One month of intensive study on child development has led me to one important conclusion: I will likely spend the rest of my life as a teacher catching relatively small glimpses of our complex human nature, and still never fully understand it. It's a web so intricate, it frankly makes me stand in wonder at such marvelous creation. What beauty! I can imagine many chances to naturally engage in conversations exploring these issues throughout my career (just as Program Standard #8 requires). It's overwhelming, in a good way.
As I have learned more about the various developmental theories, and the consequential educational practices stemming from each--hello, constructivism!--it is also clear to me that there are kernels of truth in all of these ideas. The biological nature of a child is absolutely hard-wired, but his intelligence, for example, may only be fully manifest when raised in the context of a loving, supportive home. The same child, born with incredible intellect but in a refugee camp, will likely never show the same kind of growth, or academic achievement as a child born to a healthy, safe family that sends him to school every day without event. Many of my peers' experience teaching ELL high school students highlights this same reality, and the inverse is true of my current posting at a high-octane international school. Children with much less natural "talent" will become CEOs, attorneys, and doctors because their environments (and their privilege) make it possible.
The achievement gap, and the ways our system exacerbates it, has been on my mind a lot through this course of study, but Dr. Medina's vision for brain-friendly classrooms keep me hopeful. From a restructured teaching schedule that recycles content repeatedly throughout the day, to a school day that respects the body's natural need to nap (amen!), there are ways to improve the system that will greatly benefit young people (Medina, 53, 157). Learning would increase as information becomes rock solid through purposeful repetition, and a chance for the brain to process it during sleep.
I am beginning to consider ways I can implement Medina's findings, as well as the big theories outlined Pressley and McCormick, in my own class, and I will begin with lots of "small bite" repetition. I think of this method as drip-drip-drip, hoping to fill each child's bucket with plenty of learning by the end of a school year. One veteran teacher advised to me pick one small slice of my teaching to master each year, and by doing so I will build an expert skill set over time. I look forward to trying "small bites" in my first "small slice"--there's a lifetime of learning to do, and I'm just getting started.
Resources
Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
Pressley, M. & McCormick, C.B. (2007). Child and adolescent development for educators. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Pressley, M. & McCormick, C.B. (2007). Child and adolescent development for educators. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
