Online Education Blog

Physical growth and development describe the physical as well as psychomotor changes in an individual. Physical development of children are grouped into different categories and the period of adolescence is of vital in shaping the child into a useful citizen of the society. The adolescence period of development begins with puberty.  Early adolescence is a time of rapid physical and intellectual development. Middle adolescence is a more stable period of adjustment to and integration of the behavior patterns of early adolescence. Later adolescence is marked by preparations for the responsibilities, choices and opportunities of adulthood. The major changes during adolescence are : -

i) Variability in onset and rate of puberty:

Directly related physical development/change that adolescents must face is the consciousness of sexual identity. This includes the expression of sexual needs and feelings and the acceptance or rejection of sex roles. Puberty is a series of physiological changes that make the organism capable of reproduction. Nearly every organ and system of the body is affected by these changes. The pre-puberty child and post puberty adolescents chages in outward appearance because of the changes in the stature and proportion and the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics.

Although the sequence of events at puberty is generally the same for each person, the timing and that of weight gain vary widely. The average girl typically begins pubertal changes around eleven years, one and a half to two years before the average boy. In each sex, however, the normal range of getting sexual maturity is approximately six years. Like the onset, the rate of change also varies widely. Some persons take only one and a half to two years to go through the pubertal changes to reach reproductive maturity, while others may require six years to pass through the same stage.

These differences mean that some individuals may mature before others of the same age who may have just entered puberty. The children make comparison among themselves. The tendency to hold maturity in high regard can be a problem for the less matured students. On the other hand, early maturers are also to experience temporary discomfort because they stand out from the less matured majority.

ii) Reactions to Puberty:

One of the most important challenges adolescents have to face is to adapt to the changes in their bodies. Coordination and physical activity must be adjusted rapidly as weight, height and skills change. The new developments in body must be integrated into the existing self-image. New habits have to be developed. As adolescents become more like adults in appearance, they are expected to behave more like adults regardless of their emotional, intellectual or social maturity.

The purpose of puberty is to make people able to reproduce. Thus the adolescent is faced with a new potential that includes increased interest in sexual activity, erotic fantasy and experimentation. Masturbation becomes a regular activity for many adolescents and some adolescents even indulge in sexual acts. The sexual activity necessitates facing the possibility of conflict with parents, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases etc.

iii) Early and Late Maturing:

Researchers have long been interested in the possible differences between children who enter puberty early and those who enter it late. Peskin (1967) demonstrated that early maturers have a harder time at puberty. Youth who mature earlier experience more anxiety and have more temper tantrums, more conflict with their parents, and lower self-esteem at puberty than those who mature later. But by the time early maturers are in high schools, long post puberty and having accommodated its changes they are more at ease, popular, and mature than are late maturers. The late maturers are still experiencing pubertal changes.

If early maturity is an asset for teenage boys, it is a real liability for teenage girls. They develop breasts. They have fewer changes to discuss with peers the physical and emotional changes they are undergoing.

Peskin’s data suggest that the early maturer may need more help in understanding pubertal changes, while the late maturer may need more help coping with being relatively immature and less able to compete in situations where maturity and size are important.

One clear conclusion that we may draw from research on puberty is that this period is a relatively difficult one for for most children. neither they nor their peers nor adults find puberty easy to cope with. Moth self-esteem and peer-esteem decline temporarily during puberty.

Creativity is a blessing from nature but we can develop it by careful planning through education.
This is all the more important in a democratic country like India, where we accept even the mediocres to contribute their best and create something new.
Hence, it is necessary that parents and teachers provide healthy conditions at home and the school. This would enable children to express themselves and contribute something new for the society, which may be termed as creativity.

Our suggestions

1. Freedom of Response:

Children generally respond teachers in a usual and routine manner. Parents and teachers should encourage children to respond in their own way. They may be allowed to say what they would like to say. This would lead to creativity. If there is problem in the class, let every child respond in his own way. The teacher should keep in view that every child has a contribution to make. Allow them to think in various directions and express their creativity.

