Define nurture in child development: Nurture the nature – PMC

Опубликовано: January 26, 2023 в 8:17 pm

Автор: alexxlab

Категории: Child

Nature and Nurture in Child Development

What’s interesting about nature and nurture in child development is that they are both significantly impacted by the way God made us.

When it comes to figuring out the personality traits of our children, we parents have a front-row seat to the ongoing nature and nurture child development debate. We find numerous examples to support both sides of the argument.

Nature and Nurture in Child Development

For instance, did you notice that your biological children’s personality traits were different from one another when they were born? Or, was your biological daughter’s disposition different from either parent’s from her first day of life? When you see these differences in your children from birth, this seems to indicate that personality traits are innate. That’s because you can’t explain the differences as related to exposure to social or cultural influences.

On the contrary, you might have noticed personality traits in your children that you can relate to their life experiences. Did you see your previously unruly child become disciplined and dedicated to learning to ride a horse? Do you think that’s because he attended camp and connected with the instructor in charge of the equestrian program? Or, was your shy daughter able to come out of her shell when her grandmother helped her make friends? Maybe your eternally optimistic, laid back teenager became extremely anxious, fearful and jumpy after being the victim of a crime.

Neuroplasticity

What’s interesting about nature and nurture in child development is that both are significantly impacted by the way God made our bodies. While the anatomy and physiology of the brain and our genetic make‐up determines the personality we’re born with, the brain also has the ability to form new neural connections to compensate for problems caused by injury and disease or adjust to new changes in the environment. This is called neuroplasticity.

Furthermore, dopamine and serotonin, two important neurotransmitters and hormones associated with feelings of calm and happiness, have the ability to significantly affect our moods. Intentional focus on certain behaviors such as expressing gratitude can stimulate the release of dopamine and serotonin and thus improve mood.

Stress and Trauma

Unfortunately, stress and trauma can impact how we react to the world, as well. But as parents, if we practice intentional parenting, we can help our children use their positive personality traits to recover from negative events in their lives. And, by adopting certain styles and practices, we can teach our children attitudes and behaviors that may keep them strong, healthy and resilient. This is where we can see the benefits of addressing both nature and nurture in child development.

Nature and Nurture in Child Development: Parenting Styles

To begin with, decades of research studies have found that the best parenting style is authoritative. Children raised by authoritative parents tend to be independent, self-sufficient, have good social skills and be well adjusted. Parents can draw on positive inborn personality traits or use authoritative parenting techniques with their children to develop these strengths. This style emphasizes setting reasonable boundaries and limits regarding behavior, being loving and nurturing and showing respect for children.

Authoritarian and permissive styles of parenting tend to have rigid rules or a lack of boundaries, respectively. In his new book, Seven Traits of Effective Parenting, Daniel Huerta, Vice President of Parenting and Youth at Focus on the Family, discusses the personality traits that align with the authoritative parenting style: love, respect, boundaries, intentionality, gratitude, grace and forgiveness and adaptability. When parents are conscientious about developing these traits, whether they are inborn or need to be taught, kids are more likely to be well adjusted and able to cope with the unexpected problems and crises that may come their way.

40 Developmental Assets

Additionally, the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets support an authoritative style of parenting. The assets focus on external assets that provide support to children and internal assets that, if developed, build a foundation for a healthy, caring and responsible child.

The institute’s Developmental Assets Profile has been translated into 30 languages and used in the United States and more than 30 countries. After surveying over 6 million young people around the world who had completed training in development of the assets, a quarter-century of research has shown correlations between the assets and lower high-risk behaviors as well as higher measures of good health.

Jesus Was Authoritative

Finally, we see through the ministry of Jesus Christ that an authoritative style is preferable. As Jesus moved among his people and came face to face with their human failures, struggles and pain, He always responded to them first with grace and then with truth.

In other words, he began with being nurturing and loving and ended by setting limits that directed them to respect the authority of God. So, there is ample evidence that authoritative parenting is the best option for parents who want to help their kids be healthy and resilient.

Navigate family life with grace and love!

Daniel P. Huerta, Focus on the Family’s Vice President of Parenting, presents a collection of seven powerful character traits designed to help parents grow and thrive while raising Godly children.

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What About Me?

But how are you supposed to focus on developing seven traits and 40 developmental assets? You’ve got a job, home and kids’ activities to keep track of. And you’ve just about “had it up to here”, trying to get your three-year-old’s temper under control. Then you’re trying to convince your timid, shy and anxious pre-teen that she won’t die if she enters the halls of the local middle school.

You might be able to focus on helping your kids in one or two areas but not 47! How do you intentionally interact with your children so they develop personality traits that are more likely to set them up for success in life, rather than failure? How do you have time to focus on nature and nurture in child development? Well, certain parenting practices and adjustments to attitudes are fairly easy to implement and extremely impactful to the health of your children.

Parenting Practices: Positively Based Discipline vs. Punitive Discipline

All kids need boundaries and limits in order to explore the world while staying safe and secure. How parents impose limits can lead kids toward self-discipline and wise decision making. It can also lead them toward shame and guilt. All this depends on whether parents intend to encourage or control children when they impose those limits.

Positively Based Discipline

The intent behind positively based discipline is to teach principles for healthy living, encourage kids to explore and discover their strengths and weaknesses, be responsible for themselves and kind to others. This is accomplished via-

setting reasonable limits and communicating them to children with love
coming up with consequences that are respectful and intended to help children see how crossing boundaries will negatively impact their lives
showing grace and forgiveness when following through on consequences and
establishing rewards that reinforce good behavior

Punitive Discipline

On the contrary, the intent behind punitive discipline is to control children and make them follow rules. Threats of punishment are used as the tools to motivate adherence to boundaries and the result is that kids end up feeling ashamed of their behavior and guilty for having disappointed mom and dad.

