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INTRODUCTION Early childhood is a time of remarkable physical, cognitive, social and emotional

development. Infants enter the world with a limited range of skills and abilities. Watching a child develop new motor, cognitive, language and social skills is a source of wonder for parents and caregivers. Child development refers to the biological and psychological changes that occur in human beings between conception and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy. Developmental change may occur as a result of genetically-controlled processes known as maturation, or as a result of environmental factors and learning, but most commonly involves an interaction between the two. The optimal development of children is considered vital to society so it is important to understand the social, cognitive, emotional, and educational development of children. Increased research and interest in this field has resulted in new theories and strategies, with specific regard to practice that promotes development within the school system. In addition there are also some theories that seek to describe a sequence of states that comprise child development. Research relating to human development is always on the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional and the moral aspects. Woofolk and Margetts (2007) define physical development as changes in human relationship and the emotional development as changes in understanding, expression and how to manage emotion. The study of human development is a rich and varied subject. We all have personal experience with development, but it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly how and why people grow, learn and change. Developmental psychology seeks to understand and explain how people grow and change through the entire lifespan. Researchers study the enormous range of influences including how genetics shape a child's development as well as how experiences play a role.

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Konsep dan prinsip perkembangan kanak-kanak CONCEPT AND PRINCIPLE OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT Perubahan berlaku semasa perkembangan manusia. Kebanyakan orang

menyangka bahawa perkembangan dan pertumbuhan adalah suatu perkara yang sama. Namun perkembangan dan pertumbuhan adalah berbeza antara satu dan lain namun amat berkait rapat antara keduanya. Pertamanya, perkembangan berlaku secara berperingkat. Contohnya, seorang kanak-kanak boleh duduk tanpa bantuan sesiapa, seterusnya dia mampu berdiri dan seterusnya berjalan. Pada permulaan perkembangan juga, kanak-kanak hanya mampu bercakap hanya beberapa patah perkataan. Perkembangan juga berlaku daripada sesuatu yang konkrit kepada sesuatu yang abstrak. Maka, hal ini akan dapat dilihat dengan jelas dalam perkembangan kognitif dan bahasa, Kedua, perkembangan dan pertumbuhan juga berlaku dari suatu proses yang asas kepada suatu proses yang komplex. Contohnya permulaan bagi seorang kanakkanak adalah memegang sesuatu benda dengan tangannya sebelum ia boleh memegang dengan jari-jemarinya. Oleh itu, semasa permulaan proses pembelajaran kanak-kanak, mereka akan mempelajari sesuatu yang asas dahulu sehingga berjaya. Setelah itu, mereka akan berubah dari satu peringkat kepada satu peringkat yang lebih tinggi. Selain daripada itu, pertumbuhan dan perkembangan adalah suatu proses yang berterusan. Semasa proses perkembangan, perubahan dapat dilihat dari segi mahirnya kank-kanak tersebut dalam melakukan sesuatu. Contohnya, seseorang kanak-kanak mula mengenal sesuatu benda, memberinya nama dan mengaitkan nama tersebut dengan benda tadi. Adakah nama yang diberi itu betul atau tidak. Maka proses ini adalah suatu proses yang berperingkat-peringkat. Disamping itu, pertumbuhan dan perkembangan berlaku pada kadar yang berbeza. Setiap kanak-kanak membesar dengan kadar yang berbeza antara satu dan lain. Sebahagian kanak-kanak mampu berjalan pada awal 10 bulan namun terdapat juga kanak-kank lain yang mampu berjalan apabila berumur 18 bulan. Maka, hal ini
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mampu dilihat oleh guru semasa di dalam kelas. Perkembangan dan pertumbuhan yang berlaku terhadap murid-muridnya boleh dilihat dari semasa ke semasa semenjak dari awal kemasukan murid ke sekolah hingga tamatnya murid tersebut. Yang terakhir, perkembangan bergantung kepada hasil interaksi antara kematangan dan pembelajaran. Kematangan datang dengan wujudnya potensi individu contohnya permulaannya merangkak, kemudian duduk, berjalan dan akhirnya berlari. Hal ini adalah dipengaruhi oleh genetic. Pembelajaran pula adalah suatu proses yang dipelajari daripada latihan yang memerlukan daya usaha.proses pembelajaran membolehkan individu untuk berkembang dan menggerakkan potensinya. Contohnya seseorang akan boleh berenang sekiranya dia sentiasa berlatih berenang dan menggunakan teknik yang betul.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CHILD DEVELOPMENT One of the factors is nature and nurture. Genetic refers to biological characteristics. The genes are in the chromosomes and they control the development of the human being and they are unique in every individual. Growth and development is influenced by genetic for example, the size and shape of body, height, colour of the hair and eyes of an individual. Environment refers to all external experiences. This includes both prenatal and postnatal stages. The prenatal stage is much influence by the food consumed, life style and the state of health of the expecting mother, is she a smoker, an alcoholic, having sickness or emotionally stable. The postnatal factor will be the food consumed by the child, socioeconomic status of the family, family members level of education, peer group, school, society, media and the environment. All these influence the development of an individual. The genetic and environment factors have been debated for a long time. Some say that genetic has stronger influence as compared to the environment while some say not. Broffen Brenner Ecology Theory (1997, 1989) states that the child development is a
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product of a childs interaction with the environment. According to him, child development is the effect of the environment on the child and also how the child responds and reacts to the environment. According to him, the individual consist of five systems, which are Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and lastly Chronosystem. Another factor to consider in relation to development is the concept of individual differences. Dobhansk once says that Each individual is different from the biological and genetic aspect. Children develop at different rates. This, in turn creates variations among individuals. These differences can be either qualitative or quantitative. For children in any preschool classroom setting, the differences in temperament, personality, intelligence, achievement, and physical factors such as height and weight, are noteworthy and reflect a wide range of normal variation. Some children grow rapidly and others grow more slowly.

