Research Paper on the Importance of Human Development in the Classroom

There are five developmental periods: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence and late adolescence. They all have their own specific traits, conditions, similarities and differences. That is why childhood and adolescence can be rightfully called the two main periods of man’s development as a social being with his own emotional world. The research work of the ethnographers in the first part of the twentieth century allowed making a conclusion that the concrete social consequences in a life of a child determine the duration of the teen period, presence and absence of conflicts and the character of conversion from childhood to adulthood.

The understanding of the importance of these stages of human development should be focused on adults, especially on teachers and tutors. As a result the lack of such understanding can cause the wrong up-bringing of a child. Besides the teacher’s behavior, attention and attitude to the individual pupil is one of the main factors of necessary development, because it is exactly the experienced teacher who forms up the basis of open honest classroom environment, establishes the relations and communication there, all in all forms up a collective.

But coming back to the concept of adolescence, I can’t help saying that there is still no united theory, explaining all the specific traits of this age. The great number of the existing views applicable for this question can be divided according to the accents into two groups: biological and social. The first one was particularly popular at the beginning of the twentieth century. The biological features and specifics of the development in teen age are the basis of this notion. The supporters of social theories consider that the surrounding and social environment play the main role in the development of the youth. The duration, character and selecting of the teen age and adolescence as a special stage depends on it. Psychologists say that the space of human culture should be taken into account to understand the regularity of psychic development.

The theory and practice

Molding a personality and forming of self-estimation and self-control of an adolescent

And now I would like to speak about a teacher, who plays an important role in the development of a child. But firstly, I should say that a teacher can not mold a personality and traits of character of an individual at first as it is only a consequence of a long-term group work in the collective. These top educational results appear only when any teacher’s or tutor’s influence coincides at a whole with pupil’s own efforts in mastering educational process with his activity of self training, self-organizing and self-confident-control.

That is why one of the main tasks of a classroom is to form the pupil’s perception of educational process not only as an external activity but as a result of his own activity, work, of his own individuality. One of the possible ways of assisting it is the involvement of the pupils into the estimation of their educational activity. Saying it I mean self-verification or to be exact self-control. Self-control is an action the object of which is own conditions and characteristics of a man as a subject of an activity and communication, it also a skill that helps to trace own way to the achievement of the educational goal. There is one condition of forming self-control and it is the involvement of pupils into the various forms of interexamination. But it is not as important as the impetus or inducement of pupils to the activity, to the development of cooperating skills with each other, to the control of own actions and words, to the estimation of the achieved results of an activity. The profound estimation is a process of correlation of steps and results of an activity with a marked standard for defining the level and quality of educational advancement and the determination of tasks and problems for the future success. But the priority attention should be paid to the forming of the inner profound estimation, so called self-estimation. It must be said that self-estimation is based on the external estimation and depends greatly on it. That is why firstly it is very important to have different ways of organizing self-estimation (group or collective estimation, interestimation), secondly they should be based on confidence to the pupil, respect of his personality, acknowledgement of his individuality and abilities. But a pupil can make the estimation, take into account the estimation of a teacher and rely on it while making up his own decisions or estimations only if he feels confidence, respect and sympathy. The success in the development of pupil’s reflexive estimative abilities and reflexive activity (self-awareness), forming of an adequate self-estimation depends mainly on how the teacher controls the pupil’s work. The readiness of a pupil for the inner profound estimation of his activity testifies about the development of his reflexive abilities, it also means that a pupil is able to use so called reverse connection that lets him see the reasons of his educational success and failure, to estimate the grade of the achieved results, comparing it with other ones.

Self-estimation is a very important kind of the estimative ability, relation of a man to his own abilities, capacity, personal traits, and self-opinion; all in all it is an initial point according to which a man orientates and estimates everything that surrounds him. But I can not help mentioning that inadequate increased self-estimation can cause intrapersonal conflict in connection with inability to realize the increased pretension and requirements. Inadequate decreased self-estimation can cause intrapersonal conflict in connection with diffidence, insecurity in own power and capacity. Self-comparison with standards of adulthood can also cause intrapersonal conflict, if a teenager finds too many differences and discrepancy.

