RAP4 EDU250 4/28/14

EDU 250
NAME: Brad OBrien

1. STANDARD #1. Learner Development

2. Choose the ones that best fit the activity you are completing. Choose at least three but no
more than five.
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
1(a) The teacher regularly assesses individual and group
performance in order to design and modify instruction
to meet learners needs in each area of development
(cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical)
and scaffolds the next level of development.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
1(f) The teacher identifies readiness for learning, and
understands how development in any one area may
affect performance in others.
CRITICAL DISPOSITIONS
1(h) The teacher respects learners differing strengths
and needs and is committed to using this information to
further each learners development.

3. EXPLANATION OF THE ACTIVITY:

This activity asks the participant to recognize that the students they will work with can be placed
into one of Erik Eriksons eight life developmental stages. We are asked to go into a learning en-
vironment, evaluate which stage the students are in, and try to understand how this developmen-
tal stage affects the learners and perhaps how they can be taught more effectively.

The reader is asked to construct an artifact from this experience, and reflect upon the implica-
tions of recognizing these stages of development and how it impacts learning.



4. ARTIFACT:
Developmental and Psychosocial Stages
Stage 5: Adolescence (13-19 Years Old)
Specific Age: 17

Characteristics of This Stage/age.
This is the time when true independent existence becomes a hard reality.
While undergoing the late stages of puberty, individuals in the fifth stage of Eriksons de-
velopmental stages are asked to begin making determinations which will affect the re-
mainder of their lives. The young person at this point in life experiences a crisis of not quite
knowing themselves or their capacity for achievement while being called upon to interact
with parents and social systems applying pressure for decisiveness in defining their own
identities and future intentions.

Evidence Observed.
I observed the classroom of a 11th grade student, an individual who currently takes private
music lesson with me. The definition of character in the classroom was almost uncomforta-
ble to me. Through style choices (perhaps the place where the limited self-expression is
RAP4 EDU250 4/28/14

most under the students control) the various students have marked themselves aligned
with social groups. Cliques.. Not only does their personal representation of identity stand
out clearly there there is clear evidence of socioeconomic divide between several of stu-
dents. Yet despite the apparent divisions the students seem remarkably comfortable with
one another. While there were some who did not participate in the discussion, those that
did interacted with tact while discussing conflicting viewpoints. I spoke with some friends
of my student,who all seemed to have clear goals set for their areas of study for college. It
was almost taken for granted that they would all attend.

5. REFLECTION:
I have to say Im personally amazed that these distinctions are even more strongly
visual than my own experience, perhaps it is my age influencing my perception but to see a
young man dressed darkly, with his hair in his eyes, debating the plight of Native-
Americans with a young woman in designer glasses with her bright clothes stood out as
foreign to me. And that they were talking so civilly! I could hear the mutual respect in their
voices.
Being an outside observer and not having been intimately familiar with the institu-
tion beforehand I cant say if each class is similar, but I did not see the crisis of identity in
these students. I fear That they have either already experienced this crisis and have moved
on, or they are creating a false self-image which they are presenting to give the appearance
of having overcome the crisis moment. Which, if true, is a disheartening portend for their
future experience.

6. EXPLANATION OF HOW THIS ACTIVITY MET THE PERFORMANCE INDICA-
TORS, CRITICAL DISPOSITIONS, AND/OR ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE OF THIS
STANDARD:
Recognizing that students are progressing through life in stages, which are not set to a spe-
cific age but more to their experiences thus, far encourages an instructor to recognize those
developmental traits in their students. To play to the strengths of each students area of de-
velopment and to guide students to the strength needed to come to accept the next stage
with grace.
I think it is also important, despite area of concentration, that we as instructors subtly include a
recognition of stage development in our classrooms. To allow students the freedom to recognize
their own circumstance objectively, and to proceed with the path which speaks clearest to their
own identity without compromising themselves into giving assent to the myriad outside factors
which seek to influence their self-identity and their future plans.

I have quoted Einstein previously in saying We cannot solve our problems using the same
thinking we used when we created them. I believe trying to teach students in the methods that
have worked in the past is a dangerous path to take. Things Ive learned in college, had I
known them as early as middle school, I would be a different person, one who might have argua-
bly more beneficial to society.