+
Developmentalism and
how it portrays Direct
Teaching Methodologies
By: Madeleine Kautz
+
Presentation based on article by
J.E. Stone

Developmentalism’s Impediments to School Reform: Three
Recommendations for Overcoming them
+
Add some Youtubes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybsAsuzGdYs (“play is
the work of the children” shows a video of a child centered
pre-school)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_b-ytQl7LU (how to
show 70% of a hotdog middle school)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIMWOOlR_9g (Man
performing “child centered” play therapy)
+
Developmentalism

“[N]atural ontogenesis to be optimal and it requires
experimentally demonstrated teaching practices to
overcome a presumption that they interfere with an optimal
developmental trajectory…it also discourages teachers and
parents from asserting themselves with children…Instead of
effective interventions, it seeks the preservation of a
postulated natural perfection” (Stone, p. 1, 1996)

A teaching methodology that discourages parents and
teachers from pushing a child past their developmental limits
for fear that doing so will result in an interference with
natural and optimal development.
+
Supporters
Jean
Jacques Rousseau

John Dewey

Jean Piaget
+
A Little History….
 In
the years during which it gained
ascendance, Developmentalism was
created to reject the harsh and
inhumane methods use in America’s
early history.
 However, today
it impedes efforts to
hold schools accountable for student
academic achievement (Stone, p. 1,
1996).
+
Beliefs
Stone
believed that in fact, developmentalism
was developed to absolve teachers and
schools of their responsibility to foster student
achievement.
As
class sizes grew, school systems needed an
excuse for why their students were not
meeting certain expectations.
Their
theory is based on the ideology that
children should not be pushed past their
developmental limits for fear that this will
ultimately do more harm than good.
+
Developmentalists are AGAINST
Using
teaching methodologies
that prove their capabilities and
effectiveness through empirically
based evidence.
 They market their approach
based on untested, unvalidated
practices by selling them as
“innovative”
+
Developmentalist “Lingo”

“Child centered”

“Progressive Teaching”

“Whole language approach”

“Language Experience”

“Discovery Learning”

“Cognitive apprenticeship approach to instruction”

Bring children into literature in a “natural way”
+
How Developmentalists Negatively
Target Behavior Analysis

Criticize that behavior analysts:

Drill students

Give too much corrective feedback

Contrive incentives

Developmentalists believe that expected skills and interests
will emerge over time

Do not want to expose children to the “hazards inherent in
intervention” (Clark & Starr, 1991; Lemlech, 1994; Jacobsen,
Eggen, & Kauchak, 1993; Stone, 1995). P. 19
+ Lemlech’s (1994) report on Curriculum and
instructional methods for the elementary and
middle schools

In classrooms where students are given little opportunity to choose
what they will learn, how they will learn, and the way in which they
will be evaluated for learning, there is a greater likelihood that the
classroom is structured through intrinsic rewards,
incentive programs, and normative evaluation. As a
consequence, learning will become joyless. There is also a
tendency in these classrooms to overemphasize repetition,
drill, and commercially produced dittos for practice
materials. Some believe this to be prevalent in low socioeconomic and low achieving classrooms, and as a
consequence it may the cause of negative motivation patterns.
(p. 91)
+
How Developmentlist Theory is
Contradictory:

Incentive based programs are what motivate students to
learn

Learning stems from operant conditioning
 A student will be more likely to engage in a behavior when
they are met with reinforcement (Sr+)

“Drilling” otherwise known as discrete trial teaching is
simply giving students multiple opportunities to learn

Developmentalism has not worked, especially for “at-risk”
students (Stone, 1994).

Developmentalism was discredited in the 1950’s after 40
years of classroom trials (Ratvich, 1983) Stone, 1994,p. 60
+
The continuous call for “better
methods”

Stone discusses a “cyclical problem” that exists in education system today.

As a result, teaching methodologies are “cyclical,” and the same types of
strategies filter in and out of the system.

