Category Archives: 1.3 Trust & Respect

Born but not wanted…

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From various inputs I’ve realised that the topic of the ‘Romanian Orphans’ was brought to our attention several times. I decided to have a look into the topic as I’d never heard of before and reflect on what I found out. 

aThe term ‘Romanian Orphans’ raised due to Nicolae Ceaușescu forbidding both abortion and contraception all increasing birth rates. Many children along with people who were mentally ill or disabled were dumped in orphanages. These vulnerable groups of people were subject to abuse and neglect including; physical abuse, sexual abuse and controlling their behaviour through the use of drugs. 

The orphanages also lacked washing facilities and medicine. The conditions of the orphanages declined again in 1982 when Ceaușescu decided to use all of Romania’s economic wealth to pay off foreign debt. However, many of the children within the orphanages were recollected by parents at the ages of 12,13,14 – when they were old enough to help their family earn a living. 

aaWithin the orphanages, there were often 10 people crammed into a room with 2 sharing a mattress, which were often rotten, lying in their own waste. Many children looked much younger than they were due to malnutrition and suspected, undiagnosed condition.

In the adult rooms there could be up to 160 adults found up to the age of 80.  Those that were disabled were often found in isolated parts of the orphanages with no protection against the cold as their clothes were often thin with several holes. Many of the orphans never experienced the basic human right of sanitation and many of the investigators reported a stench of rotting flesh and gangrene.

aaaOver the years, many orphans lived for very few months, years in these conditions contributing to the exceedingly high death rates. Those who did eventually escape the orphanages had to learn to deal with the altered brain structure, brain damage and disabilities they had developed through living in such poor conditions. 

Little Minds

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We know that everything we learn contributes to our memory. However what many are unaware of is the different types of memory. For example, there are many types of long term memory including;

  • Episodic – specific things – personal experience- where/when it happened
  • Semantic – all world knowledge
  • Procedural – knowing how to do something – riding a bike/driving a car
  • Mix of all these e.g- a trip to the market

brainAlso, automaticity is a very important aspect in increasing efficiency of processing information. Automaticity is achieved through practice and reduces the ST memory capacity. A classroom example includes, reading – children will often not be able to tell you what they’re reading (without automaticity).

Other factors that influence the development of knowledge include;

  1. Knowledge – increases as a function of age
  2. Strategies – rehearsal – repetition in various forms, organisation allows information to be stored more easily, elaboration – making links to aid memory

There are many different aspects to our minds and especially the way in which we memorise things.

Metamemory development refers to the monitoring, regulations and  awareness of the memory’s contents. There are two parts – Awareness of how memory works (what’s easier/harder to recall) and memory monitoring (what strategies to use).

Metacognition – refers to the knowledge and understanding of our own thinking process. It is the knowledge of what one knows and how one learns. As children grow up they become more aware of their own abilities and are better able to assess when a strategy will be effective.

False memory – Refers to they way children, usually young, reconstruct a memory falsely due to not tracking information as they encode it.

phineasPhineas Gage became a key interest of psychologists’ work after his personality changed after his brain’s left frontal lobe was mainly destroyed after and accident at work in which a large iron rod pierced completely through his head.

This started a worldwide focus into the theory of mind. The theory of mind refers to the ability to take perspectives of others and understand their mental state i.e – beliefs and desires.

The theory of mind develops across the world at roughly the same age regardless of cultural influences. However, children below 4 years old are unable to reflect on the mental state of themselves and others and their beliefs – This can be seen in the Deceptive box test. The development of the theory of mind can provide children with new realm of information on which they can draw from.
thinkingIt has been discovered that children develop this theory between the ages of 3&5 then at the ages of between 6 and 8 children develop the send stage in which the theory of mind allows other skills to develop including the understanding of jokes, sarcasm or bullying.

At what age a child develops this theory of mind depends on various environmental factors including;

  • The number of older siblings
  • The likelihood children are exposed to adult and peer interactions and communication on a daily basis.
  • Extended family

autismThe failure to develop the theory of mind has been linked with the autistic spectrum disorder. The lack of theory of mind produces many impairments affecting many aspects of a child’s life including; social relationships, communications and a lack of imagination. However, autism is not a product of the failure to understand the mind.

 

What are they thinking?

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Everything that we do comes down to our brain and the way we think. It has been at the heart of psychologist’s fascinations for years.

ivanIvan Pavlov was the first psychologist to focus upon behaviourism through his ‘Classic Conditioning Test’ His conclusions were that we can change the natural reflex of human and animals. Furthering Pavlov’s findings, B.F.Skinner concluded that all behaviours are learnt through experiences, operant conditioning, through his experiments in the Skinner Box.

Behaviourism can be monitored through the use of reinforcement, especially in the classroom. We, as teachers can use a number of techniques to increase behaviour for example;

  1. Presenting a positive stimulus (positive reinforcement) e.g- hugs,praise, rewards of some kind from homework
  2. The removal of an aversive stimulus (negative reinforcement) e.g- buying a toddler a treat in the supermarket to stop their whining

Furthermore, there can also be techniques used to decrease behaviour which can be used as part of behaviour management in a classroom. Including;

  • An aversive stimulus is presented (Positive punishment) e.g – getting burned from touching a hot iron
  • Isolation fro a reinforcer (Time – out) e.g- asking a child to stand outside the classroom to cool down
  • The removal of a valued item (Response cost) e.g- TV/gaming/ ‘grounding’

behaviourHowever, there are many implications of these behavioural techniques. For example, If a child is isolated and sent out with the class, this can make the child feel like a ‘big man’ and they can repeat the actions for attention. These behaviour strategies also only dal with the behaviours and not the cores (doesn’t take into account of cognition)- why is it happening? is there any issues as to why the child is acting out? and also some children may start to manipulate the system and only behave until they receive a reward then act out.

