Development of 4th and 5th
Grade Learners Across Contexts
ED.T&L 694.20 (on-line)
Summer 2009
Caleb Arthur
Final Project
Outline
-Educational Theorists
-Physical
Development
-Ideas to Use in the Classroom
-Top 10 Things Teachers Need To Know…
-The Behaviorist Theory
-The Interactionist Theory
-The Nativist Theory
-Physical, Cognitive, and Language Development
-Conclusion
Educational Theorists
- Albert Bandura
- Urie Bronfenbrenner
- Erik Erikson
- Jean Piaget
- B.F. Skinner
- Lev Vygotsky
Albert Bandura


A part of Bandura’s social learning
theory he makes aware the fact that
students will start to become more
selective in what they imitate. For
example, a student idolizes LeBron
James, therefore they will try to imitate
him (wearing a headband during
basketball games, wearing baggy shorts,
etc.). This can also take place on a
smaller scale (looking up to a person a
couple grades above and trying to dress
like him or her).
Bandura also discusses personal
standards that children set for
themselves. If a child looks at him or her
self with negativity, the child will develop
low self esteem and low self-belief. As a
teacher I should be positive and give
positive remarks to my students so that
they achieve a high self esteem for
themselves.
Urie Brofenbrenner

Students will become who they will be the rest
of their lives based on the microsystem that
they grow up in. They will develop what matters
to them and what doesn’t matter. Their
surroundings will shape their attitudes towards
people and other things in life. I should have
positive influences towards my students so that
they develop good habits in life. I will be
responsible for their learning for one school
year so I affect the student in that way also.

The mesosystem includes the community the
student is involved in. The community includes
the parents, peers, neighbors, and child-care
centers that the student (child) is involved in. As
a teacher, I will need to understand where the
student is coming from and how I can help
develop the child. I also must be willing to work
with the mesosystem of the student (parents,
community, etc.)
Erik Erikson


Industry versus inferiority is when children (at school) develop the capacity to
work with others. The period of development takes place from age 6 to
11. The children also learn how to cooperate. I am going to be certified to
teach students from Kindergarten through 5th grade. The ages normally range
in these grades from 5-11, so I will be dealing with the industry and inferiority
psychological stage of children. I should make sure I am aware of students
struggling with the inferior stage of development. Inferiority develops when
negative experiences at home, at school, or with peers lead to feelings of
incompetence and uncertainty. Through performing my senior block at Lima
Heritage Elementary School in Lima, Ohio I developed a passion for inner city
children. I learned that there are more students at risk for negative inferior
developments due to the students’ home lives. I want to build and develop my
classroom so that it is conducive to learning and developing skills that students
can use later in life with great effectiveness. I want my students to develop
good cooperation and teamwork skills while in my classroom.
Identity versus identity confusion is when children during their adolescence
stages start to wonder who they really are. Children start to choose their own
values and interests. I think as a teacher, I should make sure that my students
choose appropriate values and interests. I know when I was going through this
stage; I wanted to be a pilot. In high school I developed other interests and
started to be interested in teaching. I think I should encourage students to
become open-minded and have big goals for their future. I don’t want any of
my students to believe that just because his/her parents work minimum wage
jobs doesn’t mean they have to go up to become what their parents
were. They should have their own dreams and aspirations to become whatever
they want to become. I think I should place effort towards this psychological
stage so that my future students develop a good outlook on life and don’t feel
they have to accept something just because it’s the way it has always been. I
should also make good effort in showing my future students how to make good
choices and that I (the teacher) will always be there to support them if they
need anything.
Jean Piaget