Parenting Practices: Strengths Focused vs. Problems Focused Parenting

There’s a really simple principle that all parents need to know. It’s the idea that behavior is most easily modified when parents reinforce good behavior. Good personality traits are more likely to be developed when they are reinforced and bad personality traits are more likely to go away when they aren’t. So, once again, parents can focus on nature and nurture in child development. They can encourage positive, innate personality traits or discourage negative ones. And, they can also expose children to experiences that help them develop personality traits that keep them become healthy and resilient.

Strengths Focused

When parents switch their focus to seeking, finding and developing their kids’ strengths, rather than focusing on their problems, their kids are more likely to grow and thrive.

To become more strengths focused, parents may want to do the following:

Identify the strengths of each child related to good behavior and positive personality traits
Express gratitude for those behaviors and traits
Provide meaningful rewards for behaving well and using good traits to benefit others
Be intentional about helping children to use their strengths, continue to behave well and develop positive personality traits
Be intentional about redirecting poor behavior and showing kids how their negative nature vs. nurture personality traits are affecting them negatively.

Problems Focused

In the midst of the stress of parenting, however, it’s easy to ignore kids when they are behaving well, and respond only when they are misbehaving. Unfortunately, by doing so, parents unintentionally reinforce poor behavior because attention is a powerful reinforcement. Parents also have a tendency to focus on trying to change or get rid of their kids’ less desirable traits and to forget to develop their best traits. However, the opposite needs to happen.

Attitudes: Optimism vs. pessimism

Most of us are familiar with Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the 100 Acre Wood. Two of Pooh’s buddies illustrate attitudes of optimism and pessimism well.

Tigger is the eternal optimist, bouncing around and experiencing the world as “fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!” He’s always there to make the best out of every situation and encourage his friends to do the same. On the other hand, Eeyore drags around, complaining about the state of his life. He never seems to lift his head high enough to see the sunshine.

Children’s Personality Traits

Sometimes parents notice these tendencies in their infants and toddlers. Some children appear to be on the go, laughing, chortling and responding playfully to their loved ones most of the time. As they try to learn a new skill, no amount of failure will keep them from continuing to make attempts until they master it.

Still, others are timid, shy and become frustrated very easily. They give up after one or two attempts to learn to sit up or take a few steps. While this may have something to do with a child’s innate personality, pessimism can be shaped into optimism with some intentional interaction with the timid child.

Develop an Attitude of Optimism

But why is it important for children to develop an attitude of optimism?

The benefits of optimism, presented by Elizabeth Scott (2020), are summarized below:

Superior Health- Optimists are more likely to maintain better physical health than pessimists.
Greater Achievement- More optimistic sports teams have been found to have better synergy and performance than pessimistic sports teams.
Persistence- Optimists are more likely to achieve success than pessimists because they persevere when trying something new.
Emotional Health- For people struggling with depression, focused training in optimism has been shown to provide increased ability to cope with future setbacks.

So, given these benefits of optimism, it’s really helpful when parents take the time to be intentional about helping their children develop an attitude of optimism.

Failure is Not a Reason to Feel Defeated

One of the first ways to do that is to teach kids that failure is a part of life. It’s not a reason to feel defeated. Rather, it’s an opportunity to figure out how to do things differently in order to eventually find success. Or, if success is unlikely, failure can be used to encourage a child to develop adaptability by coming up with an option to the activity or event that is likely to end in failure.

This teaches kids not to be defeated by failure and become pessimistic. Rather, they learn to be optimistic via beginning to look forward to future success. With each victory over failure, they develop an attitude of optimism. Also, parents need to abandon the old adage “you can be anything you want to be.” It’s simply not true.

Different Gifts

As expressed in Romans 12:4-6: “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…”

It’s entirely possible that a child’s desires do not line up with his or her God-given gifts. Sometimes it takes much more than pure will to succeed in some areas of life. A child may simply not have the ability to succeed at a certain skill for a variety of reasons.

We have all heard of people who have overcome remarkable odds to succeed in some sport, intellectual skill or in financial matters. Yet, all human beings have limitations that may make success in certain areas of life impossible. If we don’t help our children acknowledge those limitations, they are likely to develop pessimism. This can happen as they experience one failure after another that can’t be easily overcome by trying harder.

Model Optimism

Another way to encourage optimism in children is to model it. Children copy what they see and hear in front of them. So, if parents are frequently complaining, forecasting doom and gloom, or responding to kids’ accidents, mistakes or difficult days with negative comments, children tend to learn that there is much to be pessimistic about in life. Can you see how much better life can be for kids who learn, instead, to look for the good in the world around them?

Intentional focus on gratitude also helps children move from noticing what they have to be grateful for to expressing thankfulness. This develops optimism about their life and environment.

Parenting a Pessimistic Child

It may be that you are a truly optimistic parent who has a very pessimistic child. This may relate to his or her innate personality. It might also relate to the influence of peers who spend a lot of time focusing on the negative parts of life and on negative feelings. You can help your child flip this tendency by asking a question whenever he or she says something negative. The question is “could it be that there is something good about this situation or an opportunity to learn something new here?”

I’m not suggesting that this will turn a pessimist into an optimist overnight. However, I have seen that repeated questioning tends to result in kids thinking in new ways. They also start to consider more than a negative outlook on life. Over time, kids will begin to see their lives through the perspective of optimism rather than pessimism.

Others Focused vs. Me Focused

It’s pretty normal for infants and very young children to focus only on their needs. They’re fairly helpless and need a lot of assistance. They must rely on older kids and adults to make it safely through each day. However, as children become more independent, it’s in their best interest to help them focus more on helping others than satisfying all of their needs.