Stone critiques, “Criticisms that are behind the curve can be ignored
because they are no longer relevant. Criticisms of the latest innovations can
be ignored because they are premature and intolerant of innovation.”(Stone,
p. 3, 1996)

As a result, teachers accept practices and reject practices without a clear
understanding of which are more effective.
+
Why Non-Experimental Research
Methods are Better Accepted

Teaching practices informed by studies of naturally
occurring social and educational processes are relatively
well received by the educational community

These do not suggest alterations of “natural conditions”
(Stone, 1996).

Teachers are encouraged to “shape instruction to the
preferences and inclinations of the student in order to
enhance achievement” (Stone, 1996).
+
Stone’s retort
 While
developmentalists acknowledge
research as a foundation for educational
practice, they give it little credibility in
determining a teaching method.
 Neither
do they encourage the reader to rely
on research as a basis, judging the quality of
teaching practices.
 They
seem to wear the mantle of science but
oddly neglect its substance and purpose”
(Stone, p. 3, 1996).
+ Concepts of Developmentalist Thought
by Jean Jacque Rousseau

Rousseau believed that nature was God's work untainted by human
influence.

In his interpretation, optimal development occurred when children
were able develop without being tainted by society.

Rousseau believed that development was more due to maturation,
however he attributed social and educational influences to have the
ability to “facilitate and nurture” or to “corrupt and misdirect the optimal
progressing to which nature was postulated to tend” (Stone, 6, 1994).
+
Concepts Contrasted by Dewey &
Piaget
 By
contrast, Dewey and Piaget considered a
child's tendencies and characteristics were the
result of Darwinian evolution (Stone, 1996).
 The
belief was that evolution produced people
that had the ability to learn by solving
problems and therefore “learning in the
context of problem solving was optimal”
(Stone, p. 6, 1996).
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Piaget (1970’s)
Gained
popularity in the 1970’s
through his observations of his 3
children.
 His
claim was that this was enough
empirical evidence to study individual
intelligence
+
Piaget’s theory of intelligence
 Bring
attention to child’s mode or style of thought
(Stone, 1996).
 Expose
child to one stage of reasoning above their
own
 Arouse
children to cognitive and social conflict and
disagreement (similar to Dewey)
 This contrasts traditional beliefs about adult’s
reinforcing “behaving well”
 Piaget
instead believed that children should learn
through stimulus-situation associated with naturalfeedback (Stone, 1996).
+
Piaget’s definition of Development
and Intelligence
 Takes
3 forms:
 Different individuals differ on the same task and
much more than an IQ mentality would have us
believe
 2nd type is found within an individuals as he
performs a variety of tasks
 3rd type is variability is a child’s performance
fluctuating throughout the day
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Dewey’s Beliefs
 Felt
school should be unstructured in a way
so that students came into contact with
problems

Wanted them to learn to problem solve
 Teachers
should be available to” facilitate spontaneous
learning processes, but should not produce unnatural or
artificial situations that he felt would induce a
preconceived outcome” (Stone p. 9, 1994).

Dewey believed that the main function of school was to
produce “growth”
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Maturation vs. Darwinism
 Dewey
DID NOT accredit Maturation to
development or believe it to be an important
process to be included within the education
system.

He was critical of Rousseu’s followers.
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Dewey Quote
 In
Dewey's words, the only proper aim of education
is "growth" (Dewey, 1916/1963):
 “Since
growth is the characteristic of life,
education is all one with growing; it has no end
beyond itself. The criterion of the value of school
education is the extent in which it creates a desire
for continued growth and supplies means for
making the desire effective in fact” (p. 53).
 (Stone
p. 9, 1994).
+
More on Dewey
 Held
the belief that teachers should prevent
students from acquiring any “preconceived understanding or
knowledge”
 Rather students would “arrive at
commonly held truths as a result of their
personal explorations”( Stone, p. 9, 1994)
+
But what does this “growth” mean?
Dewey
never operationally
defined growth
Term
is vague and subjective
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Inability to transcend the times
 Dewey’s
developmental ideology posed to be far from
innovative in the sense that it could not transcend the
times
 Did
not take into account:
the cost-effectiveness of schooling
 children who may have early onset learning delays but still
encompass the desire to become a fundamental
component of society.


“Neither was the availability of meaningful occupational
opportunities for students whose natural thirst for learning was
significantly delayed” (Stone, p. 9., 1994).
+
The Global Economy
 Dewey
also did not take into
consideration our growing global
economy and the competitive nature of
capitalism.