Concrete Operational – Children start to become
more logical in their thinking. This stage affects children
from age seven to 11. Children also become more
organized and less chaotic (they start to plan things
out). I saw a big difference between my FEEP and
senior block field experience. I noticed during my FEEP
that the first grade class was unorganized and it
seemed impossible for the students to stay on track for
more than five minutes. During my senior block, the
second grade I observed had much more organization
than the first grade class. As a teacher, I should know
this now and expect it. I should expect first graders to
be less organized and focused than second graders.
Formal Operational – As with everyone, people mature
at different rates, but the formal operational stage
usually affects children of eleven years or older. During
this stage, children can begin to examine things with
reason and understanding. They are able to think of all
possible outcomes in a mathematic and scientific
problem. When I become a teacher, I should be
reminded to encourage the students to think for
themselves and not settle for the simplest of answers. I
think effort plays a big part in whether or not students
develop good reasoning skills, so as a teacher I will be a
big proponent of requiring quality student effort in the
classroom.
B.F. Skinner


Operant conditioning theory – I feel
reinforcers are important because
through my field experiences I think
students respond in a more positive
way when they receive positive
reinforcers and/or positive
encouragement. During senior block I
developed a Personal Discipline Plan
and in it – I have many positive
reinforcers to help encourage and
develop my future students.
Operant condition theory – I agree
with B.F. Skinner on that behaviors can
be decreased using
punishment. Punishment usually results
a student losing some kind of privilege
(loss of recess, call home, etc.). In giving
punishment the student is learning that
he/she should not do that or more
punishment will follow. Punishment is
put into effect to help maintain an
organized classroom.
Lev Vygotsky


Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory explains that people
need to be concerned with other peoples’
backgrounds and cultures and to not have biases
and pre-conceived notions. As teachers, I think it is
important that we understand where every one of
our students come from. I think we should be
careful in planning our lessons, so that we don’t
bring up any issues that would or could result in a
conflict.
Another issue that Vygotsky brings up is
communication between adults and children. I
believe the better we communicate with the
student, the better the student will learn to develop
better communication skills. Communication skills
can help so many other skills in life. Good
communication between adults and children also
help children develop complex thought processes
and positive adult/children experiences. I will make
sure that I will communicate clearly and effectively
to my future students so that they learn and
develop the skills necessary for the rest of their
lives.
Physical Development
I believe an important aspect during the developmental stages of males and females from 8-11 years
of age is (child) obesity. Statistics show that children have been gaining more weight at a more rapid
pace than ever in history. I believe a good way to instruct ways to put a decline to childhood
obesity is to encourage good eating habits and active play. Just as responsible as the child - I believe
parents play an enormous role in the development of body weight. We need to stress parents not
to take their children to fast food all of the time and to develop good eating habits (fruits,
vegetables, dairy, etc.). Also, I need to make aware the role of video games and other forms of
entertainment and how they also play a huge role in childhood obesity. I believe video games have
played an enormous role in the childhood obesity problem we are currently facing. In my classroom,
I will have posters of the food pyramid and other quality information regarding good nutrition. I will
encourage my students by not handing out damaging candy (chocolate, etc.). Males and Females during the developmental stages from ages 8-11 go through rapid and dramatic changes. Self-esteem
can be gained and lost during this time period. Females - tend to grow at a faster rate. They usually
hit puberty quicker than males do, which can sometimes lead to insecurity. Females not hitting
puberty also may face self-esteem issues. Males - usually have a high range of heights. One male
could be 6', while another 4'6". Males and Females - weight ranges have increased since 1990. Child
obesity is a huge problem the world is facing with currently. Males and Females - youth sports start
to take a huge part of most children's lives. Children from 8-11 start to show improvements in
gross motor skills (jumping higher, running faster, moving quicker, and better balance). Males and
Females - depending on growth spurts, those who have a large increase in height during this time
sometimes may lose some balance qualities - also known as being a klutz.
Physical Development Timeline for 8-11 year olds.
Current Statistics of Children
Children integrate previously acquired skills into more complex, dynamic systems of
action. There are sex differences in motor skills. Size and strength contribute to
boys' superior athletic performance in adolescence, physical growth cannot fully
account for boys' childhood advantage. Throughout this time period both boys and
girls experience rapid growing of hands,arms, feet and legs which may look
disproportionate. Self-esteem can be gained and lossed during this time
period. Females tend to grow at a faster rate. They usually hit puberty quicker than
males do, which can sometimes lead to insecurity. Females not hitting puberty also
may face self-esteem issues. In both males and females – weight ranges have
increased since 1990. Child obesity is a huge problem the world is facing with
currently.
Ideas to Use in the Classroom
In a classroom, teachers can use creative
thinking to promote physical
development and health within their
lessons. An example of this is something I
had a teacher do for her math class. Jason
had an idea from his own personal school
days – we would play "problem ball". In
this, the teacher would start by throwing a
NERF ball out to the class. The person
who caught the ball was then asked a
question. If they got it right, their team
got a point, and then they would have to
throw it to someone on the other team. If
you did not catch it, then you lost your
turn, and the other team got a
question. This was definitely an activity
that promoted physical movement as well
as problem solving in a class you would
not typically find that.
Ideas to Use in the Classroom
Another activity would be to discuss
nutrition and the food pyramid. Kids
at this age need more iron and
calcium in their diets and are also
exposed to too much fast food. We
could have our future classes write a
cookbook of healthy, low cost
recipes tying in language arts and
math. We could also have a
discussion about being active and
come up with a list of different ways
to exercise. We would also discuss
how many hours of TV the students
watch and make a bar graph. Then
maybe make a class goal to get
more exercise and watch less TV.
What Will We Do as Teachers?
We, teachers, need to
make a goal to incorporate
these ideas into our future
classrooms. If we don’t
make an effort to get our
future students more
active and more
knowledgeable to the child
obesity problem: it will just
keep getting worse. We
should keep our students
physically active and have
them practice good eating
habits.
Top 10 Things Teachers Need To Know
About Promoting Cognitive Development Of
4th and 5th Grade Learners
1. Teachers need to implement discovery learning meaning using a wide array of
materials to meet varying stages of development. Piaget’s constructivist approach
believes that the learning environment must allow for the manipulation of objects
and interactions with other children and adults.
2. Teachers need to allow for peer collaboration. Students should be placed in groups
of varying abilities for cooperative learning. By having more “expert” students
assist less “expert” students both benefit in achievement and self-esteem. Vygotsky
believed relationships between peers and adults are critical to students’
development.
3. Teachers need to model self-regulation strategies and other strategies for
students. Siegler’s model of strategy choice explains that when children have to
make decisions they use a variety of strategies and pick them based on speed and
accuracy. During math, teachers can have students use various strategies to helps
students understand the concepts better. Teachers should also have students share
their reasoning for why they used a certain strategy to make sure they understand
it. During science, teachers can have students form hypotheses and perform
experiments and explain the results and their reasoning for their findings. Teachers
should have students work on their comprehension skills during reading by having
students use various comprehension strategies.
Top 10 Things Teachers Need To Know
About Promoting Cognitive Development Of
4th and 5th Grade Learners
4. Teachers need to differentiate their instruction to meet the needs and intelligences
of all their students. Gardner believed that there are eight different types of
intelligences such as linguistic, logico-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodilykinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal and intrapersonal therefore, not all students
have the same strengthens, weakness and needs. Teachers cannot just teach
towards the middle but include in their planning all abilities.
5. Teachers need allow for scaffolding of the students’ learning. Scaffolding is adjusting
support during a lesson to fit the students developmental level, breaking tasks into
manageable units, questioning, prompting, suggesting and slowly withdrawing
support leaving the student responsible. According to Vygotsky, children are
actively looking for knowledge and their learning takes place in the zone of
proximal development which is a range of tasks too difficult for students to do on
their own but can be done with the help of an adult or other skilled peers.
Top 10 Things Teachers Need To Know
About Promoting Cognitive Development Of
4th and 5th Grade Learners
6. Teachers need to practice culturally responsive teaching. Vygotsky believed that
children learn through both social interactions and their culture. Every student
comes from a different culture thus bringing with them various, unique experiences
therefore, teachers need to aware of those differences and plan their lessons
accordingly.
7. Teachers need to provide opportunities for students to develop their logical and
analytical thinking skills. According to Piaget, 4th and 5th graders are in the
concrete operational stage therefore their thinking is becoming more organized
and logical.
8. Teachers need to provide opportunities for students to develop their
memory. According to the Information Processing Theorist, children develop
conceptual structures that help them start to think in more complex and advance
ways. Children ages 7-11 years old start to gain a better attention span and better
organization. The children start to store things in their brain meaning their
memory is expanding and can hold more than before.
Top 10 Things Teachers Need To Know
About Promoting Cognitive Development Of
4th and 5th Grade Learners
9. Teachers need to be aware of each students’ zone of proximal development. In addition,
teachers need to create appropriate activities and give support that will meet their
students’ current needs as well as plan for their future needs. Vygotsky believed that the
zone of proximal development was the gap between the student’s actual development
and what the student could potential achieve with academic help.
10. Teachers need to practice holistic teaching by designing lessons that support the whole
child including the cognitive, affective and physical domains. Gardner believed there were
multiple intelligences: linguistic, logico-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic,
naturalist, interpersonal and intrapersonal which includes the affective and physical
domains. Strensberg triarchic theory also requires holistic teaching because he believed
there were 3 broad, types of intelligences: analytical, creative and practical. Carroll’s
hierarchical model of intelligence which the top has general intelligence then the second
tier has eight abilities such as fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, general memory
and learning, broad visual perception, broad auditory perception, broad retrieval ability,
broad cognitive speediness and processing speed also requires holistic teaching. The
third tier has narrow abilities which are behaviors that are shown as result from the
second tier. Carroll’s theory implies that teachers need to teach holistically by making
sure to have a variety of lessons and activities that allows for students to use all the
different broad abilities that he mentioned.
The Behaviorist, Interactionist, and
Nativist Theories
The Behaviorist Theory
The Behaviorist Perspective
 B.F. Skinner said that language is acquired like any other behavior - through operant
conditioing. If a child 'babbles' a word such as ball-ball-ball-ba-ll-balla - the parent
soon will hold a ball in front of the child inforcing to the child that the ball is a
ball. Proponents of this perspective also believe that imitation plays a huge role for
children learning a language. The imitation by the child is directly from the adult
(parent). I think that these ideas are very similar to the Interaction theorists
because they both involve the interaction with other (adult to the child and so
on). The early stages are important for the child when learning a new
language. This perspective, however, doesn't really help language
development. Instead of learning specific sentences, children learn and develop a
working knowledge of language rules. The interaction between adults and children
is very important.
The Nativist Theory
The Nativist Perspective
 Noam Chomsky believes that children learn
much of what they need to know on their
own. By observation they learn how a word
sounds and what that word means. The
Nativist Perspective believes that children's
brains do most of the work when learning a
new language. They believe that children have
the ability to readily produce and understand
certain words and sentences. They believe that
all children have a language acquisition device
(LAD) - this is an innate system that permits
them, as soon as they have acquired sufficient
vocabulary, to combine words into
grammatically consistant, novel utterances and
to understand the meaning of sentences they
hear. The main thing that they believe is that
every human being is born with the ability and
brain (power) to learn and understand a
language. This perspective differs from the
behavorist and interactionist because it really
involves no interaction between humans.
The Interactionist Theory
The Interactionist Perspective
 The Interactionist Theory is the newest one
of the three. It seems to be more or less a
combination of the two perspectives. This
perspective takes some ideas from both
theories and at the same time doesn't take
some ideas. Followers of this perspective
use both the nativist and behavorists ideas
to prove how and why children acquire
language. They have an emphasis on
interactions between inner predispositions
and environmental influences. The artificial
neural networks develop very quickly during
childhood so hearing, learning, doing is very
important if the child is to learn the
language well. There is a small window for
the child to learn a language - it would take
longer for the child to learn the language
when those neural networks start to slow
down.
Physical, Cognitive and Language
Development
How do families, peers, media, and schools influence the
physical, cognitive, and language development of 4th and
5th grade learners?
How does family effect development.
Family

