Child Development's Role in Education

Abby Dawson

What?

I researched both child development as well as pedagogy and then used that knowledge to teach swim instruction to ages three to ten.

Why?

I am hoping to pursue careers in the fields of both education and psychology. I believe that these two topics are intertwined and that many people are unaware of the powerful connections that they share.

Child Development Research

I went through ages three to ten and learned about the different developmental stages. There are five different categories of development. The categories are intellectual, physical, social, emotional, and moral development.

Pedagogy Research

I emailed lower school teachers about how they teach their classes. I asked them about keeping control, attention issues, and making sure kids are having fun as well as learning.

Swim Instruction Program

There are fourteen swim levels. The lowest level, shrimp, is for kids that are uncomfortable in the water and often will not even put their head under water. The highest level, masters, involves kids doing swimming workouts with different strokes. Each child is placed into a swim level that best fits the child's swimming ability. Each group has a mix of different swim levels. The kids are split up by swim levels so they can be taught most effectively.

Obstacles

Covid-19 was one of the biggest obstacles that I had to face. Each group at my camp was allowed to be near each other without masks as if they were a family, but they could not mingle with other groups. I was a lifeguard over the summer, so I was not part of a family. I could not come within six feet of anyone without a mask on, and it is not safe to wear a mask in the water. Therefore I had to teach from outside of the water, and I would have to rely on group staff to help teach their campers learn to swim. We were able to hold a training session to teach group staff how to teach swim lessons if a swim instructor was not available which helped tremendously in making the swim instruction program successful. As a swim instruction team we also had to figure out a way to teach multiple levels at a time. In a normal year we would split kids up based on swim level, but now that they were separated by group there was less space for kids to swim and more kids learning skills from outside of their level. Our program was completely reworked and it took a long time for all of us to adjust to the new way of teaching.

Swim Instruction Sheets

The main things to take note of on the sheets is the week in which they were filled out (top middle), the age range of the group (top right), the list of skills for the level, whether or not a child moves up and the comments section.

There are noticeable improvements in my ability to fill out the sheets as well as making sure kids could complete skills in a timely way, while still leaving time for fun each day. I found it very helpful to assign certain skills to certain days. As I grew as a teacher, my campers became more able to listen effectively and complete the skills needed to move up a swim level.

Guidelines for Teaching

Final Product

I took all of my research and experience and put it together into a list of guidelines for each grade in elementary school. I separated the guidelines into six different categories: general reflections/developmental considerations, how to use/adapt general reflections/developmental considerations, behavioral considerations, how to use/adapt behavioral considerations, tasks/activities, and feedback/affirmation. Each category has multiple perspectives and different ideas for ways to handle problems and lead a class effectively. The guidelines are set up for teachers to be able to flip to the grade that they teach so that they have a lot of information to take advantage of and implement in their teaching.

Capstone Experience

I started out this project knowing that I love working with kids and that it was what I wanted to do with my life. Since I want to study psychology and education I started out by learning about both education as a whole as well as how children develop. When summer finally came I was so excited that I got to work with kids. This wasn't the first summer that I had worked with kids but I learned more about them this summer than I have in the last three combined. I realized that I had been paying attention to making sure that the kids were focused, than how to keep them focused. I was able to shift my thinking from "these kids aren't paying attention" to "why aren't these kids paying attention" which was a dramatic change that allowed me to be more adaptable to situations and more patient.

This project was a lot of work. There were many days where I would spend just about the entire day working on something for the project. Everyday was worth the work though. I was tired but I felt more successful than I ever had. I wanted to continue to push myself and it led to my project always being exciting. I knew that something that I was doing could be useful for other people and it gave me motivation and drive that I had almost forgot that I had.

Big Picture

These guidelines are meant to help teachers make a good use of their time and keep the fun in learning. Since we are raising the future generation, improving education should be a top priority. I believe that in linking psychology and education, we can create a better environment for children to learn and grow up in. I think that we should always try to improve, and this is a great way to challenge the current ideas of what education is and make it better.

Still Wondering...

My main question is how would this research affect the education system? I had a very limited amount of power, in a closed environment, with a specific, usually fun, subject to teach. While I gained some knowledge from teachers, I wonder if they would benefit from knowing more about psychology.

Advice

There are a few bits of wisdom that I would like to give to anyone hoping to pursue a capstone project.

First, make sure that you are passionate about what you are researching, because it will be time consuming and you want to love what you are doing.

Second, understand that obstacles are normal and expected. You never know everything that could happen, and you can't be expected to be prepared for everything. Rather, I urge you to be flexible and willing to adapt to circumstance.

Last, have fun with your project! This is a time of intense research and learning but it is also a time for you to be able to delve into your passions and get to know yourself. You may find that you are a different person after this process.

Conclusion

Overall, I had an amazing experience researching child development and pedagogy, teaching swim instruction, and pooling my findings into an easily accessible place that can be utilized by anyone. There were some changes from the beginning to the end including my product. My original product was simply analyzing the data that I got showing how many kids moved up in swim level each week, that became my guidelines for teaching which is a much more practical use of my knowledge and experience. I can take this information into my future career paths and be able to understand children and how to teach them better. This project has also led to a new job opportunity as a swim instructor at a swim school. My project has made me learn more about myself and allowed me to open up to delving into my passions and digging beneath the surface.

Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W8xIGkiSu6wayedmSZ09OOHKAtbDXWBDdrWdKXwa_Es/edit?usp=sharing

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