However, Albert Bandura developed the Socio – Cognitive Theory and suggested that we learn from: environmental factors such as role models, instruction and feedback and also personal factors such as goals, sense of efficiency, attributes and process of self regulation.

jean piagetIn the 20th century, there was a very teacher led approach to education and children were seen as passive learners. Jean Piaget was a Swiss biologist who believed that children are not in fact mini adults but instead pass through 4 stages of development;

 

  1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years) – interaction with environment
  2. Pre-opertional ( 2-7 years) – representation of world symbolically
  3. Concrete Operational (7-12 years) – learning of rules – observation
  4. Formal Operational (12+ years) – focussing on the future – adolescent

Piaget also rejected any sense of authority and believed children develop more through peer interact. Of course, this proposed many implications within the classroom including; we must only teach children what they are ready to learn and treat every child individually and differently.

lev vygotskyWithin the 20th century, Lev Vygotsky also undertook experiments into the way a child mentally develops through thinking. Like Piaget, Vygotsky concluded that children acquire the tools of learning through social interactions. It is these interactions which build an ‘inner speech’ which then becomes thinking.

Neo-Piagetians explain Piaget’s stage theory in terms of information processing – so capacity and efficiency of processing. They have concluded that adults do have more capacity and efficiency and all that you sense you won’t necessarily perceive.

 

Attachments

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From the minute we begin to develop within the womb, we form attachments. Therefore, to me, this is a vital aspect of our learning. It has since been found that for a sound upbringing a child needs to have some sort of attachment so surely this is a great aspect in a child’s holistic development?

aSimilar and related factors to attachment are placed highly in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which indicates their importance in a child’s upbringing.

We have studied the Attachment Theory which conveyed that normally a child develops a clear attachment to their mother (who is also the primary caregiver). Long ago, people believed that this was due to the mother providing food. However, there is growing evidence that contact and comfort have a greater importance… demonstrated through ‘Harlow’s Monkeys 1980’.

aJohn Bowlby discovered that children have the innate ability to form attachments and it was the evolutionary attachment that promoted survival, care and nurture. Bowlby was influenced by Konrad Lorenz who carried out numerous studies on attachment. One of his studies, ’44 Thieves’ concluded that 70% of the thieves had experienced some level of maternal deprivation therefore had the inability to experience guilt through theft.

However, like many I disagree with some of Bowlby’s statements regarding attachments in children. For example, Bowlby concluded that a consequence of maternal deprivation is the development of delinquent personality. I disregard this statement as I have since found otherwise through numerous case studies, including the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’.

‘The Lost Boys of Sudan’ was a study concluded on a group of children that were separated from their parents through the Civil War in Sudan. The study focussed on their coping mechanisms to their ambiguous loss, as many did not know the fate of their parents/siblings. One of the coping mechanisms adopted by the children was distraction. This included doing homework which resulted in many taking an interest in education and strengthening themselves as a result. Completely contradicting Bowlby’s statement.

Mary Ainsworth developed the theory of attachment further through her Strange Situation Test. This was a test in which a baby and mother entered the room full of toys and played, a stranger then entered the room and the mother left whilst the babies reaction was recorded. This was to record the strength of attachment within babies. The results were that 50-70% were securely attached to their mothers again portraying that attachments form in the very beginning of a baby’s development.

Within the test 15-20% displayed insecure attachment. Being insecurely attached brings many consequences both short or long term;

Short term – Children are less likely to interact with others, less likely to show an interest in what is going on, less likely to be seen developing and are less likely to settle into early years education

Long term – has an impact on social relationships later in life and greater incidences of serious health problems e.g – mental health ill

Ainsworth also found that those who are securely attached have more intimate friendships, higher self esteem and perform better at school. Also, parents who were securely attached are more likely to have securely attached children.

So is there a link between parenting styles and attachments? I believe that there is. There is numerous studies all concluding the same; the more parents play, communicate and interact with their children the more happier, healthier and well developed they will be in the future.

Surely this is something that must be highlighted to all parents.

Virtues of Teaching

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To me, teachers need a variety of different virtues and ethics to display themselves as professionals but also there for the pupils as a support unit.

The 5 virtues that stood out to me as being important to teaching were;

Compassion – We as teachers will be interacting with children from a range of different backgrounds. I believe that it is important for a teacher to be compassionate towards pupils so they can rely on you as a support unit which they may be lacking at home. It is also professional for a teacher to show compassion to show their class that they are in fact human.

Respect – I believe it is highly important for teachers to be respected by their class but also pay this respect back. If there is a mutual respect shared in the classroom then it will be a much better learning space. Children will look at the teacher as being a professional if respect is given.

aConscious – With primary school children there will always be playground arguments to deal with. In such situations, it is very important for a teacher to have a conscience to distinguish between which child is in the right and which child is in the wrong in order to resolve the problem.

Justice – I believe that it is important for a teacher to promote justice within the classroom. All children will feel that they are treated equally so are more likely to contribute to classwork, enjoy their learning and strive to do their best. This is an important value to encourage children to carry with them into later life also.

Empathy – Like compassion, I believe it is highly important if a teacher can bring themselves down to the level of the child to fully understand what they are feeling and how they can help.