Theme 6: Developmental
Step by step
Piaget, although referring to the cognitive development of children, referred to four stages of development: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational. He did not believe these occurred at set ages, though typical age ranges are often given with his work (McLeod 2015). Theorists such as Piaget, along with my own experiences of learning practical, hands-on skills, have greatly influenced my belief that we learn in stages, incrementally and progressively (i.e. we crawl before we walk before we run).
This developmental theme is evident throughout the New Zealand education system. For instance, the increasing degrees of complexity/difficulty expected as a student progresses through Levels 1 to 10 of the New Zealand Qualifications Framework. Or, taking a 'closer to home' example, developmental progression can clearly be seen in the growth from Novice to Expert teacher as outlined by Hegarty (2015).
Bloom's taxonomy of learning (Bloom et al ,1956) also connects with this developmental
theme, in that the complexity increases as we move up the levels and mastery of one
level facilitates learning at the levels above. While a hierarchical interpretation of
Bloom's taxonomy is not entirely justified, the general pattern of advancing in
successive stages is clear.
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Bloom's taxonomy
Practice makes perfect
Developmental theories also incorporate the idea of learning and developing skills by practice – i.e. honing and refining skill through repetition. This is an approach I know from my own experience works for something like learning to play a musical instrument and other physical, practical skills such as fixing a puncture on a bicycle. Does this apply equally well to learning in a tertiary education environment? I believe so - skills such as academic writing clearly require repeated practice for mastery to occur, and my experience of learning has been that higher level skills such as analysis, evaluation and creation benefit greatly from practice too.
The old adage 'practice makes perfect' is still relevant today I feel.
Old fashioned rote learning however is not as useful in tertiary education – it has uses in the early acquisition of basic foundation skills perhaps, or for the recall of facts and information that are required in order to be able to use higher level skills. However the days of academic learning being largely about the acquisition and regurgitation of information are thankfully largely behind us.
However I do not agree with the idea that we should rely solely on computers/internet to remember all our facts for. We still need memory and if we don’t utilise these capacities they tend to atrophy (use it or lose it).
Connection with developmental theory in career practice
The developmental theories and models of Donald Super have been hugely influential in the career development field (e.g. Super, 1996). Having worked primarily with teenagers and young adults as a career practitioner I see very strong applicability of developmental "age and stage" themes in career practice - such as:
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at different stages of life people have different goals and issues
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different people are ready for career development at different times/ages
An area of further exploration for me would be the extent to which this "age and stage" element might also relate to adult learning.
Scaffolding
With reference to the notion that we learn step by step, a teacher often uses seom form of 'scaffolding' to assist learners to learn. Scaffolding is a metaphor which refers to:
a) the putting in place of successive levels of temporary support to help learners reach levels of skill and comprehension that they would not otherwise have been able to reach on their own
b) the incremental removal of these supports when they are no longer needed and the shifting of more responsiblity/control to the learner