Educator's Toolkit to promote a Healthy Child

     Play-based learning, especially free-play, is important to learning development (Ginsburg, 2007, p 183) because it allows them to take risks, and increases social communications with their peers.

 

Self-regulated learning theory looks at how an individual would control their learning process (Learning and Development, week 7, 2015). Those who are self-regulated tend to have incremental beliefs on intelligence, instead of fixed views. The learners tend to rotate between forethought (such as planning, setting goals), self-control, and self-reflection. This belief system is also known as growth-mindset.

 

    Personality is defining who we are, based on past experiences. Since this is a broad category, it embraces temperament, moral development, physical development, resiliency, parenting practices, Erikson's psycho-social stages, and cultural theories. (Learning and Development, week 8, 2015). Personality characteristics can be separated to nature or nurture. However, not all traits are visible in each individual.

 

    Temperament refers to how an individual emotional adjusts to environmental changes. Parenting practices can be dependent on control and supportiveness. Of authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved; authoritative is the most beneficial to the child. Because these are environmental factors, it can easily change depending on situations. In parenting, anxious-ambivalent adults are considered authoritarian.

 

    Adolescents undergo several stages of Erikson's psychosocial development. In each step, positive personality builds. A child's progress may not be continuous: it may jump stages or revert back, depending on the environment.

 

    According to Alfred Adler, the birth order impacts personality. For example, the first or only childs tend to be more responsible, the last child tend to be rebelleous, while the middle child acts as mediator and may feel lost.

 

    Numerous studies attempt to categorize the population by age. Well-known generations are Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Net Generation (Generation Y).

Millenials tend to be informed of the latest technology, occupied with extracurricular activities, and highly visual-spatial. From this profile, it appears that scaffolding, introduced by Vygotsky, plays a critical role in lesson planning.