That’s because none of us are able to tolerate selfishness for very long. We all need other people to help us through life. If we demand that our needs always be met before others’ needs, we’ll find ourselves excluded from a lot of groups and activities.

Mine, Mine, Mine

Many years ago, a single mother came to see me to get help dealing with her three-year-old twin boys. Three preschools had kicked them out. Their primary mantra was “mine, mine, mine” and their tactic of knocking other kids over to get to whatever they wanted was not going over so well with their teachers and other preschoolers.

After meeting with this mom and her children, I suspected that the cause of the “me focus” in the twins was due to them having to fight with one another for every toy, cookie or minute of mom’s attention. So, we worked on two things together. First, I suggested a reward for each boy when he did something for the other one. Second, we came up with activities that required them to work together to achieve success. So, if little Robby and Todd wanted to go to the park, they had to help each other clean up the playroom first. Both boys had to participate and help one another.

Help Children Develop Altruism

It’s easy to understand, really. Kids will continue to do whatever they receive rewards for. So, if they receive a positive benefit from helping others, they’ll naturally become more “others focused”.

However, if they get whatever they want when they are me focused, they will continue to be very self-centered. Others focused children develop altruism. This trait is encouraged throughout the Bible. God calls us to serve one another and to make sacrifices for our friends. He also calls us to give what we have for others in need.

In Seven Traits of Effective Parenting, Daniel Huerta discusses the need for kids to develop altruism in order to thrive in life. He refers to this as a “contributor” vs. “consumer” mindset. Contributors are intentional about serving others while consumers take from others in order to receive benefits for themselves.

“From the beginning God wanted us to be contributors within his kingdom story and not consumers. The moment Adam and Eve chose to consume the fruit out of a lack of trust, we became consumers in a garden needing contributors. As we contribute to our kids through our parenting, we guide our kids toward becoming contributors to others and to the overall functioning of the family and society, thus fulfilling their role in God’s kingdom story.”

pg. 2, 7 Traits of effective parenting, daniel huerta

Danny Huerta talks with Jim Daly and John Fuller about his new book 7 Traits of Effective Parenting

Intentional Parenting Is the Key

Children come into this world with personality strengths and weaknesses. Some they can change, others, they can’t. With intentional parenting and focus on nature and nurture in child development, moms and dads can help their kids capitalize on their strengths, improve on their weaknesses and find ways to adapt successfully to the challenges in their lives.

Child Development Nature vs Nurture

It is a common refrain in India that a thief’s son will be a thief or a fraudster’s child will be a fraudster. It essentially drives home the point that life experiences, education and guardianship do not matter much and fundamental characteristics are passed on through the genes. Another recurring instance is the mother being blamed for the behaviour of an unruly child. These habitual practices are a contrast to each other. The first propagates a popular belief that nature or genetics is responsible for an individual’s dominant traits while the other buttresses the importance of nurture or the external environment after birth.

The debate between the dominance of nature over nurture and vice-versa is as old as the study of human psychology. Over the years, psychologists, thinkers and philosophers have contributed to the debate with various research studies and theories. In the past, the narrative has mostly been one versus the other. But recent studies have found that both nature and nurture interact to shape an individual’s personality. For a better understanding, let us start with what is nature and what is nurture?

Nature refers to all the physical and personality traits in an individual due to hereditary factors. For instance, the colour of your eyes or your skin colour is a result of genetics or nature

Nurture refers to the external environment encountered by an individual after birth like early life experience, education, social relationships and surrounding culture.

With a clear idea of nature and nurture, let us take a look at the debate over the years. There have been notable thinkers in both the camps. Philosophers like Plato and Descartes had suggested that some characteristics are inborn and the external environment has no impact on them. However, nativists or the hardcore proponents of nature’s primacy over nurture believed that a majority of the traits of a child are a result of his/her genes. On the other side of the spectrum were thinkers like John Locke who suggested that a human’s mind is like a blank slate at the time of birth. Everything that you know is the result of your experiences.

What research says

These were mostly theories without the backing of objective research. A few notable research studies have been conducted to settle the nature vs nurture debate. In 2005, sociology professor Guang Gao proposed that nature and nurture hold equal weight in the development of a human being’s personality. Gao concluded that genetics interact with the external environment to create complex personality traits in individuals, and it is not the sole work of genetic inheritance. Nearly 10 years after Gao, a study conducted by the University of Queensland researcher Dr Beben Benyamin concluded that variation in human traits and diseases is determined 49% by genetics and 51% by environmental factors.

Long before Gao or Beben conclusively proved that nurture was as important as nature, a series of notable experiments conducted by psychologist Albert Bandura around 1960 had proven that children learn by observing the activities around them. In his famous Bobo Doll experiment, Bandura demonstrated that children could learn aggressive behaviour by simply observing adults.

The results are also backed by nutrition experts. For instance, if a child comes from a family which has tall people, he/she is likely to receive the genes for height. However, if the child doesn’t receive adequate nourishment, he/she may never be able to attain the height of his/her family members. Similarly, diabetes is a hereditary disease, but even an individual with a family history may not catch if they lead a healthy life.

How to provide the right environment to your child

Parents have a significant role to play in the development of the child. Since life experiences or nurture is an extremely important factor in the child’s future, it is the parents’ duty to ensure a nurturing environment. The single biggest step should be to promote communication. Talk to your child and encourage him/her to express his/her feelings. Listen to your child and foster a climate of mutual respect. A variety of other steps can be taken, but parents have limited control of the child’s time.