There also are racial and gender developmental variations. During the fetal stage, for example, females mature faster than males do. Further, at birth, the skeletal development of females is about 4 weeks ahead of that of males, and African American children show more rapid skeletal maturation than white children do (Puckett & Black, 2004; Russell et al., 2001; Tanner, 1990). It is important to understand that the concept of individual differences is the basis upon which one child is compared to another. Also, the existence of these differences constitutes the fundamental premise underlying the development of standardized educational and psychological tests. An understanding of individual differences provides the foundation for recognizing normal variations as well as extreme differences among children and, thus, for identifying those who may have special needs. In general, understanding of the various developmental levels is enhanced by familiarity with the concept of individual differences.

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT DURING CHILDHOOD Cognitive skills are individuals ability to think, give opinion, comprehend, and

memorize events that occur in the surrounding. Childrens cognitive development gives emphasis on developing childrens mind. It focuses on the changes in thinking that takes place from a stage to another. For students cognitive development, I choose Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development to discuss. During the School Based Experience, I pick a student from year one for me to learn about the cognitive development. The student is Wan Nurul Iman Binti Wan Syukri with the age of seven years old. According to Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development, she is under the concrete operational stage which is in the age range of seven years old to eleven years old. There are three operations that I want to analyze within Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development which are the abilities to handle conservation, classification and lastly seriation. For abilities to handle conservation, Piaget says that children in concrete operational stage should be able to solve problems relating to conservation. They are
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able to think logically about concrete objects. Moreover, they should have understood the process of transformation, reversibility and reasoning as well as mastering three basic aspects of reasoning in conservation which are identity, compensation and reversibility. Identity is when the children know that the objects remain the same when nothing is added or taken away. Next, compensation is the children know that changes in one direction can be compensated for by a change in another direction. Lastly, reversibility means the children can mentally cancel out the change that has been made. For this skill, I carry out three tests to determine their cognitive development. Firstly, I conduct coin experiment where I arrange five same sizes of coins in a row and another five coins on the next row. Then I lengthen the space in between the coins that creates longer row.

Next test is the water amount experiment. A and B glasses are filled with the same amount of water. Then, water from B is poured into C which is taller and thinner. Water level in C is increased compare to the water level in A although they have the same amount. Lastly, test of length of the rope. Rope A and B have the same exact length. In front of the student, the ropes are put in two rows. First, the student answers that the ropes have the same length. After that, rope B is curled and becomes shorter even though it is not. Tests of Conservation CLASSIFICATION Conservation of number (Coin test) TEST RESULTS

Appreciate that the number of coins in a The student says that collection remains the same regardless the second row has of whether the collection is lengthen or more coins. bunched together.

Conservation of length (Rope test)

Appreciate that the comparative length of two object (rope) is unaffected by their relative positions or straightness.

