DESCRIPTION
Standard 2: Student Development
The teacher understands how children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support a child’s intellectual, social, and personal development.
REFLECTION
A classroom of students is very diverse. The students differ in personalities, learning abilities, interests and skills yet are all approximately the same age. Although these students differ and grow at different rates, I believe there are predictable patterns and sequences to their development.
I believe it is important for teachers to acknowledge and appreciate these patterns when developing lessons and methods of educating a classroom of students. Teachers should develop age appropriate lessons to be culturally relevant and multicultural to meet the needs of diverse populations. This knowledge of human development and learning will help the teacher in responding to the needs of individual students or groups of students.
It is important for teachers to use classroom observations as a method for collecting information on the behavior and learning patterns of their students. This strategy allows the teacher to evaluate the quality and age appropriateness of their lessons along with a providing a valuable component for teacher reflection.
EVIDENCE
In the Fall of 2008, I conducted a human development case study on a student with autism. I have included a link below to the case study.
