Chargers Study First-Hand Child Development
Source/Author: Courtney Ellis '02, US AP Psychology teacher
January 24, 2019
Shorecrest Upper School AP Psychology class visited Junior Kindergarten students to see their Developmental Psychology unit in action. Members of the class of 2019 came prepared with activities and questions relating to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development.
Seniors asked questions relating to egocentrism, abstract thinking, and logic. For example, they asked the JK students if they had any siblings. They then asked if their siblings had any siblings. Young children typically say no as they can’t think outside of their own world. This helps show egocentrism as a stage of cognitive development.
Seniors brought in water cups, play dough, and pictures of pizza to ask questions related to conservation, such as: Does the volume/amount of water change if it’s in a wider or narrower cup, or does it stay the same? Which of the two pictures (of the same sized pizza) has more pizza? The one with more slices, or the one with fewer slices?
Seniors also played games related to observational learning like Simon Says. They had little Chargers take the lead to show the concepts of pretend play and iniative.
Needless to say, Chargers of ALL agesl had a blast! Find a few more photos here.