2. Satisfy the ‘Ego’ of the Child:

All of us have a ‘self ego’. We want to be recognized by others. This ‘ego’ is all the more stronger during the childhood stage. We, as parents and teacher should try to provide opportunities to satisfy it.

3. Encourage Original Ideas:

If we find that a child achieved his original ideas about a particular aspect of life, we should encourage it. Constant submission to facts suppresses the opportunity of the child. It has been correctly said, ‘Uniformity is the enemy of originality’.

4. Remove Hesitation and Fear:

Children are generally kept under strict control. They fear their parents and hesitate in speaking their mind. This kills the initiative of the child. Originality is only possible when we give enough freedom and space to children to express their own views.

5. Provide Suitable Atmosphere:

The watchwords for the provision of this type of atmosphere are: Sympathy, liberty, and the proper provision of co-curricular activities in the school.

6. Development Special Habits:

Children require special habits to be creative. These habits are hard work, persistent effort, self reliance and self confidence. We should encourage children to develop these habits. We can then expect any thing that is creative from them.

7. Let the Children Meet Creativity:

Every community has centers where creativity can be seen easily. We may organize excursions to centers of art, art galleries, museums, and places of artistic excellence. Thus the children will come in contact with creativity and get an inspiration to create something new.

8. Avoid the Stumbling Block to Creativity:

Certain factors like conservative outlook, an unsympathetic attitude towards children, fixed and rigid habits of works, unnecessary anxiety, over emphasis over school works, authoritarian attitude of teacher, etc. are some of the stumbling blocks in the path of creativity. We should try to avoid these stumbling blocks as far as possible.

9. Reorganize the Curriculum:

Certain principles should be kept in view while reorganizing the curriculum. These are:
a) The Curriculum should be a child-centered
b) The Curriculum should highlighted ideal concepts then facts
c) It should highlight that children have the capacity to find out truth and discover things.
d) It should reduce the importance of annual examination.
e) It should allow the child to do something in the academic field freely without the fear of examination.

10. Reform the Evolution System:

Much has been said about the reforms in the system of evaluation. We can say that the child’s progress should be judged for what he dose during the entire year and not on the basis of his achievement in the annual examination. The day to day progress of the child should be properly assessed and entered in the cumulative card. Any other observation showing the creativity of the child should be clearly indicated in the card.

11. The use of some Special Techniques:

Mention may be made for special psychological techniques to find out the creativity of the child.
These are:

a) Brain Storming:

It implies storming the brain of the child with new ideas and nothing down the reactions and techniques of solving them as suggested by the child. This reaction takes place in the classroom where every child gets an opportunity to express his ideas. When the reactions of the entire class are noted down, a free discussion follows. Common suggestion are weaned out and these lead creativity.

b) Using of Teaching Models:

Certain teaching models suggested by psychologists are of immense value form locating the creativity of the child. Mention may be made of such two models:
i)

Bruner’s Concept Attainment Model

and
ii)

Suchman Inquiry Training Model.

c) Use of the gaming technique: Children like pay. We should like to find out their creative talent through games. We may organize games of this type in the class. Some examples of such games are
1. Name all the square things you can think of.
2. Name the new type of programs you will like to have on T.V.
3.Tell all the aspect in which a cat and a dog are alike.
4. What will do if you get oil paints and a brush, etc.
They may also be given some materials like. They may also be asked to play with wooden cubes and construct some new and novel designs. They may be asked to color a picture, etc.

12. Self Example is Better than Precept:

Parents and teacher may keep in view that if they want their children to create something new they themselves should be devoted persons and put forward an example before their children in the field of creativity.

We are interested in maximum learning by the child. This can be achieved. Here are the various factors which influence the learning of the child.

A. Physiological Factors :

The following factors are included in this aspect.

