Derren Brown and Mary Ainsworth

Hey fellow bloggers.

Derren Brown

So I've just finished watching Derren Brown..that man is a genius!

I thought I would write about how I feel Jody was classically conditioned.
When Jody was talking about guilt, he was squeezed on the shoulder or the hotel bell would go off, resulting in Jody associating the hotel bell and shoulder squeezing with guilt.

The conditioned stimulus (hotel bell or squeezing of shoulder) provoked a conditioned response (feeling guilty)

Mary Ainsworth

Mary Ainsworth said there were three types of attachment after her experiment Strange Situation:
Below is how I would describe those attachments in the simplest way.

• Secure attachment- strongly attached to mother, shows a lot of sign of distress when the mother left the room but very quickly calms down once the mother returns. Is friendly with the stranger when mother is in the room, however when mother leaves the room is avoidant of the stranger.
• Resistant attachment-Shows distress when mother leaves the room, however when the mother returns they approach their mother but avoid contact. Is avoidant of the stranger at all times.
• Avoidant attachment- Child isn't distressed when the mother leaves and also shows no sign of interest when she returns. Is happy to play with strangers whether mother was their or not.

TTFN x

The Return

So I've abandoned my blog for a few weeks, apologies blog (been very busy!!)

I thought I would start this blog my writing my highs and lows so far on the course:

Highs

• Being accepted on the course
• Support from fellow course buddies :)
• Support from tutors
• 'Occasionally' understanding things
• Being proud to say I'm a Warwick Uni student
• Being promoted at work
• Student discount!

Lows

• Feeling like I don't understand things as much as I should
• Overwhelmed by reading
• Lack of money due to not working as much
• Trying to juggle uni life with LIFE

Directed Time Activities for Gender

So today I've been looking for websites that talk about Gender and Childhood and found a few interesting ones, have also found another book on Warwick library catalogue. I found that most the ones on there were on the reading list, so below is what I found.

Websites:
      

*http://www.ucm.es/info/rqtr/biblioteca/Educacion%20y%20gltb/same%20sex%20sexuality%20and%20childhood%20gender%20non%20conformity%20a%20sp.pdf – discusses the different explanations as to why a person becomes homosexual.
*http://www.lawsonry.com/864-education-socialization-and-gender-in-childhood/ - talks about how parents can influence their children in their views on gender, if a parent is constantly buying their daughter pink clothes then they believe that it is only right for a girl to wear pink.
*http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=docHYPERLINK - Early Childhood Gender Identity and Sexuality: talks about gender identity development.
 100 word Summary of UCM websiteI found this website interesting as it gave different arguments as to why a child grows up to be a homosexual. The main theory it discusses is the idea that all human beings are born with the potential to be sexual however there is no particular sexual orientation, this is socially determined and influenced by factors such as a person’s culture. It suggests that if a person is in contact with other people that are the same sex sexuality then it is more likely that they will too become homosexual. I found it interesting that it is suggested that it’s all based on nurture as many people who are homosexual claim that it isn’t something they have a choice in therefore this suggests that it could be something they are predisposed with.

University Web Catalogue

**Steedman, C. Language, gender and childhood. Routledge and Kegan, 1985.

History of Childhood

So after today I’m blogging my six key points from Aries, P. Centuries of Childhood, Chapter 2. These points were:

α    Medieval art up until the 12^th Century did not recognise childhood.

α    When children did appear in art the only difference was their height.

α    It appears that the discovery of childhood was in the 13^th Century.

α    Few types of children found in 13^th Century art are closer to the modern concept of childhood.

α    The 17^th Century appears to be of great importance to the evolution of childhood.

α    The general feeling was that you had several children knowing that you would probably only keep a couple.

I found it interesting of how little importance children were to their families as they had been programmed to not get attached to them as they may die at a young age. It was also interesting being able to see the evolution of childhood through art as this is another alternative to reading it if someone would prefer.

On another note…

I found the workshop on Reading and Note-Taking useful last night as it gave me a good idea of ways that I can write notes so that I am only writing relevant things down. Am looking forward to going to a couple more workshops as I feel they will be useful towards my overall study skills.

TTFN x

DTA and Piaget.

Soooo long day today searching for further references and google keyword searches for History of Childhood...

After looking at Warwicks E-catalogue, I found these three further reading references:

·         DeMause, L. 1976, The History of Childhood.

·         Cunningham, H. 2005, Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500s.

·         Walvin, J. 1982, A Childs World; A social history to English childhood 1800-1914.

Going to try and get these out tomorrow when we are at Warwick as think these could all be useful.

