Blog 3: Edpsych

In Module 3 the text explains Erik Erikson's 8 developmental stages that run throughout a person's life. I believe that my 4th grade students are at the industry vs. inferiority stage. This is the stage when children are aware of their skills and can sense whether or not they are adequate or not in these skills.

Last week, I encountered a student in my class who said that they hated to read becauase they were not good at it. I decided to read with her and tried to support her efforts with positive reinforcement to try to increase her sense of industry. I wonder whether or not her sense of inferiority stems from a lack of parental support, teacher support, or comparisons she's made between her and other students?

One important factor in building up a child's sense of industry is to limit competition in the classroom and minimize comparisons with other students abilities. In my classroom, the students rate how well a student reads a passage and reevaluate them when they read it a second time. I think that even though it would seem to be a destructive thing to a child's sense of industry to be judged by their peers, for the most part, the students give praise their peers when they have done a good job and give proper constuctive criticism when needed. They notice when their classmates do better on the second try which is what usually occurs. This conslusion is purely based on observation. I wonder how the children would answer if they were polled about being critiqued by their peers? Would they see the process and something that stimulates or lowers their self-esteem?

The school I intern at provides many different extracirricular activities for the children to take part in during class hours such as art, music, and chorus. Doing so will allow children of different skills sets to gain a sense of industry in what they are good in which increases their self-esteem and knowing of their own capability.

#edpsych #industryvsinferiority #module3