Human Growth and Development – Dr. Mary Tackett
This is one class that made me question my career path, but in a good way.
I had never thought about applying developmental psychology to teaching, but I think the material is vital to knowing how to interact with the kids and how to deal with specific situations. I considered even going into the classroom to have the experience with kids, then try to become a professor to teach pre-service teachers like myself.
A few weeks later, as I was struggling to remember every philosopher and every theory and every stage, I realized I am probably not cut out for that.
This class was a struggle for me, which has been a bit concerning. I always paid attention in class, took detailed notes about the powerpoint and the lecture, read the textbook, but it seemed like I kept struggling quiz after quiz after project. I understood the material and I tried to apply it, but for some reason I could not retain the information.
Dr. Tackett’s lecture style had a layout similar to our textbook, but she used real life experience from being in a classroom and from her own child’s development to help us better understand what causes kids exactly to do things or in what situations they might act a certain way in.
She also encouraged participation and having us ask questions and participate with the lecture rather than just sitting and writing like some sort of robot. She was another professor that encouraged positive reinforcement as well with us and for us to have with each other by having us complete peer reviews and group activities for our projects.
One of the biggest projects I’ve had since I’ve been in college was the research project for this class. It was a multi-layer project, having us review sources for one month, complete a draft of a 10-page research paper for another month, then finalizing the essay and creating a presentation on our research for the last month.
Trying to complete it all at home was extremely hard, and it became extremely difficult for me to come up with 10 pages of research even though I had ample sources and discoveries. Nonetheless, I put it all together, and I’m sad to say this is the first time I’ve had a guideline of having an essay be more than four pages. This was the biggest essay I’ve written, the hardest, but the essay I’m the proudest of because of the extensive research, time, and detail that had to be put into it. We had to choose a topic about child development, so I focused on children that have a pause on their development, which can heavily impact them for years to come: feral children.