The bulk of time in a day is spent by the child in the school. If you consider the Right to Education Act, it requires students from first to fifth grade to spend 200 days in school and sit through 800 instructional hours. The actual duration may be higher. The selection of the right school is the link most parents overlook while planning for the child’s future. The importance of the school is also corroborated by a 1962 study by American Psychologist, which found that creative talent can be developed through nurturing in school.

Conclusion

The debate between nature and nature is endless, but all recent studies point towards equal importance of nurture in a child’s development. In India, the school plays a central role in the child’s life from the initial phase. A focus on choosing the right educational institute for your child could turn out to be a deciding factor for a bright future.

Development and education of children.

Research on the stages of child development from birth to a year, books on raising a child after a year on the Ya-parental.ru portal.

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Child development

The birth of a baby is certainly a joyful and exciting event for every family. However, at first, many parents experience serious stress associated with a lack of knowledge about the development of the child and age crises. Many are tormented by the question: “Is my child normally developed for his age?”. In order to dispel these doubts, let’s look at the child’s development calendar from birth.

Choose your age

Child development Up to 1 year

Select the month of the child’s life you are interested in

1 month

A newborn sucks at the breast, actively moves his arms and legs, brings his clenched fists to his mouth, reacts with a start to a sharp noise. The baby smiles for the first time, fixes his gaze on a bright object and follows moving objects.

Evening rituals for babies
Child development calendar: first week of life

2nd month

The baby is actively growing, he needs more and more milk during feeding. He starts to raise his head and tries to hold it for a few seconds. Sometimes a child can “pound” the air with his hands – this is a normal reaction for two months. Baby reacts to sound and tries to find its source, can already focus briefly on toys or parents’ faces

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Educational games with children: recommendations for parents of children 2-3 months old

3 months

A child at the age of three months responds well to sound: he can determine where he is coming from, turns to him, recognizes his mother’s voice, hums. A healthy baby can rest his feet on the surface, if you support him in the armpits. The baby is already confidently holding his head.

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Educational games with children: recommendations for parents of children 2-3 months old

4th month

The period of a small helpless creature is over, and your child begins to actively explore the world and literally “try it on the tooth. ” Parents can relax a little and sleep more at night, but keep a closer eye on the baby during the day. At this age, the first grasping reflexes appear, the child holds his head and even makes the first attempts to sit down. He reaches for toys, tries them “by the tooth”, getting an idea of the texture and volume of objects.

Educational games with children: recommendations for parents of children 4-5 months old
Fine motor development: finger games for children 4 months to 3 years old

5 months

Closer to this period, the baby begins to roll over from his stomach to his back, “discovers” his arms and legs and starts playing with them. The child likes songs for the night. Fine motor skills are actively developing – the child learns to use the thumb separately from everyone else.

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6 months

At six months, the child already knows how to grab toys. Now your baby can independently roll over from his back to his stomach. For a few seconds, the child can sit up on his own, but he still needs help. It is likely that closer to six months the baby will have the first tooth.

Evening rituals for babies
Educational games with children: what to do with a baby at 5-6 months

7 months

The baby is growing noticeably and is already trying to crawl: during this period, the main attention should be paid to the safety of the space. He enjoys looking at pictures in books, recognizes loved ones in photographs. The baby’s speech becomes more articulate, and for the first time he can say “mother”, “woman”, “dad”.

Fine motor development: finger games for children from 4 months to 3 years
6 educational games with children: recommendations for parents of children 6-12 months old

8 months

At the eighth month of life, the child already understands the connection “word-object”, so playing with well-known nursery rhymes will become the most interesting for him. In addition, the baby begins an active study of objects: getting a certain result – for example, a sound – the child begins to achieve it again and again. He has already mastered the grip of objects and can pick up toys from the floor.

Child safety at home: bathroom, nursery and other rooms in the house

9 months

In the baby’s babbling, you can already hear distinct “mother” when addressing you. A child at nine months already attracts your attention in every possible way – pulls your hand, makes sounds. The baby begins to distinguish colors and finer details.

6 educational games with children: recommendations for parents of children 6-12 months old

10 months

During this period, the baby is already able to find a familiar toy at the request of an adult and bring it if it is in his field of vision. Logical thinking develops: the child can not only open, but also close the lid of the toy box, and put all the toys there after taking them out.

Fine motor development: finger games for children from 4 months to 3 years
Evening rituals for babies

11 months

At eleven months, many children take their first steps. The motor development of the baby is progressing: he can independently squat, bend over to pick up an object, assemble a tower of cubes, a pyramid. The generalizing nature of words becomes clear to the child: he can find among different toys similar in color or shape.

6 educational games with children: recommendations for parents of children 6-12 months old

Child development From 1 to 3 years

Select the year of the child’s life you are interested in

1 year

By one year, the baby most often already knows how to walk independently, speaks six to ten simple words. The child knows the names of people from close circle. In addition, closer to a year, the baby already knows how to drink from a cup on his own and tries to wash and dress himself.

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Child development calendar: 1 year
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2 years old

A two-year-old child can string pyramid rings on a rod and feed a doll. The speech of a two-year-old baby already consists of simple sentences (including pronouns and adjectives). A one and a half year old baby can already be planted on a potty.

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3 years

Three years is a crisis age. At this age, the child’s personality begins to emerge. Sometimes such changes are accompanied by screams, tantrums and even aggression. The kid actively demands independence.

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Child development From 4 to 7 years

Select the year of the child’s life you are interested in

4 years

A child at the age of four strives for joint games, knows how to throw and catch a ball, stand on one leg. Swinging on a swing, he can already maintain balance. He draws geometric figures, collects a tower of nine cubes. According to the child development calendar, the fourth year of life is marked by an intensive expansion of vocabulary and the construction of more complex speech structures.

