Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson (15 June 1902 – 24 May 1994) was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanilist known for his theory on social development of human beings.

Erik believed in eight different steps that cover the entire life span. Each stage is characterized by a developmental task which means each level is a new opportunity for growth. Here are the eight steps:


Step One: Trust vs. Mistrust (birth-1) 
-A child is born into this stage
-The child must build trust for the outside world in the stage
-It is important for the infant to experience warmth,love and care in order to learn to trust the people around them.
Step Two: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-2)
-Sense of being independent 
-Worthy of being their own person
Step Three: Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5)
-Preschool years
-Feel initiative to take care of self ex) wants to brush their own teeth or put away toys.
Step Four: Industry vs. Inferiority (6-puberty)
-Want to do work and put themselves out in the world
-Elementary school stage
Step Five: Identity vs. Identity confusion (adolescence 10-20)
-Who am I?
-Trying different things to figure out who they are.
-Figuring out who or what they want to become
Step Six: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Adulthood 20's and 30's)
-Finding significant other
-Getting married
-Looking for a partner who is going to meet the needs of love and intimacy 
Step Seven: Generatively vs. Self absorption ( Middle Adulthood 40's and 50's)
-More then meeting personal needs
-The need to leave some sort of contribution to the world
Step Eight: Integrity vs. Despair (60-)
-Can Look back on life and be happy/ proud of it.
-No regrets 


 Looking at these steps, I believe that I am in-between step five and six. I believe this because I know what I want to do with my life, and who i want to become but I am not ready yet to get married or start a family. I hope that one day I will reach step eight and look back on my life with integrity not despair, with no regrets and know that I tried my hardest to be the best person that I could be. 

The Importance of Technology

Living in the 21st century, I realize how important technology is and how big it will affect me as a future teacher and my future students. I believe that It is important to not only incorporate technology into the classroom, but also as a teacher understand how to use and be up to date with the newest technology. I believe this because children these days are highly impacted and surrounded by the latest technology such as laptops, iPhones and Blackberrys so it is important to know how to incorporate these into the learning environment so that the children will be more engaged about learning. It is also important to incorporate technology into the classroom because being around technology is the environment that the children grow up in, and so it is important to make the school setting feel just as natural to them as their home environment.

In fact, my own life and learning as been affected by technology. For instance now days research is really easy compared to the past, instead of looking in the library or encyclopaedia we have google, which saves a lot of time and energy. I also have the opportunity to follow the slide shows presented in lectures through my computer which helps to keep engaged and follow along. My learning was also shaped by technology in high school, where my high school was too small to have a lot of extra classes and therefor to get extra credit I had taken a lot of 3V classes. A negative way that technology has affected my life and learning is that it is very distracting. I am connected to my blackberry which causes distraction in class or during study times, also there are so many things on the internet that it is easy to get distracted when listening to a lecture. 

As a future teacher I will incorporate technology into the classroom through many different ways. Such things like texting polls, smart boards and blogs will whelp to incorporate modern day technology. I also think it is important to allow the children to bring there laptops to school for note taking etc... I also think it would be neat to incorporate E-books into the classroom, so that instead of the students having a hard copy of the book they would have a electronic version. Overall I believe that technology plays a huge role in our society and it is important to incorporate it into everyday life. 

Piaget vs. Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky - was a Soviet psychologist, he is the founder of cultural-historicl psychology, and the leader of the Vygotsky Circle.

Vygotsky assumed that learning is rooted in a developmental process, and that learning is not a snapshot but rather  like a movie, it is a on going process from day to day. He also assumed that cognitive skills are processed through language and the better language skills that one has, the rich the cognitive skills they will have as well. Vygotsky also stressed the importance of social relationships and culture. 

He believed in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)- which means that it is the role of the teacher to challenge the students. A Level of personal achievement that takes us beyond what we already know and where guidance is needed.  His theory is also based around scaffolding which means to provide guidance and support as a teacher to the students, to literally build support under a student to help them build and grow.  Some examples of scaffolding are- asking questions, direct teaching and guided practise. 

After learning about both Piaget and Vygotsky, I think I side more with Piaget and his levels of the developing child. I believe with him because many of what he says about the different thinking processes at different levels will help me teach my students in the future.  Also because many of his points like collaborative learning, is now days incorporated in elementary math and science. Having said this I also believe in what Vygotsky says about the importance of social interactions, because younger kids need that interaction and support from others. 

Jean Piaget

Cognitive Processes-
1) Schema- Concept or framework or structure/ things that we know.
2) Assimilation- Learn something new but does not contradict what we already know.
3) Accommodation- New information does not fit in with the old information. Challenges our assumptions.


Jean Piaget was aFrench-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosipher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".


Piagets stages:

Sensorimotor- Interacts with the world through senses and movement
Preoperational- Beginning of symbolic thinking, intuition to make predictions. Child goes there egocentrism (she thinks that the way she is experiencing something is the way everyone experiences it) Has not yet obtained conservation and does not think rationally.
Concrete Operational- Operational thinking, can think logically but not purely through his mind.Seriation-Ability to take physical objects and arrange them in a serious (longest to shortest). Transitivity- Logicall thinking (rational thinking).
Formal Operational- Hypothetical deductive reasoning (problem solving skill.


