TEACHING-DEVELOPMENT

The problem of the interrelation between education and development is one of the central
problems that exists in child psychology and its solution depends, fundamentally, on the
conception we have of the laws of the child's psychic development. In general, the solution
to the problem of the interrelation between teaching and development is seen as a
secondary problem, derived from the central problem of understanding the laws that
govern development itself.

If the psychic development of the child, and in particular the intellectual development, is
understood as the maturation of structures that already exist previously in the child, as the
manifestation of qualities that are already present in him, from this, naturally, arises an
understanding of Its interrelationship with teaching could be expressed in the following
way: development takes place first, and education should only adapt to the level of
development achieved.

Another approach to the laws of development is one in which this is understood as a

process of adaptation of the child to the conditions of his environment and especially as a
process of adaptation of the child to the social conditions of life. The theory in which this
approach is most frankly seen is that of J. Piaget. The intellectual development of the child
is seen as a constant balance with the environment and teaching alone, as one of the
elements of the environment to which the child adapts.

Teaching, according to this theory, can influence development only to the extent that the
child is able, by himself, to extract from it something more than simple habits and
knowledge. This in turn is determined by the level of development previously achieved. For
all this, it turns out that, at each stage, teaching must adapt to the level of development
that one already has.

Another position, which at first seems contradictory to those proposed, is one in which the
development and teaching processes are seen as equally significant. This is,
fundamentally, the position of behaviorists who see development simply as the acquisition
of habits. In this case, from this position, teaching appears as something that is necessary;
but necessary for what? Not for development, because it disappears and only teaching
remains. Therefore, there is no need, in this conception, to consider the relationship that
may exist between teaching and development. Teaching is reduced to exercise, to the
development of habits. All types of teaching have the same meaning, they are equal.

Everything that the child must acquire is found outside of him, it is found in the world
around him, in experience, in human culture and in the activity of other people. The child
must assimilate all this so that higher psychic functions are formed in him.

Vygotsky considered that initially the child assimilates the different forms of signs as a
means of communication with other people and that only later, through the process of
internalization, do they become means of regulating their own psychic processes.

As a result, there is always current development - everything that the child can do for
himself in the present - and there is the zone of proximal development that is structured on
that current development and that expresses the relationship between teaching and
development at each given moment. .
Indeed, teaching must go ahead and lead development, but it turns out that not all types of
teaching at each age are equally effective. There are certain periods of development in
children in which they are especially sensitive to the assimilation of certain types of
learning. And it is precisely in these periods that teaching can have the greatest effect on
child development.

But, it must be taken into account that it was not referring to a maturation of the brain or
the nervous system, but rather it refers to a maturation of the psychic functions
themselves. That is, the word “maturation” is used in a figurative sense. When a new
psychic function begins to form, children are more sensitive to those forms of teaching on
which these psychic functions are based.

In childhood, teaching generally has to do with those functions that are in a training period
and therefore exerts a great influence on the training process itself. In adult men, teaching
has to do with psychic processes that are already formed, which is why it cannot give
anything in terms of development, but rather in terms of the acquisition of knowledge,
habits and skills.

Up to this point we have presented the fundamental ideas developed by Vygotsky about
the interrelationship that exists between teaching and development.

Our researchers have come to the conclusion that the child's entire psychic development,
from the beginning, is totally determined by the appropriation of different forms of social
experience.

The child assimilates different forms of activity and together with these forms of activity, all
the psychic processes and qualities that are necessary for their realization are assimilated.
The mechanisms with the help of which this is done have also been considered.

In the process of assimilating different forms of human activity, which always occurs due to
the influence of teaching, the child assimilates not only actions of an executive nature
aimed at the transformation of the external world, but also assimilates orienting actions
directed to knowledge of that external world.

These guiding actions are initially assimilated by the child in an external form. They are
real actions, which are carried out with material objects. They are fundamentally different
from practical actions by their function, because they are aimed at examining objects,
knowing the qualities of objects and their relationships, and determining the conditions
under which practical actions must be carried out.

These externally oriented actions, which the child assimilates in the course of his activity,
are subsequently internalized, become internal, and become psychic actions. This is how
the child's psychological development takes place.

Thus, teaching is fundamentally aimed at the formation of the child's activity. The adult
teaches the child to perform a whole series of actions with different objects. In the process
of this teaching in the child, not only actions of a practical nature, executive actions, but
also orienting actions arise that are first carried out externally and, later, become internal
orienting actions.

I'll give you an example:

The child is forming a pyramid.

He must place the rings in a certain order.

