Why is it important for a teacher to know child development?

''Being a teacher means going beyond teaching. Because being a teacher means that the teacher goes beyond the defined duties and exists by feeling, living, dedicating himself/herself and integrating with the student. Being a teacher is a strong and genuine belonging where the teacher and the student can look at each other fondly, where the teacher comes alive in the student and the student in the teacher." (Doğan Cüceloğlu)

A teacher who truly respects the potential of his child does not spoil him, but develops him, prepares him for life. But first he/she has to develop himself/herself.

In today's article, after explaining the definition and scope of the concepts of development and learning, I will seek an answer to the question of why teachers should know child development in the light of science.

What is development and learning and what does it cover?

Development, which starts before birth and continues until the last moment of life, manifests itself as a whole and appears with different characteristics in different periods of life.

Development is the regular and continuous changes observed in the individual during the life period from fertilization to death. The development process includes observable qualitative and quantitative changes in the individual as a result of growth, maturation and learning.

Growth is the quantitative changes that occur in the physical structure of an individual over time. Cell proliferation in the prenatal period and changes in physical structure over months or years after birth are the results of growth. While growth is mostly used for physical characteristics, development is used to include other (psychological) characteristics as well as physical characteristics. For example, people's bodies grow (but also develop), their minds develop (but do not grow).

Maturation is the unfolding of one's innate potential over time. In other words, it is when the growing creature reaches the physiological strength to fulfill the functions expected of it. In this sense, the person does not need to make any effort. Maturation is a spontaneous process and is quite independent of environmental factors. For example, children walk at an average age of one year.

In addition to growth and maturation, a learning process is also necessary for development to take place. Although it is defined in different ways, most psychologists agree that learning occurs as a result of the interaction of the individual with his/her environment and brings about long-term changes in the individual's behavior. Learning is "a relatively permanent change in behavior or potential behavior that occurs as a product of experience and is not attributable to growth and temporary changes in the body caused by various influences." All individuals have the innate potential to learn and develop their abilities. Advancing age is not enough for individuals to reach maturity. The individual needs to learn as a result of the interaction of what they have with the environment. In order for a child whose finger muscles have grown and matured to play the piano, the teaching and learning process must begin.

One of the most important features that distinguishes humans from animals is that the ability to learn is very superior in humans. Animals, on the other hand, live and adapt mostly by instinct. Instinctual adaptation depends on species-specific stereotyped reflex chains, whereas adaptation through learning involves wide individual and cultural differences.

Learning is a process of adaptation to the environment. In this respect, learning means adjusting behaviors to better meet needs or reorganizing them in the face of a new situation.

Changes in behavior as a result of learning should be distinguished from the effects of maturation and temporary physiological changes. Maturation and learning are not separate causes of development. On the contrary, there is a close relationship between them. In fact, a certain level of maturity is a necessary condition for learning to take place.

Learning is an active process and occurs as a result of experiences. A behavioral change in which an individual loses sensitivity to stimuli that have been repeated too many times as a result of habituation is not learning. An example of this is when sellers in the fish market get used to the smell of fish.

There are factors that affect learning positively and negatively, in other words, that make learning easier and harder. These are related to the learner, learning methods, the type of material to be learned and the learning environment. Age, intelligence, motivation, anxiety, previous learning, time allocated for learning, active participation of the learner are some of these factors.

As a result, development is a set of changes observed in terms of growth, maturation and learning processes.

Why should the teacher know the child's development?

As human development continues throughout life, education accompanies it. In fact, the reason why the concept of education has been discussed for centuries is an indication of how important it is for individuals. In order to achieve our goals in education, it is necessary to raise students who are inquisitive, questioning, creative, independent thinkers and critics and to support the knowledge and skills of teachers.

Education is a process of behavior change. The teacher is a "behavioral engineer" who plans, implements and evaluates this process.

In order to better observe and understand human development, developmental psychologists examine human beings at certain ages and in periods where certain skills are focused. In this process, there are skills, characteristics and behaviors that individuals should acquire in certain periods. These sets of characteristics, skills and behaviors determined according to life stages are called developmental tasks. Developmental tasks are behaviors that are important to achieve in every life period and that lead the individual to happiness and positive interaction with the environment. Developmental tasks that cannot be accomplished in their periods push the individual to unhappiness and make it difficult for him/her to interact emotionally with his/her environment.