The student says that both of the ropes have the same length. The student says that glass C has more water.

Conservation of volume ( Water amount test)

Appreciate that changes in the shape of an object do not change its volume.

However, according to Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development, children at this stage should correctly conclude that both of the rows have the same number of coins, the amount of water in glasses A and C are the same and the length of both ropes are the same. The student only manage to answer correctly the rope test because it is easier for her to see clearly that the length of rope is unaffected by the straightness or curliness of the rope. The cognitive development shown by this student is likely to say as a little bit slow because she should have mastered the aspect of reasoning. Nevertheless, from these three tests, I still agree with Piagets theory because I know that a child in the age of seven years old has just entered the concrete operational stage so she is in the beginning of mastering all the basic aspects of reasoning. Not only that, she is still in the early months of the age of seven years old. Second is the ability to handle classification. Classification depends on the abilities of a student to focus on a single characteristic of objects in a set and group the objects according to that particular characteristic. The more advanced classification starts when children begin to realize that the objects in certain group can fit into another. For this operation, I carry out a test on colour. There are 10 cards with different colours (red-4, yellow-2, blue-2, green-2), the student is asked to separate them into groups but the specification on how to classify them is not reveal to the student. Test of Classification

CLASSIFICATION Classification

TEST

RESULTS

Abilities of a student to focus on a single characteristic of objects in a The student correctly set and group the objects groups the cards into according to that particular its own colours. ( Coloured card test) characteristic.

The student then classifies them into types of colours and she gets it all right. This proves that the student has mastered the skill of classification as mentioned in Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development for the concrete operational stage. In this case, she answers it confidently as she has mastered the skill. Therefore, I agree with Piagets theory that children at this age are able to handle classification independently.

Another important operation mastered in concrete operational stage is seriation. Seriation is the process of arranging in series according to ascending or descending order. This understanding permits children to do logical series. For example, they can arrange A<B<C where A is less than B and B is less than C. For testing this, I use a set of cards containing different number of stars in each card. Then, the student is told to arrange the card from the lowest number of stars to the highest number of stars. She then arranged them correctly and this proves that Piaget s theory is true because the student has mastered another important operation which is seriation in this stage. Test of Seriation CLASSIFICATION TEST Ability to put a number of objects in order according to their size, colour, weight or numerousness. RESULTS The student arranges the numbers of stars correctly from lowest to highest number of stars in each card.

Seriation

From this theory, Piaget has increased our understanding of children's thinking. There are both strengths and weaknesses in Piaget's methods, though. They do reveal a lot about the child's thought processes, but the questioning is quite unstructured. This leads to the fact that even a slight variation in questioning would probably offer a variation in the information obtained, and therefore the conclusions drawn may be incorrect. However, it can be concluded that Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development really help teachers and parents to know what the childrens development are. Through numerous tests Piaget has shown that mistakes children make are not random and unintelligible, but they are based on a consistent logic which is simply different to that of adults.

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SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT DURING CHILDHOOD For socio-emotional development during childhood, I chose Erik Eriksons Theory

of Psychosocial Development. This theory emphasizes the importance of social relationships with individuals in the children development. According to Erikson, psychosocial development emphasizes the emergence of self, the search for identity, the individuals relationships with others and the role of culture throughout ones life. In this theory, Erikson introduced eight stages of psychosocial development where these stages are interdependent. At each stage, Erikson suggests that the individual faces a developmental crisis and each has its particular goals, concerns, accomplishments and dangers. The way in which the individual resolves each crisis will affect the persons self-image and views of the society. One of the main elements of Eriksons psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego identity. Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction. According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experience and information we acquire in our daily interactions with others.
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In addition to ego identity, Erikson also believed that a sense of competence also motivates behaviors and actions. Each stage in Eriksons theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of mastery, which he sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy. In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development. In Eriksons view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure.