Initially the largest and then the smallest until the end. How should he select the rings?

How can we teach him if he doesn't know how to do it?

He puts them one on top of the other and sees that there is something left over from one;
that is, one must go first and the other after.

This is an externally oriented action. It is not practical, because practical would simply be
the placement of the rings to form the pyramid. But when he puts them one on top of the
other in order to determine which is greater or lesser and which should come first and
which should come after, we are in the presence of an externally oriented action.

What happens next?

The child who initially had to perform these externally oriented actions later no longer has
to perform them but from the beginning, visually, determines which one should go and
places them correctly.

As it does? He, of course, observes all the rings he has and visually measures them, one
against the other, but no longer with the help of externally oriented actions but with the
help of internally oriented actions or, in other words, with the help of perception actions.

All psychic processes, perception, thinking, memory, can be considered as special forms
of action, which originate in the external actions that the child performs with objects in the
course of his teaching. Seen this way, we can understand Vygotsky's ideas about the zone
of proximal development.

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Выготский) (November 17, 1896
[November 5 in the Old Russian calendar in Orsha, Russian Empire [now Belarus] – June
11, 1934 in Moscow, Soviet Union]), Belarusian psychologist , one of the most prominent
theorists of developmental psychology, founder of historical-cultural psychology and clear
precursor of Soviet neuropsychology of which the Russian doctor Aleksandr Lúriya would
be the greatest exponent. It was discovered and disseminated by the academic media of
the Western world in the 1960s.

The prolific nature of his work and his early death have made him known as "the Mozart of
psychology" (a characterization created by Stephen Toulmin). The fundamental idea of his
work is that human development can only be explained in terms of social interaction.
Development consists of the internalization of cultural instruments (such as language) that
initially do not belong to us, but rather belong to the human group into which we are born.
These humans transmit these cultural products to us through social interaction. The
"Other", therefore, takes a predominant role in Vygotsky's theory.
Relationship between the cognitive and the affective

PRINCIPLE OF THE UNITY OF THE AFFECTIVE AND THE COGNITIVE

This principle means that the pedagogical process must be structured on the basis of
unity, of the relationship that exists between human conditions: the possibility of knowing
the world around them and their own world and at the same time, the possibility of feeling,
to act, to be affected by that world.

It is based on the fact that in personality there are two spheres, one that refers to the
inductive regulation (the affective-volitional) and the other to the executive regulation (the
cognitive-instrumental).

Generally in the educational field this relationship has been reduced to the selectivity and
direction of cognitive processes under the effects of motivation; This has been an external
relationship without integrating a true functional unit.

The functional unity of the cognitive and the affective is implicit in the definition of motive
(the way in which the personality assumes its different needs; the ones that are elaborated
and processed by them find their expression in their different concrete manifestations of a
behavioral, reflective and evaluative type. , which give meaning, strength and direction to
the personality). The unity is in the very definition of it.

Schools need to develop their students' abilities as well as their feelings and convictions.
That they not only develop their thinking but also their emotional sphere, that what they
learn acquires a meaning and a personal sense such that it paves the way for future
learning necessary in their development in life, that is, during the pedagogical process the
educator must ensure that the learner commits to the learning task. Knowledge must have
such a charisma that it enables the stable modification of the behavior of that subject when
interacting with the world around him, that is, achieving learning and therefore human
growth, to the extent that he undertakes the path of autonomy that infers logical
detachments, breaking barriers and stereotypes and the acquisition of the new on the
basis of the old.

True education is not achieved until it becomes conscious in the subject, that is, the
subject educates himself thanks to the self-regulation that he has achieved in the unity of
the cognitive and the affective in his personality.

Actions for the application of this principle in the pedagogical process.

• Take as important elements the demands raised in the Principle of the collective and
individual character of personality education and respect for it.

• Know the professional and individual problems, needs and interests of our students,
which will allow us to guide and teach them to choose the best alternative.

• Enable each student to respect his or her classmates, to respect the criteria, to admire
the achievements made by the group and to take care of solving the problems that arise in
the pedagogical process.
• Stimulate the results achieved, as long as they are the product of the commitment to the
learning task.

• Encourage each student and the group to advance at their own pace, increasing it
progressively, without this constituting a reason for "scolding" or additional demands that
cannot be met.

• Evaluate the individual and group development of each activity, which will allow making
the necessary adjustments to the activity system of the pedagogical process, favoring the
maximum development of the students.

• Implement logical, active methodologies, supported by learning theories that prioritize

individual participation, group reflection, confrontation, exchange, which elevate the
student to be a discoverer and builder of learning and where they are allowed to make
mistakes and know the causes. of the error.