• Physical Health : Maximum learning by the child is only possible when he has a sound mind. A sound mind is always associated with a sound health. Hence, health child can learn much more than an ill child.
• A Balanced Diet : The child should take a balanced diet and avoid bad habits like smoking and drinking. These affect the neuro-muscular system and indirectly influence the learning activities of the child.
• Age : The learning capacity of the individual varies with age. The child can easily learn some subjects at an early age. They have a will and capacity to learn.
• Time of Learning : Our mental capacity to learn differs during the difference hours of the day. Morning hours are the best for children to learn.
• The Weather : Extremes of weather both heat and cold and a humid climate affect mental efficiency. Absence of proper atmospheric conditions like fresh air, proper light, noise, physical discomforts, hamper the learning capacity of the child. They obstruct his power of concentration and therefore his efficiency of learning.
• Fatigue : A child, when fresh is full of energy and can learn much more than a child who has fatigue of any type. This fatigue leads to boredom and indolence which affect learning. The fatigue may be due to various conditions either at home or in the school. Its presence reduces the learning capacity of the child.
• Sense Perception : Our senses are our gateways of knowledge which is acquired through learning. A child who has strong sense perceptions comes to have a better judgment about objects, persons and situations in which he is placed. He has a better capacity of learning in comparison with a child who has weak sense of perception.

B. Psychological Factors :
Psychological factors play a vital role in the learning of the child. The following suggestions may be kept in view by the teacher to achieve his target:

• A Sound Mental Health : The child should have a mental balance and should be free from all mental conflicts. The outstanding complex from which the children may suffer is inferiority complex.
• Proper Motivation : Children should be properly motivated to learn. The teacher should try to create an urge in the child to learn through motivation. This urge will energize the behavior of the child and he will put in best in learning and achieve the goal. The teacher also should proceed from simple to complex and make the subject of learning as enjoyable as possible.
• Praise, Blame and Punishment : Whenever the child achieves success in learning he should be praised. Hi sense of achievement will motivate him for a higher success. He maybe suitably rewarded if he deserves it.

If the child shows any indifference in learning due to the difficulty of the subject matter try to meet it. He may be    encouraged to master easier portions first and difficult parts later on. We should not blame the child unnecessarily specially grown-up children. They take things to their heart.

Punishment is the last resort and should be sparingly used. However, the fear of punishment should always remain in the mind of the child.

C. Environmental Factors:

• Proper Learning Conditions : Provide a healthy atmosphere in the classroom. Bad learning conditions like noise, poor lighting and ventilation do not lead to proper learning by the child.
• Organizational Set-up :

1. The time-table should well-framed and based on psychological principles. Dr. Mathur, S. S., is of the view that in proper learning there should be a proper schedule of work and play. This child should know when he is expected to devote his attention to learning.
2. Children should be given freedom to learn as they like. There is no fixed and rigid rule to be followed.
3. There should be a proper ration between pupils and one teacher. Read the rest of this entry »

Every individual has five sense organs. These organs are also called as “the window of the soul” or ‘gateway of knowledge’.  It is through them that we acquire knowledge about the world. The functioning of the five senses is called sensing or sensation.

In perception the sensation comes to have a meaning. It is the next response of the organism following a sensation, which comes first and later on changes into a perception.

Robert S. Woodworth,  considers that in perception, the chain of events is: stimulus response of the sense-organ and sensory nerve, first cortical response, which is sensation, second cortical response which is perception.

According to Drever & Collins - “Perception is the immediate apprehension of an object or situation affecting any of the sense by way of sensation. It is the most elementary form of cognition and indeed of experience.”

Features of Perception:

• Meaningful sensations are called perceptions.
• It can be a combination of various sensations.
• In perception our sensory data is enriched. We perceive more than what is actually there.
• When a particular object is represented by another object it brings about our element of imagination in our mind.
• When we see a particular object we also come to have a knowledge of related or connected objects. Thus we come to have a complete perception.

Max Wertheimer - Laws of Perception:

Max Wertheimer on the basis of his laws of perception established that there is some relationship between our perception and the external world, specially in the visual field. He formulated the following laws:-

1. Law of Similarity.
2. Law of Proximity.
3. Law of Closure.
4. Law of Good Communication.
5. Law of Common Movement.

 Law of Similarity:

If there are various objects in our field, those objects which have similar color or shape can be grouped together. They have a distinct group of their own because they are similar and different in shape. If we group some circles and squares as two distinct groups they will appear as similar and different due to the above law.

Law of Proximity: Read the rest of this entry »