During the School Based Experience (SBE), I have prepared a checklist on childrens socio-emotional development. The checklist comprises three domains which are attention span, curiosity and the interaction of the particular student with teachers. I chose a student from year six, named Muhd Saiful Azri bin Mohd Rizal. According to Eriksons theory, he is under stage four which is industry versus inferiority. At this stage, children must deal in demands to learn new skills at school. If they fail to do this, the feeling of inferiority and worthlessness will develop. During the industry versus inferiority stage, children become capable of performing increasingly complex tasks. As a result, they strive to master new skills. Children who are encouraged and commended by parents and teachers develop a feeling of competence and belief in their skills. Those who receive little or no encouragement from parents, teachers, or peers will doubt their ability to be successful. Moreover, this stage is vital in the development of self-confidence. During school and other social activities, children receive praise and attention for performing various tasks such as reading, writing, drawing and solving problems. Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.
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The student that I chose portrays a well-balanced behavior even though he is just transferred from the A class to B class. He is transferred because he gets low grade during examinations. However, all the teachers who teach him now say that he really shows some changes where he become less playful and focus in the classroom. This is related to Erikson theory where when there is a turning point, the child may success or failed. In this case, lots of motivations and supports from the teachers help him to throw away the feeling of failure that leads to inferiority and manipulate it to be success. The socio-emotional development shown by him is very good that I cannot relate it with his result when he was in A class. His previous examination result as in the appendices shows not so good result but his attitude has changed a lot after being transferred to B class.

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL CHECKLIST: Muhammad Saiful Azri Mohamad Rizal, 12 years old ITEMS DAY 1 (MONDAY) PENDIDIKAN ISLAM DAY 2 (TUESDAY) BAHASA ARAB DAY 3 (WEDNESDAY) SCIENCE

ATTENTION SPAN 1. Can stay with a chosen activity for very long periods, even returning the next day. 2. Can remain with an age-appropriate task until it is finished. 3. Needs encouragement to stay with task until complete. 4. Rarely finishes task. Moves rapidly from one to another. CURIOSITY 1. Interested in new ideas-words and relationships as well as things. 2. Actively explores any new things in the room. 3. Can be intrigued by really exciting things, but usually uninterested. 4. Little or no interest in anything new. RELATIONSHIP WITH TEACHER / / /

/ / /

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1. Self-sufficient; may volunteer help or support to teacher. 2. Warm relationship, but asks for help or attention when appropriate. 3. Sometimes requires unusual amount of help or physical contact; or seeks attention through silly or wild actions; or is occasionally aggressive toward teacher. 4. Continually seeks help, contact, or attention; or frequently behaves aggressively; or ignores teacher entirely (but clings to avoid some situations). TOTAL 1- 20 marks 2- 15 marks 3- 10 marks 4- 5 marks

/ /

55/60

50/60

60/60

Socio-emotional Development
25

20

15

Attention Span Curiosity

10

Interaction

0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

The graph shows the socio-emotional development in Muhd Saiful Azri bin Mohd Rizal. Because of examination, I cannot observe his interaction in the classroom so I asked his subject teachers about his development. They are Miss Syafeena binti Mad

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Salleh, Miss Fadzilah binti Mad Idris and Mrs Norhusmanita binti Hussain. All these teachers are teaching Pendidikan Islam, Bahasa Arab and Science respectively. Therefore, I agree with Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development. This is because this student shows a sense of competence develops in him when there is guidance given by the teachers. Children at this age are becoming more aware of themselves as individuals. They work hard for being responsible, being good and doing it right. They are now more reasonable to share and cooperate.

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IMPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Children's development based on the theory of cognitive development of children

gives a variety of implications for teaching and learning in schools. Looking at the theory of cognitive development of children from Jean Piaget, the syllabus should be arranged according to their cognitive developmental level so that they can accept and understand what is conveyed by the instructors or teachers. The content is said to be from concrete to abstract, close to the remote, rough to the more specific view, the existing experience to new experience and based on individual physical development. According to Piaget, learning is a form of behavioral change. Learning new and complex things must use the accommodation to alter cognitive structures so that they can adapt the learning needs of the situation they faced. As the process of accommodation depending on individual motivation, teachers should encourage them to participate actively in learning activities. According to Bruner, the teacher can use the inductive approach to teach the concepts, laws and principles in science and mathematics. This approach begins with the teachers give specific examples and pupils will be taught to think, study, identify and
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interpret the information in these examples, and finally make generalizations or conclusions. In addition, in order to stimulate the minds of students, teachers should provide reading books and writing that use large and clear letters and pictures to attract students attention. Therefore, teaching aids are required to disclose a concrete theory to students. These teaching aids could indirectly attract attention and stimulate their minds during the process of teaching and learning undertaken. Examples of teaching aids are colourful books and markers, suitable videos and movies to convey messages, LCD projector, reward stickers or stampers, cardboard and many more.