In the United States, a child comes to school at the age of
around five. Before coming to school, the child obviously lives
with his/her family. While living his their family they learn
many things that help develop their character, morals, and selfbeing. With good guidance from parents, other
siblings, extended family (aunts/uncles/grandpas/grandmas) a
child will develop language, skills, and social and moral values
of their culture. Socialization also plays a big role within the
family. Parents start to socialize with their children sometime
during the second year. As children get older, parents socialize
more and more because they get a response from the
child. As the child gets older, the parents can choose what
type of discipline to use. Will they be harsh (grounding) or
will they try and be the child's 'buddy'? Through my
experiences, I believe that parents who are buddies with their
children rather than a disciplinerian have more troubles with
their children the older they get. My parents were
disciplinarians and I believe that has help our relationship and
has helped my character develop to where I am now. I know
some of my friends and that their parents were of the buddy
type. Now, those friends do not want to grow up. One is still
living with his parents and the other has dropped out of
school. If parents are not disciplinarians their children will less
likely quit something (my opinion).
How do peers effect development.
Peers
 Peer sociability begins early in most
cultures. Around age 2, toddlers start
using words to talk about and influence a
peer's behavior (p. 598). If a child plays
with the same child as a young child, the
two will both somewhat develop the
same character and ideas. If the two are
allowed to get away with stuff (doing stuff
wrong - break things, fight, etc.) they will
both develop the sense that it is okay. If
both children are not allowed to get away
with these things they will both develop
the sense that it is wrong. During this
'play' time children develop good fine and
gross motor skills.
How does media effect development.
Media

