Introduction
When attaining education qualifications in either a degree or diploma, whatever is learned in class is expected to affect how a person carries on with their career regardless of their field, whether it is in teaching or consultancy. One thing that affects one’s job setting is the knowledge and information accrued over a person’s lifespan. Such information is essential because it affects an individual and makes them view other people differently. Introspection at the end of the learning path is another crucial practice, as this action also produces the necessary vital and specialized knowledge.
Discoveries
One of the significant discoveries from this course’s learning material is the theories of human development. The developmental theories include psychosexual, psychosocial, cognitive, and moral development theories (Saracho & Evans, 2021). The discovery brought about by the different development theories is that human development is a combination of various aspects and cannot be fully understood from one front. As a person develops cognitively, they are perceived to be developing psychologically; their moral and sexual development continues simultaneously. Development theories, therefore, provide significant insight into what is perceived by somebody as life progresses.
Useful Knowledge Gained
These theories can be carried into practice in the teaching profession to help deal with students adequately, and this is what I will do very soon at my workplace. In a teacher’s life, educators are exposed to different sets of students at different life stages. A student in grade one would go through different cognitive and psychological phases than a learner in grade 6 or junior secondary (Babakr et al., 2019). An adolescent would be going through a more rigorous psychosexual blossom than any other age group of students. The racial background of a learner, the ethnic composition of the educational institution, and topical cultural patterns are factors of influence (Tatum, 2004). Therefore, a teacher would be required to handle a grade one student differently from how they would treat a grade six pupil because of differing levels of development. Dealing with students in diverse categories calls for a teacher to understand how students in numerous age groups cope with their development stages, courtesy of the developmental theories.
Subjects Needed More Exposure
A theme from the course materials about development that I would like to be more exposed to is the moral theory developed by Kohlberg. The idea primarily focuses on children since adults are believed to have already evolved the moral capacity to discern between ethical topics, issues, and dilemmas. Kohlberg stated that children go through six stages of moral growth, which include pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional morality, with each having two substages (Turiel, 2018). However, it is the adult population that is faced with dilemmas when it comes to morality despite being considered independent thinkers and having the ability to discern between conventional good and evil. Adult morality should be an area of additional focus, and this topic should be taught and explained more to help teachers deal with adolescent and adult populations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, every person goes through development stages in at least one of the areas outlined by the mentioned theories. The same happens to students because they are of different ages, and because of it, teachers need to handle them differently. The knowledge and information about the development theories are significant to teachers of every qualification and competence. However, its application to the teaching profession is what matters most because of the age and developmental difference that comes with different age groups. Lastly, morals should be further investigated as the existing morality theory focuses predominantly on children but leaves out adolescents and adults, yet they are the ones with more moral dilemmas.
References
Babakr, Z., Mohamedamin, P., & Kakamad, K. (2019). Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory: Critical review. Education Quarterly Reviews, 2(3), 517-524.
Saracho, O. N., & Evans, R. (2021). Theorists and their developmental theories. The Influence of Theorists and Pioneers on Early Childhood Education, 191(7-8), 5-13.
Tatum, B. D. (2004). Family life and school experience: Factors in the racial identity development of Black youth in White communities. Journal of Social Issues, 60(1), 117-135.
Turiel, E. (2018). Moral development in the early years: When and how. Human Development, 61(4-5), 297-308.