self awareness

self awareness

In middle and late childhood, especially from 8 to 11 years of age, children increasingly describe themselves in terms of psychological characteristics and traits, in contrast with the more concrete self-descriptions of younger children. For example, older children are more likely to describe themselves using adjectives such as: popular, nice, helpful, mean, smart, and dumb . In addition, during the elementary school years, children become more likely to recognize social aspects of the self. They include references to social groups in their self-descriptions, such as referring to themselves as Girl Scouts, as Catholics, or as someone who has two close friends. Children’s self-understanding in the elementary school years also includes increasing reference to social comparison. At this point in development, children are more likely to distinguish themselves from others in comparative rather than in absolute terms. That is, elementary-school-age children are no longer as likely to think about what they do or do not do, but are more likely to think about what they can do in comparison with others. Socially competent adolescents can strike a comfortable balance between their identity as individuals and as a part of groups, their own self-determination and their responsibility to society, their own superiority in some areas of life and the concept of maintaining equality, and their own wants, desires, needs and their ability to meet the needs of others. On the other hand Adults want to know why they need to learn something before undertaking learning. Facilitators must help adults become aware of their "need to know" and make a case for the value of learning. Adults believe they are responsible for their lives. They need to be seen and treated as capable and self-directed. Facilitators should create environments where adults develop their latent self-directed learning skills. Adults come into an educational activity with different experiences than do yout . There...

Similar Essays