Knowing these steps that Piaget has examined it is possible to observe a child at each different stage. At the sensorimotor stage, you would see a child who crawls, puts things in their mouths and uses their senses to examine the world around them. At the pre operational stage you would see a toddler who is starting to understand the world around them but is still learning many things. They would not display the cognitive skill of conservation.During the concrete operational stage, the child will start to think rationally and will us the conservation skill and be able to learn skills using materials such as sticks,cups, etc... During the formal operational skill the child will start to use deductive reasoning and will be able to count with out using objects or fingers.

The "why" factor of teaching.

During the TED talk show today, Simon Sinek talked about the golden circle and the levels of it, which are: how, why and what. With why being the most important factor because it states the purpose, call or belief. Sinek stated that "people don't buy what you do but why you do it". This statement reflects on teaching a great deal because students don't care about what your going to teach but rather care about why your teaching certain things. Students pay attention more when they find out the purpose of learning the material rather then what is going to be taught because what is in the curriculum truly means nothing to them. Also if you teach the material sternly to what you believe and show that you believe in the stuff that your teaching, it puts motivation behind the material and encourages students to learn.


Another "why" factor that teachers have to look at is why you want to become a teacher. Nietzsche states that why is the most important because when you no why you want to do something everything else fits in place after that. So if you know why you want to become a teacher, it is easier to figure out how your going to teach and what your going to teach.


After watching the TED talk show and thinking about the thought attribute that Nietzsche believes, I got thinking of why I wanted to become a teacher. I want to be a teacher because I like children and enjoy being around them. Also, watching children grow, learn and accomplish different skills is very rewarding and gives me a sense of fulfilment. I also think that education is very important in our society and that children must enjoy and appreciate school or they will grow up disliking it which sets them up for failure. Knowing this I want to be a caring, approachable teacher who makes school a safe and enjoyable environment for children and who makes learning fun and rewarding and not stressful. The last reason I want to become a teacher is because a I want to make an impact on children's lives and help change them for the better. I want to light the way for children who may not have a bright future right now, and there is no better way to do that then be in the education stream and start effecting their lives at a early age.

Being a wise consumer of info. about educational psychology.

There are five important facts to think about when learning information about educational psychology, these include:
1) Be cautious of what is reported in the popular media
2) Avoid drawing conclusions about individual needs based on a group research.- Remember that you have to meet individual needs of the students but don't just assume that they have certain needs because of research done for a group. ex) If there is research done that children who play video games tend to be more violent, don't assume that just because a individual plays video games means he or she is violent.
3) Recognize  how easy it is too overgeneralize about a small or clinical sample.- Be careful about drawing generalizations from an individual to a group.
4) Be aware that a single study is usually not the defining word.
5) Always consider the source of information and evaluate its credibility.

Considering these points, after watching the video on  Allison Cameron and her classroom, it gives present and future teachers a lot to think about. Allison shows how incorporating physical education into her classroom full of struggling teenagers helps to improve their focus and skills in school. As a future teacher I believe that it is important to take this research into consideration.I do believe that physical education is important to improve brain activity certain factors of this research need to be taken into consideration. Certain aspects like disabilities, money for equipment and support from the school's staff may come into affect. It is important to realize that not ever student in future classrooms will be able to physically do exercise and that certain changes may have to take place if this is the case. Also it is important to see that Allison had the support and money to do this kind of activity, it may be harder for other teachers to obtain the money and support. Teachers must also realize that not all students will benefit from this type of activity because every individual learns differently. Overall I believe that incorporating physical activity into classrooms will help students learn and achieve but certain situations must be taken into consideration.

Effective teaching

To become a effective teacher, there are many different aspects that one must keep in mind. Effective teaching involves social and ethical matters and also involves working with multicultural students.Effective teachers must reach the needs of every student in his or her classroom no matter what culture or ethnic group the students come from. Teachers cannot expect students with different background to just adapt to our society. Teachers must master the subject matter that has to be taught, and have a firm grasp and be comfortable with the content.An effective teacher must use a range of different instructional strategies to capture the attention of their students. They must also have a structured classroom management with an authority voice and use goal setting/ lesson design to stay organized.  Motivation and communication skills are also needed throughout the classroom in order to be able to interact in a proper manner and be able to  keep the students engaged. In order for teachers to be effective they must inhibit these qualities along with many other qualities such as being a life long learner. It is important that teachers have the ability to learn and keep learning. They must want to learn and grow and respect the teaching profession.


Having said this, effective teaching can often be observed and praised. For example, I had never been good at math, but knowing that I wanted to become a teacher I knew I had to take math 30 pure. In grade twelve I was having a lot of trouble with math because of the heavy course load. I had told my teacher what I wanted to become in the future and that I needed math 30 but did not think I could pass . She took this into consideration and pushed me to succeed. She showed effective teaching by never letting me get negative and having faith in me. She spent some of her own time to make sure that I understood the learnt material which showed that she cared. She also gave me extra resources and support which helped to fit my needs.  She displayed all of these qualities of effective teaching and in the end she supported my future goals and helped me get to where I am today. She is an example of an effective teacher who cares and supports her students and in the future I strive to be an effective teacher and display qualities like she did with my students.