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5 years

By the age of five, the most important activity for a child is learning – preparation for school begins. The kid builds long sentences and knows how to retell texts. Knows synonyms and antonyms, counts to ten, recites short poems by heart.

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6 years old

Active preparation for school usually begins at the age of six. It consists in systematizing the fragmentary knowledge of the child about natural phenomena, cultural and domestic spheres of life. The child knows the score, draws geometric shapes, compares the sizes of objects, understands mathematical signs.

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7 years

At the age of seven, the maturation of the frontal parts of the cerebral hemispheres finally occurs, the processes of excitation and inhibition are harmonized. Therefore, this age, from the point of view of physiology, is the most appropriate for the start of educational activities of children.

At the same time, seven years is another crisis that your baby is going through. He learns new social roles, wants to make decisions on his own and begins to copy adults.

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Child development 8 to 11 years old

Select the year of the child’s life you are interested in

8 years old

At this age, the son or daughter begins to separate from you, he makes his first friends at school, he learns to interact with peers. The child gains experience of confidential communication and interaction outside the family. However, he still needs a “senior adviser” who is ready to support him in case of school troubles.

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9 years old

At the age of nine, a child is actively developing intellectually: he is already able to draw conclusions, generalize and analyze information. He also learns to evaluate his own state and can tell you what emotions he is experiencing. The child is quite autonomous, but still needs the support of adults.

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10 years

At the age of ten, the so-called “pre-pubertal” period, the child begins to grow rapidly and prepares to become a teenager. At school, he already has an established social role, his environment begins to acquire more and more importance for the child. For parents, the most important thing during this period is the formation of a child’s self-esteem.

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11 years old

A child at the age of eleven is subject to great mood swings: outbursts on an insignificant occasion are replaced by bursts of irrepressible fun. Gradually, the child enters adolescence and tries in every possible way to get recognition of the very fact of his growing up. During this period, children begin to develop acne, girls begin to grow breasts, and some boys begin to “break” the voice.

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Adolescent

Select the year of the child’s life you are interested in

12 years old

At the age of twelve, social life plays the most important role for a “beginning” teenager. He learns to respect the needs and rights of those around him. For parents, this age is a great time to review family rules and, if necessary, define new boundaries of what is permitted.

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13 years old

During this age period, considered by psychologists to be the most difficult in a child’s life, most child-parent conflicts occur because of the child’s desire to defend his independence. A teenager is extremely concerned about his appearance and the assessment of others, he has the first tender feelings for the opposite sex, he begins to ask serious questions of self-determination. The most important skill of parents is the ability to change roles – from “parent” to “friend” and vice versa.

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14 years old

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15 years old

Closer to the age of sixteen, a child ends puberty, passions subside, and the search for an answer to the question “who am I?” begins. This time is preparation for the first final exams and the choice of the direction of professional activity. Children begin to form interest groups, they are still greatly influenced by their peers, as well as the leaders of popular musical groups and other famous personalities.

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16 years old

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17 years old

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Definition of education. Education as a subject of pedagogy

Education is a purposeful and organized process of personality formation.
In a broad social sense, education is the transfer of0456 accumulated experience from older generations to younger ones. Experience
is understood as knowledge, skills, ways of thinking known to people,
moral, ethical, legal norms – in a word, all the spiritual heritage of mankind created in the process of historical development
.
In a narrow social sense, education is understood as a
directed influence on a person by public institutions with the aim of forming certain knowledge,
views and beliefs, moral values, political
orientation, preparation for life.
In a broad pedagogical sense, education is a specially organized, purposeful and controlled
impact of the team, educators on the educatee in order to form
the specified qualities in him, carried out in educational institutions and
covering the entire educational and educational process
.
In a narrow pedagogical sense, education is a process and a result of
educational work aimed at
0456 educational tasks.
In pedagogy, as in other social sciences, the concept of “education” is often used to designate the components of a
integral educational process. They say, for example, “physical education”, “aesthetic education”.

Definition
education
. Education

Definition
education
. Education
is a purposeful and organized process of personality formation.

Definition
education
. Education
is a purposeful and organized process of personality formation.

Definition

In any upbringing

Definition
learning. Learning is a specially organized, controlled process of interaction between teachers and

In any upbringing
always contains learning elements.

The main task of the science of education
was the accumulation, systematization of scientific knowledge about education
th… more ». Definition
education
.

Definition
labor and polytechnic education
. Labor education
covers those aspects of educational
process where labor actions are formed…

The meaning of the word “education” has changed in different eras. Initially, in Rus’ it meant “growing, feeding”, because the concept came from the word “nutrition”. So what is education?

Definition of education

In a broad sense, education is understood as the transfer from generation to generation of knowledge, skills, social behavior, moral standards, i. e. accumulated by mankind experience, spiritual heritage. This process is carried out by all social institutions of the state: educational institutions, family, church, public and cultural organizations, mass media.

In a narrower, pedagogical sense, education is an activity aimed at developing a child’s personality, preparing him for life, instilling in him certain behavioral skills and personal qualities. This is the purpose of education. Education is understood as both the process and the result of educational activities.

There are such types of education: moral, mental, physical, labor, aesthetic, gender, etc. Thus, the purpose of education is the formation of a comprehensively developed personality.

Moral education

It is not easy to understand what moral education is. It depends on the prevailing moral attitudes in a society or a particular environment. Moral education should form concepts that correspond to social norms. It is aimed at mastering both universal human values and basic moral principles. In many ways, moral education contributes to religious education.

Physical education

One can understand what physical education is if we consider the concept of human physical culture. This awareness of the need for action aimed at maintaining and strengthening health. And the goal of physical education is physical development, instilling healthy lifestyle skills and, ultimately, ensuring working capacity.