Children no longer simply needed to learn a trade, but in fact needed to
be well-rounded in their academic endeavors

“Thus in spite of his pragmatic orientation, neither Dewey nor his
followers seemed to appreciate the pedagogic
and economic
inefficiencies that would result as growing children became
immersed in a world increasingly dominated by competing
attractions” (Stone, p. 9, 1996).
+
What Dewey Overlooked

It is important to learn a widespread variety of skills
being that one set of skills can provide itself useful for
another set.

For instance,
 human hands initially used for hunting and building,
they were not originally used to write or produce
music
 The ability to acquire and retain knowledge may have
originally been for the soul purpose of work that was
contexualized but today there are many avenues of
work that are partly or wholly decontexualized
 For instance growing technology, people have to
learn to grow and adapt and learn new skills
+
Noam Chompsky’s remarks on
John Dewey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZFuOZ0yTNM&feature=r
elated
+
No Longer One View, but Only
View
 Nonetheless, Dewey’s
progressive
ideologies continued to gain stead and
“developmentalism became a very potent
educational orthodoxy” (Stone, p. 10, 1994)
 By
the 1940’s “developmentalism was no
longer thought of as a particular
educational view”, but rather the ONLY
known effective educational practice,
known as “best practices.” (Stone, p. 10,
1994)
+
Developmentalism said to be the most
commonly used educational practice:

At the preschool and K-3 levels, the "developmentally
appropriate instruction" concept has so thoroughly
penetrated educational thinking that it is included in the
"America 2000" statement of national educational goals (U.S.
Department of Education [USDOE], 1991)

It is acknowledged in the school reform principles
formulated by business leaders (Committee for Economic
Development, 1991)

It is explicitly cited in school reform legislation (Kentucky
Education Reform Act, 1990; Stone, 1993).” P. 12
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How to support Behavior Analytic
Education Methods

Gain support from powerful people whose backgrounds are
not necessarily in education but seek pragmatic, costeffective teaching solutions:

Such as corporate participants in educational reform


The New American Schools Development Corporation designs
teams such as:

Modern Red-School House

Whittles Corporation
These corporations first priority is educational result.
+
Collaborate with more corporate
mentalities
 1. This
is where the money is!
 2. Behavior
Analysts are MOST likely to appeal to these type of
people because they offer relatively cost-effective means of
overcoming student deficiencies (Stone, 1994).
 *Pragmatists
such as lawmakers from the states of Kentucky and
Tennessee appear to be influenced by findings of effective
behavior analytic teaching methods.

Believe in educational practices fostered by the Madeline Hunter’s
Mastery Teaching Program (1981) which advocated for
behavioral measurement and criterion referenced
educational objectives.
+
Stones Overall View of
Developmentalism:

Has encouraged parents and teachers to be less assertive

Grant children greater freedom

Encouraged lessened parent insistence on study and effort in
school and in overall mature and responsible behavior.

Frustration and delayed gratification are to be minimized

While immediate success and satisfaction are to be
maximized.
+ Applied Behavior Analysis Teaching Vs. A
Developmentalist Approach
Similarities
Differences

Both seek to decrease
frustration in learning

Developmentalism does not
seek to contrive motivation

Both do not promote delayed
gratification but rather
immediate reward
(reinforcement)

Believes that children have an
inherent drive to learn and this
process should not be
obstructed

Study is expected to be more
fun than work

Not empirically based

Measure success in whether or
not child appears
“enthusiastic”
+
A few more similarities…
Developmentalists
 Do
not want to push
someone too hard to
learn, for fear that they
will lose their intrinsic
motivation inside of
them to learn.
Behavior Analysts
 Do
not want to thin the
schedule of
reinforcement too
quickly!
The National Association for the
+ Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
policy statement

Identifies that the following actions to be
INAPPROPRIATE(Bredekamp, 1988):

The teacher's role is to correct errors and make sure the
child knows the right answer in all subject areas. Teachers
reward children for correct answers with stickers or
privileges, praise them in front of the group, and hold them
up as examples. (p. 76) Stone, p. 13, 1996
+
Developmentalism’s Restrictions
on Teaching and Parenting
 Makes
parents and teachers hesitant and uncertain
of how adults should attempt to influence children
 Strongly
suggesting the possibility of harm
 Provides
NO clear guidance to a safe and effective
course of action
 Requires
merely an estimation of a child's
developmental status as a prerequisite to action
 yet it offers no workable means of
ascertaining that status.
+
Kid can’t do it on his own!