Now for Google Keyword searches-

• http://www.lloyddemause.com/Lloyd_DeMause_on_Psychohistory/Home.html- this is DeMause's personal site where he discusses the historical evolution of child rearing.
• http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/TEXTS/Childhood_review.pdf- this is a review of DeMause's book The History of Childhood.

Now to print this all off and put it into my special directed time activity folder :D

So far for Fionas lesson the information I have on Piaget is:

Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development

Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) observed his children (and their process of making sense of the world around them) and eventually developed a four-stage model of how the mind processes new information encountered. He posited that children progress through 4 stages and that they all do so in the same order. These four stages are:

• Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 years old). The infant builds an understanding of himself or herself and reality (and how things work) through interactions with the environment. It is able to differentiate between itself and other objects. Learning takes place via assimilation (the organization of information and absorbing it into existing schema) and accommodation (when an object cannot be assimilated and the schemata have to be modified to include the object.
• Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 4). The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. Objects are classified in simple ways, especially by important features.
• Concrete operations (ages 7 to 11). As physical experience accumulates, accomodation is increased. The child begins to think abstractly and conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences.
• Formal operations (beginning at ages 11 to 15). Cognition reaches its final form. By this stage, the person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgements. He or she is capable of deductive and hypothetical reasoning. His or her ability for abstract thinking is very similar to an adult.

Bye Now x

First official week :)

So half way through the first official week of our degree....

I have been searching high and low through my mums books and she seems to have a lot on ICT- unfortunately majority of them are about teaching ICT in Primary schools but I am going to photocopy a few pages out of the books that I think could be useful.
I'm also posting this link https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/ which has a lot about e-safety on which I think will be useful for ICT presentation. I think this will be useful as it would be useful for us to look at both pros and cons of ICT and the child.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/02/facebook-children-bullying-fake-names- I thought this could be useful as it talks about how children are using Facebook, unfortunately it is more about older children to teens but thought it made a good point on how easy it is for children who are not old enough to access the site.

Warwick Day... my oh my that place is overwhelming! I'm going to try and get over there every couple of weeks I think and make use of the library as there were more than enough books on Education. A bit disappointed in going over to collect my University card to find out there has been yet more problems with Warwicks system so the card isn't ready. Seem to be on a constant rollercoaster ride with Warwick having my high and low points- hopefully after Monday (when everything will be sorted) will be high points from then on.

Fionas lesson today.. I found it interesting learning about the different components through child development- in particular language development as I didn't realise so many things could count towards this, i.e. Drawing, writing and even play.
    I think for the theory we need to find more information on next week I may choose Piaget, simply because I think there will be plenty of information I can find out about Piaget- however I will keep you posted as I may change my mind.

My only worry today is Study Skills as I'm all of a sudden panicking about the portfolio, I think I know what we need to do but am now doubting myself but will double check next week.

ICT

Hey there fellow bloggers :)

Just been having a browse for some things on ICT and the Child ready for Lins presentation.

I found this http://www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/no15_plowman.pdf, which is all about Supporting the Child through ICT. I found it quite useful for a positive outlook on ICT and the Child.

Also I found this video about Child Development, I found it really useful for Fionas Nature vs Nurture as it talks about how childrens early years experiences affect their education, thought I would post it on here as can't keep the page open forever  :)                                                                         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLiP4b-TPCA&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL1BE1FC63D501D882

Drowning in a sea of books!

So after today I'm feeling Scared! Dreading the first presentation in December as its an individual one (Oh no!). Hopefully I'll have read enough to prepare myself for this and feel confident enough in standing up infront of you all.

However on the plus side I have maxed out my library card getting all the books I might need over all the modules and am now sitting surrounded by books ranging from Early Years Policy to Piaget and feel that it will be worthwhile getting a head start on reading. *Also for anyone wanting to buy the books I've found Ebay has a few on there fairly cheap*

I also thought I would put a link here for the podcast of Rousseau we listened to earlier so that I can go back and listen to it if I need to.

http://podcast.open.ac.uk/oulearn/arts-and-humanities/podcast-a211-philosophy-human-situation#!884f8cf6ca

Week One :)

So here goes for my first ever blog!

Week one down and I've still got mixed emotions mainly Nervous and Excited!! This last week has definately calmed me down a bit, just nervous that I'm not going to do well in stuff like the presentations.

Also found a couple of good articles on the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/18/schools-must-develop-character

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/20/nick-clegg-proposes-summer-school

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/19/children-in-care-education-system

I thought these could be useful for Rachels lesson that she has asked us to summarise!