Aesthetic education

Aesthetic education is the formation of an aesthetic attitude to reality. This is the upbringing of the ability for aesthetic perception (the ability to see beauty), for creativity, the development of artistic skills. Contribute to this subjects such as fine arts, music and singing, literature.

Gender education

The term “sex education” was previously used. But now we have come to the conclusion that focusing exclusively on the biological understanding of sex is not correct. So what is gender education? The concept of “gender” (from the English “genus”) considers gender as a product of social and cultural relations. Gender education is aimed not only at studying the physiological and psychological characteristics of the sexes, but also at forming correct ideas about the purpose of men and women, their functions in society, the culture of relationships, equality and the inadmissibility of discrimination based on gender.

Thus, we have considered what education is and what are its types, and also what is the purpose of education.

In the studies of modern scientists, education is considered as a purposeful process aimed at developing socially and personally significant qualities and abilities in the process of interaction between the educator and the educated person.

I.F. Kharlamov writes that “education is a conscious, specially organized activity of an educator with the aim of forming certain qualities and characteristics of a developing personality.” Education is a process of purposeful formation of personality. The process of education is the process of formation, development of the personality, which includes both purposeful influence from the outside, and self-education of the personality. This is a specially organized, managed and controlled interaction of educators and pupils, whose ultimate goal is the formation of a personality that is necessary and useful to society. In these two definitions, the subject position of the educator and the object position of the educator can be traced. The teacher knows what needs to be purposefully formed in the child and what qualities he needs. This is deterministic parenting. The personality of the child, her interests, individual qualities and abilities in the activities of the educator are hardly visible.

In the textbooks on pedagogy of previous years, the wording was widespread, according to which the process of education is an organized, purposeful management of the education of schoolchildren in accordance with the goals set by society.

We can easily detect the vulnerability of this definition by comparing the meanings of the concepts “interaction” and “leadership”. The first reflects the most complex relationship between educators and students, assigning the latter an active role, and the second presents them as a passive object of pedagogical guidance. In the modern sense, the process of education is precisely the effective interaction of educators and pupils, aimed at achieving a given goal. Slastenin V.A. characterized the concept of “education” as one of the leading in pedagogy. It is used in a broad and narrow sense. Education in a broad sense is considered as a social phenomenon, as the impact of society on the individual. In this case, education is practically identified with socialization. Education in the narrow sense is considered as a specially organized activity of teachers and pupils to achieve the goals of education in the conditions of the pedagogical process. The activity of teachers in this case is called educational work.

VA Slastenin considered upbringing as a humanistic upbringing, which has as its goal the harmonious development of the personality and presupposes the humane nature of relations between the participants in the pedagogical process. Humanistic education is one of the progressive trends in the world educational process, which has also embraced the educational practice of Russia. Awareness of this trend put pedagogy in front of the need to revise the adaptive paradigm that had previously developed in it, appealing to certain personal parameters, among which the most valuable were ideological, discipline, diligence, social orientation, collectivism. This was the main content of the “social order” for which pedagogical science worked during the Soviet period of its existence. The exit of V.A. Slastenin sees in the study of personality and focus on its development, which corresponds to the ideas of humanistic education. Humanistic education is carried out in acts of socialization, education itself and self-development, each of which contributes to the harmonization of the personality, forms a new mentality of the Russian. The humanistic perspectives of the revival make in demand not only such personal qualities as practicality, dynamism, intellectual development, but, above all, culture, intelligence, education, planetary thinking, professional competence. This definition is largely consonant with the author of this book. However, setting a goal for the harmonious development of the individual is a utopia. So far, there are no criteria that would allow us to talk about the practice of harmonious development of the personality, teachers do not have such knowledge and professional abilities to implement this process, there are no appropriate conditions in the educational and upbringing process. It’s not a goal, it’s an ideal goal.

Another group of scientists (HJ Liimets, LI Novikova et al.) understand upbringing as the (soft) management of the process of formation and development of a child’s personality by creating favorable conditions for this. This definition is closest to the author’s understanding of education.

In the context of our study, education is a purposeful activity of a teacher to create conditions that correspond to the maximum development of the child’s personality, his entry into the context of modern culture, becoming a subject of his own life, the formation of his motives and goals demanded by society, the development of qualities and abilities, the ability to self-education and self-development. This definition traces the non-violent, humane influence of the teacher on the process of personality development, by creating conditions where the teacher often acts as a moderator. Such education is connected both with the process of individualization and socialization.

Today I want to talk about what education is and why it is needed.

From birth, every person undergoes a process of upbringing. First, the child is brought up by the parents, then the team into which the baby enters is connected to the process of education. And society greatly influences the formation of a child’s personality.

If you look at the process of upbringing broadly, then all people educate each other all their lives. A child brings up adults, a wife brings up a husband, a husband brings up a wife, a boss brings up subordinates, etc.

So education
– this is an impact in which the growth and development of the personality occurs, the qualities of the personality develop and form, behavior changes.

When a baby is born, every mother intuitively understands what to do: feed, change a diaper, play, take a walk… It seems to be difficult – sleepless nights, not enough time for yourself, no opportunity to relax when you want. But when a child grows up, it becomes much more difficult: he doesn’t put away his toys, he doesn’t want to go to the garden, he doesn’t obey, he becomes stubborn, throws tantrums. And here the first question arises: what to do?

The child grows, but the problems do not decrease. New problems arise at school: he studies poorly, is insolent to adults, made friends with a bad boy, etc. And again the same question arises: what to do?