The teacher, as the planner, implementer and evaluator of education, takes the developmental characteristics of students according to their life stages as a basis at every stage. Because the behaviors to be acquired should be determined in accordance with the developmental level of the students, learning experiences should be prepared and diversified according to individual differences, and evaluation approaches should be selected according to the developmental characteristics of the students.

For example, without knowing the physical, cognitive and psychosocial developmental characteristics of children in primary education, it may not be possible to plan activities that are appropriate for and support their development. At what age can students learn abstract concepts in terms of cognitive development? At what age does he/she reach the maturity to do activities related to manual skills? What are the characteristics of students at different ages in terms of social development? An adequate and effective learning process cannot be realized without answering many questions like these. In other words, it is not possible for a teacher, who is an "artist", to shape the material in his/her hands without knowing its properties.

In addition, for a teacher, knowing the nature of development is a responsibility to realize the aim of "helping students to develop". Are the developmental problems seen in their students based on heredity or environmental factors? How can development be promoted by regulating environmental factors? What are the duties of the school and the family? Teachers have important roles in this regard.

Managing the classroom environment where the learning experience takes place is an important task of the teacher. By monitoring development, the teacher can take measures to support development and guide the family in this regard. One of the situations in which teachers have difficulties is negative student behaviors in the classroom. In order to prevent such behaviors from negatively affecting the classroom environment and the learning process, the teacher should take measures appropriate to the developmental characteristics of the students.

People show individual differences in terms of nerve cells and capacity in the brain, as well as the structure and functioning of the sensory organs. These can be caused by genetic characteristics and environmental factors. The nature of learning is the interaction of heredity and environmental factors.

To the extent that teachers know the nature of learning well, they can become more competent in choosing appropriate methods, creating a good learning environment, selecting appropriate methods for each student by taking individual differences into account, and applying learning principles and theories.

Suggestions

Finally, I would like to share some suggestions given to teachers in the light of scientific findings on child development and the nature of learning. I believe that these suggestions will clarify the question of why a teacher should know about child development and contribute to useful examples in this regard.

• Children between the ages of 6-12 are more likely to identify with same-sex adults. It is important for teachers to pay attention to children with a lack of experience in identification in order for them to develop a healthy sexual identity.
• Parents and teachers generally care about children's cognitive development. What is important for them is children's academic achievements. However, research shows that IQ (intelligence level) explains a very small part of success in life. A teacher should reinforce and praise children who have low math achievement but have positive social behaviors.
• It is no coincidence that children who are accused of irresponsible behavior are most likely to be children who are not given enough responsibility. Irresponsible children may be the result of not taking enough responsibility in the family, in the classroom and at school. Teachers can develop a sense of responsibility by giving their students tasks in areas they enjoy.
• Do not try to be perfect and do not expect your students to be perfect. Because students experience anxiety when they cannot be perfect.
• Piaget advocates individualizing education as much as possible. It is also very important to integrate education with life. For this purpose, exam questions should be geared towards measuring the ability to use existing resources effectively rather than measuring information based on recall.
• Directing adolescents to scientific and artistic activities is very useful for cognitive and affective development.
• Some teachers try to teach children the subjects of higher grades. Teaching earlier is not better. The important thing is to provide learning with the right stimuli during the critical period.
• More important for teachers than what they teach is the example they set. Promise or support as much as you like, if you do not embody those values, it is all meaningless.
• Children learn best at their own pace. For this reason, teaching experiences should be divided into appropriate parts and made meaningful for the student.
• Reassure children before asking them questions. Target the behavior, not the person, in both praise and criticism.

Perception and attention processes are directly related to motivation. Children learn what they want to learn. Therefore, children show selective perception and attention to what they are motivated to learn. Without understanding motivation, it is difficult to understand students' misbehavior and other behaviors...

REFERENCES

BACANLI, Hasan. Development and Learning. Ankara: Nobel Publications, 2002.

CAN, Gürhan et al. Psychological Counseling and Guidance. Ankara: Pegem A Publishing, 2006.

CÜCELOĞLU, Doğan and İrfan Erdoğan. Being a Teacher. istanbul: Final Publications, 2013.

DEMİREL, Özcan et al. Introduction to the Teaching Profession. Ankara: Pegem A Publishing, 2005.

KÜÇÜKAHMET, Leyla et al. Introduction to the Teaching Profession. Ankara: Nobel Publications, 2004.

SELÇUK, Ziya. Development and Learning. Ankara: Nobel Publications, 2005.

YEŞİLIRMAK, Binnur et al. Psychology of Development and Learning. Ankara: Pegem A Publishing, 2006.