Development of Learning Ch 3

What?
I loved today's class. I was learning so much and that doesn't always happen. The things that I loved learning about was that we are all so similar. That we all go through some sort of stage. It is one of those things that you know, but that is never really understood because everyone around you seem to act that they have their act together and that they have no problems at all with what is happening. Another thing I enjoyed learning this time was how things might be learned. It was from Erikson's model of psychosocial development. He spoke of learning trust and mistrust and other attributes that are developed throughout a person's life and how they are learned. I agreed with him for the most part, but as far as the attributes being learned in only one stage of life, it just didn't seem right. For example, mistrust and trust he said is learned in the infant stage. Well, I feel like I had great trust until I got older and soon experience would teach me not to trust others. It has been hard to not always trust others and so I am learning to trust others again. But my goodness, it was definitely not learned when I was a baby. Really, though, sad that it was learned. Hmm... So- great class.

Why?
I think that this chapter was way important to learn because it is the root of so many children's lives with whom we will be teaching. I feel that without knowing how to help and understand them then in some essence we fail with teaching and helping them. Teaching is not only about giving knowledge, but also about understanding and teaching attributes that might help students be better than before, or believe in the ability that they have to be more. Also, for those students who are on ball, understanding where they are coming from will help teach them so that they don't get too "bored" with not progressing. Understanding the development in behavior has been so helpful thus far...

So what?
It establishes that there needs to be a basic understanding as to where students are coming from. It will help me understand my own children, when that time comes, but also with my husband. Understanding the stages and growth can help me with all my classes. It will help with adjusting assignments to meet needs and help me with helping the kids understand themselves. I hope to apply this information today and then continue learning about it so that I will be well versed in this area. Sounds fun to me.