I
would relate this to
telling a parent of a
child with autism that
their child needs to be
potty trained but
giving them no clear
understanding of how
to do this.

+
Continued PUSH to NEVER PUSH

Developmentalists champion
the notion that current levels of
intellectual performance, (e.g.,
effort, maturity, achievement)
can understate but should
never exceed present levels of
development.

For instance, a child who is
reasoning at a concrete
operational level may exhibit
skills of preoperational level
but never more mature levels
such as formal operational
+ Developmentalism encourages “tolerance
and acceptance of immaturity,
irresponsibility, and failure”

In essence, developmentalism creates a school mentality
where, while attendance might be mandatory….study is not.

Students are expected to make an effort only if they feel
interested and enthused.

If students waste time and educational opportunity because
they find schoolwork boring, their behavior is tolerated and
understood
+
CONTRADICTIONS CONTRADITIONS
CONTRADICTIONS

While this sort of behavior is excused, teachers are then blamed for not
providing a sufficiently stimulating environment.

Developmentalism blames teachers for not providing a “stimulating
enough environment” but also criticizes behavior analysts for making
students “reinforcement junkies” (Stone, p. 60, 1994).

The thought is that increasing extrinsic motivation will decrease intrinsic
motivation

Behavior Analysts have conducted thousands of empirically based studies that
have proved otherwise
+

Developmentalism’s threat to
teachers
Under developmentalist policy, teachers are held to impossibly high
expectations


“Student inattention and apathy are met with herculean efforts to stimulate interest
and enthusiasm” (Stone, p. 62, 1994)
Nonetheless, outcomes are reduced to what a child is willing to do

The thought behind this theory is that if a teacher is “creative” enough to
motivate each student by figuring out what they are “enthusiastic about
learning” students will fulfill their minds “natural drive to learn.”

Nonetheless, the product of developmentalism is undefined. There is never
a clear measure of success.

However, teachers are also held responsible for not being creative enough
to draw out the “natural juices” for learning in their students (Stone, p. 62,
1994).

Developmentalism places all of the burden on the teachers when students
are not successful
+
Some interesting similarities….
ABA



Behavior analysts as well
are often held at fault by
parents and administration
if students are not
acquiring skills.
A great deal of work is
placed on the teacher to
make completing tasks as
effortless as possible for
their students.
Teachers are responsible
for contriving
environments in which
learners are met with
consistent reinforcement
Developmentalism

Students immaturity is viewed as
the result not acquiring skills

Teachers are held accountable
for making learning
environments stimulating (how
do they this without
manipulating the
environment….?)

Teachers are supposed to create
stimulating environments that
will make their students want to
learn….BUT they are not
supposed to contrive their
environment
+
How Developmentalists continue to
market themselves
 Promotes
teaching as being “fun! And learning
is therefore effortless.”
 Stone
writes; p. 18 “In effect, developmentalism
requires experimentally vindicated practices
not only to be attractive, interesting, and
engaging, it obliges them to overcome the belief
that they are likely to be risky or harmful, i.e.
that they interfere in unknown or unsuspected
ways with a virtually boundless range of
developmental considerations (Elkind, 1981).”

+
Threat to Intrinsic Motivation
 Worry
that vindicated, empirically based
teaching methods such as direct teaching
are a threat to student thinking such as
cognitive processes, higher-order
intellectual skills, critical thinking, &
reflective thinking.
+
The Reality
 Survey
showed in 1991 that students were
“attitudinally unprepared for responsibility in
the workplace. Do not understand reciprocity
of pay for performance” (Stone, 1994, p. 63).
 “Teachers
have found that the concept of
developmental readiness is a very
convenient excuse for teaching
ineffectiveness” (Stone, p. 63, 1994).
+
Unkept Promises
 Developmentalism
promises to make learning
more spontaneous (incidental teaching) enjoyable
(reinforcement) and require less student exertion
(errorless learning techniques and behavioral
momentum)
 Yet
behavior analysts are able to do the same thing
through:




Incidental teaching
Positive reinforcement
Errorless teaching techniques
Behavioral momentum
+
Why can’t learning be fun AND
Empirically Validated?

