Standard 2, student learning. A teacher must understand how students learn and develop and must provide learning opportunities that support a student's intellectual, social, and personal development.

The observation paper below involved a systematic observation of two children of different chronological ages to gain insight into physical, cognitive, psychosocial, and moral development of students.  The first child, Kara (not her real name), was a fourth grader in an urban elementary school.  The second child, Helen (not her real name), was an eighth grader in the same school.  To extend this study, follow-up observations at the end of the school year would reveal developmental changes in both children's thinking and social development. 

Student Observation #1

Learning and Development in an Educational Setting

Kara, 4^th grade

	Observed Behavior	Theorist and Stage	Explanation
Physical	Day after day, Kara: ·      Complains of sore knee.  Says no one will take her to the Dr. ·       States that she is in charge of caring for her 4-year old brother ·       Smells faintly of urine ·       Itches her head continuously ·       Nurse has sent her home several times due to live lice.	Bear et al., (2002-2003). Supporting victims of child abuse, Educational Leadership, 50(4), p. 44, Cited in Woolfolk (2010). Educational Psychology, 11th ed., p. 77.	Physical and behavioral indicators point to physical neglect.  Kara has unattended medical needs, lacks parental supervision, has very poor hygiene and chronic lice. (Teacher, myself and school social worker have made child protection reports.)
Social	·       Doesn’t have consistent friends ·       Complains about not getting along with her cousin at home and in her neighborhood ·       Has many academic strengths but struggles with school	Erikson, Industry vs. Inferiority.	Kara is having a hard time moving between home, neighborhood and school.  She is not succeeding with school tasks, friends, and in group situations. Kara does not exhibit a sense of industry, initiative and growing autonomy.  Rather she appears to struggle with feelings of inferiority (Erikson in Woolfolk, p. 85).
Moral	·       Fears her teacher ·       Repeatedly states, “Ms. Smith will get mad at me if I don’t do such and such.” ·       Expresses excessive worry about  deadlines, homework, and things that need to be brought from home to school for class projects.	Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning Level 1, Preconventional Moral Reasoning, stage 1, Punishment—Obedience Orientation Level 2, Conventional Moral reasoning, stage 4, Law and Order Orientation	Kara struggles to be an obedient student.  She her tries to avoid punishment, like having to stay inside sometimes for recess because her assignments are not done. She also has a “law and order” perspective that makes her believe that rules are absolute and authority must be respected at all costs (Woolfolk, p. 99).
Cognitive	Kara exhibits good math skills: ·       Has no trouble memorizing math multiplication facts ·       Loves to measure angles ·       Is a good reader who deciphers and solves math story problems quickly	Piaget’s Concrete-Operational stage	Kara grasps Piaget’s seriation operation (Woolfolk, p. 35): the ability to understand that A can be less than B can be less than C.  For example, she can quickly identify that 3(1) is less than 2(5) + 4 is less than 6(4) +3. Unless anxiety and other life circumstances overcome her, Kara has a good chance of  moving successfully into the Formal math operations stage of hypothetical reasoning.

Student Observation #2

Learning and Development in an Educational Setting

Helen, grade 8

	Observed Behavior	Theorist and Stage	Explanation
Physical	·       Stated, “I hate my body!  So-and-so looks so much better than me!  She’s petite!”	Jones, D. (2004). Body image among adolescent girls and boys: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 40, 823-835.  Cited in Woolfolk, p. 79.	For adolescent girls, including Helen, maturing more quickly and being bigger than everyone else is not seen as an advantage.
Social	·       Read assigned novel for English class voraciously.  Discussed main character with enthusiasm. ·       Recently started hanging out with a group of girls who shun academics and studying. ·       Flunked recent novel test in English class.  ·       Previously received straight A’s in English class.	Erikson, Identity vs. Role Confusion	Helen is grappling with, “who am I?”  She may be in the “moratorium” phase and may be struggling with choices.  She is not committing to and making use of her many academic strengths.  Helen is trying on roles and experimenting with being a “bad” girl and a “bad” student (Woolfolk, p. 86).
Moral	·       Empathized with a friend who was recently put in to foster care ·       Recognized that her friend lacked a costume for school play ·       Assembled and brought an attractive costume from home for her friend to wear	Carol Gilligan, “ethic of care,” cited in Woolfolk, p. 99.	Helen comes out of herself for the sake of her friends.  She is intensely committed to certain girls and her relationships with them.  She is very caring of her friends when they are in need.
Cognitive	In Algebra class, Helen ·       Struggles to understand that x stands in place of a number for a variable ·       Has a hard time grasping made-up math situations that describe speed changes and distance changes	Piaget’s Concrete-Operational to Formal Operations stage	Helen has not yet mastered Piaget’s Formal Operations stage that is required for understanding and doing  8th grade Algebra.  She is probably still in the Concrete-Operational phase.  To do Algebra Helen needs to understand how a number of different variables interact, and needs a mental system for working through hypothetical math scenarios (Woolfolk, p. 37).

Bibliography

Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology, 11^th ed.  Upper Saddle River , NJ: Merrill.