Joiner Reflection Paper #2

Chapter 6 Question 3:Consider the difference between learning and development. Take a preliminary position on which influences which. That is, must a child be at a certain point in development in order for learning to occur effectively? Or, does learning prompt movement form one stage of development to the next. What evidence would support one position or the other?

Learning and development are linked together; there is no denying this fact. It has become an argument of many as to if one comes before the other. This idea is much like the question, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I do believe however, that learning influences development: development is the outcome or solution to the learning process.Piaget believed that children actively develop based on what they learn from their actions and their environments. According to Piaget, this process of active development is not arbitrary, and children must flow through a series of stages at specific age levels. He also determined a precise method for which a child would move and develop between each of these stages: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. Despite the detailed account and pathway for learning and development that Piaget lays out for us, there are many criticisms of his theory. I happen to be in agreance with several of these criticisms. It is obvious that Piaget had a very well thought out plan and idea of how children progress through cognitive development, however, he was very restrictive in that he set very specific time frames and ages for children to develop. Although children do flow through these stages, I find it difficult to place a specific time frame on a childs learning capabilities, their discovery and development within their environment.Learning prompts movement from one stage of development to the next as opposed to the child only progressing forward once they reach a particular age and exhibit the characteristics of that stage, as well as the competence of the previous stage. Let us use the learning of how to paint and make colors as an example. When a child is first introduced to painting, they must learn how to use the tools of a paintbrush, paint, paper and water. At this stage, they are typically given many different colors of paint to use. Next, they are taught the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow. At first, they may not understand why they have been limited to only three colors but they will still use them. As they begin to paint with these three colors, they will begin to notice that when certain colors are mixed together, they make new colors. As the child continues to progress through this learning by mixing, they may figure out that you can make a color darker or lighter by using black and white paint. They will also see a color that a peer has developed and may ask how they arrived at that particular hue. As a child progresses through each step of learning how to mix paints together to develop new colors, they will eventually begin to document their mixtures so that they can consistently arrive at the same color each time. In this instance, I do not see a specific time frame and age being denoted to each of these steps. Instead, as the child learns the characteristics of the paints and particular colors, they build upon what they know to develop more and more precise methods at arriving at the solution. I find Piagets stages to be very prominent in a childs learning, however, there are factors that can, and do influence a childs learning and development so that they may progress through the stages at a quicker pace or may learn more at a particular stage than stated. The important idea is that as a child learns, they are continually adding upon what they have learned to allow them to develop and understand the larger picture at hand.