Especially now in the 21 century, children have a large
amount of media they can attain. Children can now watch
things on TV and the computer with a touch of a
button. They can see what people are doing at every
second of the day (twitter, facebook). They learn so much
from the media (and largely it is bad for them). Stereotypes
can be made very easily through media. Violence in movies
and on TV can hurt the development of a child. If they are
exposed to it at an early age with regard they will develop a
sense that violence is okay (it is okay to get in a fight at
school). They learn this through media and they have no
regard for any consequences. The book states that from 6
am to 11 pm over 50 percent of the tv shows have
some form of violence. By experience, I have noticed that
language has gotten worse - it seems like no one cares
anymore whether or not a child curses or uses God's name
is vein. Most children today, are exposed and see/hear this
every single day. Media needs to be used in a different
manor in order for it to help development of a child. I think
the biggest thing for media to be used in a proper way is to
have the parents use the media in ways they want their
children to use it. If parents are watching a violent movie
and they let their child watch it with them - what is the
child learning? If the child sees the parents using the
computer in a wrong way - what do you think the child will
do?
How do schools effect development.
Schools

Children learn how to interact with their
peers at school better than anywhere
else. Usually, the teacher disciplines a child if
they do something wrong. If a child gets in
a fight - there are consequences. At home a
child may get in a fight with their sibling and
the parent doesn't do anything. I think
children develop the most at school because
they are there nearly 7-8 hours a day. They
learn how to work together. They learn how
to use the computer properly. They learn
many things that homes (some) usually
cannot. Children learn a schedule and how to
keep on it. They learn responsibility and how
to manage their work. They learn how to
socialize with kids their age and adults
(teachers). Children need to learn from
an early age how to do these things
because by the fourth and fifth grade many
students will be unable to break the bad
habits they formed prior such as: improper
computer usage, unable to work together, etc.
Conclusion
I enjoyed Development of 4th and 5th Grade
Learners Across Contexts (ED. T&L 694.20). I
think the assignments that helped me learn the
most were the Annenberg Videos. In prior
classes, I had already learned about the
educational theorists, so that was a review. I
enjoyed learned how to use wordpress - although
if something were to be dropped from the
course, I would say drop wordpress because it
seems like all we had to do was copy and paste
our discussion questions to our wordpress site.
Thanks.
The End
Caleb Arthur