These abilities, described earlier are connected with the development of the intellectual sphere and mental abilities as a whole. The abilities of the pupils to self-control and self-estimation are caused by the development of motivation sphere of a pupil, as they are based on the needs of being acknowledged, on the need of respect and self-improvement.

A role of a teacher in the development in a classroom

When a teacher tries to apply theory to the classroom he should plan his actions beforehand and to act step by step according to a plan without making inconvertible quick decisions. The teacher must know perfectly the psychology of a child, be a part of his soul, be attentive to the needs of every child, support his or her emotional and social well-being and of course choose the necessary and the most effective tactics in forming up the new relationships between him and pupils. Firstly the teacher should understand clearly that adolescence is such a period or stage in the life of every child which is unacceptable, wrong, resistless and at last incomprehensive from the point of view of most adults. Adolescence is a period when a child starts to fight for his own independence. But it does not mean that he wants to be independent from his parents. The teenager’s behavior depends on the style of upbringing that determines the attitude to the parents and the way of interaction and communication. While showing absolute discontent and reluctance and counteraction to the adults, the adolescent feels the need of support. The most convenient situation is when the adult plays the role of a friend. Common activities, common pastime helps to learn adults closer. Variability of teenage mood can cause his inadequate reaction. But it can be explained only in the way that a teenager just wants to be heard, he needs his actions, words, opinion, personality, desires and wishes to be accepted and never punished.

The normal relationship between a pupil and a teacher is productive, when it is based on some simple rules. Firstly the relationship should be based on honesty and respect. It must be open, so that a pupil can become more productive, fell his own potential without sensing infringement. Secondly the both sides should value each other. That is why the teacher should share any story, any speech, all in all maintain the relations with all the students without selecting the best and privileged individuals. It means creating trusting relationship, sharing all the joys and sorrows of his pupils. Thirdly, the relationship should be based on interdependence, so that all can rely on each other as trust and confident is an integral part of relations. In such an open atmosphere independent thoughts, views can be easily exchanged and shared. A united collective can be effectively formed, when a teacher organizes open discussions, takes into account all the educational suggestions and problems. Only in such a case the pupil will feel the teachers support, understanding and interest. The teacher while listening to the expectations of his students should not limit the topics of the conversation.

I have depicted the social and emotional development of an adolescent and now I would like paying my attention to the development of mental abilities with the help of a teacher. The proper work and methods of material guarantees a great part of success. Because it is a teacher who can make the information accessible, understandable and interesting; it is the teacher who can decorate an ordinary boring difficult lesson with different illustrative material, cassettes, videos, posters making it more simply. In such a case the pupils can become interested in a subject; they will visit it with great pleasure as the information given at the lesson is simple and entertaining. So it means that the assimilation of the information and material will become better. So it up for a teacher to help the children develop the overview, broaden their mind, all in all develop mentally.

Conclusion

To finish my work I can not help saying that the stages of human development is a real phenomenon. These stages are of great importance, especially the relations in a classroom, where the teachers try their best to translate the developmental theory into practice. It greatly promotes children’s and adolescents’ physical, cognitive, emotional and of course social growth. But at the same time the teachers should keep in mind and never forget the individual developmental nuances, the influence of environment and diversity of developmental changes. And at last if a teacher has no notion about these stages and can not understand them it will result in a breakdown of communication, while there is no mutual understanding, productive work, cooperation and relations without basis of communication.

The absence of any stage of human development can not promote the upbringing of a useful member of the society that will live without problems in a cruel social world. I mean if the childhood of a determined child was full of angry relations, insufficient attention, absence of understanding, conversation (I am not taking into account the material wealth of a family and simple needs of a child), he is left without proper upbringing. That is why in most cases such children are emotionally unstable and not in a far distant future it will be obvious that they can not be highly educated persons and necessary, useful member of the society respectively. Everything the same can happen in a case when a teenager is left without attention from the side of a family or school teachers. These children are uncared for as the lack of upbringing result in terrible consequences.

Bibliography

1. Child Development: Working with Children. www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ tg/detail/-/0131108417?v=glance
2. Application of theory to practice. www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$31897