The cognitive is that belonging to or related to knowledge . This, in turn, is the set of
information stored through experience or learning (a posteriori), or through introspection
(a priori).
Acquired knowledge

In reality, human beings are born with certain reflexes that are not learned, such as
sucking, which means that it comes in our genetic makeup. However, I consider that the
vast majority of knowledge is acquired throughout life.

The experience acquires multiple nuances and contents in one's own life and in social and
cultural life and, therefore, also the true contents and knowledge, which depend on a
context or field of reality, and do not have to coincide with the contents and meaning of
scientific knowledge. Life and the knowledge of life, as experience, is a much broader field
than that of science. Scientific knowledge is not always the most appropriate to live and
coexist better. That is why we must admit a relative truth because knowledge itself is
always relative.

Inherited knowledge.

Ethologists accepted that learning influences behaviors that are apparently innate. They
seem innate because they only require minimal interaction with the environment to
develop. However, if the environment is not appropriate, innate behavior does not appear
and, instead, "bizarre" behavior occurs.

Behaviorists, on the other hand, accepted that any behavior cannot be taught or learned. A
functional structure is required at the base that allows this or that learning, since if a
behavior is learned that is not within the functional repertoire of the organism, it is very
likely that over time the behavior will disappear or become distorted.

In conclusion, there are no inherited or innate behaviors, what is inherited are structures
that facilitate the appearance of certain behaviors, thanks to learning. That is, behaviors
are learned. The human being, like everything, is determined in its structure, therefore
learning will be limited by its inheritance, its structure, that is, human knowledge is learned
in the course of its development, but its structure determines it.

The influence of inherited characters on the formation of personality is undoubted.

However, the influences of heredity are not always completely present at birth, but may
emerge later. The prenatal period also has its importance since prenatal, paranatal and
early life experiences cannot be entirely left aside; The available evidence certainly
supports the constitutional-genetic view.
conscious awareness

Objective, real knowledge is only that which is acquired with Awakened Consciousness
and not with reason. Through reason we manage to acquire certain information; But, only
with Awakened Consciousness is how we acquire conscious knowledge. Accumulated
information is not knowledge.

Perhaps someone, due to the fact of having received extensive information about the
supersensible worlds, or the internal bodies, could say that they know them... No, you
have simply had oral or written information, but nothing more than information; It is a very
different thing to see them, to use them consciously, to have full conscious knowledge of
them.

We accept "rational knowledge", but this has nothing to do with Conscious Knowledge. All
that wisdom acquired through reason will be deposited in memory, and memory is like a
basket or basket that does not retain the water that is deposited in it; Otherwise, just a little
bit of humidity, after this, there is nothing left and all the accumulated knowledge, all the
information received, is lost, forgotten. CONSCIOUS KNOWLEDGE is that which is never
forgotten, unless it “falls” into the unconsciousness of the rational animal.

Rational knowledge has its time, it dilutes, dissolves over time, and finally ceases to be.
CONSCIOUS KNOWLEDGE is that which remains forever, that which is not destroyed by
time; because CONSCIOUSNESS is beyond time, eternity, mind, and that which is will.

Unconscious knowledge

It is characterized by its immediacy, by the fact that the reflection is produced from the
direct influence of the object of knowledge on the sense organs, so for example, we know
the colors of bodies, the smells of perfumes, we have idea of the shape and dimensions of
the objects we observe, we detect the temperature or hardness of a body, etc.

Sensory-perceptual knowledge is fundamentally related to facts or phenomena, to the

external characteristics of objects and processes.

Conclusion
Free knowledge is an epistemological current that studies the historical origin and value of
knowledge, considering it as a public good that benefits the community in general and
allows for egalitarian development.

There are various ways to acquire knowledge, from the genetic information we receive, to
the knowledge learned voluntarily, they are important and each one plays its role, all forms
of knowledge are intertwined through multiple and varied relationships and none of them, It
exists in a "pure" form regardless of the fact that in some cases one manifests itself more
than the other.

All humans have capacities and aptitudes that we can put to production or not, it depends
on each person. Many times we are invaded by information and we do nothing with it;
Other times it is the individual himself who, on his own initiative, searches for the
information that interests him and thus manages the genetic information he brings.

The teaching we receive in the initial stage affects the development of our knowledge
during all stages of our life. The initial stage is where our personality is formed and our
learning capacity depends largely on it. In the same way, the quality of the affections that
we receive in our development influences the way in which we develop our knowledge and
our attitudes in the development of our lives.