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IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Firstly, it helps pupils to evaluate their problems. Teachers should discuss openly

with the pupils about the pupils emotional problems. This can produce open attitude of pupils that can express themselves and give their ideas or opinions to the teachers. Interaction can be done in various ways such as telling stories, teachers as role models and provide counselling. Through the counselling session, teachers will help the students to overcome their personal problems so that they can participate in the learning activities. Secondly, teachers should guide the pupils to evaluate from another persons perspective. In other words, teachers make the pupils put themselves in others shoes. Teachers can ask the pupils to explain their feelings towards others when dealing with certain issues or situations. For example, simulations and role play activities can be conducted for pupils to play the role of the other pupil who contradicts their own character. When students learn to think about others, it will inculcate their positive values such as helping, tolerate, sympathy, empathy and so on.

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Moreover, it makes sure pupils listen to each other during the lesson. In group activities or presentations, teachers must make sure that the pupils are paying attention and listen to peers answers or ideas. Teacher can also give reinforcement to those who listen well. If the students listen well, it means that they are focusing on the topic being taught. It will somehow increase their understanding on the topic as well as promote their discipline and respective values. Last but not least, teachers must ensure the class exhibit awareness and support moral and universal issues happen around them. For example, teachers can discuss and take action toward current issues that involve moral values. Teacher should give equal justice and attention to all pupils in the class and teach the pupils to differentiate between laws that secure safety, protection and law that values moral and ethics.

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CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 8.1 Implications on the Understanding of Child Development Theory in Teaching and Learning in Classroom For cognitive development, when understand about child development, teachers

can emphasize the critical role that experiences or interactions with the surrounding environment which is play in student learning. For example, discussion is an excellent way to engage students in thinking and analyzing or in defending one side of an issue, rather than listening to lecture. Students must also respond to one another, rather than interacting intellectually only with the instructor. Then, the teachers role is to facilitate learning by providing a variety of experiences. "Discovery learning" provides opportunities for learners to explore and experiment, thereby encouraging new understandings. Opportunities that allow students of differing cognitive levels to work together often encourage less mature students to advance to a more mature understanding. One further implication for instruction is the use of concrete "hands on" experiences to help children learn.
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Moreover, with this understanding also, teachers can provide concrete props and visual aids, such as models or time line to attract students attention on the lesson. When they are attracted to the lesson, they will be focus and achieve deeper understanding on the topic being taught. Apart from that, in socio-emotional development, the main thing that teachers need to know is their students emotions. They cannot be biased because it will create tension and the students may refuse to interact with the teachers. Moreover, teachers should not give too much praising and rewarding to any student publicly as hatred will arise among the other students. Lastly, teaching with a caring attitude makes the relationship between teachers and students closer. If a student feels a personal connection to a teacher, the student is likely to become more trustful of that teacher, show more engagement in the academic content presented, display better classroom behavior, and achieve at higher levels academically. 8.2 Ways On How Teachers Can Address The Problem Of Individual Differences In Classroom Firstly, in order to solve the problems of mixed ability, teaching should appeal to all senses, all learning styles and all intelligences. Moreover, it should be based on a meaningful context for all learners. Therefore, teachers can make use of visuals to grab students' attention to the lesson and to motivate them because even the most passive learners are often interested in colourful things. Secondly, do open-ended tasks or questions because these type of questions have a variety of possible correct answers instead of a single answer and allow students to perform their own level. Some of the students may be good at understanding but might be weak in expressing themselves orally or in written work thus, open-ended tasks give them the chance to express themselves without trying to find the one and the only correct answer.

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Other than that, students love games, competitions and dramatization, so these are ways of ensuring their interest in the lesson. Regardless of the differences among the students in terms of language level and learning styles, they are motivated to use the target language while they are playing a game or participating in a completion or a role-play. Next, group and pair work activities are useful not only for the teacher to observe students but also for the students to cooperate and to learn from each other. When a strong student works with weaker students, the student can be a source of knowledge in the group. The teacher, on the other hand, may form groups of weaker and stronger students separated from each other and she can give different tasks to these groups. Last but not least, extra homework always helps teachers of mixed ability classes. However, considering the level and the interests of the students, extra work should be of something that the students would enjoy doing. Therefore, a good way of dealing with mixed ability may be individual and team projects. In addition, students would be more enthusiastic to work in such projects if they can choose their topic such as preparing a poster on their favourite sports and so on.

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