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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT I

TASK 1

PSICOLOGA EVOLUTIVA: CONCEPTO, ENFOQUES,

CONTROVERSIAS Y MTODOS, Jess Palacios

24/09/2015

While reading this paper many ideas have come to my mind. Although it was quite long
and sometimes I found it difficult to read, I have been able to understand the basic
concepts and ideas that the author holds and to relate this new knowledge with the
knowledge I had already acquired.
First of all, I have fully understood that Evolutionary Psychology is a science that studies
the changes through the time in humans and its behaviour since this idea is repeated
during the whole reading. In addition, the fact of including authors ideas makes the
reader have a clearer idea of what this science is.
Another fact that has attracted my attention while reading this is the repeated apparition
and comparison using the dichotomy of mechanistic and organismic model or, in other
occasions, the Anglo-Saxon model or the European one. This comparison has took me
to the idea that these different models and the evolution of this science and other
sciences - that are not the same but have contributed to its evolution, such as ethology
- have made possible the current model of education, the regulation of rights and duties
of people, either kids or adults, and have help us to create a fairer world. Without
developing Evolutionary Psychology we would not have been able to understand how
children think or why they act how they act, how to deal with some issues related to
infants psychology and, of course, without this evolution we would not have been able
to achieve democracy and the consolidation of many values that have helped us to
enhance coexistence and our lifestyle.
Then, I would like to highlight also that I have found in this reading many ideas and
authors that I already knew; Freuds stages, Piagets levels, the several contexts of
Bronfenbrenner or the evolutionary thinking of Lev Vygotsky were some of those ideas
that years ago were taught to me. However, I have learnt new aspects from these authors
that have completed the knowledge I previously had.
All in all, this paper was quite difficult to read and perhaps there was too much information
with difficult vocabulary, if the information had been somehow rationed I would found it
easier and more pleasant than this one. Nevertheless, it was interesting and I have learnt
useful information about childrens mind.

TASK 2
09/10/2015

OBSERVING SOCIOCULTURAL ACTIVITY ON THREE

PLANES: PARTICIPATORY APPROPRIATION, GUIDED
PARTICIPATION, AND APPRENTICESHIP, Barbara Rogoff

This text or books chapter by Barbara Rogoff is one of the most difficult texts I ever read.
First of all, she uses concepts unclear and difficult for me to understand; I cannot find
the purpose of this text yet although it is explicitly stated.
The only thing that I find clearly exposed is, as the text says, that This chapter proposes
a sociocultural approach that involves observation of development in three planes of
analysis corresponding to personal, interpersonal, and community processes. These
three planes are well-separated and distinguished by the author and tries to give all
details about them. In addition, I also understand that they are distinct but that at the
same time they have a kind of relation in which although you are talking about one of
them, the other two will be always as a reference. This is not a matter of interdependence
or something like that, one can exist without the other two, but they will be always there.
Regarding the aspects that I could not understand or match at all with what I was reading
I have to say that the example of the Girl Scouts is not the most appropriate one. I could
not find any relation between the concepts and this example; I understand the author
wanted to offer a different point of view from what we are used to see, such as the formal
education examples, but perhaps there can exist better situations to be explained in
relation to this theory. Even though I would like to provide another example that could
help the reader to comprehend better the text I am not able to do it because I still have
doubts about the theory since I have not understood the majority of the content.
In this text we can also find references to authors that we have already studied, such as
Vygotsky, Pepper or Dewey, and although I could not clearly understand what I was
reading at that moment, to find a reference of an author I know comforted me somehow.
All in all, I would like to say that I would need to review the contents of this text with the
whole class in order to understand what it said, because with the previous paper we read
there were few things that I still have doubts about and that as few people took for
granted that it was understood we did not review the text at all. I am no proud of saying
that I have not understood the text, but maybe we can find easier texts since we are
studying a new subject and there are concepts that I am not able to comprehend now.

TASK 3

CHILD DEVELOPMENT PHYSICAL GROWTH, Laura E. Berk

23/10/2015

This chapter of Laura E. Berks book is easier to read than the previous readings we
have read. While reading it, I came to the conclusion that it was more pleasant and easier
to understand because I could relate the things and concepts she was explaining with
personal experiences. Excepting the illnesses she stated a kid can have while
developing, I think that everyone has overcame this kind of processes and for this reason
I am more able to understand it. But this is not the only reason why I find it easier to read,
but the presentation of the topics (which are separated in different sections such as
Changes in Body Size, Changing in Body Proportions) and the fact that everything
is more visual, it is exemplified with images, schemes
Even sometimes it might result difficult to read (since some scientific vocabulary and
scientific concepts were used but subsequently explained) I found it really interesting,
especially the body development issues and the comparisons between different
countries concerning this. I think that what this chapter explains is directly related with
social inequalities in the whole world and that we can understand why people is like this
just by looking at their bodies, or at least have a general idea. In addition, having these
concepts in a theoretical way offers me a kind of analysis of what has happened to my
body and what could be overcoming my hypothetical future pupils so as to understand
them better.
Regarding the Brain Development part, it was not less interesting than the one which
talks about physical development but maybe a little bit difficult to read, since I have said
before, she uses concrete concepts that I am not used to treat with. Nevertheless, I have
been able to understand it perfectly and to realise how complex our brain is, apart from
learning what happens with it during our development, either in our early ages or when
we start to grow up.
All in all, this text has result very useful to me and above all understandable. Thanks to
that I will be able to comprehend more what children overcome in a scientific and analytic
point of view.

TASK 4
24/09/2015

SCALING UP HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS AND

PERSONAL CAPABILTIES: THEORY-INTO-POLICY-INTOPRACTICE, Colette Murphy, Lynne Bianchi, John McCullagh,
Karen Kerr

This reading was not the easier one but I think that I have been able to understand the
general idea it wants to transmit. Nevertheless, there are certain points in the text I could
not understand at all, for example the theory-into-policy part, which I cannot clearly
remember.
In addition, something I would like to comment is that I do see a relation between theory
the coteaching, for example and practice sometimes, but others I do not perceive it.
Furthermore, I think that this approach or method works in certain places, in this case
Northern Ireland, but I do not know if this would work in our country since we have a
completely different social and political context, as well as traditions and culture. With
this I want to say that I would like to read something about our country and to know if
there has been any research or experiment in Spain and if it has worked or any school
is using it.
Another aspect to highlight would be the focus on science subject. I have not clearly
understood if this method would work with other subjects such as languages or physical
education, because teaching science by making kids solving problems and letting them
to choose what they want to learn or wander about what some concepts mean is easier
than using this method in the teaching of languages, which I think is more abstract and
maybe kids are not able to realise about the concepts that have to be taught.
Apart from that, the part of examples or experiments done based on the theory and this
methodology are quite good and I liked it very much because they helped me to
understand much more better the theory since I could see represented what I was
reading in real cases. However, I think that this part could have been more summarized
and presenting the common aspects of the three examples.
What has surprised me the most is the fact that I do not know any case of coteaching in
Spain and I did not know that this existed neither until I read this article. I believe that
this method is really useful since it helps preservice teachers to learn from an expert
teacher and to take part in the learning process of children before she/he starts having
her/his own classes. We have a similar system in our practicums but I do believe that it
is not as inclusive for students teachers as coteaching is.
All in all, this article has provided me a wide idea of how to teach and promote TSPC,
which are a really important issue in nowadays education.