And this is quite a natural question. We were not taught what to do with children, how to educate them so that they grow up independent, thinking, kind, responsible, so that they learn everything. How to do it? We must educate. How to educate?

Parents discover that their pedagogical knowledge fails: the child grows up selfish, the child does not want to learn, is often rude. Parents cannot identify the real reasons, therefore they refer to bad heredity, bad teachers, bad comrades, etc. But they often get stuck.

It completely misses the fact that raising children is a profession like any other. Like any specialty, it requires a certain preparation from the educator.

Again the question arises: what to do? Reading another stack of parenting books? To be honest, it is impossible to educate by books. Each child is individual and unique. It is also impossible to educate without books, because our pedagogical knowledge is not enough. We adopt something from our parents, but in principle, we do it the way it works, based on our social status, our rules and norms.

Therefore, the best option is to educate based on books, taking into account the individuality of your child, not being afraid to try different methods and methods.

When should you start raising a child?

At one of his famous lectures, the famous teacher A. S. Makarenko was asked at what age education should begin. Makarenko asked: “And how old is your child?” The parent replied: “Five years.” And the teacher answered: “You are 5 years late.”

Popular wisdom also says that a child should be brought up when he lies across the bench. Modern scientists involved in perinatal psychology argue that upbringing takes place already in the womb.

And indeed it is. The emotional bond between mother and child begins during fetal development. Many notice that the child reacts to sounds, light, the emotional state of the mother.

The success of upbringing in each family depends on the following factors:

– personal characteristics of family members;
— value orientations of family members;
– the needs and tastes of family members.

As you can see, not only the methods and means of education play an important role in the educational process.

Thus, education is a complex process that requires special knowledge.

Irina Bazan

__________________________________________

The goals of education are the main issue of pedagogy, which determines the content, methods and results of the impact on the child. It is on their right choice that it depends how a person will grow up, what personal qualities and character he will have.

What is the purpose and objectives of education

First you need to understand what these concepts mean. It is generally accepted that the goal is the result you are striving for. The tasks, in turn, answer the question of what actions can be used to achieve this.

Any upbringing is always aimed at something, regardless of whether it is expressed in the smallest acts or large-scale government programs. The impact on the child is continuous, constantly directed to the future and implies a certain outcome.

The purpose of education is a predictable result in preparing the younger generation for life in society, in its formation and personal development. It can be achieved by the teacher in the course of his work only through the implementation of more specific tasks.

For example, a teacher wants to raise students’ awareness of HIV infection. That is, as a result, the guys should have an idea about this disease. To do this, the teacher will need to solve several problems: to tell what HIV infection is, how it is transmitted, how infection can be prevented, to introduce examination options, and also to check the level of assimilation of the material.

As you can see, if you define education correctly, you can correctly organize your work. This will make it possible to understand what qualities, skills and abilities to promote, as well as what knowledge to form.

General and individual goals of education

If we talk about the goals of education, then first of all, individual and general are distinguished. The humanistic direction in pedagogy advocates their combination and unity, which, of course, is correct and necessary in the learning process.

The purpose of education is general if it is aimed at developing qualities in all people. We can say that this is a kind of social order to prepare the younger generation to perform certain functions that society needs most at this stage of development. It is also called the goal-ideal, which combines political, economic, legal, biological, moral and aesthetic ideas about a harmoniously developed, perfect person and his significance in social life.

The individual goal of education is the development of a certain individual. Attention is focused on this for the reason that each person is unique and unique, with his own special set of capabilities and aspirations. That is why it is important to select the line of development on an individual basis.

Man as a member of society depends on him, obeys his laws, norms and requirements. Therefore, a prerequisite in determining the result of education is the combination of individual and common goals.

Factors determining the choice of the goal of education

First of all, the choice of the goal of education determines the need of society for people of a certain type. On the other hand, the result of the impact on the child will reflect the achieved level of development of society. The proof is the fact that various socio-economic formations had their own goals of education. We will illustrate this by the example of changing priorities in such eras as primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal and capitalist.

Thus, in prehistoric society, all children were taught to cook food, make clothes, and hunt animals. That is, the goal of education was reduced to arming with knowledge and skills that are simply necessary for survival. Under the slave system, the role of the owner was a priority, noble children were taught to conquer other people’s lands and defend their own. Ordinary people brought up their generation, based on the value of humility and physical labor. In the era of feudalism, the qualities of a gentleman and a knight-virtue were instilled. The period of capitalism developed active and active people-entrepreneurs. At the same time, such eternal values as goodness, truth and beauty were highly valued at all times.

Also, for the most part, the goal of education is determined by the policy and ideology of the state. In any country, the development of a child is always aimed at strengthening the existing social relations. In addition, the choice of educational goals is influenced by social development, scientific and technological progress, the possibilities of educational institutions and the formation of pedagogical science. In addition to these factors, mental maturation and physiological characteristics of a person are of considerable importance.

All this, of course, simply needs to be taken into account in the work of a teacher and in determining the result of a child’s development.

Modern goals of education

Based on the foregoing, it became clear what kind of citizen they wanted to get in a particular era. But what about the purpose of education in the modern world?

Currently, the focus is on the humanistic direction. According to him, it is necessary to create conditions for the formation of a comprehensively developed and harmonious personality. It is she who today is the guideline for the formulation of the goals and objectives of pedagogy.

The humanist direction believes that for comprehensive development it is important to focus on mental, physical, labor, economic, moral, environmental and aesthetic education.

Intellectual growth of a child can be called a key one. It was the mind that helped mankind to separate from the animal world, create all the benefits of civilization and ensure socio-economic progress. In the course of mastering knowledge, children acquire certain skills and abilities, learn to understand the surrounding reality, natural phenomena, try to build their lives using the theoretical information received in practice.