Developmentalism was built on the idea that learning should
be fun, and the classroom would be filled with “independent,
enthusiastic learners instead of passive, resistant conscripts
appealed to both teachers and parents” Stone, p. 64, 1994).

The reality is that students need to learn and therefore be
taught to abide by time schedules and not simply when the
individual is ready to work.
+ The Incompatibility of Development and
Experimental Views

Does not want change to emerge as a result of a contrived
external agent

Want the child to emerge independently

BUT ALSO believe that each child’s way of learning is unique
and can only be understood by a teacher deeply immersed
in the situation (Stone, p. 21, 1996).
+
Many teachers STILL believe that
teaching is more of an art than a
science

Situation specific

Each classroom is unique

Emulate nature
+
Stone Recommendations

In conclusion, J.E. Stone provides 3 main recommendations
for how to promote empirically validated education and
expunge progressive education ideals.
+
Stones Recommendations:

Number 1: Inform the parties who are concerned with
educational reform of developmentalism’s counterproductive
results:

Its record of failure

Its emphasis on assumed student limitations

Its overemphasis on the assumed dangers of intervention

Its tendency to foster student and teacher complacency about
achievement (Stone, 1994).
+
Stone’s Recommendations

Number 2: Address developmentalists unvalidated concerns
about how structure hinders a students personal
development and mental health
+
Stone’s Recommendations

Number 3:Make educational reformers AWARE of how
developmentalists use “immaturity” in children to reduce
parent a teacher blame for lack of progress and academic
achievement

Bring to their attention the multitude of cases where children
overcame their limitations due to teacher and parental support!!!

Special education teachers can be especially effective in
demonstrating how dedicated teachers can be successful in
teaching to even the most challenged learners!
+
Stone’s Recommendations

But Most Importantly!

Collaboration is key!

Play into the competitive nature of American capitalism at a
young age


“American youth may be self-indulgent and intellectually
unengaged but they are competitive and patriotic”
We are the next generation so it is up to us to evoke change!
+
References

Bredekamp, S. (1988). NAEYC position statement on
developmentally appropriate practice in the primary grades,
serving 5 through 8 year olds. Young Children, January, pp. 64-84.

Committee for Economic Development. (1991). The unfinished
agenda: A new vision for child development and education (A
statement by the Research and Policy Committee for the Committee
for Economic Development). New York: Author.

Elkind, D. (1981). The hurried child. Newton, MA: Addison- Wesley

Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, KRS }} 156.010 (1990)

Lemlech, J. (1994). Curriculum and instructional methods for the
elementary and middle school (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan
College.

Ravitch, D. (1983). The troubled crusade: American education 19451980. New York: Harper-Collins.
+

Stone, J. E. (1993a, August). Behavioral technology in a developmentalist
context. In S. Axelrod (Chair), Educational technology - concepts and
applications. An invited symposium held at the 101st Annual Convention of
the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Stone, J. E. (1993b). An open letter to the Oregon state governing bodies.
Effective School Practices, 12(2), 3-6.

Stone, J. E. (1994). Developmentalism’s impediments to school reform: Three
recommendations for overcoming them. In R. Gardner III, D. M. Sainato, J. O.
Cooper, T. E. Heron, W. L. Heward, J.W. Eshleman, & T. A. Grossi (Eds.)
Behavior analysis in education (pp. 57-72). Pacific Grove, CA:Brooks/Cole.

Stone, J. E. (1996). Developmentalism: An obscure but pervasive restriction
on educational improvement. Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 4(8), 1-32.

Wlodkowski, R. J. (1986). Motivation and teaching: A practical guide.
Washington DC: National Education Association.

U.S. Department of Education. (1991). America 2000, an education strategy
(revised). Washington, DC: Author.