Extra stuff on theories - chapter 12

Lev Vygotsky 1896-1933

> Born in Russia the same year as Jean Piaget.
> Influential on both Psychology and Education.
> Vygotsky’s Theory and Child Guidance.

Three Major Ideas:
> Scaffolding
> Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
> Teacher-Child Discourse

Scaffolding:
~ A teacher’s changing support as a child develops new competencies or skills.
~ Children are the main construction workers, constructing or building themselves. Adults help children in their construction by serving as guides.
~ Teachers are active agents (working with children) in children’s social development.
~ A discipline encounter is a problem to be solved.
~ Good adult/child relationships are the foundation for DAP guidance and the foundation that scaffolding works best.
~ Better social skills and understanding are the results of good scaffolding.

Zone of Proximal Development:
The space or zone where learning and development takes place. At one end of the ZPD is a child’s current ability, what he understands about a topic. At the other end of the ZPD is what the child can learn or accomplish with the help of an adult.

Practical Guidance Strategies based on Vygotsky’s Theory
Page 299 Figure 12.1

Rogerian Theory

- Carl Rogers was born in the USA in 1902. As an educational psychologist he counseled children and their parents. He was also a teacher.
- Rogerian method of therapy is non directive, the therapist believes you have the answers to the problems inside yourself and their role is to help you uncover those answers.

Rogerian Guidance
Child has the capacity for self direction

Strategies help children:
~ Become aware of pleasant & unpleasant feelings
~ Perceive things more accurately
~ Be less defensive in dealing with problems, people, & experiences
~ Think for themselves
~ Trust their ability to make decisions
~ Accurately assess situations
~ Trust themselves to develop good solutions to problems


Thomas Gordon (Rogerian follower)

Developed a program based on the theory called (PET) Parent Effectiveness Training (TET is for Teachers). To teach effective guidance skills to adults.

3 Rogerian based theories:
> Figure out who owns the problem (child or adult)
> Listen actively if the child owns the problem
> Deliver I message if the adult owns the problem

Major Strategies:
~ Who owns the problem- decide this by looking at whose needs are not being met, who is upset, who can’t do something, who is frustrated.
~ Deliver an I message- give observable data, state the tangible effects, say how you felt, focus on change. (practice pg. 304)
~ Listen actively-use specific communication skills, don’t preach or tell them to feel another way, listen and let them construct their solution. (how to listen actively pg. 305)
~ No-lose method of conflict resolution-encourages child to engage in solving their own problem, helps child understand consequences, make own decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions.
~ Adults accept existence of all kinds of feelings in themselves and in children.

Problems……

...Child owns the problem-use active listening
...Area of no problems-the goal is to REDUCE the number of problems and increase the size of this area
...Adult owns the problem-use I message

Rogerian Concepts
~ Children develop a set of ideas about the “self”
~ Children have the capacity for “self-direction”-the ability to control their own actions
~ One’s perception of his/her own experience is private, subjective and personal (known only to him/herself)
~ Goal is to help children reach full potential
~ Goal is to help children become “fully functioning” persons
~ All children need unconditional positive regard

A “fully functioning” person is:
> Open to all experiences
> Is “tuned in” to feelings and accepts all of them, positive and negative
> Lives fully in each moment
> Is realistic, not defensive
> Trusts her/his own judgement

Adlerian Theory

- Alfred Adler was born in Vienna in 1870 around the same time as Sigmund Freud. Adler attended medical school and had an interest in psychiatry.
- He believed that each person was a social being. Maintaining that a person’s social environment and interactions heavily influenced personality development.
- People consciously and actively direct and create their own growth.

Major Principles of Adlerian Theory:
- Humans strive for psychological strength- a core set of ideas about how to understand, predict and have control over their experiences.
- This set of ideas is established by age 4-5.
- Humans also develop different levels of social interest. This is their sense of being a part of a group and of understanding how they fit into the functioning of that group.

The level of social interest is influenced by:
~ The child’s degree of self-esteem
~ The child’s family
~ The way the child interprets what s/he must do to belong to the group

Adlerian Concepts:
~ Each child has a characteristic way of dealing with the world
~ Children interpret rules for group membership
~ Some children interpret their world accurately, some inaccurately
~ A child’s behaviour, or misbehaviour, is based on this interpretation
~ We must understand a child’s goal in misbehaving before we can help him

Goals of Misbehaviour:

- The child may interpret those rules accurately and achieve a sense of belonging to the group by cooperating and making useful contributions.
- Other children may have a faulty perception of how to fit into the group and use inappropriate approaches to gain a place in it.

These approaches are known as “the goals of misbehaviour”. They include:
> To be “centre of attention”
> To demonstrate power over others
> To get even by hurting others
> To act in an incompetent way so others won’t expect much from him/her