Physical development is also an important goal of education. It promotes health and the formation of such qualities as courage, discipline, perseverance, determination and responsibility. Labor education instills a love for any work, be it domestic or professional. Knowing the basics of environmental disciplines will help save the environment and help children understand how to reduce the consumption of natural resources.

Aesthetic education develops the ability to create beauty around oneself with one’s own hands. At an early age, children form views, tastes and ideals, which are based on national characteristics and the achievements of civilization. The purpose of moral education is the creation of a highly moral person who understands the beliefs, habits of behavior and norms accepted in society. It is important to teach children to respect society, people, themselves and work. must value honesty, responsibility, decency, mercy and other qualities that a citizen of the country should possess.

in an educational institution

The goal is achieved by solving certain tasks. The field of education plays an important role in the upbringing of children. Preschool institutions face the following tasks:

Protection of life, strengthening of mental and physical health.
Conducting remedial classes to eliminate developmental deficiencies.
Education in children, taking into account the age characteristics of love for nature, family, homeland, a sense of citizenship and respect for others.
Carry out harmonious development in different directions: cognitive-speech, physical, social-personal and artistic-aesthetic.
Interact with children’s families and provide them with advice for the full development of children.

The aims and objectives of the upbringing of school education are as follows:

Introducing students to the national culture, values of the people, language, customs and traditions.
Development of physical data, instilling love for a healthy lifestyle.
Creation of conditions for professional self-determination of children.
Prevention of crimes and offenses by minors.
Facilitating the manifestation of the potential of gifted children.
Support for independence, initiative and creativity of schoolchildren through the creation of children’s movements and student self-government.
Conducting educational work through the interaction of teachers, students and parents.

It should be noted that the solution of these problems is relevant for any age group. However, the content and priority differ in different periods of school life.

What tasks does family upbringing solve?

Probably no one doubts that the family has the strongest influence on the upbringing of a child. Surrounded by close people, parents and relatives, all personal qualities are formed.

Family education is a complex system, since a number of factors are of great importance. These are the biological health of parents and the child, heredity, material and economic condition, social status, lifestyle, place of residence, family relationships. In each individual case, all these factors manifest themselves in different ways and are intertwined in a unique chain, creating specific conditions for education. Based on this, we can say that families understand the goals of education in their own way. This, unfortunately, is not always the right idea, and it often harms children.

The family as a cell of society must perform several functions in order for the child to grow up as a healthy and full-fledged personality:

Creation of maximum conditions for the development of children.
Socio-economic and psychological protection of the child.
Teaching useful skills that are aimed at helping loved ones and self-care.
Passing on the successful experience of creating a family and raising children.
Formation of self-esteem and the value of one’s “I”.

When implementing these tasks in the family, it is important for parents to remember that children’s potential can be most fully revealed through the use of activities that are attractive to the child.

Principles of education

What is a principle? This is the initial or fundamental position that the teacher is guided by when he organizes the process of education. The goal is determined in advance, and it cannot be achieved if certain principles are not observed.

So, what should a teacher be guided by in his activity?

Purposeful impact on the child.
to each.
Carry out education in the learning process.
Take into account age and individual characteristics.
Make demands but respect the child’s personality.
Connect upbringing with life.

Teachers and parents in the implementation of the principles, goals and objectives can use different methods of education.

What are the methods of education

Let’s start with the definition of this concept. Methods are specific ways and ways of influencing behavior, consciousness, will and feelings. In another way, we can say that these are methods of managing activities, in the process of which the development and self-realization of the individual is carried out. These are some moves that help achieve a given goal. must be used wisely. The right choice guarantees success, a successful result.

Factors in choosing methods of upbringing

Goals and objectives of child development.
The content of the educational process.
Accounting for age and personality characteristics. The same goal can be achieved by different methods depending on the maturity of the pupil.
Allotted time. In the conditions of limited time, harsh methods are used that will work quickly.
Pedagogical literacy. The teacher or parents should rely on their knowledge and choose only those methods with which they are familiar, in which they are completely confident.
Expected consequences. When choosing a method, one must be able to foresee the result to which it can lead. In case of an unfavorable outcome, it is necessary to abandon the method of influencing the child and find another way that would help to achieve the goal of educating a person.
Conditions of upbringing. These include the style of influence, the climate in the team and other factors.

Methods of upbringing

Traditionally, four groups of methods are distinguished: persuasion, accustoming (exercises), stimulation of activity and self-education. Let’s consider each type in more detail.

Methods of persuasion involve the conscious perception of certain values, which forms personal beliefs, attitudes, ideals and influences the development of relationships. With this method of influence, the following techniques are used: exhortation, story, explanation, conversation, instruction, advice, suggestion and demand.

Teaching is a repeated repetition of any actions with awareness of the results and purpose of education. This, as the great teacher A. S. Makarenko wrote, is an exercise in the right deed. To do this, you need to regularly do the same thing so that the action becomes a habitual form of behavior. In the course of his life, a child develops many habits. And the good ones need to be encouraged and turned into personality traits. For the development of young children, it is important to use game situations in which participants can understand the essence of what is happening and try themselves in different roles.

When stimulating activity, it is important to show perspectives, create a mood of joy and expectation of reward as a result of activity. With this method of education, several methods can be used. These are encouragement (praise, delivery of something material), punishment (disapproval, censure, remark, condemnation, reprimand) and competition.

Self-education – the main way of development

This method is associated with situations when the child himself learns to understand what the main goal of education is, set it for himself, foresee the results and move towards them. Children just need to be encouraged to develop in this way. A person is initially active from birth and is capable of self-education. By carrying it out, the child can self-learn, self-educate and self-improve.