Maturational Influence On Student Learning

The three concepts that should be considered when choosing a philosophy are the assumptions about how children learn, the values of the program planners and families involved, and the views of the planners on basic issues within education. Each of these concepts are very important in matching a philosophy to your own personal teaching strategy and what you feel is important in education (Sciarra, Dorsey, Lynch, & Adams, 2013, p. 25).

When making assumptions about how children learn, three categories can be considered: environmental, maturational, and interactional. Each category holds different views on how children learn and the role of the environment and teacher on student learning. From the environmental viewpoint, children learn through

Learning is more controlled by the student rather than the teacher so that the student is learning what they are ready to learn and motivation comes from internal satisfaction of mastering said tasks. Goals may include choosing activities based on own interests, communicate in some way satisfaction of task mastery, and showing interest and working in various areas of the classroom (Sciarra, Dorsey, Lynch, & Adams, 2013, p.

Learning happens from the interaction of both the environment and the emergence of the cognitive and affective systems. The difference is that, from this viewpoint both of these categories interact for learning and both are necessary, as well. Learning is not solely internally driven, but it is also through the setup of and interactions with the environment, not to mention the teachers/adults are there for support in learning and task mastery. Goals may include creating a play space that is filled with learning opportunities, encouraging exploration and creativeness, children are individuals and so are their needs, abilities, learning styles, and developmental pace (Sciarra, Dorsey, Lynch, & Adams, 2013, p. 25 & 26).

The second concept in choosing a philosophy is the values of the program planners/teachers and the families involved. Typically for both parties it will be to develop the child as a whole, including social, emotional, physical, language, aesthetic, and cognitive development. However, upon closer look, focuses may be placed on a specific aspect of development, rather than the whole child. It should be based upon the needs for development of that specific child though (Sciarra, Dorsey, Lynch, & Adams, 2013, p.