.

ii. Physical locomotion. Is a movement of an organism from place to place by means of its organic

 Hill (1985) lists and describes various systems or devices for mobility, these may include; human
guides, long canes, dog guides.
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 Long cane which is widely used, helps to detect obstacles, ditches, and any object in the way.

 Advantages of long cane:-

 Provides advance information and orientation about objects along the walking surface.

 It is highly maneuverable.

 It is inexpensive and requires very little maintenance.

 Identifies the user as visually handicapped.

Disadvantages:

 The upper part of the body is unprotected, particularly from suspended objects.

 It is difficult to use in strong winds.

 It identifies the user as visually handicapped.

 Guide dogs: are usually used in developed countries. It is expensive both to train the dog and
maintain it though dogs have proved to be faithful guides.

 Disadvantages of using a guide dog.

 It is more expensive as it requires intensive training of a dog.

 It can't be applied in some people due to religion beliefs.

 Disadvantages of human guides are:

 Many sighted persons are not knowledgeable in how to guide visually handicapped persons.

 Some handicapped travelers may not pay attention to environmental information and orientation
when traveling with sighted guides.

 It fosters dependence rather than independence.

Question: What are the advantages of using human guides in visual impaired mobility.

Braille Reading

 It is a system of reading and writing in which letters, numbers and other symbols are made from
the arrangements of raised dots (Heward, 1996).

Heinze (1985) noted several advantages of using braille as a reading and writing system:

 It can be used by blind readers as a tool for daily communication.

 It provides both reading and writing system.

Disadvantages of using braille system

 Reading speed is significantly slower than for recorded materials.

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  Braille materials are expensive to produce.

 The multiple use of only 63 available characters causes some confusion and ambiguity, since the
same symbol may stand for letters, words, punctuation, numbers, etc.

Education intervention

• Use appropriate seating arrangements

• Help them to use listening skills

• Use audio instructional materials

• Ensure the lighting in the class

• Allow albinism and low vision learners to wear in tinted glasses

• Use large print

• Use concrete objects

• Allow learner to learn by doing

i. Emotional and behavioral problems.

b). suggest the methods/techniques to be used by the teacher to manage the classroom with
learners having problems mentioned in (a) above.

Mental challenged

• These are students who have significantly low intellectual functioning capacity.

• These students are limited in two or more of the following adaptive skills areas;

• Self care and home living

• Social skills

• Self direction

• Mental functions

• Motor development

• Attention skills

• Perception or thinking

• These children are classified as:

• Mild mental retardation

• Moderate

• Severe
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 Profound

Mild mental retardation

• Have average IQ 50-70

• These deviate little in their level of functioning from normal children

• They can be educated within normal school system but they may not perform well in
examination.

Moderate

• Have IQ of between 35-55

• These are slow in learning

• They demonstrate developmental delays

• Their education is usually in self contained class

• Most of them can live and work in community if assistance is available

Severe

• Have an IQ between 20-25

• Most of time they need support

• Profound

• Have an IQ below 20

• Are semi independent

• Most of time they need support throughout their live

Causes

• Genetic factor e. g down syndrome,

• Infections/ diseases

• X ray

• Accident

• Poisoning

characteristics

• Children with MR differ from one another

• Have problem in information processing such as memory, decision making etc.

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• Problem in language development eg speech

• Academic achievement. Do not do well in academic subjects

• Social development,. They have problem of making and keeping friens

Educational consideration

• Teach them leadenness skills . These includes ability to follow direction,

• Teach them social skill which includes living skills such as dressing, eating, toilet activities

• Teach them functional activities in order to be able to live in a community e.g. how to cross the
road, how to use money etc

• Community living skills such as way to the church, how to go with (daladala ) minbus

• It may cause Teachers and students to hold low expectations

• It may lead peers to reject them

• It may lead to stigmatization

• Labeled students may be assigned to inferior education programme

• It may cause Teachers and students to hold low expectations

• It may lead peers to reject them

• It may lead to stigmatization

• Labeled students may be assigned to inferior education programme

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