INTASC 1. Learner Development

The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

 

     It is critical for a social studies teacher to have an understanding of how learners develop. Learner development is honestly something I am still working on because it can take several years of experience for a teacher to see how a learner develops. Every student develops differently, which impacts how a student learns. A Senior high school student is much more developed in learning than a sixth grade student; however, a senior high school has different pressures that affect his or her learning as well. This can make it difficult for teachers having to plan instruction for students that learn in several different ways.

     Over the course of my time in the education program and during my Student teaching I was able to gain further insight into how many learners develop. I learned a lot about learner development in my Psychological Foundations of Teachers class. During that class I was exposed to Blooms Taxonomy and the orders of thinking. I learned in that class that you want students to go beyond simple recall and rote memorization of facts. I want students to become intrinsically motivated about learning social studies, and be able to apply it to their lives. In that class I got a good firsthand experience into how learners develop by reading and completing an assignment on the book “Educating ESME: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year” by Esme Raji Codell (See Evidence 1).  In my Content Area and Literacy class I was able to get further insight into learner development by assessing the suitable grade level of a history book through completing a text module portfolio (See Evidence 2).  I was also able to get insight into learner development through completing my prior knowledge interview in the Fall with two high school students See Evidence 3).  

     Learner development is something that I am going to continue to work on getting better at recognizing in order to help me provide more effective instruction to students. During the past year I learned that a tenth grade student is at a different learning level than a sixth grade student. Students also within the same class developed differently as well. Those differences certainly impacted how I designed instruction in for my high school classes in the Fall and middle school classes in the Spring. Learner development will continue to impact how I design instruction in the future.

 

Evidence